Animatic

Storyboarding

Pitch Feedback and Changes

After pitching to the class, I received feedback on what was positive about my ideas and what could be developed further.

From my feedback, I know that they liked my initial ideas for my artist, such as their costume and make-up style.  They also thought the concept for my narrative was interesting, and thought my Goodwin elements worked well.

However, I need to complete my storyboards and animatic as I have finally settled on a music video idea.

New Locations

After looking through my first test photographs, I liked the colours of the graffiti, yet thought it looked too urban and did not convey my genre of indie/pop.  I want to reshoot locations for my music video, places that have quite a vintage feel to it, and decided on Notting Hill and Greenwich.

Notting Hill

Greenwich

After presenting this idea in my pitch, my teacher suggested a vintage shop in Lewisham.  I researched them and found some photographs.  I plan to contact them and visit, asking if I am able to do some filming there.

Ruby and Norm

Pitch

Music Artist Pitch from Welling School

Audience Profiling

Initial Music Video Ideas

I printed off the lyrics to my chosen song, Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine.  I read through them and annotated any meanings and ideas for narrative to use within my music video  (click to enlarge).

Indie/Pop Music Video Analysis

Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out

First Shoot

I had already planned the locations I wanted to shoot for my initial photographs, which were all up in London.  Camden is a prominent place for obscure and vintage objects and clothing so decided to take most of the photographs there.  I already own a vintage dress so decided to use that for my costume and added accessories such as a black hat to emphasise the vintage feeling, as well as bold make-up.  There is a significant amount of artwork and graffiti in and around Camden, and I documented this for possible use in my digipak.  There were also record players and records which I thought matched my artist's image well.  My friend helped by taking spontaneous pictures of me walking around the market and shops.  We then went to Shoreditch and South Bank to take some additional photos, including some posed photographs in front of graffiti and London landmarks such as Big Ben.  However, it was sometimes difficult to take photos as it was half term and these popular tourist places were busy.

My favourite photos I think relate to my genre most are the posed photos in front of some graffiti in Shoreditch, as they have an urban and indie look to them.  I would like to incorporate these into my digipak.

However, I do not think I took enough photos and would like to do another shoot wearing a different outfit, maybe in another location such as Brick Lane.  Therefore, I will organise to do one in the upcoming weeks.  Hopefully it will be less busy as the next shoot will not take place during half term.

Here are all of the photos from my first test shoot:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127386971@N02/sets/72157646787126133/

Artist's Style

Before my first test shoot, I looked into my artist's overall style, considering what costume and make-up to use.  I thought about possible shops they would buy clothes from, and considering the conventions of the indie/pop genre, I thought places like Urban Outfitters and Topshop would be accurate.  (Click to enlarge.)

Production Schedule

Week beginning 27th October

Monday:  Blog work.

Tuesday:  Take photographs in London of artist/possible shooting locations.

Locations:  Camden, Shoreditch, Notting Hill

Wednesday:  Look through photographs, select best ones and upload them to a photo sharing website.

Digipak Plan

For my digipak plan, I started with a template I found online.  I printed this out and did rough sketches for what I wanted to include, incorporating the indie/pop conventions such as drawings of my artist to sell their image and locations associated with them.

Here is the drawn plan:

-Insert image-



I then developed this on photoshop, using the same template but images I found online.  

I think this is a great starting point for my digipak and hope to be able to take similar images at my first test shoot.

Influences

I looked at digipaks and CDs that I thought were interesting and stood out to me for possible influences on my work.  I focused on genres aroud the indie/pop one I have chosen, however also broadened it to the rock genre.

This is the back cover of the CD 'Brand New Eyes' by Paramore.  I like the empty photo frames and mirror used against the pale blue.  I think it looks very indie and vintage despite it being for a rock band and would like to include something similar in my digipak.

This is the front cover of a CD/vinyl 'Volume 3' by She & Him.  This definitely conveys their indie/pop genre through their costumes and black and white photography with pastel coloured circles surrounding the band.  The photo is focused on the girl, Zooey Deschanel, because she is also a well known actress as well as the singer in the band, therefore a selling point for the band and album.  As I want to create an artist with a backing band like this and Florence + The Machine, I will consider this type of photography to be used for my digipak.

