2nd draft vs final music video comparison

2nd draft vs final music video from Hannah Alley on Vimeo.

This is another piece of work I was not obliged to do, however I felt that it was necessary to show a final comparison between the second draft of my music video, and the final version. I did this by downloading my 2nd draft through www.keepvid.com and importing this video into Adobe Premiere Pro. Then, because I already had my final video handy, I imported this straight onto Premiere too. I placed both videos on to the timeline and resized them both so that they were next to eachother in a suitable place.
I feel that this video presents a really great comparison between my 2nd draft and final video, and it portrays the progress in which I have made with my production. You can even see from the still image that my final video is just in general a lot brigher, colourful and contrasting than the second draft. However as you watch the video, you will witness the many changes in which I have made between them both.

Audience feedback on my final music video from Siobhan

Transcript:

Matching the house colour of my products: Screen grab

This is a video I have created through screen grabbing with 'CamStudio', capturing how I have strived to ensure that all of my products have a fluent house colour. The particular house colours of my digipak, album cover and music video is red, black, white and green, as they are natural colours. I have tried to extend these house colours throughout my products by for example (what it shows in the video), adding a slightly red/pink filter to the images in each part of my digipak. I think the effect of this is that the colours are subtle, as I do not want the images to look too tacky, unrealistic and colourful, but they have a slight hint of my house colours so that everything matches and my house colours are consistent throughout. I believe that this will create a sense of familiarity within the audience as they will recognise the colours fluently and then, hopefully they will go on to associate these colours with my three products.

"Guns and Horses" - Ellie Goulding music video 3rd draft

"Guns and Horses" - Ellie Goulding A2 music video 3rd draft from Hannah Alley on Vimeo.


