Progress of the CD Cover

This is our CD cover in progress of what i have designed so far. I have so far put the name of the band, song name, bar code their and record company. We are designing the CD cover as a 70s postcard/ holiday poster. I only have to put some picture of where we are shooting/setting of the music video(Malice) and it shell be finished.

The Specials

This is another band from the genre we're doing our music video for, I like this video because of the shots of the buildings at the start which goes with a couple of shots that we have filmed. I think that it fits into the genre quite well due to the video with the music - and of course the music.


The costume in the video seems to go with typical conventions for the genre, which again we have tried to stick by in our filming, which should project through into our final piece. 

Inspiration for text

The font that the word 'Blackpool' is in really inspired us to use a text slightly like it for the theme that came from seeing this postcard. We would like an old sort of seaside theme with text shown in the previous blog eg. 'welcome to malice'. I really like the idea and think it would work really well when finished.

It's a bit hard to picture at the minute as we don't have the pictures to put onto the website and so it looks a bit too plain.

Filming update!

We filmed on sunday with all of the actors and we shot all of the footage we think we need, we haven't had a chance to look through our footage yet but it seemed to go very smoothly. for each shot we repeated it to assure that we had enough footage to pick and choose from. 


I am happy with the overall day of filming, we got it all done when I was expecting to have to initially come back again. Although we may have to re-film, we have something for all parts of the video and hopefully it will look good when importing it.

Developing The Website

For the design of our website we have decided to continue with editing it in photoshop. It allows us to be a lot more creative with what we do and make the design a lot more individual. By allowing us to do this it made our design a lot more relevant to our video so there is now a flowing theme of a mock travel brochure through all 3 elements of our work.

We have made the colour scheme match the CD colour scheme, this means that each aspect about the video is staying the same and looks more professional. In the coloured rectangles we will have different pictures which we took of the location that we filmed in. The pictures will then link to different pages of the website, such as the photo album.

We will continue to progress on the development of the website. Hopefully it'll turn out well!

Starting the website

We have started to create the website using iWeb, we have discussed the colour scheme and feel that the colors would look best being white, black, blue and red. This is because they are the colours on The Jam's logo and we would like to keep that aspect of the band going on throughout our website.


We have added the navigation bar at the top so that we can fit the rest of the page around it to make it look professional. It will also mean that we have a structure to follow. This is what we have so far:

Looking at Postmodern Aspects in Our Music Video

Generic Hybridisation
Our music video coveys the idea generic hybridisation as our initial idea is a mix of bothe imitating a tourism video and music video. Proving that in new media texts we can't create anything new or original with taking aspects from other media's. Our media idea has taken idea's from The's Jam's music videos seen here. We then we got the idea of a tourism idea from the birmingham bullring advertisment, previously mentioned earlier on in the blog and also seen below:

Self Reflectivity

Self reflectivity will also be present in our production. In certain shots of our music video we will have intentional mistakes such as the clipboard being in shot or the microphone dropping onto the screen. This will show that the text knows it is a media production.

Analysing Previous Work

This is some notes we made about other peoples work. We did this to find examples and inspiration for our music video.

Written Storyboard

This is our written storyboard for A Town Called Malice. It is important to storyboard our ideas, so that we have a plan to follow when filming. So that we aren't spending all of our time discussing what shot/angles to do.

Suitable Font For Our Album Cover

These are our chosen text fonts that we decided are suitable to use on our album cover and possibly on our website.  Out of the seven fonts in question the last was the most popular, receiving six out of a possible twenty five votes. We chose the fonts for our album cover and blog as they are converntional to The Jam's genre and confoms to the conventions of the bands look.

Target Audience

This is a target audience sheet i have done. The sheet helped us to focus and look at our target audience so we create our music video, website and CD cover to match the audience.

Digipak CD cover

 This is our first go at designing our digipak for our band. The front cover is of a jam pot with the name of the band (The Jam) split in jam above. the title of the album is on the jam pot. The whole cover is full of irony. The back cover has a spoon with jam on it  and the titles of the songs above. the cd is a big dollop of jam and the in side its a picture of the band walking down an estate which suits the target audience. unfortunately the design of CD cover above isn't really suitable for our target audience, so we are currently re-designing it.

