Original Photos

I took a selection of photos, each of which were whittled down until I eventually had photos which I felt were acceptable for my task. Here I will show the originals and I will analyse each one and say why and why not they were / were not included.


Front Cover Options

As with the various drafts I drew up for my front cover, I was looking for either a picture of a man sitting on a bench, or four faces in four separate quadrants. With these ideas in mind, I took a variety of photos:

These were the two photos I shot originally for the man sitting on the bench. I included a cardboard box to make the character seem more 'homeless', whilst giving him a 'cigarette' and a faded hat. Each of these things are common stereotypes for the homeless and as this is what I wanted the character to be associated with I feel that this picture does these things well. Unfortunately, this image was taken without sufficient light and therefore it made the picture too dark and grainy. This made the decision much easier for me as to which of the different drafts I would use, as this image was not good enough to make it onto a front cover. With this in mind, I then took 4 separate images of the character in the design I drafted up earlier:

I was happy with these four photos and therefore I decided not to retake any of these. The lighting was perfect, and the character was wearing a suit and tie; something which is represented with the end of my music video. I alos decided to use the same character so as to add continuity between the different texts.

Inside Cover Originals

For the inside cover, I drafted up the character sitting on a swing / bench. Due to the failure with the 'bench' images (front cover originals) I decided to take a photo of him sitting on a swing, keeping the majority of the mise-en-scene taken from the bench images. I decided not to include the cardboard box, however, as this was not needed to create the same effect.

I decided to use the image on the right, due to the positioning of the character and also the way he expressed the emotions. He looked more solemn and therefore gave a greater impression of a homeless person. The original photo was too wide, and so I needed to cut the majority of the right hand side off to make it fit. Added to this an effect and this will complete the inside cover of my CD.

Inside Back Originals

Here are two original photos for the inside back of the CD. Again, I decided upon using the right hand image, mainly for ease. There was little or no difference between the two images, and therefore the choice was fairly simple. Unfortunately, there were a couple of irregularities in the photo, being the van and the slide. I decided to cut out the swing (which in turn made the image the correct size) and use an effect on the van, to make it less obvious.

Storyboard

SCENE 1: The beggar is lying on the street as a passer-by takes pity on him and drops in a coin or two. (MS)

SCENE 2: A CU of beggar establishes him as being main character.


SCENE 3: Beggar window shops and is saddened by the fact he cannot afford expensive items. (MS/CU)


SCENE 4: Beggar walks up to shop window, his head reflected on top of a suit. (Low angle MS)


SCENE 5: Beggar unhappy. (MS)







SCENE 6: Beggar back in first shot. (MS)
SCENE 7: Man walking through town with a swagger, dressed in a suit. Hazy effect around outside. Cuts to CU of man's wallet - full of notes. (MS/CU)
SCENE 8: Beggar wakes up. Establishing previous scene as being a dream. (MCU)
SCENE 9: Piece of paper flies into beggar's face, compounding his misery. (MS)




SCENE 10: Newspaper article expressing a 'New Casino In Town'. (CU)
SCENE 11:Man seen emptying contents of wallet into beggar's hat. (MS)
SCENE 12: Beggar's face realising potential of fortuitous circumstances. Light bulb appears (CU)
SCENE 13: Camera tracks man into Casino (MS)
SCENE 14: Man walks into casino (MOA MS)
SCENE 15: Beggar watches poker game, grasping rules. (MS)



SCENE 16: Continuous shot as one player loses and storms off as beggar replaces him in seat. (MS)
SCENE 17: Beggar's cards are shown with dealer in background (CU)
SCENE 18: Flop, Turn and River cards are shown on the table with players and dealer positioned around the table (BEV MS)
SCENE 19: Horizontal split screen of chips being thrown into the middle (two shot / BEV)
SCENE 20: Beggar shown with new stack of chips (MS)




SCENE 21: Montage of shots show time passing as beggar wins more and more. (CU/ MS)
SCENE 22: Vertical split screen of two players hands with other player in background (CU / CU)
SCENE 23: Flop Turn and River are once again shown, this time two players and dealer are in view (BEW MS)
SCENE 24: Beggar rakes in chips and sorts them into piles. (MS)
SCENE 25: Beggar walks out of casino same way as he came in. (MS)

SCENE 26: Beggar walks into shop and transition ensues showing him walking out of shop with new suit. (MS)
SCENE 27: Same shot as scene 7, however no hazy effect this time.
SCENE 28: Beggar comes across new beggar in his former spot. He takes pity on the new beggar and gives some money. (MS)
SCENE 29: New beggar thinks about it and a light bulb appears over his head. (CU)
SCENE 30: Fade to black.



