Final Album cover

Final Magazine advert

Magazine Cover Design

CD Cover First Draft

Evernote: CD front and back cover first design analysis

Having completed the first designs for our front cover I have created an Evernote document containing notes on possible improvements and additions to make to the album cover before completion. To view the Evernote document please click here.

Research into iconic CD covers

To help in the production of our CD cover I have decided to do some research into iconic rock album covers. Listed below are a few iconic rock albums from over time.

Nirvana - Nevermind

With the same name as the song that we chose, Nevermind, the iconic album by former grunge band Nirvana is considered one of the most iconic album covers of all time. It is claimed that Kurt and the band came up with the idea after a conversation about water birth. 

GNR - Appetite For Destruction

Guns N' Roses Album cover for Appetite For Destruction was banned due to it's graphic nature, it depicts a robot about to sexually assault a woman. It was subsequently changed to a picture of the 5 band members as skulls on a cross smiling.

AC/DC - If You Want Blood

The AC/DC album cover is fairly simple and simply shows a band member with a guitar through his chest accompanied by copious amounts of stage blood. The shot was taken during one of the bands live performances and is considered very iconic.

Digipak analysis

This is an evaluation of a digipak for a rock genre that illustrates the core ideas we may be using for our music video

Research in HMV of CD presentation

Research into album covers highlighted a key aspect that we would use in our CD cover. Most of the great album covers advertised the band in an unusual way such as the Kings of Leon cover (3rd down). ACDC also does this (2nd down), but in a different way and shows the whole band, making the focus point the main singer. Nirvana's album cover is different and does not advertise the band, this is mainly due to the bands massive popularity. This is something we are obviously not working towards and will have to advertise the band, we are hoping to come up with an interesting idea to try and make our album cover individual. Kings of Leon's CD is very unusual and different which is a big selling point. The audience will be attracted to something a little odd and we are hoping to incorporate something like that in our album cover. ACDC's album cover has an element of extraordinary as the lead singer was horns and a tail suggesting the devil. These conventions are common in a lot or rock albums; dark colours, suggestions of violence or anger etc. We will be sticking to conventions and will probably use dark colours, but assuring it complies with the themes of our music video. However, Queens album cover is different from the other rock CDs. It seems very subdued with the band members quite conservative with no expression. The album cover, although still using darker colours sells the band in an odd way. There is nothing else of interest on the album cover.

After evaluating album covers, we have decided that our aim will be to advertise the band, staying consistent with the themes of the album but still using conventions of the rock genre. This will enable the audience to realise what genre it is quickly. We will also aim to make it a little odd or different. This will hopefully make it stand out more in a shop and hopefully get more people interested in it.

Album cover ideas

.

This is an album cover we found that is similar to our genre. Bon Jovi is a rock genre and we have studied this carefully to try and get an idea of what we should base our album cover on. The imediate thing you notice is that the album cover is advertising the band, something we came to expect with our genre, but the main thing we can take away from the album cover is the simplicity of the image. This is something we have tried to keep constant throughout our project. For example our music video was planned from the beggining to be as simple as possible, only using effects/transitions when they are needed. The editing as well was going to be very simple and always matching the pace of the music.

Our album cover and magazine ideas have also followed this trend of simplicity, never putting too much on an image. The products will always be selling the band, this is very important. Below is an album cover from Nirvana. This is not selling the band yet is one of the most famous images, this is because Nirvana sold themselves very well in their earlier careers so they were well known. Therefore, we will be selling the band with everything we do and in theory, we would later be able to create fantastic album art similar of Nirvana.

In depth music video analysis Video 1

In this task I will be analysing 3 music video that are similar in genre to the music our group has chosen.