This is the third draft of my music video, in which I have made many changes to my last draft to improve it greatly. Firstly, I have colour corrected all of the shots by adding a long adjustment layer that goes through all of the shots, which I then added an 'auto colour' effect to. I found this made all of my shots a bit brighter and more pleasing to the eye, therefore more professional. I also added a shot at the beginning that pans down to the floor to ensure I not only have a variety of camera movement, but so that I could match the shots to the beat/Ellie's voice a bit more. To make my music video better, I have really taken notice of all of the feedback I've received and improving on the aspects/criticism mentioned. A prime example of this is when someone said that on one of the shots of Georgina's feet walking across the woods ground at the start of the video, 'her feet move too slowly in comparison to the long shots of her walking a little bit faster before and after this'. So, I increased the speed of this shot of Georgina's feet walking, to about 160%, and compared it with the long shots of her walking before and after this. I found that they now matched, and the scene looked a lot more realistic. Then, I added an adjustment layer to all of the narrative shots which essentially made them all brighter, and the contrasts a lot darker. I figured that the previous effect I'd added to the narrative shots was not effective enough; when I'd asked for feedback on the second draft, people had said I needed to colour correct some shots, which made me assume that the previous effect made the narrative shots look too dull and did not have the right effect/success, so I knew I needed to change this. The new effect I've added to the narrative shots ensures that there is a strong contrast between the performance and narrative shots, so that the audience can identify what are flashbacks, and what is not. The second feature I have changed in my music video is that I have changed the pace, cut and rhythm of the shots greatly. In the second draft of my video, some narrative parts matched the beat of the song and some narrative parts didn't. However I have changed this so that all narrative shots match the exact beat and rhythm of the song, and it is pleasing and fluent to the human eye. I did this by 'matching' each beat onto the timeline of my video, and cut each shot to this. This was quite difficult because I had to get each shot at the exact right time, which meant I even had to search for some more footage in my files and add more shots to perfect this. But I found the overall image really successful, as now, it flows naturally and matches the beat perfectly. I have also added a 'sharpen' adjustment layer throughout all of my shots, to ensure that all shots look professional and as sharp as possible. I found that the footage looked a lot better after I had done this, as according to my audience feedback, some shots were blurred, and I knew I needed to fix this.
Furthermore, I've added more interesting and quirky effects to my music video in order to ensure that it stands out and looks different and enticing to the eye. Sometimes 'love stories' in music videos can come across as cliché and 'the same', so I wanted to really avoid this. Therefore, at 00:56 seconds in when there are narrative shots displayed of Georgina putting on her coat and leaving her house to go and meet Matt, there is now an overlay of a performance shot of Georgina singing the lyrics displayed at that moment in time, which is faded into the narrative shot slightly. You can see the narrative shot more than this shot which is the idea - I changed the opacity of the performance shot so that it is slightly seen. I have also done this for about three other shots throughout my music video, either to represent Georgina's emotions - for example at one stage, I added a faded shot of Georgina looking down sadly, over the top of a shot of Georgina running through the woods - or to just show different aspects of the video and like I said, keep it interesting. I also did it to remind the audience that Georgina is still performing on the outside of this narrative.
Additionally, I have tried to make use of all of the footage I have taken to make my music video more interesting and varied shot-wise. Therefore, I added a shot about 01 min 23 secs in of Georgina's eye-view of what it looks like in the woods ahead of her. The camera is moving as if she is walking and the view is of her eye sight. I found this would be effective in showing her point of view, like I do with many other shots throughout the video. 
What I have also done is change the colour of the slow motion gymnastic shots in the video. Before, they were black and white, but the more I watched my video, the more I found the black and white a bit cliché and normal. I want to stay away from my music video being completely conventional and predictable as possible, so I changed the colour to a light pink colour instead. I did this ask light pink connotes love and passion, which is exactly the emotion Georgina conveys throughout my music video.
There's not a lot I changed about the climax part of my music video where all the shots fasten up, as they all originally matched the beat of the song as I tried to do this very carefully and accurately, as well as the fact that this was the specific part I got a lot of positive feedback on in my survey. I felt that if I made too many changes to this, it wouldn't be what my audience wanted, so I left this.
However, the ending part of my video I really did change. For starters, in the shots of the letter being found and then burned, I colour corrected these with a 'colour curve' effect and increased the green and red curves in the shots, as I found they looked better this way and they also conveyed a more passionate emotion. Then, after receiving the feedback that the ending of my video was too confusing with Georgina smiling happily as she sung the last lyric of the song, I completely changed this. I agree that it was contradicting as throughout the whole of my video she'd been sad and heartbroken, whereas at the end she portrayed the complete opposite of this. So I replaced one of the shots with a slow shot of the camera panning across the ashes left over on the floor from her burning the letter, and sped it up a bit, and then left the shot of Jess' gymnastics in black and white as I found it more memorable and meaningful this way, and then I added a close up shot of Georgina looking sad, so that the audience could finally empathise and identify with her. Then, on top of this I placed a shot of Georgina and Matt standing in a field cuddling together, as their last moments together. I made this black and white so it had a sentimental affect, and changed the opacity to about 30% so that it faded into the close up shot of Georgina looking sad. Therefore, the two shots were very contrasting as Georgina's hair is colourful and bright red to signify passion and pain/anger, in comparison with the sad, black and white shot of the couple's last moments together. I found that this was the perfect final shot for my music video as the merging of these two pieces of footage gave off the effect of the audience actually knowing what Georgina is thinking about in this final shot of her looking sad, because it is represented faintly on top of her - reminiscing of her and Matt happy together. I actually found this shot of Georgina and Matt right at the start of the footage I'd taken for my music video, when I was filming Jess doing her gymnastics. The purpose wasn't even to film Georgina and Matt at this stage - I was actually filming Jess practicing her gymnastics - yet I just happened to pan over to Georgina and Matt cuddling together. Therefore this was actually a natural, unplanned shot that they happened to be doing without us even organising it, which is the more touching part for me. I therefore wanted to incorporate this into my music video, because it's also a different scene; the wide field they are in represents the more happy, freedom-filled days the couple had together when they were in love.
Overall, I am pleased with the final product of my music video, however I will add changes to it in the future. For example, I know that the end of the video needs to go on for longer as it finishes quite abruptly, when really I want the sad effect to prolong for just a bit, so it can slowly fade out. I only realised this once I had published the video. Furthermore, I need to fix some shots in terms of colour correction as some of them flash into different colours, and also I haven't added the same effect to every narrative shot, so I definitely need to fix this. I have also noticed that there is also a slight delay at the start of the music video with miming, when Georgina is first walking towards the ribbons (which are not seen at this stage yet), so I will fix this too.

