Thursday, 25 November 2010

Blog 15 - Digipack

DIGI PACK BLOG

A digipack is a style of CD or compact DVD disk. Digipack styling is often used for CD singles or Special/Limited editions of CD albums, digipacks are also used for DVD video box sets etc. The digipack should link to the music video through the style/costume/location of the video to help to representthe feel/mood of the song and it's lyrics, this will increase consumer interest of the target audience to give them something extra special in comparison to just having the compact CD single disk. A promo pack is everything a record label or music artists uses to promote a single or a music album, it can be anything from, music tracks, music videos, posters, advertisements, press and merchandise etc.


Link to Digipack Front and Back cover:


Link To Inside of Digipack:


I had some difficulty opening the inside of the inside of the digipak using google documents as the size of the file was over 30MB therefore below is a JPEG Image of the inside digipak spread.
















Front Cover + Facebook Feedback




















Inside + Facebook Feedback
















Alaysis of two digipacks from chosen genre


Video of Lady Gaga: Fame Monster Digipack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eoy8O0xOAPw

The Fame Monster Digipack consists of both albums 'The Fame' and 'The Fame Monster'. The digipack contains both disks which are simitaniously identical to eachother with disk numbers 1 and 2 to show the difference in which album is which. The pack contains a booklet containing images of the single cover for the Bad Romance single, album photoshoots for the Fame Monster Album which carries out the black and white theme for which the Fame Monster album is orientated towards with Lady Gaga showing different emotions with theatrical makeup and emotions and body language with the black and white emphasising the makeup and shadows. The booklet also has a section dedicated to the Fame album with the iconic images of Lady Gaga with her diso stick and big glasses which she was known for at the time of the Fames release. The pack also contains the lyrics to the songs within the albums for the audience to learn the lyrics and sing along if they have not already learnt to do so, the lyric pages also contain key information on producers, writers, co-writters, musicians etc of each individual track giving the audience key information they may wish to know about their favourite tracks on the albums. The cover of the digipack is a classic Fame Monster photo with the name and artists name in a shiny gold matalic font, instead of a white which the original album is presented in, this is to perhaps show that this is a special edition of the album which is unique and different to the original album which can make the consumer feel like they have their hands on something extra special and different.















Digipak Analysis: Katy Perry One of the Boys


The front cover for Katy Perry's One of the Boys digipak is exactly the same as the album cover, the cover consists of a fantasy and fun genre mixed with some retro influences with the bright pink font and fashion styling. The location of the photo is set in a stereotypical perfect garden with the light, green grass and white picket fences, this helps to give Katy 'the girl next door' look which can pull both male and female fanbsase. The album itself is very poppy and bright therefore this type of photo for the digipak represents the album very well and appeals to her target audience of that querky, happy, bright and vibrant sound that pop music brings to music.



The back page of the digipack is again the same as the original version of the album, it again sticks to the similar theme of the front cover with it's retro theme with costume and location. The fantasy theme and feel represents Katy Perry as a kind of Girl Next Door Snow White kind of character as also portrayed with the front image for the digipak. The body language in this photo gives a sense of innocence but also power, which represents the different styles of tracks which feature from the album.

The inside spread of the digipack consists of one compact disk, a digipack booklet and also image filled back pages and disk holding page. The inside layout of the One of the Boys digipack carries through the main theme as shown as the front and back pages. it consists of similar photo's of Katy Perry sticking to the same 60's pop retro feel and styling by using bright bold colours like Pink for costume and also location which is the same style of fantasy and all-american. The compact disk has a enlarged image of a strawberry which reflects the album as sweet and tasty, this represents a majority of music from an artist of the pop genre which will appeal to the target audiences and makes the album appear more 'fun and happy'.


The album had a re-release shortly after it's orginal release with a bonus CD disk featuring remixes of some of the singles previously released. for the re-release a new front image was selected. The image was a more upclose a personal image of Katy Perry showing more facial epressions and emotions this has the effect of a more softer natured and welcoming front image which will capture audiences attention. By using the umbrella placed her hand she has stuck to the 60's Retro 'Girl Next Door' theme and the bright colours of the font to make it bold, bright, visualent and stand out. again these factors help to represent the type of music katy perry produces, and these types of images are what sells to the target market.


