Friday, 8 February 2013

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Digipak Research)



 
The reason I have chosen to analyse this digipak is largely due to the front cover. It is an iconic photo that beautifully displays the costumes of the two characters.
 
The underlying meaning behind the photograph on the front cover is, in my opinion a woman succumbing to a man. Not in a sexual or romantic way, but in the sense that she has realised she has done wrong and has given up arguing. This is shown through the use of mise-en-scene, i.e. the black long flowing dress she is wearing which makes her resemble a ghost, or perhaps even a demon. She looks as if she is parting ways with the man who is conscious of her existence, but is yet collected and seemingly unaffected by her departure. This contrast in attitude is something I would love to display throughout my work, not only in the construction of the digipak.
 
The costumes used resemble what I want my actors to be wearing when shooting the music video. The white/black attire of the man and the pure black dress of the woman shows a neat contrast in the image which also contributes to the underlying meaning of the photo.
 
The viewer's attention is immediately drawn to this photo as there is a plan cream background which further brings out the contrast in the two character's clothes. This is simple, yet effective.
 
The simplicity of this digipak continues in terms of the font used. Although it isn't standard, bold arial font it is still far from a font that beams with thick borders and opaque lines; it's as if somebody has hand-crafted the album title on to the digipak. This font appeals to me and I would consider using a similar style when producing my own digipak.
 
The back cover of the digipak retains the simplicity of the front cover, with only the album title shown along with the track listing on top of the cream background that is used on the front cover. I appreciate the coherency of the digipak as it retains the same theme throughout. However, I would like to make my back cover more interesting and add a few more images in there to make the digipak look more like a DVD case as opposed to the standard CD digipak.
 
There isn't too much to say about the disc itself. It's a plain CD with text and logos written across it. Very much like the back cover, I would like the CD to contain images as well as text in order to make the digipak one whole collective piece of work as opposed to the CD just being inserted into the cover. Perhaps making the CD part of a montage would be more effective.
 
Overall, I do like this digipak. However, it's only really the front-cover that interests me. As a result of this, I will be taking into account the design of the front cover but not the back cover or the CD.

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Hide and Seek Storyboard (See Link)




https://www.dropbox.com/s/gmxdgj41ztzf1o3/Hide%20and%20Seek%20Storyboard.pdf


This is the storyboard I created for my music video using my tablet at home. Although the drawing isn't very good, it gives me a good basis to work from in terms of piecing my music video together. When I shoot my video, I will take stills from the moving images to create a more graphical storyboard in order to piece together something that I want my music video to replicate.

Music Video Shoot

I'm going to be shooting my music video tomorrow at a dance studio. I'm looking forward to finally getting started on my music video and putting my creative mind to work.

I have a one hour slot from 7:30 - 8:30 in the evening. I aim to get it all shot in that one hour, but that's rather ambitious and it won't matter if I have to do another session of shooting.

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Front Cover Idea

I've had an idea for the front cover of my digipak. It uses a photographic technique that shows motion blur.

I want to use this effect in the following way:

Two people standing opposite each other in a dimly lit room whilst one of the parties remain still, the other will rock back and forth creating a messy 'cloud' of blur in front of the person remaining still. I think this will be effective as it conveys lyrics in the song that I am using, e.g.

"spin me round again... when busy streets a mess with people would stop to hold their heads heavy"

I think this would work wonderfully if pulled off. I'm confident in my photographic talents that I will be able to pull it off without using Photoshop.

Digipak Research Outline

I'm going to be researching five digipaks as part of my ancillary task research. These will be...

- Green Day: Nimrod
- Biffy Clyro: Only Revolutions
- Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
- My Chemical Romance: Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge
- Alkaline Trio: Good Mourning

All of these digipaks have elements that I want to recreate in my own work. I will be analysing or at least focusing on the front cover, back cover and the physical CD. The inside cover is something I have already figured out. I need to research other aspects of digipaks though.

Examples of Costumes Being Used







The above images are examples of the types of costume I want my characters to be wearing in my music video. I want them to be wearing dark clothes that also contrast against each other as I will be shooting in high-contrast black and white.

Not only do I desire I high-contrast in my images, I also want the characters to be dressed as if they were attending a funeral to symbolise the death of the relationship being shown in the video.

Survey Results

I have decided to conclude the survey that I started up at the beginning of the course. The information that I have gathered will be vital in ensuring that I produce a piece of work that pleases my target audience and at the same time, sticks to certain conventions.

My survey is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P8BH9C6


Here are some pie charts showing the views of my target audience (15-21):








 
 
 
Based on these findings, I've been able to establish who my target audience is. I will now begin to target them using specific techniques in the making process of my music video, digipak and poster after conducting thorough research of media products similar to those that I'm eventually going to create.
 
I believe my target audience, according to these findings on Survey Monkey to be aged 15-21 (as I posted all of my plugs for my survey on Facebook - my friends are all in that age group). They're quite evidently all very engaged in music videos as most people stated that they watched four or more music videos a week, with most of them views being on YouTube; they are therefore very up-to-date with the current ways on how to watch music videos and engage with artists using technology.
 

Most people said they like to see an interesting narrative in their music video, coupled with it reflecting events in their own life. Nineteen out of the twenty-five people who answered the question entitled "When a music video is particularly interesting I tend to give credit to..." said they give credit to both the artist and the director of the music video. It is therefore important that I produce a music video that reflects the lyrics of the song, in order to make it appear there was a real, strong relationship with the director and the artist.

I look forward to meeting the needs of my audience in the near future!