Digipak Feedback

Today we were asked to show the draft of our digipak and we received both positive and negative comments. The positives were that; our front cover image subverted the meanings of colours as we had the dove in black and the artist in white. The reason for this is because doves are normally associated with freedom and we wanted to change the meaning and have the dove in black and our artist in white to show that freedom is actually in our own hands. Also her being in white signifies peace. The image on the inside of the digipack (heart shaped mirror with pictures behind it) was also liked and was said to be a great idea as it was different and well thought about.

The use of the rose was said to have fitted the conventions of our music video. But we also received constructive criticisms; the meaning behind the image of the rose was not understandable as it was not clear and we did not have a specific reason for it. However the reason for the image was that; the rose symbolizes love, the locket symbolizes them together and when you love someone you incorporate in their life and merged together which is why the pendent was wrapped around the rose. Also we needed to think about the colour scheme on our front cover as the majority was just black and would mean that the dove and the title wouldn’t be seen. Therefore, we have decided to make the back a dark grey colour which happens gradually. The back cover was also not clear as the colours were bright and did not relate to the rest of the covers and so that too will also be dark grey. And the title was said to be a bit small and so we will make it bigger for it to stand out more.

Planning For Digipack.

The purpose of a digipak is for the use of a permium package for CD singles, special editions of CD albums, DVDs and DVD sets. Digipaks consist of a 'bookstyle' paperboard with one or more platics trays which are capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. A group known as IMPAC Group, Inc, were the original owners of the Digipak trademark.

This is an example of a four sided digipack

This is probably the most common, which includes a pocket with a booklet including lyrics, information and photographs.

This is an example of a six sided digipak

This consist of a front and back cover, a spine, photgraphs of the artist(s), artist(s) information, song lyrics and a disc pocket. The reason for a larger digipak is that it allows the comstumer to have an easier viewing of the contents.

Therefore, because of this we have decided to make a digipak which consists of 6 sides. This will allow our audience to get a better understanding of what our images are trying to portray. The images with have chosen to use are; three windows, one broken, the other half broken and finally one that's not broken. The will be on the inside of the digipak and the reason why we have chosen those images are because it reflects on our music video. Our music video is about our main actor looking back and remembering how it started and ended; how the cracks began and what is left of the relationship. The mirror plays a significant role in this as in the music video our main character sits by the mirror as she remembers the relationships and what she needs to do to get out of it.

For the outer part of our digipak we have decided to have our main character standing on a hill with her arms out open to a dove flying away. The reason for this is because a dove represents freedom and in our music video our main character leaves the life she has for freedom. We also have a rose with a chain around it. The colours we have decided to use are dark colours such as black; however, we have decided to leave the dove as white because we want our audience to understand that having freedom is a positive thing even if it means losing the one you love. Everyone has the right to freedom and shouldn't feel the need to depend on someone. The use of black not only signifies pain but also 'hidden' and 'naive' - meaning that in a relationship the most important feelings are normally hidden from one another and lies are told; naive because we chose to believe we are in the wrong when we know we aren't in relationships.

Here are examples of album covers from artists in our music video genre:

Avril Lavigne:

Good Charlotte:

 

Linkin Park:

From looking at these three covers we can see that when it comes to the album covers of the music genre soft rock there is a variety of where the artist goes (front or back) and whether the artist is shown or not. There is also the use of bright and dull colours which could be used to reflect on the fact that it is a soft rock album. There is also a variety in the type of fonts used on a soft rock album cover as we can see in the pictures above. Therefore, when making our album covers we will have a range of choices on what it should look like and how it can reflect on being a soft rock album.

Half Term Filming.

During the half term, me and my partner were supposed to go out filming however due to certain circumstances we were unable to do so. We had scheduled the days we were planning on filming, which locations to film in and what time as you can see on our breakdown sheets. Having spoken to our teacher about why we could not film over the half term, we were given more time to film and came up with a different alternative, which was to film each other instead of relying on our actors who also couldn't turn up. One of our scenes included a male character and since our actors also could not make it we had troubles finding a guy. However, we did decide to use other people to portray the flashback in the music video where their faces are not shown.

Feedback From My Movie Rough-Cuts

In class we were asked to show to our fellow peers the rough cut of our music video to get feedback. We received both positive comments and constructive criticisms. The postive comments we recieved were; our use of different shots were good as it made it more interesting, especially the shot where we used the effects of mirror image. The costumes worn by our made character was said to be really well thought about and went well with the music video. The location we decided to film in (a park to resemble a forest) was said to be really nice and went well with the tone of the song as well as the use of the piano. This also made it look more realistic and can be seen as a music video. There was a part where we had our main character kick the stool of the piano, which was said to a bit cheesy but did reflect on our character's emotions (anger).

