Ideas

These three photos were created as a back up for the CD cover front, inside and magazine advert. We tried different ways to create the images to see which we would prefer for our music video and which would suit our CD cover video and which could represent our music video.

How do I breathe - Mario

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts

The video, cd cover and magazine advert promotes the product in different ways. The video story helps the video sell the product, as well as the lyrics. Audience which would genuninely would like slow r&b soul jams, would prefer our product. A video has a lot to offer to the audience. The music of the music video, nice relaxing with nice beat. the ancillary texts of our magazine advert and cd cover, subordinates to the music video. The CD cover is helps sell the image of the product, which in a way is selling the project. The image of the performer, which shows the facial expressions of the character, showing emotions suggesting heartbroken, and lost in memories. Our music video would very efficient to the category r&b soul music. As it would be first of all promoted by the category, suggesting what type of music it is. Then later the CD cover and also the magazine advert would be second in the process. And the last would be the music video. Music Video Elements such as Love, Romance and Heartbroken would help it sell the product as you also have heartbroken lovers in this would which would want to listen to a song like ours.

Target Audience

The target audience for our music video would be young adults, in the age range of about 15-25. This age group are most likely to consume the product - by listening to music and buy albums; this ensures that the record company will make a profit. Also as the singer Mario is younger than 30 it means that the audience will be able to relate to the experiences he describes in his songs. The lyrics specifically for this song "How do I Breathe" have connotations of love, relationships, trust etc; overall both males and females will be able to comprehend what he means.

The target audience would also listen to male singers such as Neyo, Joe, Boyz II Men and also female singers like Mariah Carey. All of these singers are similar in that they sing songs about similar topics, have similar voices and would produce similar music videos/ CD covers.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages

Researching in to music video's and genre's had helped us to construct our music video e.g. we looked into Brandy and Monica's song 'that boy is mine' and we all wanted to create a music video that would tell a story and give us opportunities to involve some editing techniques as well as be creative when using the camera e.g. zooming from a long shot to an extreme close-up that allowed us to use jump-cuts in our music video. We used http://www.youtube.com and http://www.google.co.uk to research into music video's and CD/magazine covers and referred back to them constantly to help us with our group project e.g. previous posts with show we used the music video 'McLean-Broken' as an inspiration to create a similar effect with our music video e.g. on one of the 'memory' shots both performers are arguing and they both have another figure walk off in the opposite direction slowly whilst still standing there, this was created not only to have a connection with the audience but to also show the audience that the artist is remembering the past events with his 'girlfriend' and what happened e.g. the two figures walking away whilst another version of the performers are arguing show that they broke up and left each other.

We didn't think greenscreen would be a good technique to use in our music video as it was a romantic/sad theme and we thought that using greenscreen would be more effective if we did a different genre of music e.g dance/niche.

Final Cut Pro was the software we used to edit our music video and found the camera angles/techniques we had used whilst filming could have effects that would make it look more realistic and professional e.g. desaturating shots up to 62 to allow it to look like events from the past and putting soft edges up to 10 on every angle allowed it to look like a memory, however we did try a numerous amount of effects such as making the shot look completely black and white - desaturating it up to 100 but we decided to keep the desaturate to 62 as it had colour that was faded and the soft edges of 10 seemed to be realistic as more than 10 seemed to make the shot more black from the edges and only part of the shot could be visually seen. We also thought of using transactions such as wipes before and after the 'memory' shots but we thought they made it look non realistic and didn't go well with the theme and so decided the effects were obvious enough to establish between the 'memory' shots and 'present' shots (lipsynching and walking past his 'ex-girlfriend' with another 'man').

Another effect we used throughout our music video is Crossfading. We used this frequently between 'present' and 'memory' shots and it was also used at the beginning of our music video where we repeated a shot of Syed stood on the bridge to make it look like a jump shot.
Towards the end of the music video we began slowing down some shots e.g. one is a 'memory' shot of Syed and Chelsea on a swing followed by a freeze-frame that purposely happens before a beat so when the beat comes the shots start again.
Another example of using slow pace shots is when Syed walks past Chelsea who's with another man the reason is so it flows with the genre and lyrics of the song aswell as the emotion, e.g. having the song full of memories and lipsynching then seeing Chelsea 'ex-girlfriend' with someone else.


We used Photoshop to create our CD cover and magazine advert. This was a great experience as it was the first time we all had used Photoshop and therefore had no previous skills. The CD cover was a shot taken from the music video we had created, the shot was a close-up of Syed sat on stairs we used this shot for numerous reasons such as it was a close-up of the performer which was seen to be 'the meat' that sells products and because this shot looked realistic and perhaps could look like a posing shot.
We researched into the CD cover and In the shot he is looking to his left and is placed on our left side of the CD cover therefore after we analysed CD covers we realised some of the artists that were featured on a CD cover facing in a direction was usually placed in that direction e.g. facing to their left placed on our left of the CD cover, facing to their right placed on our right of the CD cover with the artists name and album/single name in the space left e.g facing to their left they would be placed on our left and the titles would go on our right. Such as,


We used 'Colour Range' to change the colour on the CD cover and when we were choosing the amount of brightness etc we all decided upon having the colour greyish as the black and white looked too simple and didn't show the artist in as much focus as we would have liked.
We thought due to having the CD cover grey it would look more appealing to have the artist name 'Mario' in white and Bold and in slightly bigger font size as it is usually the artist who sells the product. For the title we thought we would use the font Apple Chancery and it could be written in light blue as it also had connotations of sad/depressing emotions.
For the back cover we used 'Post Edges' this allowed us to make the image have a cartoon/artistic feel to it that seemed to look professional. The shot we used for the back cover was one where he was walking across the bridge but was on the right side of the bridge this was a perfect shot to have as it allowed us to have enough space to also write the song titles.
One of the inside covers is a close-up of Syed sat on the bridge, we decided to used this image and make four sections of him in different effects, here we used lighting effects and had four different colours.
Another inside cover is going to be lyrics of the single, 'How Do I Breathe' and have an appealing background, one that is simple but attractive. Looking into albums such as 'Blue - All Rise/One Love/Guilty'

the font size is small and is put into coloumns also when the chorus is sang the first time it displays the lyrics but when repeated just says 'chorus' or 'repeat chorus'. This is where we got the idea for our inside CD cover. However when we did our inside cover we decided to only use the chorus 'How do I breathe, without you here by my side, how will I see, when your love brought me to the light, where do I go, when your hearts where I lay my head when your not with me, how do I breathe, how do I breathe'. This is in four different colours - the same as the four colours for the other inside cover, red, blue, green and purple. We thought the lyrics for the entire song would result in having an extremely small font that would be difficult to read so we only did the chorus as these picture

inspired us.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When we completed a rough cut of our music video we decided to get a fellow student to watch our music video to provide us with feedback on what we could add to our video to make it look better. This is what she said to us "Overall the video so far looks good and professional. The majority of the lip-syncing looks right, it looks like a conventional rnb video however some shots are too long. You could cut them down by adding a variety of camera shots like close-ups and long shots or add more reminiscing shots." - Maria Rafiq. We were grateful for the information she gave us and this is what we were told her "A problem we have with cutting down shots that are too long is not having enough raw footage. We are going to attempt to film some more shots and add it to the timeline; hopefully we'll do this before the deadline." After we were given this feedback we made some changes to our music video. We ensured that all of the lip-syncing as perfect however this was difficult. As we didn't have the time to re-film footage , we replaced the bits that were too slow with either shots of memories or simply shots of Syed posing. Another thing we changed was the shots that were too long we cut them down. We did this by filming more footage. We added more shots of reminiscing to the shots of him lip-syncing and vice versa. We also zoomed into shots of him lip-syncing and inserted these into the longer shots; this meant that there was variety in the shots. Overall due to her advice we believe that our group has benefited hugely to her neutral feedback.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our music video is inspired by other music video, in the same genre due to love jealousy and heartbroken elements. Other video such as Birthday Sex by Jeremih is another slow jam but it is more sexual attraction track. The difference between our music video and the Jeremih music video is, How do I breathe is more of a heartbroken music video whereas Jeremih Birthday Sex is more pleasure music video of sex. We had to research about different type of videos of the same genre of ours music video and which for we had to identify different aspects such as location, different way to portray the reminiscing, for example, shot after shot would show the reminiscing and lip-synching would be played in the background, our music video viewed reminiscing scenes as well as the lip-synching. There are similarities between our music video compared to others, but there also differences compare to others. Lyrics, storyline, performance, locations, facial expressions viewed in different ways for example joyful moments and arguing are viewed as for and against. These were the differences between our video and other music video. The similarities between our video and other music videos, is mainly the moral of the story, which is things are not working out, and then the couple break up, and it leaves the guy as a heartbroken. In a way that could be suggested as a difference as most of the videos would be mainly be about heartbroken due to being hurt either cheated on or the person they love has moved on to a new life. These are part of conventions of real media products, as this all features in every day life which makes it real and help develop an idea, which helped us make our music video with different scenes.

Analysis of Inside Cover 1

This is our completed inside cover 1. It uses the same image from the magazine advertisement. We wanted to create some kind of link so that the audience will recognise both of them.

The idea to use the same image as 4 squares only came to us at the last minute when we realised we didn't have any other image that were to our standards. First we was going to use this same image and put 4 different effects on to it but then I produced the image with the blue colour. I used photoshop to do this, a tool called lighting effects. As a group we thought that it looked really good, how the lighting could be widened and shortened to only shine on to his face. By using these colours - rgb and purple - we are creating contrast from the other cd covers we made and shown a different perspective of star to the audience. In the areas that the light wasn't shining on, the colour was black. We thought that this made the colours too bold so we lightened the black to a grey which looks more effective.

Analysis Of Magazine Advert

This is the final magazine advert. It includes the cd cover, the name of the artist, the song name, what's included and the release date. We may change the font colour of Mario or How do I breathe or both of them to the same blue used in the digipak.
For the image we used the effect 'Film Grain' to add lighting to his face and make him look better overall. His facial expression appears serious and he appears to be thoughtful once again. This theme of him appearing thoughtful runs throught the cd cover and back cover too. We used the same logos from the back cover of the cd and decided to write "OUT NOW" instead of a release date. Their was no particular reason for this besides thinking that it looked better on the poster. We chose to write the main information at the bottom of the page and in capitals so that it's easy to read and succint.

Analysis of Back Cover

This is our completed back cover. We complimented the front cover by using the same font type Apple Chancery and the same colour. To make the back cover look professional, we wrote the name of the original song, the radio edit and a version which features a DJ; this will attract more fans who will be interested in the different versions. We decided that we wanted to produce digipak for the single instead of the album; this is because for one of the inside cover we wanted to write up the lyrics, this would be difficult if it's an album. We chose to use this image as it contrasts with the image used on the front cover. It is a long shot of Syed, implying that he's a professional artist, he's looking down which could show that he's upset and overall he looks thoughtful. On his image we used an effect called Poster Edges which makes it look much better as a back CD cover. We included the bar code to make it look realistic and also included the media institution Universal as we have shown it to be the record label; Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company, representing 98% of the music market. We chose Universal because Mario is an artist who has a mainstream audience hence attracting a large fan base . Also the logos of HMV and Amazon were included to show the retailers and where the album is available.

Analysis Of Front Cover

This is our completed front cover. We chose this image of Syed as it portrays an image of a artist who is serious about his music and his pose appears thoughtful. We used a close to mid-shot of Syed with him looking away from the camera; this showcases the artist and shows that the artist is most important thing. Also it helps to publicise the single because the audience will recognise syed is the artist. Instead of him having eye-contact with the audience we decided to have him looking away. It implies that every person has their own problems and difficultis in relationships and keep a distance from everyone else. We used a tool on photoshop called Colour Range to alter th colour and change it to black and white. This relates back to our research on cd covers of R&B artists who use black and white images regularly. We wanted to use an italic font because it relates back to the song but it was difficult to read; finally we chose the font Apple Chaucery as this is reasonable easy to read and still looks good. As a group we decided to use the contrasting white and blue colours so that its both easy to read and stands out as the information attracts fans who don't recognise the artist.

Analysis of Inside Cover 2

The text in this image was difficult to read in the colours we chose. We chose these colours because it matched the other inside cover and also these colours stand out and look as though they are glowing. The effect we used on them was a tool called "stroke". In the background we used an image from google to make the background look softer and more appealing to look at.