Storyline
The main character (played by Jon-Joe Hill) is a beggar. We start off the story by seeing him in his everyday environment, with the occasional passer-by taking pity on him and giving him money. We then see him walking around town, window shopping. He returns 'home' and hazy shots are seen to give the impression of a dream like state. Beggar wakes up and we then see him get struck in the face by a stray newspaper article. A CU of the article then sees that it is promoting a new casino, as someone takes pity on the beggar and gives him money. A CU of the beggar's face sees him considering an idea, when a lightbulb appears to give the impression that he has had an idea.
Cut to the casino, where the beggar starts to play poker. He wins hands and ends up with a one on one scenario, which he eventually wins. The beggar walks out of the casino with a new wad of cash.
The beggar splashes out on a new suit and starts walking around with a swagger, when he return back to his old home. He sees a new beggar and takes pity immediately, giving him money. A CU of the new beggar thinking is followed by a light bulb being placed on his head, and thus the cycle continues.

Key
During this post I have used various acronyms and abbreviations which are:
CU - Close Up
MS - Mid Shot
BEV - Birds Eye View
MOA - Match On Action

*The flop, turn and river are the 5 cards which appear in standard Texas Hold 'Em poker. For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Hold_Em.

Animatic Storyboard

Here is an animatic storyboard with me explaining each shot.

Drafts

Before I go head-first into the project, I will need to create one or two drafts so I can see what will work and what will not work when it comes to making my media text.

Front Covers



I have drafted up three different ideas. To the left I have divided the page into four quadrants, each with a head in it. The heads are looking at each other so that the circle in continuous. Looking at it like this, the page seems a little bland, and so the separate quadrants will be coloured in separately so as to keep them as separate quadrants. Looking back to the Marmaduke Duke cover, I believe that vibrant colours will ensure that my product is more easily seen and therefore there will be a higher chance of sale. The album name and title are centralised, and thus it has become the main focus point of the page.

To the right I have drafted up two ideas, both similar in design. It features the homeless person (who is the main focus of the music video) sitting / lying down with a cardboard box on top of him. This adds to the stereotype and mise-en-scene of the image. Possible effects could be to alter the contrast of the image, and this in turn will make the image seem more gloomy - and therefore it will relate more specifically to the focal character.

From these ideas, I believe that all three have good points about them, and relating back to the codes and conventions, it is apparent that the image to the left has:

• Colour - The four vibrant quadrants will certainly catch the eye

Whereas the two images to the right lack the colour which I have seen, however I believe that the image makes up for the fact.

Back Cover

I have only drafted up two designs for the back cover. To the left is the follow-on design from the four quadrant idea. Again, four coloured quadrants have been created, however this time whichever colour was top right has now been allocated to top left and vice versa. This gives the impression that the cover is one sheet and can be flipped over to reveal another side. The font is basic - the tracklisting being in the top left quadrant. This meant that there was nothing in the other three quadrants, and so I decided that I would flip, rotate and mirror the text so that each quadrant divider acted as a mirror. Unfortunately, due to my inability to write as this, it has not been very well shown, merely by the numbers being the desired way round.

To the right is an image which follows on from the third design from the front cover. Again, when the CD is flipped we see what is believed to be the back of the original picture, a 360 degree viewpoint. To show this clearly the head of the homeless person is seen sticking over the wall. The tracklisting is written between the wall and the sky, thus taking up some fairly open space.

Looking at these two designs, I believe that they both relate well to the codes and conventions discussed earlier:

• Colour scheme - The left image certainly continues the colour scheme, however the right image continues with the image to give a 360 degree view. I feel that this is just as good as a continuous colour scheme.




• Tracklisting - Both include tracklistings, and numbers to boot. I believe that numbers are necessary as this will help to consumer to locate their favourite tracks easily.

Inside Faces




The inside face usually consists of two separate images. Here, I have drawn up three images which I believe each have a certain relevance to the video. I have decided to use stills from the video, as this will ensure that continuity features throughout and therefore is something that the consumer can relate between. If I go along with the quadrant theme, this will break the continuity and therefore this is something that I will have to think about.

Magazine Advert

Looking at the five magazine adverts earlier, it was apparent that there was not much that could be done, and so I drafted one idea. This idea features the album artwork, selling points (such as singles) and tour dates (as seen with the Depeche Mode advert). The advert is fairly simple, a black background with white / red / yellow writing (whichever stands out the most) and a picture of the album artwork set in place that will take up roughly a third of the page. Codes and Conventions which feature in this design are:

• Information - Relevant information is included which will make the consumer more knowledgeable about the product advertised.


• Text - As with a draft, this is not so apparent, however the different blocks of text will be linked together so as to create more continuity.

The colour scheme is not particularly thrilling; a black background with coloured writing, however I believe that the album artwork will make the consumer stop on the page - especially if I go through with the quadrant idea.

Letter

This song is copyrighted by the record company which The Dodos are signed to - Wichita Records. I have visited their main website and found the e-mail address to one of their managers, who I e-mailed:

Song choice

From the analysis and feedback from my questionnaires I have decided that my song is going to be quite fast-paced and upbeat. The song is also going to be in the pop-rock genre as I found this to be the most popular genre when questioning the general public.
With these things in mind, I have decided to choose 'This Is A Business' by The Dodos. This song is a high-tempo song which lasts for 4 minutes and 39 seconds.
The Dodos are an American trio and this song is taken from their second album - 'Time To Die'.