Blog 15 - Digipack - Flat Plans

For this digipack idea I decided to call the album Fallen Angel, although the theme of the album is of the Pop genre I wanted to lean away from a stereotypical pop artist digipack. I decided to choose a black and white colour scheme, a black background with mostly white font for the tracklisting and titles. I decided to use a more creative sense by including a halo over the title Fallen Angel. For the bonus tracklisting I decided to choose a gold colour for the font to establish special tracks and features. I included the general information at the bottom of the pack such as bar code, record label logo and also the website address for the artist. During the process of designing this flat plan I decided I wanted to really experiment with the features and effects using photo shop to gain a special effect especially on the from image of the artist.

Inside - for the inside of the digipack I continued the theme through, I chose to the use the theme of clouds for the two CD disks, using a cloud with sun shine pearing through for the bonus CD to establish that the disk is a bonus. For the inside page I chose to include three photo's from the artist which will be taken from the photoshoot. I also decided to include a brief message from the artist. The background for both pages will carry through black as well as the front as I wanted to emphasis the cloud images on the CD's.

For this idea I wanted to stick to a more feminine theme, after researching into some of Rihanna's previous albums and digipacks such as A girl like me and loud they both had many elements of femininity for example the loud digipack has compact disks with rose imagery and the photoshoot for the pack was very flower and floaty gowned costumes. I decided to choose a stereotypical feminine theme 'Ballet' and selected the lower torso of a ballet dancer, I felt this would appeal to the target audience of females more than males as females are more likely to purchase music. The cover also represents femininity through the colours within the font, I decided to use a purple font for all the text and titles. I decided to use Silver for the tracklisting to make them stand out amongst the red background.

For the inside of the digipack I wanted to keep it simple, I decided to have both compact disks one solid colour. The second page would be basically plain and basic with some text information on it such as Rihanna's official website, a advertisement of Rihanna's official fangroup etc. However I don't believe that the inside layout of the digipack is very appealing, distinctive or eye catching as I don't think the audience would approve as Rihanna's inside disks and backpage are generally rather graphic, bold and distinctive.

I think this could have been made better by including photo's a better colour scheme and more details within the compact disks.

For this digipack idea I decided to take influence for the font from Rihanna's previous record 'Rated R' I decided to use the a similar font with using Rihanna's trademark symbol for the 'R'. I decided I wanted to incorporate another 'Girlie' theme to the cover with Rihanna dressed in a top and skirt in brighter and bolder colours such as pink and purple, this was to appeal to the female audience and still having a sex appeal to male audiences. I decided on positioning the image within the centre of the page and using body language and facial expression in which to embrace the name of the album and digipack. The background colour for the pack will be a gold/silver colour as the digipack is a special edition which will make the audience aware that they are buying something special and unique. the track listing and other texts on the digipack will be a simple black text as I didn't want another bright colour to clash or take away the power of the gold background.

For the inside of this digipack I wanted to experiment with the layout therefore I decided to put one compact disk on each side of the inside spread. I decided to keep the compact disks rather simple, by having two individual disks which also set aside the bonus special edition disk to the album, however I have chosen to put floral details around the edges of each disk to give them more individuality and edge. The titles of each disk will be printed away from the disk with the album name underneath both compact disks. The overall background for this will be silver.

After closely looking at my flat plan designs and taking into consideration the target audience, the music video and also the current style of Rihanna's albums, I decided to go ahead with the Fallen Angel design. I chose this style as I thought It was a mixture of both masculine and feminine appeal through the angelic feel, females may view it as a beauty, icon, etc, where as male fans may have a more physical appeal to the style of 'goddess'. I also believe that this style of digipack would also give me more of a canvas in which I can experiment using adobe photoshop and challenge my abilities and give me the opportunity to gain confidence in using the softwhere. The style of the cover is also soft, pure and not to 'in your face' this also reflects the song we have chosen to film for the music video and also the style in which the video was filmed, I believe the digipack style and feel blends in well with our music video style and meaning.

Blog 20 - Evaluation

Evaluation – A2 Media Coursework

During the process of the A2 coursework I have learned and developed my skills in many areas, I feel like this project gave me the ability to access my creative side through designing/creating and also researching for the digipak and advert, and also to gain knowledge of computer software and improved through practicing photo shop skills my researching skills through researching into the chosen artist and genre. The course has also given the ability to improve of my time management and planning skills to meet the deadlines of specific blogs and creations.

