Final idea for my CD cover

For my CD cover, I decided upon using the image of the red umbrella floating upon a river. I decided upon this cover, as when comparing album artwork, I found that the CD cover was often unrelated to the music video or even directly to the artist. By therefore choosing a slightly more 'random' idea as my cover, I am conforming to the conventions expected by the genre and the wider music industry.

Intertextual references:
I was inspired for the image of my CD cover by the Pixar clip 'The Blue Umbrella' as it was similar to our own narrative, except instead of only showing the people's umbrella's we focused upon the feet to tell our narrative. It was therefore similar to our own video as it alternatively tells the narrative story through an unconventional manner, and therefore is a fitting cover for our album. However, although the blue umbrella is the main focus within their video, as our main protagonist is a feminine female, it seemed more suiting to use a red umbrella to reflect our main protagonist as red traditionally reflects femininity.
Inspiration also further came from other media texts, for example, films such as 'Shindler's list'  which inspired me, due to black and white nature of the film, with only a girl in a striking red coat shown in colour. It effectively captured the audiences attention, and showed the effectiveness of using the colour red, in standing out and connoting the correct idea such as boldness, a strong sense of character, passion, danger and a sense of femininity. All of which connotations are relevant when considering the representation of the female protagonist within our music video, and therefore red seemed a suiting colour which not only correctly portrayed our artist, but also conformed to the genre expectations of using bright and bold colours to also reflect the genre.

The idea of a red umbrella also connotes idea of honour and dignity in Buddhism, and is a general symbol of both strength and shelter, which again not only represents our female protagonist, but also by showing it abandoned and upside down, it gives the opposite message, that she as the umbrella is lost and abandoned, or that she as a person does not need the strength and shelter of the umbrella to shelter her again showing her strength of character. This shot I believe will also be used for my poster.

I therefore thought that this seemed the most suitable and convention fitting idea for the front of the album cover, with the theme continued onto the back, but instead of again showing the umbrella, I will show lily pads on the river to avoid the sense and feeling of repetition. To make my shot more visually interesting for the audience, I will edit the colours in photoshop and toy with effects to make the album stand out, and seem more visually interesting to capture its audiences attention.

For the inside panels of my CD cover, I plan on using a shot of Holly, who is the main character within our music video 'Bloodstream' pushing a bicycle down a city housed street, which will be made obvious through the style of street terrace housing which is only normally found in the city, which will make the location obvious, keeping with the urban theme showed throughout our single video. The shot itself will be composed in a way that does not reveal too much of Holly's face, maintaining the enigma which was a key theme throughout the music video. I decided that as long as the album cover was not obviously related, the inside panels could be marginally related to the 'hit' single, as the main focus of the shot is going to be the bicycle, which during the screening of our music video, the audience said was a key aesthetic aspect which they enjoyed. By also continuing the shot of the street that Holly is walking upon as the next panel, it also represents the journey that she is embarking on throughout her life, which is again reflected within the music video, and therefore by choosing this a CD panel, it carries the theme across.

Initial ideas for my album artwork

Audience profile

Audience appeal for our music video

As most indie tracks do, the song relies on a captivating music video to sell itself to the audience and create a 'buzz' about the artist and the song. Often the artist does not appear in the accompanying video within this genre of music, as they believe the video should be focused on the music itself rather than the artist.

For this reason, and due to the impractical nature of trying to find an actor to lip sync well to our music video and match the description of the singer, we decided that we would not put the artist within our music video. As mentioned, this is not uncommon, with many indie artists such as Ed Sheeran, never having of appeared in (apart from momentarily) their own music video. By using actors instead of the artist it pushes the audience to put their focus upon the narrative of the story, which suited our music video, as we planned for the video to be centered around a strong narrative as my research concluded that it was a commonly used genre convention.

