Band Images

To create a good brand identity my group have decided to have a photo shoot to create our own Hollywood Undead band. We used the masks we created and took some shots off all the band together. These images will be shown on the web page and digipak. It will show that we have not only made the music video but we have created the whole package including band, video and website. These shots will especially be used on the back cover of the digipak as it says so on my plan. I look forward to editing the images to give them better effects.

Digipak Plan

This is my CD/Digipak plan.

This plan shows the front, back and inside covers. I have decided to stick with the themes of the masks. The front cover will be the image I used for the advert on my webpage of the new single. The back cover will be the shot in the music video where the boy drops the mask and runs off, however we are going to put an image of the band wearing the seven (six) deadly sins masks just behind the mask to create a good back cover image. I don't think I will put the track listing on here because it is a single so no tracks will really need to be listed except for the single, however the title of the song will be produced on the front cover, along with the bands name. I may change my mind about this however closer to the time as I will see what the finished product looks like.

The inside covers will be half of each mask used in the video. This will show the gold and silver masks on different colour backgrounds. It will be different to show the different acts in the video of the two masks. Showing the opposite sides to each mask can show a sense of equality, or 'coming together as one' to show that even though the colours are different and the one mask is smiling and one is frowning, they can still create one mask, creating one person, one world etc.

Designing our band masks

Today we created our band masks. We needed this to create our own iconography and also images for our digipak and webpage.

We wanted to follow the bands idea of using masks, however we didnt want to design our masks the same as theirs so we wanted an idea of our own. We then come up with the seven deadly sins which are lust, gluttony, greed, pride, envy, sloth and wrath. This gave us an idea to create masks for each of these and call these the bands. We used the silver masks we used in the music video and decorated, cut and designed each mask to create and band look.

These are the gluttony, greed, wrath, lust, pride and sloth.

We decided to not do envy as we felt that 6 band members were enough and its not obvious that the masks are the seven deadly sins so therefore no one would notice that one was missing. We will begin our photo shoot next lesson.

Compare CD Cover iconography

Out of the 3 I just analysed I feel that the Linkin Park and Queen + Paul Rogers albums are the most similar but have many comparisons in target audience and iconography. Even though they are of the same genre one has a wider range of target audience than the other. For example the Queen album holds more of a target audience but this is because they have a lot more fans as they are more famous and have been going on for longer, therefore they have more people to impress and please with there iconography.

However, I feel that their iconography isn't as good as Linkin Park's CD covers iconography. This is because Queen's album cover is simple as it just hold a small image of the band and the bands name. But Linkin Park's album cover has an image that symbolises their music and shows rock in a different way.

A stereotype of rock is all the dark side for example death images, strange skulls and evil. And Linkin Park's album cover holds bits of this stereotype. For example they have an army man looking like he has come back from battle whilst having wings with some disfigurement to show its not all good. They also have some dripping images which is sometimes symbolised as blood in the rock genre, but I think this is clever how Linkin Park have used a white colour for these drips on the wings to maybe show a different type of blood and misery.

Overall I believe that the Linkin Park's album cover would appeal more to me as their iconography shows more of what the band are about and what their music would be like, whereas the Queen's album cover shows their iconography as it just shows an image of the band holding their instruments but not really showing me what the music is about and like. On the other hand for this Queen album, old fans will already know what the music is like and will buy this just for the sake of a new album from the well known band.

I have learnt from the Linkin Park's that I could show what the bands music is like by using a symbolic image and interpreting stereotypes of the rock genre in it, for example using dipped writing or the masks with a smudge etc. I will definitely consider using this technique.

CD Covers

1. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

This genre of music is rock/alternative rock and I believe the target audience is 16+. This is because I believe they are targeted by the images shown for example there is an army soldier holding a flag showing battle but at the same time having wings which could symbolise anything from an angel to a butterfly, even a fly. This could link with people who have been in the army and possibly people who have come back as heroes. i.e. the wings.

The colour scheme is dark colours showing a strong link to rock music. It also has the band logo and album name in the same font to keep the things similar and looking neat, however they have made it look like its a messy stamp that could be smudged etc. This could count for the whole image as the soldier is faint and the wings are smudged and dripping as if it has just been painted and left. This promotes the band as it gives a powerful thought about their music and the roughness of image shows they are a band of mischief and rebellious.

2. Queen + Paul Rogers - The Cosmos Rocks

This genre is once again rock and the target audience is a very wide age range as the band have been round for many years and are very famous, therefore the target audience is round 20-60. They are targeted by the band releasing a new album with another lead singer and also they show the instruments on the CD cover. This gives the audience on the type of music the band creates. The album also has the word 'rock' in the title, therefore allows the audience who enjoy rock know that this album may hold a lot of it.