Summary of raw performance footage

This is a video I have made on Adobe Premiere Pro, including a summary of all the footage I had taken for the performance side of my music video. I summarised each part bit by bit, explaining what each shots were used for, as well as explaining why I used one shot and didn't use another, the shots I didn't use with their explanation, and more. I found this task really insightful because it made me realise how much footage I had and how much effort had been put into it, and also why I hadn't used some shots. It definitely reassured me that I had chosen the most suitable clips for my music video, which was good. As you can see by watching this video, it only contains a summary of several different shots as my aim was to not bore the audience with a range of random, tedious footage. I have used the main feature of personal identity by keeping the audience engaged through mainly using shots that contain my main protagonist, as she is the focus of my music video - not other irrelevant aspects. I hope that my audience will maintain their interest by having some sort of relation to the artist. Furthermore, I adapted the footage on Premiere consisting of speeding up some footage, cutting some parts and adding captions to allow the audience to be able to identify each part, so that again, they don't bore easily and feel as if they are watching the same thing over and over. Lastly, portraying a range of footage allows the audience to feel as if they are part of a journey, directly watching transitions from each shot to shot and how all the scenery varies.

More alterations made along the way: adding the last clip

More alterations made along the way: adding the last clip by hannahalley

This is a document I have made, explaining an alteration I have made to my music video recently, in preparation for my final version.  This includes me basically altering the last few clips of the video and replacing them with other videos, as it explains in the document; the whole process was really invigorating because I felt like my music video looked tons better after I had done this. The document basically explains this whole process, and how I think it will effect my music video/the audience. It also includes a screen grab of the process on Adobe Premiere Pro.

Contact sheet for my album advert/digipak photos

This is the contact sheet I created with all of the images I took for my album advert and digipak in Ruislip Woods. I created this contact sheet on Photoshop. I found that it was a useful tool because it summarises all of the choices I had to use for my products and the creative ways in which I made Georgina pose, or the scenes I used etc.. I found this very insightful. The majority of the photos were used for my digipak and album advert as this part of my coursework required still images rather than moving footage.
Similarly, another benefit of displaying all of my photos in this format it's essentially showing the audience all the other photos I had taken that I wasn't able to use in my still-image products. This almost adds a personal touch to the whole process of my products, because it's taking the audience on a journey and giving them an actual insight into what photos I have taken and what ones I have and haven't used. This almost acts as a secret 'behind the scenes' idea, that the audience can enjoy and view. Additionally it also illustrates different angles and shots of the same photo displaying different interpretations of the same thing.

Peer assessment/feedback of the third draft of my music video

Today in class, we showed our music videos to the class and asked our class mates questions. I received a lot of positive feedback which I was pleased about, but I also asked for improvements/constructive criticism which in turn I was told that I needed to make some shots less blurry and colour correct a few. Overall, I was happy with this feedback as it made me realise what features I needed to improve on to finalise my music video to its best possible stage. Also, I was able to receive opinions from my actual target audience as they were the perfect age for my audience, so I knew the opinions were really valid and helpful. I will be using all of this feedback to its full advantage.

Audience feedback survey (and how I handed out my survey)

PLEASE TAKE MY AUDIENCE FEEDBACK SURVEY: http://surveymonkey.com/s/LFVBRM5

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

With Survey Monkey, I created a survey asking 10 questions I believe would help me improve my music video. I have used many different methods of getting my music video target audience to take the survey in order to give me sufficient audience feedback.

To get a good amount of survey responses, I used social networking methods such as Facebook:

All of the Media Studies students put together a Facebook group conversation and we decided to send the group our individual surveys with the videos, so that we could all watch eachothers music videos and fill out eachothers surveys to help eachother. I thought this was a great idea as we are able to get feedback from fellow Media students who actually know what they are talking about and can understand perhaps more "Media-suited" questions, such as ones about camera angles etc. Also, this means I'm getting sufficient feedback from my actual target audience.

I also set a status on Facebook:

I also used methods such as Twitter:

As you can see, I set a status asking people to fill out my survey. I feel it is unlikely that tweeters will take the time out of their day to fill out a survey they are not that bothered about realistically, however I felt that it was necessary to get as many responses as possible, and it is worth a try. It's also good to get feedback from people who are out of the Media A level circle and see what their view is on my music video.

I also texted a few of my friends and told my family about this survey. I found that all of these methods were well-suited and successful, as even though some of my family are not my target audience, it will be useful to get opinions from varied age groups.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are of course very useful for surveys, particularly for me, because they involve mainly the people who are my target audience, so it's a perfect way to hand out my survey.

I am currently awaiting responses for my survey. So far I have 7, and I'm hoping to have near 20 by the end of next week.