The first video I have chosen to look at is Avenged Sevenfold's 'Seize The Day.' Firstly I will start by introducing the band, Avenged Sevenfold are a country rock/hard rock band from California, famed on Rock scene for their fast paced and deep songs. Their video for Seize The Day follows a period of time (perhaps 3 months) in the life of a young man - played by the lead singer M. Shadows - who is at first singing with rest of the band behind a wire fence in what looks like a prison. The scene then fades - almost as if it is a memory - to the main character celebrating what the viewer can assume is the pregnancy of his girlfriend/wife, the scene is taken from the point of view of a handheld camera held by the main character, it is made obvious that this is a very happy time for the couple, the scene then cuts to a long haired character knocking at the front door of the house - as the audience we can assume that this is either an enemy or a friend of the main character. The door is then answered by M. Shadows who then proceeds to hug the man and more characters are shown to have arrived, the new characters in the scene are shown to sit and converse with the main characters wife or girlfriend and all seem to know her and the main character, almost making themselves at home. After the visit of Shadow's friends he is shown telling his wife something that obviously upsets her (shown in her facial expressions and body language) and then kisses and hugs her, she then mouths 'no' and attempts to grab his arm before he walks out the door. After a quick cut to the band behind the wire fence the video snaps back to the narrative and shows Shadows and his friends putting on masks in a car, they then proceed to raise weapons and exit the car, as they approach the doors of what the audience can assume is a shop I noticed that there is a red/orange tint to this piece of the music video, I believe this was used to connote a memory, perhaps to suggest that the singer and the band behind the wire fence are remembering. The group of friends are then shown pushing over the shop keeper proceeding to rob the store. After cutting to the band and lead singer a police car is then shown pulling up outside what we can assume is the same shot, the thieves are then shown fleeing the store with them jumping over the counter and scrabbling away (this connotes desperation/fear). I then noted that one character seemed to be lacking behind with the camera shots used show this, all of the thieve jump into a car, bar one who is tackled to the ground and unmasked by the police, when the mask is removed it is revealed that the main character had actually gone to rob the Off Licence, the character is then shown on a television being viewed by his girlfriend/wife being led away by police officers. The Wife/Girlfriend is then shown crying and the scene cuts to a performance scene of the band behind a wire fence. A cut in the scene shows the main character being led by a guard in what the audience can assume is a jail or prison, he is shown having his piercings removed, his head shaved and then being led to a cell. It then cuts to the Girlfriend and Main Character arguing through a glass window both holding wired phones, the girlfriend proceeds to slam the phone down and walk away leaving M. Shadows with his hands on the glass partition. The music in the background then stops showing the girlfriend driving a way and suddenly a van smashes into the side of her car, the scene then fades to a funeral, with the bands guitarist appearing from a puff of smoke and a flame on top of the coffin and then proceeds to play a solo as the priest reads from the bible, after the solo ends the shot fades back to the prison with the main character staring at a photograph and then a jump cut to a performance scene of the band. The remainder of the video cuts between shots of the band in a prison environment, performance shots of the band and finally each member of the band visiting the grave of the protagonists partner or wife with protagonist holding what we can assume to be his child who has survived the crash.

Changes to story and the storyboard

The initial story we decided to go with centered on a day out with a group of young friends, the teenage group was scripted as drinking and partying and then falling out. However as we progressed in the production of our music video a general consensus was met by our group as well as others that we asked to look at our base footage, that though the performance pieces were strong, the story was weak and not at all interesting to watch. With this in mind we went back to the drawing board and looked at different possible story lines for the music video to follow. Having looked at many videos by similar bands to our own, we settled on the idea of our main character trying to rebuild his life. Team member Conor Taylor bought the interesting idea of having a structure, made out of scrap, to represent the protagonists life and in turn, his success. We re-shot all of the narrative scenes to ensure that the story and mise en scene were consistent throughout. 

Below are the changes to the story that we made:

The stills attached show the changes in theme and story that we made to our music video, the first still shows the use of effects in our video. Initially we stuck with very basic effects such as Monochrome and Sepia, however, we decided to use effects in the scene that invlolved the protagonist using intravenous drugs to help clarify the unfolding story and to also make the internal effects of the drugs visible to the audience. This is in my opinion helps extend the idea of the struggles that the protagonist is going through. Though a large proportion of the audience will have never used intravenous drugs recreationally, I believe that our audience will be able to relate to his position as many people go through rough, low points in their life. I would like to note that after having researched drug use in music videos, I have determined that it is unlikely that the full version of the video would be allowed the appear before the 9pm watershed with an edited 'clean' version running beforehand.