Blog Feedback

Final Brief

My Brief:

Create a music video and digipak for a fictional artist/band you have created, showing the conventions of a genre of your choice.

My Artist:

Name:  

Brief History:  Met at university and formed a band, played open mic nights and local pubs and bars, signed to an independent record label - Chess Club.  Popularity gradually grew, started supporting artists, such as Florence + The Machine, and eventually headlined concerts in small venues around London.  Soon after signed to XL.

Signed to:  XL Recordings

Sound:  Indie/pop

Influences:  Florence + The Machine, Chvrches, Kyla La Grange, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Daughter, Kate Nash, The Lumineers, She & Him.

Ideology:  Work hard to get what you want.

Likes:  Music, vibrant colours, vintage things, nostalgia.

Dislikes:  X-Factor, cheesy boy bands, negativity.

New Brief

After discussing our ideas and realising we were not sure on our joint idea, Lauren and I decided to work separately.  She continued with the electronic rock band idea and I started looking into what artist I wanted to create for which genre, which I initially struggled with.  I liked the style of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chvrches and Florence + The Machine, where there is a band but the focus of the group is the female lead singer.  I considered creating a ska band, such as No Doubt, as Gwen Stefani is the focus of that group.  However, the ska genre is broad and therefore the conventions are quite complicated.

To make it simpler, I decided to do an indie/pop group with a female lead singer, as this is a genre I personally enjoy and am familiar with.  I then created their brief and brainstormed things and conventions related to the indie/pop genre.

Poster Analysis

Digipak Analysis

Slide 2:
The genre of Rihanna’s music is pop.  This is shown by her being the focus of the images, a convention of the pop genre to promote and sell her image to fans.  The use of bold colours makes the digipak vibrant and eye catching, also another pop genre convention.  These vivid colours can also relate to the album’s title ‘Loud’.  Rihanna has bright red hair and lipstick to match, with red connoting love, passion and danger.  This image is an extreme close up of her face for the front cover, which with the hair and make-up appears more mature and seductive, therefore suggestive of her personality.  However, the image inside and the images on the discs includes roses, connoting love, which softens her seductive look and implies she is more girly and innocent.  Her name appears on the album in a small, plain font that doesn’t stand out particularly well, however she is a well established artist and will be recognised by the images of her.  The unique selling point of this digipak is that it includes two disks, giving extra features such as bonus songs to the audience.

Slide 4:

The XX are an indie/pop band.  The conventions of indie CD covers and digipaks often don’t include an image of the artist or band, and something more obscure.  The XX digipak does this, only using ‘X’s for the bands name in substitution for images.  This makes the band name and logo memorable.  The use of just ‘X’s and the simple contrast of black on white and vice versa makes the digipak very simple, which also makes it look clean cut and neat.  This could suggest the bands music further, as their sound tends to be slower than most indie/pop music and is quite calming.  The unique selling point within this digipak is that it includes more than one disk.

Slide 5:

The genre of Evanescence is rock, and the digipak clearly represents this by the colours used.  The colourisation is a deep blue/black with white.  The lighting and contrast is harsh, reflecting the heavy music and darker themes of the band’s music.  The digipak includes images of the whole band, but the focus is on the lead singer Amy Lee, with her being on the front cover and in the middle of the group picture.  As she is the lead singer, she is the main selling point of this band, and the fact that female fronted rock bands are not as common as male fronted bands.

Artist Planning

We started planning our artist and brief in our groups.  We chose a genre that our artist would fit into and brainstormed sub-genres and bands that were of that genre.  This is my brainstorm for rock music:

We then started on our brief, creating a name and background information for our artist, as well as similar bands that could be influences for them.

These are my notes for ouer initial ideas:

Mood Board

For my mood board, I collected images from online of things associated with the indie/pop genre and placed them in the style of a Polaroid photo, using brown sugar paper to look vintage.  The photos mainly focused on vintage and retro objects, such as record players and Polaroids.  I included images of artists and bands that are of that genre and are similar to the artist I have created.  For example, Florence + The Machine, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kyla La Grange, She & Him and Wolf Alice. I also featured some places associated with my indie/pop genre, typically quirky places up London such as Camden.