Throughout the development of the project I wanted to conduct as much research into the chosen artist to get the best possible vision and sense of the way the products are created, the themes and styles of their videos, digipacks and adverts and also they way in which they market the product to the target audience. To do this I used the internet such as the artist’s official website to get a real feel of the imagery in which the artist uses to portray themselves, I visited www.youtube.com to watch past and current music videos from my chosen artist in which to get a wide variety of videos with different lyrical moods and influences for example the difference between Rihanna’s hits ‘Take A Bow’ and ‘Disturbia’ all in which I analysed within the mise-en-scene blog. After this research task it also gave me access to the wider scale of target audiences with research into magazines and photo shoots which give very opposite interpretations and imagery of the chosen artist such as fashion magazines to men’s magazines. From this research it gave me clearer sense of the type of style and feel I wanted the music video and the promotional advert and digipack to look like, for example in the advert and digipack I wanted the themes of the two packs to flow and blend well together therefore I chose a main theme with influence on both. In terms of the music video the artist video research gave me a wide variety of styles to choose from, however as the song we chose was a balled style of track, I began to research into that particular style of single and music video, this gave me the influences for the video in terms of styling such having a main love story between two individuals and also the mise-en-scene for the music video such as simple and everyday costumes and also the locations for the shoot, the main video’s I gathered inspiration from are both ‘Take A Bow’ and ‘Unfaithful’ some of Rihanna’s earlier work. When filming the music video we learned all about camera use, camera safety, and the effects in which you can capture with the camera, all this is explained in blog 7, the thought of using a camera and equipment such as the tripod and learning camera settings (auto/manual) etc was very frightening at first, however before we began shooting we did a class preliminary task in which gave us the tools and the knowledge in which to increase our confidence when filming with the camera.

When editing and putting the video together I used the Apple software Final Cut Express, during the process of editing I learned a lot about how actual video’s are put together and how much work goes into them from the planning stages to the shooting and then the playback and editing stages.

Using the software I learned how to cut and separate longer clips/shots of footage and how to place them within a sequence on a timeline, the experience was rather daunting at the beginning stages but the more practice I had with the software the more confident and assured I became. When creating the advert and digipack pages I used Adobe Photoshop in which was a programme I had previously used when doing my AS coursework project, Over the space of the A2 course however my skills had rapidly approved and this allowed me to really get into the more creative side of the project, it was a great feeling to see my flat planned idea become a real when designing the advert and digipack and I was really pleased with the end result. To gain good and reliable feedback for these I decided to upload them to social networking website www.facebook.com this was for the main reason that it is a highly populated website in which artist’s such as my chosen artist use this website for advertising purposes and also daily information for fans, also within the target audience for my advert and digipack it was the most practical approach in which the audience would respond to positively. The feedback I got for the advert was mostly positive which was a good thing as It showed that the theme and style was appealing towards the targeted market, a few pointers I was given was the choices of font colouring that the white font was blending in too much with the clouded background which could limit people’s ability to read the information clearly so if I was to change this I would have changed the colour to a more dominant colour. The feedback from the digipack was also positive people liked the style and theme of the pack and they way in which the photos were cropped and edited using the photo shop software, If I were to change the digipack I would have added some more brighter images to make it look more eye catching and appealing towards the target audience.

The approach to receiving feedback from the music video was very different to the promotional pack, I wanted to try something different therefore I sent out e-mails to a number of individuals with the video attached requesting feedback, I also showed some people the video via the computer and asked for verbal feedback, concluding the feedback I noticed that some of the shots in the video do not flow as well after one and other which can affect the feel and reactions towards the video, therefore if I was to re-edit some of the footage I would have looked more carefully at this to ensure the video’s editing was the best it could have been. One other criticism was the syncing of the miming within the video, this was due to the cast member being unfamiliar with the track and it’s lyrics and her low confidence in front of the camera, this related in her not making much eye-line contact within the shots which is often used within Rihanna’s music videos therefore if I was to re-shoot the video I would probably use a different girl for the lead role.

