Digipak Template!!

Whilst doing further research I came across a website with several designs of templates and I decided to save one to my school computer for our group to use when we are ready to construct the digipak.

Popular Artist Digipaks!!

Rihanna-
Rihanna is one artist who, throughout her career, has released more than one of her albums in Digipak form. At Least 3 of her LP's have come out as Digipaks, they are her 2010 releases 'Loud' and 'Greatest Hits' as well as her 2011 release 'Rated R'.

Coldplay-
Coldplay are another popular group that are known around the world that have used a Digipak, the 2008 album 'Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends', is the first of two Digipaks the band have used, the most recent is the 2011 release 'Mylo Xyloto'.

Lady Gaga-

Lady Gaga is another artist who has packaged one of her albums in the form of a Digipak, her 2009 release of 'The Fame Monster' a re-release of debut album 'The Fame' and new album containing 8 songs 'The Fame Monster' is among the first of the Digipaks she has used, in several countries it was not available as it was a special edition, which is what most Digipaks tend to be as artists bring them out in hope of fans buying them so that they have every bit of merchandise possible, which in turn boosts the sales of the artist.

What's on a Digipak?

One of the most important questions that needed answering is 'what is on a digipak?' the first Digipak i looked at closely was the Greenday ;Bullet In A Bible' digipak, from 2005, as I it available at home to use.


The front cover for the digipak is fairly simple as shows the Greenday lead singer performing to a crowd at one of their concerts as this particular digipak contains a DVD of their tour at that time it links the cover to the contents.

The first page when opened contains all Legal information about who wrote each song and who worked on each song. The back of the front cover is a solo shot of another band member, who again is performing to a crowd, which also links to the contents of the CD and DVD.

The second and third pages are the ones that hold the CD and DVD, the photo's behind both are the third band member and a close up of the neck of a guitar, this once again links to the contents. 

The back page contains a full track listing for the CD and DVD and has photographs of the band on tour and a crowd of their fans, as well of this there is more legal information as well a bar code. 

Digipak!!

What is it?
As i'd never known prior to doing media what a Digipak was I took it upon myself to look into what they were so I could understand what I would be creating. Below is what I came across. 

"Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.

Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray."

Editing Shot by Shot!!

Our Genre!!

As our genre is hip hop mixed with pop punk, I decided to look into these separately to determine the conventions of each genre, to make our music video a combination of these or to completely subvert one of the genre's. 

Hip Hop- 

I looked into hip hop music videos by the group the Beastie Boys. In this particular video they are parodying themselves. This music video shows some conventions of stereotypical hip hop music videos, for example the low angle shots with the artist singing down to the camera and the hand gestures towards the camera when singing. These are conventions we wish to avoid as we want to veer towards the pop punk feel of our genre when creating our music video.

Pop/Punk-
This is the genre we will be concentrating on more so when we create our video as the idea we have come up with fits this genre better than it does the hip hop genre. Artists such as Avril Lavigne are good people to be looking at as she is the same genre as our track is. 

Target Audience Findings!!

Audience Feedback!!!

Audience feedback
My group and I asked our media group (who are within the same age range of our target audience) to listen to our chosen track and then give some ideas and suggestions on what they think the music video for our track would be like. This gave us some ways on ways to
improve our current idea and ways that would attract our younger target audience. There suggestions were;

1. Based on teenage girls
2. Girls getting ready for a night out together
3. A rebel inspired look, taken from Avril Lavigne as inspiration
4. Fast shots when the beat speeds up and match cuts to the beat

Audience Questionnaire!!

Above are three videos of people we know, the first is of Ellie's younger sister Evie, the second is of our friend and class mate Laura and finally we have Mr Wallis our Media teacher.

Target Audience!!

Intertextuality!!