Our initial idea was to use only shots of feet, as they can reveal a lot about a character and are often a focal point for many directors, and is a technique often used in the thriller genre to as mentioned keep the audience engaged and keep a characters identity concealed whilst allowing the audience to speculate and draw conclusions about that character. An example of a particular director who often uses feet when introducing his character and showing it to reveal emotions is Quentin Tarantino, who during the introduction of Death Proof (skip to 1:09 to see example) shows a shot of a womens feet as the opening shot. By doing this he reveals to the audience the gender of the character, and the audience can speculate her personality by her poised mannerism and body language. It also keeps the audience engaged, as they want to find out more about the character and are captivated by the long lasting shot until it cuts to another similar shot using the same technique again by showing a close up shot of a different woman's feet until it finally pans up and out to show her full body.
 

We were going to adopt this similar technique within our music video, as it is successful in engaging its audience and also gives them the power to interpret and decipher aspects of the character which are not made plain to the audience, which as a result empowers them as it assumes that the producer is not under estimating the audiences intelligence and capabilities. We were going to initially only construct our music video out of only feet shots, as they can effectively tell the story in a different and unconventional way, but after further consideration, we decided that it could be too much repetition for the audience and by using the same 'engaging' technique, we may in fact loose their attention. We therefore chose that we would include cut aways, but keep it at the same low down angle to continue the theme and also allow the audience to explore the setting and environment.

However, when it came to storyboarding, we discovered that we did not have enough time to use cut aways as when we changed the plot, it resulted in having less time to fit in our extended narrative as our song was only 2:30 minutes long. However, we still decided that our video should be made up of a variety of different shots, but that we would maintain the enigmatic sense by opening with the shot of the feet to initially hold their attention, but get a variety of different shots of the body, whilst still not revealing their faces.
By choosing not to reveal the faces of the actors within the video, it again as previously discussed, adds a sense of mystery, as the audience are more and more intrigued as the video progresses to see the entirety of the body of those involved throughout the video, and we plan to slowly feed the demands of the audience by eventually exposing more and more of both of the actors, without however revealing their faces.

We also chose not to reveal their faces as it was symbolic to the fact that our video was making a statement about the deterioration of relationships in general, and by doing so, it gave our music video deeper meaning. By doing this it also meant that the audience can relate to the generic events which result in the end of many relationships as it does not put an actors face in the video so that the audience envisage faces which they have personally constructed, making the video more individualistic and personal to its audience. 

By only showing certain parts of the body, it also conforms to the genre as it is alternative and not typically expected, which is a convention of the indie genre.

 

Indie-Electro CD cover research

To widen my knowledge of understanding and convention within the indie-electro genre, I decided to broaden my research and look at a few indie-electro album CD covers with the aims of aiding me in understanding what conventions of the genre are often portrayed within the albums artwork, which I believe will help me in the creation of my own album cover and artwork.

The naked and Famous are a band within the same genre as my own music video. The first thing that immediately stands out to the audience about this album cover, are the high contrasting bright colours used, which immediately holds their attention. The vibrant colours are a typical convention of the electro genre, as it typically represents the energy of the music. However the indie aspect also comes across due to the colours being in blocks in the shape of the countries within the globe, which links the foreground to the picture of the background which is of a natural picturesque landscape of mountains. This combination perfectly represents the artist as a band with their natural indie pure sounding vocals, with their electronic twist. The album cover relies heavily upon the visual aspect to grab the audiences attention, as the font used is subtle and small, with the album name in smaller print underneath.
The font is simplistic as if they are not trying to stand out, they are merely stating who they are, and sharing their music with their audience. The reasons behind the decision to write the title and album name in capital letters could be interpereted in a multitude of ways. It could be because although they are not as well established and well known as other artists, they are just as important and deserve to be listened to. However it could represent the idea that they do not need to demand the audiences attention, they are just a band among the many others on the shelves, and they are making a statement that their audience can discover them, they are not going to impose themselves upon their audience.
The composition of the album cover again contains several possible meanings, as the band name is positioned within the center of the image of the map of the brightly coloured world, connoting that their music is universally appealing and their gift to the world. However it could also be the band making a statement that they will be the next 'big thing' to conquer the world with their music. However the latter idea is put out by the startling white in which their band name is written in, which connotes the ideas of innocence and purity, which makes the first idea seem more fitting as to why the band name is positioned here.

