This moodboard shows the layout text and images. It shows how they contrast with each other and their backgrounds, i.e text on images. It shows various colours along with black and white. Down the right hand side it shows a neat but effective, eye catching way of organising images.
Digipak Moodboard - Text and Image.
This moodboard shows text and images. It shows how they contrast with each other and their backgrounds. It shows various colours along with black and white. The text on our Digipak will be black and white so it contrasts well.
Video Moodboard - Clothing.
This moodboard gives a slight suggestion of how we want the people in out music video to dress, in a romantic, indie, old fashioned, vintage style that fits in with our theme.
Video Moodboard - Clothing.
This moodboad also gives an impression of how we want people in our Music Video and Digipak to dress, it gives a sense of quirkiness and edge, mimicking the 70's.
Website Moodboard - Band Images.
This moodboard shows different bands images, the different angles and different used of lighting and shots. Some of the images are of a close up shot, some of which are a mid shot and some are a full length shot.
Website Moodboard - Tour Dates.
This moodboard shows tour dates and this will help us with the layout of text.
Text Moodboard.
This moodboard shows different texts and which colours work best, for example, black on white, white on black works well as it contrasts and stands out. Bold and Italic texts also stand out too and we should bear this in mind when creating our own text.
Colour scheme:
To set the theme of our indie/acoustic we are planning on draining colour from scenes and photographs, to give the Video and Digipak a very British and vintage feel. We think this will work brilliantly as we plan on filming one scene with the performer walking down a cobbled street. The dull colours will set the acoustic theme and relate to the vintage vibe we’re tiring to create, the old cobbled tree lined street will add to this. During other scenes we also plan to drain the colour as we are hoping to create contrast between the setting and his clothing.
Lyrics:
We plan on having a story throughout our music video that the audience feel that they can relate too, as this is what we found out to be most popular when looking through and analysing our questionnaire results. We are going to aim for a link between our lyrics and our scenes, but this may prove difficult, so it may only be a light link. We will thoroughly analyse our lyrics.
This is our questionnaire for our Digipak, we asked our target audience their age and gender, to find out exactly what they'd like to see in a Digipak. We also asked what their music tastes were, to find out which genre of music is most popular. We asked how many songs they would expect to see and what colour schemes they think would fit best. We have decided to make the Digipak for an Indie/Acoustic singer, so we asked what colour scheme would fit this genre best and also what clothes they would expect a singer of this genre to wear.
This is our questionnaire for our music video, we asked our target audience their age and gender, to find out exactly what they'd like to see in a music video. We asked them about their favourite music video's and whether they would like to see a real life video, or a video full of special effects. We also asked whether they would like a slow paced music video, or a fast paced one, and which colour scheme it should have; grey scale or colour.
This is our questionnaire for our website, we asked our target audience their age and gender, to find out exactly what they'd like to see on a band/artists website. We asked them about their music tastes and what they would expect to see on a music website. We also asked what colour scheme attracts their eye and what colour scheme they would associate with an Indie/Acoustic singer. We also asked them how they think an Indie/Acoustic singer would look and what they would wear. We asked if they would expect to see a music player and how many tracks should be on it, this is important as our website is going to feature a music player. We also asked if they would expect photographs and exclusive footage, as we are going to include this on our website.
The video starts off with a Clown putting an Oasis record on a record player, this is the first sign of circles shown, and throughout the rest of the video many other objects spin in a circular motion. The fact that its a record player also shows age, as these were mainly around in the 70's and 80's. The music video has a circus type theme, in my opinion it is a theme of fears, as during the video a Ventriloquist, a Juggling Act, a Fruit Machine (suggesting gambling), a Dart Board, Swinging Saws and a Clown, this may have a slight link to a line in the chorus 'Because maybe, you're gonna be the one who saves me?'.
The video is all filmed in grey scale, which shows age and the songs indie/acoustic genre, it also makes it seem very 60's/70's.
At the start of the music video the camera starts far away and zooms in on Noel playing guitar, he's not facing the camera and he's sitting on his own on a chair in the middle of an empty room. When the lyrics start Liam is on screen, but he is not directly looking at the camera, instead he is looking into a circular mirror that is reflecting him. The lyrics on the whole, have no direct link to the visuals. The video is very simple and very repetitive, just like the song music and the lyrics. The fact that the song goes 'round and round' in a repetitive motion is a representation, as the record player at the beginning of the video goes 'round and round' too.
The video shows the band sitting in chairs, there is an empty chair and Noel is missing, it is as if Noel is in a different place to Liam, as he was sitting in an empty room at the start of the video.
Throughout the video there are many Beatles references, as the band were big Beatles fans. Liam wears 'John Lennon' style glasses when singing, and at times the camera cuts to a split screen, this is also a reference to the Beatles as this was a feature of 'Hard Days Night'.