The iconography is used well to promote the artist as it shows an image of the band with an effective star / explosion image. This shows that the band may have great music which creates an explosion in the fans ipod playlist or CD cupboard. It also shows the bands name so the audience know who's album it is and what past fans will know what the music will be like or what they will be expecting from them.

3. Scissor Sisters - Ta Dah

This genre of music is pop and their target audience is mainly homosexuals but an age range of 16+. They target this audience by making their album cover look like a man is revealing the real him, which is one message from the band which is 'proud to be gay'. This will encourage homosexuals to buy the album. Also, for the different age ranges the image on the cover also has many people in the lift of different gender and age, therefore they may be telling the audience that their music is for everyone.

The iconography of the album cover is that they have used the bands logo in the image of the lift. This is clever as it shows previous fans that just because their is a new alum, doesn't mean the music is any different and the band are still entertaining with a new theme. They have also used good colour scheme as the lift and room seem plan but what all the characters in the lift are wearing, it shows a variety of colours and clothing which really symbolises what the band are really like.

Filming Day 2

We completed our filming today as we finished with our main actor who was in year 7. We managed to film the toilet scene and the escape scene alongside a teacher for him to chase after the rebel while he escapes. This was successful but the most challenging thing about filming today was trying to keep the continuity, for example the rebel had his sleeves and collar up and we needed to make sure they stayed this way for the rest of the video.

All the other filming shots were successful and should create a great ending to our video.

We need to now concentrate on editing our final piece which we are really looking forward to.

Filming Day 1

Me and my group had organised to use a year 7 class for our army of children for an hours work. This was successful for the amount of filming we needed them for but felt like a rush as we were non stop working. We firstly needed them to understand that this was our coursework and any misbehaving would waste precious time and wouldn't be fair on us. We also had our teacher there for supervision so all children would be under control. Saying this when we started the shooting we noticed that they were all well behaved and we had no trouble at all.

We then had to discuss about the main part which was a young boy who stood out to us as a rebel. In the end we picked a young boy with a moheekan as a hair style and we felt that this boy fitted the part without even trying. We therefore presented him with the gold mask and everyone else with the silver mask.

Our first shots were of all the children marching down main street. We got different shots and angles of this and they did this very well by all using the same feet and all moving at the same time. It really began to look like an army of school kids which was our main aim. Whilst doing the marching shots we discovered that we didn't have the white shoes needed for the rebel, therefore we left this and concentrated on all the children's feet marching and did good shots of them turning at the same time which looked effective. Another reason why we felt that the white shoes could be left out was because we believed that the shot where the rebel leans out of the line is an effective one and we felt that this would be the first time we notice the boy and the most powerful shot.

One thing me and my group worried about was if we had enough footage for us to use of them marching but as we only had half an hour left to do the classroom scene we needed to move on. We decided to book the class to do any more filming if it was needed.

We then took them upstairs to do the classroom scene where the rebel notices that all the children are writing the same then he goes over the top, for example we made him scribble over his writing, stand up, push his chair over and storm out. This worked well as all the children still wearing the masks were all writing the same thing at the same time. This was 'All work and no play makes John a dull boy' over and over again. They also co operated while we concentrated on the rebels shots of him storming out.

We then realised that we needed the children to shoot the escape scene for the end of the video, but had little time for us to actually do this, therefore we changed the story slightly - we thought the rebel could get into the office and use the tannoy, this way we could film the rest of the class still in the classroom look up as if they hear the tannoy and then all of a sudden run out. We also thought this would be effective to use subtitles to show the viewers what the rebel was saying to the rest of the school.

With minutes left of filming we took effective shots of all the children in the corridor all cheering and messing about with their masks whilst the rebel stood still staring at the camera whilst holding the mask. This shot worked incredibly well as we got different types of shots, from extreme close ups to mid shots. It showed that the rebel had got the rest of the students on his side and he was the leader of the alliance. We will definitely use them shots in the video, even if it means changing the ending slightly.

After the children went back to their class we had another hour to shoot our CCTV footage around school. We got shots of corridors with no one in them. We also wanted to make sure that no windows were visible so none of the outside world was shown. We also got a shot of a corridor where a door is just left swinging, this showed that the school was empty and possibly deserted. This looks like a good start to the video as it fits with the beginning music but once the singing and heavy music begins is when we see the children beginning to march.

Our next filming day we will need our lead boy to do the toilet scene and the escape scene. This should only take about two hours, but we need to organise getting the lead out of his lesson or organise a time after school.