Research of existing CD covers and magazine photoshoots from Adele!

We looked at a selection of pictures of Adele that have been used for Album covers/inserts, magazines or just photoshoots for publicity. Here are some of the best ones we saw:

Album/Single covers;

 

Magazine Covers;

 

Photoshoots;

 

I personally really like the style of these photos. I like how the majority of her pictures are in black a white with quite dramatic shadowing. I also find her hair and make up really classy, unlike a lot of stars these days Adele has very natural looking make up, and although it's clear she is well made up she still looks quite natural. The same applies to her hair, she will probably have extensions in to make it appear thicker and will have had rollers in to add to the style. But it has still been done in a natural way.

Adele - Hiding my Heart lyirics!

Hiding My Heart Away

So this is how the story went
I met someone by accident
who blew me away
who blew me away

It was in the darkest of my days
When you took my sorrow and you took my pain
And buried them away, you buried them away

And I wish I could lay down beside you
When the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun
But like everything I've ever known
you'll disappear one day
So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away

I dropped you off at the train station
And put a kiss on top of your head
I watched you wave
I watched you wave
Then I went on home to my skyscrapers
Neon lights and waiting papers
That I call home
I call that home

I wish I could lay down beside you
When the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun
But like everything I've ever known
You'll disappear one day
So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away
Away

I woke up feeling heavy hearted
I'm going back to where I started
The morning rain
The morning rain
And though I wish that you were here
On that same old road that brought me here
Is calling me home
Is calling me home

I wish I could lay down beside you
When the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun
But like everything I've ever known
You'll disappear someday
So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away
I can't spend my whole life hiding my heart
away

Change of Plan!

We had a plan to do our filming over half term,but there was no opertunity for us to get us all together, appart from the friday. We all went to chloe's house with the intention to film a large section of our footage. However, when it got to friday, it didn't exactly go to plan. Not everyone could come. So me, Gaynor and Chloe met at Chloe's house and discussed what we could do to try and make it more possible for us to film.


We later had a disussion and decided the Do Wah Diddy idea wasn't working. It was too difficult to try and get so many people all together at once and to all agree with this idea and that it would work.


We chose to use one of our pitch ideas for our new song; Adele - Hiding my heart. Although it's a slow, emotive song, we think that we will be able to make it work and just make the action reflect the lyrics.

Auditions!

We held some auditions in college for people to be in our band. We were pretty sure that nobody would turn up as the posters we made were only up for a week. We were right, we held them in the main auditorium in the hope that would be more acssessible for people in the college.
However, we thought right, nobody turned up. But its alright, we have a backup plan.We know a band with 5 people. Including a drummer, bassist, guitarist, lead singer and keyboard player.  This group aren't as available for us as people in the college would be. One member of the band is going on holiday this week and not all of the members go to college, so we will have to get togehter outside of college.


We also considered the chance that this band may not work, but we do know a boy Sam, who would be able to sing for us to one of the backing tracks we found on youtube.

Posters!

We were given a selection of examplar posters. We talked about them amongst the class, discussing whether we think they work or not and the reasons for our decisions. We were also looking at them for possible inspiration and to get a good idea of what a real poster for an album looks like.

Personally I find this poster quite dull. The only information given is the name of the album and band, the fact it is out now and where it is available. There is nothing particularly captiviating about this image. The background of the poster is just the background from the album cover and the artwork on the albumis very unique. It's not very mainstream, and doesn't include an image of the artist anywhere, which is quite out of the ordinary.

Out of all the posters given to us, I think that this is the most appealing because it look more profesional than the others. It is also filled with information, from the name of the band to reviews from well known music magazines. We are also given a vital piece of information; just underneath the title of the band it says "20th anniversary" - which is the most eye catching part of the whole image. This information tells us that they are clearly a well established band and are very successful to have lasted 20 years. Although there aren't many bright colours and things that stand out, it is the most asthetically pleasing, and instead of putting an image of the album on the poster, there is a strip across the page with a section of the album artwork.

This is another poster that is a little less mainstream. This is a slightly more colourful than The Stone Roses poster, but not as eye catching. I think that if someone was to be attrackted by this poster, it would be more the out of the ordinary appearance of it than interest in the album or the artist. I don't think that the format of the name/album cover is done very cleverly. For instance, if someone is unnaware of this artist then they wouldn't know where the band name ends and the album title starts. Although the album has star ratings from well established magazines, so it must be credible album. It's just not my taste.

Here is another rather peculiar poster. The main problem, I think it has is that it is called "Black Swan", so lots of people would assume, at first glance that it had some connection with the film, by the same name, or the ballet - swan lake. Again, this poster isn't very appealing. If you saw it, surrounded by other posters it wouldn't be imediatly clear that this is a poster for an album, even when the album and band names have been seen, it's still unclead untill you see the details in the small print at the bottom. But I feel the image doesn't catch the attention it should do - therefore not many people would take the time out to read the details.

Band Name and Different font options!

