Feedback

A proficient presentation of the CD digipak design and the importance of album covers.  I feel that you could have developed research more into the conventions of Album digipak's and addressed layout and design more closely.  Excellent initial design's into CD covers for your group artist and good consideration to target audience.  Also from Google docs you might try and embed the PPT into your blog via HTML.

CD and album cover design research

Letter to Columbia Records

Hurtwood House School

Holmbury St. Mary 

Dorking, Surrey

RH5 6NU

Columbia Records UK

Derry Street 

London W8 5HY

To Columbia Records UK,

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

Electric Feel - MGMT

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Heritier, Nicola Duckert, Richard Hill and Will Day

Hurtwood House School 

Cast Photos

Philip von Dreschel                           Ed Nightingale

Tom Barnet

Feedback

This is excellent work - there are evident clear accounts of your planning and research for your music video production day after half term.  I like the way in which decision making is evident along with reflection and revisions. 
Your cast list has been agreed and you need to be working on the set design and organisation of production. 
There are one or two ways to develop the blog.  First to begin using a wider range of blogging tools - there are lots of well presented images, but use of Flickr or powerpoint will increase the creativity that is shown on your blog.  Second the valid, detailed and reflective comments that you make need to be developed further with  key media concepts and theoretical ideas;  for example, link the planning to star image,  or how set design and lighting link to mise en scene and/ or what model's of lighting you are using in relation to your set - key, fill, directional, discuss the intensity and colour and what you are trying to represent about your artist. 

This will help make a more thorough evaluation of your work.  Well done.

Music Video - Evaluation of the Animatic

The animatic was a new concept to me, and I now like how it gives the viewer a better feel of our idea as an interactive storyboard. It's also nicely compact and easier to view than hundreds of sheets of paper. The purpose of the animatic is to give us a better idea of how our narrative and performance elements will look once music has been added. It also helps us to plan some of the key shots along the timeline and improve the storyboard so that there are no continuity errors. Our storyboard began as rough sketches on paper which we cut up and pinned to the wall. Then we took 10 second shots of each drawing and these shots were then sent up to the editing suite, to be cut together. 

From the editing process, one thing I have gathered is that we need to ensure that we mix up the cuts a little more as some of them are quite predictable, and to establish that certain key moments in the song have movement in the narrative or performance that flow with the music. For the one thing we don't want is for the video to be predictable and therefore boring. It needs to capture the audience and make them feel as though it could be them behind the screen. 


A few problems we encountered were that we hadn't drawn out every shot that should have been, and there were a few key shots that should have been drawn and included. However we overcame this problem by inserting text into certain gaps, to assist the viewers imagination a little. As a group I felt we were more efficient than with previous editing tasks, as there were only two of us working on the editing at any one moment, and the other two would be working on another aspect of the project. We would then switch roles so that everyone had a chance to work on the edit, and add their own contributions. 


Below is a screen recording of a section of the editing process:
Screen Recording - Electric Feel_02

Shooting Schedule

"Electric Feel’ - Lanmou

Shooting schedule - 18th November 2011 

Studio Performance shots [UV] - 9:00 - 13:00

1. Wide Shot - Whole Band
2. Close up full frontal - Singer
3. MCU - Singer
4. Profile Shot - Singer
5. Staggered Profile Shot - Singer 1+2
6. MCU - Guitarist
7. ECU - Guitarist’s Fretboard
8. ECU - Guitarist tapping foot
9. MCU - Bassist
10. Close Up - Bassist’s right hand
11. Wide Shot - Synth/Drum player
12. ECU - Fingers on Drum-machine
13. Close Up - Synth
14. Detail Shots (time allowing)

Studio Narrative Shots ‘Normal’ - 14:00 - 16:00

1. MCU- Dude enters door, goes right
2. MCU - Dude grabs drink, walks off left
3. POV - Holding Drink
4. Profile Shot - ‘Electric Girl’ dancing
5. MCU - Girl dancing 
6. MCU - Dude sees girl
7. Close Up - "
8. MCU - Girl turns and looks over
9. ECU - Girl's eyes
10. Wide Shot - Dude starts dancing over
11. Two Shot - Both dancing
12. Details - Dancing
13. Close Up - Them getting closer
14. Close Up - Dude closing eyes
15. Close Up - Him opening eyes (electric blue lenses :)
16. Wide Shot - Band's POV, them kissing

Studio Narrative Shots ‘Electric’ [UV] - 16:00 - 18:00

1. Profile - Them getting out of the kiss
2. Zoom out - Changed surroundings into 'electric craze'
3. Wide Shot - Crowd Party
4. MCU - Crowd members dancing
5. Wide - Crowd Part
6. Details of Dancers (UV paint etc.)
7. Funky Disco Ball
8. Wide Shot - Lasers and Smoke and crowd
9. Crane Shot - Aerial view of band from front
10. OTS Shot - Girl smiling at guy while dancing
11. OTS Shot - Guy dancing with girl
12. OTS Shot - She pulls him into the crowd
13. MCU - he follows her
14. Profile - Kiss (fade out)

Guildford - Semi-detached average dwelling. Post 18:00

1. Exterior Shot - People arriving at house party. (Better if in twilight.)
2. Exterior Shot - People leaving house party (Must be night-time.)