The constructive critisisms that we recieved were that we needed to improve the timing of the lip synching as it almost match the lyrics of the song but not perfectly. There was a scene where we had letters scattered on the floor, however they thought this could have been improved if we made it fall onto the floor somehow. We also need to add in the missing shots that we hadn't got around to editing in yet. The bedroom scenes were said to be a bit too dark and therefore needs to be brighten which we can do when editing. Also, there is a part where the door was closed and then suddenly opened, therefore, we need to make sure we edit it to make it run smoothly.

Conventions of Our Music Video Genre.

The genre of our music video is Soft Rock. The conventions of a soft rock music video consists of either: black clothing, a dark background/lighting, dark make up and a isolated location or colourful clothing, bright background/lighting, natural makeup and a location where it is fun or it could include both of these concepts. Several soft rock artists who follow these conventions are Avril Lavign and Pink. Avril Lavigne's
'Hot' music video consists of coloured clothing, bright backgrounds and a fun surrounding. Whereas, her 'Innocence' music video consists of wearing dark clothing, black eyeliner and in an isolated place playing a piano. Another example, is Pink's 'So What' music video - this too consists of bright colours and a fun setting. However, a music video that consists of both conventional ideas is Avril Lavigne's 'The Best Damn Thing' music video. This music video has bright and coloured backgrounds, however her make up is dark and at some points so are her clothing.

In our music video we decided to follow the conventions of a soft rock music video. Our music video consists of a dark dull background/setting, an isolated location, dark makeup and dark clothing. We decided to make the lighting brighter than what you would expect in a dark soft rock music video as we also wanted it to have an aspect of a pop and so by making the video a bit more soft and gentle it makes it more soft rock than just rock. Even though we did not go against or challenge the conventions of a music video, we did go against what our target audience expected in a soft rock music video. For example, they expected to see a basement as a location, however we decided to use an isolated forest as our location. We believed that by making the music video something our target audience wouldn't expect would be more appealing and interesting to them as it will be something different.  

Breakdown sheets.

Anamatic Presentation Feedback

Today I was asked to show our animantic music video to our fellow classmates and asked for their opinions - both positives and contructives criticisms. They liked the shots and angles used, especially the high angle shot used at the end of the video. The use of the high angle shot was to show her being depressed, down and weak as it reflects on the way she felt inside. Even though our main character plucks up the courage to leave which shows her strength, her emotions over powers this and her weakness overshowders her strength and so by using the high angle shot at the end we wanted to portray this. However, though they liked the shots and angles they also mentioned that there weren't many as the majority were medium shots.

But the reason to use a majority of medium shots (epecially in the middle of our music video) was also to reflect on how our main character feels inside. Mostly, when people break up from a relationship, at first they do not want to be seen and they choose to isolate themselves from the rest of the world (hence the establishing shot of the forest in the begginging which shows distance and also the loneliness she felt in their relationship) and once they are ready to open up to people they allow them to come up close and personal but still want them to respect their personal space (hence there being a lot of medium shots during the drama).

The use of close ups, medium shots and wide shot when our main character is playing the piano also reflects on her emotions as she remembers the whole relationship. The close ups were used for our audience to see and understand what our main character is going through and also it reflects on our main character opening up and letting the people know that she is hurt. Wide shots and long shots were used to show the isolation, loneliness and segregation of her relationship and how she feels alone inside. There was a close up of half the face of our main character - this was to reflect on the lyrics 'this absolution is always incomplete'. This too reflects on her feeling that she is not complete without his love and that she is the only one in the relationship who still loves him whereas he doesn't love her anymore. Also a white flash was used to that scene 23 is a flashback.

Another constructive criticism was that our shots were too long (shot 37 and 41) and reason for this was because in the shot we will have her running towards the camera whilst singing the lyrics. Futhermore, some of my fellow classmates mentioned that they did not understand our music video, however, there was a student who understood it and decided to explain it to the rest of the class. Her understanding of the video was correct as she explained it was about a relationship failing and the girl in the relationship has had enough and decided to leave without her boyfriend knowing and the scence of her playing the piano is from a different time period. This explanation is correct. The scenes of her playing the piano is her remembering everything that happened (hense the drama playing out afterwards) and the scenes of her and her boyfriend in a house is to show the death of the relationship as it portrays death and seperation in the relationship and how she leaves him.

