Possible photos for digipak

Here are the possible photos which we will be use for the digipak. We have followed a typical convention of the indie genre by using a familiar, unspectacular urban setting rather than a studio photoshoot. The use of the doll and the girl form the video will create intertexuality between all 3 products.

Digipak Analysis

Though the compact disc revolutionised the music industry when it was first introduced at the end of the 1970s, in the modern digital age it is fast becoming an obselete format. Since the removal of the CD 'single', the charts are now created from MP3 download sales, from websites such as napster or from itunes. In addition, websites such as youtube and lastfm have made it easy than ever to listen to an artist and watch live footage without having to commit to a purchase. The arrival of Spotify has also furthered this, as users are able to create playlists and listen to multiple albums from the same artists, without having to pay for any of it. Rather than playing music through a record player or CDs in a jukebox, music is now typically consumed through portable ipods and mp3 phones, using headphones and portable speakers.

However, there is still pleasure for audiences in having something tangible, a piece of artwork which can be enjoyed and treasured, connecting audiences with the artist. This also means that the 'album' CD format is now more important than it has ever been, as this is the only opportunity for audiences to have a 'hard copy' of a piece of music created by the artist. More loyal followers of particular bands are more likely to purchase a hard copy of a band's album over download, as it requires them to purchase the album in its entireity rather than simply downloading singles they have perhaps heard on the radio from it, as modern audiences often tend to do rather than purchasing the whole album.

The CD album has recently evolved in order to adapt to changes in the industry, hence the creation of the 'digipak' format. This is a more versatile format, allowing more variation and creative expression than the traditional plastic 'jewel case' format, as the albums vary from the more conventional 4 panel, to up to 6 or 8 panels, usually with an accompanying booklet. They often contain additional content such as bonus tracks and accompanying DVD, to encourage audiences to purchase them rather than download the single.

One of the main advantages of the 'digipak' is that it allows the audience to become more familiar with the artist on a personal level.

This suggests a return to the prestige of the much-loved vinyl format, where album artwork was considered as an integral part of the album. During the 1960s and 1970s, there were many iconic album covers created which still exist as merchandise: retro posters, teeshirts, art prints etc.

For instance, here is the front image of the 1979 album "London Calling" by The Clash, and below a retro teeshirt and collectable tin with the the album cover on. This shows the significance of iconic album artwork, as it is the image still connects the audience to the band and survives as merchandise some 30 years after it was originally released.

Digipak Research

View more presentations from ksimmons29.

Initial ideas for magazine advert/digipak

In our initial planning of the magazine advert, we contemplated making a image which was composed from different boy parts of the boy and doll (e.g. the doll's face and the boy's body)  to make a mis-matched person which would challenge convention and attract the attention of the target audience. Another idea that we had was to make the image look like objects on a kitchen table, which linked to the video e.g. the doll and the purse which she picks up in the opening scene of the video. However, we thought that we should make the advert less strongly linked with the video, as we were advertising the album as a whole rather than just the single. We decided that we would link the advert to the album title, "Wall of Arms" by using a wall as the main backdrop for the image.

The image above also shows some initial digipak designs (on the left-hand side) for a 4-panel design. We intended to link the digipak to the initial advert design by continuing the idea of mis-match by using an image of a face, created by using parts of the girl, boy and doll's face. We thought that if the digipak had slits, we could have flaps that lift up like a children's book, revealing different combinations of parts of their faces underneath. However, we decided that this would be too complicated and the industry would probably not produce such a complicated and therefore expensive format.

Here is the revised design for the digipak, as we have now decided that a 6-panel format would allow us to include more images and therefore increase the appeal to the target audience. We will link the album title to the design by using a brick wall. We will use the red motif to link to the magazine advert and the video. There will be a scrap-book effect on the inside cover, using screengrabs from the video, which will appear to be stuck down by sellotape. Handwriting-style font will be used for the lyrics on the inside cover and the tracklist on the back

Magazine Advert- Planning and Research

Magazine Advert Analysis

The following adverts are taken from "Uncut" Magazine

This advert is promoting an album and DVD release by indie folk band "Noah and the Whale." I chose to use this advert for research as it is of a similar genre to the indie rock band we are promoting, and therefore has a similar target audience.

