Digipak Mock-Up

Digipak Mock Up

Digipaks (Planning)

Our group has decided to go for a space theme as our background, with the use of purple and black as our main colours throughout our digipak. Giving it an overall dark authentic look as we feel it suits our genre. The album cover above influenced us to come up with such an idea and seems appropriate for our hip-hop genre.

 Some of our track names that we have chosen are: 

• Sky's the limit
• Finesse
• More money more problems

Analysis of 3 Digipacks

Kid Cudi's album cover is one that hints to the audience what genre his music which is Hip-Hop. This album cover relates to our genre as we also focused on a hip-hop genre within our music video. Our targeted audience is also similar to the one of Kid Cudi's as it focuses on a teenage audience which have a high interest in this type of music. The font on the album cover is similar to the one I would like to use, as it seems to suit this type of genre. The image on the cover as you can see is a picture of Kid Cudi's with the back of his head being the moon, this related to the name of the album which is 'Man on the Moon'.

N-Dubz' album cover also has a similar genre in comparison with ours. The city background in the cover relates to our theme as similar ideas where developed during our video and city scenes also featured in our music video. The colour scheme which is mostly purple is another factor that matches the description of what colours I'd like to use in my digipak. The audience is also roughly the same as our music video which targets mainly teenagers a this is where the genre is most common.

Lupe Fiasco's album cover is another example which is similar to ones above, the colour scheme and font which are quite unusual. The font is in a sort of arabic form as it relates to one of this tracks. The background is a factor that really interests me and I'd like to use something along the lines of it with stars in the background. The audience is also based among teenagers.

Analysis of Advertisement

This is an an advertisement i analysed from Tinie Tempah, i found analysing this artist ideal especially because my coursework originated from this artist. In this poster advertisement you can see that the font is all the same and the colour scheme and design represents the artist's music genre which is techno/pop.





Another artist that i analysed was 'Omarion' in this advertisment of his album called 'Ice Box' there is a revelevance between the image on the front cover and the bass storyline of what he sings about it is not instantly clear to which genre this artist belongs to but through the mise en scene that you can see in his clothes you can get an indication that this artist is an R&B styled singer.

Below is an example of one of 'Omarion's songs which coincidentally also has the same name as the album.


 

The final artist advertisement that i analysed was from the artist 'Daft Punk' the name gives away the genre style which is punk/house music and the font corresponds perfectly with the genre. This alongside with the colour scheme is an attention catcher and will help pull in many sales.

Analysis of Digipaks

'The Game' created a song called "Dreams", whereby he recalls a moment in his life and his rise to fame in this song. The album cover for 'The Documentary' shows him sitting on two gold wheels. This is shown in the video, so for a viewer, they would be easily able to recognise his album from watching the video, or the other way round.

 This album cover, by "Madvillain", shows him wearing this metal mask, which is something we immedietly notice. His name sounds like that from a comic book/novel; which reiterates why he has a mask on. His video 'Rhinestone cowboy', shows him wearing the mask throughout, again making it easier to recognise who this artist is because of the distinctive feature which is the mask.

Analysis of Advertisments

This was the song chosen for our music video, Tinie Tempah's "Pass out". The original video is set in a dark, low-lit atmosphere, which was, at times, found in our own video. This darkness is carried over in this advertisment, showing a pitch black background which is literally found throughout the Original "Pass out" video. The audience we've targetted,  are mainly teenagers and young adults, so the use of font will be important so it may appeal to this particular audience.

This is the advertisment for Kid Cudi's "Pursuit of happiness". This also appeals to the teenage/young adult audience because it is a trip-hop song, which is a twist of hip-hop and electro beats, all which appeal to the youth of today. This advertisement shows a purple skull which is very similiar to the front cover of the "Man On The Moon" album by Kid Cudi, which shows Kid Cudi's head facing in the same position as the skull above. The color scheme is important as orange and purple are both similar, illuminous colours which work well with eachother. This is something I may incorporate into my own advertisment and Digipak. The black theme on this is another aspect which I will focus on as its an effective base layer for midnight colours. The advert, however, doesnt relate in any way to the actual music video, so people wouldnt know much about the video until actually watching it.

This advert for Lupe Fiasco's "Superstar", also has no relevance to the actual music video. Lupe's main calliagraphy of his name in the centre, was created to mimick the Arabic language, when in fact it is english. This isnt something I would use personally, because it seems over-complicated and I think for a new artist to rise, most things such as font should be kept simple to gain recognition easier. The night/space sky is something I want to use for my Digipak and maybe my advertisment to portray the genre in a sinister, but positive way.

Analysis of 3 Digi paks

The first digi pak that i decided to analyse was a digipak from an artist that i have previously worked on and that is the digipak of Usher Raymond.

This album cover perfectly illustrates the genre of songs which usher sings which is R&B we see this through his mise en scene in the clothes that he is wearing. Furthermore in the beautiful girls that are surrounding him.

This the music video to which the album cover goes to and in the video you can see the relation between the digi pak the musicvideo and the genre of the song.

• 
  Another digipak i analysed was one from Daft punk in this Digi pak it is more font than image that gives the viewer an indication for which genre this belongs to, and through my research i have come up with the genre of techno, this is a vaguely fast up tempo genre. 

Another digipak i analysed was one from the artist 'Ne-Yo' immediently what draws the viewer in is the contrast in font size and the fact that all the letters are in capital also helps draw in customers. With this particular digipak is hard to distiguish the genre straight away but from the top of my head i would say this is urban music i get this indication from the style of hat the artist is wearing and also the colours involved in the digipak.

Research of Album covers

These are the various ideas for  our Digipak, the theme is dark, midnight colours and with space as an emphasis for our final Digipak and Advertisment. 

Final edit - complete video

Our complete Music Video.

Photos from filming session and test shots of lighting and mise en scene

These are some pictures of our group making our masterpiece.

Feedback from Rough cut production

Production Schedule part 2

This is another part to our production schedule it is far more detailed than the previous 1 and is an essential look into how the coming of our music video 'pass out' was made.

Rough Cut

At the moment unavailable due to blogger not uploading the video but it consists of a bit of Green screen and performances from both Neto and Carlos aswell as featuring a dance group.

Teacher Feedback

Hello boys
Don't forget that your rough cut must be posted before the end of the week - and you must also post a response to the comments that you received from your teachers.

Storyboard plan

This is our storyboard plan for our music Video 'Pass out' .

Filming

During our filming, we had to overcome several obstacles to ensure we got the most out of our time with the camera. As we filmed in London Bridge for one scene in the evening/night, lighting was a little bit of an issue because our faces wern't seen clearly on the camera. However, we decided to film under a lamp which provided perfect lighting for the shots.

Later, we were confronted by security personell who asked us to get permission from the council to film on sight. As we were on our final shot, it seemed pointless, but he allowed us for a further 5 minutes!

If we were to film again, we would definetly need to gain the required permission to film on that sight. If it were to be during the night, we would bring a light which would fit on top of the camera for extra visibility.

We required the green screen for a majority of our shots in the music video, on our first attempt we thought we did well, only to find a shadow in almost every shot, which would interfere with the green screen, not allowing us to use it properly. We were forced to scrap all filming done and restart, ensuring there was no shadows. We had to modify the lighting for this to take place successfully.

Pitch

Short list of potential songs

My group had a various list of song possiblities, these are some of the songs that we could have possibly chosen.

Firstly and a choice we kept coming back to was 'The Future' by Logic 

This next song was also a hot contestant to be our final choice as the artist is the same but we just felt it lacked a little 'umph' so decided not to go with it.

Short-List of Potential Songs

Our first choice was Logic - The Future. The genre didn't really suit our liking and we decided to look at other potential videos and genres.



However, after discussions between our group we had two songs in mind Tinie Tempah - 'Frisky' and 'Pass Out'.



Our final decision came to Tinie Tempah - 'Pass Out'.

Final song choice

After much negotiation between me and my other fellow group members we came to a decision which is the following video from Tinie Tempah.

 

Final Song Choice

After various dicussions, we decided that Tinie Tempah's 'Pass Out' seemed to be a video we all agreed on as it possesses a simple but effective video which we could elaborate on.

Short-List of Potential Songs

This is 'Frisky' by Tinie Tempah which was very close to being the primary choice.




