Front Cover

I went through a couple of ideas for the front cover of the album both of which are close ups of the artists face..

A second idea which I decided was the strongest image for the cover is this one...

I think the colours work really well, they are not too bright but not too dull which is a perfect balance due to the video being in both black & white and colour. The use of clear, simple font is a convention used in order to not take any focus away from the artist's central image this also reflects the theme of rural simplicity which is further accentuated in the music video.

Digipak Annotation

Digipak: Initial Research

Digipaks are a type of packaging of which emphasises the brand of an artist/band. Various different genres of music will explore different themes in order to portray their own unique style.
The main features of a digipak consist of:

• Title of the album/single
• Song list
• Photographs/ graphics
• Inside can include a piece of writing by the artist, a possible list of thank yous'
• There can also be a commentary of each song included. For example, the people involved in creating the song, producers ect.
• Sometimes, the packscan include bonus material such as stickers or special information

Obviously the front cover attracts most attention and sets a first impression...

The layout, font, colour and theme used has to be carefully thought about in order to portray the right brand image. For example the us dark colours on the cover would suggest maybe a heavy metal / rock band. Light, pastel colours would portray a softer, lighter sound to the album.

Edit, Edit, Edit!

Just a last minute editing task...


I was advised to have a shot of my artist slightly earlier on in the music video in order to successfully help the audience to establish their focus on this main character.


I didn't think a random close up shot would fit in to the atmosphere so instead, I played around with the opacity and had about a four second shot on top of the scenery shots I had already edited in.  This way, what I had done was still there but the soft close up shot sat on top of the clip behind. 


As a result, I didn't have to change what I had already done, but added to it in order to establish the main character in the piece. The soft editing also suits the atmosphere of the music video very well.


Here is a screen grab showing how my target audience will relate to the footage...

Editing decisions explained...

I have finally finished my editing and I am please how my previous date of filming came out on final cut...
I had left space to place the new lip syncing footage at certain parts of the video to boost the performance element.

I used the 'opacity' tool on final cut to allow the performance shots to sit on top of the 'flashback' footage of the couple, to explore the emotions being performed both visually and expressed through the song. I used this quite often as I thought it worked really well and accentuated the soft atmosphere of the piece.

The transitions at the beginning of my piece are cut to the 'clicks' which are heard in the song. As the vocals develop the transitions are more of a dissolving type to accentuate the soft, floaty feel of the video.

An on going theme throughout my music video is the idea of rural living. There are various shots containing trees, animals, stables etc. When the couple are in the treehouse, there is a pervious shot showing the main character climbing up the tree. I wanted this shot to appear almost 'home video' like due to the close camera angles in contrast to the other shots used in my piece. The home video idea would be a reflection of the flashbacks and memories that are included within the narrative of the peice.

Christmas Filming

Over the past week I have thankfully finished my filming! Of course whilst editing the footage I will know for sure if this is the case, but I am confident I have some great performance shots which is what I set out to do.

I managed to capture some gorgeous performance shots in a field, it sounds basic but it looks really powerful due to the lighting and background; really accentuates the ongoing rural type theme. Originally, I had planned to get some performance shots in a petite 'wendy house' type location however I went off this idea as I felt it might break the theme of the video and appear a bit to random. My music video very much has the same flow throughout and would really like to accentuate this as much as I can.

We filmed late afternoon jut before the sunset so the lighting was really atmospheric and looked a bit like this...

I am excited to edit and see how all the footage looks together...

Symbolism

There a various visual metaphors used in my piece, one of which is the symbolism of the horses used throughout my music video symbolising the urgency and passion within their relationship. Horse riding is clearly a hobbie of the main character's, this becomes clear when she is horse riding on her own but also when her love is leading the horse for her.

Another visual metaphor is the use of the flower. Instead of questioning her love for this man by peeling of the petals of the flower in a 'love me, love me not' motion, the petal picking is in reverse and so gives the idea of a content, complete love.

The use of the wheel borrow presents a comical lift to the video exploring the laughter and joy within their relationship.