Digipack Analysis

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Final Digipack

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End of filming

Today we filmed the last shots we needed for all of our footage to be complete. This was the courtyard scene where the girls is looking out the window at social groups to show her isolation from society. We then uploaded this on to the Apple Mac we are using to edit. When we return to school after the Christmas holidays we will add in transitions and place these shots in with the rest of our edited footage.

Alternative Advert

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This is another version of our final advert. We experimented to see if we could improve our advert in any way. The use of the polaroid gives the advert an original, vintage look which suits the indie style genre of our artist. We have decided we prefer our other version as we do not like the overlapping text on the polaroid. Also, the logos and the star rating does not look as professional as the white background shows up on the polaroid. The colouring of this advert is quite dull and may not catch the attention of an individual as much as our other advert.

Digipack so far

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This is our digipack so far. We have very nearly completed this but we need to add a few more photos from the rest of our filming. We liked the idea of a black background as it represented the dark storyline in the song. Also, it contrasted nicely with the black and white image on the front cover. We have used polaroids to place the photos in as we thought this gave an original look. We feel we can improve this still with some finishing touches for instance we feel the artist name on the front cover should be bigger as it is the most important piece of information on our digipack . We have left the cd disc blank as we have not yet degined possible discs we would use.

Editing

We continued editing today and have edited everything we have filmed. We added the transitions between shots that looked jumpy and added in a sound effect at the end. This was a siren sound as this fits in with our storyline and leaves it on a cliffhanger. From the lyrics the audience can understand what is going on in the story, and the siren sound effect helps this.  The transitions we used were, cross dissolve, cross blur, cross zoom and fade to black. We used fade to black as the end transition as it fades out the shot as the song fades out. The siren sound plays as the shot is fading to black to create a dramatic effect and a clear ending.

Update on music video

Today we filmed another small part to our music video. We originally filmed this part it previously but we did not feel satisfied with it. The shots were shots 9,10 and 11. We then spent time editing our existing footage and uploaded our music track on the apple mac. This is so as well as using our planned times for each shot, we could ensure the correct footage was playing at the same time as that part of the track. We made a number of changes to the shots in our original storyboard as we felt these looked more suitable in the video. Shots 4, 5 and 6 were originally going to be in a cannon effect, but as we did not realise how long the shot had to last when filming to do this effect it did not work effectively. Instead we used a continuous shot of the girl walking down an isolated corridor.

Day two of filming

Today we filmed shots  9-14.We thought we would complete all the filming we had to do but we still have a couple more shots left to film. We are finding it difficult to plan when we are definitely filming as our actress is not very reliable. This is something we would think about more carefully if we did this again. We began editing our existing footage and are continuing to throughout this week. Hopefully we will have fully completed all our shots by the end of this week.

Change of location for second half of filming

For frames 9-14 and 26 we are going to shoot this by the side gate outside of our school. This is a perfect setting as it is a long walk way which will be ideal to shoot. Also, there is always lots of people around so we are going to use some for extras in our footage. These will be the people who are 'bullying' our main character.  For shot 26 we need people running around frantically as this is the part of the track where the shooting has happened so we are showing the reaction. We are going to have this shot in black and white as it creates an effect of it happening else where where the main character cannot see.

Vinyl Junkies advert analysis

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Final advert for digipack

This is our final advert for our digipack. After much editing and experimenting we have decided to use this as our final advert. We have used the same fonts as we have for the digipack also. Originally we had the background image stretched across but we felt it looked better as four images as it was clearer and sharper. We also like the effect as it really draws attention to the image and the diary. We have included a quote from a magazine and a star rating as this helps promote the digipack and artist to an audience. This is because the magazine is a well known music magazine and from my research into diferent types of music magazine, NME is the best match for our artist and target audience.  We have clearly stated when the track is released and where it can be found. I designed the layout like this because we both wanted the advert to look simple so the message of what we are promoting is clearly stated. We liked the idea of a white border round the edge almost like a polaroid as we felt it would stand out more and suit the indie genre of the artist.

