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.

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:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_QUfHy0ObHTMzQ3MDNlM2YtYTllNi00NjBiLTlhYmItYjc0NDZjOGUyYzE4&hl=en&authkey=CMiD4ZID

Link To Inside of Digipack:

https://docs.google.com/leafid=0B_QUfHy0O

bHTNTZlYWRhN2YtZWU1My00ZTM0LTg5NDAtZWE0YjFkYmUwMmVj&hl=en&authkey=COSMkLoL

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.

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.

Blog 8 - Initial Ideas

After the original media group had split, we decided we needed to get an idea together quickly so we didn't waste to much time before filming the video and editing. We decided to come together and draw out some rough spider diagrames of potiential ideas for song choice, costume, camera angles, genre and narrative. We wanted to have an idea that is relevent to the chosen genre of pop however also be relistic within the limited time period we had, we also had to consider the availability of things in terms of cast, locations, the camera and also the schedule of when to film. Below are some JPEG file scans of some innitial ideas we came up with before deciding the go ahead with the Rihanna video shoot.

After I had come up with some initial ideas in the form of spider diagrams on a few pieces of paper I decided to present the initial idea in the form of a power point presentation in which I have included images and you tube links to the chosen songs.

Link to Initial Ideas Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B_QUfHy0ObHTMGI4ODA5ZWItNjUyMS00OTZmLWIwNmEtMmRlMWQ3OGY5OTBl&hl=en&authkey=CLKm9qIO

PREVIOUS GROUP IDEA.

During the planning process we used youtube to watch several previous and current music video's by Lady GaGa but also watched several live enterpretations of the song we have chosen. This gave us an insight to how Lady GaGa represents herself and the music on stage and we took a lot of inspiration from these viudeos in planning ideas for our final music video shoot, we bagan by watching several of her own music videos from present and back a few years I was looking out for factors such as costume styling, make-up, dance routines, movements and also setting/location. I feel as Lady Gaga's music videos all have a a sense of their own style and give off a sense of uniqueness which i feel would be very benificial to gain inspiration from, Her use of dramatic story lines within her single releases have made her videos more distinctive and flamboyant which make them "hard to forget" videos such as Papparazzi and Just Dance. whilst watching the performances and videos I noticed her use of mixing several elements together such as Dance routines, solo shots and close ups by using different shots her video's become more visually interesting.

Boys Boys Boys - Live at London's o2 Arena 2009

In her live performances of the track, Lady Gaga uses a team of all male back-up dancers. This is to make her stand out amoungst the dancers within the routine and establish she is the star of the act. This has given us inspiration to use a team of male dancers to relate to the tracks meaning.

The dancers within her live performances are also usually wearing very little clothing, this represents sexuality and desire which is present in a majority of her performances and music videos. All this and use of costume, makeup in the mise-en-scene gives lady gaga's performances some differentation in the market, so we have decided to draw in inspiration from these aspects of performance to use within our music video.

Boys Boys Boys Live performance in 2008.

In this video we had noticed again the use of a all male group of back up dancers, in terms of mise-en-scene they are dressed very flamboyantly which is a style that is accociated with Lady Gaga videos and performances. Within the dance routine we noticed she uses a lot of in sync group dancing with her backup dancers, which I personally found to be very well planned out and has a good effect on the overall performance, She blends in with her dancers throughout movement, however she makes a statement and stands out due to the all male backup dancers used. From watching this performance I have taken the inspiration to use a male cast of dancers to give a more dramatic effect and meaning to the tracks video.