The name we have chosen for our band is 'Uunderpressure'. We chose this name because we were trying to chose a name and we felt underpressure, so Gaynor shouted it and we decided it worked.


Here are some font ideas for the advertising of our music video. Such as; posters, magazine articles, and for the CD cover.



Costumes!

Because of the track being from the sixties, we have decided to use sixties inspired costumes, or if this cannotbe done, clothes that look like clothes from this time period.

The fashion was all bright colours and crazy, bold patterns. For the women, they often wore very short dresses and skirts with high boots.

For men, there was lots of big flared, high waisted trousers. Again quite bright, crazy patterns. Not as much as the women though. The dress for men in the sixties was quite smart, almost suit like.

Storyboards!

We have done some storyboards to help us plan our video, and make the filming of it easier with our guides there. We may not stick to them exactly, for instance, if we had an idea which seemed great talking about it, it may not look good on camera. Or we may not be able to do it.
Here are the storyboards;

Location!

For our video we will need to use someone's house, and it is best to use one of ours. Since our song is old. We have decided to set the video, around the 60's.

This could make finding a location rather difficult, with all of the modern cars, signs, decor etc.

We all have relatively old houses, mine was built around the sixties and Chloes is over a hundred years old. We think that Chloe's house would be best to use because mine looks too modern inside and out, and mine and Gaynor's don't look as, conventional, as Chloe's does from the outside.

Location choice 1 - Chloe's house.

 Location choice 2 - My house

Location choice 3 - Gaynor's house.

Song Permition!

Becaus we aren't using the original version of the song, we have found some covers of the backing track from our song 'Do Wah Diddy. Chloe messaged a couple of people on youtube asking their permiton to use their track. Here are their replies;

Do-Wah-Diddy lyrics!

There she was just a-walkin' down the street, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
Snappin' her fingers and shufflin' her feet, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
She looked good (looked good), she looked fine (looked fine)
She looked good, she looked fine and I nearly lost my mind

Before I knew it she was walkin' next to me, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
Holdin' my hand just as natural as can be, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
We walked on (walked on) to my door (my door)
We walked on to my door, then we kissed a little more

Whoa-oh, I knew we was falling in love
Yes I did, and so I told her all the things I'd been dreamin' of

Now we're together nearly every single day, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
A-we're so happy and that's how we're gonna stay, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
Well I'm hers (I'm hers), she's mine (she's mine)
I'm hers, she's mine, wedding bells are gonna chime

Whoa-oh, I knew we was falling in love
Yes I did, and so I told her all the things I'd been dreamin' of

Now we're together nearly every single day, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
A-we're so happy and that's how we're gonna stay, singin' "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
Well I'm hers (I'm hers), she's mine (she's mine)
I'm hers, she's mine, wedding bells are gonna chime

Whoa-oh-oh-oh, oh yeah
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do, we'll sing it
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do, oh yeah, oh, oh yeah
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do

VH1 Music Videos!

We have looked at a selection of videos from VH1, they were from different years varying from 1996 to 2001. The videos we saw were from established artists, so they are able to do much more extravagant things than we can, given the equipment and money that we have. However we can try and get ideas from the different camera angles and editing effects used in their videos. Adding to this, the majority of the videos we saw are relatively modern and wouldn't fit with our song or 60's theme.

Chosen pitch!

We have chosen to use 'Do-Wah-Diddy' by Manfred Mann. This idea seemed to please everyone and it ticked every box. It is a pop song, meaning it's up tempo.


This is helpful for us for several reasons;
It will help us to make the video more interesting, with us being able to cut the shots in time with the music.


We are planning to have a main boy, who will also be the lead singer of the band. He would be surrounded by 3/4 girls, all made up, and trying to get his attention. Then a very natural, pretty girl walks along the other side of the road, catching his attention. At this point, he walks over to her, showing the audience that they are a couple - to the dissapointment of the other girls.


As they walk down the street, the strangers surrounding them all burst into dance, along with the music.


Throughout the song, the action will match the lyrics.

Pitch 3!

Adele:

The third pitch is Adele, 'Hiding my Heart'. This is a slow song, which could be a help or a hindrence. Slow songs are usually the less successful ones because the shots are too slow and they have nothing to entice the audience. But this song is quite narrative based which could really work, if it's done well.

Genre: Soul


Track: 'Hiding my Heart'

Dresscode: Girl - smart/casual clothes, quite wintery looking. Thick knit cardigan.

Boy - Casual, day-to-day clothes. Jeans and T-shirt.

Camershots: Medium-long shots, showing her in the windy field. Close up on instruments. Memory shots - medium/long.

Basic Plot: A girl has lost her boyfriend. There will be lots of memory shots, of better times, when they were happy together. She is singing about him and the past.

Here is the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWYROwadYs

Pitch 2!

Evanescence:


We chose to use Evanescence, Made of stone, as one of our main ideas because it is very different to anything anyone in our class is doing and also from past years' videos.

We could never attempt to recreate a video by Evanescence because of the amount of special effects and money that goes into them. We would however make our video unique but fitting.


Genre: Rock


Track: 'Made of Stone'


Dresscode: Quite dark, gothic clothing. Girl - Long dark dress, with a long black coat, like a cape.
Boy - Black/dark jeans. Grey hoodie. With the hood up making him appear mysterious. One half of his face visible.


Camera shots: Close ups to show the movement of the mysterious males mouth. This will be followed by a blurred shot of her, suggesting that she's not listening. There will be lots of close ups to add to the drama, and the performance will be featured to make it more realistic.


Basic Plot:


Here is a video of the song; 'Made of Stone' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaPD5fppfpE

Pitches!

We have had some discussions about the song that we are doing and from this made 3 pitches for the videos. All three are very different from each other and each one can have potential for a strong music video. Here are the three songs that we discussed:

Pitch 1!

Manfred Mann:


This is the song which we have decided to use for our coursework. We chose this because it will not have the same problem as all current songs; that they all have a music video which goes with them. So if we were to attempt to make a new video for the song, it would just be compared with the original, making ours look worse.

We are planning on holding auditions to find a group of male singers, who can hopefully play instruments. If this all goes to plan then we wouldn't need get permosion off anybody.
If not then we can use a karaoke version of the song and just have some singers cover it.

As our back up plan we are going to find a full cover - instrumental and vocal -of the song off youtube or another website, and get their permision to use their song.

Genre: 60s swing

Track: 'Do Wa Diddy' cover

Dresscode: boys; Leather Jackets?, jeans, sunglasses? 60's 'cool' look.

                girls; 60's dress? Floaty tops, skirts. Some a little over the top.

                The main girl, very understated

Camera angles: Panning shot from the main girls feet. Right up to her face to show her fully.

Medium shot of the main boy surrounded by a group of girls trying really hard to get his attention.

Long shot to show the audience the full location, cast, and mise-en-scene.

Location: A street, someones front door, a living room

Actors: Ben Garner - Main Boy, Girls - Chloe Berry, Jasmine Hartley, Chloe M.

Basic Plot - Ben is sat on the street. Surrounded by a group of over the top girls, trying really hrd to get his attention. Then he see a very understated, attractive girl walking along the other side of the road. At this point he gets up and goes in her direction and she turns towards him. They are a couple. As the video goes on we see them fall more in love.


Here is the karaoke version, which we would be using: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAuY_ZWj0No

Permition!

With our song being so old, it would be quite difficult for us to get the artist's permition to use their song. So what we are going to do is; find a cover of their song, or do a cover of their song. If we found one on the internet then we would still need to get their permition to use their voice(s) but it would be considerably easier than getting permition for the original.


This could also be quite useful as the quality of the music isn't very good, with it being from so long ago and with the music sounding so old, it wouldn't be very easy to recreate a video to match. Although we could age the footage in the editing process, all of the surroundings would be too modern and we coulnd't get them to match.

Genre Descision!

Since we couldn't find a genre or artist which would please us all, given our current, favourite artists. Gaynor mentioned using an older track.
This way we can use a more well known song, but we would't have the problem that we have with the more current ones. With the video being compared to the original. This is because older music videos are generally just a recording of a live performance.


We decided to use an older song, by and old artist that isn't around anymore. I had concidered the Beach Boys and Bay City Rollers, but niether of these would have worked for the same reason as One Direction; we don't know any enough boys that would be willing to perform or that would look convincing as a boyband.


We are all happy with our genre choice, and even though it's an old genre, it is a good thing that it isn't current enough for there to be a problem with the video.

Brain Storming!

In our group, although there are only three of us, together we have a very eclectic taste in music. This could either help or hinder our chance at making a great music video. As we have rather different tastes we were unsure if we would be able to find something to please all of us.

We talked about our favourite artists at the moment to see if we could find someone that would that sounds like all three.

 

Chloe said Evanescence

Gaynor said Demi Lovato

 



 I said One Direction

All of these three choices have problems and different reasons why we cannot use them;

Evanescence: We could not use Evanescence for our music video because the genre of music is very dramatic and the videos tend to be also. We do not have the money to spend or the equipment to make it look as proffessional. Also she if we made a video of her music then our work would just be compared to the original. This would make the quality of ours appear lower.

Demi Lovato: The reason we couldn't use Demi Lovato as our artist is because she has incredible music videos that are to difficult to remake and way too expencive. Also, Demi uses mixed genres within her music therefore quite difficult to comprehend and to express the particular genre we are using.

One Direction: We couldn't use One Direction for our artist because they are currently in the top 5 of the charts. Their song went straight to number 1 so everyone has seen their video. Giving us the same problem as we have with Evanescence; our video will be compared with theirs. The genre of their music would be very easy for us to use as it is very fast paced and we could make the video more interesting, but another problem we would have is that they are a very new band and their debut single only came out on the 10th August 2011. They currently only have two songs released, and their debut album comes out in November.