Intertextuality is key during the creation of music videos as it links to references in a media form that are based upon another media form. For example, in Lady Gaga's music video, Bad Romance, there are several forms of intertextuality. The first is the white costumes which are taken from Max's costume in 'Where the wild things are' as well as this the dance routine is based on Michael Jackson's world famous 'Thriller'. Another example is from Kylie Minogues music video, 'Can't get you outta my head' in which she takes inspiration from Madonna's music videos when doing a robot like dance routine. Also Madonna's music video for 'Material Girl' was based upon Marilyn Monroe's performance of 'Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend' from the movie 'Gentleman Prefer Blondes' which was released 31 years prior to the music video. 




Whilst looking for the Material Girl video I came across a comparison someone had uploaded to You Tube so I have embeded it to my blog as it proves my previous point clearly.

Filters and Lighting!!

An important part of music videos is the lighting used during the video as the lighting helps convey moods and even the genre of the music. I decided to look into what is used in music videos of my genre to help inspire me on ways in which I could use lighting to show my genre in my music video.





Silhouetting!!
This is somethihng, we would like to incorporate into our video as we going a long the theme of having demons/devils and as you cannot see the three people in this video until the lights flash. This could be very effective in our video should we use it as it cements the fact that the three singers in the group are bad.



Backlighting!!



The backlighting is this video is also something we could look into as this band is the same genre as ours, and as the lighting gives the lead singer a mysterious blueish look with an aura it fits with the darker more punk theme of our video.

Hesta Prynn!!

This is a video that stood out to me due to the editing, i love that all the movements are very staccato as the images are cut together. 

Instruments!!

We've made the collective decision to not have instruments play a roll in our music video.We decided to go against conventions so that we wouldn't have a stereotypical pop/punk music video.

despite the fact that the questionnaires we did gave us the evidence that men found it more attractive if a girl band are playing instruments, we decided to opt out of their use.

Location Research!!

For our music video we wanted more than 2 locations, once for each of our 3 protagonists at least, this is to emphasize the difference between the group of demons/devils and our main protagonist. For our main protagonist Ellie thought to use a forest to show her innocence. Where we wish to contrast this for the girl group and use somewhere dark and industrial to add a rebellious/dangerous feel to our music video. 

Location 1:
The first location we looked at was a forest to connote the innocence of our main protagonist and show the good in her. 

Location 2:
The second location we liked the look of was a room with a white back drop so we could focus on just the girl group and when they were performing as we have a photography studio in school we would be able to do this well and we would have access to high and low key lighting to emphasize the badness of the girl band.



The lighting and location in this video would be ideal as it is the kind of effect we wish to be able to create within our music video.

Location 3: 
For our third location we had the idea to use somewhere derelict and industrial, somewhere such as an old warehouse or an old abandoned factory. This would emphasize the badness of the demons within our main protagonist.

Loreen!!

Even though the following song isn't the genre that our chosen track, i have found the video for it to be very inspirational especially from a lighting perspective, this is because the lighting is dark throughout and this is something we hope to achieve for the demon/devils in our video.




Also I love the following shot from the video, as it just show's the lips of Loreen as she performs the first few lines of 'We Got The Power'. I feel like this could be something, should we incorporate it into our video, that would be very successful. 

Hunter Valentine!!

This is possibly my favorite of the video's I've analysed so far during my research.The location of the video is something industrial and that is another of the idea's we have for where to film our video. 

I also love the fast paced editing and this is something i hope to achieve in my own work as it gives the piece an overall professional look, and also love that some cuts are matched up to particular beats within the track itself. 

Another key aspect of the video which i hope will highly influence me is the fluorescent tubed lighting behind the performer, it gives her a kind of aura as if she is a mystical creature, and as we are going for a innocent/devil kind of idea for our video I hope to use something like this so the audience can easily distinguish good from bad so to speak. 




I particularly like the beginning of this video as the beat of the song is in time with the editing.

Sleater-Kinney!!

I also analyzed the video for jumpers by Sleater-Kinney! One thing about this particular video that stood out to me was the use of high angles when the drummer was being filmed as well as the aerial pan shot when the workers are in the office. 