Blog 14 - Shooting Diaries

Shooting Diary


During the filming period of the music video, I carried out the role of a cast member staring in the video as the male role and also a crew member as I did serval shots of the female lead character within the field location of the video.


During the filming process, portraying the main male character I came accross many difficulties doing it, firstly I found it difficult to stay composed and in a character which resulted in rejected and bad footage, which also resulted in the group having to reshoot certain shots. I also strugged with some timing and body positioning as a variety of times I went out the cameras screen shots, this also resulted in having to re-shoot certain shots and caused the team a slight delay.


When filiming the solo shots of the female lead character, I found the experience rather frightening at first as I had not had a great deal of experience in using the camera, however I found it rather enjoyable and I learned a lot and produced some great footage in which I am rather proud of.


As a whole group, we encounted several problems with the camera, however we tried our best to tackle these problems. The first problem we encountered was the position and brightness of the sun as it blocked our vision on the camera making us unable to see what we was filming, to resolve this we experimented with different camera angles to see which angle would give the best light for the shot without comprimising our view of what was being filmed. The second issue that arose was when the camera's battery died during filming in the fields, to deal with this I had to personally go back to Location 1 and collect the new battery and go back to Location 2, this miss-hap costed the team time and delayed the filming process by about half an hour. The last problem we encountered was that our lead female character was rather embarrest and shy about being on camera, this resulted in many shots of wasted footage and myself and the group having to encourage her and try and get the best possible shots we could.


Blog 13 - Shooting Schedule


Shooting Schedule - California King Bed
Before myself and the group set off the film the music video and after we created our contact sheets and health and safety sheet we drew up a shooting schedule to plan out the shooting day efficiently therefore the entire cast and crew were aware of what would be going on, times and locations, this helped to avoid the risk of cast or crew not turning up. Shooting Schedule - Wednesday 16th February 2011 10.30am Group to meet at chosen location 11.00am - Group arrive at video shoot location 1 11-11.15 - Prepare location and look for any potiential health and safety risks 11.15-11.30 - Crew to set up the camera and attach to tripod securely and Cast to prepare for the video shoot, costume and make-up. 12.00 - Begin shooting the beginning and opening sequence of music video (shots 1-12) these are the shots of the male and female characters laying on the bed together. 14.30 - Lunch Break (food and drink) 15.00 - Begin to shoot the solo female character shots (bed shots, window shots and balcony shots) 16.00
- Move to location 2: The Fields (reguarding to the weather) 16.15 - Begin shooting the field shots, female characters running shots, male character running shots, finale shot of male and female reuniting and walking off together. 18.00 - Review the days filming and plan for a second day of filming (if required) if required set a official date for the next day of filming.



Here is a scan of part of the Shooting Script which we were filling out as we was filming the music video, The purpose of filling this in was to identify the good shots from the bad, what factors made the shot bad and establishing what shot is what.




Blog 12 - Health and Safety





Health and Safety












Before setting out and recording the music video, we decided to write out a Health and Safety sheet to ensure we were prepared and aware of any health hazzerds that we may come across during the filming sessions. Below are the health and safety considerations for both of the two locations in which we filmed.


Camera Safety:

1) Ensure that the camera is working properly and that the battery is inserted safely.

2) Attach the camera to the tripod safely and securely to avoid the camera falling off and hurting a member of the cast or crew.

3) Ensure that the cassette tape is inserted into the camera correctly and not forced.


Location 1: The House

1) Ensure that the space required for filming is clear of any objects on the floor to avoid cast or crew slipping over.

2) Ensure the cast and crew are fully aware of the location of exits and fire alarms within the house.

3) Check for any loose camera wires which may could result in accident and injury.


4) Keep all doors and windows clear and open to access incase needed.


