CD Packaging Design/Layout (Kieran Winrow)

My set task is to create the groups Album cover as well as the CD packaging. Today I researched the average dimensions of a CD Cover. This is so that I could get an Indesign Document set up and begin to get a feel and idea of what both the front of the CD and the rest of the packaging design should look like. I have found a site that has a variety of different styles that you could have for the inset of a CD. I have inserted the embed link to the website below as well as an image of what our CD packaging will look like. 

Superdups - CD & DVD Duplication and Replication and more

Student Film Permission (Charles Mossman)

Shortly after receiving the email confirming our permission to use the song in our group from the record company, they then sent a document attachment providing me the information with guidelines on using the song for its specific purpose based upon educational reasons.

I have opened and read the document sent by the Universal Film and TV Licensing company. We were told that we can use the song for our specific educational purpose as long as we can follow the conditions stated in the document that was sent to us. 

It was stated that "In view of the educational nature of the project we are happy for you to use the above tracks free of charge under the following conditions:"I have embed the document below.

Charlie Mossmam - Student Film Permission

First Response from the Record Company (Charles Mossman)

Recently I have emailed the record company in regards to asking permission to use the group’s song choice stay with me for our music video. I have now just received any email in regards to a response stating that the record company is happy to give us permission to use the song for our music video. One of the company managers Merchandani Jason stated that "We are happy for you to use this recording in an educational setting". I have screenshot the email response below and now the group will be able to make our music video go viral across the web by adjusting the video settings to public.

Group Poster Designs (Anthony Black & Kieran Winrow)

 Each person in the group has created an album poster that we can use on our individual blogs as well as our group blog. Below is the two posters we are planning to use however we cant decide which one to use so we have decided to create a questionnaire to let our audience for our music video decide which poster they prefer out of the two below. We will post the results and the final poster design once we have the questionnaire results in.

These posters were made by Charlie and Kieran and their posters seemed to display a professional and appealing design for our target demographic. Feel free to complete the questionnaire as we would be interested in the results of which poster design our audience prefers more.

Capitol Records/Copyright Post (Charles Mossman)

Capitol Records are the record label in which owe the groups song choice "Stay with Me" by Sam Smith. The record company is a major American record label that is part of the capitol music group is owned by one of the big four companies, the Universal Music Group. As of this we have decided to sign our song with the major record label of the Universal Music Group. However so that the group is able to use the song in our music video and let the media product go viral across the web, we must have permission from the record company to use the song in terms of copyrights. In order to get permission I have decided to email the closest record company to Capital Record who are PMR Records asking permission. I have taken a screenshot of the email I sent below which is to par@pmrrecords.com.

Record Labels (Charles Mossman)

I have now began to look at the promotional activities that will help market our final version of the music video.  I have now decided to conduct some research in regards to record labels. Having a record label is a major part of marketing our media product as well as using other media products such as album covers and tour posters as it will help to create a wider audience in regard the audience viewing our video. I have created a prezi as to what a record label is, researching major record labels and what the their key artists are. This research will help the group to decide which record label will be most suitable to sign for.

Creating the Tour Poster (Charles Mossman)

After analyzing front album covers and tour poster, I have decided that I am going to create the official tour poster for the group. I am confident in producing the product as I have a much thorough insight as to how I am am going to construct my design as I now know the typical conventions as to what is included on a tour poster. I know from my idea and knowledge I will be able to give it a professional outlook it deserves. The two images below are tour posters in the same genre as the music video we have created. I have looked at these tour posters also so that I have a clear outline as to what I will design for the group.

E-Safety (Anthony Black)

When working in the media with things being in the public eye we have to be aware that personal information isn't being exposed. This is important for the safety of the people involved. When creating our Facebook and Twitter pages we will ensure that our personal emails aren't used and that a separate email for our group is used.

On these social media sites when we upload any images or videos it is vital that we have the consent from the person and that there is nothing in the frame that shouldn't be. Also we need to be aware of the  dangers that could be involved, for example:

• Personal information could be stolen
• Images and videos can be downloaded by others
• Identity theft 

Song in the Media (Anthony Black)

Within this blog post I have decided to discuss how well the song has been distributed and notified to the audience. The success of the song depended on the decision on whenever we were going to pick the song for our music video. I believe that researching the song based upon the facts and statistics me and the group have found will justify our decision on why we chose the song in the first place.

First of all the song was placed on the top charts in 2014. "Stay With Me" reached number one in the UK charts which made it Sam Smiths third number one single in the UK charts, In the U.S. the song has also peaked at number 2 in the charts. His songs have also been viewed 247,000,000 times on Youtube.

Sam Smiths album "In The Lonely Hour" also reached number 1 in the charts which also outsold Coldplays new album "Ghoststories"

Sam Smith has also been awarded the "Brit Award for Critics Choice", "Young Hollywood Award for Breakout Artist" and "American Music Award for Favourite Pop/Rock Male Artist". I have decided to look into this due to his popularity as an artist and shows how successful he has become in his career. Below I have inserted I video I have found based upon Sam Smiths response to song and how successful it become within the media after it was published last year.