Adding the sparkle effect to my Digipak front cover

  This is a video I made on adding the sparkle effect to my digipak front cover. I recorded me doing this through CamStudio, and it basically showed me adding a line of multicoloured sparkles underneath my title saying "Lights". The video presents how I did this; - by importing an image I found from google and simply dragging it over to my front cover. I then selected the black background on it and removed this so that it just left the sparkles, and removed any necessary sparkles too. Unfortunately the video cut off so I couldn't show this part, but I also added a red and blue effect to it so that it matches my digipak's house colours more.
I imported this CamStudio footage to Windows Movie Maker, added a title and sped it up a tad so that it wasn't boring to watch. Then, I imported my front cover from before I added the sparkles, and my front cover after I added the sparkles. I used a title saying "before" and "after" by these so that the audience can tell them apart. This also shows the changes I have made and how the sparkles really improve my work.

Digipak 2nd draft

Front cover

OR:

Part 2 & 3 (CD):

Part 4 & 5:

Part 6 (track-listing):

This is the second draft of my digipak. As you can see when comparing this version to my first draft, I've made many changes to it and improved it in many ways. My first draft's main image of Georgina is the the same one I've used here except before it was a lot more zoomed-out and blurry. When receiving feedback from my teacher, she told me that I should zoom in on the main image a bit more to get more of her face on show and therefore make it look more professional; also allowing the audience to identify with her more. So, I cropped the image, and then the teacher pointed out that the image looked too 'raw' and needed a filter on it which I agreed with. I had been planning to add some sort of different colour to the picture anyway as I knew it was only my first draft, but my teacher made me realise this even more so. I played around with different filters by going on the 'change colour' tab and 'adding blue' or 'adding red'. I found that I liked the image with both a blue and red filter on it, so it was difficult for me to decide. Therefore, I decided to make two different versions of my second draft which I knew I could then ask my target audience which one they prefer and also decide by myself which one I liked most. So as you can see, the first second draft of my digipak front cover has more of a 'red' filter on it which I thought really portrayed passion and love, in comparison to the second version which has a 'cold blue' filter to it which I also thought was effective because it made her face stand out and made her look innocent, which is exactly what my music video does. I didn't play with the main title too much as I liked the way it initially was, apart from enlarging it a tad. I also made the main image sharper so that it looked more professional. Lastly, as you can see there are some 'sparkles' placed underneath the first version of my digipak's title here. I knew that my digipak needed just something more to make it stand out, and I wanted it to appeal to my target audience as much as possible, so I simply googled 'sparkles', imported the image to my digipak front cover, selected the unneeded background on the image and removed it, then played with the opacity of the image and placed it underneath the title. I know it's quite blurry and not perfect currently, but it gives me something to work on in the future. Also, on the second version of my digipak front cover I realised that you can really see where Georgina's face has been 'cut out' as it is rigid and does not look professional, so this gives me reason to choose the first version as my final front cover after I've improved it. I didn't feel I needed to make many changes to the rest of my digipak for my second draft, however of course I will be for my final digipak. For my final digipak, I will most likely choose the first version of my front cover and maybe add a bit more of a 'blue' filter to the image as I prefer this, and there will be many other ways in which I will be improving it.

Album advert 3rd draft

This is the third draft of my album advert. As you can see, I have made many changes in comparison to my last draft, however I am still dithering now on whether I actually prefer my last (second) draft or not. I showed my teacher and she told me that my last draft may have looked too much like a film poster, which I agreed with. So, I made many changes such as moving the album ratings down to the bottom of the page near the website mentionings etc.. I also changed the colour of the writing underneath the stars such as 'The Guardian' from red to white so that it would stand out more. This is because I figured that the red faded too much into the background which is the opposite effect from what I wanted. Furthermore, I moved the 'featuring hit single Guns and Horses' to the top of the page, above 'Lights', then I moved 'Ellie' and 'Goulding' down to the centre of the main image so that there was a gap between the writing to leave space for Ellie, and so that the font was small enough to fit in. However, I am not quite sure yet on whether I like this yet or not because I feel like it fades into the background too much and looks too 'random', but I am planning on receiving feedback from my target audience in order to fix this. However, my teacher thinks that it looks better like this so I will take that into account. Lastly, my teacher told me that my main image was too 'zoomed out' and even though I really liked the arch of the trees in the image, this needed to be cut out and the image needed to me zoomed in on because Georgina looked too small and far away, making it look like a film poster. I then realised that she wasn't the centre of attention on my album advert and that I definitely needed to fix this, so I cropped the image to make Georgina larger. I do think that this looks a lot better. However, in preparation for my final draft I will be changing many things, such as font size and type, the colours to make them stand out, amongst many other features.

