As part of our digipak we have decided to do a photoshoot next week of our artist for an album cover, to make it look realistic and glamorous we have researed into previour female album covers to get a better understanding of what we need to do. Weve ddecided that we want just the artists face in the shot, and only half in the frame as we want to portray her sweet and innocent look, we dont want to draw attention to anything around her. To achieve this image we have researched on YouTube for inspiration and makeup ideas and weve tested these out for ourseleves and taken photos to see how they look on camera againt certain lighting.
We looked at artists such as Sugababes, in particular we liked this video Change because it conveys all the four seasons throughout a year. In this photo the Spring aspect is illustarted, we really liked the eyelashes used to show the cycle of flowers opening up. There are simple shots used infact hardly any complicated angles or edgy frames. The majority of the shots are mid close-ups where the artists are placed in the middle with a few close ups of the face and make up throughout the video.
Her videos often offer a strong contrast between her two personas, as a ordinary girl and as an artist. This idea is shown between the difference in how she dresses, her hair and make up, and by usually being seen in close up in a one shot when she is presented in a glamourous way rather than 'the normal girl'. By doing so, her star image is reinforced, creating the idea for the audience that anyone could become like her due to her 'ordinary girl' everyday image.
By watching several of Taylor Swift's videos, we have found that the locations used in them are easily accessable and would be good to base our own on. We watched the video for Taylor Swift's 'Mine' where Taylor is pictured outside in a forest with rows of photographs hanging from string. We found this really inspiring as the idea of personal memories is really important to the style of video we are creating and hope to achieve a simular final look.
After watching other videos, 'Teardrops on my guitar' and 'Whitehorse' in particular, we noticed how the bedroom is used as a main location. We really liked the idea of doing this in our own video as it is easily accessable and makes a strong connection between the artist and audience as it is a very personal location.
Rihanna's video for Only Girl (In The World) is a really good example of a music video which in some respects doesnt relate much to the lyrics but the video is very powerful and entertaining which keeps the audience engaged throughout. Rihanna is alone at all times but the effectiveness is shown within the props and location. She is surrounded by beautiful views of never ending fields, rocks and mountains. The props and locations used are what make the video really stand out from others, the clothes shes wearing in the picture above are simple but the sleeves are exaggerated allowing the wind to blow into it and as shown behind her it has created a beautiful redish yellow colour. All these small tricks make the music video look alot moew detailed than it actually is.
Here Rihanna is posing with a giant flower which again has no relation to specific lyrics in the song but is almost taking up the entire frame of the camera, there is nothing glamorous about the location in this specific shot but in contrast to that her clothes are very glamorous and shiny which make keeps the audience lock onto her. We need to take this into consideration when filming our music video so that it doesnt get boring and that theres something going on throughout to keep the audience engaged. This can be easily done using the right cuts like in Rihannas video alot of repeated shots are used within seconds of each other and slow motion aswell to emphasise her dancing within the beat of the song. We aim to create something like this where there is alot of detail to minor and unsual props or locations that is unique and fun but also in keeping with the theme of our song.
After futher discussion we decided we needed a variety of different locations and were lucky to find out that one of your group members uncles owned a resturant + bar. This is ideal for our music video as it has the right elements we need. A bright lively place so that we can get a group of people and our artist to dance, have a few cocktails and record them enjoy themselves. Preferably the footage we get will be used towards the peak of the song when she puts her feelings aside and decides to go out and have fun with her girls. It reflects a postivie image, the idea that life should be enjoyed, the bar just gives it that glamorous feel and also adds to the continous narrative throughout the video.
The pop video for Airplanes by B.O.B and Hayley Williams is very abstract because although its located in a simple warehouse with little if none props it is still very effective. The video features several frames of B.o.B rapping his verses in a party setting, on stage, and room filled with lights and occasional song lyrics while Hayley Williams sings the hook in a light filled room and walking through photographs. The idea of Hayley Williams as a silhouette in the front of the camera frame with bright lights in the background works really well in creating a magical, funky look that fit with the lyrics, its about wishing and wondering what would've happened if they never became famous so the idea that their in a empty warehouse with only the bright colours to reflect their emotions portrays their feelings through imagery and sound. Although we don't have such resources to create something like this, we can make the best of what we do have and try to make our own interpretation that will be suitable for our music track. We could interactive whiteboards and play a stop motion collection of pictures and have our artist standing in front of the board so the video is reflected onto their body and the artist will look almost camouflage. We can also experiment and remove the artist from direct light so that we too can create a silhouette effect, we will be experimenting with these options to see what works best and then working to expand it.
Star image is also really important. Features such as hair and makeup is exaggerated alot to make artists look fashionable and done up, to prtray they idea they can afford this makeup and the sylists for the hair therefore they live really great lives. Here hayley williams especially has bright hair which is a major part of her image, its what people notice about her immeadietly. Her makeup aswell is really bright and its all about taking the simple locations and shots and changing minor details to them. In this particular music video we also noticed how Hayley Williams is rarely enganging with the audience and making eye contact almost to distance herself from reality, the whole point of the song is to focus about dreams so this is a really effective to present that, however we think to keep with the tone of the music it will be better for our artist to have alot of contact with the camera and audience to make it more personal as the song is for people to related themselves to it, its interesting to see how it can easily be made in the opposite way though.
We chose to focus our costume research on four current artists; Pixie Lott, Cheryl Cole, Ellie Goulding and Ke$ha. Although these artists all have slightly different styles in their music videos we chose to analyse two more mainstream pop icons which are Pixie Lott and Cheryl Cole, and two more quirky artists which have indidvidual styles which are Ellie goulding and Ke$ha. Pixie Lott tends to wear black in most of her videos when they are relating to sad lyrics and to contrast the background colour of the set so she stands out. In the 'cry me out' and 'gravity' videos she has several costume changes however remains in black. She tends to wear floaty dresses so she can move around and dance however often wears tight fitting garments to emphasize her figure and add to her star image re-inforcing the fact that she is young, sexy and fashionable.
This is similar to the way Cheryl Cole is represented in her music videos through the use of costume. She tends to wear a variety of colours in her music videos however fits with the colour pallette of red, white and black. In Cheryl Cole's music videos she doesnt dance as much as Pixie Lott so her costumes are more to show off her figure so her star image is reinforced and due to the fact that she is a style icon her costumes focus more on reinforcing this aspect rather than making them based on practicality of being able to dance. Both pixie lott and Cheryl Cole are represented as being glamorous and fashionable which is strongly shown through their costumes and due to them being mainstream pop artists their costumes tend to follow current high street fashions.
However Ellie Goulding and are more quirky artists with a very individual style and a sense of mystery to them which is the image we want to create for our artist. Their music also crosses between the pop genre and electropop which is the genre of music our artist creates. Both Ellie Goulding and Ke$ha costumes tend to be more extravagant and tend to follow current and previous catwalk styles as this reflects upon their star image and the genre of music they create. Their costumes are based upon more extravangant designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen which reflects upon their original style of music
