Digipak Plan

This is our initial plan for the digipak, obviously the images will be edited on photoshop and they most certainly not be in stick form. The disk will have a JPEG image on it and their will also be an image on the pane behind the CD.

Shooting Schedule

Digipak Template

This is the template I will be using to create my digipak. I have downloaded this from the internet and can be used in photoshop, it can also be printed out so I can write on the sheet and plan the digipak. It should be easy to follow the guilde lines, and with each pane named, I shouldn't get confused.

Contact Sheet

Above is all 82 photos we took for our photo shoot. The shoot was done in at Ward Jackson park like we planned. We preferred to it at the park rather than Summerhill because it seems more fitting considering the song is all about maturing up. Some of the photos we got were blurred and therefore could not be used. I am partially to blame because we didn't hire out the best possible camera and also using an amateur camera man. The shot where we were walking along the path with all of the leaves on the floor was going to be used as our magazine advert, but it cannot be used because it is so blurry. Our faces are unrecognisable in the images.

Photo Shoot

These are the images I managed to get with Darren and John (members of the band). The photo shoot was located at Ward Jackson park like expected, and a Nikon camera was used. I feel the photography was fairly successful and I managed to get a variety of shots from different places in the park using the scenery to my advantage.

We all went for the indie approach with the jumpers, big coats and skinny jeans. This was to match the genre of our band. In most of the photos I told the guys to show no emotion in their faces because I feel it makes a powerful photo. We went during our dinner break when the sun was shining so their was plenty of light for our shots. Although, the main issue we faced during the photography was the sun in our eyes which caused us to squint on some of the photos. Another problem we faced regarding the photo shoot was that some photos were blurry due to movement of the person taking the photos. He wasn't experienced with a camera which affected the shot quality massively, although some of the photos are really good and fit their purpose.

We focused on having Darren in the centre for every shot because he is the main actor/singer. This is so he has centre stage and the other band members are beside him. The scenery around us was taken into consideration and we used the pond and trees to our advantage. Most of the shots we used were either long shots or extreme long shots, we didn't use close ups because we wanted to show our clothing and the environment around us.

Out of the 82 images we managed to take, I had to analyse each one and pick the certain ones to use for my digipak and magazine advert. Below are my chosen images.

Chosen Images

This photo will be used on the front of our digipak.

This image will be on the back of our digipak.

This image will be used on one of the side panes of the digipak, it will also be cropped.

This image will also be used on one of the side panes of the digipak, and will also be cropped.

This photo will be used for my magazine advert and will be cropped.

This image will be used on the actual disk of the album.

Choosing the Actors

 There was a discussion about who would be the main actor. Me and Darren were both prepared to be the main actor (who would do all of the lip syncing). In the end, we decided that it would be more efficient if Darren played the main role. This is because Darren is more familiar with The Courteeners song and this is the first time I have actually heard the song. This would make it difficult for me to lip syncing not knowing the words. Another reason behind this choice is that Darren suites the role more, he has more indie clothing and is much more confident in front of a camera, his girlfriend also plays his girlfriend in the music video so it makes much more sense. Before we started properly filming the music video, we had some test footage with the two of us lip syncing the song and we came to the decision that Darren did it better.

Although I wasn't the main actor, I was willing to be a member of the band. I decided to play the drums because initially there was only going to be the two of us in the band. Darren would play the guitar whilst singing. I have a bit of experience with playing drums so I felt that this was the best role for me. I have acted in numerous things other people and am not afraid to be in front of a camera.




As me and Darren were about to film, I managed to spot John pondering around college by himself. This was when I proceeded to ask him if he would like to take part in our music video which he agreed to do. The only thing he could do was play the guitar (although he couldn't actually play). I told him to try his best and make sure to move your fingers, and he actually pulled it off. I though John was the right choice of actors because he isn't shy and is beaming with confidence (as you can tell from his photo).

Advert Mood Board

Above is a mood board of different adverts advertising the release of albums by bands to a similar genre to the one we have chose for our music video which is indie pop/alternative rock. this should give me some inspiration and ideas on how to create my own advert.  

Photo Shoot Planning

Photo Shoot Testing

In the studio, we didn't really have much to work with apart from big bright lights. So we used them to our advantage and did some test shots in preparation for our photo shoot. We moved all of the lights around and tested different shots.

We then thought about having the lights in the room off apart from the odd few to give this effect. This looks pretty good, but a bit too dark and you are only able to see the outline of the band.

