Final Idea mind map and Permissions

We messaged Simon as he is an old friend of Dannys, this is another reason whhy we chose him because he will be reliable and trust worthy to turn up to shoots as there is a friendship. 
You can see he replied giving us permission to use his songs and make a music video of Stand Close.

However, although as we have previously stated that there is a strong sense of reliability due to the personal friendship that Danny has with Simon, there are clearly still risks that could occur in the future like any process in the media production. Therefore it is extremely important for us to create a back up plan as for example if Simon does decide to drop out, it does not jeopardise the process of our project.

INTRODUCING: SIMON STIRLING

Simon Stirling is a 17 year old singer/ songwriter from Bromley, Kent. He is currently writing his first EP- Acorn, He is a hit on sound cloud with views reaching the thousands, this summer he is set to play at a variety of small town festivals, and currently he is on a variety of radio stations, we chose him as he is firstly unsigned, both of us like his music and also he seems to be willing to put the time and effort in as he has been trying hard by himself to get his name known.

We have chosen Simon because not only has Danny got personal contact with him, which saves us less time going through the long permission procedure and copyright process. Moreover, the style of Simon's music is seems to be a popular genre from observing the charts. For example, artist that Simon Stirling has been compared to; Ed Sheeran, Passenger, and Ben Howard have overpowered the charts in the last few months, therefore from secondary sources, this informs us that it would be a sensible move to go forward with Simon's style of music. Additionally, throughout our initial research of possible artists to involve within our group music video, we undertook secondary research to obtain a idea of the artist's fanbase/reception. Overall we found that through the social network websites; "Twitter", "Facebook", "Youtube", and "Soundcloud" specifically that Simon has a extremely loyal fanbase, increasing constantly, resulting him to now debut his first album; "Acorn". Moreover, the large amount of positive reception towards Simon's music, his unique individual image that appeals to our adolescent audience, as well as his popular genre of acoustic folk music which seems to be popular through similar artists within the charts at the moment, has concluded to why we have chosen Simon Stirling to be our subject artist.

He has recently added his EP onto iTunes and received brilliant feedback!

Danny- Song mind-map

Here is my mind-map of what i thought the song 'Stand Close' (below) is about based only on the music and tone of the song, i closed my eyes and this is what i thought.

Here is a visual interpretation collage of the mind-map

Below is the song 'Stand Close' written and performed by Simon Stirling.

Conceptual Individual Idea - Rosie

Me and Danny had picked the artist and track that we wanted to do. In order to get thinking and open up my mind i closed my eyes whilst listening to the track and min mapped all of the different words that come in to my mind, after this i then expanded it and transformed it onto a music video idea.

I then made a mood board of all of these different ideas, this gave me a visual feel of what i was thinking. 

Digi-Pack Danny

This is David Bowie's, Aladdin Sane album cover, i chose this cover in particular to re-create as i found i could demonstrate my abilities on Photoshop. This cover is especially good as it is colour graded with a red tint, and although the original David has had the lightening strike painted on his face i attempted to re create it using photoshop.

This is my version of the album cover, i took a photo of myself in Photo Booth on the Mac, then inserted the photo into Photoshop and cut myself out the background and then using the tools attempted rather successfully to create the Aladdin Sane album cover.

This photo shows the transition of Bowie to myself.

This is the back of the Aladdin Sane Album.

I attempted to position myself in the way David Bowie did on the back cover in order to recreate it.

Using a variety of effects and tools on Photoshop i was able to attempt to look like the original back cover.

Once i created both front and back cover i had to look at the dimensions of a CD case in order to create a spine.

This is a screen shot of proof of work, the screen shot is me using photoshop to create the spine.

This screen shot shows me testing out different filters to make sure i got the best one.

Digipak Task - Creating my own version

This is an album cover that Alexandra Burke has or one of her albums, this is a interesting, unusual cover and i thought i would try and copy this. I personally like album covers that are a little more unusual and eye-catching which is why i thought i would do a re-make for this particular cover. Firstly i got a friend to take a picture of me in the same pose and then i imported it into Photoshop, as this software has the tools i need in order to create the effect on it. Using Photoshop i gave it my best shot and this what happened;

 To start with i downloaded brush stokes into Photoshop, this would allow me to vet the affect of the paint splatter and the cloud like effect behind her. once i had all the brushes i needed i could begin re-creating the cover.

I started off by creating the cloud effects, that are the main background of the cover, when doing this i found that i looked different as the clouds were too much on me, the artist. I decided to take a different approach and see how it worked.

 i decided to use the select all tool and then create a main background layer from this, this meant i could then work on top of it without ruin the main image of myself. 

After i had finished adding all of the cloud and paint splatter effects, i added the text, matched it up to the colour of the original album and then, i altered the image adjustments. I increased the contrast of the photo and i also very slightly decreased the brightness. This is my final re-make of the album cover.

This is the back cover to one of Alexander Burke's albums, no matter how hard i tried i could not find the matching cover for the 'Turn Me On' album. So i decided to re-create this one.

To start with i cut out myself from the original photo i took, with this i then added it to a new blank canvas and added all of the text that needed to be added. i did this by creating different layers.

Once i had added the text, i was finished the album cover for this particular CD was plain and simple.

In order to make it more interesting i decided to create my own version to go with the front cover, in order to do this i created a background on Photoshop, to do this i used brush strokes, to make it more creative i used clouds and plaint splatters that i downloaded form the internet. I then dragged across all of the aspects that needed to go on it such as the image and text. 

This was the final outcome; 

These are the two possible album covers that i could have;

Hot Chip Individual Edit - Rosie

This is my individual edit, i went through all of the clips in order to look for the best quality ones, i then looked at the original video and tried to make my version as close to this as possible. I found the two best actors that where confident at lip syncing and used them. I carefully matched up all the footage and this is what i created. 

This is all of the footage that i used in order to crete my copy of hot chip, there was a lot of footage so i had to look through all of it in order to find the best most suitable section. There were many different shots and a large quantity of each particular shot, this gave me a lot to look through and abled me to find the best for each.

This is my sequence, when editing the hot chip re make i had to carefully place everything together, the most challenging part was the lip syncing as i had to make sure it was exactly in time.

HOT CHIP- I FEEL BETTER- INDIVIDUAL EDIT- DANNY

This is my individual edit of Hot Chips- I feel Better music video, the last years A2 media class filmed this footage then i went through the clips extensively and placed them together to create my own edit, i had to make sure the lip syncing was in time with the track.

This is a screen shot taken from when i was editing the footage as a proof of work.

Goodwin and Firth Analysis - Rosie

WHAT MAKES A MUSIC VIDEO;

Firth;

1- PERFORMANCE

• concert experience
• display the group / artist 
• makes the band seen authentic
• soundtrack is still important in these videos.

2- NARRATIVE

• sequence of events
• linear story
• these do not look specially into the lyrics
• the mood of the song / music determines the sort of story

3- CONCEPTUAL

• metaphorical 
• poetic form
• non-linear

Goodwin;

• genre
• lyrics and visuals
• relationship between music and visuals 
• close ups
• sexualised areas - voyeurism 
• intertextual references
• hyper reality

ANALYSIS;

Performance Video; Rihanna - Only Girl In The World

This screen shot is a section of the video where Rihanna moves with the music, this shows a link between the music and the visuals. This shot also shows the hyper reality of the music video with the over sized rose and the disscloured pink grass.

This screen shot shows the hyper reality of the music video. Having bright pink grass makes you think it is a different world or a dreamworld. This shot also links to the lyrics as it is a birds eye view of a large area which shows that she is literally the only girl in the world. 

This is one of the many close ups that are in Rihanna's music video, as the genre of the music video is about love and relationships it shows the emotion on her face. 

This small clip from the music video shows voyeurism, as the artist is in a sexual pose, wearing short revealing clothing. This draws the attention of the audience and allows them to take part in the hyper reality world.

Conceptual Video; Factory Floor - Hold On

This is one of the first clips in the music video, the music matches up to the visuals as the feet go up the stairs in the beat of the music. The music video also relates to the conceptual type as it is random and non-linear.

This is a close up from the music video, the label demands that you must include these within the video.

There is not many sexualized scenes within this music video however this particular shot is cut so that the lips are the main focus, this is a sexual area of the face. The girl is also playing with her hair, as the hair is styled in a plait this could be seen as a phallic gesture.

Narrative Video; Taylor Swift - We are never ever getting back together

This is a close up of the artist, as it is a narrative love story, it shows the emotion on her face, having a close up not only allows you to see and feel how she is feeling but it allows you to get involved and it makes the music video more interesting. Also in this clip she moves in time with the beat, this shows a link between the music and the visuals that are on screen.

This is a hyper real clip from the music video as during the chorus, people dressed up playing instruments pop up in her bedroom like it is the norm.

The lyrics in the music video match up to the visuals, the lyrics express her feelings for her ex-boyfriend and how she doesn't want him back, through out the video it shows him chasing her and them fighting.

Performance Video; Demi Lovato - Heart Attack

This shows a typical performance video, the band performing the song to the cameras.

This is a close up of the artist at the beginning of the music video, as well as being a close up this also shows hints of hyper reality as her hands have been covered in some sort of liquid. 

This is a voyeuristic shot as it shows the artist in slow motion walking towards the camera, not only has she changed from the previous shot but she is now covered in make up and her hair is blowing in the wind.

This particular shot shows the link between the music and the visuals as well as the lyrics and the visuals as when the beat goes back down it goes to this calmer, lighter shot. This shot also shows a link to the lyrics as she is covered in some sort of liquid (which shows hyper reality) and she doesn't look as attractive any more which relates to her having a heart attack.


I put all of the information into a commentary.