The title of the album "The First Days of Spring" has associations with youth, new opportunity and the outdoors- a themes which comes across strongly in the rest of the advert. It also suggests the end of the hardships of winter and promise of brighter prospects.

Typography
-The use of serif font for the album title is reminiscent of school-girl handwriting, such as in a journal or diary. This suggests happy memories and the idealism of youth and has associations with being a daydreamer
-The use of italics also has romantic undertones, such as in a love letter. This is fitting with the album, as relationships are a key theme.

Colour
-The muted colours of the poster are typical of the indie genre, as the bands are often styled in a retro way, with the promotional material reflecting this image
- The use of the pale blue image of the sky as the main background connotes tranquility. This fits with the often slow-tempo music on the album

-Light blue also has associations with idealism and freshness which fits with the theme of youthful optimism, innocence and new beginnings. This fits with the title track of the album, which includes the lyrics "It's the first day of spring
And my life is starting over again."

-The pale blue also links to the song title "Blue Skies" on the album

Image
-The soft focus on three of the band members suggests past memories and fits with the idea of tranquility which is portrayed in the advert. The light on their faces and the fact they are facing upwards connotes optimism and redemption- which fits with the idea of spring representing a new beginning

-The tall grass in the foreground has associations of life, nature and freedom- again reinforcing the meaning of the album title.

-The image appears to be slightly sepia tone, which is associated with childhood memories and old photo graphs

-The band member in the foreground is pointing an old-fashioned camera , which connotes happy memories. It is pointed at the audience, which involves them as young people and causes them to consider their own memories

Use of reviewer's comments/ratings 
-The inclusion of four-star ratings from reviewers suggests to the audience that they are buying  high-quality album which comes recommended by others
-The quotes are taken from respected music magazines such as "Q", which gives them credibility

-The reviews used describe the album as "beautiful" and "magical", which fit with the theme of the wonderment of youth and the associations with natural beauty and tranquility which are conveyed through the advert
 -----------------------------------------------

This is an advert promoting the indie singer/songwriter "Jamie. T" and his release of his "Chaka Demus" EP.

The amateur look of the image demonstrated by the torn edge and simple use of colour express the artist's humble South London roots. The advert is for an EP rather than an album, and also shows that it will be available on 12". This fits with the idea that the artist is going "back to basics", to provide the audience with raw music which has not been expensively produced. This indicates that he is trying to be taken seriously as an indie artist who the audience can relate to, and also reflects the premise behind the indie genre. The 'torn' edges also reflect the artist's rebellious persona (shown by the photo below of him with a can of cheap lager on the red carpet of the Brit Awards) which is typical of indie artists, as they are often presented as rejecting convention.

Typography
The artist's name and the title of the EP are in unassuming sans serif font, which expresses the "no frills" image the artist is trying to convey. The use of red font also draws attention to the advert, as red is often used to highlight key information, so will be noticeable to audiences.

Colour
The black and white effect of the image gives it a retro feel and the circular shape resembles a record. This fits with the "back to basics" values of the artist and the traditional philosophy of the indie genre.

Image
The artist is looking down from what appears to stairs, which expresses his urban roots and reflects his choice of song subjects- about "real" young people growing up in the city. The effect is that the target audience are able to relate to the artist. The use of a low-angle shot, where he is looking down at the audience is in an ironic way, as the artist has a down-to-earth image.

Audience Feedback

We interviewed a range of young people, (the primary target audience for the indie genre) both male and female, in order to obtain feedback about our video production.

Teacher feedback

Teacher Feedback

View more documents from ksimmons29.

We will add titles to our video in response to this feedback

Peer feedback

We posted our video on youtube and popular social networking site facebook, as well as asking for feedback from other students in class. This allowed us to gain feedback from a wider global audience, rather than simply our family and friends.


Comments from youtube:


This comment suggests that people liked our choice of narrative, and found it amusing. This was also commented on by the user below.

