Ideas and Sketches of My Digipak and Music Poster

Ideas and Sketches of My Digipak and Music Poster

As a group we also decided to create a Magazine front cover to further our grade and indeed the image and release of the bands first album. We utilised the range of tools and effects achievable on Adobe Photoshop CS6 in order to create a Magazine front cover that appeared to be realistic, using the magazine that provided our Music Poster quote, NME.

Analysing CD Covers

Conventions Of The Digipack Form

Mind Map created by danielbruce22 with ExamTime




I feel that the completion of this exercise has enhanced my knowledge on a Digipak and I know feel much more confident in creating my own Digipak for my band, Overexposed. When analysing the typical conventions and then comparing my ideas to international superstars it really did help to add clarity to the sort of things my Digipak needs to contain in order for it to appeal to an audience. For example, I now understand that consistency of an ideology, colour, or individual is key in making sure my Digipak has continuity within it.

My Band's Logo And Record Company Logo

Skype Call with Ian Haughton of Handsome Design

My media class had a group Skype session with Ian Haughton of Handsome Design, discussing the design and marketing process of Digipak and posters for our bands. For this particular task I wrote down a series of questions from myself and the class and i personally asked Ian the questions as you can see from the embedded video from YouTube below.

I personally feel that from a directors viewpoint for my A2 task that Ian provided myself and my band with perfect clarity in his answers allowing me to understand the key components of the Digipak that myself and my band are currently designing. Ian raised a lot of good points and opinions that without his fantastic help I feel I would not of included in the design of my groups Digipak components.

Images Of Ancillary Task Editing

As you can see below the images highlight my groups advanced editing skills on Adobe Photoshop CS6. We went to a huge extent to make sure that our Digipak and Movie Poster included all the features of a real Digipak and Movie Poster release in the modern day music industry. Our poster includes modern technologies such as our own record label 'BCES' Productions which was used as our production company for our AS Thriller trailer, we have also included a fantastically useful QR Code to enable viewers an extremely fast link to my blog which will allow them to understand the make up of the band and exactly how we produced our A2 Music Video.

In the above images here we decided to use Adobe Photoshop's wonderful array of visual effects in order to create a Music Video Poster for the band. Visible in the above pictures is various snaps of the piecing together of the Music Video Poster including the addition of outer glows on black typefaces and images to create more of a aesthetically pleasing poster to catch the eye of our target audience. Capitalising on the fantastic advice provided by Ian Haughton we also were able to enhance our typeface's appearance to not only include continuity but help to attract a wider audience to the image that were trying to sell.

As you can see from these two above images we compared various fonts before carefully taking advantage of the Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro software in order to turn a picture of the alpahabet in our chose font in to organised words such as 'Overexposed' the band and album name. We were then able to incorporate our chosen formatted font in to our Digipak and Movie Poster adding the continuity that Ian Haughton had talked about in our class Skype Call with him.

In the above images here we also chose to include a brilliant and effective piece of technology in to both our Music Video Poster and Digipak that would allow anyone to fully understand the bands story and allow them to see how everything was made in the build up to release of the album. We chose to make a QR Code for our bands Poster that would allow anyone to use their phones to scan thus enabling the individual to visit my blog and fill themselves in with all of the bands pre production work for the music video and debut album launch.

Photographs Of Filming And Editing

 


Before filming in the Drama Studio at our school (Original Chosen Location) we personally set up the lights, a great achievement on our behalf as I personally felt as the director that lighting completely transformed the aesthetic of our production, that added a professional aspect to our production.

 

I truly feel that our editing skills as a group have enhanced fantastically since our GCSE and AS Productions. The editing software has remained the same (Adobe Premiere Pro CS6) but I truly feel the depth of our editing has gotten better as you can see from the images below. We took advantage of our taster lesson earlier this year by using some of the skills, such as putting down markers throughtout the edit to help with timing etc.

The above pictures where taken by myself whilst we were filming in the Drama Studio. As you can see in the above images we managed to use the lights to our advantage perfectly transforming the overall aesthetic of our production from amateur to professional. As the director of the music video I wanted to make sure that the overall set up of our music video appeared professional and serious throughout.

The above pictures here showcase the huge amount of editing the entire group had to take to make sure that the film ran smoothly. Connor was our head editor whilst myself and James Ellis and indeed Connor were discussing between us what we wanted to be put where in our music video, discussing which effects to use that would again enhance the visuals of our production.

Above are more photos of filming for our A2 Music Video Production. As you can see in the above images we have filmed in several different locations to make sure that our Music Video remains interesting and includes the elements of a real Music Video which is filmed in several different locations. From a directors perspective it also allows me to highlight the journey of the band in the music video.