I have designed another version of this advert with a poleroid behind instead of the white frame acting as one. I thought this would give a good effect and look more professional.

Filming cancelled

Today was our next date to film the second half of our music video, but unfortunately again we could not film. This was because the camera had only a little battery left, and we did not have time to charge it fully as we had a limited time space when we could film. We are going to concentrate on fully completing and improving our existing ancillary tasks until we can find another date to film. We will film some time next week when best suitable for our actress.

Next date for filming

Although we made a clear shooting schedule we have to keep moving the dates due to inconvenience. In this time we have been planning and making mock ups of our ancillary tasks, our digipack and advert. We were going to film the second half of our music video last Wednesday but our school had a power cut so everyone was sent home. Our next date for filming is Firday 3rd December. As
we have almost completed our ancillary tasks we feel we have enough time left before the deadline to edit our footage.

Brand Identity

In order for our artist to sell, we need to create a brand identity. This is so that our audience recognise our artist and thier work. We think as there is such a strong link with the diary in our video and ancillary tasks, this will represent and make it clear who the artist is when seeing the digipack, advert and video as you can see they all belong together.

Digipack

This is the template we are going to use for our digipack.  When made in a 3D format we would use cardboard to create the stiffness and structure of a digipack. I am currently experimenting and editing our existing design to produce a quality product. We can not complete this fully until we have filmed the second half of our footage, as we will need to take some more photographs when filming to complete the collage of images page. We were originally going to use photos of the artist in the collage but we later decided we are going to use photos taken when filming.  This is because we have a photogrpah we have previously taken of our artist on another page with a personal note from the band.

Final decisions for ancillary tasks

We have been planning our digipack on Serif Page Plus so we have an idea of how it is going to look. We are going to have 6 sides. We have decided we are going to have a front cover, a page of lyrics, the centre page where the disc sits, a collage of images from our music video, a note and photograph of our artist, and the back cover. We have decided to include these because from our research into other existing digipacks some of these pages make the conventions of a digipack. We have included the personalised note and photograph because it makes the digipack more unique and shows the great fullness to the consumer from the artist.

For our advert for our digipack we have decided to have the photograph in black and white. We feel this suits the theme of the song best as the lyrics are quite dark. Also, we wanted the diary to stand out as this is a significant part, so we are going to have the diary in red. We decided to use a dark red and not a bright red because it looked more natural and gave an older, more realistic look to the diary. We chose between two images we thought were best, and finally went with the image which showed more of the surroundings to create more of a sense of loneliness and isolation.

Images for digipack and advert

This is our first idea for our digipack advert. We like the polaroid idea with the black and white photograph. The font in this photo is quite computerised and doesn't look realistically hand written.

This is our second attempt. We have chosen a different photograph which we feel is better suited as it shows the isolation of girl. The diary is also clearly visible. The 'Dear Diary...' contrasts from the 'Vinyl Junkies'. An idea we had which we will experiment with is to have the diary as a different colour so it stands out from the black and white. This will also show the significance of the diary.

First day of filming

Friday 12th Nov
Today we shot scenes 1-6, 15-21 and 27-29

These shots were filmed in the school corridor, the school toilets, and a woodland area outside of school. We have yet to film the courtyard scenes where we will need more actors, and the bridging music scenes where we will film in our school sports fields. Our filming today was very successful as we had time to film more than we expected. Due to us not being able to film  last Wednesday, we felt we should get as much done as possible in order to manage our time successfully. I was mainly directing, whilst sorting our characters costume and makeup, and filming. Jasmine and I also both took photographs whilst filming which we can use for our digipack and advert. We also took photographs of our main character to show her costume and makeup. Although we had a successful afternoon, we did have some limitations. The tearful look we went for with our actress did not show up in the photographs so until we begin editing we do not know if it is clear in the shots. Whilst filming outside, we felt the strength of the wind was a hassle as it cause some shots to appear shaky as the tripod was not very stable. The height of the tripod was another issue as it was very short. We had to place it on higher objects in order for the shot to look as we wanted it. During the school scenes we had some people walking past as we were filming, but we discussed this and if when editing there are other students in the shots, we realised it may not be a bad thing. Schools are full of students so other students in the shots will just make the location look more realistic.