However, this person has pointed out that there were some continuity mistakes in our production. The comment about shaky shots is probably a reference to the scene of the boy's realisation, where we purposefully used hand-held camera in order to create a sense of chaos to reflect his state of mind as he struggles to take in the situation.



This suggests that our use of fast cutting rhythm and handheld camera before the ending was effective in creating tension

0:18


This individual thought that this shot was effective. We chose this angle because it included our red motif and it has a voyeuristic quality to it, as it gives the impression of someone being watched without realising it. This fits with the sinister side to the video, as the boy is being manipulated without realising, and the audience is made complicit in her plan

2:01


They also liked this shot. This over-the-shoulder shot from the doll's point of view, which we used in connection with a corresponding shot from the boy's point of view, in order to link the them together 


Comments from facebook:

Summary
Generally, we were praised for our editing and cutting rhythm. However, we learned from our feedback that some people found the narrative hard to understand initially, we suggests that our motif may not have come across as clearly as intended.

Video production

This is the original version we uploaded to youtube



However, we had compressed it for website quality, which meant that our motif and narrative were not as clear as they had been during editing. We have now re-exported it from imovie at full quality and uploaded it again to youtube



We learned from our teacher feedback that we needed titles at the beginning and end of the video. We had not included them, as our research was based on music videos online, which often do not have titles in the video itself as they are instead written above. Nevertheless, we have added titles on for this version:

Applying Goodwin's Theory to our music video

Applying Goodwin’s Theory To Our Video

View more presentations from ksimmons29.

My Video Analysis

Video Analysis

View more documents from ksimmons29.

Photos to use as props

We have taken a series of photos of Jo and the doll on a 3G phone, which we have printed out and stuck on the wall of her room (where we will be filiming the scene of the boy's realisation and the flashbacks.)

We have also printed out a photo of the band and coloured in the lead singer's tshirt- to fit with the red motif of the video. As they are a famous band, we cannot use them in the video, but we have still included them in this way.

Mise-en-scene Analysis

Motifs
The colour red is a key motif in our video, so we subtly included this throughout. The doll's t-shirt enforces the meaning of the video, as it later matches the colour of the boy's t-shirt. Red can often signify danger, which tells the audience that the boy is in danger when he is being given it and later when wearing it.

As the main motif of our video, the doll will be positioned in the background in many of the shots. Although the audience may not notice this it first, it will become apparent through the boy's flashbacks near the end, as he realises that the doll has been there the whole time

Costume
We have decided to dress the girl in animal print in the opening of the video to subtly indicate her predatory nature, despite the fact that when the audience is first introduced to her she appears to be innocent

Lighting
We plan to use high key lighting for the opening sequence when the girl is getting ready to go out and walking along the road. We will use natural sunlight in the park when the boy and girl meet and in the subsequent shots of the development of their relationship (i.e. feeding the ducks, having a picnic). The high-key lighting will reflect the perfect facade of their relationship, which appears at first to be a generic "boy meets girl" narrative. In the short shots in between which show the girl cutting out photos of her and the doll, wrapping up a red teeshirt etc, we will use low-key artificial lighting to indicate the sinister undertones of the narrative. In addition, the scene near the end where the boy enters the girl's room will be lit using incandescent lighting, which will have the effect of enhancing the colour red- a key motif of our video which signifies danger.

Update- change from original plan

While we were filming the boy + girl's initial meeting on location in Brockwell Park, we decided that the shot of the boy falling over (see storyboard below) when they notice each other would look to cheesy and rehearsed, so instead we decided that it would look more realistic if they just caught each other's eyes across the grass instead.

Copyright permission from The Maccabees

As we were using an artist tied to a record label, it was necessary to ask for permission to use one of their songs, so as not to be in breach of copyright. They said that we could choose any song from the 'Wall of Arms' album, and we have selected 'One Hand Holding' as it has a generally fast, but varying pace. This will be a challenge and allow us to include a large number of shots in order to fit with the pace of the music. In addition, the band have not released this song as a single with a video, so we would not be influenced by the original video.