When Liam sings the word 'blinding', circular lights flash in his eyes, this is a direct link to the lyrics which is strange and unexpected as there are next to no direct visual links to the lyrics throughout the video. Later in the video, when Liam sings the word 'blinding' again, the screen flashes black and white, resembling lightning.
During the music video the band are sitting in chairs, showing a very relaxed posture, this shows calmness and a slight disinterest throughout the video. Most music videos have the lead singer standing up and singing, whereas Liam, the singer, is sitting down throughout the whole video. The whole band is sitting in a line on chairs and they all look very bored, Noel is chewing gum and the drummer is reading a newspaper, this shows complete disinterest and distraction, one band member gets up and walks away.
When Liam sings the line 'all the roads we have to walk are winding' he is sitting in a chair that is spinning in a circular motion in front of a spiraling black and white circle, this is another slight reference to the lyrics.
During the video there are frequent close ups of the instruments used in the song, and the acoustic guitar that is being played changes colour three times throughout the video, it changes between blue, green and yellow. This is the only time colour is used throughout the whole video, which creates a dramatic contrast for the video, as it is all in grey scale. Later in the video the record, featured at the beginning of the video, appears on screen again, it has the bands faces on and is spinning in a circular motion. The video repeats itself over again, as it is all linked together.
Towards the end of the video the band look more interested in what's going on. when Liam finishes singing he gets up and walks away, leaving the dentist chair that he has been sitting on, which spins in his absence. The dentist chair is also a symbol of fear as many people dislike the dentists.
Blur - Coffee and TV
This video has a very bold story line, it is not abstract at all. This video starts off zooming out but remaining focused on a milk carton that has a 'Missing Person' on it. The focus changes and on the left of the milk carton, there is a photograph of the missing boy, and on the right there is a very sad looking father who is sitting at the breakfast table wearing his pjs. The mother then enters from the right looking very sad too, which is natural as their son is missing, this makes you empathise with the family. The boy's younger sister then answers the phone, the parents both jump slightly as they are obviously waiting to hear news of their missing son. The camera cuts back to the milk carton sitting on the kitchen table which then gets up and starts dancing, this is very unrealistic, but adds a sense of fun to a very sad story. The milk carton also has a face, and its facial expressions change according to how the people around him feel, when the milk carton fails to cheer up the family, it gives up and walks off, attempting to find the missing boy.
When the singer sings the lyrics 'we can start over again', this gives me the feeling that the lyrics link to how the missing boy could be feeling, maybe he has ran away to start over. When the line 'Isn't very far' is sang, the milk carton is asking for directions and a passer by is pointing him in the right direction. After that line, the singer sings 'There's people that will hurt you' and a man drinks and squeezes another milk carton before throwing it in the bin, this scares the milk carton and he runs away. These are examples of direct links to lyrics. This video is a very emotive video, and you start to feel how the milk carton feels as he is going through this journey. The video then basically follows the milk carton on his journey to find the missing boy, during the start of this part of the video, the milk carton has a smile on its face and looks quite content, making the audience feel quite relaxed when watching. The milk carton is shown standing on a pay phone talking into the phone, the camera then cuts back to the sister from the family on the phone, as if he is reporting to her that he hasn't found the boy yet. The milk carton is blue, this generally represents that the milk carton is a boy, as blue is generally associated with males, this is an example of semiotics. The milk carton spots a pink milk carton from across the road, this is obviously a girl milk carton and he instantly falls in love with her, he walks across the road to talk to her, as he approaches her she gets stepped on by a passer by and his face turns to an expression of devastation and he runs away. The milk carton then stumbles upon a dark alley, which he pretty much runs down as he is very scared, this again makes the audience feel empathy for the milk carton. The milk carton eventually finds the boy and looks through the window at him, the boy is singing and playing guitar, as if he is singing the song the whole way through the video. The boy sees that he is on the milk carton, leaves the room, picks up the milk carton and gets onto a bus to go home. When he arrives home he drinks the milk carton before entering the house, he throws the empty milk carton in the bin and walks through the door. The camera cuts back to the bin that the milk carton is in, the milk carton rises up from the milk carton with wings, as if he has became an angel and floats up to the sky, signifying as if he's going to heaven, when he gets up there the girl milk carton is waiting for him and he joins her. The video starts off with a sad beginning, but has a very happy ending. The whole music video is shot from the viewpoint of the milk carton, and the shots range from full length shots to mid shots and close ups of the milk carton's expressions.
OK Go - Here It Goes Again
This is an incredibly simple music video, the camera stays in once place for the whole song as the band members perform a tricky routine on treadmills.