 This bands album cover however does not follow a similar method to its justification as to its construction. For example, the background is set within what we can assume is a consumeristic image of a modern child's bedroom cluttered with toys. This greatly contrasts the above  heavily nature-focused image and suggests that it focuses upon the modern electro side to its music, but with an unusual twist, as represented by the choice of a child dressed in a monsters costume. By revealing the child dressed within a terrifying costume, it perhaps connotes the idea that their music is something different and unexpected to everything we have seen before, further supported by the second child being comforted and depending on the 'monster', suggesting that they as a band are revealing the truth about everything the audience thought they knew and understood.

The lighting used within the image is ambient and slightly dreamlike due to the use of the colours white, blue and purple, and yet it still remains slightly realistic due to its shadowing and darkness. This suggests that they themselves as a band want to be taken seriously by its audience of young adults, but that they want to cast their audience away into an abstract imagination through the use of their music.

The composition of the shot relies heavily upon the use of thirds, as the placing of the bookcase, and indeed the style of the bookcase itself immediately draws the audiences attention to the setting of the bedroom along the bookcase, until their are led to the image of the children and the artist and album name. By doing this, it makes the artists appear firm upon their image, as they are leading the audience and showing them what they want them to see.

This idea that they as a band are strong and in control is further shown by the use and style of text on the album cover. The band name itself is composed at the centre of the frame within the top third, written in bold and punctuated with a full stop, as if to make a statement to the audience that they are here, they know what they stand for, and they will be herd. The use of white could also as mentioned above be a symbol for their genuine innocent intentions to simply make their music for an audience to listen to, or it may be a more simple decision that was decided upon for aesthetic reasons as it conforms to the dreamlike colour scheme. The fact that the album name nor the band name correctly follow the rules of grammar, by not including spacing and randomly capitalising it's letters suggests that the band are again different, and do not conform to the conventions expected not only within the music business, but within every day life.

All of the decisions above however were made to tie in with the name of the album 'Hurry up, we're dreaming', by playing on the element of dreams to construct this abstract, vulnerable and nostalgic image of the artist.

The third image of an album cover in the same genre as my own is largely different to the other bands albums, because it is a more established mainstream band.

This album cover again uses the rule of thirds as the eye is visually drawn to the bottom part of the screen where the artists name is written in large bold capital font across the bottom of the page. This is undoubtedly the band representing themselves as an important, established band who are not to be missed by its audience. The illuminating light which surrounds the bands name connotes the idea that the band are enlightening and igniting their audience with their electro-indie music. The different shades of blue and black across the letters implies that they as a band reflect a variety of different elements within their music, again an idea which is typical of the genre.

 

The setting is a high angle shot of New York, this is easily recognisable to its audience through the iconic architecture, by using this as its setting it therefore reflects the urban new and energetic feel that their music represents.

The top third of the image is occupied by an image of the sky which is heavily dominated by stars. This is again very symbolic of them as a band, as they see themselves as achieving beyond anything achieved by the rest of the city, and they are sharing their higher world with their audience.

 

Again, my research has confirmed that:

-The genre is known for being unusual, and often does not conform to many or any audience expectations

-Vibrant colours are often used to portray the electric energy of the music

- It relies upon the image to represent the artists as a band, rather than a photo of the artist themselves to represent the band and their music.

