Album Cover Research

What works and what doesn't
I've had a look through some disk covers of artists similar to "Lexi Grace", to see the conventions; what works and what doesn't. They are not necessarily all album covers, I have included some singles as well, as I wanted to get an idea of placement (i.e. where the photos and text are laid out) and what catches the eye as well. The common theme demonstrated on the photos below seems to be simplicity. Whether it be an album cover or a single cover, they all feature a photo of either the artists' head and shoulders or full body, in a pose that anchors in the theme of the album or single, with a simple colour scheme and minimal text. There are no fancy effects, it's not too busy, the focus is just on the artist and her single/album. Even Lady GaGa's debut album cover, an artist known for being "out-there" and quirky, follows this formula, so it is definitely a convention we should consider following.

Shot List

Shot List

Test Photo Shoot with Liv

We had our first photo shoot with Liv yesterday, which was a success! Unfortunately (and typically, seeing as the shoot went so seamlessly), lots of our photos got deleted during the uploading process. However we still have a few shots left that we like, one of which (the first one pictured below), we may use for the actual album cover. It was interesting and exciting learning how to use all of the studio lights, which could be controlled from a laptop, and we all had good fun using the props and costumes to try and create an edgy, cool look for Liv. 

Costume Changes

For the days of the shoot (which have been confirmed as the 28th and 29th of October), we have each been assigned to come up with one costume change, which matches each of the four locations we have divided up between us. My location is Camden, and I want to have Liv walking through the market stalls and down by the canal. Below are some ideas for clothing for my particular section:

Although it's quite hard to see from the photos above what the overall effect would look like, I would like to have her dressed in a black bandeu leotard, with high-waisted harem pants over the top. Perhaps also with a plait belt similar to the one the girl is wearing in the picture. This look will be quite sexy but also with a hippy-ish 'festival' vibe that will fit in well with the surroundings.

In terms of accesories, I think red lipstick would pull the whole thing together nicely and make it look a little sexier, and aviator sunglasses might compliment the 'festival' vibe. Military boots would also go well with the harem pants:

Clothing Moodboard

Photos For Possible Locations

In our last lesson we discussed the criteria for the locations. We want to use beautiful or recognisable, iconic scenes in London, however without falling into the trap of using all of the obvious, touristy locations in London such as the London Eye and Big Ben etc. We want stunning places like the cobbled streets and markets of Covent Garden, the view from the bench that looks out off Parliament Hill, the coloured graffiti and the carousel at Southbank and so on. These are just some photos I found online, we have a location reccie booked in this week so that we can test our how busy these areas are and how effective they will be, and will post our actual photos onto the group blog.

New Actress

Although Abi and Tara were both good choices for our project, we decided the look we wanted for our actress would be a little more "edgy". For this, we thought a girl from our school year, Olivia D'Lima would be perfect. She's good-looking, but her look has a slightly more "London-look", edgy feel to it. She has short cropped brown hair and a striking face so she really looks the part and could also be dressed up into various different styles. She also does A-Level drama and was really enthusiastic to take part, so she seems to us the perfect choice. She's free during half term when we plan to shoot, she's punctual, good at time keeping, and gets along with all of us well. We're excited to work with her for the project!

Development of Our Ideas

The group decided to try out my idea of shooting a video in reverse on a trial run - there could be the potential for it to look tacky or to have technical problems and this is what we want to eliminate by testing out that a reverse video would work. We've also been brainstorming further ideas for what we want the video to include, and what we want the girl to look like. We were thinking of asking either Tara or Abi, two girls in our year to play our main singer:

a

Tara is a strong actress who is confident and looks the part. She's photogenic which would work well for our album cover, and is also reliable and punctual, and gets on well with everyone in our group, all qualities which would be perfect for our main singer.

Abi is also confident, good-looking and photogenic. Although she doesn't have much past acting experience there isn't really any narrative in our idea so this is not a high priority, as long as she is confident in front of the camera. She also has a strong 'london look', which is key for the part we have in mind, and gets along with everyone in our group.

We haven't asked either girl yet but if one of them agrees we will be drawing up a contract for them to sign and calling them in to style them and give them the lyrics of the song to learn and so forth.

My Group

The groups have been finalised and we had our first group meeting yesterday. I will be working in a group with George, Anisah and Joe. I'm really pleased and excited about this. I have worked on lots of projects with George in the past and we work well together, and will hopefully be able to play to each others strengths this time round. I have never worked with Anisah or Joe but I get on with them both well and it will be interesting to see what fresh ideas, inspirations and skills they can bring to the group.

Reverse video inspiration

Initial Idea

• After messing around with some of my previous initial ideas, this is one of my favourites.
• Little Boots, Meddle is a song that hasn't reached the charts and doesn't have any existing copyrighted music videos on YouTube.
• Lyrics such as 'don't go messin with a heart or messin with a mind', 'I'm a mixed up girl in a mixed up world' imply that the singer is in emotional turmoil
• We could continue the theme of disorder, and of the artist's head being in a mess by shooting our video in reverse, which would create the effect of a mixed up or crazy world. For example, if we were to film our main character walking backwards, and everyone around her walking forwards, this when played in reverse would have the effect of her walking forwards whilst everything surrounding her is backwards.
• We would have to be careful that it would not look tacky, or that it wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish within the time constraints and other restrictions regarding equipment etc., but it has been done before and is certainly possible given the correct time and planning.
• Spike Jonze's' music video for The Pharcyde, 'Drop' is shot entirely in reverse and has an effective end result, as is Coldplay's the scientist. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcX7Zweqgc0&feature=related, embedding for this video is disabled).