 The next still I have chosen to attach is of the structure that we decided to incorporate into our music video. The structure was intended to act as an element of our semiotics to act as a symbol for our protagonists quality of life, as his life spirals our of control, the structure begins to crumble and vice versa. We decided to insert this as a plot point mainly due to the fact that we believed as a group that it would help explain the narrative the audience more clearly, something we were lacking in our original video. The structure also is in keeping with the construction site that we filmed our performance sections in front of and helps maintain the idea of structures and stability throughout the music video, in my opinion.

Storyboards

Here is just half of the storyboard we see that the storyboard is very detailed and edited we did this purposely so that there could be no confusion if we needed to go back to this and look for anything we missed out

Here is the other half of the storyboard again we see this is very detailed as we kept this consistent throughout the whole making of the storyboard through doing this it was also easier for as to realise the potential to add new and good ideas in the storyboard to make the music video better.

Here is a full size picture of the finished storyboard. Although its not visible in this picture we did have more stills that where added under certain ones as it symbolised an effect that we where going to do with those particular two shots and half a note to remind us what to add in when we came back to look at the storyboard to see what was next.

Evidence Of working

Here we see two members working through the animatic of the stills of the story board. We had taken pictures of each step of the story board, uploaded them and then played the music in the background to see if the ideas we had produced matches the songs at the right time as we aimed to get it in sync with the song.

Here we see a team member finishing off the final parts to the story board. The story board is what is going to happen in the music video broken down in the stills that we had drawn we then placed them in order so we know what would happen in the video and at what time in the video.

Editing Update + schedule

The editing of all the footage we have taken will be constantly edited everyday bit by bit, we started the editing process on the 8th when we had finished filming all of the narrative we wanted to bring it all together in order so that when we would put it together with the performance footage it would be easier. Once we had finished filming the performance and added in all the extra bits of footage  we started the main editing of merging it all together which is still currently taking place.

Editing schedule
Start of editing -   8th of November
Main editing Dates -    6th of November
                                  14th of November
                                  11th of November
                                  18th of november
                                  21st  of November

All dates will be updated until the editing is complete

Possible Band Outfits

The song we chose (Never mind by Silent Sundays) is a punk-rock song with quite a heavy sound. Having researched bands with a similar sound to our band and the different styles within rock today, I have found clothing that would suit our band and fit well in the music video.

I believe that the bands image should maintain its focus on that of an indie-punk group, incorporating popular fashion such as plaid shirts, skinny jeans and hoodies. However I do also believe that each member of the group should have an individual image so I have also incorporated band t-shirts due to the fact that it is important the band keeps a solid punk/rock identity. 

I believe black skinny jeans are very typical of rock bands and therefore should be an option to be considered, however as mention previously I do believe its important to variate between band members personal image. Another option for the bottom half of the outfit would be denim jeans as they are also worn by many rock bands. 

The use of band t-shirts would help with the audiences interpretation of the band in my opinion due to the fact that many bands wear the t-shirts of bands they support as well as bands with similar music to their own. This can help an audience to identify even quicker what genre of music the band is producing as well as the band's feel. We could use the t-shirts of bands such as Green Day, Blink 182, Paramore or 'The Academy Is...'.

I also looked at casual shirts as a possible clothing choice for band members mainly due to the fact that they are often used in a multitude of  genres and are becoming increasingly more popular with the arrival of the indie image. 

