our draft music video

Media Mock Video Bombay Bicycle Club Shuffle from Tom Lamb on Vimeo.

Schedule List

I have produced a schedule list below to ensure that we stick to our plan and also meet all the deadlines that have been set. The mock Video must be completed by Friday 28th October and the final video and digipack must be in by the 18th November.

We are planning to spend a day filming on Monday 24th October in Brimingham. We chose this date because every band member we decided to use was free on this date. Obviously there was some risk involved in  relying on one date, for example the weather. However we were relatively lucky and the filming went to plan.

The trip to Birmingham was only half of the video, and we are planning to film the band performance in the school drama room on Thursday the 27th of October. Some may see this as risky as it so close to the deadline, however we plan to edited all of the footage from Birmingham beforefilming the band performance.

Depending on how much time we have after filming the band performance, we may take some photograpghs of the band to use for the digipack. If we do not have enough time the Digipack photographs will be taken at a later date.

Key Dates:

• Music Video Mock - Friday 28th October
• Final Music Video Deadline - 18th November
• Filming Day in Birmingham - 24th October
• Filming Band Performance - 27th October

Mock Up Magazine advert/Poster

Here is my mock magazine advert/Poster. Like the Santogold poster I analyzed in an earlier post this poster is designed to follow the representations/themes of the album cover mock up. I have continued the idea of using playing cards by creating this magazine advert. I have used a picture of an ace and simply added text. Despite the simplicity of the design I am very fond of what I have created as I believe it looks unique and suits the genre of the music our band creates. However as this is only a mock up changes can be made and looking back at my research I may add a silhouette of the band. I took inspiration for this idea from the magazine advert by the Foals featured in an earlier post. I believe adding a silhouette to this magazine advert would add the finishing touches by showing off more photoshop skills and also show more creativity. Using a silhouette would be better that using an image of the band as would fit with the simplicity idea and also stick to the black and red colour scheme. This would look something like the poster below:

After looking at both options I definitely believe that adding the silhouette of the band members definitely adds something to the overall finish of the poster and will definitely be something that I may look to produce for my finished poster.

Digi-Pak 3 Page Image

I've been trying to decide what I want on the 3 inner pages on my Digi-Pak. I've been looking at some examples from artists that are of a similar genre or of a style that I like. Here's some examples;


I like all of these 3 page spreads mainly because of the fact that they link together in an obvious way.

To beging with, Arctic Monkeys' Favourite Worst Nightmare 3 page spread are all images of the artwork that they have painted inside different locations and then taken a picture from outside with all the lights on. The CD itself has a close up of one of the images that they painted inside. I think the whole thing works well and looks pretty smart.

Secondly I have been looking at Glasvegas' debut album. At first glance this inside cover looks very simple, however when you take a further look at it it's really not. The whole thing is one big image, split upto into the 3 separate covers. I really like this idea and they have stuck to the same colour scheme throughout all aspects of the release.I'm not too sure what exactly the images at the bottom are representing, possibly where they grew up or something, i'm not sure. All in all I really like this idea of using one big image I will be definitely using it.

Out of the three this really is my favourite. They have once again used the 3 covers to produce one big image and this time it looks exceptional. They have used the disc as part of the image so that it aligns perfectly to keep the image, this idea is one I will be looking to incorporate in my own work. I also like the way that they fold out in this cover is actually glued down [the bottom page is] and then you can still flick through have have a look. The fold out is actually all images similar to that of these, with all the same colour scheme. I really like this and I will now be looking to use a fold out in my own work.

Album - ?

The album name for the band for the purpose of my digi-pak and adverts, tour dates etc will be called '?'.
I have chosen to do this as I feel it fits with not only the lead single 'Shuffle', but it also fits well with the band being called LA Unknown. It fits with 'Shuffle' in the sense that you don't know what to listen to, so you shuffle things, and obviously related to the unknown in the band name.

Furthermore, I have chosen to have my album consisting of 10 tracks. I have chosen to do this because it seems that with a bit of research artists that are releasing albums these days are now only really lasting around 35 minutes and the 10 track mark is perfect for getting 10 short, snappy, indie songs out there to their fans. I think it fits well with the idea of my simplistic back cover as it means that I won't have a big long list, instead a simple, basic one. I have not yet decided what I will be naming the tracks, but I want to be able to make links between the album front cover and also the track names. I have also decided I will not be having any 'featuring' artists on my band's album as this will only detract the attention away from my band and as this is their debut I won't it to be just their work and no one else's.

Mock Ups

My digi-pak kicks off with my front cover. Despite it only being a black and white drawing it's quite clear to see it's rather busy. I figured that to take over 60 photos for my mock ups would be a bit silly, so decided to give a drawing of what i'm hoping to achieve with it. Obviously colour is missing and i'm planning on my front cover being pretty colourful, I have also incorporated the black almost 'border' which i'm glad looks good [in my eyes at least]. [see previous posts for ideas on front cover]

For my back cover I basically wanted to keep it simple. Everything is going to be black and white, basic, nothing fancy and I hope to keep it very minimalistic. It will consist of just the band's album name, and the 10 tracks that will be on it. [see other post explaining the tracks]. The cover is very much inspired my Mark Ronson's debut album back cover, everything is simple to the point and it works, very well. 

For my third image I wanted to have a photo of the band, at this stage this is actually an image taken of the Camden band 'Tribes'. They are of a similar genre to LA Unknown and have a similar dress sense so I thought it would be appropriate to use them. I feel this band image will give the band their identity somewhat and it also actually shows the consumer who the hell made this record their listening to.

The 3 inside pages was a really tough decision for me [as i've explained in a further post]. I finally did come to the conclusion that I wanted to the 3 pages to be of one image, or at least 3 separate images that still link in someway to the other pictures [as shown on a further post].

I intend to be having a panoramic shot of something like a forest, as I have on the mock with the inclusion of the band's instruments which will be vacant. I think this whole idea fits everything well, it fits the genre of the alternative style as it's something different in terms of having the instruments there but with no one playing them, the location also seems fitting with my genre as i've seen a few other indie/alternative artists using similar locations for photo shoots etc. Lastly I believe it fits my band name well as this forest will hopefully look mysterious and leave people wondering where on earth this photo shoot was taken.

This Magazine advert is one that has taken huge inspirations from Radiohead. The layout is similar however I've encorporated certain aspects of other adverts i've seen throughout my research, such as Foals' Total Life Forever one for the different formats of the release being listed. The date I have used is actually the 29th of February which wasn't just a random choice [as explained in a further post]. 

The fonts i've used are nearly all Futura just different Futura fonts, and also the '?' is actually a different font altogether. I have chose to include iTunes and HMV logos as the place to get the album, I came to this decision as in my eyes digitally iTunes is the place to download your music if you're buying it. On the other hand if you want the digi-pak/CD/12"/LTD Edition Boxset I believe the leading store for this would be HMV. I also used the advert as a way of promoting the band and gave their official website. I came to this conclusion as i'd seen it was a very common convention, which makes sense as it is just another way to get more people onto the band's website and hopefully buying some music or merchandise. 

Mock Up Back Cover

Here I have produced a mock up of the back cover of my album. I have again used found images as it is only a mock up. I have also used Bombay Bicycle Clubs song list from their album Emergency Contraception Blues. For this back cover I just found the picture on the internet and used photoshop to copy it and place it in the right position. The idea behind the back cover was almost identical to the front cover. However the way they are positioned will make it seem the front and back of a hand of cards. The idea of using cards has relevance to our song as the name of the song is 'Shuffle'. The idea of using cards fits perfectly with the name of the song. 