"Guns and Horses" - Ellie Gouding music video 2nd draft

"Guns and Horses" - Ellie Goulding A2 music video 2nd draft/FINAL video from Hannah Alley on Vimeo.

This is the second draft of my music video. I have made many changes to it to ensure that I finalise it to the best I possibly can. For example, I have incorporated several slow motion shots of my friend Jessica performing gymnastics throughout the music video randomly. I have done this because I know that it is another way to keep my audience's attention. Also, I made these shots black and white in order to differentiate between the performance/narrative shots and these gymnastic shots, so that there is no confusion within the audience. I have also cut up the shots a lot more so that they are less long and tedious to watch. Furthermore, specifically I have changed the last scene a lot, where Georgina burns the letter Matt sent her. On my first draft there was a lot of shots of her picking up the letter and burning it, which may have become confusing and like I said, tedious to watch. However now, I have cut the shots to the pace of the song and shortened it a lot so that there's literally only about 3 shots of her doing this, keeping it simple and easy to watch. Also, before the video ended on a sad note with Georgina crying as she watches the letter's ashes scatter amongst the pavement, however now I have added a short shot of Georgina singing the last lyric as she smiles to herself, finally escaping the woods. I did this because I believe it gives the music video a resolution, adapting the 'resolution' theorem to it and therefore hopefully allowing the audience to feel satisfied with the ending solution of the video. As you can probably also see, many of the shots no longer look 'raw'. I have made a subtle contrast between the performance and narrative shots by adding an adjustment layer to all of the narrative shots, making them less colourised. Therefore the narrative/flashback shots are duller, introducing a distinct contrast. However, I noticed a few mistakes/problems with this video such as some narrative shots did not have this adjustment layer on them such as the first few narrative shots when Georgina is getting ready for her date. I did this by mistake, therefore I will be changing this for my third draft. I also know that some of the shots are probably still a bit too long, so in order to make the music video more interesting to watch, I will be changing this.

Digipak first draft

This is the first draft of my digipak. I know there are many changes I need to make, as I have noticed the main image of my front cover is blurry and a bit too zoomed out. It also looks 'raw', so I think I'll need to add a filter to it to make it look more professional. I think overall my front cover looks quite bland so I will make sure to add different features and filters to it to make it stand out more to the eye. For the CD covers I simply googled 'CD stensil' and imported this to two nature images I had taken in the woods which I thought would be good background images, removed its background, played with the opacity so that it was opaque, and added one on top of both images. I thought this worked out quite well and the ending product looked quite professional, however I know there will be changes I need to make to ensure it looks the best it possibly can. For the third part of my digipak, I simply used a shot of Georgina just finding the horse-riding badges in the woods. I really wanted to capture and use an image of some actual action that happened in the music video so that the audience would see the image and think 'that's what I actually saw in the video', therefore there is continuity and familiarity which I think is an important feature in a digipak. Also, I had an idea to basically make an artists note Ellie Goulding had supposedly 'written' to her fans/audience/customers, saying 'I hope you enjoy it as much as I did', suggesting that she actually really had fun with her songs/music video and wants her fans to, too. I thought this was a great touch because it adds a personal feel to the digipak and makes it also look a lot more professional. Finally, for the final part which was tracklisting, I simply googled 'track list digipak' and had a look at how most tracklists were set out. I discovered that you definitely needed a barcode and website on there, which was interesting; along with copyright information. I made sure to add these, by for instance googling 'barcode' and importing the image and cropping it which was fairly simple. Then, I made sure to use the house colours with the actual track list which was red and black, and made the font capitalised and bold in order for it to stand out. So far I am happy with the first draft of my digipak, however I know that there is a lot of progress I need to make in order for it to look really professional, realistic and generally the best it possibly can.

Album advert 2nd draft

This is the second draft of my album advert. Even though I have made many improvements to this, I do feel like I prefer my first draft for a few different reasons, so I will need to think about how I will make progress on this. However, after being told by my target audience that my album advert looks too much like a film poster, I firstly changed the font type of the masthead 'Lights' from a script font, to a large, bold capital font for it to stand out more as an album advert. Secondly, I moved this font upwards and then changed 'Ellie Goulding' into lower case and also so that the words were next to eachother instead of underneath eachother. This gave the rest of the album advert a lot more orderly space. Then, instead of having 'featuring the hit single' and 'Guns and Horses' underneath eachother I put them next to eachother and made the whole font white so that it stood out and looked organised. I also removed the soft drop shadow effect I had previously applied to it to make sure it stood out and didn't look too 'dreamy' and amateur. However, now I look at it, I'm not sure whether I actually preferred the 'dreamy' effect on it, so I will reconsider this. I also moved the 'Breathtaking - NME' text down a tad, and then I was finished. However I still believe that my album poster does look a bit like a film poster, so in order to avoid this I will be making many changes in preparation for my third draft in the future.