This is our test shoot, as you maybe able to see, we are going for a 70s costume. we are doing this because its suits our style of a promotional video. the actor will be wearing a black suit and jazz tie like this one, they will also have combed over hair and a mustache to suit a 70s look. The presenter will also be holding a microphone and a old leather sholder bag.

we have desicded as a group to change the actor because we want an older person to present/sing the song, so it keeps in with the style of the theme plus all prsenters are adults not teenages.

this is our recee sheet showing where we will film our video.

This is our permission sheet featuring the signatures of the cast that will appear in our video.

Advanced Portfolio Research - Textual Analysis The Jam

For my textual analysis research I chose to analyse the already existing video for The Jam's A Town Called Malice. It's a performance based video that is conventional to the genre and has little advanced editing techniques. Because the video is of a basic filming standard there wasn't a lot to look at in detail, however it became present that is relevant to the style of the band style and their look.

Using Postmodernism in Our Music Video

Because our music video is mimicking that of a tourist advert, postmodernism is going to have to be used for the audience to understand what is happening. By following conventions of an 80's television presenters appearance we are going to be able to show what we are mimicing in just a few shots.

For example, in the shot of our desired present for the video to the left, we have tried our best to mimic the clothes worn by a television presenter from the nineteen eighties: a patterned tie and shorter, clean hair cut. Another example of postmodernism that we have planned to use is the clipper board at the start of the video. This has been seen numerous times in other media texts.

Music Video Lighting Evaluation

In our music video for A Town Called Malice we will have to use selective shots to use three point lighting, thats if we use it at all. Because our planned music video idea is conventional to a tourism video and follows a documentary style we will use naturalistic lighting to create a sense of realism.

A music video that I found that follows a similar style of filming is a unofficial production for the song Tron Cat by 'Tyler, The Creator'. Seen here:



This music video creates a negative outlook on the surroundings that it is set in, an aspect that needs to be present in our final video. This will allow our narrative and comedy to work together to create a successful and original music video. If our lighting is high key then it could confuse the audience in what to believe about the surroundings and whether 'Malice' is a good or bad place to be in. If it then stops the ironic comedy that we aim to achieve in the video it will not be interesting to the target audience. This is because they will not be able to tell what we are trying to portray in the production and may become confused into the point of the video.

Summer Homework: Ryan Oldham

‘Always’ (2008)

‘Follow The Water’ (2009)

‘Day In Day Out’ (2010)

‘Learn To Live’ (2011)

Architects:

Architects identify themselves as a heavy metal band; we see this visually through the instruments that the band plays, as they are conventional to the genre.  Throughout almost all of Architects videos there are frequent close ups of the instruments, band members and vocalist. This is also often seen in music videos of the heavy metal genre. The band members are constantly moving which makes their video ‘Always’ look very hectic, throughout the song we see various clips from an underlying story, although the shots are very fast paced and often an extreme close up. This tells the audience a minimal amount of information and leaves the message of the video open for interpretation. If I compare this to there more recent release ‘Day In Day Out’ we see a different approach to the way the video is made.  There is no shots of the band playing their instruments that is not related to the story that the video is telling, however this is because the band members are part of the story line. This is different to all of the other recent releases by the band such as ‘Learn To Live’ where the bend members are not the subjects of the story.

Also, in older videos like ‘Always’ the images of the band would be set up in a studio and probably recorded multiple times. However as soon as the band released the video for ‘Follow The Water’ in 2009 all of the shots of the band are of them playing live in front of a crowd, this limits them to one shot only.  However it coveys a completely different message to the audience, it shows that the band are not interested in a ‘dressed up’ image and do not care if they are seen as every day people. I would say that the genetic conventions od an Architects video would include camera techniques which include: shaking, extreme close-ups and fast pans.  Visual conventions of an Architects video would be around a half and half split of clips of the band performing and an underlying storyline. In the shots where the band are performing facial shots are minimal and the camera mainly focus’ on the crowd or the instruments. Over time from their earlier video’s to their present the band have focused more towards the audience and listeners than themselves. Also, older videos such as ‘Always’ tend to have a sepia or faded colour effect on them while more recent videos like ‘Learn To Live’ are in full colour, this gives it a more uplifting feel which backs up my earlier point that the band have stepped away from writing songs with a more negative feel.  The change in video style may be because after their debut album ‘Ruin’ the band got the new vocalist Sam Carter, since this the band have become more uplifting to acquire to Carter’s taste.