We filmed some extra shots which we thought would look good in our video, although we did not plan to do this. When we got into filming we came up with lots of ideas which we shot so we have plenty of footage to edit.

Ideas for digipack and advert

Digipack
I have designed a paper rough mockup of what we are going to feature in our digipack. The front cover is going to have the artist name as a clear heading in a black vinyl style font. This relates to the name of the artist and stands out. This contrasts to the 'Dear Diary...' font which is a hand style written font. We thought a hand written style font would suit it best as the diary in the video is a hand written diary.


These are some ideas for fonts we could use for the dear diary text on our digipack and advert.
Tropicali Script BTN Bamboo
I like this font as it has an old effect to it. The style of writing looks realistic as if someone has actually written it.






Annie BTN
I really like this font as it is bold and realistic looking. I don't think it is as realistic in the sense that someone has written it, compared to the font above.

Edwardian Script ITC

English157 BT
These two fonts are very simular but I like the swirly style to it. Although I like the style, I feel it is too over the top and fancy for a girls handwriting in an old diary.

Freestyle Script
This font stands out but I think it may look to computerised to act as a font that someone has written.

Arial Black

We have decided we think this font is best suited for our artist name. This is because it is bold and suits the name. This font reminds me of a vinyl record which links in with the artist name.
 This is showing the inside content of our digipack plan. On the first page we have decided to put the lyrics of the song there. From researching and looking at other digipacks this is very common and involves the consumer as they can sing along or read the lyrics to understand the song. The next page you see is going to be a collage of images of our artist.

The central page is going to be where our disc sits. Underneath there is going to be a collage of images of the diary. This is to mark the diary's significance. The next page is going to contain a photograph and note of thanks from our artist. I have seen this in digipacks before which I think it a very effective idea as this engages the consumer and makes them feel good. Also it feels very personal and shows the artists gratefulness.

The back page of our digipack is going to  feature details such as the record label, bar code and the name of the track. It will mostly be plain and may have a decorative design on the back such as the repeated collage of diary's but we are undecided. We may include a bonus track of a different version of the song, which is done on lots of existing CDs and digipacks.

              Advert for Digipack

                         

This is a rough sketch of how we are going to lay out our advert for our digipack. We wanted the artist name boldly at the top of the page and the name of the digipack at the bottom. We have named the digipack the same as the song, 'Dear Diary...'. We wanted the image linked with the video so we have decided to include shots from the video. The chorus part of the song is the part including the diary so as this is a continuous theme in the video, digipack and advert we want a strong image of the diary on the front with the main character of the video. We considered the colours the advert could be and as the theme of the song is quite dark we thought either dark colours, or black and white. We then thought to make the diary stand out we could have that in colour. When we begin filming we are going to take photographs which we can consider using for our advert and digipack.

Costume

As our girl in the video is at school, our first thoughts where to put her in a school uniform but due to the other characters appearing in a scene we thought this was not possible to do. This is because it is hard to get hold of school uniforms as we do not have the choice of costumes that the producers would usually have. We are going to have the girl in normal clothing so the audience can assume she is in sixth form at school, which will be realistic because our characters are of that age. We wanted to create a sad emotion on her face, so to do this we used makeup to create the effect that she had been crying. We sprinkled water down her face so the makeup ran with it.

Main character (girl) - We are going to have our main character in a winter coat as she is outside for some scenes in the video. This will look more realistic as it is winter. Also, we wanted to have her in the coat for each shot to show continuity.
Extras which will be outside in a group and throwing "sticks and stones" and for the part of the song where the girl is watching other groups being social through a window - They will be wearing 'sixth form' style clothes (leggings/trousers/skirts and tights/tops and cardigans/coats).

The Diary

As the title of our artists song is 'Dear Diary', we are going to have an old diary featured throughout our video,digipack and advert. The diary is going to be featured in the chorus in our music video as the shots are of a girl writing her diary. The front cover of the digipack is going to feature an photo of  a shot in the video which will contain the diary. This is so it all links. Also, behind where the disc is going to be in the digipack, we are going to have lots of images of the diary as a collage effect. We are going to take a camera with us when we film so we can capture shots that we can use for our digipack and advert. Jasmine and I both agree we think the diary should look worn and almost old fashioned so we may create the diary ourselves. We could use an old hard back book and add some blank pages inside. To make it look worn we could use teabags to create an old look.

12th Nov - We took photographs of the diary and our main character today which we are going to use for our digipack and advert. The diary we used in the shots, was a hardback book with a black cover. We did not feel like we needed to use teabags to create an old look as the diary looked good as it was. We placed a piece of paper inside to write on so we did not cause any damage to the book.

This is the book we used as the diary.

Change of Plan

10th November - Today we were going to film part of our music video but we experienced some time inconvenience with our actor. Instead, we used this time to carry on with our planning for our digipack and our advert for our digipack.

Target Audience

Vinyl Junkies have already built up a strong fan base consisting of indie rock music fans. Their music has a very unique sound, with instruments along side including the typical indie instruments, e.g. guitars, drums. Other artists they may be compared to are 'One Night Only', and 'The Dkyneenies' as these are also from the Indie rock genre and have a similar style in their music. As Vinyl Junkies songs are often telling a story, the audience can connect with the artist if they can relate to the

songs. The music video Jasmine and I are going to produce is going to be a narrative based video so audiences who enjoy watching music

videos telling a story will enjoy our product. Other videos which are of a similar nature to our video are Pink - 'Family Portrait' (as seen in the photo), or 'Just Like a Pill' as these are also narrative based videos with a theme of a character being unhappy. Viewers which enjoyed these may also enjoy Vinyl Junkies although the music genre is different. I think the age group that best suits Vinyl Junkies are teenagers to young aldults such as 30's. This is because some of the language and themes of the songs are not suitable for children and some older people may find their music a bit offensive.

Age? Gender? Occupation? Lifestyle? Socio-economic group

Planning Editing and Shots

We are going to use a variety of shots in our music video. This is to make it more interesting to watch and to create a dynamic effect. We are going to use;
Mid shots
Long shots
Close ups
Side shots
Match on action
Shots through windows
and mirror shots (voyeurism) so the camera can see the character in the mirror also.

The opening shots involve match on action, with the same shot and location but taken from different angles. Our video consists of fast and slow shots as the tempo of the music changes slightly in the chorus. For the shots where the girl cuts from a long shot in the corridor to eventually a closeup, we are going to use quick cuts. We are also going to use this technique when the sticks and stones are being thrown at the girl in the second verse and in the bridging music when our character is running. In some shots towards the end we are going to experiment with editing in order to find a way to make the surroundings spin while the character stands still. We feel this is a good effect as it creates a sense of confusion and loneliness. In contrast to this there are some slower cuts, for example the opening shots where the girl is looking in the mirror we are going to use different angles, but make them last as it is a moment where the girl is thinking so we want the audience to feel this too. In shot 26, where the school is going riot because of the shooting, instead of showing the shooting as it is not suitable, we are going to show students running round panacking in black and white. We decided this would look more effective in black and white as it is a dark event, and the colourism also links it in with a thought or dream which our main character is thinking.

Planning of music video

As our song by our artist has a strong storyline we have decided to produce a narrative based music video rather than performance. We considered performance as our artist is an indie band and from watching other videos on YouTube produced by other indie artists this seemed like a conventional route. To make our video stand out we are not going to use performance in our video, as we do not want to conform to the 'typical' indie idea.

Kings Of Leon - Sex on Fire music video

Also, we think it may be an issue getting permission from a venue they are performing at to let us film. Photographs we know we are able to do if we consider to use images of our artist for our digipack or advert, but filming with cameras is not allowed in some venues.

We like the idea of using black and white images, or a 'dream' effect so our video stands out. Also, this fits in with our storyline. The video 'Delivery' by Babyshambles is a narrative based video which is unusual because of the Indie genre. This video is all in black and white which gives it an old effect and doesn't contain any performance at all.

We are going to begin shooting our music video on Wednesday 10th November. So that we are organised we are going to plan a shooting schedule which we will work on together making sure we plan out when we can both film each shot.
We are going to use our friend Laura as our main character as we feel she can work well with us. Our basic storyline is about a girl who gets bullied at school and is feeling very lonely and upset. We see her as she watches other students with their friends and wonders why this is happening to her. The
 use of voyeurism we are going to use of her looking at herself in the mirror, shows a sense of vulnerability and loneliness. We see her writing her diary, which links in with the title of the song. As we get half way through the song we see her anger build up and her thoughts change and there is a dramatic outcome.
While filming, Jasmine and I will have our storyboard with us so that we get each shot right. We are both going to film and direct.

Due to time inconvenience we have decided to use Emma Bamberough as our actress instead.

Planning our digipack advert

In order for our digipack to sell, we need to advertise and promote the song and the artist. To do this we are going to design an advert poster which would be put in a magazine aimed at the right target audience. As our artist, Vinyl Junkies are an indie band we need to make sure the advert goes into a suitable magazine. We have decided to put it in a music magazine as we feel this is where we are going to attract the attention of the highest number of music fans and people who will most likely buy the product. Also, there is sometimes a star rating from a newspaper or somebody that has heard them sing. I have analysed some adverts earlier on in my blog.

This is a magazine advert for a CD the artist has released. The image is the same as the cover of the CD so is clearly recognisable.

Using adverts in magazines is clever as 60 percent of a lot of magazines are made up of adverts, especially music magazines. I have researched music magazines in the UK to find out what type of content each contains. This is the list I found;

Alternative Press
Magazine includes information on music, videos, books, movies, fanzine reviews, upcoming release listings, music charts, more.

Amazing Sounds
Devoted to new age, avant-garde, and alternative music.

Babble and Beat
Free music magazine featuring band interviews, music reviews, news, contests, and more.

Billboard
News, current charts, artist information, and more from well known music magazine.

Blender
Covers everything from dance and hip-hop to rock, alternative and R&B. Known for pictorials of female celebrities.

ChartAttack
Daily news and reviews from Canadian magazine covering rock, pop, and alternative.

Glide
Focuses to covering today�s most innovative artists, regardless of musical concept or artistic method. Also offers a glimpse into the world of independent filmmakers and progressive authors.

Innerviews
Collection of interviews with some of the world's most interesting and innovative musicians.

Mojo
Well written UK music magazine featuring reviews, news, buyer's guides, features, classifieds, and more.

Music Box
Daily music magazine featuring reviews, music news, tour dates, interviews, streaming audio and video, and more.

Music Magazine, The
Online magazine that deals in all music, with reviews, news and interviews appearing on both the site and the blog.

New Musical Express (NME)
UK-based, the biggest-selling weekly music magazine in the world. Presents music news around the clock, reviews from around the world, interviews, and a concert guide.

Paste Magazine
Covers a variety of genres with an emphasis on alternative, Americana and indie rock. Features dozens of reviews of CDs, DVDs, and films, along with interviews and profiles.

Q Magazine
Music and entertainment magazine published in the UK. Has an extensive review section, featuring: new releases, film and concert reviews as well as radio and television reviews.

Rock Rap Confidential
Monthly music and politics newsletter, covers culture and politics, hiphop and heavy metal, racism and revolution, censorship and the phony war on drugs.

Rolling Stone
Popular magazine contains music and entertainment news, videos, photos, downloads, music and movie reviews, cover stories and online exclusives.