Planning and Research- Video Analysis and Plan

Analysis of "Half in love with Elizabeth" by The Mystery Jets

Locations Planning + Filming Schedule

We are planning to film in three locations:

Nimrod Road, Furzedown

Brockwell Park, SE24

Jo's house, Brixton

Filming schedule:
During school
Tuesday 30th September 2009- during double media lesson in the morning. Filming walking sequence in Furzedown
Out of school time
Friday 2nd October 2009 approx 1pm onwards. Filming in Brockwell Park
Wednesday 7th October 2009 -After school filming at Jo's house in Brixton 5pm
Friday 9th October 2009- Filming opening sequence of the video at Jo's house, Brixton. Approx 1pm start
Friday 16th Ocotober 2009- filming final scene at Jo's house

Editing to be done in class and during double free periods on Wednesday mornings.

As we are filming the majority of the video outside of school hours and we have commitments such a saturday jobs, we will need to film on weeknights. Our male actor also works 9-5 on Monday to Friday, so we will have to work around this.

Props
We will be borrowing the doll we are using from a friend, and I will sew a red t-shirt for it from red fabric. We also need to go to Primark to purchase 3 red tshirts, which will be worn by the male actor and the boys in the cupboard at the end.

Actors
Jo has agreed to play the part of the girl. As she is part of our media group and a drama student, this will be practical for filming purposes. The actor that was originally planned to play the boy in the video is no longer able to be in the video because he does not have enough free time, so we have had to call in a favour from my friend Bill instead

Animatic

Analysis of Feedback

When we showed our animatic to the rest of our media class, they responded with both positive feedback and areas for improvement:

-They said that our main motif- the doll- was portrayed clearly through the narrative.

-However, our other motif (the colour red) was not clear from the animatic, as it was in black and white. We will make this more obvious in our video by choosing locations which incorporate this colour and including it subtly throughout. We will also use red lighting in the final scenes

-Our classmates identified from the animatic that we had chosen to pursue a narrative video rather than one which was perfomance based. They recognised that in doing this we were subverting the "indie" genre, which is often performance based, such as this example:



-Because we had used only still shots for the animatic, people said that meaning was not always entirely clear. Some people found that the narrative was not always obvious.

-It was recommended that the shot duration should be decreased and the cutting rhythm made faster to fit with the choppy rhythmn of the song, which is typical of the indie genre. This may have been because we had planned to use a very large number of shots in total, so did not draw out each individual shot.

-However, we will make sure to use a fast cutting rhythm in our video in order to meet the expectations of the audience.

-One person remarked that our narrative appeared too linear, and that it should change more between timeframe to make it a more "layered" and complex narrative. In response to this, we will attempt to make our narrative more fragmented in terms of timeframe.

[/edit]
We have managed to make our narrative more complex by using shots which develop the girl's obession with the doll, such as her cutting our photo graphs and sticking them on the wall. We used low-key lighting in order to contrast with the bright light of the outdoors in the park, to indicate that something sinister is occuring below the surface

Storyboard for music video

 

Initial plan for video

Filmed from both boy and girl’s perspective- boy’s recollections shown later in fast cutting rhythm

Scene 1

·      Begins in her room, with diegetic sound of laptop playing one line of chorus of the song.

·      Doll leaning against computer.

·      Girl shuts the laptop and non-diegetic soundtrack kicks in of main track,

·      As girl gets ready to go out- grabs purse or coat etc,

·      Walks out of there room

·      Walking down the road, fast match cuts

Scene 2

·      Lyrics kick in

·      Girl sitting on park bench, reading a [dolls] book inside a magazine

·      Sees a boy walking in her direction wearing the same 6

·      Colour tee-shirt as the doll

·      She looks at it then looks at him (hides doll)

·      They catch each other’s eyes and smile… he trips over; she sees if he is ok

·      They talk, exchange numbers etc

·      He calls her whilst she is holding the doll to arrange meeting up

When music changes Boy sees short shots of them out on dates:

