Photoshoot - Miss Miller

For my music video, we had to take into consideration a range of different tasks which would help to make it successful. These included such things as magazine adverts and digipaks. To complete these types of advertisements for the album, me and my groups had to take photos of particular scenarios which we thought would be most appropriate to represent our artist in a particular light. We needed to take photos to ensure the focus and detailing on them was to almost perfection to make a successful digipak and magazine advert. We was going to screen shot fractions from scenes to include as pictures, but we quickly realised this would be ineffective and would only make it seem blurry due to the character moving around whilst performing and less focus than a still picture would show.

The front cover is the most important page out of the whole digipak, as it is the first thing the audience see. If it is not effective, it will disengage the audience immediately and will make them not want to even bother looking at the rest. The image is extremely important as it is the thing which is taking up most of the page, as it is the background. This image was used for the first page of my digipak, which would be the first page the audience would see and create a first impression upon. I liked this picture as she is shown to be very focused on a certain thing, which we cannot see while she is performing. It is clear that she is performing due to iconography used such as microphone and its stand, the stage curtains and how the artist is dressed, such as elegant off the shoulder black dress, half of  her hair clipped back with the rest had time taken in by using a curling wand and also use of makeup which highlighted parts of the artists facial features such as lips and eyes. I wanted the first page to show the artist looking very attractive, which can intrigue audience towards looking at the rest of the digipak and then listening to the album. The artist is shown to have a very straight face whilst she performing, which can covey to the audience that the song she is singing is very serious to her. This can appeal to the target audience (15-25) as they can feel intruiged to know what kind of emotion the artist is going through.  I only wanted to use an image with only the artist in, to represent her as a solo and independent artist, and also showing the importance of her towards the album.  I like how the edit enphasises her face shape such as defined cheek bones, which is seen to be an attractive. I wanted to use the black and white edit as it was conventional towards the soul genre. Also, as the colour black is seen as very mysterious and white is seen as very bland, not much is given away to the audience which can intrigue them towards listening to the album as the front cover is almost like it is teasing them.  I like how the audience are able to see the quiff on the artists hair, which shows inspiration from our chosen artist of Amy Winehouse, as that was her signature style. I think the facial expression she is making is extremely effective as it shows her disregard towards everything and is completely getting in the zone within her music. This shows her dedication towards her career and how seriously she takes it. This can then relate to the hidden message of her being an independent woman and not living for men, as she will only get her heart broken, which is why she is so careless and rebellious. This is subversive towards the genre of soul, as female artists are typically shown to be heart broken over someone they loved who did not care for their feelings. This shows my artists to be an extraordinary and different artist, which can be refreshing for audiences and idolising for young girls to stay strong and do what you want to do in order to be happy. Throughout the album, Cara-Lily teaches audiences that you should live for yourself to be happy and do not care what anyone else thinks, and I think using this image is a good way to start of the overall meaning of the album. I wanted to use this picture for both my magazine advert and my front page of my digipak as i wanted to show her in a physically good looking way. The photos where she is performing at a jazz scene is where she is looking most attractive with her hair and makeup done nicely and also wearing appropriate yet tasteful clothes. Using this is conventional towards the soul genre as she is percoeved as sweet and innocent. I didn't want to go straight in with her actual persona and overwhelm the audience with her wild actions as it can portray her as easy and 'trampy.' Using this photo can appeal to the audience as they can wish to learn more about her as they are physically attracted to her. Young girls may wish to want to see more of her styles and trends so that can be inspired and copy their idol. Boys can find her attractive and want to hear the album to match a voice to their celebrity crush.

I wanted to use this picture as I thought be an effective way of showing the artists physical appearance of facial expressions and body language into one of the pages. Within this picture, she is shown to be dressed nicely on a stage ready to perform. She has her hair in a quiff with curled ends and makeup to define facial features such as her eyes and lips. I wanted to include this as it looks conventional due to the sadness it portrays. She is shown to be looking down to the floor, which can show she is deep in thought about something serious and sad. She is not shown to be positive with a smile on her face, but with a very bland expression. I liked how she is shown to be performing due to the type of dressed up clothing she is wearing and the stage curtain behind her. The fact that she is holding the curtains whilst being slightly inside of them can convey a sense of suffocation as she looks like she is about to wrap the material around herself. She could feel mentally suffocated due to the big crowd watching her and her feeling nervous due to the personal songs she is about to sing. This shows her in a vulnerable state, which is conventional towards the genre of soul as it can make the artist feel sad and small, rather than smiley and confident. I wanted to include this certain image for the personal message page as it seemed more passionate. I thought the more vulnerable she seemed, the better as it would seem then more personal and intimate as she is also sending a message towards how thankful she is of her fans. The image of her looking sad can allow the audience to visualise an interpretation of her getting emotional whilst writing the speech. This can then build a relationship between artist and audience as the audience start to believe this bond is more personal and exclusive rather than just watching one of their music videos. The artist is acknowledging the audience and personally thanking them. I wanted to include an image where most of the artists body is being shown as I thought it would fit well with the text being written around the natural curves of the artists body. I thought this would be more effective than using a close up for the background or it would mean that it would cover the whole background and the text would have to layer over the artists face, which then could make it seem hard to read and then ineffective. For the edit of the image for my digipak, I wanted to make the artists seem more bright, which is why I made the curtains more of a darker maroon, red which then made it easier for the white text to be read. I wanted to use this photo for this particular page where it is most personal, as she is looking down which can show she is deep in thought, leaving the audience to interpret that this is because she is thinking about what to write within this personal message. Including a picture of her allow the audience to fluently visualise how she physically looks if she was to say this message aloud. This can appeal to the audience as it then feels much more personal and rawr than just using something boring like a black background. I also like how the writing fits around the figure of the artist, making it the page flow more and making it look more effective. 