FIlming update + Schedule

As a Group we all went out on several occasions to film parts of the clips we divided it in to 3 main sections. First being the narrative where we all organised a date to go and film all the narrative and this happened on thursday the 7th of november. On this date all group members plus two additional people who where available to help with he filming went into the desired location and shot all footage for the narrative scenes. This was the narrative section of the filming completed. The Second sections was the short shots that where neither narrative nor performance there was done by Marcos and Will on the 5th of november Shots like the cigarette scene and the stills of the interments where shot with a few extra add ons. Lastly the performance side to the filming which was completed on the 15th of november everyone had gone to the location that had been chosen and took a variety of shots and footage that fitted the storyboard. This was then the filming stage completed any extra parts that where missed out will be filmed straight away and will be updated on the blog.


Narrative filmed - 7th november
Extra stills + short clips - 5th november
Performance - 15th november


All filming dates will be updated and posted until we are sure that all filming is completed.

Costume, Make up And planning

Costume
For the narrative section everyone was told to bring casual wear but with a dark sense to it so dressing casually in dark or light dark colours. Everyone followed the dress code for this scene and we tried to introduce dark coats as much as we could or plain dark zip up hoodies as we found out that they fitted the genre the most and looked good when we where looking over the footage.

For the performance element the costumes where more rock indie associated. so everyone was again told to dress with a casual but a little more formal style we also wanted everyone to not look similar to each other we wanted to make each band member look to have their own individual style within the band thats why no one in the footage looks remotely similar to each other like you see in other bands for example all members in one of the green day songs called "boulevard of broken dreams" they are all wearing black suits.

Make Up 
We used make up in a general way to all characters that participated in the filming

Props Needed for the Music Video

Evernote

Deconstruction of Lyrics (Todorov and Levi Strauss' example)

In this video it shows Todorov's theory on narrative which states that the images and events should be in a chronological order. However, this video also shows Levi Strauss' idea of binary opposites which states that events and images do not have to be in chronological order. As long as there are two opposites with a dispute, the media will work. In this video we added an effect to the piece of film to determine what is in the future/past and what is in the present.

For our music video we will be using Todorov's theory. This is mainly due the the fact that we are using narrative and performance and to use Levi Strauss' idea of binary opposites may confuse the audience and be a bit too complicated. It will also be a basic idea and will therefore work better if it is put in chronological order.

Wider Audience Survey of Expectations

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HM7GVCC

Survey Responses

Our survey helped to establish a better view on what we where to include in the music video for example the first question was "what do you expect in the alternative rock genre and how many band members would you expect to see" The most common answers that we got back in terms of band members was that they wanted to see all members who play an instrument or just about 4/5 members. The next question that was asked was "What sort of props would you like to see and would you like to see lots of them?" The most common answer we got back was that people wanted to see lots of props and they wanted them to be very unusual props that they had not seen before as they believe that it will link with the genre.

The next question "would you expect to see plain normal lighting or strobe/flashing lights throughout the video" All of the people who answered this question said they want anything but plain and normal lighting as they think it will not go with the song or the genre. The next question was "Do you want the video to be a fast pace or slow pace video?" Again everyone who answered this question said they wanted a fast pace video as it would match the song especially the chorus. The next question that we asked was " do you want the video to look like other videos that are of the same genre?" . This question was one that we would expect a typical "yes" answer from but instead we got mixed responses as some people said to stay with the genre where as others said to venture out and try and create a video that would start a new craze for this genre which we really liked the sound of when we started reading the responses.

 The next question was regarding the location and whether the people filling out the questionnaire wanted original ones or typical ones. The response that we got back was to keep it to the genre but just add a bit of originality so keep to the typical dark surrounded areas but pick an area that has not been used many time before and add an extra difference to it to be original. The last question was " would you prefer a music video that was all performance or would you like a mixture with another element?" The main response we got back from this question was a response that we hoped for as they said they wanted to see performance and narrative which is what we originally set out to do. The people filling out the surveys believed that with being included in our video it would suit the song and still match the genre.

