Planning Digipak - Miss Miller

Digipaks are a type of packaging CD's or DVD's made from cardboard with six sides. The purpose of a digipak is to include extra information and images of an artist to make the album seem more personal to the buyer and make them feel connected to the artist. Digipaks usually contain bonus tracks, which makes the buyer feel like they are seeing more of the artist than the original audience and that they are more of a fan, this is more of an effective approach to promoting the artist's album as the audience will want to feel more connected to the artist. I will be making a digipak for our artist so I will need to plan it first to make it the most effective it can be in promoting our artist, and so that it appeals to our target audience.

      Colours

     The colours I have used in my digipak are dark, rich colours. I have chosen to use these (red,black,gold) to create a vintage feel within my digipak, this makes it conventional to the soul genre and also makes the artist seem professional and bold which is more appealing to the target audience. Also the red matches the artist hair so this will make the layout and presentation of the digipak seem well made and again professional.

     Images used

     In my digipak I have chosen a close-up shot of the artist on the front cover, this is going to be used so that the audience can see just her face and recognise her, she will be looking directly into the camera, this will make it seem as if she is looking at our audience giving a personal feel to them. This also makes the artist seem like a star as she is looking into the camera showing no emotion which will help promote her and her album.

     

     Layout/design

     The layout I have used shows the front cover with the artist's image on it with her name and album name in bold writing. This is followed by a page of song names, page of song lyrics, page of more artist images and a page of personal messages from the artist to the audience. This shows that the digipak contains a lot more personal information than a normal CD case and makes the digipak more personal and appealing to the audience whilst promoting the artist's new album.

     Typography

  

     The font used in my digipak plan is bold and simple, this allows the digipak to appeal to the audience and it also makes a statement, this makes the artist seem bold herself as her name is in bold writing. The simplistic font may appeal to a wider audience as it doesn't fit into any specific genre conventions, so a wider audience could be attracted to the digipak and want to buy the artist's album, this increases the publicity for the album as more people will see it.

     Language

     The language used on the front page of my digipak will be simple and bold to firstly catch the eye of the audience and make the artist's album appeal to them. Then the language used for the personal messages on the other images of the artist will be more informal and colloquial to again portray the personal feel to the audience and make the digipak more attractive.

    

     Planning my digipak has been very useful as we now know what images to include in it, and that we need to take them during filming. Also the plan of the digipak allows us to not waste time thinking of ideas when we make our real digipak as we will know what to do due to our plans, also the planning of my digipak has been useful in preparing me for the use of photoshop as I feel more aware of what to include and will again stop the wasting of time thinking of what to do. I feel more aware of what pictures we will need to use in our digipaks as the plan allows us to experiment with different pictures to create different meanings, which gives us a clear view of what images to take and include in our digipaks.

Storyboards - Miss Georgiou

·         What is the purpose of a storyboard?

·         How did you use your primary and secondary research that you carried out, to plan your music video?

·         How did you and your group storyboard your music video?

·         How did you share the responsibility?

·         Did you follow your storyboards, or did you make changes? Answer this question after you have filmed

·         Include your storyboards

   

      The purpose of a storyboard is to collaborate ideas between group members to make a plan with each of our shots and what will be used in that shot and what effect it will have to make our video appeal more to the audience. The camera angle, duration of the shot, iconography, characters, lighting, setting and other elements will all be thought through to make each shot meaningful and important to our music video. This will make it easier for us when we film as we will have a step by step plan of which shots to do and what order to film them in.

      

      We used primary research from our questionnaires that we made and got results from, the answers we received allowed us to see which elements of the video our target audience would like to see most to make the video appeal to them more. This included questions about the setting, characters and themes. Our secondary research included analysing music videos from the soul genre (which our song we are using is from). This allowed to be inspired by conventional soul genre elements and get ideas to use for our video whilst keeping it within the soul music genre. This included analysing camera angles, lighting, editing and much more to assist us in planning and creating our own music video.

      In our group we decided to use each of us to help plan our music video using their different skills, for example myself (Shaun) and Lucy are very creative so we drew the pictures of the separate shots; allowing us to see what angle we will use and what costumes and characters will be in the shot, this visual view of each shot will give us a better idea of what to film when we start shooting for the video. Devon and Sophie wrote the written version of mine and Lucy's drawings, this allowed us to know specifically what we needed to include in each shot and what effect it would have on the audience. This storyboard allowed us to know exactly what to film and why which will hopefully make our video more appealing as it will have soul music conventions, and elements that our audience specifically want to see.

Planning editing styles - Miss Georgiou

Different editing styles are important in a music video as it keeps the audience engaged and intrigued, this also makes the video more interesting because the audience will not get bored.  The three editing styles we are using are:

Slow paced editing
Flashbacks
Jump cut

1) Is it conventional to your music genre?
2) How does the editing style help to represent your artist?