Visual style and image:

Always (2008)

Day In Day Out (2010)

In ‘Always’ we see the story of a man drawing out the plans of some form of building. This tells the audience subliminally who the band is, although it is unrelated to the song. In the video for ‘Day In Day Out’ we see the story of the band traveling to their show and then the audience as they play. This is a lot more accurate in defining and conveying the band to the audience as it shows the band members values and outlook on playing in front of an audience. I would say that the artist’s visual style has very much stayed the same since the first video, they still portray the stereotypical heavy metal band with aspects such as long hair and alternative clothing.

Architects often use extremely fast paced editing to show aggression or confusion, they also use a shaking camera to achieve similar reactions.  However, in more recent videos they editing seems to have slowed down and it is easier to get a clear shot of the band members.  Architects music video’s never seem to include other media text’s such as: television, film or radio content. I think they have done this as they do not want to be associated with and brand or person in case they want to move in a new direction in the future.  Such as they did before.

CD cover analysis:

The three CD covers I have chosen are of the same genre of music but range in artistic styles, I chose to analyze these as it will give me more idea’s for my own album cover idea.

All of the album covers feature the band name and the album title, which shows that this should be present on my design. The font of the band name also represents or is similar to the bands logo. All of the logos and legal information tents to on the back of the album at the bottom, this keeps it out the way so that the track titles are the main feature on the back cover.

In order for me to design a good album cover I have decided to stay away from using peoples face’s in the artwork and to stick to a similar graphic of that in the top album. A circle design with a status logo in the middle that is relevant to the album content. In this case, world travel. 

Textual Analysis - Abby Hellon

For this research we had to analyse a music video, this was a good task to do as I chose to do an artist from the same genre as The Jam. This gave me an insight into the genre and why the music video is like it is. This could help us to make our music video fit right in to the genre.

Recee sheet - Abby Hellon

We had to make sure that the location was suitable for filming and as I live closest I went down to the location and took a few pictures and once the group agreed that it was a suitable place to film I filled out the description and the different sections so that we could use the location for filming.

Storyboard - Abby Hellon

We had to storyboard how we're going to film so that we have a structure to follow when filming. This is the plan for some of the shots we will be using. The storyboard will be helpful as it tells us what type of shot and angle to use for the shots we've planned.

Here is the textual analysis i have done. it is a song by  The Jam and it's called Going Underground.  when analyzing the music video i found that it is very basic and simple but carries the elements of a mod/punk/rock genre.

Website Analysis & Research by Ryan Oldham

To develop and advance the standard of our website I researched the already existing website for The Jam. This helped us target the sites weak points in design and ascetics so we can improve them in our own design and production. From this research we learnt that the website needs to be representative of the band and their image that is conventional to the genre and look. 

Our proposed design can be seen in our planning folder below.

This is our step out line for our music video, A Town Called Malice.

Permission

We don't need any permission to film at Ribblesdale Court as we wont be going into the flat blocks or into anyone's homes. We'll be on the roads/pavements and will just have the council estate in the backgrounds of the shot.
At the other location on the main road, we won't need permission for there either as it's a public place.
Hopefully the filming will go well and we will get a lot of footage to be able to edit and cut out without having to go out and film again. Everyone is willing to re-film if that's what we need to do.  
This is our completed permission form.

Shooting Day

We have chosen to film on sunday 27th November, This is so that it gives us time to make sure that our ideas are ready and the actors (and we) are free to film on that day.
So far all of the actors are free and say they will keep the day free, so hopefully there will be no complications.

We have an idea of the time we'll be meeting which should be around half 11, to give actors time to travel to the location - as some people live a bit further away. There will be no problem with transport from the meeting point to the location, as I live quite close to it so I can meet with actors and the group to take them up to the location.


