Photoshop - Clone Stamp

The photos we took to use for stop motion had the date in the bottom right corner.
I used Adobe Photoshop and its clone stamp to take out the date.
I had to find sections in the photo that were the same colour as the background of the date, and use the clone stamp by pressing ctrl and click to copy that colour and put it over the date.
It was easy to do this when the background of the date was just plain white, however it became very difficult and time consuming when the date was over her arm. As her skin has many different tones I had to zoom in as much as I could to copy tiny sections of her skin to ensure it looked realistic.
Here is an example of one of the photos I changed.

CD Cover Analysis

21 was the second studio album released by English recording artist, Adele. It was released on 24 January 2011 in the United Kingdom and most of Europe, and on 22 February 2011 in North America. The album was named after the age of the singer at the time of its production.As of November 2011, worldwide sales for 21 have surpassed 13 million copies. The genre of the album includes Pop, Soul, R&B, Indie & Alternative Rock.

Final Cut Screengrabs

Here are some screen grabs which show the progress we have made so far.

Lip Syncing Correction

When editing today me and Georgia realised that the stop motion pictures on the bench were to slow so we moved them all back .2 of a second which seemed to make them in time. We also noticed the first clip was out of time so we used the eraser tool to cut the clip and then slowed it down to 95% which appeared to correct the lip syncing.

Music Video Progress

Yesterday, 14th December, we spent several hours filming the rest of the shots for our music video. We managed to complete the four screen 'I Want My Money Back' shots which we have been editing in our frees today. We had to wireframe each shot & layer them on top of each other. We then corrected the size of each shot so they fitted into four screens equally. We then spent a lot of time trying to make sure the shots were all in time with each other & that the envelope passed at the correct time. This was the most difficult thing about this process. We have managed to complete this & we think it looks very effective.

Progress

After showing our first rough cut to some of my family and friends, I got some good feedback. They were all very surprised at the quality of the work and could not believe how professional it looked on a first draft. The only negative they gave me was that some of the lip syncing was out of time.

I have since been spending a lot of time on our music video to ensure that all the timing we have done so far are correct, and to make sure that all the lip syncing looks good. I believe that I have achieved this.

Album Advert Analysis

Here is the CD cover & advert for Lady Gaga’s album ‘The Fame Monster’. As you can see, the advert is very similar to the CD. This is effective as it makes the advert easily recognisable for people. The same image of Lady Gaga has been used in the cover as well as the advert. This reinforces that the advert is selling The Fame Monster rather than any other album. The general style of both advert & CD cover is very simple & plain. The use of only black & white makes them clear & eye catching as well as noticeable. Simple text has been used to make the artist name & album name stand out & easy to see, so there is no need to search for them. The advert has used to same font as well as the cross styled T to keep the advert & album cohesive. The T symbol is also a trademark for Lady Gaga so it’s an instant, recognisable feature that people will notice & associate with Lady Gaga. The advert has conformed to the conventions of album adverts as it has given a quote about the album from a magazine - “The defining pop star of 2009” – Rolling Stone. This is very common for album adverts as it encourages the viewer to buy the album as it has been given good feedback. It also contains images of the artist with the artists name & album name taking up a large proportion of the page. This makes the advert bold & eye catching. It makes it very obvious when showing what is being advertised in a simple way. It used the same font & image of Lady Gaga from the CD cover. This is done because if people have seen the CD they can instantly see what it is advertising & for people who have not seen the album, they have a basic idea of what the CD will look like if they choose to buy it. The advert also contains information about the CD including tracks on the album ‘Including Bad Romance & Telephone’. These are two very popular tracks that were featured in the music charts which are why they have been highlighted on the advert as it may encourage people to buy the album as it contains these very popular songs. It also states that it is ‘Now Available’, which clarifies for people that they can go out & buy the album right away. Overall, the advert uses many typical features of album adverts & is effective at advertising Lady Gaga’s album.

Album Cover

Myself & Ella have recently developing the Album Cover for our CD. We had several ideas that we wanted to create so we could choose our favourite & learn new things to develope them throughout. We have almost completed our first Album Cover which we will soon upload to the blog & will then continue to develope our other ideas to we can use the most effective & appropriate album cover.

Rough Cut Issue

After watching the rough cut that had been uploaded to youtube, I noticed that the lip syncing did not seem to look completely in time with the song, despite it looking perfectly insync on final cut. After getting my sisters opinion on the rough cut, she also said she noticed that the timing was not right. This may be due to the fact that it had been uploaded through youtube. We will need to make sure the timings are correct on final cut & when it comes to uploading our finished piece, everything is still in sync & in time.

