Digipak - What is a digipak?

A digipak is a style of CD packaging. It consists of a front and back cover with the addition of other features. We will be making a 6 panel digipak. As well as a front and back cover, we will also have a page with image of the artist and a page with the lyrics to the song. We decided to include these due to the research we had undergone earlier. This is very common, especially for indie/acoustic artists and seeing as our artist/song falls under the indie/acoustic genre we felt it was suitable. Due to the 'digital age' consumers tend to download their music thus losing out on this physical feature. They miss out on the interesting additions artists put decide to put in their digipaks.

Florence Welch from "Florence + the Machine"had included a booklet in her album full of lyrics and the interesting stories behind the making of the songs. Its something you can't experience through a download.

Digipak - Album Cover Ideas

This is the original picture we decided to use for our CD front cover. Due to our research into indie/acoustic album, we felt that this image worked really well. Indie/acoustic album covers tend to be more artistic, they usually don't have a picture of the artist so that is why we didn't either.

We experimented with different effects to make the image more interesting. This was done on Photoshop. This effect is called glowsticks under the stylised effect; it's something you would expect on an indie album cover. We also tried out different fonts and font colours. We decided that this font was the best, and out of all the colours we used, white looked best with this particular effect.

This was another possible idea however due to the darkness and effect, the multi-colours are less visible/bright therefore its less "eye grabbing", we feel the original image grabs the attention more which is key.

This image is close to the original however we have brightened her eyes to make it more appealing. This isn't the particular image we'll use because the font is hard to read due to the colour of the font and the many colours already in the image. It is also too close to the original, we feel it should be more edited, in terms of altering the image via effects.

The white font works better here as well, so as a group we decided on using this font in white, no matter what edit we finally decided to use. 

First Edit

We presented the first edit of our music video, this is the feedback we got. We will use this to improve on the things that the audience felt needed work on. 

How would you rate our music video?
Excellent: 2
Good: 7
Ok: 0
Poor: 0

Our audiences felt that our music video is generally "good" which means their is definitely room for improvement and refinement. Two of our audience rated it "excellent" which is pleasing however we would agree with the majority. We feel that we will definitely need to film more "narrative" footage as the general view was that its more interesting than the performance.


What are the strengths of our music video?
Performance: 3
Editing: 4
Lighting: 2
Lip sync: 7
Narrative: 7
Star image: 5

It is clear that our music video has many strengths however we feel like we have too much performance and nit enough narrative. The majority of our audience felt that the narrative and lip synching were our biggest strengths so we will play to them.


How can we improve our music video?
More performance: 0
Fine tune editing: 6
Improve lip sync: 0
Lighting: 2
Other: 1


It is clear that we need to fine tune our editing. With more narrative footage it will give us more scope and opportunity to have shorter clips; this will make it more interesting.

Does the music video suit the music track?

Yes: 9

No: 0

Primarily, our audience felt that our music video suited the song which is essential. This means that we are on the right tracks and the changes/alterations we have to make aren't drastic. 

The Jonas Brothers - Star Images Music Videos

In many aspects, The Jonas Brothers music videos possess key conventions to make the videos feel and look like a typical music video which is what I want to re-create so I will use some of their techniques. Some key techniques they use are the use of close-ups, variety of shots and the editing which is cut to the beat. These videos are performance based, which is typical and conventional of boy bands, with aspects of narrative which makes it more effective and interesting. They give very energetic performances and their movement adds to the performance.The lighting which is used is soft lighting, mainly achieved through artificial lighting which is what Ill be using in the performance part of my video. I will have artificial back and front lighting with reflectors to give it a softer touch.

Star Image - The Jonas Brothers

The Jonas Brothers - Album Covers

This is there artwork from there debut album; this is early on so there image and style reflects their youth. The clothing, jeans, t-shirt and hoodie suggest their youth and maybe hints at the rebellious and fun side to them. Their whole stance is very "cool" and so is the fact that they have their hands in their pockets; it makes them look "laid back" and again, "cool". I think the colours work well, the black and white on the red makes the album cover really stand out, possibly to reflect the band standing out from your average boy band. I think this album cover represents their image and music at that particular time (2006). This would probably appeal more to the female audience, and maybe the boys that aspire to be like them.