Indie-electro music video conventions- Poni Hoax: Antibodies

When considering concepts for our indie-electro music video, I felt that it was important to explore the typical genre conventions further by using a case study of an indie-electro music video, as those within the indie genre are so varied to suit the unique style of the artist, and so often therefore break the expected conventions for a music video and by furthering my research, I can make more informed decisions on aspects within my own music video.
Andrew Goodwins theory of conventions of a music video are that:
-Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
-There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
-There is a relationship between music and visuals
-The demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close up shots of the artists to develop a motif style
-There are often inter-textual references
-There is a frequent reference to the notion of looking
-There if often vouyeristic treatment of the female body

However, this music video has only a tenuous link to some of the expected criteria, and therefore breaks the expected convention of a music video, but as my research has shown, it also however conforms to the expected criteria within the indie-electro music video conventions.

The music video itself begins with a brief tight shot of a large floating bubble, which is the opening enigma to hook the audiences attention. It then hard cuts to a steady sequence of close up shots of a naked woman, and it briefly pans up and down following her movement. This makes the audience begin to assume that this is going to be a vouyeristic portrayal of her as a woman, by exposing her naked, and with the movement of the camera following her, it begins to feel like we as the audience are, as Laura Mulvey identifies 'The Male Gaze.'  However, these shots are still enigmatic, as the audience want to know, who she is, where she is, and why she is there, as very little is revealed at the start of the music video due to the tight camera shots and the out of focus shots used at 0.14. It then almost disorientates the audience by cutting back to the image of the floating bubble, and the audience are aware that the two are in very different locations, due to the heavy cold blue focus of the shot of the bubble, and the natural warming soft colours used within the shots of the woman. It is at this point that the audience begin to question whether it is a mere parallel narrative, or if the bubble has a deeper meaning, and is a metaphorical representation of the woman, or indeed her situation.

The music video then again hard cuts to a shot of the woman unwrapping something (yet again another enigma) and the audience discover that she is infact un-wrapping a pregnancy test. This completely throws the audience, and completely alters the entire tone of the music video from here on in. The beat and lyrics kick in, and the music video takes full swing, conforming to one of Goodwins conventions (there is a relationship between music and visuals) as it cuts to the beat, and the song becomes more intense along with the visual shots. It also makes the audience re-evaluate their initial assumption that the display of the woman was voyeuristic, and it now seems as if all of the shots of the woman, with her head in her hands, and her tensing feet, and the following of her movement was to represent her distress. It also makes the audience re-evaluate her representation by being naked, changing it to one of her being viewed as innocent and vulnerable, and therefore makes her position seem that much more threatening to the audience. However, before the audience can discover more, they are almost teased as it again cuts to the shot of the alone floating bubble, which the audience now assume is a symbol of the woman in her vulnerable and fragile position. This shot however lasts for a brief two seconds before it returns to a shallow tight focus shot of the woman, which both fully reveals her face to the audience, showing the sorrow and hurt that is portrayed through her eyes, and her sense of entrapment by 

the tight close up camera shot. It then cuts from this momentary one second tight shot, to a long shot of her in what the audience can assume is either a hotel room, or her or somebody else's home. By using this long shot of her taking the pregnancy test and exposing her surroundings, it suddenly makes the situation seem more real, and frightening for the character, as the first 20 seconds of shots are almost entirely spent on establishing a personal understanding of the character and the audience already feel as if they are building a bond with her through the use of small close ups, to then show her far away and isolated the audience are almost shut out from her life they were briefly let into.

It again cuts to the shot of the travelling bubble, and the audience sense that it is on a journey and the audience begin to feel a sense of hope that it may escape, like the woman. However, it also uses a long shot of the bubble and exposes that the bubble is in what we can assume, is an airport lounge. It is a space which should be familiar and almost normal to the audience, but it is represented as eerie due to its vast emptiness which should be bustling with people, and its cold blue colour scheme. It can also be perceived that it is the woman's total isolation and feeling of loneliness, that no one is prepared to help her or come to her aid, and she is trapped within something that should be freeing, like the location of the airport. This location could perhaps be another symbol for the hopes that the woman had for her sexual encounter which initiated this situation, as she may have believed it would be a form of escapism or an exciting romantic encounter, but it has only made her more trapped and alone than before.