Photoshop

We have used some still images to produce a stop motion effect in our music video. However once we imported the images from our camera we discovered they displayed the time and date in the bottom right hand side of the picture. This meant that I had to spend time to edit the text out. I done this by opening each individual image in Adobe Photoshop. I then zoomed in until I had one letter/number filling up my screen. I used the clone tool to copy the colours of surrounding areas over the text. I have used this program and tool before so did not think it would be too difficult or take too long, however some of the text was over her hair and clothing which caused difficulties as not all of her hair is the same shade, and I had the same problem with her clothing. The hardest part to clone was one of the images that had text over her arm. All parts of her skin are different shades which meant that the parts that I cloned did not look realistic. I had to zoom in so close to allow me to copy tiny part of her skin tone to be able to cover the text without it causing the photo to look distorted.

Rough Cut

Here is a rough cut of our music video. This is what we have edited so far. 

Filming

Although we took our timeline and shot list with us while we were filming, a lot of our footage is not what we were planning on doing. While we were at the park we saw many opportunities which we took advantage of. I think this worked well and will defiantly benefit our final piece.
Here are some shots that we did not plan but we filmed and are very good pieces of footage.



stop motion

Rough Cut - Feedback

I have just shown our rough cut to some peers and received some feedback. Points they came up with were:

• The first shot was good as it looked simple and pure 
• The lighting in all of our shots were very good
• They don't like the angle looking down on her as they think it looks as though she is below the viewer. 
• They think that we have understood the idea of the music well 
• They like the settings and think they match the genre of our song
• They think that it fits all the codes and conventions of the artist. 

Digipack Analysis

Magazine Advert Analysis

This is the magazine advert for Gwen Stefani's music album 'Love. Angel. Music. Baby.' which was recorded in 2004. It was a huge success selling over seven million copies. The album also inspired the name for her future clothing line 'L.A.M.B.'

The songs on the album were inspired by the music from the 1980's. 

The main image which the audience is drawn to is the artist who is centre of the frame.

The image has been edited in terms of its brightness to create a dream-like picture and because Gwen is sitting what appears to be a royal throne holding a diamond crown and a royal scepter which could suggest an aspiration or dream of hers.

Typography is evident in the advert which is using the font to brand the artist. The unusual, glamourous font could represent Gwen's individuality and the regal colour of gold could represent wealth and good fortune. The artists name is in the largest font and the album title is approximately half the size of this.

The advert is targeted mainly at 16-24 year olds.

I believe this example of advertising and promoting an album cover to be very effective and I will suggest to my group adopting this style for our own digipak.

This is an enlarged version of the album cover previewed in the bottom left hand corner of the advert.

Filming

We have completed 3 days of filming now. Overall I think it has gone very well, of course as we are not professionals we have come across some minor problems. However we have worked well as group and solved them. Minor problems we experienced is running out of time as it is now getting darker earlier, running out of battery and people from the public getting in shot. Fortunately we have been able to film on other days which has meant we did not need to get stressed out and panic that we wouldn't get our filming finished. Most of our music video is filmed in one place, which has defiantly helped us to fit more filming into a shorter space of time making our filming process more efficient. We took shot lists out with us so we knew exactly what we had to do, but we did also improvise if we saw something that we thought would work well. Although there is still a small amount of filming left to do we have got most of it, this means we can start converting it and putting it into Final Cut Express.

Filming Progress

Yesterday (4th December) we completed more filming. We firstly went to my house to prepare Ellas makeup & clothing. We then filmed some shots like falling onto the bed. Once this was completed we went back to Valentines Park where we did several hours filming. We managed to gather alot of shots & i believe it was a successful days filming. However, before we had finished it had sadly started to get dark & our camera ran out of charge. It has been quite awkward filming due to it getting dark to early so we have had to take time out of school due to us being unable to film on the weekend. We will begin editing in upcoming media lessons & hopefully it will only take one more session to fully complete our filming.

Album Cover Inspiration

I liked the idea of having a brick wall as a background as its simple but looks effective at the same time. However, after drawing some ideas of the album cover, the brick wall had slightly too much going on & took away the importance of the singing.


When drawing a second draft for our album cover, the idea of having cartoon swirls & flowers was quite appealing as it is quite quirky but still pretty, like our artist.