In terms of challenging forms and conventions of media products I decided for the video I wanted to keep the video a ‘norm’ in terms of differentiation towards media products as I felt that the style and lyrics to the video would most suitable match with a love story kind of themed video and this is the type of video in which the target audiences would understand and enjoy. However for the digipack and advert I wanted to keep the soft natured style of the pop genre however I wanted to give it some variation, firstly I decided to name the album ‘Fallen Angel’ as the type of name wouldn’t normally be viewed in an album name or style for an artist like Rihanna, it would more likely to be to the soft-rock kind of genre such as Avril Lavignes classic music style. I wanted to keep the feel and style of the digipack and advert to be fluid and match well together, to achieve this I decided to keep a matching colour scheme of black background with white fonts, I decided on a more traditional and script-like font to give the album a classic feel with a contemporary vibe in terms of photographs etc. I then chose to add a golden colour for the title of the album within the advert and the bonus CD track listing this was to represent to the audience that the pack is a special edition and is nothing like previous digipacks and albums so they feel as if they are buying something they’ve never had before, this was also due to the main target audience of my artist is teenagers and young adults. I decided to use the cloud imagery for the disk’s to keep to the theme of the album as I thought this would reflect well and relate to the album/digipack as a whole, after some research of Rihanna’s digipacks I also noticed she used similar or the same CD styles for more than 1 CD in her digipack, therefore I drew inspiration from this.

Throughout the media product there were many problems and issues occurred, at the beginning of the course I had joined with a group of 4 students and we began to plan our music video and discuss initial ideas and plans, however unfortunately the communication and the interest of some members began to affect the progression of the groups video in comparison to other groups within the class and year. This then resulted within the group splitting up and myself and one member to form a new group, however this caused a change in everything therefore we had to re-plan and change the blog work completely, this put us at a slight dis-advantage in comparison to other groups however we was determined to complete the project of time however we had to put a lot of after lesson hours into the work to get everything done.

We also had a few issues when filming the music video as our leading female cast members was very difficult to work with at times, due to her lack of confidence and order of taking direction from the director and also myself it proved more difficult to direct her and for her to give us the emotion and motivation we was looking for, this resulted in more time to get good footage which increased the amount of time filming and decreased the amount of time to edit which I felt was disappointing. Taking all this into consideration I would have planned the lead cast member to be more confident and have more creativity.

To conclude this media product I have really enjoyed the whole experience, I enjoyed working as part of a group as I feel like it increased my friendships within the class and the involvement and achievement you feel when you have contributed and completed something big. My favourite part of the project was the creation of the advert and the digipack, this was because I really enjoy being creative and this gave the chance for me to do something I had never done before whilst increasing my abilities and skills of the software at the same time. My least favourite part of the whole thing was the separation of the initial group plan, this was because I began to get stressed and angry and the lack of work being produced and began to panic about my success, another reason was that the new group had to re-think and plan a new idea and completely renovate all the previous blog work we had done up to that point in which required a lot of home-study time to catch up to the deadlines the other groups were on. I thought the editing process of the coursework was very long and was very tricky and fiddly; this really tested my patience and abilities with the software as I found the Final cut express software rather difficult to grasp and manage the most effectively. Overall I am pleased with the end result and feel I have tried my best and worked to the best of my ability.

Blog 19 - Finished Video and Feedback

In this blog I have posted the final cut of our music video, We then decided to show the music video to a variety of people and for them to give us some form of feedback, in order to see if the video appeals and comes accross well, and also to outline any mistakes or anything that could have been improved on if given more time to do so. I experienced some problems when trying to upload the finished music video to blogger using their video upload tool, therefore I have uploaded the video to youtube.com and have posted the link below.

Link to video via youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMpZx9DBXZk (the music video finishes at 03:16. followed by some rejected footage following.

Results From Video Viewing Feedback: Instead of uploading the music video to facebook like I did previously with my Advert and Digipack, I decided to try something a little different and instead choose a wider variety of ages and genders of audience to watch my music video and give me some individual and personal feedback in which I could take in positively and record for the blog below are the results of the trial.

I sent the link via e-mail and also sat individuals down and showed them the finished music video and then asked them to give me some feedback on their opinion.

Aimee Kindell (Female, 18 years) - "I like the way the music video has been filmed in a simple way, it gives the viewer the ability to focus more on the story of the songs lyrics and the video, however I think you could have improved on the transitions from each shot to make the shots flow better together"

Chris Puttock (18 Years, Male) - "The video is clearly set out to represent and tell the story of the boy and girls relationship, I think the lip syncing could have been better by better editing however I think the video works well"

Fiona Miller (50 Year Old, Female) - "The video is cute! I like the way it represents young love and all the issues/troubles relationships can cause, I also liked the fact in which the male was shown as feeling hurt just as much the female, to improve I would recommend that you had taken some more shots to add some more variety to the video"