Another shot completely manages to instantly connect the two storylines, by showing a long of the woman overlooking an airport, where we have just seen the bubble trapped inside. It also clarify's the woman's location and the audience can be certain that she is supposed to be in a hotel close to the airport. This amplify's her loneliness, as even the hotel room does not belong to her. A focus pull is used and she becomes out of focus as the audience are drawn into the sight of the plane preparing for take off, as if her thoughts are focused on the longing to escape somewhere, whilst she is so trapped within her position. It again brings about the question as to why she is in a hotel room.

The shots then again fast cut to the pace of the quickened beat, and a series of blurred images are shown, which slowly become more in focus, and the audience can eventually decipher that the blurred image is of cavier. This could simply be used to inform the audience of her status and wealth, or more importantly, it could be a link to the potential baby that she is carrying. However, when she is seen to be eating and savoring the fish eggs, it shows her to be ruthless, and her determinism to rid herself of any problem, portraying to the audience the sense that she would do the same with any potential child.
The other out of focus images become clear, and it is clear that the shots are that of a fish out of water. The shots again quickly cut, and focus on showing the fish as it battles in such a circumstance, by showing close ups of its troubled breathing and gills. The audience are likely to just assume at this point that the fish is again a symbol of the woman within her difficult situation, which is supported by the cut to the shot of the woman writhing in a similar way to the fish. However, the next shot actually reveals her holding the fish, watching it struggle in a rather sadistic manner. She toys with the fish as if deciding whether to grant it its life or not (another metophore for the decision she has to potentially make.) During this time, shots of the pregnancy test are again shown, but due to the angle of the shot, the audience are unable to read the results, which further keeps the audience engaged as they want to find out what the result is. However, the audience can assume by the lady's actions, that the test result was pregnant.

A close up shot of a needle is then shown gleaming between the woman's hands as she reaches towards the fish, further building upon this slightly 'evil' representation of this woman, however she merely caresses it. It again represents her as powerful, by being able to end someone else's life, and it makes the audience on edge about both of her decisions (whether she will end both the fishes, or the potential childs life.)

The cuts pace again quicken, cutting from the shots of the bubble within the airport lounge, the woman's body, the fish and the needle. The pace slows down only to reveal a needle piercing through something (it is again yet unclear to the audience.) However, it then shows the woman piercing her own neck, and it again cuts to the shot of the needle piercing the previously unknown material, and the audience assume that her body was the previously unknown object that was pierced by the needle. The shots then become out of focus, and we are only able to see 
the woman writhing in pain, and it again quickly cuts to the bubble as the last shot of the video. The shot lingers on the desolate luggage collection point and the bubble disappears with only the empty airport luggage lounge on display. By ending it on this shot, it leaves the audience with the conclusion that she disposed of the problem herself, by the large needle that the previous shots focused around, and so the bubble when it disappears, both fills the audience with relief that she is no longer trapped, but also with sorrow at how the last shot of the desolate airport lingers and nothing appears out of place, but the audience have just followed the bubble/woman's journey and within a few moments it seems as if the bubble/woman was never there at all.

Narrative structure
The narrative structure of this music video is that of an ambiguous and impressionist narrative. It relies heavily upon the audiences own personal interpretation to make sense of the images and symbols they are shown, unlike many music videos which follow a clear linear narrative. This is often a style used within music video's as it relies upon the audience extracting their own meaning from the video, which makes the video appear as if it is personally reaching out to its audience, as often the audiences own interpretation is one by which they can relate to. It is also commonly used within this genre to keep the audience engaged, as to what the possible shots could mean which is normally a conclusion only reached by watching the entirety of the music video. It is also however a parallel narrative, sometimes defined as a 'Double Journey' as the storyline of the music video follows the journey of both the woman and the bubble, and initially the two seem completely unrelated, but as the story goes own, it becomes clear that the bubble is a symbol of the woman, and the location of the two scenes, are linked.

