Shot lists

Below is the type of shots and transitions we can include in our music video:

Close - up shot - this will show the audience the emotions of the character(s) and allows the audience to try and think how they think and feel in that situation they can try and understand thier emotions.

Wide angle shot - allows the audience to see the location of the scene and can gain an idea of the story line and an understanding of what is going on.

Over the shoulder shot - so the audience can see what the character is looking at and can see it from their perspective.

Zoom out and in - this can help to show something important especially when zooming in on something as it is something in particular that is being shown therefore important and the audience can clearly see this.

Cut from shot to shot - this is another transition that we can use especially if the pace of the song becomes quicker the shots can easily be changed from one to another using cut.

Panning - this allows the audience to seem as if they are actually there witnessing what is happening in a chosen scene helping them understand the storyline.

Fade in and out - this usually is a good transition to use between shots that are very simialar to each other or to bring in the first shot/scene at the beginning or fade the last scene out to black at the ending of the music video.

From the music videos that I have analysed all of them have included some of the shots and transitions above which made them effective and mainly helped the audience to understand the story and emotions of characters.

Defining our target audience

The target audience we are aiming at for our music video is teenagers to young adults who enjoy listening to music with a genre of Pop and also a music video that is narrative based.

Research of a similar artist

The music video I have chosen to analyse that is similar to our music video is Alicia Keys “if I aint got you” released February 2004. The video begins with a piano solo piece lasting around twenty four seconds of the artist playing which is the same start as our music video then changing shots of her playing the piano to two people one being the artist the other presumably her boyfriend moving to a new house together. Throughout the video shots change back to Alicia Keys playing the piano and then returning to the narrative of the story shots. The lyrics fit in well with the visuals as it is clear that she only wants that one person and doesn’t need anything at all. She then gets upset after she finds out her boyfriend has been arrested and messes their new home up by throwing and tearing papers up which is another thing in common with our music video where as our character is sitting on the bed looking at photos and pushes them off the bed but both characters have similar anger and upset.

I think the target audience of Alicia keys is a target audience who is young or middle – aged as the genre of her music is R & B, soul and pop which is aimed at more young people but also some middle - aged people who enjoy listening to soul music. I think linking the target audience to her album work is a key element. I also feel the covers have been designed to let the audience know what type of genre her music is and to make sure the covers are eye – catching and appealing to her target audience.

Below are four examples of her album work. All her front covers include herself posing some are of close up shots like the album “As I am” but the rest remain of medium shots. All her album except the diary of Alicia Keys include her name in bright bold font and colour to stand out from the background and appeal to the target audience and just underneath in smaller size and different font is the album name. I think all the shots on each cover relate to the name of the album for example the album ”the element of freedom” it appears to look like she is wearing wings which to me relates to the word freedom as if flying etc. Another album “As I am” is of a close - up shot of Alicia Keys face which relates to who and what she is.

Album work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQuQGG3FlY

Digipak - First Draft

Below is my first draft of my digipak. The bottom right is the front cover, the bottom left is the back cover and would include song names written to the left of the artist and the top is the insert with the CD on the right hand side and the left would be an insert for a leaflet containing artist information and the song lyrics which would have the same front and back covers that the digipak has to keep the consistent image. The images I have used I took of my friend as the artist was not available to do a photo shoot becuase of certain circumstances, so as a first draft I took some photos of my friend and would do similar shots to these for my final digipak but of Carly. I edited the photos I took of my friend so that it was just her on a solid background for both front and back covers. I also took a photo of lips and using Adobe Photoshop edited them by inverting the colour.

Feedback:

- The lips should be of similar contrast to the front and back covers and at the moment the contrast is very much different.

- Perhaps the background instead of being a solid grey it could fade in from one colour to another.

- The artist name is clear, easy to read font that stands out from the cover.

- The font style of the digipak name "reason to smile" is appropriate and can be read easy.

- Perhaps try a different ground possibly an open landscape.

Having read through my feedback I have already experimented with one of the ideas being the colour of the lips, again using Adobe Photoshop I have edited them so that they are of similar contrast to the existing digipak, as shown below using different layers and changing the brightness and contrast.

Below is an improved digipak draft of the new image of the lips.

The inside of the digipak will have the CD on the right and it will also have the lips on it so when it is placed in the digipak it will carry the image on of the lips. On the left hand side of the digipak will be an insert of a booklet which will contain a message and the background of the artist and with the lyrics of the songs on the CD the insert will be the same as the front and back covers of the digipak. On the back side of the digipak there is a spare space on the left hand side of the artist which has been left to list the tracks on the digipak.