R&B Album Covers Research

Britney Spears



From these two Britney Spears Covers you can see that she is the the center of her album and the cover to showing her. They are two clear different pictures and different images of her portraying her in two different ways. While Toxic is portraying a younger version and is creating a sex appeal to the audience her more recent album of Circus is portraying her as an innocent. It is appearing to be an older fashion with the hair and clothes and the look on her face. This seems to be a similar trend for female artist to be on the cover as this is seen from Shakira also.

Shakira



We can see Shakira is on the front and the center of the portrait. From the first Album cover from an older album, there is more of her figure and as Shakira developed she is known for her dancing and her star image has been similar throughout her career. Shakira genre of music is different to Britney Spears but they are both on the front of their album covers. This is seen also from Christina Aguilera, Cheryl Cole and Rihanna.


However, this is very different for the Indie Genre

Linkin Park & The Used



On both of these covers, neither of the artist are featured on the cover. The covers are representing the genre of the album and presenting the 'feel' of the album itself. This is very different to the solo female artists above. While they focus on Star image, this indie/rock genre focus on a representation of the album.

Looking at the two main genres which I would like to appeal to helps me to make crucial decisions about the album artwork and digipack which I will be creating. I will need to be sure that I include characteristics from both genres which will mean I will try and combine the two album works.

Day Two Shoot

Day Two Shoot
This day was also very successful; we managed to film more than we planned. We faced a few problems on this day which we had to overcome for example we needed to film other scenes which we originally planned for another day of shooting, but we needed the same location thus we had to think quick on our feet to get the right arrangements on the Monday before the shoot. There were several things which we had to do on the day like take the picture of George and myself for the photo frame. This was easy as we waited for us all to get together to travel to the locations; the locations were locate so they were easy to access.
A problem which we were faced with which we feared about was if the photo frame didn't smash when we dropped it. To work around this we took different shots where the audience would see the photo which she was carrying. We decided to be discrete to make it more interactive for the audience and used symbolism rather than literal meaning. Another problem we were faced with was the dog which the house owners have, we had to keep him out of the shots so they didn't ruin the moments, this can be seen in the video below where we forgot on our first take of the shoot. However, we managed to look after him well and keep him amused but also keep him out of the shots.

Day Two Schedule

This was the plan for the first day and how we had to keep to our timings. It worked out that we had to do certain scenes in a certain amount of timing. So this lead to us having to be sure that our timings were going to work.

10.00 // Meet

10.15 // Notepad scence. Close up of tear drop on page, wirting Numb and opening and closing book,

10:30 // Looking out of the window, close up of face
10:40 // Setting the scene. Put clothes on stairs, check the frames and do a practice/test shoot. POV shot of her looking at clothes

11.00 // Long shot of walking into the house, and dropping frame

11:30 // Different angles of frame (CU, Long shots, POV shots etc.)

12:30 // Lunch

1.30 // POV shot of clothes on stairs

1.45 // Mid shot of emotion on face. (dibelief, shock)

2.00 // CU touching hair, hand on face (oh my god)

2.15 // MS to LS of her leaving, camera stays still. Other angles of her leaving (higher and lower angles)

2.30 // CU of door closing

2.45 // Double check all footage. We know if we need to re-shoot parts.

3.30 // Finish

Day One Shoot

Day One Shoot
The first day of the shoot was very successful. We used the hours in the studio to our schedule and it was very accurate and precise.
The first day was very fun to shoot and we got a rage of angles and shots which I will be able to use. It was successful because we achieved what we aimed for and it was a good day.
We collabourated well together discussed the different angles and how it looked. We needed to change the microphone because it didn't work well with my performance in the video. It was good as we worked together to keep to our schedule and to stay on time. Above are pictures which we took throughout the day and the different jobs which we had to do.

Day One Schedule

Day

Preparations

These are the final conclusions about filming of my music video. It includes all the key features like the the location, costumes, actors and Props. Its important for me to be clear about all the things which I will need to have and be prepared for.

Shot List

This is the shot list which contains all the shots which we will be filming and what will be seen in all the shots. Its important to have the key points and moments in the in video.


This is our first version of the shot list and includes all the main components which we are going to include. Below is the finalised shot list.

Shot no. / Shot / Location, actors, props.

1. Close up - Shes not looking at the camera; shes looking out of the window. It will be in Mrs Baldwin house. We'll need water to make it look like shes crying and I'll be the only one in the shot.



2. Close up - It will of a notebook and like a tear dropping ontp the page on the word 'Numb'. It will be in the house and will need a notebook, pen and water.


3. Mid shot - Establishing the the scene and we see her singing into a microphone with her, looking and listening to the music; this will be in black and white. It will be in Park High Studio and I'm in the shot and there won't be any props but there will be background Mise en scene which shows the studio.

4a) Long shot - To establish scene and following them as they are walking on a bench. It will be in centenary Park. There will be two actors, Frankie and George holding hands and in love. There won't be any props in the shot.

b) Mid shot - In front of them sitting on the bench.

5. Close up - Up to her face and want her to be the main focus in the shot. It will be in the studio it will be from a different angle and closer up.

6. Long shot - It will be from behind the TV looking at the them together. The lighting will be dark and the lighting will come from just the TV, like watching a movie. It will be at the house on the sofa cuddling and becing really close.

7. Mid shot - Back into the studio, from a different angle onto the other side.

8. Long shot - From the side and quite low down. It will be in the Park on the bench and we watch George get up and he leaves Frankie.

9. Close up - Back into the studio from a high angle to show the her.

1oa) Mid shot - walking into the house. She walks into the house and closes the door. I look happy looking down and holding a photo frame of George and myself.

b) Point of view - Looking at the stairs and seeing clothes scattered up the stairs. After I'm in the house, the audience doesn't see me. They see the clothes on the stairs of a girl and a boy indicating he cheated on her.


c) Close up - My hand starts to drop with the photoframe. It has to be a close up of my hand clear and obvious that its my hand.



d) Extreme Close up - The frame dropping to the floor and smashing.


11) Mid shot - Back to the studio to watch me perform.

12) Close Up - Back to the house to see me in disbelief and shocked.
This is a video of a practice shot which we want to include. But unfortunately it will be very hard to achieve because of the area which we will be in; a small music studio. We managed to do this shot by sitting on a chair and moving around and controlling the movement and the camera. I'm quite sad that I won't be able to include this shot because I think its quite a powerful shot and it matches the song, furthermore its a professional shot which builds the atmosphere in the song.


This video is a practice of how I would like the frame to drop. Its important to get practice for the final shoot and to get an accurate view of the shot which I would like to see. This shot works really well, and intertexuality here as it has been done in several other music videos, but also in movies and TV shows to indicate an emotion of shock and devestation.