Blog 15- Digipack

A promo pack is a way to promote an artist or band, these promo packs can include video's of the artist or band , songs recorded by the artist or band and other promotional items like posters. This will link in with the music video 'Brush You off' By Aundrea Fimbres because the promo pack will help us promote Aundrea in a better more exciting way, as there will be more music to go with 'Brush You Off' more people will get excited and want to hear more from Aundrea Fimbres because of the promo pack. We will be promoting our artist Aundrea Fimbres by using a digipack, a digipack is a DVD cased shaped cardboard container which has the CD disc inside. This CD disc will contain the song to the music video we will be using which is 'Brush You Off' and a tracklisting of album songs. Front Cover of Cheryl Cole's '3 words': Front cover of Danity Kane 'Welcome To The Dollhouse': The two digipacks I am going to analyse are Cheryl Cole '3 Words' and Danity Kane 'Welcome to the Dollhouse'. Danity Kane's second album 'Welcome to the dollhouse' has quite a simple front cover, it has the five members sitting or lying down besides each other in front of a white background and on a wooden floor, this is simple because there aren't any edits in which can be seen as extraordinary or technical, this can be seen as similar for Cheryl Cole's digipack cover to '3 Words' it is quite a simple cover as it's a close up of Cheryl's face looking straight at a camera, however the colour has been changed to black and white, this is a simple edit that I could be able to do for my digipack for Aundrea Fimbres. The back cover of the digipacks which show the track listing are both very similar in font, they both have similar fonts which are Edwardian Script ITC for Cheryl Cole's digipack and Led Zepplin IV for Danity Kane's digipack. As Danity Kane and Cheryl Cole both have similar and quite feminine font types, I would have to think about having a similar font for my digipack. As Aundrea was in Danity Kane and Danity Kane have got a more masculine font to their album, I will take more influence from them, then I will Cheryl Cole as it will be showing what Aundrea Fimbres was like but I won't copy exactly what Aundrea Fimbres has done because our lead female is different to her but she will have that edginess to her. Cover of the back of Cheryl Cole's album: 3 words This image shows Cheryl Cole's tracklisting, as you can see the tracklising goes horizontally, the background colour is in black and white which keeps the same colouring as the front cover of this, the font for the tracklisting is the same as the front cover's font, this gives the same feel to the front cover, it's simple, feminine and it can also be seen as a more classier R&B album cover as the typical R&B covers van be quite prevogative, for example the pussycat dolls first album 'PCD' was quite prevogative as all the members were showing a lot of flesh on the front cover. Back cover of Danity Kane's 'Welcome to the dollhouse': The back cover to 'Welcome to the dollhouse' has the image of the set where the group members were sitting/lying down in the front cover. The back cover is dominated by the tracklisting which takes up over half of the cover, the tracklisting is presented in rows. The album font is a lot different from Cheryl Cole's album '3 words', this is because the font seems a lot more messier and more masculine, which shows that this album could be popular with a male audience, particularly the audience who like hip/hop music. Seeing as both artists have got a back cover which doesn't feature a picture of the artist, it has become clear to me that the typical R&B album digipack does not require an image of the artist on the back, for my own digipack I will have to decide whether or not I will carry on with the typical R&B trend of not having my artist on the back cover or to change the stereo-typical album cover and have my artist on the back as well as the front. Flat Plans: This is the first flat plan for my digipack, the design is influenced by Danity Kane's album 'Welcome to the dollhouse'. The idea behind the front cover is the Aundrea sitting in front of a white screen sitting down with her knees bent and her hands over the knee caps. The fonts I have deicded to do for the digipack are harrington and Edwardian script IV, I decided to definitely use those two fonts as they are both quite feminine but also can appeal to males as well. I am going to have the digipack in black and white, to link in with the music video. It will represent the past section of the music video, and will show the sympathy that the audience will feel when watching the shots of the past section. On the back cover i have designed the tracklisting as well as including what is featuring on the digipack. on the inside of this digipack I have put a thank you message and also the initials of Aundrea Fimbres and the digipack title 'Letting Go'. I think this Idea is good for a digipack as it relates to the music video and also has taken influence from the photoshoots that Danity Kane have done. However I am not sure if I will be using this one as I think it may of taken to much influence from the group Danity Kane, when I should be establishing Aundrea Fimbres as a solo artist. For this design for the digipack I have gone for an album design feel to it. The image is completely different from the first flatplan that I designed as I am going to do a close up of the females face, I chose to design this flatplan like that as I think it establishes Aundrea as a solo artist, in a similar way to how Cheryl Cole did with her first solo album '3 Words', however to make it more R&B if I were to use this as my final design for my design I would make the lead female more sexier within this image as that is what modern R&B is associated with. As the music video is quite simple, I think that the digipack will suit better if it is quite a simple digipack, I think that is what I have achieved with this design but I think that it will be appealing because the music video is quite a sad but angry music Video, this design goes well with it because it won't feature a lot of colour or the lead