·      Sharing a meal,

·      Sitting on swings,

·      Having a picnic,

·      Hugging

·      Giving him a tee-shirt

·      Saying I love you for the first

·      Watching TV

Scene 3:

·      Tells her he’s going to the toilet

·      Walks up the stairs

·      See’s her room – goes in to have a look

·      See’s her room

·      Camera shots of – doll books, doll on the bed,

·      Shows a close up of boys face (shocked)

·      Tracking shot of photographs of her and the doll

FLASHBACKS:

·      Her putting the doll into the bag

·      Close up of doll in the bag

·      Close up of doll

·      Spiking up his hair

·      Giving him the t-shirt

·      Feeding the ducks at the parks

·      He remembers – shot of him looking worried

Scene 4:

·      Cupboard shaking

·      Boy opens the cupboard

·       Looks in we see reaction in his face

·      See 4 boys standing in the cupboard wearing red t-shirts like the doll

·      Over the shoulder shot of a hand on the boys shoulder

·      Medium shot of girls hand closing cupboard door

Scene 5:

·      See the girl walking down the street as in before with doll in bag

·      Returns to the park and starts to read a book in the same place as before

·      Sees a young boy coming towards her

·      Final shot close up of girls face smiling

Video Analyis

Goodbooks Video Analysis

View more documents from ksimmons29.

N.B. Slideshare has reformatted the original word documents, which has meant that the numbers on the screen attatched to specific screen grabs have moved, and the speech marks have also not been recognised

Song lyrics

Below are the lyrics from the song we are planning to use. Goodwin's theory says that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. Although we are not going to directly relate the lyrics to the narrative, we will subtly include links. E.g. the line 'the eyes, the eyes, the eyes' will occur during a close-up of the doll's face, showing its eyes. The line 'But I put those thoughts away' will coincide with a brief close-up shot of the girl pushing the doll down into her bag to conceal it from view when she meets the boy.

In addition, the lyrics of the song appear to be about a doomed relationship which has ended prematurely because the girl does not feel the same. We will parody the conventional relationship narrative by substituting the predictable plot of 'the other man' in the girl's life for an object- a doll. 

The Maccabees - One Hand Holding

Oh love I was torn, I was torn
But I put those thoughts away love
Just a thought
Will the gods look kindly
Those thoughts are behind me

Oh why would you be led to suppose
Oh why would you be led by your nose

Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Those puffy eyes are no surprise

When there's a devil in the doorway
Heaven in the hallway
Say you'll still adore me

And I’m far out on an ocean
Trapped in a disaster
I'd say I still adore you

Oh why would you carry on a name
Oh why would you carry on the same

Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Those killer eyes don't look the same, the same, the same as they used to do
Not like the eyes, the eyes, the eyes that I make at you
I make at you, I make at you

It was torn up
But now it’s alright, alright
It was torn up alright

Narrative Theory

Goodwin's Theory:

1. Music Videos Demonstrate Genre Characteristics
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recurr across their work
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6. There is often intertexual reference

Audience Research

Here is a sample of the questionnaire we used:

Questionnaire2

View more documents from 3701.

Results:

Results From  Questionnaire

View more documents from 3701.

Video Research

From our research of their existing videos on the aforementioned websites, we were able to notice that The Maccabees already have several narrative videos, which indicated that we would not be straying too far from the conventions of the genre and audience expectations by choosing not to have 'live' performance featured in the video.


One of the videos which we drew a lot of inspiration from was The Mystery Jets' "Half in Love with Elizabeth."

This is obviously popular with the target audience, as it had over 600 000 views and a 5-star rating. The feedback feature also allowed us to make an interesting observation that different members of the target audience had contrasting interpretations about the meaning of the narrative in this particular example, as these screengrabs below demonstrate: 

This fits with Roland Barthes theory about "writerly' texts, where the viewer is encouraged to create their  own meaning through interpretation, as an active audience, rather than being given a definite meaning. 

The feedback feature on Youtube also highlighted the importance of music videos for promotion in the industry, as some people will buy the album as a direct result of seeing the video for a single. This screengrab of a comment from the same video demostrates this: