Designing the Digipak

To get some ideas of how the digipak will look, I have done some rough sketch and briefly annotated the colour and what will be included.

After researching the album artwork, it made it easier for me to come up with some ideas because I released that it doesn't really matter if your album artwork does not represent the genre, because people who knows the band will stop and look anyway, because they are a fan.

Although I realised about how many alternative genre bands album cover does not really represent "Alternative", I thought to keep the design simple and relate the album artwork with the band and he genre. 

Design 1:

Th front of the album artwork.

In this album artwork, I have included the band sign in zodiac which will the the bands logo, so any fans will immediately know the band, and only those who knows the band as they will recognise the band logo. I also included the 5 colts who will be featured in the Music Video as a group, we have decided that the song "Iron" will be the single. But I want it faded in to the white background because I want the logo to stand out, which will be in red. This red, black and white creates a horrid gore look.

If we decide to use this album artwork for Framasson, we will have to shoot the colts in our photography studio and use a white background, and later on remove the background and edit it on photoshop so the white is purely white and so that the shadows which may be created in the background will not be in the artwork. 

Creating the logo should not be so hard, but we will probably ask one of our art students to recreate it into something in higher quality. 

Design 2:

The front of the album artwork.

This is the second album artwork, I have used the pigs head which will be featured in the Music Video as the main object. It's quite hard to describe how I want this to look as I'm not too sure of it either, but a black background and contrast the pigs pink colour so it will stand out and give a "floating" look. Also the bands logo will either be "burnt" on the pigs head, like an burnt effect with a brand, or on the right bottom corner so it is balanced out within the composition. I would also like the lighting to be really strong, and a sharp shadow. However, it will be very hard to take the photo of the pigs head as we will not be allowed to shoot it in the photography studio.

Design 3:

The front of the album artwork.

The front of the album artwork.

This is the third album artwork. It includes the "Devils Net" which will be made by the group to be in the Music Video and thought this may be a fun idea as it will only appear in the music video for a little while but be the main object on the album cover. As it will be made out of wood, I thought it can be shot in the forest or woods so the trees will be in the background and will link to what the Devils Nest is made out of.

If we decide to this idea, we can shoot the Devils net in the park we will be shooting our Music Video in. Although, one of the con will be that we will not have the control of the lighting as it will be natural sunlight. 

Design 4: 

The front of the album artwork.

The back of the album artwork.

This is the fourth idea for the digipak. On the front, the main person of the colt will be photographed looking down. I got this inspiration from the red hiding hood, as it wears similar clothing and a head cape. Like the image below, I want the trees to be in the background. A strong shadow will make it more dramatic.

If we decide to use this idea, we can shoot the main colt character in the photography studio and edit the background in later, after making adjustments.

Design 5: 

The front of the album artwork.

 

The back of the album artwork.

(Need to complete)

Researching for the Digipak

As our group has planned to create a digipak and a website for the band, Framasson, I decided to do some research on similar genre bands digipaks which exists to get some inspiration

From Lewis's blog, I have researched The XX, Everything Everything, alt-J, and Swim Deep as these bands has similar alternative genre. 

The XX 

The XX digipak is very simple, and lack of use of colour. They have the same design with the 2 albums, the big X but just in a different colour, as the big X is their logo, fans will know that this is the band without been told obviously. 

The two album contains 11 songs and are mostly named in a word. 

Everything Everything 

The Everything Everything album is colourful and also bold. The contrast between the orange and the pink makes the album eye catching and also the way character has been drawn in blue/grey is interesting as its fanatical and the characters body gesture is not "normal" - unexpected attack.

The second album are the 4 band members of Everything Everything, they are all facing the same direction and wearing plain autumnal jumpers. I found it interesting how the back of the band connoted also the band is facing the back.

alt-J (∆)

In the alt-J album, the 2 album are both colourful and uses similar colour such as the yellow, purple green and blue. Both has a similar style of "not planned" finish, for example, the first album is painted by a paint brush but painted randomly. The 2nd album cover is a spillage of petrol on the pavement, and the way the petrol has separated is not done purpose. The finish is quite similar. 

The pastel colours make the album cover beautiful because the colours are not clashing. It gives a soft, gentle finish. 

The back of the digipak has used the same font and style. Big and bold.

Swim Deep

David Fincher - Biography

What is Intertextuality?

Intertextuality is the reference of one media text (Cinema/Film, Music Video, Television and Articles) in another media text.  This often means that both texts share an audience in some way because they wouldn't understand the reference otherwise.

David Fincher

Born: August 28, 1962 (aged 53)

Occupation: Film Director, film producer, television director, television producer, music video director.

Years active: 1984 - present.

Graduate of 

Music Videos Directed:

Films Directed:

Example from one of his music videos: 

Express yourself - Madonna

Vogue - Madonna

Love is Strong - The rolling stones

Intertextuality example:

Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston  and Suit & Tie - Justin Timberlake ft. Jay-Z

The "Suit and Tie" MV was also directed by David.

John Stuart describes music videos as "incorporating, raiding and reconstructing" other texts.  In this case I think that this indicates that the viewers of this music video would also be familiar with


Spike Jonze

Born:

Occupation:

Years active:

Graduate of 

Music Video Directed:

Films Directed:








Example from one of his music videos:





















Michel Godly

Intertextuality and Music Video:

Intertextuality and Music Video:
Madona - Material Girl 
Marilyn Monroe - Diamonds are a girls best friend

An inter-textuality is applied here, as in Marilyn's music video, she is wearing a very pink tube dress, with hand scarf matching her dress, good looking men in suits with red tie, and the setting looks absolutely identical as the pink and red background colour they have used is also been in use in Madonna's MV. Both Marilyn and Madonna is carrying a black lace fan to seduce and reject men surround the 2 singers. People who are fan of madonna would have seen the Marilyn's movie and thought that Madonna has copied Marilyn. The 2 singers shares the same fanbase as they are both seen as "sassy" women and women who to look up to. 

