Website Notes

Although, we're not doing this until after half-term, I think we should think about our website, specifically how it should have the following:

• A theme (related to the album cover art running throughout on the background, icons, etc.
• Photographs and videos of the band such as the music video, behind the scenes, our competition, wallpapers, etc.
• One or more media players to show the videos or perhaps a slideshow of pictures.
• Opportunities for the audience to buy into the band such as a merchandise store or a link to their iTunes.
• Ways for the audience to communicate with the artist such as a comments section, social networking sites, e-mail button, forum and so on.
• Information about the band / individual band members (which would really work with our idea to give each member a different 'scene')
• Details of upcoming performances (at small gigs around London, e.g. Covent Garden, "Rough Trade")

Reflections On Project 2

The last 4 days have been very busy concerning this project...

Friday

On this day, we went around London from 10:30 to about 17:00, to find and inspect possible locations to film the narrative aspect of the music video on. I believe that today was incredibly useful, because it's one thing to look up places on Google maps but it's another to actually hold the camera in position and safely say that it would be a great place to film. Below are just some of locations we're considering.



Saturday

On this day, Wanda and I held a test shoot with some of the cast to be in our music video. Initially, we photographed two of our four potential band members.

Angus and Izzy trying out our initial costume ideas.

Then, we made them practise lip-syncing and guitar-playing respectively in front of the camera to assess their suitability. In my opinion I think that they'll both work in the band but that they really need to know the track otherwise it's not going to look at all convincing. As Angus is the lead singer of our band, I think we need to have another lip-synch with him.

Afterwards, we got some friends to try out our antagonists' costumes so we'd know what it would look like on a person. Personally, I like the concept although it seems too conventional for villains. It's typical for them to wear black, hoodies, etc. and they honestly seem more like muggers than figments of our protagonists' imagination. This is one area that needs to be adapted in my opinion though I'm not sure what I'd change about them.

Sunday

For a few hours at Kerry's house, Kerry, Claire and I worked out the details of treatment that we weren't sure of as a group. We also went over the information that had to be in the treatment so that me and Kerry could pitch to the class on Monday and got some more ideas as to what other things we could include such as pictures on the handout and video on the blog.

Monday

We finally finished the handout and I think we can be quite proud of it:

• It gives all the necessary information
• It's quite easy to find any specific information you want
• It's simple to understand
• It's visual with our use of photographs, illustrations, lyrics and flowcharts

In my opinion, the actual pitch went well. Obviously, we had to make a few changes before we were green-lit but I'm glad we got it out of the way and got the feedback we needed to know how to advance to the production stage.

Summary Of Album Art

The challenge of an album cover is that it has to do so much with such limited space:

• It has to stand out amongst other CDs.
• It has to be memorable.
• It has to suggest the genre of the music.
• It has to have an iconic and original image.
• It has to sell the artist behind the music.
• It has to have a constant concept running throughout.
• It has to instantly have an impact in the audience.

1. There are many different features of album covers but the 8 most relevant ones are:
2. A good album cover has the right combination of following and subverting conventions.
3. Modern album covers may be 'post-modern' or have referential or ironic qualities.
4. Some album covers attempt to shock or surprise the audience.
5. They use colour and language to relate to everything mentioned previously.
6. An artist's first album is typically named the artist.
7. It may be useful to base the album cover on something else to link the two in the audience's mind.
8. Elements of the album cover may suggest the theme of the album without illustrating it.
9. Because of digital music consumption, it has to understandable when it is made smaller.