Slow paced editing is conventional to the soul music genre as it doesn't change shots quickly, the use of slow paced editing makes the audience feel like they are with the artist in the video as it is filmed in long, meaningful shots which makes the video looks professionally made. The use of slow editing allows the artist to present their emotions easier as they have longer time to show that they are hurt or upset. This is conventional of the soul genre to present emotions to the audience and it also makes the video more relateable for the audience, increasing it's popularity and this could even attract a wider audience due to the professional look of the video.

Flash backs are conventional to the soul music genre as soul artist usually sing about past experience that they feel emotional about. The use of flashbacks in our video is to create the same effect of the artist being hurt in the past and singing about it now, letting our all their emotions through the music. This is conventional as it makes the artist more intrigued to the artist and the song as they know it has a deeper meaning, this appeals strongly to the audience and makes the video more enjoyable to watch.

A jump cut is a transition between two shots which appears to "jump" due to the way the shots are framed in relation to each other. This is not conventional to the soul music genre as it creates tension but this makes our artist seem more exciting, we are using a jump cut to make our video more exciting and enjoyable for the audience.

These different editing styles used, allow the audience to see more of our artist and therefore build a relationship with them. The emotions portrayed through our artist and editing styles make the audience feel closer to the artist and appeal more to to them to make the video more popular.

Planning magazine advert - Miss Miller

The importance of magazine adverts when promoting an artist's album is very important as it allows the audience to be interested in the album and want to buy it. The advert has to be eye catching and appealing, if it isn't appealing then readers will see the album and ignore it, this will reduce the sales for the album. My album advert for our artist and I will be planning the magazine advert in this post to make it a successful advert to make it conventional to the genre and promote the artist whilst appealing to the audience.

Colours

The colours I have used in my album advert are bright and colourful, I have used this to catch the eye of the audience and therefore gain more publicity for the artist's album. The colours used are not conventional to the soul genre as they are bright, this subverting of the soul genre allows the audience to notice the advert where as if the colours were dull they may skip past it. The soul genre normally consists of a vintage look so dark red or black may be more suitable to the genre, but the bright colours in the advert are used just to attract the audience to buying the artist's album.

Design Layout

The layout I have used shows the artist name at the top, this presents her as a star as and that she is important, also the large image of her in the middle of the advert portrays her again as important and the centre of attention. This may attract the audience as they know what the artist looks like, also the big title catches the eye of the audience and makes them want to buy the album. The song name at the bottom shows that the artist's song is new, this appeals to the audience as they would want to hear her new music, and for a new audience it could make them want to get to know the artist and her music.

Choice of Image

The image I have chosen in my magazine advert plan shows a close up of the artist, this allows the audience to recognise her when they are reading the magazine, and then make them interested in her new album and want to buy it. Also the picture is in black and white apart from her orange hair and red lips, these rich colours are conventional to the soul genre and make the artist seem more professional and classy. This may appeal to the audience as they could recognise the artist's bold features and want to buy her new album, also the use of orange and red portrays love and danger, these are two popular subjects that soul artists sing about, making it conventional to the soul genre.

Typography

The font used in this advert plan is bold and simple, this allows the advert to appeal to the audience and it also makes a statement, this makes the artist seem bold herself as her name is in bold writing. The simplistic font may appeal to a wider audience as it doesn't fit into any specific genre conventions, so a wider audience could be attracted to the album advert and want to buy it, this increases the publicity for the album as more people will see it.

Style of Language

The language used in my plan is very limited and simple, I have done this to make the artist seem bold through her image on the advert. This means that the image of the artist says enough to the audience and plenty words are not needed to describe her or her music. The only three bits of writing shown are the artist name, song name and album name, this makes that information seem more important as they are the only thing on the advert apart from the artist image. This may intrigue the audience as this creates a simple, bold looking advert for the artist's new album, gaining publicity for it and therefore making more people want to buy it.




Planning the magazine advert allowed me to analyse the different conventions used, and the effect they have on the audience. This also allowed me to notice which aspects needed changing and which ones should be kept the same. This also made me realise what pictures need to be taken during filming as different angles are shots can contribute to the success of a magazine advert. Therefore during our filming we will be taking many pictures of our artist so we can choose the correct one to make our magazine advert more successful and appeal more to the audience. Making a plan also makes it easier for us when we come to making the proper advert in photoshop as we will have a basic idea of what elements to use in our magazine advert to make it most successful.

Research into record labels - Miss Georgiou

A major record label is a large company within the music industry which may own smaller record companies. In the UK the current major record labels that operate are Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, they represent many well known artists from the UK and the rest of the world from all different music genres. 

