[Planning] Planning for CD Cover - Finding the Right Effect

Whilst planning out how I should make my album cover, I played around with some different effects on picmonkey, a photo editing site, and found a feature that allowed me to do as so which I tested with two stock photos;



I like the looks of this sort of effect, which is labelled "lighten" when I use the overlay feature and want to incorporate it into my idea for the album cover. This is because it seems peaceful, probably calming as well with the correct photos included. I will be messing around with other effects as well, but this effect stood out to me the most and was on I definitely think I will be using for the final idea.

A plan for what the album cover will look like will be coming up soon.

[Research] Case Study: Amy Winehouse Documentary

We did a case study on Amy Winehouse and the documentary made in memory of her life - "Amy". We went to go watch this documentary in a cinema to get the full effect of it as if we had watched it on a TV screen or something of the like, we would've not been able to get the full effect of this documentary. We watched this to see how the media portrays a star in the music industry as well as to get an insight into what Amy's life was actually like with all the press and such, as well as how she felt.

I looked at different sources for this case study which are mentioned in the presentation - such as the website: mediaknowall.com and looked at how that showed "Dead Pop Stars" and their fame, and also looked at the "Star Theory" in more detail by looing at it on the same website.

Amy winehouse - Case Study from Croudinator

[Planning] Company Logo/Intro for Music Video

I made an intro for my music video, one that could be classed as the company logo if paused at the right moment. This is an animated logo that I've planned on using - though I'm still deciding whether to use the slowed down version or the original version. For this intro, I used after effects and the masking tool, along with the gradient tool. I decided on the red colour as when people hear the word "psycho", they would often link it to crime scenes or the like, places with lots of blood. And well, blood is red, so this is how I made the link - the intro also looks like blood splattering about.

I followed a tutorial to figure out how to make this animation as it used many tools on after effects that I didn't know how to use already. It helped me to get used to using after effects more.

Below is the intro I made, one at the original speed and another at a slowed down speed.

[Research] My Target Audience

I thought about who my target audience would be for this music video and discuss it with others as well as to who my idea would work with. I applied the "Uses and Gratifications" idea to this to help decide more on what sort of audience this would work with as well as how it could make my target audience "escape from reality".

[Research] The Male Gaze

In media, we were asked to present Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze and we then decided to see how it is shown in a music video of our choice. I chose to look at Nicki Minaj's music video for "Anaconda" as I thought it would be a bit interesting, especially due to it agreeing with the criticism aimed at Laura Mulvey's theory.

[Research] Star Theory: Fall Out Boy & The Rapture

I looked into the star theory as it was an interesting theory to look at. I then applied it to two bands of my choice whom I did plan or am planning to use for my music video. I also decided to apply this theory to my own ideas of my stars and the music video.

[Planning] Update: Song Choice

I've decided to change what song I want to do for my music video - this is because the original idea for the last song wouldn't be easy to do as it would be all outside. I looked at future weather predictions and it would not just be darker than I'd want it to be but it'd be a lot colder and there has been a lot of mist as of recent - the mist may damage any items we take out for the video and thinking about the health and safety of those involved in the music video is priority.
So for my music video, I've decided to use the song "Rat A Tat" by Fall Out Boy.
They are a popular band and the music video that they have for the song is as well but I've decided to take my own spin on what to do for the music video. It would very much be the opposite to the idea I had for the other song as the idea for this one would be me using mostly lip synching but trying my hand at including the lyrics and quite a bit of special effects - just to make it a bit more fun.

Below is the song as well as the music video;