'The Future' by Logic was a potential song because we received permission from him directly, we assumed we were restricted to this artist only. However after being told we could use any british artist regardless of permission, we steered away from this song.



This was a 'wild card' which we thought we could have done, but the lip-sync would have been very complicated. In contrast, the videos editing and lettering effects appealed to us and we may incorporate this into our final video.

Review of previous student video's

The fourth video we analysed in class was by far the best in terms of genre,narrative, media language and representation. The genre we immidetly figured out was Funky House which seems to be popular with teenagers which also made us agree that this song is aimed at that particular group. We understood the story being told in the video in which there is a break-up and a girl cannot take the ignorance of her boyfriend anymore. This is shown clearly through all the shots in which her boyfriend is portrayed as a drunk, selfish character who doesnt consider his girlfriend. With this, the narrative shows her rebelling and getting rid of him by throwing his clothes out the window and eventually having a good time with her friends.

Vladimir Propp's - Applied Theory

Vladimir Propp was born on April 17, 1895 in St. Petersburg to a German family. He attended St. Petersburg University (1913–1918) majoring in Russian and German philosophy. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German.





Both of these videos present Vladimir Propp's theory through the hero/villain. In 50 Cents's 'Get Up', 50 Cent is portrayed as a hero, saving a female character from danger. The whole story is visible throughout the video.

Proop concludes that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types:


- The villain — struggles against the hero.
- The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
- The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
- The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
- Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
- The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
- The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
- False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Analysis of Target Audience

Our target audience is mainly teenagers aged from about 16-24 year olds.

Kevin Garcia is a Latino from Colombia who lives in Seven Sisters, North London. Kevin is 17 years old and has just completed his first year at college and has just started his second year. He works part time at Selfridges and receives £8.00 an hour. He enjoys playing football and working out in the gym. As a typical teenager, his means of travel is his Oyster card and uses public transport regularly. Kevin owns a blackberry and when he's at home, his entertainment is his PS3 where he plays his friends online via the internet. He also owns a laptop which he uses for socialising with his friends. In terms of clothes, he is attracted to big brands such as Ralph Lauren, Lyle & Scott, True Religon etc. He also sports the smaller brands such as Nike, Adidas. Moreover, he purchases his clothes at his workplaces where he receives a staff discount.

He enjoys partying almost every weekend and usually ends up drunk after a good night out. He enjoys dance music, electro and drum n bass, as well as hip hop, grime and RnB. Tinie Tempah's 'Pass Out' is one of his favourite songs as it has genres of hip hop but drum n bass incorporated into it. Kevin first heard of the song whilst on holiday at Ibiza where Tinie Tempah held a concert in the summer.

Video Analysis - Dizzee Rascal: Holiday

The narrative in this video is clearly based around women, the video itself and the lyrics emphasise this fact. Both of these factors match eachother, meaning that the lyrics are about what goes on in the video. There is a direct link between the narrative and the lyrics. The genre could be a mix of pop and electro. The media language in the video is at a high standard. The cuts match every beat in the video, the bright lighting, holiday style scenery match the lyrics. The representation of this clip is that there are females who are only in bikini's whereas the main character Dizzee Rascal is fully clothed up. The camera also tends to focus on female body parts using slow motion. 

Vladamir Propp Research

Vladamir propp was born on april 17th, 1985 in st. Petersberg to a german family. He attended st. Petersberg university (1913 - 1918) Majoring in Russian and German philosophy. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German.

He stated that all characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in 100 tales that he analysed

these are as followed:

1. the villan ( struggles against the hero )

2. The Donar (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magic object)

3.The (magical) helper ( helps the hero in his quest)

4. The princess or prize
5. her father

6.The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)

7. the hero or victim/ seeker hero

8.False hero ( takes credit for the heroes actions)

In Ushers music video Caught up there are many great examples of howVladamir propps theory relates to it for example in the music video the artist  (Usher) is the hero and there is a villain who seemingly struggles against the hero. Furthermore to top it off there is so to speak the princess in this case a beautiful woman.

Requesting Copyright Permission - Letter

Parlophone Records           

Keith Wozencroft

43 Brook Green

London

W6 7EF

United Kingdom

Dear Mr. Wozencroft,

I am writing to inform you about a possibility to request permission to use Tinie Tempah's track - Pass Out for our media project. We a group of students from City and Islington Sixth Form College based in North London, we will be working to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. The finished project will NOT be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project. If you do not hold the rights for these songs, I should be very greatful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or reply to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours Sincerely,

Bartek Walczak

Lip Sync Tutorial

During the process of lip syncing we should have made our shots more complex and developed our editing to a higher standard. Our main challenge was for Neto to change his style in front of the camera from the thriller which we did last year to a more confident and straight-up character who was willing to sing in front of a camera.

We learned to how use various tools such as the razor blade and markers. This helped us develop our knowledge of the program to a larger extent. The difference between editing the thriller in comparison to the music video is that we have to use a more variety of shots, more complex editing as well as matching the sound track to Neto's lips. 

Summary of the Andrew Goodwin Theory

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses doesn't really apply to pop videos. The reasons for the different narrative structures are as follows:

- Pop videos are built around songs - and often songs don't pose traditional narrative structures.
- Pop videos use the singer both as a narrator and as a character.
- The singer often looks directly at the camera: this is an extension of performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Often pop videos are based on a high amount of repetition. Images in the video are repeated frequently, the way the song is structured - rhythm are formed in a certain way for the viewer to become familiar with the genre.

However, some videos are different. The visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning. Some videos are constructed in a certain way to make the viewer want to watch it continuously. According to Goodwin it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos:

- Illustration: this is where the video tells the story of the lyric. Dance is often use to express feelings or emotion in a song
- Amplification: this occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that dont contradict with the lyrics, but add meaning. 
- Disjuncture: this means there is limited connection between the lyrics and the video itself.

Overall pop videos have easily recognisable elements. A feature could be the way mostly women are represented as a object of male desire. However, artists such as Beyonce present themselves for males to look at although there is a difference they tend to look back at the viewers and seem to be passive.

Vladimir Propp's Theory Applied

Vladimir Propp was a was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.

His famous theory involved this:

CHARACTERS

1. The hero (seeks something)
2. The villain (opposes the hero)
3. The donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object)
4. The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)
5. The false hero (falsely assuming the role of hero)
6. The helper (gives support to the hero)
7. The princess (the reward for the hero but also needs to be

protected from the villain

8. Her father

In this video 'This is my life' by Edward Maya is a good narrative whereby the audience can understand the story. Though the video is simple which firstly involves the narrator and main character Edward Maya driving his car into a parking lot and getting out while being mobbed by paparazzi just before a live show. In addition, this is cut halfway with another shot involving him on the streets but everyones roles around him are being reversed as if they are living life backwards. This is backed up partially by 'Re5' of Propps Theory.

Preparation:

P1. A member of the family leaves home
P2. A prohibition or rule is imposed on the hero
P3. The prohibition or rule is broken
P4. The villain makes and attempt at reconnaissance
P5. The villain learns something about his victim
P6. The villain tried to deceive the victim to get possession of
his/her belongings
P7. The victim unknowingly helps the villain by being deceived or
influenced by the villain

Complication:

C1. The villain harms a member of the family
C2. A member of the family lacks or desires something
C3. This lack or misfortune is made known; the hero is given a
request or a command and he goes on a mission or quest
C4. The seeker (often the hero) plans action against the villain

Transference:

T1. The hero leaves home
T2. The hero is tested, attached, interrogated and, as a result,
receives either a magical agent or a helper
T3. The Hero reacts to the actions of the future donor
T4. The hero uses the magical agent
T5. The hero is transferred to the general location of the object of
his mission or quest

Struggle:

S1. The hero and the villain join in direct combat
S2. The hero is branded
S3. The villain is defeated
S4. The initial misfortune or lack is put right

Return:

R1. The hero returns
R2. The hero is pursued
R3. The hero is rescued from pursuit
R4. The hero arrives home or elsewhere and is not recognised
R5. A false hero makes false claims
R6. A difficult task is set for the hero
R7. The task is accomplished

Recognition:

Re1. The hero is recognised
Re2. The false hero/villain is exposed
Re3. The false hero is transformed
Re4. The villain is punished
Re5. The hero is married and crowned

This video by Mario is a perfect example of Propp's theory being put into play. A majority of the theories above can be applied to this specific video.

Email Requesting Copyright Clearance

Requesting permission from 'Logic' for the use of his tracks via Facebook.

Kayes Khan 13 September at 18:25

Hi there, My names Kayes Khan, I'm a student of A Level Media Studies at City & Islington Sixth form college in North London, and for my Advanced Portfolio, I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track.

I would like to request permission to use one of your tracks called 'The future' or possibly Your other songs depending on what my group mates agree with, for this project. The finished project will NOT be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project. If you do not hold the rights for these songs, I should be very grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or reply to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.

 Thanks,


Kayes Khan k_khan93@hotmail.com

Logic Mc 14 September at 11:47 Report

Il have word with producer and get back to u asap bro
but yea by all means u can use it

letter requesting copyright clearance

 Netinho Domingos
To info@dirteestank.com



hello my name is Neto Garcia Domingos and i would like to request permission to use one of Dizzee Rascals songs which is strictly for educational purposes which my mediaproject and will not be posted on youtube or any other site of the kind.

Andrew Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses don't really apply to pop videos There are a number of reasons for this but it isn't because pop videos are trying to be avant garde - it is just that they approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films.
Reasons for narrative structures are as follow:

1. Pop videos are built around songs and often do not pose traditional narrative structures (normality - problem -resolution)

2. The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character

3. The singer often looks directly at the camera - this an extention of (music hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos also rely on repitition. Often the video repeats images in the way the song repeats choruses or lines.

Disjuncture : This is where the lyrics and video have little connection with eachother.

 Illustration in this case is used very well as the setting and clothes in which the artist wears demonstrates the songs genre as well as props such as a  hat, bandana and jewellery . Furthermore the lyrics and music video very much correspond with eachother. 

 

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

In Andrew Goodwin's theory, he pointed out 5 key aspects which he wanted the audience to spot when watching music videos:  Through beats, Seeing the Narrative and Performance,  the Image Relation of visuals to the song and finally, the technical aspect of music videos. 


Through the beats, we are looking at the music itself. Goodwin suggests us to take into account the structure of the song. Moreover, the voice is crucial as it gives a trademark/idea of the song and who it is. The music video can also work out to be telling a story; so the artist telling it and us listening.


Most songs don't give us a complete narrative. Hearing it first time will only give us assumptions as to what the song really is.


The audience need to believe that the video is authentic and so the artists lip sync and other actions must be perfect. 


Andrew Goodwin also believed technical aspects hold the music video together through use of camera work, movement, angle, mise- en -scene editing, sound and special effects.


 Speed, camera movement, editing ,cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera. Lighting and colour help set moods and emphasise key moments of the song for dramatic effect Mise-en-scene, the setting of music videos is vital, it needs to look authentic to attain professionalism . 


Beats, music videos use cuts to go with the beat or rhythm making the video more entertaining.

Video Analysis - Lowkey - 'Terrorist'

This video is from a political UK rapper named 'Lowkey'. This controversial and somewhat disturbing video is bringing light to the worldly matter of terrorism. Moreover, the video uses a technique whereby Lowkey is portrayed as a terrorist with a very tired and scruffy look as well as a beard. This is a stereotypical view on terrorists which is represented in the media today. He is being questioned vigorously by another man, who is also Lowkey but a clean shaven, 'suited and booted' version with glasses. Lowkey is the narrator in this video but this video is, for a majority of the time, using controversial archive photos of past events and is exposing the effect of war on innocent civilians. This is most probably the main intention of the video as it was released on September 11th. The dark setting depicts that this is a hip hop/rap video and most videos of this genre are usually made to be sinister. This is not a mainstream video or song and is referred to as 'underground hip hop' as rappers such as Lowkey are not signed to a record label and are also referred to as 'unsigned'.

Dizzee Rascal - Holiday - Analysis

In the Dizzee Rascal video "Holiday" the narrative revolves around a specific female at which the camera is voyeuristic to and the artist is both the participant and the narrator. This genre is urban, what indicates this is the way that the music video is layed out and the lyrics. The females in the music videos have barely any clothes on whereas the males are more clothed, the camera also tends to focus more on the females bodies than there actual faces furthermore representing that this is an urban genre.