Print Production - Final Digipak and Advert

Digipak CD Design

Digipak Advert

Print Production Planning - Idea Sketch Feedback

I decided to place my 'rough' sketch for my Digipack onto our Facebook group, by doing so, I am able to gain direct feedback from the suitable target audience about what they like and what I can change or maybe include.

Print Production Planning - Update

On Monday the 18th i will take my Photographs for both the Digipak CD Cover and advertisement, I have arranged with my Sophie, who is our artist to come over after we finish college at 2PM to do the photo-shoot. Screen shots of the messages and arrangements are found on the right.

Print Production Planning - Health and Safety Risk Assessment

Print Production Planning - Costume and Props

Print Production Planning- Locations

The Locations I have decided upon are two separate locations: the one main location will be my garden at home, the garden is fairly big and is suitable due to the use of trees and greenery around the garden which is where i want my surreal images for the  'Head Inside Left' and Head Inside Right' of my CD Cover. In this particular location i will use a range of vintage style props such as, old suitcases, bags and the use of a small table with old cups, saucers and teapots which were all inspired by this 'Alice In Wonderland' styled theme and use of surrealism. By using this location, i can use a variety of props and items without the need to travel too far, making the photographs far more surreal and suitable for the 'Indie Pop' genre. By having this slightly disjunctive set of images on the album, it strongly links with the 'Independent' aspect of the genre of having Landscape photography, whilst having some aspects of the 'Pop' genre such as, photographs of the artist.

The main 'Head Front' of the CD Cover and also the Main image on the advertisement will also be located in my garden at home. However, I will chose to take these images later on at night so it still links with the other images but just adds to the lightly 'low key lighting' which I wanted for the main images, the low key lighting also helps create some sort of atmosphere but I will edit the images in such away that this will not distract the attention off the artist but due to the Autumn weather the leaves on the tress are bold and vibrant which is ideal for my images. Props will be similar to props in the other location, this is so the connection between the images is obvious but I will use just simpler items such as a chair and small table, so the focus is directly on the artist.

Print Production Planning - Idea Sketches

This is my overall CD cover design broken up into each section:

Head front:
For the Front of my CD Cover i decided that this should promote not only the artist but also the 'Indie Pop' genre. I chose to have some aspect of 'Indie' by having the landscape background typical of this genre to have more 'thoughtful' images but i also used the typical Mainstream 'Pop' aspect of having the artist present, although hidden by the rabbit animal mask.

Head inside left:

This idea was inspired by a Kings Of Leon album, by which the main artist was separated into sections. I decided to have all the images on my Digipak related and this part of the Digipak will include a close-up of the artist which is typically found within the 'Pop' genre but having a rabbit face layered on top subtly but still quite vivid. The animal mask, was something the artist wore in our music video and i've included it in my Digipak as an almost signature of the artist and that particular song.

King Of Leon album cover - Influence for
my design

Head inside centre:

The left inside centre of the Digipak which will be where the CD is placed, is a slightly more disjunctive aspect to the Digipak of which i included due to this 'Indie' style but however, still relevant with the rest of the images on the CD. I chose to have an apple sliced in half on the CD itself rather than the background where it will be covered. But the simplicity of having just an apple photographed on a white background i think will work really well. On the head back left of the album which will fold over this image will be a photograph of a full apple, so when you open the fold, you go from a full apple to the sliced apple. This is shown at the bottom of this page.

Head inside right: 

On the head inside right of the Digipak i wanted to have something relevant to the rest of my images but also by keeping to the 'Indie Pop' genre so it is suitable for my target audience. I decided to keep with the landscape photography which is typical of the Indie genre but i decided to include all the props used in the rest of the images and placed them altogether, which almost brings the album together, making them all relevant. This idea of surrealism also plays a big part in this particular photo by having props and items in places they're not normally found, this of which i feel will work very well on an album cover.

Head back left:

This image which i spoke about briefly above is the full apple which when folded over will reveal the sliced apple on the head inside centre. Although very simple, i think this works really well, especially keeping some aspects of the 'Indie' genre by having very simple designs but having 'Pop' aspects throughout the Digipak, particularly the close-ups of the artist.

The head back of the Digipak which is not photograph is going to be a very simple black design on a creamy white background. This will be placed at the top, leaving space at the bottom for the song list.

Print Production Planning - Research into genre

Aspects that makes an Indie Pop Digipak are the following:

• Landscape photography
• Sunset/sunrise
• No emphasis on artist, usually mainstream digipak’s focus on the artist or their portraits whereas on the contrary Indie digipaks don’t focus on the artist but they focus on a symbol or an item which adds mysetery which is my next point.
• Sense of mystery 

Print Production Planning - Ideas so far

For my Digipak CD cover I have decided to do an 'Alice in Wonderland' idea theme with similar characteristics from the book. The idea came from the song for our music video 'Another Day' and this idea of a fantasy or surreal dream came to mind, similar to Alice as she wakes up to another day not knowing whether it was a dream or reality. Although, my DigiPak isn't going to be obviously 'Alice in Wonderland' themed, I want some characteristics such as the idea of having a young women almost looking or waiting for something to come or arrive and the idea of having a male and female in these animal masks. Other characteristics I want to experiment with is the idea of surrealism and having objects in unusual settings and backgrounds which I think would work well with the Indie-Pop Genre.

Print Production Planning- Time Planning

Print Production Planning- Digipak practise feedback

I decided to post my Digipak practise on Facebook as the images placed on my Digipak CD Cover are similar themes and designs I want to include on my final Digipak design. Although it's incomplete, gaining feedback will help me greatly in the developing stages and editing stages especially whether it is suitable for the target audience and suitable for the 'Indie Pop' genre.

Print Production Planning - Digipak practise

In this lesson we experimented on Adobe Photoshop with the Digipak designs and added various images of the web to practise with the different tools on Photoshop and to get an idea about the layout of the Digipak.

CD Covers- Technical and Visual codes

The key purposes of a CD cover are to...

1) Construct a star image

• Mode of Address
• Layout Style
• Use of Colour

2) Communicate the genre

• What visual codes are used? (signs, connotes, anchorage)
• What technical codes are used? (uses of technology to create meaning)

3) Provide a unique selling point

• How is it different to the artist's other albums?
• How is it different to other artists in the same genre?

Print Production Planning- Digpak Research

Planning - Shotlist

Planning - Storyboard

Above are a few example of the types of shots that will be included in our music video. This included shots from the first and second verse; however, we could not include the chorus as we are aiming to travel to Perdiswell Skate-park for this particular part of the songs and we were unable to travel due to college times and the opening times of the skate-park. In addition, we still intend to use the skate-park for our video and have emailed the council with conformation that we are able to film there. The email and conformation can be found on my blog.

Planning - Facebook Group

We have decided to create a Facebook group and we've added people that suit our specific target audience, in order to gain feedback and ideas for our video

Planning - messages with cast/updates

We decided to create a Whatsapp group which will enable us to communicate with our cast. We have decided to meet on Tuesday 19th November to finish our research and planning by travelling to Perdiswell with our cast to take photographs for our storyboard, below is an example of the messages sent. 

Risk Assessment

Creativity

Is Creativity A Skill?

• Points to think about are:
• Can we develop creativity?
• Do we all have the potential to improve it?
• How can we learn how to be creative?
• Does knowledge of culture/art, help us be more creative?

 

I Think a knowledge of culture and art can help us be more creative, because the more you draw inspiration from, allow you to gain different ideas and put them together to create something new and of your own. A knowledge of art and culture sometimes can inspire or trigger an idea which enables you to be more creative.

Does a knowledge of creative "tools" help us be more creative?

A knowledge of creative tool does help us be more creative because they allow us to create ideas that are not available, for example the green screen is a tool which enables you to edit a computer generated background or sound behind an object or person. The use of Photoshop also enables you to edit an image to any extent that it becomes unrealistic.

Does media technology inhibit creativity? Are we more "free" without media technology?

I think it enables us to do more with less cost and less props/actors/locations. It allows for more freedom because it can permit us to do more and create new things.

 

How creative are media producers?

Media producers are somewhat creative because although they come up with interesting and new ideas, the people who produce the ideas that the producers come up with are more creative because they take the ideas and make them a physical thing, they also tell the media producer what ideas he can and can't use.

Planning - Cast Roles

Sophie Price - Main role as the female artist
Jack Suttie - Male actor

Planning - Costume List

Audience Feedback from the Pitch

Key Points from feedback:

• Test Shoots for both the skate-park and Anita's house - This something we plan on doing very soon as this will give us some idea of the type of equipment such as lighting we will need.
• Create a plan B as a back-up - This idea is also something we are also going to follow as a secondary plan will b useful if our main idea fails
• Research Around maybe the 50's and 60's style - Authentic/vintage clothing - This idea we did do some research into, such as the B52's but we decided not to follow this through as we felt this time period didn't suit the original settings of a modern day house and skate park
• Test picture in picture - This is something we are also in the stages of testing, this is one particular idea we strongly want to put in our music video and as a group think would be very effective.
• Permission to use Skate-park - As a group we have already gained permission for use and you can find the email for this on the blog.

Examples of Feedback: 

Presentation for our Pitch

Remi nicole – Another Day from IndiaCaleb

Permission For Skate-park usage

Here is the email sent to the council for permission to use the skate-park
and below this is the reply from the council giving us permission to use the area.

Reply Email

Experiment with the couple spinning

This video below is an experiment with the two people spinning, we chose to have a long shot to begin with and then close-ups of the female and male separately because at this point is where the animal masks will flicker on the individuals as they spin. Although this was only a practise so the video isn't as smooth, it enabled us to overcome the problems such as the angle and positioning of the camera so these hopefully won't occur during our final filming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G58rqnT2bO0

Experiment with the calander being torn

This video below is an experiment with the calendar being torn and scrunched up, we chose an extreme close-up so the calendar and hands of the artists are only visual, this we thought works well. Although, the video doesn't flow so smoothly due to the attempts of practise (stopping and starting the camera) this  made us realise what we should do when recording our final.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADlj4GVxzrA&feature=youtu.be

Song Layout/Idea

Props List

• Rabbit Mask
• Fox Mask
• Crown
• Paper Calender
• Tooth Brushes
• Hair Brush
• Tea Bags
• One blue cup and one pink cup
• Clothing
• Scrabble Board Game
• Alarm Clock
• Bottle of alcohol
• Mascara
• Red cape

Lyrics for Remi Nicole's 'Another Day'

Moodboard

Locations

• We have decided as a group to have to separate locations of which the one location being Perdiswell Skatepark and this particular setting will be filmed for the chorus of our song where both the female and male will be in animal masks.

• The second location will be at one of our group members home and base and main setting for our video will be filmed here.

• Towards the end of the song, the filming will take place in the house of which the female artists and male character will spin hand in hand where close-ups of each character will be filmed as 'flashes' of the animal masks appear on each character, bringing both scenes together to reveal the plot.

Target Audience

From research into our chosen genre of IndiePop we decided that our age-range would be those between the ages of 16-24 and these individuals we thought would be mainly female as our main artist would be female and also due to the chosen genre of the music. These would be either college or university students due to the young target audience and style of music as ‘Independent’ music is becoming increasingly more popular with younger fan-bases and these would be the type of people that would be interested in Pop music but like to spread to other types of music.

Music Video Ideas and Influences continued

Another influence from our research in class was the song 'What's A Girl To Do' by Bat For Lashes, we came across this video whilst doing some research into the genre of 'IndiePop' and our group loved the idea of using animal masks, so we decided to incorporate this idea when planning out our music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EICkZWEzFGE

We decided that during the chorus of the song which would be set at the skate park, the female artist and the male character would wear these animal masks (female in a rabbit mask and the male in a fox mask), then during the end of the song, the setting would be in the house where the couple would swing hand in hand as these animal masks almost 'flicker' on and off the characters bring the two scenes together to unravel the plot.

This idea was again influenced by the trailer for 'The Wicker Man' where there is a wide use of animal masks and hidden identity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FdV-O8o7ok

Music Video Ideas and Influences

Our original idea came from Kate Nash's 'Foundations' when it was shown to us in class as an idea of the 'IndiePop' genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryH5cga0yUI

Our idea was to have a similar setting to Kate Nash with the main setting being in a 'typical' home with the female artist/character running around 'recklessly' and throwing clothing and other items around the house.  Because the song we've chosen is also about relationships similar to Kate Nash, we wanted to incorporate a male character of which the female artist will 'annoy' and 'play up' due to the illustrative aspect of the songs lyrics, 'another day wasted'.
We have also decided to include more amplifying meanings and as well illustrative as we felt this would liven the video, instead of it being simply just direct.

Idea for a part in our video

An idea we came up with was to have some sort of board game during one of our scenes in the music video where both the female artist and the male character are sat playing this at a table maybe set in the lounge or kitchen, at this point the female artist will be lip syncing and there will be shot reverse shots of both characters and then the camera will cut to a stop-motion video of the words 'Another Day' on a Scrabble Board game being spelt out, of which the female artist will then 'swipe' her hand across which will knock all the pieces to the floor.

Genre and Auteur Theory

French film directors in the 1950's like Francois Truffaut advocated a focus on the contribution made by the director on the style and form of a film. This is a direct contrast with other perspectives on film which advocate looking at how the film develops as part of generic history. Also Auteur theory differs to 'Genre theory' in that it points our attention towards what is different between films, rather than what is similar.

Genre Theory Focuses on...
Generic similarities
How texts are determined by historic/social/political contexts.
How texts emerge as commercial products from an industry

Auteur Theory focuses on...
Individual stylistic features
How texts are determined by artist's creativity
How texts emerge as part on an artists body of work

Music Video Auteurs Examples:

Chris Cunningham

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjI2J2SQ528

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe-XNav5mWU

• Supernatural 
• Urban Mise En Scene
• Horror
• Bodies used frequently throughout his work

Michel Gondry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8QgeESiPZA

• Bright Mise En Scene
• Extensive use of colour
• Heavily planned/choreographed
• Subtle technology

Music Video Analysis

Skills Lesson 3. Green Screen

What is a Green Screen?
The Green Screen or chroma keying, is a special effects / post production technique for layering two images or video streams together. 

Skills Lesson
Today we used the green screen, we also used a piece of green A3 paper to copy the same effect, making Jack's head look like it's floating. Once we had filmed what we wanted, we then uploaded the clip to premiere pro, which we then uploaded a background picture and stretched it out to match the time of the clip. After that we selected 'video effects', then 'keying', then 'chroma key'. When the window popped up we selected the colour we wanted to delete (green) and then used the sliders to delete the amount of shades of that particular colour until both the image and clip were layered together.



Here is an example below using the Green Screen, due to the time the editing around this isn't so sharp so there is still a 'halo' around the subject (Jack) but the skills using the Green Screen and also the editing around this were provided. 

Things to consider when using the Green Screen:
The use of lighting is also important when using the Green Sreen and if i were to use this in my video i'd have to consider this, for example the use of reflectors may depend on the image or video you are layering
Id also have to make sure the Green Screen isn't creased, this is because the creases can make it harder to fix the 'halo' around the subject or objects
Make sure the subject is forward enough so there are no shadows 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPCs1igVy6Y

Copyright Permission

Remi Nicole - Another Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKQZ2fUL6dA

Above is the email sent to Universal Music Group asking for permission to use the song 'Another Day' by Remi Nicole through the record label 'Island Record'.

Ideas For Our Music Video and Conventions

In our group we have decided that we want to create a music video within the 'Indie Pop' genre.
Particular Characteristic to consider in this genre include:

• Use of narrative alongside the performance, normally involving a theme, explaining to the audience the story behind the lyrics, most linking to relationships or love of the artist or character in the song.
• Some music videos in the Indie Pop genre use a filter over the top of clip or over the entire video to give a certain idea to the video such as, memory or age to the video, or showing the clip in a positive or negative light
• Another convention in this genre is the use of Mise En Scene to show the setting of the video (usually abstract, natural settings) with the artist showing through the use of setting that it is a fictional idea and is the narrative part of the video
• The videos also use camerawork, to show a heavy focus on the artist and their performance, rather than a narrative that doesn't include them. The use of close-ups and mid-shots of the artist are also frequent in this particular genre to familiarize fans or an audience who are being introduced, to make them recognizable in the future.

Examples of Indie Pop Music Videos include:

Taylor Swift - Love Story 

This particular music video uses the famous story of Romeo and Juliet to explain her love story along with the lyrics, treating it like a flashback to an older time, with flashback to the same two characters in the present time and also Taylor performing the song.




Lana Del Ray - Ride

In this particular video,the lyrics are shown through love being portrayed as free and 'living life to the full'. The video incorporates a lot of Lana's American origins in the video for example, the American flag appears a lot in the video and the majority of her other songs , possibly showing a particular theme reoccurring.





Florence and The Machine - Rabbit Heart


Uses a strange, alternative world to represent her story, incorporating ideas from 'Alice In Wonderland', Religion and other places to make her love story alternative, individual and also recognisable.

Bastille - Pompeii

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F90Cw4l-8NY

Uses a lot of wide-angle and long angle shots throughout the video helping connote the enormity of the city. The lighting is quite muted, naturalistic and low key lighting used with the video shot at night and the rest at dusk/dawn. The video also has little to no performance elements to it but it does however, maintain the context of the narrative but this is does very subtly, even in the final shot mirrors the shot at the very start.

Goodwin Analysis

• Close-Ups of the artist used throughout
• Music and Visuals connected through the pace of edits, cutting on the beat and increase in pace/frantic running and camera movements as the song reaches crescendo
• The cinematic style and zombie apocalypse narrative element are intertextual references
• Notion of looking (looking out of a window and into a rear-view mirror
• Lyrics and Visuals - "If you close your eyes" links to the black eyes, "walls tumbling down in a city" links to city setting; videos narrative enhance's songs meaning