Ideas for the skints album cover

• As the band aren't particularly image consumed and seem to focus on their music more than their overall style perhaps the album cover should not consist of them as a band.
• The album cover could include ambiguous statements that represent the bands ideologies and opinions.
• There are various logos used by the band which could be incorporated into the cover
• Perhaps some statements about mainstream music being overrated or too image based.
• Perhaps some statements about easy living and making the best of things
• Self referential: perhaps referencing their lyrics to up against the wall

MIND MAP

I began by creating a mind map based on The Skints and what they are conventionally associated with in terms of genre/demographics and anything i could think of to do with them. I then created my idea and drew this up however i cannot find this rough copy and so my idea is in the blog above this one.

Album Cover Analysis - Jessie J

Codes

• Gold Shiny font - iconic of the r&b genre. Italic - perhaps referencing her autograph and thus symbolising her fame?
• Gold jewelry - again iconic - represents money, luxury. Again symbolising wealth and fame.
• Make-up and clothing = black. Perhaps sinister.
• Black/White  - Straightforward - could represent her as a person or her music.
• Flower on the lips = decorative/creative 
• Action shot - as if she is singing/holding hands up and dancing - perhaps represents how she is constantly engrossed in singing and music.
• Face shot - very much about the artist but not so much about sex appeal or sexually objectifying women due to the shot and the fact that she appears to be quite covered up clothes what.
• Her facial expression/nails seem quite fierce - perhaps insinuating she takes her music seriously and won't let anything stand in her way.
• String vest - iconic of R&B genre - somewhat male.
• Hairstyle - sharp/structured - perhaps depicts her music/herself.

Conventions

• Album name
• Album title
• Photo of artist
• Right shape

Album Art Analysis

Codes

• Lungs - could represent how music to Florence is akin to the importance of breathing.
• Insides on the outside = baring all her emotions 'wearing her heart on her sleeve.' or in this case, lungs on her chest.
• See through top - baring all, her music is honest and transparent.
• The fact that she is looking away with a slightly sad expression could suggest her music is serious and soulful.
• Arms splayed - distressed perhaps the music reflects the stressful situation in which she wrote.
• Flowers/birds/natural hair - natural peaceful connotations perhaps suggesting her music is similar. Also is self referential as Florence has a song entitled birdsong.
• There is a green tint or hue to the album cover perhaps connoting nature as well as mystical elements, which are a foremost topic in her songs.
• Colourful makeup = colourful music.
• Framing almost like a polaroid frame - the album and music captures a moment in time of her life.
• LUNGS - in White and italic with framing above and below placed on the lungs. Old type font - suggesting original/classic or that the album touches on old elements of music. Italic - perhaps arty and flamboyant representing her as a person. FLORENCE & THE MACHINE also swirly/italic and more akin to handwriting = again reflects her music or her as a person.

Conventions

• Album name
• Album title
• Photo of artist
• Right shape

Post Modernism - Grand narratives

Grand Narratives (represents optimism)


Pre-World Wars 
People believed in ...

• Nationalism - pride in your country
• Technology - the new 'frontier'
• Power structures - established and autocratic
• Religion
• Moral improvement

However...

people began to question these factors during and after the wars. In the 20's and 30's the great depression also made people question this as well. Thus grand narratives and optimism in films ended and...

Post modernism was created in films following...

• Feminism
• Racial groups
• Multiculturalism
• Break down of power structures
• Breakdown in religion

Post-modernism reflected the reality of life and was the complete opposite of the grand narratives in older films. It depicts the rebellion and free-thinking following these events.

Case study - pulp fiction

• pulp fiction represents post modernism in its fragmented nature/structure, irony/humour - graphic scenes are made humorous.

Tarantino states that  'I always hope that if one million people see my movie, they see a million different movies.' this depicts how post-modernism promotes free-thinking and greatly underlines the nature of it.

Filming of narrative part 2 (19/01/11)

We have filmed part of the narrative which involves the 'good' character receiving a badly graded essay. This will contribute to his overall bad day to juxtapose the good day being had by others who have skipped school.


We included a range of shots such as...

• A long shot of the teacher handing out essays to other students - this served well as a long shot as it was not significant but built up to the main situation
• A range of mid shots portraying the essay being chucked on the desk by the huffy teacher.
• A close up/low angle shot of the 'good character's unhappy facial expression. We believed the low angle shot worked well as it symbolised his bad grade and general bad atmosphere.

Filming of narrative (12/01/11)

The group filmed a sequence, of the 'protagonist' of the narrative, being tripped over. This is only one situation used to highlight the bad day he's having. We placed our camera a good distance from the character and began filming with the camera zoomed in on his bored face. The use of the classroom setting creates a mundane and boring atmosphere. We filmed the camera zooming out as the character stands up from his desk an walks through the classroom. We carried this out a few times to get the right positions and went on to film the character being tripped over. We filmed the character walking towards the camera and then tripping. We then showed a close of another pupil sticking their foot out and another of their sneaky/amused expression. This will be followed by the 'protagonists' clearly annoyed face.

We are going on to film another sequence during lesson of the protagonist receiving bad grades from the teacher on a test. We will try to film a lot of the in school sequences during lesson time as this will be the most simple way of doing things. We have to arrange for the class to participate as well to create a realistic classroom setting. For example we should place the teacher at the front of the class, teaching/writing on the white board, whilst students sit on desks and chuck paper/annoy the protagonist. 

Basic pretense of music video

Our video will include 2 separate narratives:

• One of a boy who has a very bad day despite the fact that he does everything right and follows the rules, i.e, he goes to school whereas his friends bunk. He misses his bus, gets a low mark on his test paper (for copying? even though he didn't) which we'll make obvious with a close up. He is tripped over in the canteen, drops his phone, leaves wallet/money on the bus and gets something chucked at him in class but gets told off by the teacher when she turns around. Suddenly this character is seen in the gig which creates a temporal leap in time and shocks the audience, and at the end we see how he ended up there and show how he has flipped out following being sent out of the classroom.
• Meanwhile, the friends of this boy have bunked school and are on the way to the same gig. The use of montage will be predominant as we depict these people having a good, care free time. We will perhaps show them doing things in the area of Camden as this fits the genre of this song/band well and is where the venue of the gig is. We will show these people perhaps trying on clothes in shops (with the owners permission) laughing often, generally messing around (e.g. on the lion statue in Camden and the scooter seats) We may show them relaxing in the park and maybe playing some football too and perhaps, if feasible, present some form of illegal drugs as this relates specifically to our reggae/ska genre. Other idea's include eating food from Camden market stalls and including LOTS of establishing shots of Camden and the different people there. We may include other things as and when we actually film this part. Eventually this group end up at the gig and meet the boy who went to school.
• Cutting between the two will be the band performing at the gig which presents another temporal leap.

Post Modernism features to remember

• Non linear narration = temporal leaps/fragmented storyline is a common feature of post modernism films.
• Copious references/allusions/pastiche/bricolage to other media texts.
• Unusual yet realistic Dialogue - throws the audience out of sync. Also, not necessarily used to further plot or develop character - simply to entertain.
• Mocking conventions of media texts e.g. cinema. E.g. camera movements may be unusual - i.e. not following two people as they are walking/talking, but letting them walk of screen, yet still allowing the audience to hear diegetic dialogue.
• Main characters may not necessarily be stereotypical hero's. E.g. they could be a violent criminal but features such as humour/dialogue could still encourage the audience to sympathise with these characters. Perhaps also as the film treats such behaviour as normal and lets you into the characters world.
• (THEORY) Bathos - When something serious is under cut by something comical

This can be translated very easily into our music video to fit in with the post-modernism ideas and rebellious attitudes we wish to create

Response to Music Video Idea's

These are the storyboards we have created as a group to get a visual idea of what we want the beginning of our music video to be like. 

I made notes and lists to help me keep up to date on what we still needed to film and what type shots would be good to use.

These are individual storyboards i created before we all got together to create the one above. They are very similar.

These are again other idea's of what could be included in the narrative, when the students 'bunking' go up to London/Camden