Verity Taylor (Female, 21) "I like the style of the video, it's free flowing and very realistic unlike many video's which are exaggerated and over the top in terms of costumes and make-up, i like the fact it shows real, everyday people"

Blog 18 - Creative Camera Use

Creative Camera Use

When filming the music video we wanted the video to be very stripped down and simple as we wanted the songs lyrics to reflect well within the music video and didn't want to many effects in which would move focus away from this. Therefore whilst filming the video we kept the effects very basic by using techniques such as Zooming in to show more emotion of the facial features and expressions and also panning to emphasize the location of each shot, we used zooming out to long shots to include body language to reflect the mood and feelings of the songs lyrics and also the video's situation in certain shots.

In the editing stage of the music video, myself and the group began to experiment using the final cut express software with some features such as dissolve finish, split screen shots and also black and white filters, however we decided these effects didn't feel or look right within the video so decided not to include them. We then began one experimenting with slowing the shots down to give a more softer and dreamy feeling to specific shots such as 'the running through the fields' we decided then that this worked well and put the effect within the video during the final stages of the editing process.

Although we didn't go all out with special effects, we experimented with some effects however didn't find them any use to the video and we were pleased with the finished result, as we took inspiration from Rihanna's video Take A Bow which had minimal special effects we also felt going for a stripped down and basic video would cater better to the target audiences need and also go well with the songs mood and lyrical emotion.

Blog 17 - Rejected Footage

REJECTED FOOTAGE

When we filmed the music video we had many bad shots recorded in the shooting diary, these shots were mainly unsuitable for things such as breaking character, laughing, messing up miming and others factors such as sun position and weather. During the editing process of the music video we ended up cropping the bad footage away from the good to put the music video plans in order, however when the time came to gather the bad footage for this blog, we realised we had deleted the majority of the bad footage from the computers in final cut express, this was disappointing as we had gathered many bad shots in which we could have presented in this blog. However we noticed shortly after uploading the music video that after the video finishes there is a few shots in which didn't make the cut for the music video therefore these are the shots in which I can present on this blog.

YouTube Link To Video - http://www.youtube.com/watchv=wMpZx9DBXZk&feature=player_detailpage#t=210s

Rejected footage 1 - This first piece of footage was rejected for a variety of reasons, the first reason we decided not to use this sequence for the music video was that the cast member wasn't looking into the camera or making any form of eye contact, we thought that it would draw the attention away from the audience as they won't feel apart of the video and it eliminates the chance of the viewer feeling the emotion the female was feeling. The next reason we rejected it was because the miming was completely out of sync with the music track, this was due to the singer being un familiar with the song lyrics at the beginning of shooting. The final reason for the shot being un used was also because we felt the camera mid shot wasn't filmed to the best standard a lot of her body was out of the camera's viewing therefore body language expression was also limited.

Rejected Footage 2) This shot was rejected for a few reasons also, we firstly thought the lighting off the room wasn't very well thought out the room was very dark in which restricted the amount of the frame was visible, this also caused the laptop screen's flash and light to be more eye catching in which we didn't want this to be the main feature in the shot. Another reason is the male character isn't in the entire shot. Finally the last reason this footage was rejected was because during the filming the male character (myself) looses focuses and begins to talk to the person recording the music video, this ruined the shot as the mood and feeling went.

Screenshots:

Although I have only produced two examples of rejected footage from the music video shoot, the group did have a high amount of bad footage, with most the bad footage from the first sequence of the male and female characters laying on the bed together, giggling and loss of character caused a real problem with this, which was a key factor in the footage becoming un use able and having to call cut. Another main area of difficulty was the female characters solo shots for the chorus of the songs. Our female lead wasn't very confident within her role in front of the camera therefore for many shots she ended up falling out and character and hiding her face, this made the shots not fit for use, she was also unfamiliar with the song at first therefore her lip syncing was often incorrect or out of time with the music track, this proved difficult within the editing process.

Blog 16 - Advert

Analysis of 2 Adverts

Rihanna - Rated R Album Advertisement Poster

This poster is taken from the release of Rihanna's fourth studio album 'Rated R' in early 2009. The album was released shortly after the release of it's first single Russian Roulette (UK). This posters context is very basic, it is all in black and white as the original album artwork is, however the albums image if the exact same photograph with some extra black and white font, the poster includes the words "new album" to identify what the poster is advertising and also the names of the two singles which is written is Red so the titles jump right off the page and grab the readers attention. The main focus of this poster is to purely advertise and a promote the release of the new album and also the singles previously released to accompany the album.

