Letter to the Copyrighter

To be able to use the song 'Wonderlife' for our music video, we needed to write a letter to the c opyright owner of the song, getting permission would mean we are definitely allowed to use this song for our video.

Sony Music owns this song.

Dear Copyright Holder,

I am an A level student at Wilmington Girls Grammar School and I am writing to request your permission to use one track from your current album ('Happiness') “Wonderful Life”.

With your permission, this track would be used in my current A-level Media Studies project which involves creating a music video for a popular music track, as well as producing an album (Digipak) and a poster advert for the artist.

If I received your permission, this track would ONLY be used in an educational context and be viewed by my media class, my teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It would NOT be released to a large audience or uploaded to any public video websites.

The artist and your company would of course be fully recognized throughout pre- production and the final video itself. A copyright notice, with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full details.Thank you for your time.

Kathryn Sivers and Sophie Jones

Ideas for our Digipak

For our cover of our digipak, me and Katie decided to have a black and white theme using our location of the castle with our main character sitting in the corner. We decided to have this for our digipak because we believed that it responds to the music and the video but also goes with the brand of the original band that sung the song. It seems like a gloomy and sorrowful picture which goes with the theme of the song and the girl looking distressed.

This is a picture that we foud that would influence our final picture. This is what we want our final cover to look like apart from we would like a closer shot of the castle with a girl sitting in the corner looking unhappy.

This was our first initail idea for our digipak, but we decided to change it because in our new film we are not doing a scene with a castle. Our new idea for a digipak is having Katie sitting on a bench in the right hand corner and on the back of the cover have Matt sitting on the bench on the left hand corner. We thought of this idea because in our actual video we have these two scenes and it would show the idea of the couple missing eachother, giving an idea to the consumer what the song and the video is about.

Font Ideas

The font for our Digipak is influenced by the genre and style of music and band as it has an overall influence on the target audience and look of the design. We found some interesting fonts that we thought would be good for the band. They arnet very colourful with using black and grey and we used swirly writing. The fonts reflect the slow pace and the nature of 'Wonderful Life'.

Choosing a Brand

For our tasks we had to make sure the had a recognisable brand to attract the target audience and promote their music. We needed a specific genre and house style for the music video, Digipak and Digipak Advertisement. This would be shown within the lighting, costumes, font and colour scheme.

The Hurts are currently promoting their new album 'Happiness' with live television performances, posters and magazine interviews helping to create buzz around them. Thier video for 'Wonderful Life is currently being played on music stations whilst the single is being given air time on the radio.

This is the album artwork for the Hurts 2010 album 'Happiness'. The picture is very simplistic with the two members of the band sitting their looking very blank which is a contrast to the name 'Happiness' making listeners think about what they would be hearing on the album. Happy, quirky songs or dreary and slow songs. Also with the band name being very big and standing out alot whilst the album name being very small.
On the Hurts website there are many press shots of them giving me and Katie and idea about the image of the band.

These images are both very similar. They arent very colour and both of the members are looking very moody. The colour, costumes and appearance of the band suggests an old soul singer sort of image.

We believe that the NME is a magazine that our target audience would read. While researching, we came across an article about the band. Specifically, it is an album review of their new album 'Happiness'. The review shows how critics would describe their image and their album:

http://www.nme.com/reviews/hurts/11529

Album Artwork Influences

Katie and I researched many different types of album artwork to help us decide what sort of image we wanted on the front of our own digipak. We looked at different genres of music and artists so we had a variety of choice.


First off, we looked at the type of music we most enjoy and prefer listening to, rap and grime. Professor Green and Kano are two of our favourite artists so we found their albums. Their covers are very simple as the picture is just of the artists in front of a plain background. This is so they stand out more to the buyer who wnats to buy their album. They have also used different colours to show the artists name and the name of the album which we thought was effective and shows a bit of colour. We would want to use this sort of text for our own album.

Next, we looked at The xx's album called 'xx'. This is an extremly simple cover, only using a black background and a white cross dead centre in the middle. Even though it is very simple, it is intriguing at the same time as the cover gives nothing about the album away, everything is in the music. However, it could show to some listeners that their music is basic and boring.

The album artwork for Bloc Party's 'Intamicy' basically links to the name of the album as it is showing a couple being intimate. The intriguing thing behind this however is that it is basically just the lips and the two people are unknown.

This is another album cover that we found interesting. It is Plan B 'The Defamation of Strickland Banks'. We liked this cover alot as it is of the artist sitting alone in the middle looking quite sad in the darkness whilst having above him the album name in lights like it is in a cinema or theatre. We liked this because it shows the album to be a showcase which appears to be very exciting and we are not sure whether Plan B is sad to be there.

Digipak Research

For one of our ancillary tasks we have to design the artwork for a CD/DVD Digipak release, and a magazine advertisement for said Digipak.
A Digipak is is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI Media, a MeadWestvaco, Inc. resource, which acquired the original trademark holder, IMPAC Group, Inc., in 2000. MeadWestvaco licensed the name and designs to manufacturers around the world. It is a form of a jewel box for holding one or more CDs or DVDs. The outer cover is usually a thick paper (almost cardboard-like). The paper is a folded one-piece section. The CD rests in a normal plastic tray, like those in jewel cases. The tray is glued to the paper.

Story Board

Health and Safety Risks

Final Locations

Our original idea for the story board was to do some filming, however, due to the difficulty of travel, we decided to cut that scene out and opted for an easier approach.




Katies Bedroom






Katies Father's Audi

Katie's Road

Locations

For the locations for our music video, Katie and I decided to use a place that was quite low key where we was able to shoot the video with only the two characters so we would not be interupted by passers by and the atmosphere of the video is quiet and secluded. For the filming to be easier for the two of us so we decided to use Katies house for part of the filming including her garden, living room and bedroom.

Katies Garden




Katies Living Room

Characters

For the characters of our music video, Katie and I have decided to use a real life couple. We are only using two characters as we are creating a love story. We are using Katie and her boyfriend, Matt.

For the costumes of the actors, we are have decided to use alot. This will show the many different days and stages of their relationship. The costumes will include Katie wearing jeans, leggings, a white top, red top and beige trench coat. Matt will be wearing, jeans, a blue hoody, grey jumper and grey shirt.

Inspiration

For inspiration on what to produce for our video we looked a existing music videos which were from the past and present to have visual evidence for our initial ideas. From looking at several different stereotyped videos, me and Katie have noticed some conventions that we would like to add to our music video. These include:

• Close up shots of characters


• Black and White shots


• Contrast of lighting

Oasis - Importance of Being Idle
We liked this video mainly because the whole of the video is in black and white and we would like to use this effect for some parts of the video. The promo film was directed by Dawn Shadforth. Shadforth's film for "The Importance of Being Idle" starred Welsh actor Rhys Ifans and pays homage to the style of early 1960s kitchen sink drama British films, and is set during the build up to a funeral procession in a northern town, with the extravagant undertakers parading the coffin at the video's climax and Ifans playing the part of a high-kicking funeral director whose funeral it is. Also, we liked that at the start of the video, there is a close up shot of a character looking quite depressed. This is the kind of emotion we want our characters to display in the video.





Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down


I looked at this Arctic Monkeys video for inspiration of how I want the story board to appear. The story for this music video is similar to ours as it includes a man and a woman in a very difficult relationship. There are shots in the video which we want to include in ours such as the shots of being in a car, close ups of the two characters and shots of the two looking confused and lonely.






Eminem Ft. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie

Another video that we would say is going to be similar to ours is Eminem and Rihanna 'Love The Way You Lie'. The quality of this video is high and we have taken ideas from the video and used it similarly in ours. There video had happy and sad times with a couple going through a rough patch in their relationship. We would like our final video to be similar to theirs but we understand that theirs would be alot more professional with specialist props.




This is a very similar scene we have used in our film. The girl has thrown the boy at the wall ad begins to kiss him. It produces a dramatic yet passionate and romantic scene showing the couples love. Wehave also used this scene as it matches a lyric for our song 'so she throws him at the wall, her kisses were like fire'.





