Main Task: Digipack Cover

I have decided to keep my cover simple. The reason for this is due to the fact that i do not want my cover to be too off putting. It is clear from looking at the cover that the artist is named 'Erin Evans' and her song is called 'Colours'. I kept my text white because both of my style models have white capitalised text. The white bold text stands out well against the darkened image; the 'drop-shadow' effect helps create the contrast. 

To the left is Halsey's track cover, and to the right is Lady Gaga's. The two artists are both popular and share the same kind of audience due to Gaga and Halsey's are both pop artists. I idolise the two artists strongly; i have a passion about both their music so it would be a personal touch to add resemblance to my work.  In comparison to Halsey's 'BADLANDS' cover, and Lady Gaga's 'JOANNE' cover there are similarities to my cover. In my cover I am centre of the entire cover just like my two style models. My background is empty and has no distractions. The colour of my background is intentionally duller and a darker tone than my text. The reason for this is that it allows the solid white to stand out against the blue-grey tone of colour.  Admittedly, I got this idea from 'JOANNE'. However, I believe there is difficulty in reading 'LADY GAGA / JOANNE' on her cover due to the two light tones of colour. This inspired me to add in the 'drop-shadow' effect on to my text. This gave my text more volume; the text now stands out a lot more and it does grab the audiences attention.

On my cover, I am standing on my side and giving the camera direct mode of address. This is not something I took from my style models. The reason I look directly in to the camera is because it draws the audience in. It makes them feel involved, just like you would give eye contact to another person in conversation. I have no negative expression on my face, i am pulling a slight smirk. My eyes look as though i am happy. This will make the audience drawn to me, as apposed to me pulling an angry face - as that would make them feeling threatened.

Main Task: Editing

To edit and create our video, we are going to use 'iMovie'. This software is very easy to use. It also has a lot of filters and editing options; adding the options and filters will allow our video to appear a lot more professional, especially in comparison to a video without. When we were exploring other music videos, we watched and admired the choices of editing carefully to ensure we used ideas the same/or similar to theirs. 

We decided to add a black and white filter to some shots in our music video; the reason for this is to express the fact that the shots in black and white are from the past. We got this idea from old movies, as old movies were in black and white before coloured media was introduced.

Music Video: Symbolism

Colours, and what do they symbolise?

(we intentionally selected particular colours due to their meanings)

Green: On the negative, the colour green can mean possessive and materialistic, with a need to own people and things. It certainly symbolises jealousy and envy, which links well to the story behind the music video.

Red: Known as 'the colour of blood and fire', is associated with positive meanings such as: love, lust, sexual desire/sex, romance, etc. However, it also has many negative meanings. Anger, danger and blood are commonly linked to the colour red. The symbolism for 'love' refers to the relationship between Erin and Tom. And also the dangerous chemistry between Erin and Megan.

Blue: The colour blue can mean when one is being deceitful and untrustworthy - this colour is appropriate for our music video, as it matches the story-line. It too represents depression, and sadness, and overwhelming rejection with our character, Tom, feels.

Music Video: Location

For the music video, we are going to make it as informal as possible. By this, I mean locations such as the street/entries/etc - this allows the video to be a lot more natural, and it feels less 'set up'. 

For Example: To the left, there is a picture of Tom and myself 'kissing' in an entry, against a brick wall. The reason for the entry is due to the fact we are 'teenagers', and teenagers are portrayed as sneaking around and 'fooling' about in these kind of areas. Not only this, but the brick wall works very well as a background. It is plain and simple, and our figures stand well against it. The brick wall has absolutely not distractions. 

Main Task: Planning Times

We have decided that will be using a Canon Recording Camera to film everything for our music video. Everything being lip syncing and the storyline, and any other extra shots that link to the narrative. The camera itself is very easy to use, and can be used with a tripod. The camera has great filming quality - especially in natural light.

Megan and I both have an identical schedule; we both found it easy to discuss and decide when and where we would film. We both live around the same area, so it was easy for us to move from A to B without difficulty. This also helped us save time.  

Main Task: Projector Ideas

As the song is called 'Colors' we want to involve a lot of colour, preferably for the chorus. Megan and I came to an idea that we will use the projector in one of the classrooms and I will be stood against the 'white board' lip syncing, whilst the projector is playing a video of explosive colours.

Here are some examples of 'exploding colours' that we found:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yZZHbjRxxI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OHxLcGzhv0

Main Task: Who are the characters?

As mentioned, Megan and i decided to have just three characters as it will be a-lot more organised and we will be much more comfortable filming in a small group, and whilst we were re-searching music videos, we noticed that not many characters were involved in famous videos either.