This image was used for my disc cover of my digipak. I admired this picture as she is shown to be looking in the mirror, admiring herself whilst buffing her hair up and pouting her lips. This is subversive to the genre of soul as the artist is usually shown to be devastated over a situation, and has low self esteem, always crying and more. This picture shows her to be confident, which audiences can admire due to her careless attitude towards everything. This is a good way to show her personality through pictures as it shows her to have full self esteem, and feel good in her own skin, the audience can admire this and can also encourage them to feel good about themselves, as fans are idolising her and wish to be just like her. This can show a sense of positivity she is providing towards audiences. I also liked this picture as she is shown as very girly and attractive, I like how the type of harsh lighting shows the shadows of the artists long eyelashes, which audiences of girls can idolise, as the target audience age range (15-25 years old) of girls can be very insecure about certain aspects of themselves, and there are things out as products such as eyelashes which are longer versions of your natural eyelashes, which make your eyes seem bigger, brighter and more attractive. As the shadows make the eyelashes look even longer can leave the audience in lust towards them and can interest them in watching more things of her such as music videos to see more about her makeup techniques so that they can copy the trend. Using the artist which is attractive within the music video is conventional towards the genre of soul as female artists are shown to be pretty which make the audience sympathetic towards them when they are shown to be sad. I also like the warmth of the artists skin tone. I know its important to show a sense of sadness to make it conventional towards the genre of soul, however; I think using a warm, tanned flesh tone can make the audience feel more welcomed and comfortable to watch and listen to the rest of the album. I then made this page more conventional to the genre by making the whole background black, which then highlighted the artists importance towards the music the disc includes. I liked how the image was a bedroom setting, which can make the audience believe it is more personal and intimate, as it is showing a room where she does most of her chores, makeup and hair routines and more on a daily basis. The audience are able to learn more about her as a character, as they are able to see what kind of trends she likes. The black and white themed room then sums up her personality as dangerous and rebellious. I wanted to keep this disc as simple as possible so it did to look so overwhelming. I think the black background d is effective due to how it is almost meshing in with the outskirts of the artist. This can appeal to the audience are they are able to understand what kind of music is going to be played within the disc, which is interpreted from the display as sad lonely and a dark situation which is eating her alive. Her eye shut can leave an interpretation that it is all becoming too much for her and she can no longer handle it. However, her pout can suggest that she is putting on a brave face and is trying to be as calm and collected a a possible, leaving her to be known as careless.

I decided to use this specific picture which was also shown in a similar way within pne of the music video scenes. I decided to include this within my digipak as I thought it was the most effective way to sum up her character. I think this picture shows a thousand words and allows the audience to immediately understand her personality more clearer than showing another action shot of her performing at the jazz bar again. This also gives the audience an insight towards the album without giving too much away. If you was to look at this page without hearing the album first you would instantly react with her being one a date with a good looking boy, who is clearly into her from the way he is looking at her in lust and her obvious reaction of looking bored, frustrated and showing no kinds of affection towards him. This then highlights her overall persona me and my group wish to accomplish which is careless. You are able to tell her mind is on other things and not the date she is currently having, the audience are unable to tell what this is which make them want to purchase the digipak and not all has been revealed but a tasteful amount. I didn't include much editing towards this as I wanted to make it look as natural as possible, from the lighting of bulbs already used when taking the photograph. I wanted one of the pages to tell a story to the audience to make it seem more like a real life situation instead of a planned photoshoot. The audience are able to build a bond with the artist as they are learning more about her behaviour and ways of how she treats people who care about her. The audience are then intruiged to find out more towards this situation as to why she feels this way and what happens next, leaving them listen to the album. As the target audience is 15-25 year olds, and they are known to be most interested in other peoples personal lives and to gossip, using an image like this is extremely effective as it allows the audience to briefly understand what's happening within the situation, but will only find out the whole story if they listen to the album. This intruiged the target audience to purchase the digipak as they are curious a to why this scenario has occurred. 

The photoshoots would take place after we had finished filming different scenes to show the artist in a particular costume and scenario. It is important to take a variety of different photos to ensure you have lots of back up pictures incase some may not turn out how you first imagined. You can then use other photos that may have potential due to thinking ahead during the photoshoot instead of having to do the photoshoot all over again which is time consuming. For my digipak and magazine advert, I made a drawn out plan for a rough idea of what to include for both of the advertisements. I could then visualise how I wished the final products to look and could then feel more comfortable when actually making the decision. I did mainly stick to my plan. However; there were some slight adjustments such as the positioning of the character would stay the same but the artist would be dressed differently as some scenes I thought looked better than my initial plan. I think taking the pictures hpwas quite easy, as we would take them after me and my group had finished filming the specific scene. We would always try to take more than needed of photos just incase the way we visualised a certain expression to turn out didn't actually go according to plan. We would have the artist do various different poses in different rooms and types of lighting to get more of a variety when it actually came to producing our individual digipak and magazine advert.