This is the artwork off of their second album. The smart clothing and fancy font suggest maturity from their last album. This could symbolise a change in their music but what it definitely is, is a change of image for the brothers. The lack of colour and the gold font also suggest a more mature star image. They are directly looking into the camera thus instantly making a connection with the audience and its a slight low angle making them seem more powerful. I would say this is aimed for girls, perhaps targeting older girls than they did with their last album cover.

Not much change in image in terms of this album cover. Again they're in very suave attire. Due to the lack of colour again, the red really stand out. There isn't much change from their last album however from their first album, there certainly is a progression and from beginning to now the change in image has helped them stay current.

The use of white and brown gives it a masculine quality. Its slightly more colourful than previous albums however they've kept the fancy font to give it class. Their clothing is what you would also call "fashionable". This again is aimed at girls; the direct address via looking into the camera and medium close-up shots creates an instinct connection with the girls. Girls would consider the Jonas Brothers to be heart throbs.

Storyboard - First Draft

Questionnaire

1) How clear were our ideas presented via our treatment?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10
Very unclear                                                                           Very clear

Average score = 8.3

2) What did you think about the quality of our ideas?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10
Very poor                                                                               Very good

Average score = 8

3) Would you agree that our treatment has covered every aspect?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9           10
Covered v.little                                                          Covered everything

Average score = 7.6

4) What do you think about our song choice?

1          2          3           4          5          6          7          8          9          10
Very bad                                                                                 Very good

Average score = 7.2

5) Do you think our vision for the music video fits the genre of the song we have chosen?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7           8          9          10
Doesn't fit at all                                                                 Very Syutable

Average score = 8.4

6) Do you think we are targeting an appropriate target audience?

1          2          3          4           5          6          7          8          9          10
Inappropriate target audience                      Appropriate target audience

Average score = 8.6

7) Do you think we should add elements of performance?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10
Absolutely not                                                                  Definitely yes

Average score = 8

8) What do you think of out narrative idea?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10
Awful                                                                                        Amazing

Average score = 8

9) Do you think our techniques for creating a star image will be effective?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10
Ineffective                                                                             V.effective

Average score = 8.3

10) What do you think of our costume ideas?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10
Terrible                                                                                      Brilliant

Average score = 7.9


We distributed our questionnaire to 25 people and collated our results; we figured out the average of the results and used used it to work out what we did right and what we may need to improve on.

Feed Back

We decided to receive feed back in the form of questionnaires. We have chosen this form because it's quantatitive therefore we can distribute to more people, easily giving us feed back from a wide range of people. Our audience will answer the questions with a rating from 1 - 10, depending on the question 1 is bad and 10 is great. We will collate our results and work out the average giving us a pretty good idea of where we are our out of 10 and what we need to improve to get to the 10's.

Due to the nature of Questionnaires, we will only find out if they liked our ideas and not what we could improve; therefore we decided to hold interviews as well. Interviews will be able to get us detailed responses on what they thought about our pitch which will be very useful. Of course, the down side of holding interviews is that we can't interview too many people as its very time consuming.

Music Video Treatment - Atmosphere

Music Video Treatment - Star Image

Music Video Treatment - Target Audience

Music Video Treatment - Synopsis

Music Video Treatment - Genre

Music Video Treatment

Spider Diagram on the Conventions of Music Videos

Ed Sheeran - Lego House

I've decided to analyse this song because it is of the same genre as the song we have picked to create a music video for, and we've taken a lot of inspiration from this video.

In this narrative style music video Rupert Grint is in search of something, and the video takes him through his journey. The pace of the editing is slow because of the slow paced acoustic song. I think its very important for the video to be contrapuntal to the sound, the video and pace of editing must reflect the song and especially the mood and feel of the song. This is something we have achieve to create a successful music video. There is also use of lip synch which is crucial in making it an effective music video for the genre of music. Lip synching naturally difficult, however my group has decided to go ahead and try it.We were in two minds whether or not to try it because if its not executed properly it looks amateur however if executed perfectly it will really help to make our music video successful as lip synching is a typical convention in music videos.

Another technique that makes "Lego House" a successful video is the direct address on Rupert Grints behalf. By looking straight into camera Rupert Grint immediately builds this intimate relationship with the audience which is very important. This is something we will make the actor do in our video so the audience can connect and sympathise with him.

