Our finished music video

Our video uploaded to youtube, so people can comment and share there reviews with our group.

Digipak - Back Cover

This is the back cover of our album art for The Here and Now by Architects. The main image i used for the back cover was taken at the same time we was filming the scene where Tom meets up with a new girl and then walks into the distance, we thought it would of been a good idea to use this as it links to the song Heartburn and has been edited so its very colourful which gives it a positive good effect. The two characters on the back are Tom and his new girlfriend if you look at the album from front to back it goes in order for example Doug is on the front then the lighters on the second page and then the photo burning is on the next page etc, and because its the back cover it gives a good effect that you can only see the back of the characters. On the top of the CD cover i have listed all of the tracks that are included on the album as well as a live DVD on a dark transparent background. I thought this was a good idea because the picture is good and it wouldn't of looked right if it had a black rectangle with text over it cutting off most of the picture. On the bottom of the cover I have included websites that are useful and are linked to the album like the bands official website and the record companies website which can both be used to find out information and underneath the websites is a small print which just says things about copyright and who taken the photo's for the album covers. In the bottom right corner there is both of the record company logo's and a bar code, this is just to let people who buy the album know who is responsible for making the album happen as they are very important.

Posted By Tom

Digipak - Inside The Cd Cover

Inside Front

The inside of the front cover is an information page for the album. First of all we took a photo of a flame from a lighter and added it to the right hand side of the information page. I then added a quote from the song we did which was Architects - Heartburn and its the opening line of the song where Tom burns the photo of him and his ex girlfriend. I thought this was a good idea to include as this is the main song thats focused on in the whole album and the lit flame to the right side of the page links to the quote from the song so it gives it a good effect. I included the main people who helped created the album 'The Here and Now' as they deserve credit for making the album happen. I put there names in the colour yellow so they stand out above all other text on the page so people notice and it shows that they are important. At the bottom of the page I decided to leave a message from the actual band Architects that I made myself just saying Thank you to everybody that's supported them and to everybody who was involved with the making of the album.

Inside Back

The inside of the back cover is also linked to the song heartburn and contains an image from the music video we created. I got a screenshot from our music video of the opening scene where the image is burning on the floor and added some quotes from the song. The quotes go well with the photo as it gives you the impression that Tom is saying his ex girlfriend is the mess and by burning the photo is making it beautiful, so it has a powerful meaning. I have added a outline also of where the CD is going to be. Most of the album is focused on the music video 'Heartburn' as its the main song in the album as its the number 1 single from the band so that's the main focus.

Posted By Tom

Digipak - Front Cover

This is our final front cover that i created for my Digipak. I used the green screen room in college to take the photo of Douglas that is the main picture on the front of the cd cover. We gave it that professional effect by making the room completely dark and then shining a spotlight on Douglas from an angle so the light shines up one side of his body. I edited the photo on adobe photoshop and chose the text font myself as its a similar style the actual band would use for their products. I have included the name of the album at the bottom of the cd cover on either side of Douglas and I have custom made my own sticker that says some information on it like what you would find on an actual CD cover. The only inspiration I had for making this CD cover was the fact that the band Architects use a very similar font style to the one I have used.

Posted By Tom

Narrative analysis of our music video

In our music video the narrative is mainly linear and has some shots where it is seen as not a linear narrative. As our video is telling a short story of a boy who gets over his ex-girlfriend and starts all over again by helping people and getting a new girlfriend, whilst hitting passed the vocalist of the band. The shots of the story are mainly seen in the video but it also has cutaways to scenery around them and also cutting to shots of the vocalist lip syncing the song in a studio. So parts are seen as a linear narrative telling a story of the a boy, but looking over our video we decided is wasn’t a linear narrative as it doesn’t stay in one straight story line as it cuts from shots of the singer and the male protagonist. We concluded this by watching videos that were linear narrative and compared them to our video and we seen a big difference in between them as the linear narrative videos had no cuts to a singer or band just a simple small story with the song playing over the shots. These images show the story in brief:

We also found through that research that our music video does have a conventional narrative, for such it having a beginning middle and end. As we see Tom get over his ex-girlfriend by burning her picture and then slowly walking towards a new girl as he helps others on the way, coming to an end where he meets her and holds her hand walking away from the camera. Towards the end of our video we use the same shot of the burning photo from the beginning to emphasise him getting over a girl and starting with a new one. Overall the narrative in our video is a convention of a music video having a beginning, middle and end with is experimental sides of finishing with the beginning shot used in the video, which makes our video be seen as a real video which would be seen on tv or the internet by the fans of alternative rock.

POSTED BY DOUG

How mise en scene and performance contribute to representations in our music video

In our music video there are several representations to such thing as the alternative rock genre or how the singer is shown to the audience. The mise en scene throughout the video shows the representation of the song choice but not the genre of the band (alternative rock). As the song is a rock love/ballad song and the locations and the look of the video throughout the video shows a representation of a typical song which is a rock ballad. As the locations are set in wide open spaces in nature as the singer performs, the shots are edited to look much brighter then original shot to represent the song as a happy and joyful loving song and not just a rock song. The only representation shown in our video through mise en scene to show the alternative rock genre is the master shot where it cuts back to the studio where the singer is lip syncing the song which is seen in other videos with the same genre. As the singer is shown as the only image and performs in a way that is stereotypical of the genre, e.g. head banging. Overall the mise en scene is represented as a rock ballad but has elements of the genre we have chosen.



The performance side of our video shows the genre much clearer, as Douglas Sweeney the vocalist of the band shows stereotypical characteristics of a vocalist in the alternative rock genre. This is shown throughout the video as he over exaggerates his actions and emphasises them to get across the point and meaning of the song/lyrics. As the lyrics “Hold out your hands and lean upon me” are seen as him putting his arms out towards the camera to pull in the audience, which is seen in other videos of the same genre. The use of doing actions that are stereotypical of the genre will attract the audience much more than just simply lip syncing, as we made Douglas Sweeny head bang as that is what’s seen in modern society of music videos in alternative rock genre. Overall the performance in our music video is well thought out to able ourselves to sell the media product to the intended audience and make it seem real as an alternative rock music video through the performance.

The representations of males and females are also contributed by the use of mise en scene and performance. As the costume what the female in our video is wearing (Alex), is very stereotypical of the gender when the weather is cold. Where she is wearing stylish clothes that are practical to keep her warm and look reasonable as a pretty female, with the performance of Alex helping her aswel as she acts feminine and shy when Tom arrives. The vocalist is seen as a strong male by his facial expressions and the fact he is fighting the wind and cold in just a long shirt and jeans through the performance represents him as a strong male. The male protagonist (Tom) is seen as a sensitive male as he breaks up from his girlfriend and walks alone through the streets of failsworth. The costume he is wearing also shows his sensitive side of a male, as he is wrapped up warm in complaisant to the singer having minimal clothes on in such cold weather. Overall the female and males are represented as stereotypes seen in modern society, having a strong male and a feminine girl through the use of the mise en scene in the video and the performance elements from the actors in the video.

POSTED BY DOUG