[PLANNING] Music Magazine Album Advert Drafts

For the magazine advert, I am intending on taking a portrait photo of my talent in front of a flower bush and then have the text surrounding the subject. For instance: 

This aesthetic would match the genre of acoustic/acoustic indie I am aiming for. Moreover, the images have a rather wistful and romantic ambience to them which reflects the lyrics of the song used for the music video.

Another option of mine was to have a floral motif against a pastel background and have a photo of the artist pasted on top of it as though it is "stuck on", giving the illusion that it is similar to a clipping from a magazine.  

[PRODUCT] First Edit of Music Video

OFFBEAT MV [First Edit] from Katie Lam on Vimeo.

The first edit of the music video, "Offbeat".

As you can see, the music video is currently at a skeletal stage. There are many long gaps in between clips of the artist singing and cutaways, indicating that I have a lack of footage. I have made plans to film more cutaways when my artist is free.

Moreover, there are aspects of this edit which I am unsure whether or not they are effective. In particular, the part where the lyrics are "I wanna hit rewind, playback a hundred times" and the shots denote the artist walking backwards, then forwards and then backwards again. This was supposed to reflect the lyrics which describe rewinds and playbacks but I am worried that my editing did not convey my intended vision.

[PRODUCT] Progress of editing music video

When editing the music video, in order to make the process easier, I filmed the 'artist' lip-syncing to the whole song in one take.
Then I placed the entire clip onto iMovie, aligned it in time with the music and simply inserted other clips as cutaways.

[AUDIENCE] Focus Group

FOCUS GROUP

Name: Courtney Peacock
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Education/Employment: College student
Relationship status: In a relationship
Socio-economic classification: C1/C2
Favourite genre of music: Punk Pop, Pop Rock, Heavy Rock, Metal
Preferred method of listening to music: Streaming, purchasing CDs/Vinyl
Interests: Attending concerts and gigs, listening to music, photography, illustration and art, reading

Name: Madeleine Rigby
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Education/Employment: Sixth form student
Relationship status: Single
Socio-economic classification: B
Favourite genre of music: Pop, Classical, Musicals, Acoustic Pop
Preferred method of listening to music: Streaming, Radio
Interests: Drama and performing arts, musicals, playing the clarinet, being sociable

Name: Daniel Heywood
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Education/Employment: College student and working as an usher at a theatre
Relationship status: Single
Socio-economic classification: C1
Favourite genre of music: Pop, EDM, Rock
Preferred method of listening to music: Streaming (e.g. Spotify), Radio
Interests: Playing drums, reading, travelling

Name: Jess Boxall
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Education/Employment: Sixth form student and works at Waitrose
Relationship status: In a relationship
Socio-economic classification: B
Favourite genre of music: Pop, Acoustic Pop, EDM, RnB
Preferred method of listening to music: Spotify, YouTube, Online Radios
Interests: Socialising, fashion, makeup, reading

Evidently, three out of four individuals of my focus group are female. This is mainly because acoustic pop tends to be a genre geared towards a female audience and my final product is also aimed towards this demographic. Therefore, I aspired to make my focus group representative of my intended viewers.

[PLANNING] Music Video Storyboards

[PLANNING] Treatment

Song: Offbeat - Clara C

As the song is of an acoustic-pop genre, the music video's concept will also replicate the motifs and icons associated. For instance, the video takes place on the beach, a popular location for acoustic-pop videos.

The music video will begin with the artist's name and song title in the middle of the screen. In the background, the artist will be walking but her back will be facing the camera - she will be walking AWAY from the camera. Then, the text will fade and, in time with the song's rhythm, a sequence of shots depicting the artist walking along the beach will follow. This will establish the location of the music video, the genre and direction. Furthermore, the artist will not be walking towards anything specific or have a particular goal. This will reflect the nature of the music video and how it is simply an amalgamation of varying shots with different content.

Following on from this, when the artist begins to sing, there will be a succession of shots which mirror the lyrics. For example, the first line is "I want a library, full of our stories". As the artist sings these words, the camera will pan across a shelve of books and then cut to an open page of one particular book. The rest of the music video will be of a similar essence. In between each cutaway will be clips of the artist singing.

The video has no particular narrative, but the video focuses on the little details within the artist's life and how she is so in love that everything she encounters reminds her of her muse. Hopefully, my music video will reflect this idea.

[PLANNING] Permission to use song

This is an e-mail which shows I have sought permission to use the original artist's song for my music video.

[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Digipak - Noah & The Whale ("Last Night On Earth")

[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Digipak - Taylor Swift ("1989")

Click to enlarge images.

[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Music Magazine Album Advert - Noah and The Whale (Last Night On Earth)

[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Music Magazine Advert - Mumford and Sons (Sigh No More)

(Click to enlarge)