Deconstruction of lyrics

Audience Expectation Interview (3)

From this interview we again got a audience and media student perspective from the questions that i asked. From this we are told that performance based and narrative based music videos are what this person looks for in all music videos as this is his preference. We can also tell that he will want props that he has not seen before in other videos which is a key element that we have noticed throughout all of the interviews that we have. We can also tell that the locations need to be spontaneous and there need to be more than one location which is again another thing that we are getting in all of the interviews. From this interview we can tell that the video itself being half narrative and half performance is the best thing to do but maybe use slightly more narrative as it attracts the audience into the music video a bit more than if it was more performance.

Audience Expectation Interview (2)

We can tell a lot from this interview as we got a audience perspective but we also got a media perspective as this is a media studies student who we where interviewing. He made it clear that our music video need to be original and we cant take to much ideas from other videos. We established that he wanted to see lots of props he had not seen in music videos before things that would question the audience as to why we used it. He also made it very clear that a set location would be good but it has to be a strange one and then we could mix it up throughout but he wants to see a set location. He was also very persistent for the half performance and half narrative based music video as those are what attract the audience most. The main thing we can grasp from this interview was that originality is key and we need to make it our video as much as possible instead of using ideas from other videos.

Audience Expectation Interview (1)

From this interview we can tell a a lot, as Daniel here clearly says he looks for lots of eye catching and unusual things throughout the music video. We can establish that our video is different to standard ones through the first two questions as his expectations change. We also find out that he would like to see a spectacle side to the video regarding the props meaning that he would like to see props that he has not seen in other music videos so they will stand out. He would also like to see a range of different and unusual location throughout the videos and he likes the idea of the performance and narrative based video. The main idea that we get from this interview is that the music video has to make sense and link with the lyrics. This link with one of the theorist Goodwin's laws of the lyrics matching what the audience is viewing.

Moodboard of Alternative Rock Genre

6 Screenshots relating to Goodwins Rules

Comparisons of Different Genres

Here we see Green Day from the rock genre and One Direction from the pop Genre and we can see lots of differences just from these two stills. Firstly the location in Green Day they are in an odd and unusual location where as One Direction are at a beach house this give the audience a brief idea of the genre. Secondly the costumes. Green Day is wearing all black and white suit style costumes. Whereas one direction are wearing casual gear like chinos and a polo shirt. I think the reasons for this is because Green Day are only just trying to promote their music and link in with the video whilst one Direction are aiming to attract an appeal from teenage girls.The things that we can compare in these stills are the fact that all band members are in these stills and in important shots like these they always are. Throughout both videos the camera seems to get all band members in the shots apart from the odd 1 or 2 occasions where lead singers do a solo in the song.

Here we see still of the band Good Charlotte and The Wanted.  The key things to analyse from these stills are the way that the performance element is displayed by both bands. In the Wanted’s still we see them all in suits on a preppy looking stage. They are also surrounded by bright colours. This suggests to the audience

that the song is a cheery song relating to things that are not to do with upset issues. In the Good Charlotte still we see them in what seems to be small room with pictures randomly scatter on the wall and certain objects hanging from the ceiling, they are all wearing full black carrying electric and heavy instruments Which is similar to the wanted as they are also all in possession of a instrument. The audience would be able to tell that the song is either of the rock or metal genre due to the dark colours, heavy emotion of the band member in the video and the small unusual dark location.

Directors of Iconic Music Videos

One of the most Iconic music videos made is directed by Chris Cunningham and his video for Bjork's "All is full of Love." The music video is centered around a robot and the development of this robot. At first the robot is being built by machines and has a human face. This suggests that human behavior is being influenced by machines and technology. The music video is mainly a spectacle, but could be seen as a narrative in some respects.

  Another Iconic music video is Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," directed by Steve Barron. The music video is very much a performance, but with a narrative. His dancing makes it a spectacle as he was a great performer who's dancing was legendary. The director made full use of this with a fantastic music video and one of the first of its time.

These music videos are some of the great, iconic music videos that are always remembered. The differ massively from a very simple music video with a deep meaning to a music video that leaves you in awe.