Mock Album Cover 2

Here is another idea I had for my front cover. I took inspiration from the Notorious XX album which is shown below. For this I simply cut out LA which is from the band name LA Unknown, I then layered a picture behind the cut out, however as this was only a mock up I used a found picture of Bombay Bicycle Club. I decided to use Bombay Bicycle Club as they have four members, exactly the same as we are planning to use. I also chose them as they produced the song we are using in the video. When producing this mock up I found out that it was much more difficult than I thought to line up a photograph with the cut out letters, as you can see from the picture above you cannot see the whole face of each band member as some has been cut off by the edge of the letters. To overcome this problem could be quite difficult as I would have to dissect the photograph so that each band member would fit wholly in the letters. This could cause problems with the continuity of the background and could force me to use a blank background in the photograph. I also took inspiration from the peace orchestra and XX album covers, in the way that when you bye the album the LA lettering will be properly cut out with the picture layered behind this, I believe this will show more skill and also make the album cover seem more professional.

 

Again any comments would be welcome as feedback will help me to decide between the two ideas I currently have. 

Location

Obviously with our main shooting taking place in Birmingham itself it would be difficult for us to actually to go to Birmingham purely to just go and take photos of our possible locations due to the distance it is and how much it would cost us in travel expenses.

Therefore I have spent a bit of time going around the web trying to pull the exact images of places we will be using, for example the train station below is the one we will be using [Rugby]. All of the other images are as close as we can get for our location venues and there are some that we cannot actually get hold of at this point.

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More Adverts

This White Lies poster is a very simple but very effective one. They have used their album artwork for their second studio album 'Ritual' which is the two young girls, in front of some kind of panel with a curtain. This image is very eye grabbing as you get the feeling that the girls are staring at you, which could be appealing to lads in particular. They use the fact that the majority of their shows are already sold out to good effect with the highlight in red and capital letters SOLD OUT. 

They use the traditional font for their band name that they always use and give the logos of the bands that are supporting them. Furthermore they follow all of the usual conventions of giving away details about dates, locations and either a hotline or websites or even both where the tickets are available to purchase.

For me this Radiohead album poster is class. It's very simple, yet extremely effective. The first thing you will notice is the fact that the band's name is actually reversed and shown backwards, however it is still clearly readable. I think that this is a simple yet effective technique as it is very much an eye grabber. Apart from the band's name and the album title there is little information given, just the basics of where to get the album and the date it's out. The image used on the poster to many will look irrelevant however it is in fact of the tree the album is named after, believed to be around 1000 years old.

Fenech Soler here are once again keeping this basic, which I appreciate. They simply have a picture of the band, the band's name and all the information expected to be seen on a tour poster; details about dates, locations and either a hotline or websites or even both where the tickets are available to purchase.

The poster is completed for me with a little quote about the band, highlighting the fact that big names within the music industry have recognised Fenech Soler's work and tipping them for big things, which will of course only increase sales.

Them Crooked Vultures have a gem of a tour poster here for me. They have given it the old fashioned look, making it seem like it should be pinned onto a wooden lampost a hundred years ago. There's nothing to fancy, just an image of the band, obviously with Vultures for heads, in reference to their name, but apart from that it's just the usual details about dates, locations and either a hotline or websites or even both where the tickets are available to purchase.

This Foals poster is one of my favourites. Like the Radiohead it's advertising the new album and everything is so simple. They have the band's name, the new album's name, when it's out, the platforms it's available on and then finally a link to their official website. The image used is that of the album artwork for 'Total Life Forever'.

This is a poster from a band called Yuck. The artwork despite looking strange, and possibly making you say the bands name out loud, is actually relevant as it is the very same artwork as on the front cover of their debut studio album. The biggest font on the poster is that of the band's name. The colour scheme is fairly basic, using whites, black and a red. The poster once again offers details about dates, locations and either a hotline or websites or even both where the tickets are available to purchase.

I don't really like this Cage The Elephant poster for a number of reasons. For me, the name of the band should be clear and should be something that you avoid tampering with, unless of course it's something that will still be easily readable such as when Radiohead reversed their name on their album poster. The colours seem week, the layout for me is weak and I believe they would benefit from a much stronger and bolder font. Apart from that everything else seems alright, in terms of details about dates, locations and either a hotline or websites or even both where the tickets are available to purchase.

I found this postcard in my room from a gig I went to early last year. It was given to me for free as I was leaving the venue. I thought it was a good way of promoting the at the then time unreleased album, as it was something that was different to your average poster. The information on there is obviously minimal with just the band's name and their new album's name.

This Macccabees finish off my poster/postcard post off nicely with their touring poster for their second album 'Wall Of Arms'. The image used is the same as that of the 'Wall Of Arms' artwork, which works very well in terms of layout. They have then opted to keep things very simple underneath with just black and whites in terms of colours and with the details about dates, locations and either a hotline or websites or even both where the tickets are available to purchase etc kept very simple. I also think it looks good with the poster not only advertising their tour, but with a little comment made about the new album, and a direct link to their official website. 

My Back Cover

I've decided for my back cover it will be totally black, with just the track names in a bold white font. I came to this decision because I will be having a very busy front cover and I've had a look at a few albums that have had busy front covers, and the general theme is to either once again, sticking to the idea on the front, make everything once again busy, or to just go the total opposite way and to have everything simple.

I am pushing towards the more simple style of the two, as I believe it works a lot better with things such as track titles, you want it to be easy to read, simple and most of all clear.

Mark Ronson's debut album is a perfect example of this;

His front cover is a similar idea to what I want to do with the collage, however it is a slightly simpler 'version' of my idea. I do however really like the ripped effect that has been used on this album artwork and am intending to use this effect on my front cover in places. 

In contrast to his front cover, the back cover of the album is just like the one I want to do, it's very simple and effective. 

Once again I think Mark Ronson gets this totally right, his album is already a bit 'all over the place' with so many featuring artists on nearly all of his tracks, he obviously didn't want to make anything more complicated that it already had to be and kept things very simple with this back cover. I will definitely be trying to do something very similar. 

There are other examples of this style of back cover, and are all very self explanatory. The colour scheme is 2 colours, with the simple effect of having just the track names and not a lot else on the back.

Album Cover Ideas

When it comes to album covers I am very much a fan of the simplistic and relatively plain covers. In this post I will provide some pictures of relatively simple album covers which I am looking to use for inspiration for my Digipack. This post will also show that I have thought long and hard about my album cover and have used research effectively in producing my Digipack. Some people believe that producing simple album covers doesn't display the necessary skill, however I believe that simple covers can be more thought provoking than some of the more complicated. On this post I will provide some examples of simple album covers that have provided me with some inspiration.

This album cover by the XX is a very simple one, but it also a very good one that has started a trend of simple album covers. When you actually buy the album the X is cut out and the white background is layered behind. The album cover uses a simplistic idea combined with a simple colour pallete, some people may say that producing an album cover like this is easy but it must be relevant to your band and style of music and this album cover most definitely does this for the XX.

This album cover by Gil Scott Heron and Jamie XX is similar to that of the XX's album cover in the way that it is a very simple design emphasized using two contrasting colours, in this case green and pink. Some people may not like this album cover but I must admit I am a fan of it. The simplicity of it is fantastic. Despite the design being very simplistic it is still difficult to understand the thinking behind it and what the cover means to the artist. The fact that something so simple can be so complex is just one of the reasons that I like this type of album covers.

Here is another example of a simplistic album cover, this time by the Arctic Monkeys for there new album Suck It And See. This one is a little different to the previous two examples as the only thing on the cover is text, as oppose to an image. The cover simply displays the name of the album is bold black text in the centre of the cover. This is extremely simplistic but again I believe it is effective, as anybody who follows the Arctic Monkeys is sure to know the name of their albums. I am unsure as to whether I will include the name of the album on my cover, as I may go down the route of using on image/shape on my cover, using a similar design

to that of the XX and Gil Scott Heron ft Jamie XX. 

This album cover by the Beatles is the most simplistic of all, it is simply a white background. I like the idea behind this cover and think it was very brave of the Beatles to release an album cover such as this. Despite my taste in simplistic album covers I would like my cover to much more complex than this cover and would perhaps look at taking inspiration from all of these album covers and looking to combine some of these ideas in the hope of creating an effective and popular album cover. 

This album cover by Peace Orchestra was shown to me by one of my teachers, and is now one of my favourite album covers. The plaster on the front of the cover is a real plaster and displays the name of the artist. Once the plaster is peeled away it reveals a cut. The idea behind this album cover is brilliant and I believe recreating something like this would be extremely effective and also extremely popular as you feel actively involved in the creation of the cover. This album cover provides lots of inspiration for me and I am definitely going to explore the possibilities of recreating something similar to this. 

Album Cover Mock Up

After thinking long hard about album cover ideas, I have come up with this idea for my mock up. The idea is relatively simple but I believe it is effective. As this is only the mock up the I have used a found image of the internet, for my final edition I will have images of each of the band members. However I am still undecided as to whether they will be edited to look as though they were drawn (like the image above) or if they will be standard images. If you could post you're opinion of this album cover it would be much appreciated as I could do with some feedback as to whether other people like the idea.

Inpirational Album Covers

In contrast to my partner, I really like album covers that are more action packed with little photos of things that some people can see as somewhat random, however people that take a interest and look further at the detail will realise that actually everything is there for a reason and it in someway has relevance to the album or the band. I spoke in a previous post how they Klaxons did this with their first LP - Myths Of The Near Future cover. It is action packed and absolutely rammed with lots of different colours and images that all relate back to the band and also the album.

I've been thinking a lot about my possible album cover and believe that with a lot of time and hard work I can produce something similar to Klaxons' album cover and that that is something I want to do.

Therefore I went about researching some other artists the have been using album covers that are not the simplest to produce and also in the sort of form of a collage.

Here's some of them;

This image is a very weird and wonderful one. I personally believe that it's very good. I really like the ripped effect that is being used on the paper, and I think this is definitely something I will be looking to do myself. There's also plenty of colour of this cover, which is something I definitely want to be having on my own, yet again this album cover also has some animals on in that perhaps relate to either lyrics, song names or maybe even just the band, which is something I also want to do.

This artwork is pretty strange and slightly random in places, despite this I like the idea and feel that the idea of having everyone crammed into a swimming pool is a somewhat bizarre idea, however still a good one. There seems to be a real pattern in the fact that the artworks I've come across often have animals in strange places. I think it really does work though and gives the album cover something different. For me this album cover probably uses animals to much, but I do like the idea of getting something such as a white rabbit or a cat in my cover.

This artwork is pretty self explanatory. The artwork is just lots and lots of different faces, all hand drawn with the effective use of shading. Despite it being such a simple idea it still looks good, however for my album cover I want to have more than just one object to be focussing on, I will hope to have many various objects that I will have on, I do like the repetitive idea and it is something I could look to be using, but maybe on a much smaller scale, for example only repeating something 2 or 3 times in various places around my front cover.

This Uffie artwork is one I really want to take some things from. Despite the artwork being covered in tacky pinks and golds, this artwork includes a lot of things that I've spoken about in my mock up front cover. I've already expressed my interest in having something such as a big close up of some lips on my front cover, and I believe this artwork really demonstrates how I want to do this and it looks good. 

Furthermore, this artwork also has some pretty weird animals on the front cover which I also think looks really cool, the whale and also the Flamingo. There's also some food on there, covered in hundreds and thousands which looks cool. I might steal the hundreds and thousands idea myself and use it as a bit of a background image in places. It's key that I don't get my artwork looking overly tacky however so it's crucial I get the balance right.