The song is about, in my opinion, is about a relationship that hasn't worked the first time and the couple are trying again second time around, but again, its not going as well as hoped, due to the chorus line of 'Ok, here it goes again'.
The video on the whole doesn't directly link with the song, but i feel that the repetitive routine mimics the repetitive song and the meaning behind it.
The line 'But jesus, when it rains, it pours' gives the feeling that he's been hurt, and when you're hurt, you're not hurt a little bit, you're really hurt.
The song suggests that the relationship starts out casual, 'It starts out easy, something simple, something sleazy' and progresses into something harder and more complicated. I think this quote relates to this video: "If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience." George Bernard Shaw
Even though this music video does not directly link to the song lyrics, it is very entertaining and put OK Go on the map.
This website is Two Door Cinema Club's website, they are an Indie Pop/Electro Pop band, who have just recently came about. They are one of my personal favourites as they are fun, catchy, quirky and different to many other bands.
Their website is very simple, yet very effective, it has buttons to different pages within the website, a Home page, News page, Blog, Live, Video page, Shop page, Links and a Contact page. This makes it practical and very easy to read and get around. The font matches the band name, as this is their Logo and Brand.
Information and main pictures are situated on the left hand side of the screen.
This is the panel on the left hand side of the website, it shows the latest news, latest videos and their upcoming gigs. This is very handy as this allows fans who visit the site to simply scroll down and find all the latest news about the band. This is necessary for new bands as they need to get themselves 'out there' as much as possible. The use of contrast on this panel is good too, the background is black, with white boxes for the information, the text within the white boxes is white with a black background so it is readable.
Biffy Clyro are a Scottish rock band and a rather famous one too. This is the homepage of their website, the background is an image of the three members of the band, however, I clicked on shows, to see their layout of the page, and the text box with the information covers the drummer and bassist, and just shows the lead singer and guitarist, as he is mainly the 'face' of Biffy Clyro. The website colour scheme is fair simple, the background images changes on each page, but the text background and the text colour remains the same, which shows a theme throughout. The text background is black with white text over the top, this is a good contrast and allows to text to be read easily.
This is the home page for Florence and The Machine. It is quite busy, with lots of interesting links, however, it is set out in a very readable way. The colour scheme is very neutral, with only hints of colour, which is red, red is a symbol for passion and power, she also has red hair, and is famous for that, this links her to her brand and creates a reoccurring theme throughout.
The text is Serif fonts, which gives an older, vintage feel to the text, making the website look aged, in a fashionable way.
Her debut album was called Lungs, this is what thrust her into the music industry, and featured on the top left of her website is a set of lungs containing links to pages on the website, this again shows brands and allows her fans to link her album to her website.
This is a picture of a Digipak for a special edition of an Oasis CD. This is a 3 fold Digipak including 2 CDs, information about tracks and the band. The band’s name stands out on the cover by the use of white writing on a black background; this is a good contrast and catches the eye of the target market. There is a clear colour scheme throughout the Digipak which works well, as it shows a theme which fits in with the genre of music. The colour scheme works well as the colours contrast each other which allows text to stand out from the background. The title of the band and album run parallel to the cover and are in one line, catching the audiences’ eye and making it easy to read. Different text sizes have been used, the band name is bigger than the album title, and this makes it stand out more than the album title and draws attention. The colour of the text telling you the album title matches the background image, making it pleasing to the eye. The background image of the guitar relates to the genre of the tracks as it is a special acoustic CD, it is a bold image and stands out against the white backdrop. The text on the back of the Digipak is bright which stands out from the very natural colours; it also brightens up the Digipak. Overall this Digipak has a very Indie feel to it which is perfect to its target market, which ranges from later teens to middle age.
Digipak 2:
This is the AC/DC Digipak. The colour scheme is fitting to the band and music genre, as they are heavy metal/rock and the colour scheme is very dark with contrasting red and grey text to catch the target audience’s eye. The text is parallel to each other and the album which makes it easy to read as it is in separate lines. The band logo is eye catching and iconic, as everyone knows this is ACDC’s logo. The use of red text against a black band ground appears very ‘rock and roll’ as the colour red suggests anger and the colour black suggests mystery, the red text also stands out against the black background and makes it easy to read. The white writing on the back of the Digipak is listing the songs on the album; it doesn’t stand out as well as it is overlapping other texts. When creating my own Digipak I will bear this in mind as I want my Digipak to be eye pleasing and easy to read. This Digipak fits its target market requirements as it is dark, ominous and quite heavy, just like its fan base.
Digipak 3:
This is a Digipak for The Beatles Greatest hits. The Beatles are the most iconic band of all history and their music genre is Indie/Rock. The theme of this Digipak is very neutral and mainly different shades of browns; this gives the Digipak an aged look, which reflects how old the band is, as its greatest hits from 1962-1965. The font style also fits in with the theme as its old fashioned looking as it’s a serif font. The Beatles logo is also used on the Digipak which keeps in theme with the band and attracts the target audience (Beatles fans).
