Final Digipak

This is my final digipak for my band 'Waves'. This includes pictures in which I have taken myself and also some which I have found. I have kept the same font from other pieces of work into the digipak to keep consistency for the band. I have used a dark colour scheme for the digipak as this helps to reflect the bands genre of music along with matching the costume of the bands lead singer (Christian). The digipak also includes small details in which I have used from existing digipak's which I have analysed such as the barcode, record company logo and song list.

Animatics cut 1

First draft of digipak...

This is my first draft of my digipak that I presented to my class. This is not the final version as I need to change some details such as adding the spine and also information  below the track listing. From the lesson where I presented to the class my digipak, we had feedback sheets to fill in for each member of the class based on their digipaks, and I will now use the feedback comments to improve certain areas such as the pictures that I have.

Casting for our Music Video...

Once I had finished the animatics for our music video, we had to think about who would be acting as the couple in our video. Christian had already said that we would use our friend Aaron and his girlfriend but I believe that this wouldn't work as Aaron hasn't got the look that I want that would match our music video genre. Instead, I spoke with my teacher and we thought about who else we could use that would be comfortable with acting in the video, as well as being intimate with there being a kissing shot that I want to have for the ending of our video. We thought about it and we decided that we would use our friend Beth and her boyfriend Matt. They both have the kind of indie rock look that we want to have for our bands audience. We felt this would especially work because where they are in a relationship, the closeness that we want from them would come naturally and we will not really have to get them to act for these moments.

Digipak progress...

In todays lesson I continued with my digipak album for our band, adding new pictures onto the cover and also changing some around so that they improved the digipak. There is still some thought to be done regarding the actual CD on the album because I am still not sure which picture I want to use. I have looked at a few different photos and placed them on the template so that I could experiment with what picture would look best, and think that I will need to either go and take a new picture which includes either the whole band (I need to do this for one of the panels anyway) or of a scenery. For a scenery picture I think that it should be of a darker colour due to the rest of the digipak consisting of a lot of black and duller colours. I still need to add some details for this digipak to be finished which includes the spine and also the company name along with the copyright information.

Second Presentation to the class...

Today we re-pitched our band and music video to our class with improvements that were made from the feedback from the previous pitch. We also included the mood boards which we had created and also the animatics which we had made from our storyboards we had created and placed alongside the song for our music video. This helped to show our class and our teacher a better idea of what our music video will consist of, along with what shots we will be using and also a look at the narrative for it. Below are the feedback sheets from other class members for todays pitch.

'Waves' Poster

This is the poster that I have created for our band 'Waves' using pictures from our photo shoot and then using existing posters to compare to and use specific details from them to add into our own work. I have used the same font throughout my poster, which is the same as I have used on other pieces of work such as the digipak which I created . This consistency helps to create an image for the artist and will help the artist to be remembered.

Beginning of filming preparation

As will we begin filming our music video in the next two weeks or so, we need to make sure that a few things have been sorted such as ensuring people are available to start doing some shots, along with the days we are doing it on so that people can bring out any clothing that they have or need to buy before we start. We also need to see which car we will be using based on the size of the car options and also the availability of these cars on the days we need them. The cameras that we are using will need to be sorted so that we can take them out from the school (should we use one of these cameras) and not cross over with any other bookings from other people that  need to use them, along with the other pieces of equipment that we may be using e.g. dolly and steady-cam.
Another location that we need to book/ see if it is available to use is the drama room with the raised platform that we wanted to film our live performance in. I don't think that we will need to clear out the room just yet as these will be our first draft shots and will highly unlikely end up in the final video, so until we begin filming the final version of the music video we won't have to worry about preparing the room.

Update on location for our music video...

For our narrative that we have come up with, we will be needing a car which we are lucky enough to have two close friends who can drive. We believe that the best option will be our friend Alex's car who has a Vauxhall Corsa (Shown below) which has a bit more room in the car compared to our second option which is a Ford KA (Shown below). The bigger car will be the first option as we will then be able to have a good distance between the camera and the actors in our video, and be able to get all the angles that we want. We will be doing practise shots for this in the next week or so, showing to Shaun before the Christmas break.

Corsa

KA

We will also be experimenting with which camera we will be using for our music video with a   
 Go-Pro looking likely for us to use for some of our shots. Another camera that I think we will be using is a DSLR that I have worked with before for a previous project and was impressed with the results. Of course, there will be tests first before we actually take the final shots to see which will be the right camera and for which shots we will be using them for.