We then tried with the flash on to give more lighting to the face, and it worked. This was the kind of thing we were aiming for. We wore indie clothing to represent the indie pop genre that our band is set around. 

We then tried the shot with the full band. We decided to show a blank emotion on or faces because that is the most stereotypical thing to do with an indie pop band.

We tried different things to try and get the best possible photo. We tried looking at Darren and walking away to create a bit of humour for the photo.

When we were messing around with the camera and trying out different things, we produced this. We feel that this was the best photo we took. The lighting on the photo looks really good only lighting half of my face. We are thinking that this could be the idea for our digipak, but with the full band (obviously).

Recce Shots

This is the different locations our music video is set. All of the footage was done locally in Hartlepool

Lyrics Breakdown (Revised)

This is The Courteeners song "Not Nineteen Forever" lyrics breakdown. This shows how simple the song actually is and this is how I interpreted the lyrics.

Lyrics Breakdown

Initial Ideas

Basically this is the first idea of a story line that we have came up with, this idea seems to fit with most of the lyrics so I think our narrative will match the lyrics rather than contrast them. I’m not too sure if this will be our final idea, on the next task we are working on breaking down the lyrics and seeing if the story line fits with all the lyrics if it does then this could well work for our final idea for a music video.    

Editing Software

Final Cut Express HD is the software I have decided to use to edit my clips to create the music video, it was also recommended by teachers and other students. It is considered one of the most advanced semi-professional pieces of software. It is very efficient and offers features like tracks and slicing, which makes editing much easier. There are many other features, things like changing the colour of a video clip to make it darker or lighter and even high quality visual filters, which will make my video visually interesting and individual.

It was very easy to import the video clips from a file onto final cut and only took a short amount of time. I have some experience on final cut thanks to last years project; this was when I edited an opening sequence to a movie. Hopefully, this will aid my music video and improve the way I edit on final cut.

Above is the progress I have made when editing together the rough cut, as you can see I am making good progress and have all the video clips I need organized in the top left section. Below that is the time line which you insert the clips and audio files.  The only downside to final cut is the amount of rendering that is needed, every time you put a new clip on, you must render it, which could take a long time. Because I do not have a mac at home, there is no way I can access this software legally. This means I cannot do any of the editing at home and can only revolve around college times.

Inspirational Music Videos

Oasis - The Masterplan

This animated video sees Oasis transferred into a spectacular world based completely on the paintings of famous northern artist L.S Lowry, including refined modern day twists and detailing. The video was made with the Lowry estate's approval and is a faithful representation

 of the artist's world of industrial Salford in the post war years.

We see the band Oasis performing at a pier based theater with the band, fans and instruments all animated, as they make their way across cities we see the industrial post war town centers and country side all looking bleak and dull. The song, in a nutshell is

 about not knowing what to do and what path to take in life, as the song progresses we see that no answer is right and that you are your own person so do what you want to do and what feels right. In the era of post war people felt oppressed from doing things

 they wanted that might look ungrateful to tows that sacrificed their lives fighting for this country; but in this video and song we see the band doing as they please and living life to the full “and then dance if you wanna dance” because at the end of the

 day we are all going to die so we may enjoy life while we can because we are jut all part of one ‘Masterplan’.

The mise en scene of the band in the video is typical; all of them dressed in their ‘mod’ style with skinny jeans, parka/bommer jackets. This matches with the iconography of the genre modern rock, as we don’t expect the band to be wearing anything different even if they are animated in painting styles of L.S Lowry. My favorite part of the video, I must say is when Liam performs his droll witty strut across the post war industrial town.

The Vaccines - Wetsuit

The Vaccines put call out in 2011 for photos that could be used in their music video for one of their more popular songs Wetsuit, they had three rules the photos had to be taken and uploaded using the social media app Instagram, use the app to capture photos at

 festivals of bands, mud, tents and so on and the final rule was to tag the band in the photo using the hash tag #VACCINESVIDE. They received 2433 photos and with that made the video for Wetsuit.

The video is made entirely with photos and clips from the social media site Instagram, the reason why I chose this to be an inspirational music video is because I very much like this concept of getting the fans involved; and who doesn’t like being in a music video

 of a popular band they like listening to? The reason I liked the video so much is because it is festival themed, I am a keen festival goer myself and I have actually saw the Vaccines perform live at Leeds festival back in 2012. I feel more myself at festivals

 because it is a life without any limitations and you’re free to do whatever you want to do. I think festival life brings everyone closer together and when I watch this video it brings back joyful memories of excitement.