The image is of the 4 members of the Beatles. They are in 2 lines which draws the audience’s attention in, they have created an image for themselves as they all have the same outfit on and the same hairstyle, this shows a united front, almost like a uniform, making people realise they are in the same band. This Digipak is very neutral, as the Beatles have a target market of basically any age and any gender, they have kept the packaging simple which allows anyone to be interested.
This Is The Arctic Monkey's new album cover. Their album is called Suck It And See. They chose this as their album name as it is an old english saying meaning 'to try something that you have not done before to discover what it is like or whether it will be successful'. This is a very controversial album cover and has caused many debates. Some viewers have said that it is "rubbish" and "lazy", whereas others think it is "simple and clever", I believe that the album artwork ties in with the meaning of the album title, why reveal too much? you'll have to suck it and see.
I chose to work with Katie and Sarah as we all bring different aspects to the group because we all have our individual ideas, we also work well together and were not afraid to share our own opinions as we are all close friends. I think this will benefit the group as we can all provide input and make sure the coursework comes out at the best standard it can be.
Firstly, we have to choose 3 briefs to decide from;
1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with the two following options;
A website homepage for the band
A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
Why? As a group we have experience of band advertising from our AS coursework last year. We also have a great love for music which I feel will help us when creating our coursework.
Initial Ideas:
A fun and catchy TV advert promoting the band and album.
A flashy website laid out in a unique style that would appeal to the target audience.
A interesting album cover that would be instantly recognisable.
2. The first two pages of a new local newspaper, together with two of the following options;
A poster for the newspaper
Two hyperlinked pages from the papers website
Why? Its appears relatively simple, but we feel as though we could liven it up a bit. We also have experience of writing articles and would enjoy making a poster.
Initial Ideas:
Articles on the schools new times, answering questions like ‘Is the time change effecting students and their studies?’
A poster advertising the newspaper and what its about.
3. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options;
A poster for the film
A film magazine review page featuring the film
Why? Shooting a film would be interesting and fun, thus making sure we wouldn't lose concentration and keeping us working hard. We came up with multiple ideas for an animated film, and again a poster would be fun to make and we have experience of poster making and magazine reviews.
As a group, we decided number 1 would be best for us, as we can all have our own input and creating something unique. We also have previous experience in this area. This wasn't our first option, as we had some better ideas for task 3, but we thought due to our past experience with making music magazines and reviewing and analysing them that we could do very well with this task. We feel as though we can all contribute towards elements of this task, I have a wide knowledge of up and coming bands and a also have a varied music taste, I am also good at critically analysing work. Sarah has lots of connections with people in the music industry and is also very good at drawing and designing, which is perfect for layouts, storyboards and designs. Katie is very good at time keeping, she is also good at critically analysing work and will help us meet our deadlines.
Our initial idea is to create an entertaining, eye-catching and individual project that has a clear theme and colour scheme, mainly attracting ages 17 - 21 and both genders. We will conduct questionnaires to find out what this age group and what each gender would expect to see throughout our project. We shall use neutral, moody colours (like greys and browns) to promote and indie rock lifestyle, however will contrast this with black and white writing to mark its importance which we believe will contrast well with the colour and theme. We plan on branding our product by having a recognisable face on the cover who will most defiantly be the singer of the band along with a recognizable logo.
This is our presentation that we did to the class, explaining our ideas and why we are working together.
Promotional Package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video.
Firstly, we had to decide what Genre music to make the album, we decided with Indie/Rock/Acoustic.
We also have to come up with a running colour scheme so that our brand is recognisable and a theme is evident. We have decided on a dark and moody colour scheme, Black/Purples/White text (to contrast).
Our first idea is to have our singer/guitarist against a black backdrop, with a spotlight on him/her. We will fade in and out of focus.
We then decided that if the music fits, to film a short clip of our singer/guitarist walking along a cobbled street, which is in complete grey scale, and the only colour in the shot would be him/her.
As the above was our first idea, we have decided to expand on it. We have gone with a more 'Vintage' feel colour scheme: greys, browns, whites, black text and splashes of red and green for a British feel.
Our Digipak will contain images that have been taken in Tynemouth, which is a very classy, slightly old fashioned village by the coast. Our music video will be about a boy and a girl, it will be a love story of some sort, that people feel they can relate too, but that also catches the audiences attention.
Time Schedule:
Research - Friday 24th September - Questionnaires, Interviews, Analyse music videos (x3), Analyse Adverts (x3), Analyse Digipaks (x3).
Planning - Friday 15th October - Storyboards, Shooting script, Drafts for both ancillary tasks.