 We wanted to album cover to be quite natural. I like the idea of using natural lighting & natural makeup within a natural environment.

Digipak Analysis

Exclusive was the second studio album by American recording artist Chris Brown. The album was released on November 6, 2007. It sold 295,000 units within a week of release & was very successful in music markets, entering the top twenty of many charts worldwide. Exclusive was re-released on June 3, 2008 as an expanded double-disc deluxe edition; a DVD counterpart was also released, featuring behind the scenes footage and music videos from his tour. The album has earned double platinum certification in the United States from the Recording Industry Association of America; worldwide sales stand at three million copies sold. The genre of the album is R&B, Pop & Hip-Hop.

The CD cover conforms to the conventions of a R&B/Hip-Hop style in many ways. There is a gold colour scheme which connotates wealth & money as gold is an expensive looking colour & makes Chris Brown come across as rich & classy. The album name also adds to this as Exclusive is another word for classy, so it has been made clear what type of image Chris Brown would like to come across. The fact that he is wearing a suit adds to this image as he looks powerful from the way he is standing, aswell as wealthy & famous. However, as you can see his tattoos on his hands this then brings it back to a Hip-Hop style as Hip-Hop artists stereotypically have a lot of tattoos so Chris Brown conforms to this stereotype. The cover also has the artists name written in the left corner in large letters, it takes up most of the left corner so when you look at the cover your eyes are instantly drawn to his name. It is clear what the album is called & what the artists name is, as well as having a photo of the artist that fans would recognise.

Th lettering of the writing on the cover also conform to these conventions. It is very large & gold which matches the gold background. Having the font also in gold automatically makes the artist look rich & powerful & it also makes it look quite classy. Typically, Hip-Hop covers may have the stereotype of graffiti style lettering attached to them but this cover completely moves away from this stereotype. This may be because it wants to have a wider audience, not just people who like Hip-Hop music. This is a useful technique as you judge a CD cover instantly by the look of it, by having a broader style it can target a wider audience.

The main image on the cover is of Chris Brown. CD covers typically have a large image of the artist on the cover so fans instantly know the artist. The photographer has purposely made the artist look powerful by making him stand up tall & look uninterested with the camera.  He looks famous & cool by the way he is carrying his suit jacket over his shoulder & looking away. The background of the cover is on top of a building which has been edited to look gold to match the font. You can also see other buildings in the background to show how high up he is. Being on top of a building makes the artist look slightly mysterious &, yet again, powerful as he does empower the cover. As Chris Brown has many female teenage fans, it is known that he is very popular due to his good looks, so he plays to this by having such a large image of himself on the cover which would encourage these fans to buy the album.

The stars image has changed with this album, as before he would be more known for wearing baggy tops, trainers & flat caps. But he has tried to rebrand himself by looking more mature & grown up by wearing a suit which makes him look very chic. Although not obviously, he has played to his good looks as he knows many girls find him attractive so by making sure there is a clear image of himself on the front cover, his girl fans will like this.

Typically, Hip-Hop stars have been known for portraying guns, money & cars which is very 'gangsta. Although Chris Browns music contains Hip-Hop he has moved away from this 'gangsta' image, & not followed the usual stereotype for 'black' music. Although some of his songs may involve some of these Hip-Hop stereotypes, it is not clear on his CD cover which allows for a larger audience to be targeted when selling this CD. Chris Brown represents himself well in this cover & it is done very cleverly with colour schemes connotating wealth & his stance representing power.

I think there are many different people that will buy this CD. There will be teenage girls who will buy this CD due to Chris Browns sex appeal & good looks who enjoy his more pop/R&B style music such as With You, Take You Down & Lottery. There will also be males that will buy it who may be more interested in his Hip-Hop style music such as Wall to Wall. I think both white & black teens would buy this as it is not targeted to either race or gender. As Chris Brown is a well known, popular artist & is featured in the charts very often, this will also encourage people to buy it.