Editing the main image for my album advert on Photoshop

  This is a video I filmed using CamStudio at home, of me editing the main image of my model for my album advert on Photoshop. This includes me adjusting the shadows, increasing sharpness, adjusting the colour and adjusting the brightness and contrast. I found these adjustments really changed/increased the effect of my image and I was pleased I had edited it when I saw the outcome. I imported this footage to Windows Movie Maker, sped it up to make it like a timelapse, added my music video soundtrack and a title. Then I made sure to save images of the before and after of this image so that the change was evident, so I added these to the end of the video with captions, and I was finished.

Timelapse: taking digipak photos

This is a timelapse video I managed to record whilst taking the photos of my actress/model for my digipak. It took ages to get my phone/recorder in the right place for it to record which was quite an amusing process, as we figured we had nobody to record it because there was only two of us so I decided to hang Georgina's bag on a branch in the woods and slide my phone into the half-zipped pocket. It took so long to get my phone in the right position to record because the bag kept swinging round and the phone kept falling in the pocket etc., nevertheless we finally got the right position to start. I imported this clip to Windows Movie Maker, muted its sound, sped it up to turn it into a timelapse, added my music video soundtrack and a title, then I was done.

Timelapse: setting up my digipak prop

This is a video I got my actress, Georgina to take of me setting up an important prop for my digipak. This prop is an "artist's note" I thought would be a good idea to include in my digipak. I got a piece of paper and wrote "I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.. Ellie x" on it in itallic/script writing and scrumpled it up/teared it up a bit. Then, I found a spot in the woods that looked colourful, interesting, autumnal and suitable to use as the setting for this prop, and found some brightly coloured yellow leaves on the floor. I placed my note there, put some leaves around it without making it look too posed/contrived, and began taking photos. Once Georgina got this footage of me, later on I uploaded it from my phone to Windows Movie Maker on my computer, sped up the footage so that it was a timelapse, added my music video soundtrack and a title, then uploaded it.

Album advert first draft

This is the first draft of my album advert. I really enjoyed making it, however I know that there are many changes I will need to make in order to ensure that it's finalised to the best of my ability. I really liked the font type of the 'Lights' masthead as the script font gives it a 'dreamy', feminine effect which I believe is the whole music video in a 'nutshell', therefore giving it continuity. I matched the red text such as 'Ellie Goulding' and 'NME' to the model in the main image's actual hair so that the house colours are consistent and it looks professional. With the rest of the text I used a white font colour as black was too dark and faded into the background, whereas with white, it stands out and looks fresh and makes Georgina look innocent. It also matches with her white dress. I chose the main image because I believe that it sums up Georgina's journey in the woods in a nut shell. She is lost and intrigued by her surroundings and wants to find her way out, and she is innocent and feminine. Her pose/stance represents the femininity and innocence as she holds her dress in a delicate manner, yet the idea of her being 'lost' is also represented through her head looking above her as she is in the woods. Also, the fact that she is 'walking' in the picture captures actual action of the moment, making the audience feel like they are almost there with her. The wood surrounding captures isolation and vulnerability. I also believe that it was great to use a picture for my album advert that the actual music video was captured in because this portrays continuity and it means the album advert actually links with my music video, so the audience can relate to it and think 'oh, that's where she was in the music video when I watched it'. I also really liked the way the trees arch around her in the photo, which was another poignant reason for me picking this image. Overall, I know there are many changes I need to make but so far, I am happy with this result of my album advert.

Album poster draft

This is the draft of my album cover. As you can see, there is a bold album title called “LIGHTS”, and underneath it states “THE NEW ALBUM BY”, then underneath “Ellie Goulding”. Then underneath this it states “featuring the hit single ‘Guns and Horses’”.

Underneath this writing I plan to use an image of my protagonist actress holding one side of her dress delicately as she looks up around her wanderingly. She is in the middle of a woods, preferably on a path seperated by trees dangling over her.

Underneath this image there will be a quote saying “breath-taking”, and underneath “AVAILABLE NOW ON..” etc.

I plan to take the photos for my album poster tomorrow.