Similar artists websites, album cover and logo

The Arctic Monkeys have a very similar style to our artist Alex Echo, The stick with the black and white theme throughout a lot of their websites, album covers and even music videos. Immediately you can tell that the band are Rock Indie as the video at the top shows the main singer wearing a leather jacket which is a typical item of clothing that fits into the genre of rock. The black and white theme also helps present the genre. 
The background of their album is plain black, this draws everyone's attention to the writing, links and videos. The website is clear and easy to read with the bold writing which contrasts to the black background.

Their album cover is very plain but very distinctive, as the band are very mainstream and tour globally, the simple album can be recognised immediately as the Arctic Monkeys. Where as Alex Echo who is a newly famous artist, by introducing him on the front cover of the album we are able to gain fans that are then available to identify his work from just the font, style and voice.









Their logo again is very distinctive, by using this on all of their work people are able to immediately identify the band without even reading the title but by acknowledging the font

Second Draft

Here is our second draft, we re-filmed the car section at the beginning and the two choruses. However we feel that the last chorus doesn't really fit in with the rest of the music video as the whole video is was filmed hand held, and the last scene wasn't. We are going to re-edit and place some Go Pro shots in.

Timeline of first draft on premiere

Here is the time line for our first draft video of One Day. The green bars are clips that we have edited on separate files and imported them to the first draft file, we found that doing it this way we were more organised and had more room to play around without overlapping anything or accidentally deleting anything from other sections. The blue bars which are mainly the chorus and parts that were missing from the other clips were edited on this file. Once all the verses were separately edited we positioned them in the same order as our story board, making sure the lip syncing was correct and parts of the verses fitted in with the beat of the music.

First draft!

Here is the first draft for our music video! Before recieving our feedback, we want to refilm the preformance bits as we feel that these do not compare to the successful GoPro footage. It lacks enthusiasm, the angles don't work very well and the colour. The shot of Alex Echo walking to the stage in the second chorus isnt very clear as to what is happening, when refilming we are going to include more people with headphones on and clipboards looking busy as if they were working backstage, we will also include a sign saying 'Stage This Way!' 

Colour correction

Here I played around with colour as the colour on our first draft was rather grey and dull. I changed the contrast and brightness and a much sharper, brighter outcome!

Digipack!

For our digipack we decided to stick with the black and white theme as this helps the audience identify that its Alex Echo, we also kept the same font throughout. The digipack includes a CD, the CD cover a poster and a digipack advert.

Institutional Research

For Alex , we created our own music label called The Magnets Music. This company fits into the indie style of Alex Echo, who is himself an indie artist.
If we used a mainstream record company such as Sony or Universal, it wouldn't fit in our genre. Bigger artists, who are globally recognized, would be hired by these companies.

Website Makeover!

After taking in the feedback we decided to give the website a completely new make over! 

http://alexecho.wix.com/alexecho

Website Evaluations

http://gracestarr.wix.com/gracestarr

The website for Grace Starr really portrays her character as young, girly and pop like. The website will target young females which i presume the artist is aiming for. There is a good combination of videos, previews, magazine articles and information on the artist herself. All the writing is in a similar font and colour so it fits in throughout the whole website. 

http://nicholas-alexander.wix.com/realna

The website for Nicholas Alexander doesn't really portray the genre very clearly, However the blue effect has been used quite a bit, this may be his significant image. Like Grace star, here is a good combination of interview videos and articles. This makes the website more exciting tan just having plain text throughout the whole site. 

www.encodedmusic1.wix.com/encoded 

Having the black and white theme really stands out, there's also a comic feel to it which could be their significant feature. The website is very boy like and will attract more of the male audience than female. I really like the count down at the top of the screen as this adds excitement. 

www.thycosmo.wix.com/cosmo 

This website has a slight comedy feel to it with the props used and the bold writing and colour. However, the website is quite plain and simple, there isn't much going on in the home page. It doesn't really draw me in.

New website

Here is a quick screen shot of the new improved website. I recreated a new one as there was a lot of criticism for our first website, i also found that it didn't fit in very well with the artist himself so i changed fonts and colours to make it more appropriate.

Website Feedback

Permission for the song

Here we emailed The Rifles asking for permission to use their song for our A2 media music video.

Radio One Interview with Live Lounge

This is the new interview we recorded with our artist, Alex Echo. It is as though the artist is appearing on Radio One, with the logo in the corner and the little transitions at the start and end. We also added the logos on the microphone, to create more realism. We added our lip syncing in at the end, as though it was a live lounge cover, which is a common feature on Radio One. The interview was refilmed as we didn't think the first one was adequate. This one has better camera angles, the guitar in the background and better questions and answers.

Audience Questions

We had a group of 30 people, of all different age groups from 12 - 60. We asked them questions about where they would expect to find our song, from just the song with no video accompanying it.