Here is the track list of the album - 

1. Throwed
2. Kiss Kiss
3. Take You Down
4. With You
5. Picture Perfect
6. Hold Up
7. You
8. Damage
9. Wall to Wall
10. Help Me
11. I Wanna Be
12. Gimme Whatcha Got
13. I'll Call Ya
14. Lottery
15. Nice
16. Down

This is the back cover of the CD. As you can see the barcode has been shown on the back aswell as having the album & artists name down the spine, this is for practical reasons for when it is on the shelf. The style & colour scheme aswell as fonts has been kept the same on the back to show consistency . It shows the track names including featuring artists as well as each track number. It also gives the production name & management team of Chris Brown, so all the information is shown in smaller font at the bottom. There is another picture of Chris Brown on the back which is a more casual image than the one shown on the front. This also shows that there could be different sides to Chris Brown, just like he has different styles of music on the album. The way he is posed & is holding his head in his heads makes him come across as more vulnerable, opposite to how he looked on the front where he looked very strong & powerful.

Rich Mix Media Trip

The trip to Rich Mix was both inspiring & helful. I learnt many things about the history of music videos & tips when creating our music video. The first part of the day included a talk from Pete, an examiner, who was very knowledagable & gave great tips. Here are some notes of what i had written through his presentation:

Music Videos:

• lasts the length of the song (and sometimes longer)
• features the artist (usually but not always)
• can tell a stroy (but usually doesnt)
• is a performance

The history of music videos began in 1940 with Soundies, video duke boxes. There were 4000 installed around the states in diners etc. This was the video example we were shown by Nat King Cole:


In 1960 Scopitones were the introduced in France & these were in colour. They were very low budget & often included a lot of dancing.  In the later 1960s, managers started to make promo films for their bands. This replaced the need for bands to tour to play their music, e.g. Top of the Pops could show a bands promo video rather than having them perform on the show.

In the 1970s it became more common for bands to make promo films, e.g. Bohemian Rhapsody.


Then, in 1980 MTV was created. Mostly British bands were featured on the show & to get into the charts, bands would need to make a video to be played on the show. Madonna upped the game for music videos as she built upon the idea of concept in her videos. Michael Jackson was then the break-through for black acts. MTV believed there was no market for black music but realised that the black market could make a lot of money in the music business. His music video 'Thriller' was extremely popular & had a massive budget. This was a prime example of how music videos had progressed over the years.


After discussing the history of music videos & the way they had progressed, Pete then moved on to giving a set of tips for making our own music video. These were the tips he gave us:

• Step 0 - Practice lip syncing. Play around with footage to get used to the programmes & how to edit & what kind of footage you will need. Shoot a music video for a different track so you have an idea of what to expect. Remake a music video to help learn the techniques of making a music video.
• Step 1 - Choose a track. Make sure it's not too long.
• Step 2 - Write a treatment. Have a clear, workable concept & be realistic.
• Step 3 - Plan everything. Plan people, props & places. Aim to shoot early so any footage can be re-shooted if there is a problem. Make sure the performer has rehearsed.
• Step 4 - Set up a blog & link ideas to visuals.
• Step 5 - Know your equipment. Do test shots & make sure you have a tripod. Experiment with the editing programme so you know all the tricks & shortcuts. Music must be played at all times.
• Step 6 - At least 10 performances need to be shot so there are plenty of cut aways. Lots of close ups will be needed of the performer & make sure you enthuse performers. Shoot more footage than you actually need.
• Step 7 - Organsie footage so it's easy to find.
• Step 8 - Do effects last. Upload a rough cut for feedback.
• Step 9 - Get feedback wherever you can. Upload to your blog via YouTube.
• Step 10 - Produce an evaluation.

It felt very comforting to know that the tips he gave us had already been thought through by our group & reinforced that we knew what we was doing. Overall, i enjoyed the trip & found the information helpful & will apply the knowledge I gained when creating my own video.

Filming Progress

Yesterday, 4th December, we completed some more filming. At the beginning of all our filming sessions we go to Georgis house to do Ellas hair and make-up. This Allows us time to plan any costume changes and to ensure everybody knows what we hope to achieve from this filming day. We also had a few shots that we needed at Gerogias house, therefore these times also gives us an oportunity to complete these. Due to a few complications we did not start filming until late than we have previously, and because of the time of year it started getting dark after a while of filming. This made us finish filming early, we have started to edit our footage we already have and I believe that we will only need one more filming session before all is complete.

Inspirations for Album Cover

Below are some images I came across when I was researching and looking for ideas for our music video.

In this image I was attracted to the unusual use of the frame and the natural scenery.

Ellie Goulding's music videos and albums have inspired lots of our work, in this particular album 'Lights' I really like the way this image has been edited to create light in this way. 

This piece of art highlights magic and fantasy which are elements I hope to include in our digipak.

I like this image of Ellie Goulding as it represents the simplistic and yet beautiful factors of nature.

Although travelling to a beach would be difficult for us, I would really like to capture some natural images of the artist at the beach and consider using them in the digipak.

Hair Styles

After experimenting with different hair styles and discussing which we thought best suited our genre for our music video we favoured 3 which are displayed in the pictures below.

All styles are not straight, just slightly wavy.

Style 1. Wavy, middle parting, two plaits around either side.

Style 2. Wavy, side parting, top half of hair clipped up at the back.

Style 3. Curly, no obvious parting (messy), all down.

Filming Progress

Yesterday, Thursday 1st December. We spent several hours filming. We started filming shots at my house & then continued on to Valentines Park where we completed many different shots & shots of Ella singing the song the whole way through. Due to the cameras battery draining we had to cut filming short. However, yesterday was very successful & we plan to film again on Sunday where we will hopefully use our extras.

Filming Progress

Yesterday, 1st December, we filmed at Valentines Park. This is the main location of our video, therefore will have to spend the majority of the time here. We got a lot done and was very happy with our footage so far. However we have still got a long way to go. We had a problem with the camera as the battery died and because we were in the middle of a park we had no where to charge it. This meant we had to finish early than we would have hoped, however have more sheduled filming so although it is annoying that we didnt finish everything it is not a problem as we have allowed ourself plenty of time to film.

Analysing CD cover

Below I have analysed the digipak for Katy Perry's 'One Of The Boys' which was released in June of 2008.

The front of American recording artist Katy Perrys album cover 'One of the Boys' conforms to typical genre characteristics and conventions of pop rock music. For example the artist is central to the frame, minimalistic information such as the artists name and the albums name and the colour scheme and themes portrayed in the front cover are carried onto the back.

Katy is shown in a medium shot. Interest is immediately generated for females because of the admiration of Katy and the music whereas for males it is more likely to be generated because of the attraction to Katy because she emphasises a womanly figure in a seductive pose which instantly gains male attention.

There are obvious gender connotations such as the use of bubblegum pink and pretty flowers clearly representing feminine favourites. The album displays contradictory messages because the title is 'One Of The Boys' and then typically associated colours and objects with girls are evident. The main colours are generally bright and appear staged as oppose to natural.

The font of 'Katy Perry' is pink with a thick white outline with a few scattered hearts and stars around it and because it is larger than the album title, it is immediately apparent to the audience. The title is in baby blue which is an iconic colour representing males. Katy's clothes match these colours.

I imagine the album seeks to attract both males and females, inviting a mass audience however due to the type of music on the album, it is likely to be aimed more closely at teenagers.

The general mise en scene suggests ideology because there are objects typically associated with the 50's such as the white picket fence, an old record player, the low garden lounger with the blanket and lastly her large straw hat which was a popular accessory of the time. 

Katy's costume also relates to the 50's in that it portrays retro vintage styling. Her bright red lipstick helps to further emphasises her femininity. 

This is the back cover for the album. Similar themes are displayed as on the front cover in relation to colours, voyeurism and indications to the 50's.

A sense of time is created because the sky is slightly darker and more clouds are present than that in the front cover suggesting it could now be night time.

Different props are evident in this picture for example the paddling pool behind her and the red heart lolly in her right hand. Another new prop is the rubber ducks in the pool, these are examples of intertextuality because it reminds the audience of the 'hook-a-duck' game at fun fairs particularly in the 50's.

Track list is in a feminine font, there are orange hearts separating the main songs from the remixes. There are also three pink lines in the form of an outline.

These are the songs in the track list;

01. One Of The Boys

02. I Kissed A Girl

03. Waking Up In Vegas

04. Thinking Of You

05. Mannequin

06. Ur So Gay

07. Hot N Cold

08. If You Can Afford Me

09. Lost

10. Self Inflicted

11. I'm Still Breathing

12. Fingerprints

In the bottom right corner of the album there is a bar code on its side which should be present on every album cover. Beside this relevant information such as the producers names are displayed. In the bottom left corner the record company is shown. These are typical conventions an album cover should conform to. This research has helped me to realise what should be on our own album. 

This is the alternative new edition enhanced CD cover consisting of four tracks.

This is the actual CD for One Of The Boys. The blue font is against a white background to make it stand out. The artists name is in a larger sized font, different style and has an outlining mist of pink to further emphasise her name. The same font for 'Katy Perry' is used for all CD covers and the CD itself which works as a kind of signature sign for her.