Our Music Video Idea...

From the start of this task, me and Christian both wanted to have a narrative for within our music video. However there was a small debate as to whether to carry on with this as we couldn't think of a good story line that we could make that went along with the lyrics of the song. We were going to then not have a narrative at all but instead have just the live performance of the band, with cuts going from the live performance and to just the band singing and playing around different urban looking locations in London such as Soho or Southbank. However, we persisted with the idea of having a narrative for our music video and came up with the idea of having two people who are on their way to the live performance. The idea being that we will have the two people getting into a car and putting on a "Waves" CD and when the song Undercover Martyn comes on it will show the band playing in the live performance. When there is the instrumental it will cut to the two people in the car who will be both air drumming and playing the air guitar. We will also be using a Go-Pro for some of these shots as we believe that these would give off the best effect but of course this will be considered more when we begin to shoot. The two people going to see the band play will end up at the live performance and will go through the doors and watch the performance. We believe that the two people who are going to watch the performance should be a boy and a girl so that there is more of a connection between the two and there could also be a small love story that is shown within the video.

Band Profile

Our band consists of three members, Sam Donovan (Me), Christian O'Brien and the third member is possibly going to be James Robertson but this is not confirmed due to his availability. However if it is not possible for him to be our third band member then we do have a back up who is our friend called Matt. We decided to have us three as the band members as we all dress in the indie band kind of way, and will not have to alter our appearances as much. We also enjoy listening to the indie kind of music so we all will have a good passion for the music in the video, creating a much more realistic feel to the video. 

 

 

Storyboarding/Animatics

For our music video we had to create a storyboard so that we could place it onto final cut pro and put our song over the top of it so that it turns into a kind of first draft of our music video. The storyboard will be showing all that we want to include in our music video including the narrative, shots and key details for it. The storyboard will consist of around 50 shots despite the actual video having way more with there being close to 300 shots in a minute for most videos.

Mood Board

Below is our mood board which we have created for our band. At first we had just used a plain piece of A1 paper with relatable pictures put on it, but after consideration we decided to make it more appealing to our band and make it more interesting. We did this by making our mood board into a suit and tie so it looked like it was one of our band members. We did this by cutting out black card to make a blazer and a tie, then Christian brought a pair of chinos in which we filled with paper so that they was like a pair of legs. We feel that it now looks better and helps to explain what kind of band that we are creating with ease.

Postmodernism

Post modernism is the idea that media produces an idea that any media product is of any greater value than another, all judgements of value is just taste. It is also said to reflect modern society's feelings towards alienation, history, process and also the truth. Jean-Francois Lyotard argued that due to recent economic changes, particular 'structures of feeling' or 'cultural logic' were being produced. MTV believe that we now live in a 'three minute culture' or that we are part of an over-visual society which is down to the television and also the internet shortening peoples attention spans.

A good example of post modernism is the use of the beats and tunes that are used in different music artists songs, such as Cher's song "Bang Bang" has been recreated by many many different artists since it had been released (as shown below as small section of artists/bands who have made a cover of the song).

Parodies of songs are another perfect example of Postmodernism and have in recent years became very popular. Singers such as Weird Al Yankovic used different songs to recreate them into a funnier version, changing the lyrics but keeping the beat from the song so that it was recognisable and when compared to the original songs it would become much more humorous and entertaining for the audience listening.

Photoshoot 1

We were debating whether to have the whole band on the digipak that we are creating or instead have perhaps just the lead singer to show their importance, and we both even considered taking and using a picture of a setting or of something quite random, so we tried out with all of the possible options to decide what to use. By doing this instead would mean that our likeliness to 'Two Door Cinema Club' would increase as on their album covers they do not really feature themselves on them as shown below.

I used a Nikon 18-55mm  camera to take the pictures and firstly focused on trying to get a good background for Christian to have around him so we went to a skate park which didn't end up looking the best due to the lighting that we had to work with. We then decided to use a near empty car park and I took photos of Christian walking around and posing. I also took some pictures of graffiti that I had seen when walking around which would help to add to the similarity of 'Waves' and 'Two Door Cinema Club'.

This is the picture of the graffiti that I liked as I felt that it also showed emotion due to the paint running down the eyes and the smile alike to tears.Alongside the picture of the smile is a picture of a light that was in the car park that I tested a shot out on which also turned out to be one of my favourite pictures that I had taken as I think it again links with the random pictures that 'Two Door Cinema Club' use for their albums. Below is a few pictures of Christian walking up and down the car park that we was in which I really like because of the lighting working well with it being dark outside. I also like how the car park is near empty but would like to try these shots out again with there being no cars in there at all.

I took these pictures below in the car park that we were in on one of the walls, and after speaking about it we think that we could use these pictures for our bands promo, with the name of the band 'Waves' written out next to the lead singer (Christian).

Below is some more of the shots that we had taken that are a possibility of what we could use for our digipak.

Ideas for the Photo-shoot

For our photo-shoot for our CD cover, I think that we should have an image of our band on the front of the cover in an urban background. Then for the back cover of the CD it would be perhaps a photo of a setting in London. This would also be in Black and White so that it would link with the indie rock genre more and would also link with existing. We will be taking practice shots so that we know what kind of pose that we will be doing in the pictures. These shots will only be taken during our lessons during school as they are not going to be going onto our digipaks at all. We will however attempt to keep an indie kind of feel to them by just having a brick wall background.

Location of our photo shoot

As explained in the production log video that we did previous to this blog post, we want a location for our photo shoot and music video to be in a "cool" location such as somewhere like Camden, Shoreditch or South bank. We liked these kind of areas because they have an urban look and feel to them with the majority of the people who actually go and visit these places have that kind of indie look to them that we want our band to be like. When we go to take these photos, we will look around the areas to try and find a spot which we think would be perfect for our band.

Digipak...

Production Log Conversation

This is me and Christian discussing key facts about our photo shoot and music video. This includes speaking about our location, the costumes that we will be wearing and the people that will be acting in our band.

Florence and The Machine- Ceremonials Album Green Screen Analysis

This is my green screen analysis of the Florence and The Machine album cover. Here I explain different points about the album and what they connote, looking at the all six panels of the digipak.

Choosing the Band Name

After a few lessons deciding what our band name would be, we finally came to a conclusion to call our band 'Waves'. This band name wasn't originally on the list of band names that I had posted about before but this name we had thought of during todays lesson. To help us decide which of the names to use for the name of the band we drew up a tally board with a list of 4 band names including: 'Moon Safari', 'Waves', 'The Requiem' and 'The Clarity'. As you can see from the results, the final verdict was to choose 'Waves'. The people that we asked to choose the name of our band were aged between 16-30 years old. By getting people these ages to choose the name of our band relates to the age of people that we want our target audience to be, so this we meant we knew what people between that age bracket wanted a band to be called.

Band Name Ideas

These are the different band names that me and Christian had came up with on Monday which we will need to cut down. We wanted to be called a two worded name such as "The Fiction" but we also had ideas to be called something like "Moon Safari". The reason that we wanted to to be called "The" something is because of the bands that we wanted our band to be like such as "The 1975" or "The Kooks". We felt that this would help to make our bands image become more recognised and will relate to the indie rock genre of music better.

Audience Profile

This is the audience profile that me and Christian have created. We believe that this is a look into what our band will also look like along with what they like.

Two Door Cinema Club- Undercover Martyn Music Video

This is the official video for the song 'Undercover Martyn'. It was produced by Elliot James and released on the 22nd February 2010 by the French label Kitsuné Music and Co-operative Music. This video is very experimental as it is the first time in years that a video like this has been done in a long time, but not the first of its kind so it is a great example of post modernism. 

Final song choice...

After some discussion, me and my partner Christian decided which song that we were going to use for our music video. In Wednesday's lesson we thought that our final song choice would be "Bloc Party- Banquet" but after some thought during Friday's lesson, we soon realised that it was not the right song for us. We had thought about the style that we wanted our band to be but then saw that this did not match up with the original song choice.

After thinking about what song to do even more we finally decided that we would do "Two Door Cinema Club- Undercover Martyn". We felt that we could easily work with this song as it has the vibe that we wanted and matched with the way that we wanted our band to look like. We want our band to have a kind of scruffy look to them as it is part of the indie rock vibe. We were thinking of having the clothing as skinny jeans, vans, t shirts, denim jackets etc. but this topic will still be discussed as we look further into our bands image.

Feedback for music artist presentation

Favourite Video

This is one of my favourite music videos and it is The 1975- Robbers, directed by Tim Mattia. Although it is a very recent video, I really enjoy watching it due to its narrative especially. I think the acting from the lead singer 'Matthew Healy' and the woman in the video, model 'Chelsea Schuhman' is superb and I can feel that there is a real connection between the pair in the video.

