FINAL CD Cover Completed: Original images

FINAL Front Cover/ FINAL Back Cover

FINAL Front Inlay/ FINAL Back Inaly

These original images are our final copy of the CD covers, which we have improved today. We managed to improve the images by setting a black background to all covers, so that the text appeared more congruent and did not stand out as much. We also added a bar code and copyright infringements to the back cover, which I found was a common convention of CD covers during my research. Therefore I felt this greatly improved our CD cover, making it appear higher quality and more professional. Overall I was really pleased with the results we achieved today as it makes us have strengthens our brand for our artist 'Sublime', and therefore is more likely to appeal to a wider demographic audience.

CD covers and music video improvement

After observing comments made on our CD cover and video from other members of the group, we have used this week to make some improvements and today we focused on the CD cover. The general changes we made was to use black instead of a vibrant colour scheme on the front, inside and back cover. This has changed the CD covers appearance in that the quality is improved and the overall process has made it seem more congruent. I will have uploaded my new music video link and an example of the CD cover by the end of this week.

Review of filming process:

Two weeks ago we managed to get all the filming completed for our music video. Filming ran smoothly because we had a thorough and detailed storyboard and film script. The process of filming become at lot easier due to the experiance we had in our AS preliminary task last year, where as a group we had to create a 2 minute opening of a film. This gave us a chance to learn how to film and edit properly and therefore we felt we have improved from last years task. We learnt from any mistakes made last year which allowed our music video to be filmed to a high and cohesive standard.

Things we had to remember whilst Filming:
We had to make sure we kept the continuity of the scenes, i.e keeping everything the same, which means nothing will be out of place and means the video will flow better:

Lighting.
Position of protagonist.

Keep the camera steady.
Make sure the protagonist knows her lines when miming the words.
Follow the storyboard.
Keep referring to codes and conventions of a typical 'Dance/Hardcore' music video.

Overall we captured some great scenes and used a variety of camera shots and movements, and are happy with what we have produced.

Editing
We uploaded our camera scenes onto the 'Mac' computer, and through a software called 'I movies',.We managed to start editing, trimming clips and addding the music and certain special effects. We need to make sure our target audience doesn't get disoriented and will easily recognize that this video holds typical codes and conventions of a 'dance/ hardcore' music video and consequently have to reflect this through the editing process.

Casting:

Sublime: (Katie Chivers)
We felt extremely happy with our actors performance and Katie Chivers did an excellent job miming the words along to the song. We chose her because she has strong feminine features which were effective in front of the camera, because she has typically conventional pretty features which would appeal to the audience. Her age was also important as she needed to be a similar age to our demographic audience '17-21'.

Tom: (Adam Proudman)
For our music video, we could apply Propps characters functions, therefore we wanted to create a 'hero' who would be represented as the boyfriend in the music video, who was also very effective within the narrative.

Costume:
In the beginning scene 'sublime' is in causal clothing with neutral and dull colours. Her make up is natural and her hair is tied back. The overall effect we wanted to connote to the audience was that the character was upset and this was effectively relayed through the costume we chose.

Outfit 2:
Her second outfit is very vibrant and exciting, which contrasts greatly with the first costume. She is wearing a modern stripy dress which gives the music video a more contemporary feel. From doing individual textual analysis on music videos and CD covers, the common theme we discovered whilst researching in the genre 'Hardcore/Dance' was the costumes were very bright and engaging, also slightly provacative with low cut tops and skimpy clothing. Given our target audience, it was important we made sure her costume wasn't too revealing, but still vibrant enough to attract the audience, which will help engage the audience.

The characters make up is a lot heavier than previous scenes at the beginning of the video with bright red lipstick and fake eyelashes, which help to enhance her features and in essence, help to attract the opposite gender.

Final Product: CD Cover

Although we had completed the CD cover, we improved it using the software 'Photoshop', making it of a higher quality which gives the artist a more professional image. We emphasised certain colours on the cover which related to our research where we found colours on CD covers were usually emphasised to give them more of a 'neon' glow.

Final product: DRAFT of Advert

We took several photos of our artist 'Sublime' which we could use in our final advert. These are a few examples of some photos that we took. We wanted lots of variation and therefore used lots of different poses so that we had lots to choose from.

This is the final image we chose for our advert.

After deciding on the original image we used for our advert, we uploaded it on to the Mac computers and used software called 'Pages' to use different colour schemes and a background which related to the image.

Here is our final DRAFT advert which we completed:

First copy of our music Video

After spending the previous two weeks filming and editing, we have finally created a piece which we have both worked really hard on. Now we will concentrate on our CD covers and advert for the deadline which is next Wednesday.

Our url for the music video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29cBvHgQol4

This allows our music video to reach a wider audience, which should result in the video becoming more popular.

This music video is the first edit of our final music video and through watching it and comparing it with the final video, you can see which parts are improved.

Here is a photograph of me and the film crew together:

First copy of CD covers

These CD covers are a first draft of our final CD covers. Comparing them with our final CD covers, you can observe the changes we have made and how they have worked effectively.

In order to create a brand of our artist as a group we needed to get some mock up shots of a CD cover/advert. After researching the dance/hardcore genre CD covers I found this really easy to do and had lots of ideas including colour schemes, designs, logos and images we could use.

After analysis, we found there was usually a model on the front cover, which was used to attract the target audience and also to represent the genre of music, giving the genre a specific identity. Therefore we also decided to use a model and not the artist, as we would be adding the artist’s songs to a compilation CD which would give the artist more kudos to the target audience. Therefore we both decided to use an original image of a girl which we knew, who gave us permission to be used in the CD cover, who was very suited to being on the cover:

She was in a stock setting of the genre; a club, was looking straight into the camera and can connect to the audience in some way. She was also in stereotypical club wear which was colorful which would also help to represent the genre on our CD cover. Using our photo editing skills we created some drafts of the CD cover using different images and colour schemes. However we finally decided on a suitable image and continued to edit this so it worked well with the brand of the artist 'Sublime' and her song 'Walking in the Rain'. We finally finished it and I am happy with the results as I think it works well as a CD cover to represent our artist.

Research Into CD covers

This image is from the 'Clubland x-treme hardcore 3' inlay. This lets the audience know what CDs are available in the clubland series, as well as generally keeping the audience updated.



This flyer comes from an hardcore event night 'HTID 31'. It shows the audience upcoming event nights within the dance/hardcore genre that HTID promote and organise.
Whilst completing textual analysis on the genre 'Hardcore/Dance', I discovered that inside a lot of the albums series 'Clubland' and 'X-treme hardcore clubland', there was a frequent use club event promotions, including promotion for its website and previous albums which they had created. The research that we discovered is as follows:

This gave us an effective idea in how we can help promote 'Addicted2 hardcore', using previous albums and by having them featured behind the disc, so when the consumer opens the CD they will notice the promotion behind it.
Using 'Raver Baby' as a record label means that we can feature their upcoming events and club nights within the CD inlay. This will be an effective way to target the consumer, as well as promoting the Club night and album.

Inlay Ideas

Event which we could advertise within the inlay of the CD cover:

Saturday 5th December 2009 – 8pm – 6am *EXTRA HOUR*
Air Superclub, Heathmill Lane, Digbeth, Birmingham B9 4AL

"On Saturday 5th December, Raver Baby are proud to present 8 Years of Raver Baby - the past, present and future of arguably the most popular hardcore label of all time! Air will play host to a selection of your favourite artists giving you a night to remember across all 3 arenas whilst outside the ever popular free fairground ride will be in operation all night!"

For the inlay of the CD cover, one of the things which we thought would be effective was to advertise a 'Raver Baby' event, which relates to the record label promoting the artist; 'Raverbaby'. This is 'Raver Baby's' next event; consequently we will feature it within the CD cover, which will be an effective way to target our demographic audience, as well as promoting the record label and artist efficiently.

Storyboard: PLANNING

As a group we wanted to ensure that we finished the storyboard, before beginning filming, so that we could follow the storyboard, and consequently save valuable time throughout the filming process. We ensured that the storyboard was coloured in and detailed with structured borders, which resulted in the storyboard looking high quality and made the storyboard easier to follow. During production of the storyboard, we decided to use medium close up camera shots frequently of the main female artist 'Sublime', because it gives a direct mode of address to the audience and allows them to forge a connection with her. Consequently this allows the audience to relate to the artist more and means that she will be more likely to be successful. We will apply 'Use and Gratifications' theory to our music video, which will give the artist a strong personal identity; through the usage of various different camera shots. This will help the audience forge a relationship with the recording artist, which helps represent the artist and allows us to create the artist into a stronger 'brand'.

Storyboard

As a group we wanted to ensure that we finiShed the storyboard before beginning filming so that we could follow the storyboard and consequently save valuble time throughout filming. We ensured that the storyboard was coloured in and detailed with structured borders, which resulted in the storyboard looking high quality

During production of the storyboard, we decided to use medium close up camera shots of the main Female artist 'Sublime', because it gives a direct mode of address to the audience and allows them to forge a connection with her. Consequently, this allows the audience to relate to the artist more, meaning that she will be more likely to be successful. We will apply 'Use and Gratifications' theory to our music video, which will give the Artist a strong personal identity; through the usage of various different camera shots.