Beyonce - Dangerously In Love Album Advert

Dangerously In Love was the first album to be released by Beyonce Knowles solo after she took a break from trio band Destiny's Child. This advertisement

is in the form of a poster and it is very similar to the

Rated R poster for Rihanna's album, the poster consists mostly of the actual album artwork for the album which in this case is Beyonce wearing a diamond and short cut top. The poster includes the date ofthe albums release however unlike Rihanna's it does not have any singleinformation printed on it, in which is commonly used to attract existing fans as well as new fans.

Katy Perry - One of the Boys

This advert is taken from Katy Perry's debut album 'One of the Boys'. From this advert I took the inspiration for my advert. The advert is clear and displays all the information in which the consumer of the target audience would require. The advert includes the album name, the single's in which are taken from the album and also the release date. I like the advert because it gets to the point without being to packed in and over filled of imagery and text. Taking this advert into account I decided to create my advert using this type of template.

Finished Advert + some feedback from social networking website facebook.

Once I had finished my advert I posted it onto the social networking website facebook in order to get some feedback, I chose facebook because I felt it was the most appealing website towards the target audience I was required to appeal to (youth ages 16 - 30) the feedback gave the chance to see what people liked about my advert and given me some criticisms or ideas of what I could have changed to make the advert even better. To conclude from the feedback I was given I realised I could have possibly used a different colour for the font as some people suggested that the white colour blended in with the background to much which may make the text difficult to read.

Finished Advert:

https://docs.google.com/viewera=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_QUfHy0ObHTNWNmNzEwZDgtZWY3Ny00OWI4LThkMzMtY2RiOTBmYTBhZDA4&hl=en&authkey=CKKlkdcB

Throughout the process of creating the digipack advert it really gave me a better grasp of using the photoshop programme, it enabled myself to be creative and learn the software controls in which enabled myself to create better and more realistic effects compared to what I was able to do with my AS coursework for example. The process was very fun to do as I enjoyed bringing out my creative side and it had given me a new skill in which I can use in the future.

Initial Advert Flat plan Ideas

Flat Plan 1 - Fallen Angel Advert

For the advert for the fallen angel album, I wanted to stick towards the theme of angels,heaven and spirituality. As the genre of the Rihanna is 'Pop' I wanted a style and theme that helped to reflect the pop cultured theme. Bef

ore creating the flat plan and the advert itself I conducted some research into Rihanna adverts and also Adverts from the same musical genre. In the end I took inspiration from the Katy Perry One of the Boys advert with the one image with the text on the side. I decided to use Gold fonts as I thought it would help to represent the special edition side to the album, it also went along with the style of Heaven and Angels. I decided to include clouds for the background image because I wanted it to resemble the album digipak the advert was promoting. I decided to include a facebook and twitter icon on the bottom to appeal to the social networking trend.

Flat plan 2 - Music 101

For the second Advert design I used the advert research I had previously conducted on Rihanna and also Adverts from the pop Genre, I eventually took inspiration from the Rihanna

Rated R themed advert. I decided I wanted to experiment with a more rock chick themed advert for the album. I selected one main image of Rihanna and put her in black similar to the rated R poster look. I chose to include basic information within the advert as I didn't want it to look to overcrowded with text. I chose to use small music notes in which to reflect the title album name 'music 101'. I chose red for the font as I thought it would be bold and stand out against the black clothing. As Rihanna's target audience is younger generations stereotypically and her look changes within each record she releases I thought going for this style of advert would still appeal to the target audience. However I felt like this advert was to basic and not very exciting in terms of drawing the readers attention, especially with a youthful target audience where first impressions are generally decision makers. I think an advert more eye catching would be a more relevant theme in which to create a successful advert.

Flat Plan 3 - Sweetness and Spice Advert

For my next flat plan idea I decided to take inspiration from Rihanna's past album A Girl Like Me, I researched into the album in terms of advertising and images and I decided to design a more 'girly' and feminine advert. I decided to use girlie and feminine colours such as pinks and purples for the title fonts, I also decided to use heart shapes within the background of the advert. I decided again to only use a single image for the advert to try and keep the advert from looking to cluttered together. However I decided not to use this style of advert as I didn't want the advert to be to feminine to put off male members of Rihanna's target audience as a male would be less likely to buy a girlie looking album. I decided I needed to find a design that would be appealing to both genders within the audience.