Universal music record company also owns a small part into many smaller record labels such as Interscope Records, Island Records, Republic Records and many other small record labels. Although these are smaller record labels they still manage some famous artists such as; Eminem, considered as one of the greatest rap artists ever, Lady Gaga another global sensation with a large fan base and appeals to millions of viewers, other big names like Disclosure, John Newman and Frank Ocean are a part of these record labels.

Universal music manage artists such as:

Ariana Grande

Chase and Status

Duke Dumont

Drake

Ellie Goulding

Justin Bieber

Kanye west

Sony Music Entertainment is an American music corporation owned by the parent company of Sony which is based in Japan. Founded in 1929 under the name American Record Corporation, Sony was renamed many times before finally settling on the name Sony Music Entertainment in 1991. It has a vast amount of artists varying from local artists to international stars belonging to different genres of music.

Sony Music manage artist such as;

• Adele
• Bruno Mars
• Jennifer Lopez
• JLS
• Justin Timberlake
• Kid Ink
• One Direction

The Warner Music Group is another huge record company which owns part of smaller record labels such as Atlantic Records, Warner Bros Records, Rhino Entertainment and many other international record labels. These smaller labels manage huge music artists such as Kylie Minogue, Lily Allen and Conor Maynard.

Warner Music manage artists such as;

• Birdy
• Coldplay
• Jason Derulo
• Flo Rida
• Katy Perry
• Wiz Khalifa
• Madonna

Independent labels are labels that operate one or few music labels, they

can be just as successful but operate from a smaller company base. They are traditionally known as offering more ‘organic’ music rather than manufactured mainstream and there are many different independent record labels within the UK.

Boy better know (BBK) is an English grime music collective; this is a group of musicsians, a grime record label and a brand. The collective was made in North London by JME, Skepta and Wiley. The band and the label was established in 2005 firstly by Jamie Adenuga (JME). BBK also has a clothing line and phone sim cards. Members of the label include:

• Skepta
• JME
• Wiley
• Jammer
• Frisco
• DJ Maximum
• Short
• Solo 45
• DJ Preditah

Warp records is an independent British record label, it was founded in 1989 in Sheffield they specialising in electronic music. Steve Beckett and Rob Mitcell were the founders and they were successful due to their expperience at the FON recoprd shop. The label manage artists such as:

Aphex Twin

Darkstar

Red Snapper

Seefeel

TNGHT

Tempa is a dubstep, 2-step garage and UK garage record label run by Ammunition Promotions, out of the Truman Brewery, East London. Created in 1999, Tempa is now widely considered to be one of the founding labels of the dubstep sound. They have managed many different artists such as;

• Skream
• Benga
• Truth
• Kode9
• DJ Hatcha

Lyric analysis - Miss Georgiou

The song that we chose to make a video for is Paloma Faith 'Only love can hurt like this'. We chose this song as the lyrics were deep and meaningful which makes it easier for us to make the visuals for the song, the song conveys the artist's hurt and damaged feelings from breaking up with her ex. When she says 'Must have been a deadly kiss' it can connote the pain she is feeling as the adverb 'deadly' is such a deep meaningful word.  'Your kisses burning through my skin' this is similar to the previous line, it shows how his kisses cause her physical pain which represents how he has such a huge impact on her life. The lyrics of the song that we analysed showed us that our artist is feeling a lot of pain and emotion, this makes it easier for us a group to choose the right mise-en-scene elements, cinematography and editing to portray these feelings through the video to make it appeal more to the target audience.

We annotated the lyrics from the song and made notes of which lines and words we could use to create the visuals in our video, we decided which parts of the song should have specific cinematography and mise-en-scene to create our narrative for this song.

• 'I tell myself, you don't mean a thing' - When our artist is singing this line, we are going to have her singing into the mirror using a over the shoulder shot to represent her telling herself how she feels.
• 'But when you're not there' - We will have our artist laying in bed imagining her ex laying next to her, when she sings this line the male character will fade from the scene.
• 'I just crumble' - We could have our character/artist fall apart in the scene to convey how they are crumbling from the pain they are experiencing. 
• 'Till I feel your touch' we could have our male and female character touch each other and make it positioned into the middle of the camera shot.
• 'Must have been a deadly kiss' - We would have our male and female character kiss to show how the kiss they share.
  
  

Initial group planning ideas - Miss Georgiou

In my group there are four of us; me, Lucy Nottage, Sophie Elliott, Devon Thomas. In our first meeting we discussed the possible artists of the songs we were going to create a video for, for example: Rhianna, Ed Sheeran. Then we thought of songs we could use for example: Umbrella, drunk. We then eventually decided on the final song we are using which is Paloma Faith 'only love can hurt like this'. We decided on this song as it fits nicely in the soul genre which would felt we could make a good. conventional video for and also the lyrics are full of emotion which we could link in with the visuals well. Here are our annotated lyrics.