The low angle shot especially stands out to me because we are thinking of filming our video with a white back drop, in a photography studio, as one of options and the section in which the band is performing is filmed similarly. 

This aerial shot is also nice because it shows the hectic world in which the main character of the narrative sections of the video is in, yet it shows how she manages to be in her own bubble at the same time. This is something I would like to convey in my video as the idea we have is a personality within a personality.

Tegan and Sara!!

Whilst looking up artists that were of a similar genre to our chosen track I came across the due of Tegan and Sara, despite the fact that this kind of video isn't the specific kind of theme we're going for there are some aspects that I really like.

For example my favorite shot that is used is a low angle panning shot that is used repeatedly to show the different narrative stories that are going off in the video. This is something that I would like to incorporate into my music video as it makes it as though the audience are in the video with the stars and that they're a part of the story.

Inspiration for my music video!!

Whilst looking into some artists of an alternative genre I found a shot that I really liked. It's from the song Kick Back by Sick of Sarah. It's of the lead singer's feet and connotes the fact that she doesn't really care about her look as she is wearing an old pair of beat up converse. This also show's that the genre of the video and the music is a grunge/punk. 

This is the genre of the track that we have selected so we aim to go for this kind of styling within our video.

Girls Aloud Analysis!!

The music video for Can't Speak French by Girls Aloud fits with Andrew Goodwins theory and is continually voyeuristic.The costumes the 5 girls are wearing fits in the theme of the video, with it being set in period france, however instead of being full costume the outfits fit more lingerie based.

Likewise the dance routines that the girls do are very provocative, especially when they are gyrating against the men in the video, this cements Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory as everything the girls do is to please men, from their costumes to their dances. 

In this shot we see a low angle long shot of the 5 girls, and this shows that they are all in unison and are all wearing similar costumes, which shows that the record label want them to have a Star Image of being equal instead of being a group that has a leader. 

 In this short clip from the. video itself we see the girls dancing in a voyeuristic way as well as a shot of one of them touching their torso and you cannot see their head or their waist. This show's that the video conforms to the theory by Laura Mulvey.

Pussycat Dolls!!

I decided to look into more than one video by the group the Pussycat Dolls, as there seems to be trend within all their videos, of a burlesque type theme.



This is the first video which i looked at, all 5 of the girls are wearing voyeuristic outfits, Nicole Scherzinger,in particular, is the most voyeuristic of the group and is also the leader, with more screen time than the other 4 girls. She is the only one on screen for the first 40 seconds of the video as well this the whole amount of that time she completely nude sat in a bubble bath.

The camera shots used portray the women in a none particularly voyeuristic way, for example the shot of Nicole when she gets out of the bath only shows her head and shoulders which is enough for the audience to know that she is naked, however it doesn't reveal anything that would be considered explicit.

The second video by the group which I looked at was the Whatcha Think About That, this video is even more voyeuristic that the previous one, it also conforms to the male gaze theory as well. The video is mainly performance based, as the girls are performing a burlesque show. This time round Nicole isn't the leader, another member of the group has solo's so therefore she has a close up, which doesn't happen often as Nicole is normally the main focus in the videos. 

As well as the performance based parts of the video, there are parts which are more narrative based as it show's the girls getting ready in the dressing room to perform on the stage. The dances that they perform are also very voyeuristic as the movements the girls do could be seen as sexual, also the hand gestures they do whilst dancing make it appear even more voyeuristic.

This is a close up of the other group member who get's a solo, however she's not the only one in shot, meaning she is still not seen to be as important as Nicole.











This video continues with the trend of the previous two, the outfits and the dance moves are all voyeuristic however as there are also men that are partially undressed it is also perceived to be attractive to a female audience as well as a male audience which it seems to be aimed at.

This is also one of the videos in which Nicole is the considered the leader and the only time any of the other girls get a close up is when they sing the 'ha ha ha ha' bit and they are in shot with Nicole at the same time. 

Music Video Analysis!

As the track we have chosen is a girl band I've decided to focus my research on that particular sector of the music industry. 