Feedback for the set and lighting concept

After our meeting with Dan, Luke and Matt, our idea has been adjusted slightly and we now are going to use strobe lighting towards the end and possibly poke small holes in the wall to shine lights through it. We are also adding a few features such as a bay window, curtains and various decorations on the wall to make the set look as much like a parent's living room as possible. We are thinking outlines on the wall where pictures have been taken down, and possibly a TV among other features. Below is the sort of basic idea we want the room to look like.

The main issues were how to have the changeover from 'normal house party' to 'uber tippy house party', which we have overcome by introducing UV and strobe lighting after the 'electric feel'. Also being introduced is UV paint and the glo-sticks to accentuate the change in atmosphere. Another point lighting-wise, is that we have now scrapped the concept of the hidden lights on the set and are now going to show 'crappy party lights' around the band to give the audience the impression that it's quite a large party and a fair bit of money has gone into it.

The only addition we made to the set apart from the bay window was a panel behind the door, so that we can have people moving in and out of the room. In the end due to safety issues, we scrapped the idea of lights shining up through the floor as it would weaken the structure of the set. We are now only making holes in the walls. 

Set and Lighting Design

Above is the rough set design drawn out by Ian. Included are lighting concepts.

Cast List

• Main Guy - Ed Nightingale
  
• Singer/Guitarist - Jack Barton
  
• ‘Electric Girl’ - Ella
  
• Bass/Background Singer - Tom Barnet
  
• Synth/Drums  - Philip von Drechsel

Dancers

• Bethany
• + 4 more

Crowd - Whoever is in PS or wants a bit role on the day. 

Note: The people highlighted in red are cast members we have talked to and have agreed to be in our video. The others have either not given us a definite answer or have not been consulted yet, so are still prospective.

Reasons for casting

Ed: Even though he is an A2 student, from past experience we know that he can act and would fit the role exactly. From seeing him in drama productions last year, we know that he can act well

Ella: Was our second choice for the ‘Electric Girl’, and we chose her in the end because our first choice looked to similar to the main character we were casting and we need contrast between the two. She also does drama, which is why we chose her over our first choice. 

Philip: We chose him as the synth and drum machine player for the band, as he DJ’s professionally at home in Germany, and has his own rig. He also looks suitably ‘indie’ and from a performance back at the boarding house, we know that he will look fine on camera. 

Our other cast members have not been solidly decided, but we have the following down as prospectives:

Tom B: Can play both bass and guitar to an acceptable standard, and is an option for either the guitar or bass player. He can also sing, and has had much praise from his music teachers. At the moment our only proposition for a bass player

Jack: Does theatre, can act well and can sing acceptably. He is our backup man in case the above two are unavailable for some reason.

Tom S: Our backup in case for some reason Ed is unavailable or taken ill on the shoot day.

Jess: Initially our first choice as the ‘Electric girl’, she has become our backup as her facial features are too similar to Ed’s, and in case Ella is missing on shoot day. 

The Animatic

Above is our animatic for Electric Feel

Music Video - Prop List

• Two microphones with stands
• Bass guitar
• Guitar
• Synth
• Drum machine
• Sofas x2
• Beer Kegs
• Cigarettes

• Led lights
• 'Throwie' lights
• Stack amps
• House standing lamps
• Red plastic beer cups
• Strobe lights
• Uv lights
• Glo-sticks
• Smoke Machine 
• Disco Ball
• Coffee Table
• Coloured Contact Lenses

Timeline

The Timeline was important for us to work out in which key parts of the song certain events were going to happen. This is essential as in our heads, it all works but if it doesn't work on paper, we need a new idea. Through making the timeline, we soon discovered that our narrative was going to be very short, and gave us the idea to review it.

Which record label is our band signed to?

I think our band would be signed to EMI, as it is one of the major British labels, which is important to 'Lanmou', being a British band. Among others, EMI have signed the following artists:

• Iron Maiden,
• Gorillaz,
• Pink Floyd,
• Radiohead,
• The White Stripes.

Our target audience is likely to be in the young adult arena, aged between 15-25, of both male and female. However they may also appeal to an older generation, as many of the band's influences have come from the hippy era, as well as modern day artists. The audience will also be predominantly within the social classes of BCD, as they will identify with the band more easily, having had similar background, and/or experiences. 

Storyboard

This is an initial draft of the storyboard, which I made as we were trying to clarify our ideas. As we saw from work last year, these will continue to change throughout the project, with new drafts coming in as the idea progresses. Mainly, we need the storyboard for our narrative element, so that everyone has the same concept, and if each group member has a shot at directing, they can pick up where the previous one left off.

Research into CD covers by Relevant Artists

Whilst not being strictly similar to our proposed artist, the Stone Roses have employed a similar album cover design to the one that I am proposing. They went along the lines of a non-descript approach in which the first thing you notice is the band's name, followed by the lemons, which stand out against the 'paint splatters'. This cover works because it is bold and memorable.

The artwork of Jon Hopkin's Opalescent is quite similar to the concept that I came up with, very loose brightly coloured shapes that can be interpreted as whatever you want them to be. This reflects 'Lanmou's proposed attitude, carefree and hippy-ish. 

Sonic Youth are more similar to 'Lanmou' in terms of musical style and this is reflected in the album cover, the country scene conveying a sense of freedom and innocence of days gone by. Also I liked the style of writing on this album cover, the messy white scrawl giving off a pretence of not caring about their image. On the contrary, it defines their image, because a lot of though obviously went into this album cover, even though it may not look like it.