Location 2: The Fields

1) Be cautious for members of the genereal public whilst filming (e.g dog walkers etc) in which to avoid potiential accidents or injuries.


2) Take care when filming on fields to avoid potiential accidents such as rabbit wholes, etc.

Blog 11 - Storyboard & Animatic




































































Once we had decided on our final idea for the music video, we drew out a storyboard sketch for all the shots we want to include in our video, we included screen shot numbers, the type of shot the shot would be, the costumes, and the audio. The aim of doing the storyboard is for when we come to filming the video, we have a clear structure of the plan and what there is to be filmed in each shot. however the final video didn't turn out exactly how the storyboard was drawn, however we tried to keep the main points.






























Thursday, 11 November 2010

Blog 10 - Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene for the video shoot

Before deciding as a group on our choices and selection for the mise-en-scene such as costume, make-up and props we decided to carry out some research on our chosen artist via youtube and google images. We did this to see the style of costume that is used for current and previous
music videos and also live performances to gather inspiration and key ideas that would relate to the target audience. For example..



Take A Bow (2008)

After having a look through Rihanna's music video portfolio, I have noticed she has a variety of looks within her videos
depending on the style, tempo and lyrical influence of the songs she releases, for this I have chosen firstly one of her most simplistic video's. The mise-en-scene is this video is simple, in the opening scenes of the video Rihanna is seen in mostly a plain black tee and dark denim jeans. I think this choice of a stripped down mise-en-scene works because of the nature of the song 'Take a Bow' a love-hearted ballad. The use of a stripped down and minimal look gives more influences on the audiences for lyrical purposes other than just the physical, this can also affect the target audience, as a female audience would be more desired here for the simplicity and also the lyrics to the song.



Disturbia (2008)

Following Take A Bow, Rihanna released her next single titled Disturbia from Good Girl Gone Bad Reloaded, this music video was completely different from anything Rihanna had released before. The song disturbia referenced as 'going mad' is heavily emphasised within the music video through the use of setting and mise-en-scene, the setting of an underground layer gives the representation of darkness and secretive, locations throughout the video such as cages, rotating chairs etc give off the illusion of a psychiatric ward. The costume also helps to emphasise the songs title through dark coloured costumes with dark/heavy make-up represent villian like traits, even the use of contact lenses to give an non-human feel to Rihanna help describe the lyrics and give the audience a real fear and terror that their entering a state of disturbia. The body language of both Rihanna and the dancers within the video also help to relate to the lyrical story through the dance routines and facial expressions, the dance routines are very bold and stand out, this gives the video more dramatic influence and keeps the pace up.

After looking around at a selection of Rihanna's music videos, we decided we would like to take a more basic and simple approach when it comes to selecting the mise-en-scene for our music video. This decision was based on the factors that the song we have selected is a slower acoustic balled and we felt a basic and stripped down costume would give the video a better feel as we chose the song for it's beautiful lyric and we wanted that to be reflected in the video and not outshone by dramatic costume.

We decided that the two characters for the music video will dress quite differently, firstly because of their differences in gender and also to make a clearer distinction between the two and emphasis distance between the two characters.
The main female character will wear mostly white or pale type of colours, a top and jeans/leggings, we decided on using this colour scheme as we felt that by using white and pale colours it can represent purity/innocence and vulnerability within the female character.

The main male character we decided to put in black jeans and a stronger coloured t-shirt, we decided on this because we wanted the male character to appear more dominant in the frame so the female's vocals would sound more real and powerful!

In terms of settings for the video we decided to use a variety of setting for the music video, our first setting will be inside a bedroom, we decided on this location after looking at Rihanna's Take A Bow video, we wanted the locations to be realistic and normal everyday situations and we felt home would reflect the lyrics to the song as most people would be spend time indoors when there feeling heartbroken etc. The second location we decided was the balcony of the house, we chose this because we wanted to incorporate a more dreamy feel to the video and the final location selected is a series of shots within a giant field, after researching into Rihanna's Only Girl In The World music video, we really liked the effect and fun feel it brought to the video, we also thought it would give a better effect if we could use a location that had a much natural light as possible.