Soul Shine

Canada's guide to new music filled with the latest news, features, reviews, gig listings and indie radio.

Spin

Focuses on the progressive new music scene and the youth culture. Gives the edge on film, art, and music, including ska, pop, R&B, rock, hip hop, and rap.

Uncut

Authoritative UK music and film magazine. Features hundreds of music and movie reviews, interviews and news.

Wire, The

UK magazine covering avant rock, breakbeat, jazz, modern classical, electronica, and other sounds from the outer limits.

From the information given on each of these magazines content, I think our advert would be best placed in Music Box as it is a daily magazine featuring recent news etc, The Music Magazine (online) as it is online which can be accessed by anybody, and Paste Magazine as it covers mostly indie and alternative music which is the genre of our artist. The rest I don't think suit our artist as it is either a different genre they specialise in or they are generally too big for our artist as they are not famous.

Final storyboard

Planning a digipack

What is a digipack?
A digipack is similar to a CD cover but with folds in a long piece of heavy paper/card. They can be folded in different ways depending on how many sections you have. The two outside panels fold to the centre and are stuck down making a kind of greetings card effect. Others have pockets for booklets, or have two spines and fold in twice. The CD/DVD itself needs to have a space, so that can be how an ordinary CD sits, or slotting into a pocket on one of the sections.

These are examples of some existing digipacks.
    
Most digipacks i have researched seem to have mostly images of the artist or a decorative design inside.

Plan of digipack

Our music video is going to be a narrative based video so in order to keep the link between the song name and the CD digipack, we have decided to use images from the video on the digipack. We will use this on the front cover as well as the artist name and the song name. We will select a suitable font which we feel links into the theme of the video. Also we need to think about colours to use in our digipack. As our song choice is quite a dark storyline we may use quite dark colours to represent this. We may also take some photographs of the artist so we promote their image and show the audience who they actually are. Our storyboard contains lyrics which refer to thoughts and emotion so we can bring this across in our digipack by maybe drawing cartoon though bubbles with links to the music video and song. We could also include the lyrics as I have found that some digipacks do this. This makes the consumer feel included in the product. Also in some, the image inside is spread across more than one page to create a poster effect which was done in Britney Spears' first album. Images of the artist in a collage form, can also look effective for a section in the digipack.

Location

We have decided that we are going to have our music video set in our school as this also fits into the story behind our lyrics. Some shots will be filmed outside where there are overgrown plants and some steps. This is because in the chorus of our track, our main character goes to escape from everything by sitting in an abandoned area of the school grounds. Other parts of the video will be shot in the school corridors, the school toilets as they have a large mirror, and in the school courtyard. The bridging music where our individual is running, we are going to set this in the sports fields at the back of the school.

These are some photos of our shot locations.

We took a photo of this because we originally wanted to use this as the location where our girl walks along, as it is a long simple walkway but we then thought the lighting is too dark. We also liked the courtyard location so we may slot this into a shot we think appropriate.


This shot is looking through the window into the courtyard (voyeurism). This could be used for the scene when the girl is watching groups of people socialising outside and we see her sense of loneliness. We feel this is a good shot and location to use because it is open and the window shows the whole area clearly and with enough light.


The bathroom mirror shots will all be shot in this location, the sixth form toilets. This is because we know it a spacious area so we can shoot from different angles, and it has two large mirrors. We have drawn our opening shots from different angles so we have taken photos of roughly how they will look.



This is our first shot in our music video.

We decided for the shots with our girl walking down the corridor we would use this location. It is wide so we can get a good shot of the girl and she will stand out because of the emptiness. Also it looks like a typical school corridor so will create the right setting for the story.




This is the outside area we found to shoot our chorus. We are also going to use it for the bridging music where our character is running with a sense of feeling and looking lost. We were originally going to use the school sports fields but we decided this was more suitable for our music video. We felt the log looked a nice place for our character to sit and write her diary on and the setting seems quite peaceful so thinking in the characters situation we felt this was the best location.