Digipak Draft

I have been working on creating my own digipak for 'Static' by Dysphoria. I have been learning to use photoshop to do so, and the is is what I have so far. 

For the front cover I still need to add the spine so that the album name and artist can be easily identified.

For the middle space next to the CD I was considering leaving it will just a picture as many digipaks i have researched are very simple like this, however, I have also noticed that many albums contain a lyric booklet, so I might add in one of these to fill the empty space.

This is the picture I will be using for my CD, however I still need to add a template to this to make it look like a CD and not just a picture.

The back cover for my digipak is nearly complete, I just need to add in a few details that the back of an album usually contains, for example, a barcode.

Bastille Digipak Analysis

Bastille's digipak for 'Bad Blood' is also of the indie/rock genre.

The front cover conforms to most of the conventions of a digipak in general, but also to most of those of a digipak from the indie/rock genre. For example, the colours used are neutral tones, mostly dark colours with bold white writing to stand out and appeal to the audience, which I will also use in my digipak. The image displayed is also a typical kind of image found on a indie/rock album cover, as it it gives hints to a narrative and is set in a rural setting with natural mise en scene. As our video is set in rural, woodland and natural settings I can take inspiration from this, and use an image that gives a hint to the narrative to our music video to 'Static'. The cover also has a list of producers and band members listed at the bottom, which I could also use to introduce the band to my target audience. 

The CD is again, very simplistic and in a dark colour (black), which from my research I have noticed that this is a common feature that I have seen in all of the indie/rock digipaks. Therefore, I will keep my CD very simple, with only an image or the band name and album on it.

The back cover of the album shows a related image to that shown on the front cover, which keeps the digipak consistent from back to front in terms of image and colour. I really like this idea because it builds up an instant image of the album's tone and mood. The track list is also placed on the back of the digipak, in the same font that was used on the front cover. This is also something I want to do when making my digipak, as keeping the type the same makes it look professional. The spine of the album simply states the band name and the album name, which I am going to use as it is effective for an audience when identifying the band and album. Lastly, it has a barcode which I will also use on my back cover.

Digipak Lyric Booklets

One feature of many digipaks which I am considering adding into my own is a lyric booklet in the middle section. I like this idea as it complies to Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications theory as it allows the audience to identify with the album more, as if they can see the lyrics they may gain a deeper understanding of the album and songs. Here are some examples:

I particularly like Olly Murs' lyric booklet because it fits with the theme of his album and portrays his star quality image, complying with Richard Dyer's theory, through the use of the font type and pictures of him throughout. This is something I am considering adding into my own digipak.

Arctic Monkeys Digipak Analysis

The Arctic Monkeys are also another band of the indie/rock genre who's digipak I have used to gain inspiration for my own digipak.

The Front cover of the digipak for 'AM' by Arctic Monkeys is also very minimalistic, like the Vampire Weekend's digipak. This front cover simply has a black background, the Arctic Monkey's band logo and the image displayed above. The reason for this is because the Arctic Monkey's have a very strong fan base, who would immediately identify the band with the front cover, due to the logo and the image being the one used for the albums first single 'Do I Wanna Know?'. As mentioned before, I want to keep my digipak simplistic, however, not as simplistic as the Arctic Monkey's have. I want to add an image of the star of our band, to conform to Richard Dyer's star quality theory and to ensure our audience can identify with her. I also want to display the band's name and the album name on the front cover as well as a separate image and possibly a band logo, not just a band logo and the image as the Arctic Monkey's have.

 The CD also displays the image shown on the front cover, which fits well and ensures there is continuity throughout the digipak. However, I want to change the image on the CD so that it differs from the front cover, simply to show more features and characteristics  of the band and their album. However, I will take inspiration from the simplistic design used, only displaying an image and not the band or album name too.

The back cover of the digipak consists of the Arctic Monkey's logo once again, with a track list, barcode and the production details in small print below it. They have also used a consistent colour scheme throughout of black and white, which I will also be using for my digipak as this conforms to the indie/rock genre. In terms of font, they have used a bold font which is clear for audiences to read and easily identify the band with the logo, which is also something I hope to do for my digipak.

Final Music Video

After a lot of editing, we have finally finished our music video! Here is the final music video for 'Static' by Dysphoria:

Vampire Weekend Digipak Analysis

Vampire Weekend, like Pvris, are a typical band from the indie/rock genre, so I have decided to look into the features of their digipak for their self- titled album. 

From my previous digipak research it is clear that conventionally, the front cover of a digipak is usually titled with the band's name and the album/EP name in a font appropriate to the band's image, an image to represent the band and features such as a parental advisory label or a review of the band/star. However, Vampire Weekend have kept the front cover of their digipak very minimal, with only the name of the band and an image appropriate to their album. The font used is bold and in white so it stands out, however is still very simplistic, which fits with Vampire Weekend's anarchic image. To further this simplistic image, the band have chosen to subvert from the typical conventions of an indie/rock band's digipak, as they usually consist of dark colours and an image of the band or star, mostly in a rural location. However, they have chosen a coloured image with the mise en scene of a house party, again, purposefully presenting to their audience and playing up to their anarchic image. For my own digipak, inspired by Vampire Weekend, I want to keep the front cover minimalistic and use a bold font, but I also plan to keep the colours in black and white, to keep continuity between our music video for 'Static' and the digipak.

 Vampire Weekend have also subverted from the features of the indie/rock genre with their CD, due to its bright colours. They have used the same bold font as on the front cover to print the band's name, however this time in a different colour and typical feature of a digipak of having the track list printed onto the CD is shown. For my own digipak I like the idea of having the track list printed on the CD, however I will keep the image or colour on the CD to ensure it conforms to the features of the indie/rock genre.

The middle of the digipak contains a credits leaflet, which contains images and colours consistent with the front cover. This is something I can consider using for my digipak to fill the centre space next to the CD.

The back cover of the digipak is mostly conventional of a digipak of the indie/rock genre. For example, it displays the track list with the length of the songs listed beside each song, and has a barcode in the bottom right hand corner. The use of colour here is very basic, mostly black and white which is typical of the genre, and also has a touch of blue to keep the colours of the digipak consistent without. The back cover also has some writing in small print, which typically on the back of an album cover would list the production details. The spine displayed also shows the artists name which is also the name of the album cover. I want to use most of these conventions in my digipak, like the track list, the use of black and white for colours and the barcode in the bottom corner. However, I also want to add a parental advisory warning label, and number the track list in order without the length of the song listed next to it. 

Media Showcase Evening

On Monday we had our media showcase evening in which we showed all of our friends and family and various people from within our school our music video for the first time. Generally, the response we got was very positive and we are very happy with how it worked out. We also placed audience feedback sheets on every chair in the room so that each audience member could give us feedback. Mostly the feedback we received was good, such as people saying they liked certain angles and features of the video. However, we also had a question asking if there was anything we could  improve on, and some suggestions were "a stronger narrative", "lip syncing in time" and "use more locations". This feedback is helping a lot with our evaluations!

Final Stages of Editing

There are only a few days before our music video is due in, so we are using the last few moments we have to perfect the video and make sure it conforms to all the conventions of our genre. For example, we are ensuring that we have taken chief examiner Pete's advice from his talk at the BFI to 'cut and cut again', so that our video is fast paced to fit to the beat of the song. We are nearly finished and there are just a few more things we need to do!

Treatment Pitch

Here is our treatment pitch for our final music video which I forgot to previously upload, which we pitched as a group to the class before we began filming and editing!

Intertextuality

The definition of intertextuality is the relation between texts, especially literary ones. One example of intertextuality within a music video is Robbie Williams' music video for 'You Know Me'. The video features the artist being taken to an 'Alice in Wonderland' style setting, in which he is later dressed up as the rabbit from the film, therefore creating intertextuality between the original film and Robbie William's music video.

We will also be using intertextuality within our music video, as we are using the narrative of Virginia Wolfe's suicide attempt, which is documented throughout literature. Therefore, by incorporating this we will be using intertextuality. This could also possibly attract a wider audience to our music video, as people interested in the literature of Virginia Wolfe may also be interested in watching the music video. 

Fish Eye Lens Shot

When filming the narrative to complete our music video, we decided to film the main protagonist from behind and from her point of view to gain a better sense of perspective of the story. This looked very effective and came in very handy, as the camera set up to film the scene from the front was out of focus, so we couldn't use the footage. We really like the sense of perspective this has added to our narrative.

Filming the Narrative

We came up with a shooting schedule in order to film our narrative scenes in our music video before we went out to film, so that we could manage our time efficiently whilst on location and to make sure we got all the shots we needed, as this was the last time we could film.

Tara, Stef and I managed to stick to our plan and get all of the shots we needed when on location, which made it easy to get straight back to school to upload our footage and begin editing again. We were amazed at how adding the narrative scenes into our music video enhanced it, and we are all a lot happier! Now we plan to spend all of our free time editing until the deadline... 

Mood Board

We will soon be filming our narrative to bring our video all together, so I have made a mood board to ensure when we are our on location filming, we stick to our theme and plan.

Props, Mise en Scene and Location for Narrative

For the narrative, we will need some props to ensure the message we are aiming to portray will play out and be clear to the audience. For example, we are following the story of Virginia Wolfe's suicide, so we will need pebbles for Stef to pick up and put in her pockets before she jumps into the lake. Emily has some pebbles that she has been using for photography, so we will be using those! In terms of further props, there are no main things we need. However we will be making sure Stef is wearing boots so that we can film her taking them off next to the lake, inspired by the close up shot of the feet in The Kook's video for 'Bad Habit'.


However, the mise en scene in which we will be filming our narrative is extremely important. We need to ensure we keep to a woodland setting to conform to this convention of the indie pop/rock genre, but we also need to find the right lake and to make sure its safe for Stef to jump into. Therefore, we will be using a pond/lake at Forty Hall, which is deep enough to look effective, however still shallow enough so that we can convince Stef to jump in! We also need to make sure the lake is surrounded by trees for any point of view shots, not only to keep to the rural settings that we have already used, but also to create the feel that the protagonist is trapped and "suffocating".

Narrative

We recently came up with a narrative to make our music video a little bit more interesting and to add to the shots we had of Stefani lip syncing. We already have a natural based theme because this is typical of our genre, so we wanted to add to that. The idea of the narrative is to create the feel that the main protagonist feels trapped within her own life, and to show her committing suicide. We decided to portray this through a story we heard in English Literature, of how Virginia Wolf attempted to commit suicide by filling her pockets with stones and walking into a lake.

Therefore, the plan is to film a collective of shots of Stefani filling her pockets with stones and stepping into a lake in Forty Hall!