PREVIOUS MISE-EN-SCENE PLANS


Lovegame (2009)

After looking through released videos, I noticed how in the majority of her music video's Lady GaGa often shows a lot of flesh, most commonly leartards and cat suit type costumes, for example in this screen shot from Lovegame she is wearing a flesh coloured cat suit covered with jewles and patches of colour. This is mostly to represent sexuality in the videos and emphasises her movements and body language to appeal to a target audience of both males and females within her market niche.

Just Dance (2009)


In this video the costumes choices were less revealing and less flesh was on show to the camera. However I suggest this could be due to it being a debut music video and was at a time before Lady GaGa became a 'sexual icon'. The costume is still individual and stands out and gives a sense of sexuality and style without baring everything for the camera and audiences to see. The costume choices for this video also represent and suit the situation of a house party where the video is based in. This shows that when deciding on costume it is vital that we select a costume that suits and is general for the video set souroundings.






Telephone [Feat. Beyonce] (2010)


Telephone is one of Lady GaGa's most recent music videos, in this video she has a verity of outfits all which can be seen as extremely revealing and controversial., however in this dance scene she wears american flag printed shorts, short top and boots, she also has a white start on her cheeck, these represent a patriotic side to Lady GaGa's personality as she is representing her Country. Due to the lack of clothing in the video many of her tattoo art is on display this shows another uniqueness to Lady GaGa other than her fashion choices and musical sound. The make up and styling for this video is also very strong and dominant this helps to respesent her characters power and strength along with the dance routines and costumes.
After looking at a variety of Lady GaGa's music videos and thinking about potiential ideas taken from inspirational costume, scenery, makeup and body movement we have decided in terms of mise-en-scene for our video to use the following...
Costume:
Main Character (Singer) - For the main characters costume we have taken inspiration from the Just Dance music video, as our video will also be set in a nightclub scene we have decided to dress our main character in a variety of costumes for different shots as Lady GaGa does as I believe this adds varience to the music video and will be more appealing to the eye when watching, we have selected a red dress, black heels for the opening sequence the begining of the video and also the ending sequence because red is a visually strong colour and will make the lead character stand out amoungst the extras, we also wanted to go for a costume that would be general 'going out' styled look as it'll seem for natural and real. During the dance sequence of the video we have selected short shorts for the character to be able to dance in and also to show a respectable amount of flesh. A sparkly/sequined top to stand out and also add a sense of glamour and style to the simple shorts and a pair of heels to compliment the colour scheme of the costume. For the solo shots of the main singer we have decided to put her in a formal themed dress to represent elligence, glamour and to also give off feminitity.
Backup Dancers (All Male) - For the dance sequence of the video we have decided that the back-up dancers will be put in plain white vest-tops with a pair of black trousers and white trainers. We want all of the backup dancers to blend up and mould well together and to be very colour natural so that the focus isn't taken away from the main character of the shoot.
Extras

Bar Tender - Black fitted shirt and black trousers as they are commingly worn uniform by bar tenders in nightclubs.

Two Female Friends of Main Character - To wear general going out costumes such as black highwasted skirts with a natural colour vest top with black heels and jewelerry to have presence in the shots but not dominate them.

Setting of the music video -

The music video will be set within a nightclub enviroment as it will give the ability to be able to reflect the songs lyrics and meanings in representing the lust girls have for males in a club setting. The target audience will also appeal and relate to the genre and Lady GaGa's target audience of youths as the nightclub scene is one they will be familiar with.

















Blog 9 - The Pitch

Here is the link for the presentation displayed during the Pitch.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B_QUfHy0ObHTMzNjZTQ4ODItYWE3NS00ZWM2LWIzNWMtODFjODI3YjA1NjI3&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

- Due to the group seperation and a lack of avalible time due to the workload we had to catch up with, the new group was unable to record the presentation for this blog.