Above is the video for Spice Up Your Life, by the Spice Girls, the video is set in a sort of post apocalyptic world, in the future and they seem to be an institution and their name and logo is on everything, there is even a Starbucks logo changed into a spice coffee logo.

As this is a relatively old video the clothing the girls are wearing is voyeuristic for the time, however it could still also be seen as a version of voyeurism by today's standards. The dancing the girls could also be perceived as voyeuristic. 

Throughout the music video there are several close up's of each of the girls, each showing them singing their respective solo's. This show's that because they're a group they have a sort of equality about screen time, however that could be down to the star image that their music label want to project. This is something I'd like to transfer into my music video as the song my group has selected is by a girl group. There are also a fair amount of low angle shots of the 5 girls, which could suggest that they are seen as leaders of the world that they have created for their video. 

The speed of the editing also links in with the genre of the music as it's a pop music video and pop music tends to be upbeat and have a quick tempo, meaning music videos for this genre will need to have a varied amount of shots with fast paced editing that often matches the beat of the track. This is also something I would like to incorporate into my video as there is a dominant presence of drums, and editing to the beat will be a nice effect.
















  

Star Image/ Audience Appeal!!

The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. 

Andrew Goodwin says that: The creation of character identities for stars provides a point of identification for the audience/spectator which is especially important when lyrics often lack depth.

This means that the audience will be more likely to identify the artist themselves instead of identifying them from their lyrics. 

Madonna's star image, in particular, is something that it is constantly evolving to fit with the music industry as it in turn evolves. For example her style and persona has changed since the 80's when she first came to prominence, as opposed to now where she is dressing like someone that is a lot younger than her would, just so she fits in with the latest styles of the industry.

Madonna in the Lucky Star video in 1983

Madonna in the 90's, we see a visible change as she has altered to keep in with the evolving industry.

Madonna in her 2005 video for Hung Up, again she's updated her look.

Lyrics!!

After selecting track three as the track we wanted to use we were sent the Lyrics.

We don't have to leave the living room to have a good time
Everywhere we go, people want to know
We don't have to leave the living room to have a good time

Get ready, already, no time to waste
No matter what we do it's still the case
We're stuck in one place
Like I'm standing on your shoelace
We come face to face or
Stand back to back
We trick the train to stay on track

And we don't have to leave the living room to have a good time!
We going way out (now, now)
We gonna head down (now, now)
Singing hey (now)
Call when you're on my block
At the end of your luck so,

We getting on, we getting better already
The truth be told you know we're better already
Uh Oh Oh Uh Uh Uh Uh Oh Oh Oh
We getting on, we getting better already

Gotta get out of my own way so I could go my own way
Say what I wanna say on audio delay
Move my mouth and throw my voice
Retrace my steps, my choice, my plan
Begin again where we began

And we don't have to leave the living room to have a good time!

We going way out (now now)
We gonna head down (now now)
Singing hey (now)
Call when you're on my block
At the end of your luck so,

We getting on, we getting better already
The truth be told you know we're better already
Uh Oh Oh Uh Uh Uh Uh Oh Oh Oh
We getting on, we getting better already

Hey!
Hey!

Deep water, deep cracks,
Deep holes and deep creases
Deep sleeping dreams of broken pieces
Pick them up and make them fit
Quit or don't quit.
Get even, some new shit you can believe in.
(We goin way out)
(We goin way out)

We getting on, we getting better already
The truth be told you know we're better already
Uh Oh Oh Uh Uh Uh Uh Oh Oh Oh
We getting on, we getting better already

We getting on, we getting better already
The truth be told you know we're better already
Uh Oh Oh Uh Uh Uh Uh Oh Oh Oh
We getting on, we getting better already

We don't have to leave the living room to have a good time
Everywhere we go, people want to know
We don't have to leave the living room to have a good time

Key:
Altogether: Pink
Singer 1: Red
Singer 2: Green
Singer 3:Blue

Conventions Of Music Videos!!