Album Cover Analysis: Michael Jackson: Bad

The pursose of analysing album cover was to help us understand the features on album covers that make them stand out to the audience. This would help us when we would create our own covers as part of our coursework.

Michael Jackson- Bad : Album Front Cover


- The colour scheme on this album cover is simple and plain
- The cover does not look complicated
- The artist shows attitude through his facial expressions, also by showing his fist clenched.
- It is obvious that the artist is the main focal point in this cover as everything else included does not seem to stand out as much as he does, apart from the name of the album 'Bad' which is shown in a different colour to the rest of the text.
- I thought that the possible reason for the album looking very simple could be because the artist is already a well known artist. Therefore it is possible that he does not need to focus much on presenting the album cover to attract audiences so much, the artist is what makes the album cover and attracts the audience.

Back Cover:



- The back is even more simple the the front
- White and black colour scheme is used
- Another picture of the artist, main focal point

What Have I Learned From The Assessment Criteria?

I have learnt that i will need to make sure i keep my music video interesting throughtout so that the people watching will not get bored easily. I will do this by trying to edit well with a variety of camera angles and shots. I need to also focus on lip syncing making sure it matches the lyrics well. I need to focus on the setting and lighting aswell and make sure the environment will be suitable for shooting.

Coursework Assessment Criteria

In this lesson we looked at music videos made by other students like we will be doing for this coursework and we analysed them.

Fantastic Six


Good things in the video:
- The camera shots and angles were good
- The editing was also good
- The lighting looked professional
- The group was creative with their video, it was different and unique

Possible Improvements:
- Some of the shots were blurry, like in the super market. It looked like different cameras where being used. Group could have reshot.
- lip syncing was slightly slow, could have reshot or edited better.

My Neighbours House


Good things in the video:
- Good editing and special effects
- Good lip syncing
- Camera was still
- High angle shots of guitar was different and good

Improvements:
- Sometimes the camera was in one place which got boring after a while, they should move the camera and the shots around quicker.
- The zooming in and out was not that steady

Powers


Good things about the video:
- There were many special effects in the video
- The screen was split into 4
- It was different to other videos made
- The lighting was good
- Enigma codes

Improvements:
- The use of split screen made it confusing at which screen to look at
- The use to text on the screen made it even more confusing

Music Video Analysis: Super Furry Animals- Golden Retriever

My first impression of this music video was that it is a rock video as the music instruments such as the electric guitar was shown. The video looked upbeat and loud, aswell and the music.

The camera work is based in a certian setting throughout the video. There are closeup shots of the main band artist when he is singing and also of other members of the band. Long shots and medium shots are also used with a range of angles. There is alot of editing put into this video as it is easy to tell that special effects are used.

This is a performance based music video as the band is performing. Editing and special effects along with the camera work is used alot in this video to make it more interesting rather then just another music video of an artist performing.

Impressions of the artists is that they seem rather unusual and 'weird'.

Music Video Analysis: Geri Halliwel

The first impression of the music video was that it looks different as it does not begin with music playing like normal music videos. Throughout the first couple of seconds of the video i was unsure of what it was going to be like as you see a women dressed in revealing clothes and the camera reveals her body. I then realised she was going to dance infront of judges sitting down who looked rather smart and sophisticated. This lead me to guess that the video was going to be based in the pop genre.

The camera work includes long shots, medium shots and close ups through out the music video. The editing is fast and sometime cuts to the beat of the music. The camera work can represent certian things in the video. Such as there are low angle shots of the artist to make her look more superior. Also, there are shots of her legs and stomache to make the artist look seductive.

There are many music video conventions displayed in this video. The lyrics match the visuals throughout most of the music video. Also the artist is featured in the video and she is mouthing the lyrics and dancing.

This music video seems to be based on the movie called flashdance. The reason i think this is because at the beginning of the video she is dancing infront of judges, trying to impress them.

Britney Spears Video Shoot

We were given a task to produce a music video to the Britney Spears song: Hit me baby one more time. We had to shoot the first minute of the song. This video was based in a school as there are shots in a classroom, school corridors and a gymnasium (sports hall). This made it easy for us to make the video in school. By doing this task it allowed us to practice on apple imovie on how to edit so when we would do our main coursework task we had some experience. We also learnt camera shots and put these to use while filming our music video. We planned the shots we would use, making them similar to the real Britney Spears music video.
I feel by doing this task it has made me more confident to use imovie so when i am doing the main coursework task i have more experience and i know where the tools are. This will allow me to work more confidently with my coursework.

Coursework Brief

Our coursework Brief is:
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 a digipak (CD/DVD package);
-a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

We have the opportunity to work in groups of 4, but will be marked on individual contribution to the project. We will be making the cover and the advertisement for the digipak.