The video was published on October 5^th of 2011 and now has over 2,192,924 views on YouTube.

Kodaline - High Hopes

This video is about two lovers, the man middle aged maybe even a bit older and the woman who is definitely much younger. Firstly we see the man trying to commit suicide by attaching a hose pipe to his car exhaust filling the car with toxic fumes but then we see a woman running across the hill in her wedding dress. We now know why the man was trying to commit suicide.The video shows the pair running away together and we find out that the person she was going to marry was abusing her, physically hitting and controlling her. The man she was going to marry finds the couple and out of revenge shoots the both of them as the man is dying he shuffles over to his dying lover to hold her hand for the last time. At the end of the video we see the both of them in the hospital alive

 and well so they must of survived the shooting, their love is that strong it survived the hatred of an eval man.

The reason why I chose this to be an inspirational music video is because it is a love story and one of my ideas for my final music video is a love story, it might not quite end up like this one but I can find some good ideas and inspiration from this music video.

      

Audience Profile

Based on my audience research, I am now able to produce an audience profile of the average person I am aiming my music video at.  This will be based on all of the information and statistics I received from sending out my questionnaires. I made sure I sent the questionnaire to an equal amount of both male and female students in the college so there was no predominant gender and a fair set of results.  Below is my audience profile for my target audience:

This is Darren Parker; he goes to Hartlepool Sixth Form College and is currently in his second year. He is a fairly intelligent individual and studies the following subjects; Film Studies, Media Studies and Travel and Tourism. In his first year of college, Darren made many of friends and attended plenty of parties. You could say that he is a typical teenage boy. Darren is very keen on Indie pop music and listens to plenty of bands based around that genre. Darren has grown up searching YouTube for bands and likes a range of bands like The Wombats, The Vaccines and Two Door Cinema Club. One of his favorite bands is indeed The Courteeners, he has been to see them perform live at least once and regularly listens to them on his iPod. Darren is the type of person to share music videos on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and him and his friends share their musical tastes. He is the type of person to go to festivals like Leeds Fest and get very drunk! He enjoys the party and fun side of life, but also thinks education is crucial and gives 110% in college. Darren has been a relationship for a fair amount of time and can associate with the lovey dovey things that these types of bands sing about. He is the perfect example of somebody who would listen to the song “Not Nineteen Forever” and is definitely somebody who matches our target audience.

Rough Cut

It's finally here! Here is our rough cut we've created for the song "Not Nineteen Forever" by The Courteeners.

Photoshop Tutorial

For creating the digipack we will need to edit photos using photoshop on the mac. Myself I have never used photoshop before so I am not really confidant with the application at all, so I started watching beginners tutorials on Youtube. I started watching this one to learn how to use the basic tools.

Once i got a basic idea of what to do I uploaded this image on the photoshop application so that i could start editing the image. 

When I uploaded this image, I knew i wanted to change the style and look of the image but I did not know how to do this, so I decided to watch another tutorial that would teach me how to add basic but useful effects to photos.  

Once I had a tinker about and learned how to add effects, the photo of myself above I managed to change to have a retro vintage look. 

  

This is what it looked like after I added the effect and changed the contrast and colours, the retro style becomes obvious. After watching these tutorials I feel more confidant with using photoshop and now I am no longer worried that my lack of experience with using the application will bring my marks down on the creation of my digipack.    

Album Artwork Mood Board

Above is a mood board of different artwork from bands in the indie pop genre including the bands that we are thinking of using for our music video. This should give us a general idea of a digipack when we come to build one from this genre.

What is Genre?

Genre is a key media concept, it will be necessary to consider when making our music video. Everyone has a varied taste in music, which is why genres are important in the music industry. For my coursework, I will need to pick a song belonging to a particular genre of music, and then I will need create a music video following the genres conventions. I will research different genres and their conventions to identify trends and further my knowledge. From my research, I also intend challenging typical conventions in my music video in order to make the product more interesting and original. I will also research particular audiences and make a audience profile of a particular fan of my chosen genre.

A musical genre is a category that identifies a piece of music as belonging to a set of conventions, ideas and traditions, etc. Examples include “pop”, “rock”, “indie”, etc. Each have their own trends, which evolve over time, such as sense of fun, bright colours, dancing, and catchy lyrics in pop music.

           

A genre can be broken down further into a subgenre, identifying more specific conventions – usually in terms of music.

Below is a table showing different genres broke down into subgenres based on my research: