Album Cover analysis 1

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are an American band formed of eleven members, with two lead singers: Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos. The band were formed in 2007 and released their debut album 'Up From Below' in 2009.
The genre the band are labeled as is indie-pop, however some (such as lastfm.com) may add to that stating they are alternative-country and folk.
The bands vibe is very uplifting and easy going. In many ways they come across as being hippie, which is seen by their dress sense and their attitudes, which is very down to earth and freewilled.

Up From Below:

As seen through the album cover, the band come across as being very happy,light hearted, easy going and free - which can link in with the fact that they have a 'hippie' side to them. This can be portrayed through the colours used and the fact that they are leaping in joy, which could suggest that they are happy with their life, and they do as they please - they go around with no care in the world and are not ashamed of themselves in any way.

The colours of the album cover give us the impression that they are very humble. The colours suggest that the picture was taken in summer, which is seen through the warm colours (red/pink/orange) of the sunset and the silouette; in many ways it can give someone a sense of holiday and relaxation - which in my opinion that is what the band is all about, they are not the in your face/loud type of band, but a relaxing and easy going type, and that the songs on the album are quite peaceful - an album in which one would listen to whilst lying down or somewhere in peace.

The typography is not very big, however does stand out as it is in black - which in comparrison to the colours of the background stands out. It also stands out because of its font which is very unique and in some ways has an oriental feel to it.

Third Day of Filming

During the weekend we decided to film a few shots in central London (South Bank). We spent around two hours filming - from 2:30 to 4:30 - which was just the right amount of time for us to get all the shots we needed. We filmed until sunset, therefore we got the perfect, beautiful shots that can make our music video that much nicer.

The first thing we decided to shoot were the shots filmed on Embankment Bridge with our lead girl (Kim) standing in the middle of the bridge singing. Our reason for doing so was so we could work on our editing skills once finished, our idea for these particular shots is to have Kim as the center of attention with everyone walking around her in a faster pace to the song and the video - timelapse.

Other shots were to fill in the spaces in the music video. For example we took shots of the surrounding scenery, of the London Eye in the background, of St Paul's Cathedral and of the bridge itself.

Moving on from the bridge, we started shooting scenes along the embankment, with the lights in the background out of focus and the sunset in the surrounding background.

All in all, i feel as though our day was very productive; the music video is now nearly complete. At the moment, during lessons, we are in the middle of editing all the footage we have accomplished so far. Once all the editing has been completed, we only have a few more minutes left to film and we should hopefully have a good result and a good music video.

Sarah Blasko - Artist Information

Born 23 September 1976, Sydney, New South Wales, Sarah Blasko is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician.
In 2002 her solo career kicked off, however from the mid 90s to 2002 she was the front singer for Sydney-based band Acquiesce. Mid solo career, 2007, she won the 'Best Pop Release' "for What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have" at the ARIA Music Awards, which also reached number 7 in the Australian charts. Later on in 2009 her latest album, As Day Follows Night, won the 'Best Female Artist' at the ARIA Awards. Blasko's music is classified as 'indie-rock' and 'indie-pop'; her biggest release to date is: "Seeker Lover Keeper" reaching number 3 in the Australian charts (the highest she has reached).

Sarah Blasko has toured extensively in Australia, along with the US, Canada, UK and Ireland and the rest of Europe. She has toured with folk/roots artists such as Ray LaMontagne and played outdoor rock festivals and has also toured with James Blunt and has just recently supported Temper Trap on their UK tour.

Second Day of Filming

The second day of filming was focused on the introduction to our music video. We used the dark room in school with the permission of our art department; in my opinion it was very useful being in school and not out on location, my reason being because if anything should have gone wrong it would be easy to get something fixed or to get some forgotten devices needed for our shoot.

We chose to film this particular scene in a dark room as we needed the bright spot lights to focus on our main character Kim. However, unfortunatly the lights were not working as some students had broken them a few days before - this created a number of problems for us as we did not know how we were to shoot the scene. our initial idea was to have the lights flashing with different coloured filters switching to the beat. Furthermore, seeing as we could not use the lights, we figured out a way to do the scene with out them, but using the light on the iPhone 4S instead, which worked perfectly well. To make it a little bit more interesting we used the light on Iva's phone and projector paper with the lyrics on it which created a shodow/silhouette on Kim's face and the background.
Once we had finished the particular section of the song we had planned to film, with time remaining we decided to film a few cut aways, therefore, this way, any sections of the music video not completed we can use these cut aways to fill the gaps. So far i feel as though we have achieved a lot in a short amount of time and im sure our hard work will continue and will hopefully pay off.

First Day of Filming

Our first day of filming took place on Friday 9th December using Wimbledon Common as our location. We filmed from around 2:30 - 4, throughout that period we shot all of the shots that we needed for the scenes in the forest.

What made it even more special was the fact that we got there just in time for sunset which made our shots even more beautiful - with the sun shining through the trees. Whilst filming we used the school's camera and tripod which helped us a great deal and worked well for tracking and panning. In addition to filming the scenes we were recording all of the process throughout using Iva and Shazma's cameras. We found that Iva's camera (iPhone 4S) especially had very good quality, having tried a few test shots with that camera, we decided to use it as well as the school's as it is very good quality. Using both video cameras we will now try and combine the shots taken with both cameras in our music video; the only down side to this is the fact that the two camera's have two completely different qualities and it may ruin the outcome of the music video and may create an amateur look. Along with the fact that some shots taken with the iPhone were a little shaky as we did not have a tripod to help us out.

I believe we used our time wisely as by the end of the two hours we had got all the shots needed from the forest, now all we have to shoot are the scenes in the dark room and in central London.