Editing

The editing used within the music video again heavily conforms to the conventions of the indie-electro genre, as it sticks to hard cuts to cut between shots. This is often used to try to convey the sense of realism of the story that is not portrayed by using other techniques such as cross fades. However, it does subvert from this idea of trying to convey realism, by quickening the pace at which the shots are cut at, so that the pace matches the tone of the video, and helps build the feeling of intensity that the character is feeling, which does therefore also add to the sense of realism as the fast paced shots portray her sense of panic well to the audience. It does not heavily rely upon the editing of the video, but of the content within the shots to appeal to its audience.

Lighting

The lighting within the shots as previously mentioned contrast between the two scenes. The scenes within the hotel use subtle artificial lighting as if again to put across the mundane sense of realism, however the shots within the airport lounge are dimly lit, and the shots all appear cold due to the subtle blueness of the shot, which is gained by placing a blue screen over the light. These two contrasting environment's help accentuate the characters feelings, by showing a seemingly warm environment, and then cutting to a shot which appears cold, visually represents her feelings of sorrow and loneliness.

Camera shots

The shot types used within the music video are all again used to help portray her feelings of entrapment, by using mainly tight shots and close ups to emphasise her feeling of claustrophobia, and so that the audience can relate to the characters distress. The angle of the camera of which it was shot from constantly changes, to appear as if the audience are watching her and the story from every angle, again adding to the sense of entrapment that the character must feel, and it makes the audience feel a sense of guilt as if they are partially responsible.

The camera movement is again used to make the shots flow better and appear less rigid and therefore more realistic, as the frequent uses of camera pans acts as the audiences own vision, and engages and engulfs them into the story so that they again feel a strong emotional response from the video, making it more effective.

In relation to Goodwin's theory of conventions of music videos

Although this music video does not conform to many of the typical conventions of a music video, it does conform to a few.

The music video does:



-Demonstrate genre characteristics (Through the use of a strong narrative, the narrative type itself,  and the lighting)
-There is a relationship between music and visuals ( It is cut to the beat, when the pace of the song becomes more intense so does the style of editing)
-There if often voyeuristic treatment of the female body (Although debateable as to whether the nudity of the woman in the music video is voyeuristic)



Genre conventions as identified and supported by this case study:

- The importance for a strong 'original' narrative.

- The narrative content is often more meaningful or unexpected than other music videos within other genres.

- The editing is simple and heavily relies on cutting to the beat and hard cuts.

- The artist is often not portrayed within the video itself, relying less upon the artist image and more upon the music itself.

Reflection

We showed a screening of our cut of our music video so that we were able to receive any recommended changes and constructive criticism that could improve our video.

Feedback we received from our viewing
After showing the video to both a variety of both students and teachers, we received a lot of positive feedback about the entirety of the video which I was pleased with. However, we did receive some feedback about what may improve the aesthetic look of some of our shots, one of the main points was that we adjust the colour levels, as some felt that the filter and colour tone did not quite match that of the tone of the music video. This was at the point of both 2:03 and 2:26, where the shots appeared slightly too blue which some thought took away the sense of realism and therefore the emotional impact that our video had upon our audience. We therefore decided to take their feedback on board and edit the colour levels of our video to better suit the very realistic tone we were aiming for.

Positive feedback
The main aspect of our video that our audience said that they liked was the enigmatic element of our video, which is the central focus of our video on which our ideas were based upon. The fact that the video maintains to conceal the faces of the characters, and yet slowly reveals more of them as the video progresses the audience said was one of the main hooks that engaged the audience. The other most frequent comment which was made was about our music video, was the shot of Holly riding the bicycle, as many said that the mise-en-scene made the shot, due to it's mix of vintage and new within its urban setting.

Aspects I may bring into my album and artwork
 As the above aspect seems to appeal to the target audience, I may consider re-creating this particular shot for the album and artwork cover, to continue the popular theme in hopes of appealing to its target audience.  The urban setting and vibrant colour schemes are also elements that I think I will carry across into the rest of the project, as not only do they align perfectly with our video, but they also conform to the genres expectations.