Analysis Of Magazine Posters and Digipaks

BFI Trip Notes

Further Notes 

Print and TV regulation

Lee Rigby Murder- the news highlighted his murder, and Facebook, blogs long before the news got the video. Highlights social media influence

Regulatory bodies regulate traditional forms of media. - social media has it in hardcore format before its dimmed down on the news.

Digital media challenged traditional regulation.

Exam Topics 

Will there be regulatory bodies in 20 years time?

Explore ASA or Ipso?

Explore OFCOM

Discuss David Gauntlet

May be asked a question on industry regulation

Passive consumption 

Most young people have a better understanding than us of how society is - Gauntlets opinion 

Interactive digital media insures we are saturated to shocking media. We've become used to it unlike 15 years ago

French film censors are more relaxed/liberal in terms of their regulation

Pluralism- more diverse attempt at regulation 

We media- public film or report the latest news on social media (lee Rigby)

Web 2.0- interactive media, interactive media blogging culture

Julian Blanc, anti feminist conducted himself over YouTube and got himself extra hype from the worldwide internet 

Jonathan Ross and Russel Brand, radio comments skyrocketed their careers further

Letter To Record Company

The below image shows our initial contact with The 1975's record label; Dirty Hit Records where we have tried to gain access to 3 of their songs for use in our Music Video.

Although I personally have send this scanned letter over email to the record company, I am still yet to receive a reply from Dirty Hit Records.

My Audience

Risk Assesment

Risk Assessment (Composed By James Ellis)

Langley hill, as addressed in the name, is positioned on a large hill as a result suitable footwear would be needed at all time to reduce the chance of any slips or injuries occurring whilst on set which could potentially harm our chances of creating a production which is to our full capability.

Kings Langley Common includes a woods which is a vital part to our production. There are many risks which can occur whilst in a woods, most notably, the large amount of tree debris situated around the environment so carefulness is vital to the production. To reduce the chance or any injuries we will produce a clear path, which will be easily used by the actors without the risk of injury.

One risk that we will be encountering is that of pedestrians and others in the local community. To ensue that everyone involve stays safe and can conduct the production successfully, we shall be filming when there are no pedestrians present. There may be others in the background that may appear to be people in the local community, but we can ensure that these are highly trained actors which are positioned for nothing but effect in the production.

Another risk for our production the instruments which could pose some distress with the weight of them, if carried for a long period of time at once. It is important that the instruments are used correctly and appropriately to ensure that there is no damage done to both the instruments but more importantly the individuals in the production.

As we are using amps for the production, there will be some wire hazards that could cause some concern. It is possible for anyone in the production process to trip over these wires and cause harm. Furthermore, to eliminate this hazard, we will be taping down the wires to the floor, with luminous tape therefore, they will be very clearly visible.

Equipment List

Equipment List (Composed by Stefano Towell)

As part of our pre production, me and my group have to write up 10 blogs that explain our forgoing production that will take place including where it will be shot, equipment, shot lists and more. For this post I will be discussing the equipment we will be using for our filming.

Our min piece of equipment that will be needed at all times is the Canon 700D camera that shoots very high quality video s well as being able to take very high resolution images. The camera will be used in a variety of different ways, be used in many different shot angles as well as capturing our entire music video. An important piece of equipment to go with the camera is the tripod as for the music video to get it to look as professional and well shot as possible, the camera needs to be stable with no shaking present and that is something the tripod can do very well. We are trying to get hold of a dolly as well which are a set of wheels to go underneath the tripod however if there isn't one available that i fully working, we will have to do without it. The dolly can help us do tracking shots which would be very helpful in our music video as part of it involves us as a group walking with the camera tracking us and the dolly would be able to capture the footage with no shaking or resistance.

The SD memory card is somewhat a very important piece of equipment as it stores all of the footage we take with the camera and then is transferable to the computer for editing. Without this card, there wouldn't be any footage to upload making the project significantly more difficult.

Items such as the computer are very important pieces of equipment that are not really considered front line' however it is extremely important as all of the editing, trimming and effects are used on the footage to create our final production to upload onto our blogs. Adobe Premiere Pro is the editing software we use as it is very good for what is needed in this project with multiple effects to choose from ,the ability to trim and merge videos and much more to create a top quality production.

Other forms of equipment include the lighting and umbrella which will be used to enhance our production, particularly inside however much of the filming will take place outside where natural lighting will be good enough for shooting. Inside shots such as the perfomance video.

Overall we do use a wide variety of equipment to make our production reach its full potential. Equipment such as the high quality camera and the editing software are the main two pieces which will benefit us the most with making our music video.

Prop and Costume List

Prop and Costume List (Composed By Connor Crosby)

Prop and Costume List

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule (Composed By Stefano Towell)

For our music video me and the rest of my group have to come up with a schedule before hand to keep up with deadlines and to make everything easier when organising. We plan on starting filming the performance part of the video on the week begging the 17th November as we believe that this stage is an important one to do first due to it being the base of the video as we will show us playing the instruments on the choruses of the songs we include as well as clips during the verses. We have all decided what we will be wearing as well as the lighting which can be seen in our other Pre-Production blogs. It will be filmed in the drama studio of our school.

The performance stage of filming should take no longer than a week as we have already learnt our lines as well as being able to keep in time with the song on the instruments we will be playing including guitars and drums. The next stage will be the start of the song that will be filmed in the Kings Langley woods as the lighting within it will be very beneficial and will give a good effect to the video. This part of filming should commence the week following on the 24th November. We plan to finish filming as well as the lions share of the editing by Christmas as we do not have much time after to complete it as well the blogs to go with it. It is a tight deadline however with a fixed schedule, it should make the process easier as well as smoothly run which is something needed for this production if we want an impressive outcome.

Pre Production Schedule

Storyboard

Storyboard (Created By James Ellis)

Storyboard 

Summary of Star

Summary of Star (Post composed by Connor Crosby)

Location Recce

Locaiton Recce

Shot List

Shot List A2 Media Music Video

Additional Research From Ryan Mackfall Interview

Here is my A2 Media Groups interview with Ryan Mackfall

My A2 Media Studies class we were lucky enough to speak with a real industry music video director who happens to own his own company named CrashBurn Media. I hosted the main part of the Skype call incorporating all of my class member’s questions. I also personally stayed behind to ask Ryan some extra questions on various weak spots that I felt he could help me strengthen within my A2 Music Video Production.

The main points that I felt Ryan really helped me personally with was the way that he felt my group should present certain emotions within our Music Video. I informed him of our bands overall image and theme with him able to read a draft treatment of our music video that I will be directing. Ryan mentioned that when we use a black and white filter on our music video we should aim to make it clear to our audience that facial emotions still remained visible and that the storyline of the video was not effected by the visual effects added in the editing of the video. He also helped me with the clarification of the transitional elements of our video, with myself and Ryan bouncing ideas around about possible ways to show an effective transition between three songs without any narrative being lost in the process.

I personally really enjoyed being able to talk to someone in the real music video industry and I felt that he had a lot of advice to give to an amateur group in regards of lighting and camera angles that can turn a boring and uninformative piece in to a fantastic visual representation of emotions, something that I personally was really keen on doing within my music video.

Videos that Ryan recommended as excellent examples of how a music video should be shot and constructed to create an impact on an audience.

Ryan also provided fantastic feedback regarding our draft treatment for our Music Video as seen below.

My Music Video's Institution

Music Institutions

Music Piracy

Music Piracy Article

Media Codes

Media Codes

The article itself shows how people use story charts and visual tools to help them to put stories together in a way that helps add visual context. The article also held references to Tim's blog at Projector Films is packed with useful resources and ideas. In the post called beachcombing, Tim discusses how gathering together fragments of ideas from which I might eventually make something is a process that doesn't happen instantly and needs to be worked through. Tim mentions throughout that what has fascinated him about New Media is that Technology is finally combining with Storytelling, and he also underlines why using story charts are so vitally important to success and accuracy when compiling a piece together. Tim Clague was also single handily responsible for creating 'The Scriptwriters Life' a useful template for writers before making their piece, visible below.

The article has allowed me to understand that Tim's ideas are aimed at helping people get the most out of their jobs, notably media creatives, but they could apply equally to media students such as myself when making my music video this year. For example, this article mentions the art of story boarding seen below, and how it can be an effective and creative visual scripting tool for any piece of media that I wish to make.

The article also stated that many years ago, director Mark Adcock stated that he used to put together a 'steal-o-matic' before making a music video, which consisted of ideas from films that he wanted to use. These days, with so much stuff on the web, it is much easier to get these ideas together and make your blog your 'steal-o-matic'. the key for Mark, as for Tim, was not to steal just from one place but to get ideas from everywhere. I personally feel that this method is far more efficient than just collecting ideas from one source, the web as previously mentioned is a fantastic resource and so using it to my advantage could make my music video 10x better and more accurate.

Music on-line

MTV were a massively dominant company for music distribution within the 1990's as they were really the only company distributing music videos worldwide at the time, with Radio also being an incredibly powerful source . However, in the modern day world technology is now availible for individuals to create incredible music videos and promotions, there are also so many more artists than in the 1990's as anyone with a device that can record a sound or video a performance can create their own music video. The video also stated that today's business has enabled smaller independent labels can now compete, consumer relies on carriers to tell them whats good for them. Online zone has also become a free for all, with artists trying to get their stuff online through every type of way possible, something that the internet lets them do. People have began to get away from norms and expand on their music videos going out of the box to attract attention. Also it is clear from the video that with the uprise of the internet there is a huge focus on sharing and consuming and the blogs and internet web tools enable everyone to do this highlighting the huge change in consumption since the 1990's.