Tom Birtles (pictured left): Tom is an attractive 17 year old male, and we found he was ideal to play the role of the artist's 'boyfriend'. During the video it is clear that Tom is infatuated with his girlfriend, however it is clear that her feelings are not mutual.

Megan Slater (pictured right): Megan is a very pretty 17 year old female, her role in the music video will be a friend of both Tom and myself. Tom and Megan have no sexual/love chemistry however as the video goes on it appears that Erin and Megan seem to have some attraction towards each-other - despite the fact that Erin and Tom are in a relationship.

Erin Evans (pictured right): Erin is playing the main role as the artist, in the video she is portrayed as Tom's girlfriend. During the video it will appears that she is giving her full focus to Tom, however (as mentioned) this is not the case. 

Main Task: Music Video

For the main task, i have decided to create a music video. The reason for this is that i always watch music videos in my spare time, and i always enjoy watching them - therefore i thought i'd make my own. Megan and i share very similar music taste, so it will be fun for both of us to make a video about a song we both will enjoy.

We decided to give our video a story. For the story line i have decided to give the video a bit of a twist, this will allow the audience to be fully entertained. The video will consist of three characters, our friend Tom, Megan (whom is working with me to create this video) and myself.   

Editing

Tom’s role, aside from lip-syncing, was editing the music video. We all gave our opinions forward to Tom so he could edit it were he knew we were all equally happy. Rather than using iMovie, Tom decided he would use Final Cut Pro X as he is experienced in using this software and he personally thinks that is makes editing a lot easier.

 To start with we put the song in and cut it to the part we wanted to feature, after that we then sorted through the footage and chose what parts we wanted to use. We watched it over and over again, from start to finish, to ensure everything was perfectly in-sync. 

The Second Day of Filming

For the second day of filming we focused strongly on lip syncing; admittedly, Tom found it quite difficult to do. However, after practicing the chorus he finally got the hang of the beat and was able to lip sync perfectly with no complications.

Tom intentionally stood in the gap of the wall, the reason for this that it's almost as if it is he own section and allows the audience to focus directly on him. We used a flash from one of our mobile phones and focused it directly on to Tom. We did this, not because the light was poor, but because it gave him a strong and prominent shadow behind him. It is clear that it allows him to stand out and allows him to be highlight among the background.

First Day of Filming

For the first day of our filming we mainly focused on the beat of the sound; we experimented with different technique to create a beat using ourselves physically. What i mean by this is things such as clapping, feet tapping, etc.

I purposely worn white shoes to do this scene, the reason for these is because it allows the audience to focus on the bright shoes and takes away any distractions from the dark background and the stairs itself. Watching the feet tap in perfect sync with the beat of 'Closer' is rather satisfying. 

Music Video Planning: Location

Location:

We filmed our Music Video in the hall, and on top of the balcony - above the hall.

I believe the hall was quite an ideal place to film the music video, the reason for this is because of how remote it was and quiet. We found it for easy to film there, as we had no distractions and we were far much more comfortable being in the remote area.

An example as to why we we used the hall:

We used the projector in the hall and the spot light from the balcony to create this scene. We greed that it was really ideal to create a silhouette of Megan's hands. She was clapping to the beat of the song, we was created perfectly so we could edit it in over the song. 

Music Video Planning: Costume

Costume:

Due to the song being a modern day song, and targeting towards a young audience, we decided to make Tom's outfit informal to fit to his age as an adolescent. As mentioned, the song itself aims towards a young target audience, particularly teenagers. This is an advantage to our group due to us being teenagers too, as Tom's role in the video will appeal to the audience.

(In terms of costumes, they did not play a massive part to Megan and I as we rarely appeared in the video)

Closer Music VIdeo

Music Video Planning

Preliminary Task: 

For our Preliminary Task we have to create a music video, before we go on to making it we need to decide what song we are going do. Our group consists of Megan, Tom and I. We all share similar music tastes so it wasn't hard to decide what song we were going to re-create, and we will all find it enjoyable.

We browsed a large variety of music videos, all sharing a similar theme and mood, but we finally decided on "The Chainsmokers - Closer (ft. Halsey)". We all agreed that this song was the ideal song for us to do; it isn't a complex song. It is rather slow and has a solid beat behind it that was/is very easy to re-create.

Due to the song mostly being song by a male, we decided as a group that only Tom will appear fully in the video. For example: only he will be shown lip syncing and only his face will be shown. Megan and i agreed that we will be responsible for acting out beats for the video, including hand clapping/feet tapping/etc.

(The Chainsmokers - Closer (ft. Halsey) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT2_F-1esPk)