Album Cover and Tour Posters (Ian Pelgrave)

Part of our task is to create an album cover and a tour poster to go with the music video. The purpose of this is to advertise the artist and songs to the public. An album cover helps to create an image for an artist and sometimes can tell a lot about them and the particular album. Album covers help promote the artist and allows for people to identify them.

Tour posters also promote the artist but provides information for the public. They tell a lot about what the tour is going to be like and is part of a promotional campaign that helps the artist to be recognised by a wider audience.  Below is the album cover and tour poster for Sam Smith in which we will create our own taking inspiration from this.

Group Reflection/Progress So Far

Now that we have published and presented our first draft for the music video, as a group we all believe that we have made a lot of progress so far in regards to our journey in creating our music video. We are pleased as to what we have accomplished so far and now must must keep working in order to complete the set tasks given and produce our final draft of our music video as well as the additional media products to promote the video and artist himself. Below are the set task that we have to work on as a team in order to complete our journey.

• Research E Safety
• Record Labels
• Copyrights Post/Permission to use the song for our final product 
• Create a Facebook and Twitter Page 
• Create a Final Album Cover/CD Packaging Design
• Create a Final Tour Poster 
• Final Editing process for the Final Version of the Music Video 
• Publish the Final Music Video 

Presenting the First Draft

The group have decided to present our first draft of the music video to the class today. We have also decided to view the other groups music video and are going to provide feedback in which we will be commenting on the other group members blogs. From this the group has also been able to take the comments from members of the groups in regards to feedback so that we know what we can improve upon for our music video in the next draft.

Music Video - First Draft

After all of the editing process we have now been able to finish and finalise our project video. The class will also be viewing the video soon and providing us feedback in which  we will take on board when we are improving our music video. Doing this we have now shared the video by uploading it to you tube, which will more likely allow a wider demographic to view our video and possibly be provided more feedback. This will benefit the group as it will allow us to take a more confident approach when we re-edit the video in imovie for our final version. However as this is not yet our final draft we will have to research more on copywright laws and so we will only make the video private/unlisted. Below is the music video of the groups first draft.
If video doesn't work click here 

Further Editing (Charles Mossman)

The group has nearly finished the editing process of creating our music video. Today I have decided to spend much of my time on completing the first draft of the music video itself. Other members in the group  are considering and summering up ideas on the groups album cover in order to promote the music video. Below are a few screenshots of the editing and the developing throughout finishing the first draft.

Accuracy of Director Plans (Kieran)

Direction Plans 
I produced some direction plans a while ago and after filming at all locations I have concluded that the directions that where given helped make the filming of the music video to be more streamlined and precise. These are some videos that show that the directions that I was giving were being followed:
St John's Garden

Albert Docks - Liver building

Crosby Beach 

Tweeting The Label and Artist

Today I sent a Tweet to the Record Label that holds the rights for the song "Stay With Me" and have also contact the artist to see whether I can get a response with the permission to use the song in our coursework as this will make our work more professional and have some legitimacy.

The Start of the Editing Process

The group has now gone underway with the editing process of creating our music video. Charlie and Ian have started the post production and the 2 other members Anthony and Kieran also contributed to the task in hand as well. The group are using the iMovie software. We have used iMovie before, however before we started editing we were not entirely confident on how we would be able to use the software. Although throughout the process we did overcome the difficulties we did encounter at first and after using the software for a while we have a more confident approach in regards to using the software now. Below are some screenshot images below to show our progression and development throughout using iMovie to construct our media product.

Shooting Script (Charles Mossman)

In order to plan our editing process for creating the music video we have now drawn up and developed our knowledge from the contact sheet and analysed each of the chosen videos in much greater detail. In regards to the groups thoughts and ideas while filming the scenes for our music video we constructed a number of shots taken so that we have a variety of scenes to choose from for this stage of editing that the group are at. 

As a result of this we have decided to draw up a shooting script now so that we now have a better understanding and outlook as to how the music video will be as part of distributing aspect. Therefore this will help us consistently while we all edit the video as we have a much more organised structure for the overall music video product. I have drawn up a shooting script based upon the groups discussions and intentions we have recommended to each other. 

Within the shooting script I have included the number of shots that group will be using as well as a description of the shots in terms of camera angles and movement. This also includes the day, time, location and equipment used in the time period we filmed for the music video.

Contact Sheet

Before the group can start the editing process of creating the music video, we have decided to print out a contact sheet in regards to the images and footage we have taken in each location overall. The contact sheet has allowed me and the group to discuss and evaluate what aspects in regards to our original footage and images which would be ideal and most effective to use for the music video. Therefore by doing this, the contacts sheet will allow us to choose which clips we have decided to use in a confident, effective and simpler manner when editing. Below I have inserted image displaying the contact sheets. As of this we have highlighted and circled the clip numbers below, based upon the footage we will be using in our music video.

Cinematography (Charles Mossman)

Now that the group has finally gathered all of the film footage for our music video we have decided to gain some of the footage together that we will most certainly be using in our music video. The group are now in the process of creating a contact sheet in which we will be pointing out the best and most effective scenes and images we may possibly use to construct the video as part of the post production stage. Below are 3 video that the group will be using in the music video.

St Georges Hall - First person View/Establishing Shot

Albert Dock - Low angle- Use of High Key/Natural Lighting

Crosby Beach - Long/Extreme Long Shot - Setting scene