Here is the cast list shown in our planning folder.

Location for filming

To film our project we will be going to film at Ribblesdale Court in Chilwell, we chose this location due to it being the nearest council estate which we needed to get the right atmosphere for filming. Also we need someone running after a bus in a shot and the main road that Ribblesdale comes off is on the 36 bus route. Here is a birdseye view of the location from google maps:

This can be seen in our planning folder here 

The addresses of each location can be found in our planning folder here:

Make up/costume ideas/set design

Firstly we are planning to make a promotional video in a 1970s style, because we are making this our main character (the presenter) will be dressed in a suit with a microphone and a 70s looking bag. he will also have a a 70's looking hair style. Our idea of our video will be set on an estate, to make it suit our working class target audience and to keep with the The Jam theme.
This is a Photo, is our test shot photo and this is what style we are looking for.
This can be seen in our planning folder and is shown below

Wordle Research Task

We took the information off the wikipedia page for The Jam and put them into wordle and were able to see what the most relevant aspects that are associated with the band and genre. From looking at the end result, we can see that the main words are jam, Weller, UK, band and foxton.

Here are some of The Jam's music videos

These are some of The Jam's most popular songs, the themes are pretty similar in each and the tone of the music varies quite a lot. Individually the songs all fit into the genre quite nicely and all have a simple aspect to the videos.


We found this and have decided to try and keep our idea simple but entertaining so that it follows the pattern of the Jam's already created music videos. The fact that we want to continue the themes will be quite difficult to do as we actually have a story going on in the production but we will make it obvious and as if it were a shout out so that it's hard for people to get confused about what's happening. 

Digipack Cover Research

Simple colours are used for the vinyl cover as it fits in with the genre and their music videos. The music videos commonly known and seen by The Jam are very simply made and it works. simple is better in this genre of music. The font and would have been a bit striking in the time that this came out as the background colour is so striking and then the name of band in white. It contrasts very well and stands out a lot. Stripes were new and fresh in the late 70s which could be why they used this for their vinyl cover.

It sells the artist as the cover is really striking and so everyone looks at it to see who it's buy. This could make people that wouldn't usually go out and look for The Jam's vinyl but my end up buying it due to seeing the cover and liking the look of the song. 

The sex pistols' album called 'Never Mind The Bollocks' is a very outrageous cover, as it's bright yellow and catches peoples eyes. The band name is very out there and seems like the band are very opinionated. 

The album cover is very simplistic which goes in with the time that it was designed.

After looking at these we decided to keep our album covers simplistic by using a Jam pot and bubble writing. This will symbolise the bands name and the album which we are going to title 'Jar'. 

Our digipak

Our album cover is a picture of the word  The jam, in a jam product look which is going in to the a jar which the album is called. The background of the cover will be white as it will make the title stand out. The back of the cd case there will be the names of the songs in different sizes with a jam (food) look again it will also have spoon at the bottom with jam all over it. The cd it's self is a big drop of jam., Finally the b side cover is a picture of all the band members with guitars or a hint of what instrument they play and they will be walking down a run down place.

Digipak research

 

Here is The Clash's london calling album. as you maybe a able to see the london calling title of the album is bigger than the actually name of the band. also the main focusing point of the album is the guy hitting the guitar on the floor which represents the genre as they are a rock punk band as they use to do this alot in concerts. as you maybe able to see the main colour is black and white showing the rock/punk genre again. The song names and credits look like they are wrote in free hand which makes it look like they can't bothered, this represents the punk image of can't be bothered and don't give a dam. By this look like this it makes it appeal to the teen target audience.

                                                                                                      

This is the who digipak for there album then and now, as you maybe able to see the front cover has pictures of each band member on a brick wall which is a punk rock style to it. there is also the band name (the who) all over it so it is noticeable and everyone knows whot the album is by also the have the album name right in the centre of the cover. the back cover has the same look with the brick wall effect and all the song names in different font, this makes it look punk/rockish. the cd it's self is simple as it has the name of the bad with the logo too. finally the picture inside of the cd is this one to the left it is all different pictures of the band, poster,signs and logos.