Inspiration for Cd Cover

This is one of the main cd covers that we took inspiration from. The pose of Mario is similar to Syeds and the effect that we used is also similar. In contrast we used a greyish black tone to the cd cover as it goes with the theme of the song; love, cheating and being single. Similarly to this cd cover we also used the colour blue to give it a male influence on the cover.

On Tuesday The 8th Of December We Began Working On Our CD Cover..
For The Front Cover, We Took An Image From Our Video, The Image Was A Close Up Shot Of Syed Sat On The Stairs.
We Changed The Colour Of Our Image To Black And White Using A Tool Called 'Colour Range'..

Next To The Image Of Syed, We Writ 'How Do I Breathe' In White, Using The Font Apple Chancery, Then Writ 'How Do I Breathe' Underneath It In Light Blue italics.

We Decided To Write 'Mario' Big And Bold and Just Keep The Name Of The Song In Italics Because We Felt That The Name Of Tha Artist Wasd More Important..

For The Back Cover We Used Another Shot Of Syed Walking Across A Bridge.

Behind the image of Syed, we Writ Four Different Versions of the Song 'How Do I Breathe'.

To Edit This Image, We Used A Special Effecct Called 'Post Edges' To Make Our Image Look More Interesting And More Like A Front Cover..

For Our Inside Pictures We Used An Extreme Close Up Of Syed Sat On The Bridge and Used The Same Image Four Times To Create A Collage Effect..

The Effects We used On This Were: Filter-Render-Lighting Effects..
By Doing This, The effects came out in three different tones and Looked Really Effective and Interesting To Look At.

The Colours We Used Are Really Eye Catching And Draw Alot Of Attention To The Inside PartOf The CD..

This Image Is My Favourite One Of All Because I Like The Way The Images And Colours Have Been Merged Together To Create A Collargey Kinda Effect..

Update

We were finding it hard to begin the production of our ancillary texts so may have fallen behind our schedule. Our schedule was to finish a week early so we had time to review all our work and ensure all the details were done to the best of our ability. Despite this we will finish in time for the deadline and hopefully produce a good project.

The past few lessons we have been researching digipaks and magazine adverts so that we got an idea of how we wanted ours to look. Then we spent time discovering what effects we could produce on photoshop and completed th project; at the moment we have finished the front cover, the back cover, one inside cover. This means that we still have to complete another inside cover and the magazine advertisment.

As a group our roles have differed from the beginning of the project. Now me and Zafreen are focusing on completing the production work and Chelsea and Syed are developing the blog and completing the critical evaluation. Despite this divide in roles, we are all still working as a group and contributing to each other's jobs. For example Syed and Chelsea regularly check what we havee done and give us more ideas; similarly me and Zafreen read through what Chelsea and Syed have written, telling them what they could add or take away.

Feedback on what is happening and what is still in process of need finishing

Over all the feedback for our music video has been really positive apart from one phrase "It could had been better". Other comments were very emotional such as very touching, good performace, matches the storyline, very realistic and reminiscing and so on. The teachers comments were also positive which was a boost for our group, especially when we had started of choosing a different track and then it was not working out as we had planned and then the group decided to change the track, which really worked out well for us. In space of less time we manage to accomplish our task.

We are working on the CD covers and the also magazine adverts. The evaluation is also in process so what is being done is now being evaluated straightaway. Research is mostly done on CD covers and the digipacks and the magazine adverts at the moment. And evaluation will also be posted on the blog once it finished.

Ancillary Texts

Magazine Advert:

Need to Include:

- Name of artist

- Name of album (featuring the track BPC)

- Release date

- Available from

- Websites/myspace

- Record Label

- Reviews and ratings

CD/ DVD:

Need To Include:

- Showcase the artist

- Collectors item

- Limited edition

- Features: Out-takes, documentary, making of, live, bonus tracks, uncut version, short films featuring artist, photographs

Starting our CD cover

TUESDAY 1ST DECEMBER
We thought shots from the music video we had made would be a good idea to have as a CD cover or we would take shots at the locations we had filmed for the music video to use as our CD cover. However when we looked at some CD covers some had simple backgrounds and the artist was shown in more effect therefore we had a range of interesting ideas such as have images of Syed posing looking away from the camera and have images of him posing looking straight at the camera.




This is a CD cover released for Leona Lewis, this is a perfect example of a CD cover that is simple, sharp and most importantly advertises the artist effectively as it's an extreme close-up and has a plain background.





This is a CD cover for the artist Shawn Desman. This is an example of the artist posing in a different direction with a simple background and the artist here is shown to be again the main focus and is the most outstanding.



FRIDAY 4TH DECEMBER
For our CD cover we are currently thinking to have a shot of Syed looking away from the camera and have it in black and white we have added effects to a image taken from the music video yet we have recently completed the back cover of the CD and we have added effects from Photoshop that allows the image to look like a cartoon but still a little natural this is long shot of Syed walking on the bridge and he is towards the right hand corner we thought this would be a good image as the song titles could go down the middle and have Syed on the right hand side. However we are thinking we need both the back cover and front cover to have the same effects so we might change the effects from one or the other. E.g have both back and front cover with negative effects - black and white or both front and back in a cartoon effect.

For the inside of the CD cover we have decided to have a page for the lyrics - How Do I Breathe and another page of either a collage of images taken from the music video or four images of Syed with the same effects again taken from the music video.

Original Poster

Ideas For Cd Cover

After the completion of our music video we decided to make the most of the time we have by playing with the differents effect that we can use on Photoshop and Illustrator. First we took a picture of Syed, the artist, as a close-up with the camera at eye-level; this is the main conventional picture shot for r&b cd covers. Then we looked at different effects that seemed reasonably suitabl for the cd cover. For our cd cover we are going to take a variety of pictures of Syed in a location such as Deansgate bridge. In the majority of the cd covers we have seen, the focus is on the artists face and pose, with appearance as upmost importance. The background is mainly clear for example plain white, brick wall etc.

Idea For Inside Cover

I found this picture through the use of google.co.uk; it has some of the lyrics from the song on. This is an idea that we could use for our cover. I like the use of the images of butterflys and designs in the background. In our cover, we may decide to use just the chorus instead of all of the lyrics.

When We first started filming, we didnt really focus on Mise en scene, it wasnt really our main concern.

Then when we started editing, we realised that there was alot of Mise en scene used in our video.

In the beginning of the video, Syed is lip synching alone a bridge.
This was a good location to use because there was know one else on the bridge and it worked well with the whole concept of the video and what we were trying to get across by making sure there was know one else around when we started filming..
By Syed being alone on the bridge, you can see that he is lonely, there is not a single person in sight.
Another reason why the bridge was a good place to shoot the opening of our video is because usually when you watch films and people are upset or need time to think, they tend to glo for walks, most times they go for walks over bridges or just stand on a bridge and either gaze down in to the water or just gaze on into the distance..


Another shot where Mise en scene plays a major role, is the shot where Syed and are I in the park.
The reasoon why we used a park is because couples tend to go to parks together, either to have fun or to just be alone and enjoy eachothers company.

This shot was a reminising shot and shows Syed and I on a swing laughing, joking and having fun.
There is another shot just outside of the two of us linking and walking down a path.
This works well because the location was quiet nice because of the trees, it looked realistic, whereas if we were walking down any randomn street with loads of cars and randomn things in the shot, it would look quiet fake and look as though we had not given the location much thought..

Also there were a couple of shots taken in Starbucks coffee..
Throughout the Video you keep getting took back to this particular location, that is because Starbucks was both posotive and negative place for Syed to be and bought back all sorts of memories..

There were times in the video where both Syed and Myself were in Starbucks together and times where Syed was there alone.

Starbucks Coffee was another good location to use because alot of couples like to go on dates to little cafes or use cafes as meeting points.

The particular part of the Cafe where wes shot our video was made for couples.
It was like a little room on its own, away from everybody else.

The tables only had two chairs which were facing opposite to eachother and there were not alot of them, so it was quiet to.
We could not get a better place to film than that, it was just right for the whole idea of our video and what we wanted to do..

There is a shot and Syed and I are sat on a bench, in this shot we are talking, this same location is then used again, but this time we are laughing..
In both these shots I am wearing Syeds coat, this looked realistic and made a difference to the shot, it made us look like we were together, rather than the two of us just sat on a bench..