CD Front & Back Cover & Inside Sleeve Idea

I have designed a few different CD Cover ideas with original images. I will pick one of these to be my final pieces.

Front Cover Designs

Design 1
I think I have done this CD Cover quite well as I have linked it with the song name. This was an original image which I changed and I liked the idea of having a choice to Run &/or Hide. Keeping the title of the band name was simple as I had quite a blank black space at the top, and therefore think that the band name sticks out quite well. I have made the Crown logo red which I think was a good idea as it contrasts really well with the rest of the image being black and white.

Design 2

I think I have achieved some good codes and conventions in this picture as most Indie bands don't have their faces shown on their CD covers but when some do, they seem to almost hide or change the way in which the image is seen. (They are usually looking away from the camera or have something else in the picture that is more the focus point) So I think I have done well to show the bands faces but show the rest of them differently. We also wanted to show something a little more 'playful' and less serious than some other Indie covers.

Design 3

I really like this design as we took the picture

whilst we were filming in the area. Therefore I like

the connection between the song and the front cover. However this isn't usually done with CD covers and music videos so I don't think we will use this as our final idea. Another thing I like about it is the same as the first deisgn and that it is black and white but with the Red Crown logo which helps the cover to stick ou a little more.

Back Cover Designs

Design 1

I really like the original image on this picture as I tried to correspond with some other Indie bands when they show some images of them playing live gigs and don't just pose for an album cover in a studio shoot. I think that making it black and white isn't such a problem as it won't be seen as much as it is a back cover. I think the placement and amount of song titles are perfect for the final piece and I have also managed to fit in some Copyright information, our production company logo, the bands websites (which is now usually found on CD sleeves) and a barcode.

Design 2

I liked the other idea of linking both the video and CD cover so decided to do it again. As the videos narrative has quite a lot of action/fast movement, I think we have captured that in this original image. However, again I don't think we'll use this design as the final one as Indie bands rarely link the video and CD cover together. I do think though that I have done well to fit the song titles, copyright information, band website, our production company logo and the barcode.

Design 3

I again like this image as it captures part of the band (in this case the lead singers guitar) in action. I have had to rearrange the song titles for them to fit a little better with the image but feel I have done well again to fit the rest of the information, logo and barcode in. I have also kept this image in colour and think it would probably correspond better with the second front cover design that has a lot of colours in it.

Inside Sleeve Designs

Design 1

I really like this original image as it is very different to most inside sleeves. I have edited the contrast and colours slightly but think that it is good because it is so different.

Design 2

I like the simpleness of this image but also quite like the way it shows the fact that it shows the drum kit in the studio where the CD was recorded I wasn't too sure about the images lighting and colours so decided to turn it black and white. I think that this would go quite well with front covers 1 & 3.

Different Roles for our video...

We have divided up each of the roles between the two of us so we can both focus on seperate pieces which we can then bring together and decide what we want for our final pieces.

Director: JOSH
Camera: JOSH
Props and Costumes: KENNY
Lighting: JOSH & KENNY
Blog dairy: JOSH & KENNY
CD cover: KENNY
Posters: JOSH
Editing: JOSH
Music: KENNY

Reflective Paragraph on My Research

The research I have done has included past proffesional music videos from bands with a similar type of genre that we are looking at. I also looked at videos that have the similar shots that we are looking for like the running ideas and the night-time filming that we are also hoping to emulate from previous videos. Whilst watching these videos, I took notes of when and where I can possibly film and how I can film it using Media terms like 'high angle shot from on top of crates in practice room' and 'low angle shot to perceive chasing character as more dominating'
The shots from these videos were very useful as I can therefore use the same and immitate them into my own music video.

Plan of Action

After the recent part of research, we are now going to plan out our filming section.

What we have to do:

• Storyboards


• Test of camera work in the dark i.e Street lighting


• The plan of who to film (the band)? What to film? When? And how we will film it
  

Interviews

We have asked several teenagers a set amount of questions detailing information required to find out what is favoured within our target audience.

Questions:

1. How old are you?

2. What genres of music do you listen to?

3. How often do you listen to music?

4. Do you attend live music events?

5. If so, how often do you attend these events?

6. What hobbies do you have?

7. If you had £100, what would you spend it on?

8. What social networking sites do you use?

9. Do you download music? If so, what website do you use?

10. What music promotion are you most drawn too?

Shot Types Research & Storyboarding

Shot Types Research
To gain more of an insight into my shot types, I will watch several different Indie Music Videos that show both the band performing in the video and a narrative to the video if it has one. Whilst watching each video, I will stop it at most camera changes and take note of what angle and shot it is and see what effect it has on the video. I will also quickly sketch out each shot that I think is intresting and that I could use in my own video so I will use for both my storyboard and later on use in my filming process.

For the running part of our filming, I have looked for Music Videos which involve people running so I can see which is the best way to film and how to film it.

Jack Peñate - 'Second, Minute Or Hour'

In this video, the running is constant so the camera is always moving. For our music video however, we won't have any constant running as it is for our narrative and therefore we wont have to film it with the song playing unlike this video where the singer is in sync with the song.

This was filmed with a motorbike driving in front of the runner and is really quite smooth with this. We won't have this ability however and our shots would therefore be quite shaky and bumpy if we were to have someone running backwards whilst recording the main runner going towards them.

The Sunshine Underground - 'What You Like'

This video has some really good edits to manipulate some running shots look faster and longer than they actually are. The cuts are going to be really influential on our video as the song is really upbeat and fast so we want to use shots that will go with this. The running sequence is very short in this video, but it really shows what we are going to try and achieve.

Fortune Drive - 'My Girlfriends An Arsonist'

Looking at this music video, we are going to try and use the same 'shake' of the camera. We are also filming in the same room as this, so the shots we use with a tripod will also be very similar but without the zooming in and out that this camera uses a lot of.

Fortune Drive - 'Recent Advances Volume 2'

In this video, we really like the quick cuts that are used in between each shot. This is something that is used quite a lot by these type of Indie/Rock bands and therefore we will try to emulate this in our editing as we are using a song with the same genre as this.

Company Name and Logo

We have chosen to use the name 'Lights On Productions' for our production company name as it has many connontations involving Media. We have interpreted this with the media phrase 'Lights, Camera, Action'. We also considered using a light bulb in our logo design as it would imply the 'Bright Idea' concept. This logo will feature on the back of our CD cover much like many other Production Companies names and logos, such as: