Successful Images For Digipak

Sticking with the church theme that we had decided on, for these images I went to Durham cathedral and the bottom image is from a small abandoned church that I found on the way home from Durham. I think that they are fairly successful and would look good on the digipack after doing some editing on them.

Digipack Draft

Above is the draft digipack I created on Adobe Photoshop. Firstly, I got a 6 panel digipack template off a website called Ultradisc, with the song name "Whistle For The Choir" we decided that a church theme would be appropriate for the design of the digipack/disc and advert. The images of the stained glass windows are images that I found on Google however, the two images of the church are some that I took myself. I decided to use a simple font because the images have a lot going on in them and I didn't want the digipack to be too over the top.

Below is a draft CD, I thought that the circular stained glass window was effective as it fits the shape well. I thought that the arced text goes well and again I just used the same simple text.

Successful Images For Digipack

For these images, I went to a local church at night. I think that night was the best time to go to achieve a dark feel but keep the church theme. After some editing and experimenting on Photoshop, I think they will be successful and ready to go onto the digipack.

Rough Cut 1

Video Comparison

These videos have been put into comparison because there are a few shots throughout Rihanna's video where she is stood in front of a car and the headlights are shining from behind her.

Storyboard Anamatic

Story Board

Editing Technique Ideas

The editing in this video is something i would like to do in my own. When the split screen is on i think that it is a good technique and how it sweeps to the side. The way the two different sides are from the same shots look really effective, how in one side there is a close up of the lead singer then next to it its a long shot.



500 days of summer is a personal favourite of mine and this is where i thought of the idea of the Expectations and Reality. i think this would fit really well into the video of whistle for the choir and the idea i have of the boy following about the girl in the reality section then the boy and the girl together in the expectations side.

Questionnaire Responses

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment media from beththornton_

Audience Profile

I have chosen a girls Facebook Profile for additional information for audience research. This is a typical profile for the type of genre our music video would appeal to. Alex has a cover photo of Jack Steadmen Bombay Bicycle Club's front man. BBC are a indie band and are very popular in the current music industry. You instantly know what type of music she likes with what her cover photo reveals.

Advert Analysis

The first magazine advert that i have decided to look at is Kasabian. There is a lot of typical features on this advert such as the name of the band and the illustration in the background as well as the name of the album (Empire). On the bottom of the advert in very small font it gives you Kasabian's official website were you will be able to purchase the album.

The image used of the advert is of a playing card with the king of spades on, the King card might represent that this album is the highest standard of music which is represented through the playing card. Also the image is of two soldiers carrying  women who is a lot smaller and has no clothes on, this could be used to show the dominance the man has against a women, the illustration also  looks like it has purposely been drawn this way to create a god like feel, and because the title of the album is called Empire the man at the top could be the ruler of the Empire. The big bold writing of 'KASABIAN' is the font that the band always uses, it is like the trade mark for the band. The red ribbon with the word 'Empire' on is in a different font from the rest of the album, this adds to the effect of the advert being regal and royal. 

This is Kasabian's second album release in 2006, since then the other albums that followed have all had the coherent theme of the solider uniforms and the royal setting. Because this is the second album the band will already have a certain amount of follows who expect more from the second album, so the songs have to be a lot better from the first to keep the fans happy. The art work of the album and the way it is advertised is certainly very important. If this advert had lots of different colours and it just didnt follow on from the design of the first straight away that may effect the appeal to the fans, but it also needs to be interesting and stand out from other bands of the same genre to be able to get more fans. The target audience for this advert would be people of 16+ i don't think that the age would go much younger than 16 because there is a lot of taboo language in their songs, also this art work is more mature and sophisticated than that of artist who aims their music to a younger audience. 

Shot Count Task

Shot Count - 126 

I chose the Maccabees for my shot count task because it fits the genre that i will use for my music video. There is a lot of repetition of shots in the video, however, in this video it works well. The First shot we see is high angle of a women laid on the floor, which we see later on in the video a close up from the top of her head drawing around herself with a piece of chalk for it to later be revealed that she has moved from the spot cuddling the chalk drawing of herself which illustrates the songs lyrics. When the music changes so does the shot. 46 seconds into the video we see the whole band in a long shot but without their instruments, it then cuts to a man sat on a chair in a medium shot, then cuts straight to a close up to his hand and we see him drawing on his hand with lipstick. There is a lot of things going on in this video with all of the different stories in it, e.i when the women is laid down drawing around herself with the chalk, then the man with the lipstick, the women gluing the handle back onto the cup etc. i chose to look at The Maccabees video for First love because it has all of the conventions of the genre that i want in my music video which is indie/ alternative rock. The way the band move to the song is quite awkward but fits in with the song and this is the type of behavior you would tend to see in this type of genre.

Nine Frame Analysis

9 frame analysis from beththornton_

Digipack Analysis

This digipack i have decided to look at is the musical version of War Of The Worlds written by Jeff Wayne. I have chosen this digipack because the music on the cd's would fit under the indie genre.The front of the Digipack has a big giant robot on the front attacking a ship. This relates to the whole design of the Digipack because it is all about the War Of the Worlds.

This is the inside of the 6 panel. The first pane is just a basic white background with the title of the Digipak. The next two panes are really interesting because there is an image on the background that relates to war of the worlds but then the disc design is incorporated into it. I really like this idea and think this would be great to take this idea and incorporate into my own design of my Digipak. When i first found this Digipak i didnt realise at first that this is what the design was for, so taking that on board i will make sure if i do take this idea i will make the image a lot clearer.

This is the back of the Digipak, just like the inside it has the one pane white the white background and the writing then the other two panes are images. On the back pane of the Digipak we have the image continuing on from the front pane, with the sky as the main focus and the boat on the bottom. In the right hand corner we have the bar code with the record labels that got involved with the making of the CD's and then on the left in a vertical column is the names of the people who featured in the album. It is in a basic font in the coherent colour.

Interesting Music Videos

Call Sheet

Call sheet from beththornton_

Audience Profile

I have chosen a girls Facebook Profile for additional information for audience research. This is a typical profile for the type of genre our music video would appeal to. Alex has a cover photo of Jack Steadmen Bombay Bicycle Club's front man. BBC are a indie band and are very popular in the current music industry. You instantly know what type of music she likes with what her cover photo reveals.

Rough Cut

This is our rough cut that will not be getting used anymore, as we have changed the song. We took into consideration the beats of the song to ensure that the cuts were in time with each beat, we used a variety of different shots such as close ups, long shots, high angles and pans, carefully mixing them together so that no shot was the same as the one used before it. To make our music video more interesting, we used shots from outside where the members where walking about and we made it look like a casual day out for them, and shots from where the band were actually performing, so it was an assortment. Some of the downsides of our filming and editing is the graininess of some recordings, this is a result of the bad lighting inside the practice studio. A problem we had with our editing was that some of the cuts were not quick enough to fit in with each beat, as we did not have enough successful footage, if we did, then we would have had more cuts in the video to match the pace of the song.

Digipack Experiment

In this tutorial we experimented with photoshop to make our digipack. The tutorial I did was called "blending mode portrait", I think that I was quite successful in doing this tutorial and managed to understand the majority of the techniques used throughout, i picked up quickly on the blending layers and found it easy to change  the opacity.

Call Sheet

Treatment Sheet

Treatment sheet from beththornton_

Questionnaire

Call Sheet

Record Label Ideas

Detailed Video Analysis

I have chosen to look at Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat as my detailed video analysis as it fits the genre that I have chosen to look at, and the video itself is quite interesting.

From the very beginning of the song up until 8 seconds, there is a short into of what is supposed to be a few people in a pub watching the news on television. From the look of the television and clothing, we assume that this video is set around the 70's/80's. Continuity editing is used to establish the area we are at. From 6 until 8 seconds we see someone pulling some curtains back and looking outside, as soon at the instruments start playing, the camera changes to show us some people who are running along side some apartment blocks, they are wearing animal masks and the editing is in slow motion, this is a point of view shot from what the man was looking at from indoors. We are first shown a long shot of the people outdoors, this shows up what they are wearing, and they look fairly normally dresses apart from the masks. At 24 seconds, from a long shot, we see a man in the pub turning around the look at the television, at 25 seconds a cut zoom in is used to frame the television. The 'news presenter' (actually one of the lead singers of Kaiser Chiefs) starts singing. From 25 seconds until 52 seconds, continuous cross cuts are used between the news presenter and various groups of people, each group wearing a different type of mask.

The music video is a mixture of narrative and performance from the band. The lyrics and the narrative of the music video have some connection, presumably the song is about youth who don't want to go to school because they think that is uncool, hence the lyrics -

"What did you learn today?

I learned nothing
What did you do today?
I did nothing
What did you learn at school?
I didn't go
Why didn't you go to school?
I don't know"

The people in the music video could be a representation of the kids that don't want to go to school and get up to crazy things in their school time. From the beginning of the music up until around 2:32 it looks as though these people are about to start a riot, but at 2:32, we are shown a high angle long shot of the differently masked group of people come together and begin a well rehearsed looking dance routine. From 2:32 up until 2:52, various long shots, close ups, high angles, zoom in/outs are used to show this dance routine, thereafter, shots of the band performing are merged in.

The mise en scene and colouring of the music video are quite dull for the majority of the video, for example, assuming that the music video is supposed to be set in the 70's/80's the colouring of the shots are sepia toned, however, shots of the masked people come out a lot brighter because they are wearing bright clothing, this is shown best from 2:32 onwards, because of the brightly coloured umbrellas that are used within the dance routine. 

Interesting Music Videos

Lyrics Breakdown

INTRO – 0:00 – 0:13

Well it's a big big city and it's always the same 0:13 – 0:17
Can never be too pretty tell me your name 0:17 – 0:20
Is it out of line if I was to be bold and say "Would you be mine?" 0:20 – 0:27

Because I may be a beggar and you may be the queen 0:27 – 0:32
I know I may be on a downer i'm still ready to dream 0:32 – 0:35
Though it's 3 o'clock the time is just the time it takes for you to talk 0:35 – 0:42

So if you're lonely why'd you say you're not lonely 0:42 – 0:49
Oh you're a silly girl, I know I heard it so 0:49 – 0:54
It's just like you to come and go 0:54 – 0:58
And know me no you don't even know me 0:58 – 1:04
You're so sweet to try, oh my, you caught my eye 1:04 – 1:09 
A girl like you's just irresistible 1:09 – 1:13

INSTRUMENTAL – 1:13 – 1:27

Well it's a big big city and the lights are all out 1:27 – 1:30
But it's much as I can do you know to figure you out 1:30 – 1:34
And I must confess, my heart's in broken pieces 1:34 – 1:38
And my head's a mess 1:38 – 1:40
And it's 4 in the morning, and I'm walking along 1:40 – 1:45
Beside the ghost of every drinker here who has ever done wrong 1:45 – 1:49
And it's you, woo hoo 1:49 – 1:51 
That's got me going crazy for the things you do 1:51 – 1:55

So if you're crazy I don't care you amaze me 1:55 – 2:02
but you're a stupid girl, oh me, oh my, you talk 2:02 – 2:08
I die, you smile, you laugh, I cry 2:08 – 2:11
And only, a girl like you could be lonely 2:11 – 2:17
And it's a crying shame, if you would think the same 2:17 – 2:22

A boy like me's just irresistible 2:22 – 2:26

INSTRMENTAL *whistling* – 2:26 – 2:54

So if you're lonely, why'd you say you're not lonely 2:54 – 3:00
Oh you're a silly girl, I know I heard it so 3:00 – 3:06
It's just like you to come and go 3:06 – 3:09 
And know me, no you don't even know me 3:09 – 3:15
Your so sweet to try, oh my, you caught my eye 3:15 – 3:20
A girl like you's just irresistible 3:20 – 3:32

Digipack Analysis

The digipack that I have decided to analyse was an album by The XX, this is because it fits the indie genre that we are researching. The image shows two different versions of The XX's digipack, both have four panels which is the most common used for albums. The colour scheme is very simple with only two colours being used.


On the first pane of the digipack (far left) it is completely black with an 'X' that has been cut out of the card, the X has been used numerous times on the pack because the X is a symbolic image that is always used for the band so that everyone recognised their merchandise. On the second pane (right hand side) the background is also black, along with the CD, however, the 'X' on this side is white and significantly stands out compared to the rest of the digipack. 
               
This is the front of the digipack album cover (shown to the left) is very simple and this could be seen as a reflection of the music the band produce as it is calm and not over complicated. I like the overall design of the album because of it's simplicity I believe it is effective, stands out and works well.

Request for Permission

This is email is to request permission from the head office of Island/ Def Jam records to use Whistle For The Choir from their signed artist The Fratellis. I wrote in the email that the song would only be used for educational purposes only, which i think that the record label will agree to let us use the song as it will not be released as our own.



We then decided to tweet the label record label. 

Magazine Advert Analysis

The first magazine advert that I have decided to analyse is an album advert by The Shins. All of the typical conventions for an advert is used in this, such as the name of the band, the name of the album, the background picture and the release date. In small print at the bottom left hand corner of the advert the official band website is advertised, which is where the album can be purchased on release.

"THE SHINS" is in bright red and the left side of the album advert, whereas the rest of the advert is in black and white, this is to stand out so the reader immediately knows what band is being advertised, so fans of  The Shins will recognise it straight away and they will know that they want to buy the album. the background image is very unusual and it's quite hard to figure out what is at the top of what is presumably a mountain, but it is possibly an animal of some sort, likely to be a dog or a wolf and this is demonstrated by the moon behind it.

All of The Shins album artwork is quite similar, following the theme of the look of a sketchy drawing look. Also on each album, the same font is used to be able to be recognised as their 'signature' writing.

Although the album advertisement is quite simple, it actually helps to stand out and keep the focus on it, whereas, if there was a lot of colours, text and images then there would be too much to look at and possibly put the audience off even giving the album a second glance. I do not think that the album advertisement  is aimed at a specific age range, however, the look of the ad is quite mature and unusual, so it could possibly be aimed at late teens, 16+.

Nine Frame Analysis

Shot Count Task

Two Door Cinema Club - Sleep Alone


Shot count - 105

I chose this video because it fits well with my chosen genre that is indie pop.
For this task, I needed to count the number of shots throughout the video sequence, some parts were quite difficult to count because at some points the editing of the music video was very fast.
The majority of the shots are very fast paced, however, throughout the versus and the bridge of the song, some of the shots are quite slow to match the speed of the song. At around 45 seconds as the first chorus starts to kick in, the pace of the shots begin to speed up. The video consists of lots of varied shots, such as establishing shots, close up and long shots. The establishing shot used at the beginning shows that the band are in a bedroom. After 1:50, the lead singer is somewhere else, though no real establishing shot is used (mainly only long shots) we are still able to see the scenery around him, which looks like a city. The two places in the video also don't use an establishing shot, yet we are able to see around him that he is at a train track and then a forest.

The genre conventions usually consist of an indie pop band in a small room playing their instruments and singing, and sometimes the videos are quite surreal. This song does have a very surreal video to match it.

The storyline of the lyrics is reflected quite well in this video, at 44 this is more noticeable as the lyrics say "he needs no army where he's headed 'cause he knows that they're just ghosts and they can't hurt him if he can't see them" whilst things around the bedroom are moving without anyone touching them.

Opie Task

One task was to create a Julian Opie style image of ourselves. This was created on Adobe Photoshop.
The first step was to open the source image in Photoshop, and use the marquee selection tool to crop an area of the image that was desired.
The next step was the create a new layer that focused on the hair, and use the lasso tool to trace around the hair (clicking select > modify > smooth helped get a more accurate shape). After selecting an appropriate color for my hair, using the paint bucket tool filled in the hair. Making a new layer for hair highlights was the next step.
Afterwards a new layer for the face was created, outlining it and filling with an appropriate color. Making a layer for the features was the next step, I used the pencil tool to click on some eyes and added a small white dot on the inside of the black. I used the lasso tool again to select the eyebrows and did the same things as previous to fill them in.
Using the stroke option created the black outlines around the face, hair and clothing. The final layer is the background, which I just filled in blue with the paint bucket tool.

Summary of Skills

.To be able to tell the story of the song
.Promotion of the artist/song/album
.Narrative

.Creative skills
.Techniques/skills
.Costume
.Mise en scene
.Conventions
.Art
.Relate to emotion
.Lip sync