The use of close-ups and medium close-ups establishes Rupert as the main character. We instantly feel drawn to him via them shot types. The is an almost voyeuristic element to this video at times as we can see the character without him know. The camera movement is used in a variety of ways and to great effect. At times the camera backward tracks him, so he's walking towards the camera as the camera moves backwards. This allows the audience to see his face, however they wont be aware of where he is walking to which adds an enigmatic quality to his journey. We plan to use this, along with other, camera movement in our video. What makes this a good video is the strong narrative and the clever way the director tells it. What I perhaps don't like is the costume. I don't plan to have our protagonist wearing those types of clothes in my music video. 

Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine?

I picked to analyse this video because its different to most others that I've seen in some aspects. The director has interestingly decided to keep the footage black and white which didn't occur to me until now. Even though it is black and white and it clearly well lit and still a very effective video. The other reason for its uniqueness is that the majority of the video is shot in the small confines of a car. The footage in the car is all one shot however Alex Turner moves the camera around at times. To pull this video off you need a very charismatic lead singer who is portrayed to as the star image of this band. I think its a very clever concept and although I cant recreate the footage in the car, I will be taking ideas from this to use in my own music video e.g black and white.

Towards the end of the video the boys get out and perform as a band. As well as having big back lights, they also use flares carried and waved around by attractive girls. The performance at an end of a narrative styled video is quite common, as it also happens in Foo Fighters video for "Walk".

Eric Prydz - Call On Me

This music video has sexually erotic content and has a very voyeuristic quality to it which I found is very common among music videos of the dance and RnB genre.

The concept of this video is girls working out in the gym to the song. This music video appeal mainly to the men for obvious reasons. It may also appeal to the women as they would like to achieve the level of fitness as the girls in the video. It is effectively edited as it cuts on the beat which seems to be common among music videos that I have analysed so its something I will also do when I come to editing the video. The mise-en-scene in this video is thought out, the costumes add verisimilitude to the video and also attracts men. It's a good video to look at as they have only used one location however its still an effective video. The room is well lit with artificial soft lighting which reflects off the mirrors and make the girls in the video look very beautiful.

It's important to consider lighting very carefully as you want to make your artist look as appealing as possible to attract and audience. Lighting helps to highlight angelic features which gives star image to the artist. This is achieved by 3 point lighting which is something I will try and use in my video if possible. Obviously if I try to shoot footage on an outdoor location, lighting will be very hard to control so using a room with mirrors seems a very good idea.

Overall the video is parallel with the music and its a well edited, and well shot video. The use of varied camera shots are effective. Close-ups are commonly used and I think they help make a video that much better. It helps the audience connect with the artist. The pace of editing is very quick and on the beat and something I will obviously try and avoid is having shots that are too long as they will kill the pace of the video. I have learnt from this video, and others I have analysed that you have to vary your camerawork for it to be effective which is something I will consciously do when it comes to filming.

Foo Fighters - Walk

NOTES:

-Performance/Narrative style: something I've considered to emulate however lip synching would be very difficult.
-The narrative matched the emotions of the song; frustration, anger etc which is very important as it has to connect with the audience. I feel Dave Grohl connect with the audience by looking directly into the camera.
-Iconic guitar throughout video, this is something I have been considering. I think having something symbolic in the video will help create star image for the band/artist.
-Towards the end, we see all the band members
-Close ups of band member
-Star image; Dave Grohl. He is shown to be the main guy as he features all the way through and also through the use of camera work e.g close-ups. Close-ups and varying camera work is very important and I will try and use the camera as effectively as possible no matter what style of video we decide to do.
-Humor added in the video. Possibly something we could try depending on what genre of music we decide to make a video for.
-The police are seen, they are iconic in music videos. This again is something we wont copy due to obvious reasons. Costume is something we must think about carefully as its the attention to detail that will make the video that much better.
-Edited to the visuals, I think the pace of the music will dictate the pace of editing. Cutting to the beat is common especially within pop videos so if we go down that route we will definitely consider that technique.
-References; Justin Bieber etc. We won't necessarily reference Justin Bieber however we will use intertextuality in out video, something the audience can identify.
-Intertextuality, when you reference something in the video e.g. this video references a film.