Record Label

The Record label we have created is called "Kushty Media". The reason for this is that we did a lot of research of looking at similar bands and who their record label is and we found a similarity because all of the bands in these music genre's have a record label that has an unusual sounding name followed by a catchy logo which was what we where trying to do with ours, The word "kushty" is a slang word known as something that is really good and something that is chilled out which links with the alternative rock theme as the song we are making can we considered as a more chilled out rock alternative rock song.

Still Representing the Alternative Rock Genre

This is a very popular band called Paramore. They are very similar in terms of genre and what they do in their music videos. For example in this song called “ignorance” they have a mix in their video of a performance element and a spectacle element. This is what we want to do to an extent. We would like to have the performance element in the video as seen in this still. Although we also want to have a mix in the video as we want to have a narrative based story line throughout.

This is blink 182’s music video for “miss you” this has a strong mix with the performance and narrative mix in this video so it links with what we want to do. Also I have noticed throughout in this video the camera does a range of camera angles whilst on the performance element of the video. These shots range for close up to longshot. This I feel is a nice effect to add in to our music video as it create a original approach to the video.

In this still we see the band good charlotte and the main thing that I have noticed in this music video is the intense focus on the main singer as there is very few clips where he is not in the camera. Also the flashing strobe lights flashing throughout the video that adds a good effect and add momentum to the video.

Researching Existing Record Labels

Fueled By Ramen is an American record label founded by John Janick, the label is famed for being one of the innovators during the rise of the pop-emo genres, signing bands that were massively popular during this period such as Panic At The Disco, The Accademy Is... and have worked with bands such as Less Than Jake and Cobra Starship. They have offices in New York and have an active street team to promote new artists to the public using a variety of methods. We decided as a group that we would use this record label mainly due to the fact that we believe they represent similar bands to ours most of which have turned out be very successful. The name of the record label has been confirmed to be inspired by the copious amounts of quick to prepare 'Ramen' noodles that constituted the diets of the labels founders.

Founded by John Janick came up with foundations of an independent record label whilst studying in High School. The record label itself did not fully form until Janick met drummer for Punk-Ska band Less Than Jake, Vinnie Fiorrello at the University of Florida in 1996. From here the record label went on to release an EP for the Arizona based band Jimmy Eat World that flung both the label and the band into the limelight. The record label then went on to use it's links within the music industry to sign fresh and upcoming talent with what is mostly considered massive commercial success with artists Panic At The Disco and Paramore both releasing albums that made it into the top 20 spots of the Billboard 200 in the US.

Above: Paramore were signed to FueledByRamen

and Atlantic Records in 2005.

Below: Panic At The Disco are another massively

successful band signed to the label.

Warner Bros. Records

Founded towards the end of the silent film era as a way of obtaining the rights for music for the wave of cinema. Though considered quite a 'mainstream' record label they have signed a variety of very popular artists including the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, My Chemical Romance and Never Say Never, these are bands that may be considered to the Silent Sundays with fairly similar sounds and styles. The wide range of artists signed by the record label in, my opinion, only serves them as experience and provides the label with a rare depth of understanding of the different target audiences to target as well as what these target audiences are expecting from an album and what to avoid when producing it. The record label also signed rock/metal supergroup, Metallica, in my opinion this shows the tenacity of the brand and its ability to promote artists. 

Roadrunner records was founded in the Netherlands, 1980, the record label was primarily focused on the importation of North American metal recordings into the European market, this then led onto the opening of offices in major cities all over the world and advent of the metal only record label that we see today. Roadrunner has signed a variety of bands with a similar sound to that of the Silent Sundays, including Biffy Clyro, Alexisonfire and Billy Talent but are well known for the many other artist they have signed over time such as Slipknot, Trivium and Megadeth. I believe Roadrunner's rock and metal only policy ensures that fair coverage is given to more alternative bands and genres, I also believe that the 30 years that this policy has been in place will mean that Roadrunner has an established and effective formula for promoting lesser known bands and genres.