Survey Monkey Questionnaire response

Ben has made a questionnaire which we have asked students to complete so receive a response. So far we have received 40 responses. 

Question 1:

 Question 2:

 Question 3:

 Question 4:

 Question 5:

 Question 6:

 Question 7:

 Question 8:

From the questionnaire, we have established that teenagers do not particularly listen to the genre of  "alternative" and this suggested that teenagers will probably not like "Woodkid" either, as from the comments, most of people who has participated either did not like the bands which were mentioned in question 7, or don't know them. One commentator has said they enjoy Eminem which suggests that teenagers enjoy rap music more over alternative genre music. We also understand that teenage audiences enjoy watching music video which has a narrative. By understanding this popular opinion, we are glad that teenagers enjoy wtahcing a music video with a narrative, as our music video will be also narrative. 

However we have also found that some do like the artists mentioned in question 7 because "They have different types of songs which makes them more unique", "Upbeat and uplifting" and also as some has seen them live in a concert. 

Planning 4:

To complete our storyboard, we are handwriting them on a paper template, and will be taking photograph of each shot and edit it in the Final Cut Pro and add in the music later to create an animatic storyboard.

Planning 3:

In today's lesson we are focusing on Framasson's first album name and the names of the 15 songs in the album.

Album name - Sons of Progression

Song Titles:

• Iron
• Asterix Dogpark
• Ógeðslega flottür (Really Cool)
• Fathers
• Brennivín
• Under the Allotment
• Svið
• The Fog
• Cardigan Dreamland
• Endirinn

Our group has also discussed more about the music video I depth, like the setting/location we are going to shoot, who is responsible to buy and bring in the props on the day to film and deciding who to use as actors in the music video.

We came to a solution that I will bring in the make up, Ben is responsible for the drum, and Lewis is responsible for the costume. I can bring in some old make up which I don't use, Ben has the access to the drums as his parents are in the music industry and Lewis will buy the costume via Amazon.

We have also started off to draw out the storyboard. 

I have come up with an idea that if there are any parts which will be hard to film or missed out, we can film the pigs head being burnt in the end, finishing filming the music video and edit the scene of the pig being burnt into the missing parts. 

The story board will later on be analysed with the timing of when the video will be played in the music video. 

Another discussion which was made was the actors we are thinking to use in our music video. All together, we need 6 male actors (4 17 year olds and 2 14 year old) and Lewis will contact them to see if they wouldn't mind being in the music video.

As for location, we are all thinking to film in Richmond park as it is big and is like in the woods which will set the scene of grunge. Lewis will travel to Richmond Park on Sunday so we will know where to film exactly. 

Lewis has come up with the idea of using red filter on the camera lens as we want to film during the day but make it look like it's dark and shot during the night. We thought of this idea because if we do actually film in the dark, there will only be like an hour to film as it will get dark real quick. 

Rick Altman

Rick Altman introduces 3 resolution to describe what genre is.

1. Semantic - all of the codes

- Settings

- Props

- Characters

- Sounds

- Shooting Style

Example: Western Semantic codes 

Settings:

- California

- The wild west

- Bars

- Prison

- Frontier town with saloon

- Mountains

Props:

- Guns

- Beers/Alcohol

- Horse

- Cards 

- Whips

- Dice

Characters:

- Cowboy

- Marshall

- Town Drunk

- Bar Tender

- Indians

- Black Smith

- Homesteader

- Bounty Hunters

- Hooker

(Costumes:)

- Cowboy outfit (stetson hats, shoes)

Sounds: 

- Banjo

- Drums

- Piano

- Guitar

- Harmonica 

Shooting Style:

- Tracking

-   

2. Syntatic - Narrative
In a romantic comedy, we expect the potential lovers to begin by not liking each other, then end up together.

In a horror movie, we expect someone to die by a devil

Planning 2:

In today's planning, we discussed further about the props and costume and how we are going to purchase from where. Also thinking about who is going to pay for which props.

Costume:
Our aim of the music video is to create a grungy look. To meet this criteria we went on Amazon.com to see what kind of costumes we can purchase. 
We decided to purchase a black cloak for the actors who are the colts.
For the shoes, we are going to purchase some black plimsoles from Primark because if we just let them wear their usual snakes, it will ruin the appearance of "Grunge" and will look odd.

The main character will be wearing something casual but white because it will stand out from the crowd. We are thinking something like a plain white sweater and trousers. 

Props:
Timpuny Drums -

Pigs Head -

Goblet - 

Chalk Spray - 

Target Audience - feedbacks from fans of artists in our genre (alternative)

Each of us in the group were given a task by the teacher to understand more about the band and audience of the band.
I went on YouTube to investigate more about the band by reading the comments and the feedback given by the fans. I picked out the song 'Iron' as we are using this song for our music video.
Here are some examples of the positive feedbacks:

By reading these feedbacks, we have examined what the audience enjoyed about the music video, and we can apply their entertainment in to our music video to achieve more viewers. Also the common feedback there are is that they are different and original, from this knowldge, I will create a video questionnaire and select students from the sixth form and ask what comes in their mind when they hear the band "woodkid", their expectations from a band named "woodkid" so we can fit the criteria and make our music video original as possible.

whats important?
The costume?
The props?
The location/setting?
The actor?