Music Videos are most common online and on TV. There are over 35 TV stations dedicated to music in the UK alone and YouTube is a 24/7 access website which hosts most music videos released ever.

Of all 30 asked, they would classify the music under the genre of Indie. Some were more specific, stating 'Indie Rock'. They would expect a music video from the artist to be featured on TV and online, as it doesn't contain any explicit or controversial lyrics.

When asked if it would be inappropriate to people of a certain age, all participaters stated no.

We then asked if they listened to the radio, with which 80% responded by saying they do listen to the radio. When prompted to state a favourite radio station, 7 appeared, with Kiss FM being most popular. Other stations that were mentioned were Heart, Radio 1 and BBC Essex.

Out of all the radio stations that were mentioned by the questionnaire, the most popular answer to 'Where would you most likely hear this song?' was Radio 1, which is a mainstream radio station.

We then asked the most popular form of listening to music in general. The most popular answer was through an iPod or iPhone. The second was on the radio.

Twitter!

This is the official twitter page of Alex Echo, this is where the fans can get updates on his personal life and upcoming events.

Instagram Posts!

 

This is the official Instagram account for Alex Echo! we have mainly stuck with the black and white effect as this is quite indie similar to artist Alex Turner.

Alex Echo Article

Alex Echo Radio One Interview

Here is our first interview with Alex Echo on Radio 1. We are going redo the interview as one of the cameras died during the filming, this then left us with only one angle which doesnt work very well as we cannot see the interviewers face. We also think the location for the interview doesnt work very well and we are going to set out a proper interview layout.

Preformance First Attempt

Here is our first preformance attempt. We are only including the preformance at the end to close the video. However we feel that it doesnt fit in with the rest of our video, a lot of the activities are outside whereas this is inside with quite boring lighting. We are now going to refilm the preformance outside.

Swimming Footage

Here is the swimming footage put together. For this section we included two characters instead of one, we did this by having the first character pass the second the camera this was at 0:16 seconds. We did an equal balance of shots under and above the water.

Once each section is edited we are going to roughly put them together in one sequal. From there we are going to ask for opinions from teachers and classmates to see what we can change to improve.

Teaser Trailer

Shooting Location - Carpark

For our opening shots, we will introduce the main character in a car, moving through a car park before then getting out the car and showing the skyline behind him. This will be somewhere in Chelmsford City Centre. We chose this location as it gives you some idea of where the artist is from and also his age, as it shows him being able to drive a car. This shows the artist has maturity, something he would want to portray to people who may potentially like his music.

Shooting Location - Riverside

For some underwater shots, we have decided to use our local leisure centre, situated in the city centre. Riverside Leisure Centre (top picture) has diving boards, which one character in the music video will jump before then passing the camera to another character underwater who will be dressed in appropriate water polo gear and then recieve and throw a ball. We have asked somebody who plays water polo to be in the video as it then makes it easier for the crew to film him.

Website Analysis

I think that our website is successful as it shows the clear genre of Indie this is because of the font and the black and white colour theme. The website itself is easy to use, for example fans would be able to easily explore each page without having troubles. Everything is clearly labelled too. There are various images of the artist as well as a link to the official Instagram feed, this keeps the fans updated as well as the regular feed updates.

The website also holds information and a short biography on how he was inspired to create music and how he made it. The bio is written by the artist himself, this helps give the fans a brief idea on his character.

Barcelona Locations

 

One my trip I filmed in places such as Park Guell, on the plane, walking around the town and at the airport.

Website

The website was made live today!

http://sarahmaerz5.wix.com/AlexEcho

Practice Preformance

Here we did a practice run for the preformance. I feel that this didnt work very well as the frame isnt adjusted right and it is quite boring to watch him standing in one position. However by doing this we got to play around with the lighting.

Location for preformance

Shots from the set of our performance location, in our schools drama studio. We had access to all the props and lights, to get the correct atmosphere.

Risk Assessments



Barcelona footage

This is the footage that i managed to film in Barcelona cut down to 29 seconds with the music over the top. We really liked how the sunny weather gives a happy atmosphere which works well with the upbeat music.  I filmed most locations that we went to. I captured various footage such as plane journeys and city life whilst on the trip. I came back with over 5 minutes of footage from the trip, this is a good thing because we have the advantage to cut it down to 29 seconds of different locatoins. Each shot is very quick transitioned and short, this is to keep up with the tempo of the song.
 I think this worked very well as the sunny atmosphere reflects on the upbeat tempo of the song.

Drama Studio Arrangement

Here is evidence of Dom asking the head of drama for availability to access the drama studio, where we will be filming the performance elements of our production.

Stealomatic

This is the stealomatic for our video. We took parts of other videos and music videos and placed it into one with the song playing over the top. These videos are all inspirations and similar to what we shall do for our video. 

