Editing the lip-sync

When editing our lip-sync task (preliminary task) I found that the software such as final cut express cut is easy to use once i got the hang of it. When firstly reading through the instructions it made the software look somewhat complex and it was clear a number of stages had to be gone through in order to simpley edit a few seconds of film, however when i started using it i found it was not difficult at all. We made all the cuts we needed and made the sound in time with the video to make it seem as real as possible. After we had put all our cuts in and put it all in line, we tried out all the effects to see how they would help us for our final task. We found that some of the effects didnt really do much but others will come in handy in our music video. I feel I have learnt all I need to know on the software to create a good music video and overall I am happy with the progress out group is making.

Ideas we will moved forward with

Now we had a number of songs we felt would be good to use for our music video we began discussing ideas of what we could and what styles/ connotations we may like to consider when using these songs, these are the two songs were seriously considering to use and why:

B.o.b - Magic
This fast paced song would allow us to experiement with a number of cuts and camera shots, really playing with the editing to create a modern styled music video that plays upon fast movement and upbeat feel to the song.
Our particular idea for this song would be to show a day in the life of our character, going to an audition to perform infront of a judge and generally show the gradually rise to fame for this character.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Cant Stop
This song is very fast paced and would require many fast cuts and experiemental angles, the style of music will allow a lot of freedom in terms of what we want to do, and will allow us to play with the idea of tension buliding which is dispalyed within the song beat.We will look to once again follow the audition theme, however experiement with a lot more random connotations as this style of music allows such a thing due to its versitile lyrics.

Kid Cudi, Star Image Collage.

Music video ideas

As a group we have been looking at and discussing a number of tracks we feel would be the right track for our music video. Youtube has become a great source for us, and it has allowed us to search through many music videos with different styles and genres, and we have used this to our advantage. After much discussion we have decided that it will be most beneficial with us to follow a pop genre, and a pop song as it allows us to use and experiment with a number of quick shots, range of angles and vary shot type. Originally we wanted to go for a either hip hop or indie genre however we found these music videos often restricted what you could do, as the style of music only really appeals to certain types of people/audiences.

Song Choice Possibilities:

- Naive, The Kooks
- Gives You Hell, All American Rejects
- Cant Stop, Red Hot Chilli Peppers
- Magic, B.O.B

Finished Album Cover

My B Money Album Cover - How i created it

I designed my album cover using photoshop.
Firstly i began with a simple image of our artist (B money) as i felt it was important that i built around the main feature of the album. In this case i took a picture that had a look of rebelious behaviour yet controlled to connotate the ideas a emotions of he artist we ar creating. I think this image is extremely striking and would appeal to an audience who desire ground breaking music that deals with such issues in a post modern way,tackling ideas of rebellious behaviour in the music industry.

I then look at enhancing the photo such as adding an outer glow in order to make the image stand out. I also then added promotion of our record label, placing the brand name on the cover twice as i felt in todays music industry this is something that is usual done to promote record labels. So to add to the realism of the cover i felt it was only neccessary. Additionally I have added a parent advisory label, also conventional of controversial music.



I then went on the add text sycronising with the colour scheme, and i felt that by manually enhancing the boldness of the name it made it a dominant feature, however not taking away from the powerful picture that stands behind.



I felt that my album cover was a success and was similar to ones we see in the music industry today. Although kept very minimalistic, i feel the cover connotes a real senseof power about the artist and displays his genre of pop/ hip hop music that is looking to change the industry in the way of the artist personality to rebel.

Video Analysis of Stromae - Alors on danse, and the way it will influence our peice

This particular song, is in fact sung in french, which in a positive way allows me to focus more upon and the importance of understandig its narrative and the video in general.
I feel as if this video can have great influence on our ideas and themes in terms of our narrative, as it similarly focuses on telling the story of the artist contiuously showing close ups and a the artists rections to such events, very much similar to our intial ideas.

Immdeiatley the video begins, by setting the scene and giving the audience a sense of the tone of the video and what sort of pace is likely to be used throughout. This allows immediate aprehension in the audiences mind as they wish to see what is behind this lifeless character and the reasons for his clear tiredness.

As the song progresses it takes us on a journey with the character through diffrent events of his day keeping it very much naturalistic in order to create a real connection with the audience in this case the target audience are party go'ers and it displays a real sense of 'weve all had these sort of hangovers' immediatley engaging the audienc through use of anecdote.

The main character in this piece in which similarly to ours is in fact the artist, shows clear signs of depression in the video and this is emphasied through cuts to close ups focusing on facial expressions, played alongside medium shots that display his full body languae and the situations in which he is in.

However we see that although he faces many hurdles and shows clear signs of 'giving up' on life if you will, he gains enjoyment and hope in the form of 'partying' which once again links back to the relation between the artist and the target audience and the way in which the video is basically connotating that no matter how bad things get, you should just enjoy life, and through translation of the title, which translates to 'so we dance' which is clear connotatio of the way that the artist is just getting through life and the way in which if he jus dances he is getting away from it all, which again link back to the audience and they way in which they may feel a connection to this idea, and the way in which similarly to this song they feel that times of partying for example just allows them to get away from the troubles and stress of life.

These ideas of using representations that link to the lives of our target audience i feel is intrumental in promoting a connection to the audience from our video and therefore forming the basis of a successful music video.
I will look to develop on ideas of this particular music video and communicate ideas to the group in order to benefit our final outcome.