We then discussed the miss en scene, artist representation, cinematography, style of music video, editing, code and conventions, target audience, music video theory, research/inspirations and annotation of lyrics. After discussing this as a group we had plenty of ideas for our music video which all fell into the soul music genre, this will therefore help us when we come to filming and editing our music video as we have the ideas ready to be made. In the next meeting we researched into the copyright of our song "Only love can hurt like this" and we made an e-mail asking Paloma Faith's record label if we could use the song so we don't get sued by the record label. We also used this meeting to research into our chosen music genre: soul. We analysed some videos from Adele and Amy Winehouse as they are conventional to the soul genre, we thought about the muse-en-scene elements, cinematography and editing styles that we may use in our video to give us a brief outline of what we will film for our music video.

When I analysed Adele's "Someone like you" music video I noticed and commented on the use of Cinematography; the use of a tracking shot following Adele through the empty setting, this makes the audience feel as if they are following Adele as she walks along. This evokes emotion as the audience feel like they are with the artiest whilst she is upset, making the audience create a connection with Adele. This inspired us to use a tracking shot to create the same effect

The mise-en-scene element of setting seen in Amy Winehouse's 'back to black' music video is a funeral setting throughout the video. This presents the song as possibly sad, this is typical of the soul genre as soul music videos usually show the artist as upset or reminiscing on the past, which is conventional of the soul genre. This allows us again to get an outline of the music video we are going to create and what elements we are going to include.

This is our planning sheet.

Date	Action	To be done by	By whom	Discussions
15.09.14	To decide on an artist and a song	15.09.14	All group members	Various ideas were discussed and a mindmap was created by the group. Eventually we decided on creating a music video by…and the song…..
16.09.14	Wrote a letter to our chosen artists record label, asking for permission to recreate the music video.	16.09.14	All group members	As our artist belongs to two record labels we discussed which one we were going to write too.
17.09.14	We annotated our lyrics to find out what we could incorporate into our music video.	17.09.14	All group members	We discussed what lines had a deeper meaning and created ideas which we could represent throughout our recreation.
22.09.14	We decided on the mise-en-scene we would use for each scene.	22.09.14	All group members, however did individual posts.	We discussed what the conventional locations and iconography would be for each scene within our music video.
25.09.14	We decided on the different camera angles we were to use for each scene.	25.09.14	All members, however did individual posts.	We discussed which camera angles were most effective for the scene.
01.10.14	We decided on how we wanted out artist to be represented.	01.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what our artist would wear and look in order to attract our target audience.
07.10.14	We decided on what editing styles we would use throughout our music video.	07.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what editing styles were most effective in order to build a relationship between the music and visuals.
13.10.14	We created storyboards in sequence and chronological order of our planned music video.	13.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed many different aspects of our music video eg; iconography, setting, editing.
18.10.14	We made up a schedule of when we were going to film our music video.	18.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We discussed what times we were available to film certain scenes of our music video and planned what days we would film at each setting.
23.10.14	We created a risk assessment for the filming of our music video.	23.10.14	All members, however individual posts.	We came up with specific accidents that could possibly occur during our filming and assessed how we could avoid them and what we would do if they did occur.
30.10.14	We filmed our music video.	30.10.14	All members.	On four different occasions we filmed at different settings the footage, which we used in our music video.
03.11.14	We created a photoshoot post including different photos captured during the filming of the music video.	03.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We selected different pictures from the footage we had taken and analysed why they were conventional to our genre and how they would appeal to our target audience.
07.11.14	We planned our group digipak.	07.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We combined our ideas as well as ideas we got through inspiration from existing digipaks from artists within our genre.
14.11.14	We planned our group magazine advert.	14.11.14	All members, however individual posts.	We combined ideas to create a magazine advert for our artist album release.
18.11.14	We created our music video rough cut.	18.11.14	All members.	We edited all the clips and material by cropping them and adding transitions in order to create a rough cut for our music video.

Meetings and discussions are important to carry out throughout the whole planning of our music video and ancillary texts as it allows us to add our own new and different ideas that will allow us to create final pieces of that are most conventional to the genre and appeal to our target audience as each of us can give our individual ideas. As there are four of us, there will be a lot more ideas that we could consider using, this allows us to get the most successful ideas and put them together to make a group effort for the work we have to do.

 I believe our group worked well together as we all have different skills and abilities that we brought together, I had good experience and knowledge of how to edit, Lucy had most of the creative ideas, Sophie had useful thoughts for conventional decisions and Devon had directional skills that made us work time efficiently.

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