Barcelona

I am going on an art trip to Barcelona for the weekend, we are going to take advantage of this by filming parts of my trip with the GoPro. I am going to film the airport, the plane taking off, and a many locations as possible. The GoPro will be taken out of the bag at the airport and used in a touristy way, i will film  my weekend as if i was sharing it with my friends and family onto Facebook or YouTube. The majority of our music video is filmed as a 'selfie' so i am going to hold the GoPro in front of me but making sure the background is still included. I am also going to try and include drawing from the art trip.  Im also going to include some of my friends so its not just based around one character as the Barcelona section lasts 30 seconds. 

This opportunity is giving us the chance to film in a variety of locations, not only in one country but in two, with different weather types. 

CD design two

After looking at other artists CD's we realised that the CD was too plain so we added some more text and shapes. We wanted to keep the same theme and not go too over the top.

CD

This is a draft for our CD to go in the DigiPack. It is quite plan, however it fits in well with the rest of the DigiPack as the same font has been used. 

DigiPack First Draft

This is the DigiPack, it has the front and back covers on the left and right. The images underneath will be on the inside of the CD case. The bottom left cover contains codes to download the CD digitally without having to put the CD in the computer. This would be very helpful for people who like to download music straight to their phone. This creates a wider target audience as the CD would appeal and be suitable for more people.

Lights and Lip Syncing Experiment

This is a short experiment with light and lip syncing the song chosen for the music video. We also wanted Dom to get into the character of Alex.

We feel that the dark walls and lighting doesn't show our genre of music, it looks more metal/rock than indie. For our performance shots in our final video we are going to experiment with using the same lights but on a white surface instead of black. We can do this  by pinning a sheet against the wall.

Gallery Page on our Website

Info Page on our Website

Here we gave a breif biography on the artist for the fans to get an insight on Alex Echo and how he became famous.

Album Cover

These are the front and back cover for the album cover of Alex Echo's debut album 'Mistaken For Strangers'. We stuck with the black and white effect as we feel that it looks more vintage and indie than it did when it was in colour. 

We chose to use this image as the background is quite grungy and old, this contrasts with the Alex Echo himself. We positioned the artist in the center of the frame, this brings most of the attention to him.

DigiPack Inside

This image would be on the right hand side on the inside of the CD. There is four photos of the artist with a quote from the single 'One Day'. 

This image would be on the left hand side of the inside of the CD cover. It contains codes which allow you to download the music straight from your computer instead of inserting the CD. This would be very useful in this time as the internet and phones seem to be grossing everyday. 

Mystery Jets Analysis

The album cover for the Mystery Jets tells us a lot about the group. For example the picture is framed in the shape of the country Texas. This immediately gives me the impression that the genre is country as a  lot of country music originates from that area. The image itself also expresses this as they're sat on a porch with a guitar and a rocking chair, their outfits such as cowboy boots, embroided shirts and a lot of denim also fit into the country theme.
Each of the band members fit exactly into the frame and all have an equal share of space, this gives me the impression that they are all equally important.

Storyboard

Song Breakdown

This shows all the natural cuts in the song such as chorus's and instrumentals. We will use this as a guide to help us to decide when we need to introduce a new character. Ideally we would like to have a different scene for each section. The problem with this is that one of the shots will then only last for 1 second. This will not be appropriate for us to introduce a new character. We have the idea of using Dom our main character in peformance style for each of the chorus's, we will try overlapping the action into this instrumental to irradicate trying to introduce a new character too quickly. 

Our Fan Website

 Here are a few screenshots of our fan website, which updates everyone on the latest news, videos and photoshoots. There is also a short biography giving the public a little insight on Alex's life and how he became successful.

What Could Go Wrong

Here we wrote down what could go wrong while filming in our chosen locations, so we are prepared to take in the problems and work around them if needed.

Alex Echo Photoshoot

For these photographs of Alex Echo we decided to keep the theme black and white as this reflects on the genre indie. 

These photos have been inspired by Alex Turner in the music video for 'R U Mine" the whole video is in black and white and the main artist Alex Turner is wearing a black leather jacket. Similar to what our artist Alex Echo. 

GoPro

Due to our music video containing some adventurous activities such as mountain biking, swimming etc. We thought that using a GoPro would be more suitable to film with. This way we are able to use the camera underwater and with the size we are able to tie it to the bike.

Here we played around with the GoPro to see what effect it gave, we found that it gave a round lense effect which would work well as it gives an open effect that could present that the world is open to adventures.

We also thought that the picture qaulity was good, however once exported onto youtube the picture is a less qaulity. We will try and resolve this by adapting settings on premiere.



Group analysis

Here are our group analysis'. Every member in our group filled in this sheet assessing everyone on their strengths and weaknesses. This was very helpful as we now know how the group feels about each persons contributions. We are also able to work on our weaknesses and work to the best standard we can to achieve a high grade.

Here is my self assessment, I wrote my strengths and weaknesses for the group to understand what i feel like im best at and what i need to work on.