Videos and Cover Art

During my research it has become increasingly obvious that music videos and artist's covers are very much interlinked and that the themes from the song and video are transferred into the marketing. Thus it's important to make sure the single cover I make completely reflects my music video and vice versa.


Sometimes the themes are even stronger as stills from the actual video are used as the cover art. Therefore I need to make sure that my video keeps a constant in its quality. 

Cover Art

Calvin Harris has been a big influence on my music video. His video for Feel So Close has a very intense feel while being beautiful to look at and reflecting the themes of the music. It's an example of an interlinked video and single cover. I like that it's very direct and to the point and very simple - just having the title and artist name.


The themes of the song I've chosen are about a break up. The female is singing about how their relationship could have been good (suggesting she was angry over the break-up) but she's glad it's over now (implying he dumped her) as she can now see that he 'played' her and that she's much better off without him. I see this as a positive message which is why I want to make sure the song ends on a positive note. 
Also as I'm using a remix it has a different sort of edge to it. It has a sort of caribbean feel and the extra use of drums makes it almost more aggressive and has a faster pace. 

Source

I need to remember, whilst editing, these themes and try to continue them through as I start to put together drafts for my ancillaries. 

River/Interlude/Forest: Rough Cut - Director's Commentary

I've recorded a 'director's commentary' explaining my thoughts and ideas for the process so far in putting together a rough cut of part of the music video. 

River/Interlude/Forest: Rough Cut

I've been editing a lot these past few weeks, and have managed to put together a rough cut of the middle part of my music video.

I'm happy with it at present and asked a few people in my class what their thoughts were. Some of the things they said was that they liked the variety of shots and that it had good clarity. They also said they liked the colours, but to try a draft with the interlude in black and white.


Next I'm going to do a director's commentary of where I am so far and how I want to progress.

Ancillary: Research

As my brief is to create a promotion package for the release of an album, I need to not only include a music promo video, but to also create 2 of the 3 options...
- a website homepage for the band
- a cover for its release on CD
- a magazine advertisement for the CD


I think a website would be less appropriate than the other options as my song is a remix and thus not one single artist or band. Therefore I have decided to make a CD cover and magazine advert for it. 
Today I'm going to look at existing products for CD covers to get some inspiration and ideas for my ancillary task.


Firstly, the original Adele single cover for Rolling in the Deep...

Her album cover is similar - black and white with a simple pose and fonts...

Her colour scheme is black, white and lime green so very simplistic which may be something I want to take on board.


There are two covers for the song I'm using...

Other xx covers for their singles also feature heavily the colour black, but with interesting art and colours...

So far I've learned that the colour black is very prominent and that simplicity is key. I'm now going to look at some other covers that I like to see what works...

Ancillary Research

View more presentations from SEW24

Permission Letter

Today I sent off this permission message to XL Recordings, the record company for both Adele and Jamie xx.


"Dear XL Recordings,
I am currently studying A-Level Media Studies at The King's School, Devon and as part of my A2 coursework I need to create and produce a music video.
As a big fan of Jamie xx’s remix of Rolling in the Deep by Adele I have chosen to use this song and am writing to whomever it may concern, to ask permission to do so.
As it is part of my coursework, the song will be used for educational purposes and so it won’t be distributed or marketed for financial gain in anyway.
I hope that you would grant me permission to use this song for my Media Studies coursework and I hope to hear from you soon.
Yours Faithfully,
Sarah Williamson"


As I couldn't find an email address I used this contact portal on their website to submit my letter...

Interlude Feedback

Over the weekend I managed to get some feedback on my Interlude: Rough Cut. I posted on Facebook, asking for feedback:

Here are the replies...

As you can see there are a few conflicting answers, including some helpful advice which I will look at trying. I'm thinking of having it without lyrics except for maybe one or two to make a better impact (e.g. the 'tears' one). I will also try it in black and white to see if that works or not. 

Interlude: Rough Cut

I've put together a rough cut of my interlude which you can see below...

(In the process of uploading to YouTube the colouring seems to have gone more purple than blue so I will alter that before the final product.)
However, whilst editing I thought of the idea of putting some of the lyrics over the video to make the message have more impact, which I tried out...

I'm not sure which works best so I'm going to have to get some feedback before I make a decision.