I'm not exactly sure what it is that made me want to upload this picture, but I really like it. 

I believe that it has come from the same artist above, Uffie, however i'm not 100% sure. It once again has the very effective use of the close up shot of extremely glossy lips which is something I like the idea of. Furthermore it has images of eyes which helps to along with pistols and some blue background helps to create a somewhat strange looking face. I will be attempting to recreate something similar for my front cover as I like this idea and believe that it is something that is eye grabbing, even on the smaller scale that I will be having it at. 

Finally this image is the front cover for Wu Lyf's album 'Go Tell Fire To The Mountain'. The whole album is basically 2 images that have been all put together separately, yet the album cover still looks remarkably good. I think this is further evidence that a collage sort of album cover can be done and despite this being somewhat simpler than the cover I am aiming to create I believe the foundation thought is very much the same.

In my eyes I've saved the best artwork 'til last with this one. This is a perfect example of what I am aiming to create. I has things in that I want to be using, the lips, nose and the whole idea of one big collage with images everywhere, yet still with a certain extent of meaning. I also like how pictures that were obviously not meant to be together have been put together and have been linked, for example the two yellow people who are staring astonished at the big pair of lips and even with the male of the two seemingly grabbing out and holding them. I've had a very similar idea with this image with some balloons where I intend to take two different pictures, however I plan to put them together and be able to get a reaction in one image to the image that it's linked to.

Overall, researching similar artworks to that of the type that I want to create has given me not only ideas for my own cover, but also the confidence in seeing that other artists have wanted the same from their artwork and that it is also very much something that is do-able.

Front Cover - Shot List

Close Ups

·         Eye ball x 4

·         Lip salve pot

·         Flower

·         Dan’s face

·         Red Lips

·         Nose

·         Word Search

·         Newspaper

·         Cat

·         Dollar Bills

·         Never ending spiral

·         ?

·         Crumpled up paper

·         Tissue

·        

Mid Shots

·         Band Members X4

·         Blonde haired girl

·         Key board

·         Balloons

·         River

·         People joining arms

·         Lampshade

·         Trees

·         Be@rbricks

·         Forest

Long Shots

·         Stars

·         Moon

·         Blue Sky

·         Clouds

Band Posters and Magazine adverts

As part of our Digi pack ideas I have been looking into bands posters and magazine adverts. After looking at bands album covers I have also chosen some posters and magazine adverts which I think are interesting, I have also chosen these particular posters and magazine adverts as I have taken inspiration from them. The minimum requirement for our Digi pack is to produce an album cover, however me and my partner are looking to produce more than the minimum during this whole process and this is another reason that I have been analyzing posters and magazine adverts.

This poster by the Foals is not exactley what I am looking to recreate as it is a tour dates poster rather than a poster advertising the release of a new ablum. Despite this I am still a fan of this poster, the bold white writing stands out against the colourful background and also contrasts with the silhouette of the band members towards the bottom of the poster. The poster displays all the vital infomation including, the band name, tour dates, website information and ticket information. My favourite part of this poster is definitely the colourful abstract background, the busy background hides the simplicity of the poster which is basically just a list of tour dates and a title. Another thing that I really like about this poster is the is the silhouette of the band members, as the dark colours contrast with the white writing and the colourful background meaning that is stands out and draws the audiences attention.

This poster by the artist Santogold is advertising her new single, this is something that I will be looking to recreate. What I really like about this poster is that it is consistent with this artists style, all of her album artworks and other posters are all a similar style to this poster, this makes the poster instantly recognisable and all of the artists fans will instantly make a connection between the poster and the artist. Unlike the Foals album this poster by Santogold uses a simple colour pallete of green, bage, black and white. This adds an element of consistency to the poster. The poster is also very minimalist in terms of text as there is very little writing on the poster, simply displaying the artist name, the single name and the date it will be available in stores and for download.