The scenes of her running towards the camera was a mirror image of her leaving the house, as she remembers leaving her house she begins to run away leaving also what is most precious behind her (the piano) and then we have her standing still and looking back in both scenes to show that she is reliving the amount. However, I do believe that the main reason why my fellow classmates did not understand was because our drawing techniques are not perfect and so we had a hard time drawing what we wanted our shots to look like.

Survey

In Media we made a survey about what people would like and expect to see in a 'Soft Rock' music video. We did this by signing up to http://www.surveymonkey.com/ and creating our very own 10 questioned survey. Since we could only do a 10 questioned survey (unless we upgraded) we decided not to include the questions, are you a 'male or female' or age group options. However, what we needed to find out was what our audience as a whole wanted and expected in a music video and whether they listened to soft rock or hard rock more. But we did make sure that we sent it only to people who are 16 plus and are both male and female. Our survey can be seen from here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M6LLRKW

From our findings we found out that people expected to see abandoned streets, dark and wild customes in a soft rock music video. They werent to keen on whether the actors looked their age however, did say they would expect to see both the actor and artist in the music video. Also, they preferred the music video to have a storyline and a hidden meaning. When asked about what they were more likely to watch and listen to they picked options that reflected on soft rock.

Therefore, taking this into account we can either take their opinion on how a soft rock video should look like or go the opposite way and change certain bits. If we decided to take their opinion on how it should look like it could be boring as it's what they would expect to see. However, if we decide to change certain things then it might keep them more interested in watching the video as it's something they do not expect to see.

Copyright letter

Target Audience Profile

What music they listen to?
They would most probably listen to rock, pop, heavy mental, indie when it comes down to favourite music genres. These genres would most be appealing to them because of the lyrics - it might relate to them in some kind of way or maybe simply the loud noises. Their favourite artist could be The Pretty Reckless, whose music is mostly about life challenges and emotions but also has loud instruments. For example, their song 'Just Tonight' could be seen as a girl who is in a bad relationship which can relate to many young teenage or even adults.
The Pretty Reckless - Just Tonight

What they do at weekends?
During the weekends when they have free leisure time, they like to play instruments, for example their guitars. They mostly do this for about 1 hour or more with friends at a friends house. Also, they like to go to a skate park and hang out with friends or skate board - learning new skills and showing off the old. And if there are bands playing at a local pub they are most likely to go and check out the music and hang out with friends as they enjoy a drink or two.

What breakfast cereal they would choose? 
Their favourite cereal is Crunchy Nuts.

What mode of transport?
If they arent in a hurry they will normally travel by skateboards and bicycles as it is their favourite form of transport. However, if they are needing to get somewhere on time they will take a bus or train.

Where/how they live? 
They live in the borough of Camden, Noth London in a 3 bedroom flat they share with their mum and younger sister. Both their bedrooms consist of black with a hint of white wall painting, posters of favourite artists and a single bed. She also has a dog named Maddie.

Their favourite drink?
Their favourite drink are WKD and Redbull.

Their favourite TV shows?
Their favourite TV shows are Jackass and Family Guy. They find the too shows extremely funny, really cool and exciting and believe everyone should watch it.

Their favourite vegetables? 
Their favourite vegetables to eat are spinach, sweetcorn and brussel sprouts since their mother always tells them it's good for them.

What sport they watch/play?
They don't watch a lot of sports but their favourite sport to watch is Tennis. They believe Rafael Nadal is an amazing tennis player. And they also like a bit of badminton.

Who would be their ideal partner? 
They have a huge crush on Synyster Gates. They think he's a brilliant guitar player and are a fan of his tattoos.

Where they go on holiday?
They do not go on holiday a lot unless it's to see family who live in Germany.

What resturants they go to? 
They aren't big fans of restaurants but the last restaurant they went to was TGI for a friends get together.

What political party they would vote for?

They are not interested in politics in the slightest.

Music Video Survey

For Media I have been asked to create a survery for my music video. My target group are those who are 16 and over. By doing this survery, it will help me to understand what my target group want and expect to see in a music video and will ensure that I satisfy your needs.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M6LLRKW

Copyright

Johnathan Coulton a singer song writer based in Brooklyn refers to his music as an experiment in new ways in which content will be distrubuted and disseminated as a result of the internet. In his own words is that, ‘I give away music because I want to make music, and I can’t make music unless I make money, and I won’t make any money unless I get heard, and I won’t get heard unless I give away music.' Jonathan Coulton has all of his music available to stream to stream on his website, as well as many of the songs available for free download. Customers are then able to buy the song and can also make donations via paypal or amazon. Jonathan says that some of his songs have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, 45% of his income in 2007 was from paid digital downloads. He believes that most of his success is because he was able to give away free music and allowing his music to be used in music videos made by fans and posted on Youtube which some has recieved high views. Fans have also created cover versions of his songs, artwork, dances, plays, card games and even guitar instructional videos. This has enabled him to getting free publicity, Coulton believes.

This case study's argument is for music copyrights as it shows that giving music out for free helps spreads the word faster and gets the artist more noticed. It shows that by giving free money doesn't always results in poor outcomes instead more profit is made if music is given alway as it will ensure that his voice will be heard. Many may argue that this means artists could lose out in a lot of profit if music is given out for free, however this case study shows that making more profit can also be the case as it shows that his music has also been downloaded many times. Having given out his free music this has enabled fans to create music videos, cover versions, artworks and many more which has helped in getting his music out there more, ensuring a bigger audience.

I also agree with this method and think that it is a clever and better way of getting music out to fans. By having his music out there for free encourages more people to listen to it which gets him out there. It also helps as fans can then use his music to create music videos, cover versions and so on. Therefore, giving him a worldwide audience which then can lead to more profit as people from different places/county download his song. However, I do believe there is negative side to this. That being he could lose out on profit since he is giving his music out for free which might prevent people from buying it. But as proven by Coulton, free music could also be seen as positive.

Here is evidence of how worldwide he has gotten (the views) by giving out his music for free:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNmeMklFk8

Influential Music Videos

1. Michael Jackson - Ghost                                         

I believe this music video will influence a change in the way horror music videos are made. In previous music videos such as Michael Jackson - Thriller and Backstreet Boys - Everybody, both have a similar beginning to Michael Jackson - Ghost - where there is a short introduction of the characters before the music begins. Throughout this music video we see the same conventions we see in all three videos such as, scary costumes and dance routines. Both Thriller and Everybody introduced the artist(s) scary side by different shot types however, in Ghost, the director decided to show the audience the transformation of Michael Jackson, from being a normal human being into his scary character. Thanks to technology being enhanced this created  a better effect on getting the audience scared and making it more enjoyable. In the video we can see Michael pulling his bottom lip, ripping off his skin, turning into a skeleton, and a tall giant. The dance routines are more enjoyable as we watch people doing back flips off walls, going through pilers, and walking on walls - rather than seeing them all in one place doing the same dance routine. Overall this music video is unique and the skills used to make this will influence others to follow the same directions.

2. Michael Jackson - Speed Demon
This music video is also influencial as there is animation included. Rather than the whole music video being animated or realistic it has both aspects it in. We see humans mixing with animated characters which I believe was not seen a lot before this music video was released. The use of the director doing this instead of one or the other was to make it more fun, entertaining and unique - something that people will stop to watch as it is different from others. Even though we don't see Michael transforming into his animated character we still understand that he has and at the end we then see human Michael with animated Michael, which I believe is amazing. Overall this music videos use of a unique way of using animation has influenced over music videos to do the same.

3. Pink - Family Portrait

I believe family portrait is influential because the way the story is told through the music video is creative and different. Instead of seeing the basics of the artist singing the words to their song as the story plays out, the director of family portrait decided to put the artist Pink in the background instead of being the main focus. I believe this was an intelligent thing to do as it sends a deeper message out to the viewers. As some people normally believe that young children hardly understand what goes around them in a violent or dysfunctional household, or even feel hurt, upset or angry, this music videos reveals to us that children do understand and are even more upset by it than adults. Therefore, by having the young girl being the main focus and singing the words helps put the message across.

4. Lady Gaga - You And I
You&I is an influential music video because instead of following the typical conventions of what you would see in a song about love, it's more creative and interesting. The video doesn't have one scene of where we see the love between two people, instead there is a use of multiple clever scenes to reveal this. Even though there are different scenes and costumes used it all reflects on the lyrics.

5. Christina Aguilera - Oh Mother
This music video will inspire artist who decide to have a music video where they are singing at a live performance to add some sort of footage in their music video to make it more entertaining and engaging, especially when it comes to an emotional song - this helps the viewers to become more attached and empathize. For example, Adele's Someone Like You could be seen as a boring music video since it is just her  singing on a stage which lacks any sort of entertainment and leaves it down to the lyrics to tell the story. However, in Oh Mother, the director decided to use background footage which corresponds with the lyrics to give viewers a better understanding and makes it more interesting.