These are also similar scenes we want to use for our video. The female character has slid down the wall looking angry and upset whilst the man is sitting on his own looking confused and frustrated. These are emotional scenes emphasizing how much the couple miss eachother during this period of their dark relationship. If done correctly, these scenes would look realistic.

Eamon - F**k It (I Don't Want You back)

Another video that we looked at was Eamon - F**k It. We believed that this video was quite similar to the final video we wanted to produce as it showed a couple through a rocky patch in their relationship. The main part that is similar to ours is how they have used black and white images to show memories of the couple whereas when they are arguing, it is in colour.

Target Audience

We must have a particular target audience to stereotype our music video and who to aim our video at for them to watch and enjoy. We need to aim to get the particular needs, criteria and products to meet the needs of that particular group. It was obvious from the start that the music we chose would not sort the needs of the 'Chav' stereotype as they prefer more Drum 'n' Bass and Grime music.

As we found that there is no particular stereotype for our products, we could see that a range of groups that would enjoy our music video. These include: Indie, Goth and Skates. Our main target group will most probably be Indie kids as The Hurts are most associated with that sort of group.

Hurts

Hurts are a British synthpop duo from Manchester composed of singer Theo Hutchcraft and synth player Adam Anderson signed to the label RCA.

In July 2009, the band featured as "Band of the Day" on Guardian.co.uk. They finished in fourth position in BBC's Sound of 2010 poll. The band's song "Wonderful Life" was notably remixed by Arthur Baker. In early 2010 they officially released their debut single, "Better Than Love", and played their first ever live shows. The song "Illuminated" also was the soundtrack to Sky1 HD's advert to promote their best-watched seasonal programmes in High Definition (Bones, House, Fringe) in spring/summer 2010. Their debut album called Happiness was released on 6 September 2010. It contains a duet with Kylie Minogue entitled "Devotion".

To promote the release of their debut album, the band collaborated with author Joe Stretch to produce an interactive audio book narrated by Anna Friel. It is found on the online music player Spotify, with the first entry being found by searching for "a5m4". Before Hurts, singer Theo and synthesiser player Adam were previously in bands named Bureau and Daggers. In September 2010 band played on Electric Picnic in Stradbally Hall, Stradbally, County Laois in Ireland.

Initial Ideas

While listening to the song, me and Katie brainstormed ideas for the video. As the song is a slow love song but also about heartbreak, we decided to use a girl and boy character who break up. The scenes of them apart will be in black and white to show the depression between the two of them but we will also have flashback scenes of when they are together in happier times and when they are in love. These flashback scenes will be in colour as it will be bright and cheerful.

Wonderful Life Lyrics

On a bridge across the Severn on a saturday night,
Susie meets the man of her dreams.
He says that he got in trouble and if she doesn't mind
He doesn't want the company
But there's something in the air
They share a look in silence and everything is understood
Susie grabs her man and puts a grip on his hand as the rain puts a tear in his eye.

Don't let go
Never give up, it's such a wonderful life
Don't let go
Never give up, it's such a wonderful life

Driving through the city to the temple station,
Cries into the leather sea
And Susie know the baby was a family man,
But the world has got him down on his knees

So she throws him at the wall and kisses burn like fire,
And suddenly he starts to believe
He takes her in his arms he doesn't know why,
But it seems that he begins to see

Don't let go
Never give up, it's such a wonderful life
Don't let go
Never give up, it's such a wonderful life
Don't let go
Never give up, it's such a wonderful life
Don't let go
Never give up, it's such a wonderful life

Don't let go
Never give up
Don't let go
Never give up, it's such a wonderful life

wonderful life, wonderful life, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful life

Don't let go
Don't let go



Looking at the lyrics I can see that the words are for a love song but also a song about regret, heartbreak and not giving up. The song shows two different sides to a relationship; that one person (the male) wants to break things off whilst the other (the female) wants to carry on and 'never give up' stating 'it's a wonderful life'. The narrative third person so the people in our video would not have to sing the lyrics.

Brief

My A2 coursework portfolio must be:
a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts;
a presentation of your research, planning and evaluation in electronic format(s)
The portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:
Video
Print
Web-based
Audio
Games software

Chosen Brief
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
a website homepage for the band;
a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).