The video is about Matty and Chelsea who are lovers, who rob a shop to obtain money to fund their alcohol and drug addiction. The video shows how the drugs and alcohol sometimes affect Matty in the wrong way and he becomes tempered at times, but despite this, the love shown between the two overcomes the side effects. Near to the end of the song, when the pair go to rob the shop, Matty is shot and is instantly taken back outside by his lover to a van, driven by the rest of the band. He is being treated in the back whilst still doing drugs and the part I like about this is that the camera shows different points of the video that we had seen at the beginning which helps to explain the situation that is happening. For example, there is a blooded handprint shown on the side of their home near the beginning is re-shown when Matty is being taken back into the home and his blooded hand creates the handprint after he has been shot. This is a great use of foreshadowing in my opinion.  

History of the Music Video

History of the Music Video

The purpose of a music video is to tell a story of a piece of music through the use of visual images produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Music videos started as just small clips called "talkies" which people went to watch at the cinema. After these came about, there began to be a lot more of songs that had music videos to go with them. This included Walt Disney releasing "Fantasia" in 1940 which was an animated film based around famous pieces of classical music.

Many big singers created their own music centred films including Elvis Presley in "Rock around the Clock." The main music video that came out that inspired others to start making their own, and also setting the tone of what a modern music video should be was in 1975 when Queen released "Bohemian Rhapsody". This was seen as such an iconic music video because it was the first to use advanced technology and featured both live performance and when they used the advanced technology it was to import a video of Freddie Mercury's face singing to fade in and out during the video.

Music videos became more mainstream in1981 when MTV aired "Video killed the radio star" and the began an era of 24 hour music on television. This was followed by people such as Michael Jackson creating a new era of creating a short film as a music video as he did with "Billie Jean" but in 1984 is when he had really taken this idea to the next level when he released a video for "Thriller.



Andrew Goodwin's Theory+ How it is used in Jay-Z's "99 Problems" music video

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. dance routine for boy/girl band).
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 reoccur across their work.
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.) 

Goodwin's theory suggests that the lyrics in a song constantly make references to the visuals on the screen as they reinforce what the lyrics say. Genre and characteristics are mentioned in Goodwin's theory, and these are depicted as the certain traits associated with a particular music genre. For example, in a rock video you will expect to see a live performance of the band playing, along with the characteristics being a lot of black clothing, long hair, boots and other smaller things such as tattoos. Along with the genre characteristics, there is also music videos being narrative based. This means that aswell as what the artist/band is wearing and doing in the music video, the narrative brings the whole video together and explains the story of the music video which is especially important for the audience so that they understand what is happening.

 

Goodwin's theory can be applied to some artists music videos such as Jay-Z's "99 Problems".

Firstly, we can tell from the costumes that he wears throughout the video that it fits well into the hip hop/rap genre of music as he is wearing baggy jeans, chains, baggy jacket, cap along with hoodies which shows us his "gangsta" way of life.

The video has many ways of showing the "gangsta" way of life as it has things like a dark run down setting (Brooklyn, New York), rough looking areas, dog fighting, women showing their sex appeal and also large gangs of people wearing the "gangsta" like clothing hanging around the streets looking troublesome which sums up the whole point of the music genre.

Within the music video, there is a strong relationship with the visuals and the lyrics. This is shown when the word "bitch" occurs and several women are shown that are dressed provocatively throughout the video which again shows that it is set in a rough area as the women are shown to be slutty for the men. Another example of the relationship between visuals and lyrics being shown is when Jay-Z says "Talk to the Lord", and with this being said a clip of Jesus on a Crucifix statue is seen.

In the video, different shots are used to connote different things such as when Jay-Z and Rick Rubin are in the car after being pulled over by the police, the police officer comes to the window and begins to talk to the pair. With this, the police officer is always being shown as higher up than Jay-Z using both low angles and high angles to show this. This shows that the white police officer is high in power and authority compared to Jay-z who is black and shown to be a troublemaker due to him being pulled over by the police. Another example of this is at the very beginning of the video when the camera is going up the stairs and onto the streets of Brooklyn, this shows that the people of that area are at the bottom in life due to the roughness of their city. The walking up the stairs shows how Jay-Z has slowly became bigger in life.
 

Major vs Independent Record Labels