female being really happy as that will contradict what the song 'Brush You Off' and the music video are about. On the back cover I have done the tracklisting to the digipack in a similar format to an album cover, I think it is a good thing to do this as it may appeal to a broader audience who want to buy an album. On the inside cover I designed again thank you message for the digipack as well as using the same front cover image for the inside cover where the digipack disc will go, I designed this to make the close up stand out and for her to be seen as desirable. Overall I believe this is a good idea, however for the third digipack design I will explore more complex imaging and also different techniques in order to improve the quality of a digipack design. I really like the idea of the close up image as it will make her seem more connected to the audience and the lead female will be able to show full emotion with her facial expressions which I would enjoy taking an image of as it could mesmerize the audience and could cause sympathy, I want that to come across as an emotion as it will link in with the music video. This is the third digipack design that I have created, for this design instead of putting the image in the centre, I designed it so the image will go on the left hand side of the front cover, I designed it this way so I could put the text in the centre to show what this digipack includes and what they can expect from it. I like the front cover design the most as the design looks more spacious compared to the other two designs and it shows that I can include a lot more on the front cover if I was to use this design. The Image is the lead female posing with her hands behind her head, while she is wearing a black dress. I am also going to make the image black and white to link in with the music video as that Image is a pose associated with dance it will link in with the dance section and as it will be in black and white it will link in with the past section of the music video too. On the back cover on the left hand side I included the full tracklisting to the digipack as well as putting in the exclusives to the digipack which include Bonus tracks, interviews and a new music video. I think that this is my favourite idea as I have designed the digipack so it can be spacious and I can put a lot more text onto the digipack. I have decided to use this design as I believe it is the best one as the image will be a better quality and I can include a lot more about the digipack within my final evaluation about it. My Digipack: This is my finished version of my digipack, as you can see the front cover image is very similar to the one I designed. I decided however to change the position of the body to make the image more interesting, the image still keeps the two hands behind her head but the rest of her body is in a more sexier pose, I believe that I made the right choice in having the female in that pose because it keeps the traditional R&B look. I destuarated the image on Adobe photoshop to keep the digipack linked in with the music video as there is a whole section of the music video that is in black and white. The background colour to this digpack is also a grey/blue colour, this is also to be linked in with the music video to show the past section of the music video. When choosing the colour of the font, I wanted it to be a bit more masculine seeing as the two fonts I have used are quite feminine, to make the colour a bit more masculine would also target males as well, so I decided to use a medium blue for the font. I think the blue goes really well because it doesn't fade in with the colour but also doesn't overshadow the image which is what is most important for the front cover of the digipack. I decided to keep a minimum of text on the front cover, this is because I didn't want it to seem too crowded on the front cover and write over the image. I put what the digipack includes which is 'Brush You off' and 'Louder' as well as extras such as the 'Brush You off' live performance. I decided to include that there is a live performance because in the music industry one of the main ways that record labels and managements get more money is due to live performances, I believe that this will interest the audience more into buying the digipack as live performances are one of the favourited ways to see an artist that they like. On the back cover I wanted the tracklisting to stand out from what else is included in the digipack, I chose to do this because I think that the main selling point is the studio recorded music as they are released as singles and are what promotes the digipack. While making up the tracklisting, I looked closely at her former band 'Danity Kane' album tracklistings to find out how many words are typically used for their songs and also the kind of language they use for them. I realised their songs range from 1-3 words, so I decided to keep that trend in order for the audience to remember Aundrea as a former member of 'Danity Kane'. Inside the digipack I wanted to include the credits for the songs that feature on the album, so I featured who wrote the songs and who also produced them, I decided to do this so the fans can see who wrote their favourite songs from the digipack and if it wasn't Aundrea who wrote them then they can research more into those producers and writers. I was starting to feel that I needed to add more into the digipack so I decided to place an image over where the CD disc would be, as you could see it's a more prevogative pose than the front cover one, I decided to take this image as I believe that it would make female fans idolise her and the male fans fancying her. I decided to keep the trend of making the image black and white to link in with the music video, the outfit that she is wearing also links in with the music video as it is what she wears for the dance section of the music video. Overall I think that it is a good digipack as it features everything that is required and I have taken influence from both Aundrea Fimbres and Cheryl Cole, I think that the colours could be seen as a bit bland but also quite effective as the stand out items to this digipack is the images.

Feedback:

When it came to deciding what method i would use for finding out how people would recieve my digipack, I decided to use a questionnaire. I decided to do this because I think that I could get get really good answers, with the questions that i was to ask. six people participated with my digipack ages 16-24. I was really interested in what they thought worked and what they though didn't. As you can see from the two questionnaires I have posted both of them liked the font that I used for my digipack, I think that this is really good as it was the font that Danity Kane used as well as Cheryl Cole used, so I knew that it would go well with this digipack. The image was the problem when it came to the digipack, four out of the six thought that the image didn't work because it seemed too innocent but they also thought that the image I used for my inside cover should've been used for my front cover. I believe this is good criticism as the inside cover can be seen as more as an R&B image. When it came to asking if they thought it fitted the R&B genre, it was a mixed reaction. Two out of the six said no one example was 'It looks like it's a pop ballad digipack'. While the other four thought that it did because it has similiraties to Cheryl Cole, however it demonstrated that she is a powerful woman due to her pose and the blue font and background shows that it can appeal to both boys and girls. When it came to the information all of them thought that it gave all the information that needed to appeal to the audience. Overall I am really pleased with the results of the questionnaire, I believe that if I were to change the digipack I would've changed the front cover image, to the one inside as that one is seen as the typical R&B image, but I wouldn't change the font or the background colour as it was well percieved by the participants.

Blog 14- shooting Diaries

Before we started filming we had problems with booking a dance studio, due to the demand of the Dance and Performing arts students. This lead us having to wait a while for us to be able to use the dance studio. We decided not to film on that Wednesday but waited until the Thursday, there was a dance studio free from 10:20- 12:10 and we were allowed to use it. We managed to do the dance studio sequence easily and there were no problems when it came to actually filming the video. My contribution to the dance filming was I filmed the whole dance sequence, due to the other members of my group being ill, i liked filming this part of the seuqnce because I felt this is where most of the creativity would happen, as me and my group aren't dancers and neither is the lead female we used.

We had a little bit of trouble filming the house part of the music video, due to lighting issues and spacial issues. To work around this we used some artifcial lighting for example the living room light. The spacial issues were a little bit trickier but to work around this, we moved some items that were in the way to put the camera in a safe and stable area. I contributed partly to this sequence, my other group member wanted to get into the more filming side and she done really well organising the shots and what she thought would go well and what wouldn't, i also put some insight into what I thought would go well with this music video.

The outside shoot was a little bit tricker as well, we changed the location from the Grange to the Pearls pond, we decided to do this because we thought it was a nicer location. However, it did get busy half way through our shoot, so we had to wait a while before we could continue with our filming. Weather wise it was good enough to film without the camera getting damaged, however it was cold and it did seem at some points that we rushed the shoot but the majority of the filming we took our time to plan. We also had to change the storyline for this part of the music video as the lead male couldn't attend this filming session, we decided to change the storyline of her breaking up with him to her going through what she is going to say before she breaks up with him. The lyrics are what she is going to say to him.

Blog 13- Shooting schedule

09/02/2011 We plan to film our first sequence for our music video, we are going to shoot the dance section of the music video. We also have spoken to the performing arts teachers to book a dance studio so we can film the music video in a professional environment. We have booked the camera from 2pm - 5pm as we have produced a dance routine, so the dance section of the music video will be quickly shot. 10/02/2011 As our lead female wasn't able to attend yesterdays filming session, we decided to film during our lunch break which was 10.20- 12.00. We couldn't use the dance studio we initially wanted to use for yesterday as there was a lessons during that time but we found another dance studio that was free. We managed to film all of the dance section of the music video. 19/02/2011 We are filming the past section of our music video, we have booked the camera from 1pm -4pm. We are going to shoot all of this section today as we have organised all of the shots we want for our music video. 3/03/2011 We are filming the outside section of our music video today, unfortunately the lead male can't make it to this filming session. So we have decided to change the storyline around, so we can shoot the music video but we will produce a good music video we believe. We have also decided to change the shooting locations today because we believe that pearls pond is a better lcoation than the grange. 10/03/2011 We are finishing off filming our music video today, we only have a couple of shots that we need to do so the shooting should be smooth. The lead male will be here for this filming session. We will be filming at the house and also pearls pond. We have a couple more shots we feel will complete our music video. Equipment we used: Video Camera Tripod

Blog 12- Health and safety

Before we started filming we performed a recce, we looked around the areas that we wanted to shoot the music video in. After analysing the areas that we wanted to film in we decided to shoot the music video at a dance studio which is in our college, we decided to do this to minimize the chance of anything going wrong with the equipment and also the dance studios at our college are regularly checked so we know that they are safe. We also decided to use our friends house because it is more spacious compared to the rooms we were to use at another house that we initially wanted to use. The outside location recce was a little bit more trickier as we were not sure about what the weather conditions were predicted to be over the time we wanted to film, we decided to change the location from the grange to pearls beyond because we believed that it was a nicer area. We had a look at the pearls pond and we loved the location as we thought we could do loads of shots with her in front of the water. After we done the recce we went on to discuss the health and safety issues that we could face and if there is anything that could damage the equipment. We first looked at any possible hazards that were in the dance studio, after looking at the dance studio we did see wires around the dance studio but to stop anything bad to happen we moved to the other end of the dance studio where there aren't any wires surrounding us. We also put the lead female in the middle of the dance studio away from the camera to stop her from inuring herself if a dance moved made her land on the camera. Luckily there were no problems with any of us or the equipment. We had to be really careful around the house as we didn't want to mess anything up but we also didn't want to trip over any equipment, so what we decided to do was to look at each of the rooms in the house and decide what rooms would cause the least risk to us potentially tripping over. When we went to pearls pond it was quite tricky to analyse the health and safety, luckily when we went to shoot the music video the weather was overcast but it wasn't raining and wasn't windy so we felt that we could shoot the present section of the music video without having any problems. The only problem that we did face within shooting this music video is the pond, we made sure that we all stood a good distance away from the pond, the only time that anybody in the group or the lead female were near the water was when the lead female performed some of the lyrics as a long shot. We decided however to make that only one shot for health and safety reasons because we didn't want her to slip into the water. I think we did really well analysing the locations we were filming in and planned it out well so we didn't have any accidents while filming, the filming was a success and there were no problems whilst filming.

Blog 11- Storyboard and Animatic

Our music video is going to have a sad but empowering feeling behind it, during this music video the lead female will be shown as the person we connect with the most. To do this we have decided to put her in every shot, so the audience will be unable to not notice her or connect with her. The storyline behind this music video is the lead female breaking up with her boyfriend, with the reasons why. We have divided the music video into three sections the present, the past and the dance studio. The camera ables will be straight throughout the music video in order for people to focus head on what is going on in this music video. We are using a range of mid shots and long shots in the dance sequence to show her passion in her arm movement and leg movement. For the past sequence we will mostly be using two shots, we decided to do this to show how the lead female is being mis treated and to make the audience feel intimidated by the lead male. The present part of the music video, we will experiement with close ups, two shots, mid shots and long shots this is to show the passion and the importance of this section to the music video and the shots will represent the freedom she will have once she has broken up with him. The editing will be quite slow in the shots to show how dramatic and what a long process it has been for the female to dump her boyfriend and how heartbroken she is to be breaking up with him.

Due to our lead male not being able to take part in a filming session due to work commitments, we decided to change the storyline of the music video. Instead of her breaking up with her boyfriend and us finding out why she is breaking up with him. The storyline is her about to break up with him and going through what she is going to say before she meets him, the lyrics to the song is what she is going through. The past section and the dance section remained the same. Within the present bit we deicded to do a high angled shot to show her vulnerability as well as lots of long shots to show how alone she feels and the heartbreak she is feeling and what she will cause.

I think our idea for the music video is simple but effective as we are aiming for the audience to connect and sympathise with the lead female and for the audience to agree with her decision to break up with her boyfriend.

Blog 10- Mise-en-scene

Setting/Location
The music video will be set in three different locations, we decided to film in three different locations as there are three parts to the music video. The first location we will be filming at the grange in Lewes, this is an outdoor area, the shots that we will be using for this part of the music video will show her breaking up with her boyfriend, this location will be shot in the present day.

The second location will be set in a house, this part of the music video will show why she is breaking up with her boyfriend. This location will represent the past and we will also film this in black and white to show this. This location will also be the most intense location as it will show arguments and it will also represent that you don't know what goes on behind closed doors.

The third location will be set in a dance studio, typically in R&B songs there is a dance routine. We decided to keep the dance routine for this R&B music video as this will appeal to the R&B audience and also make it more like a real music video you would see on music videos. We were influenced by Pixie Lott's music video to 'Gravity' as the dancing is set in a white dance studio, with two back up dancers. We will also be using dance in this music video as it is a passionate and emotional song and the dance will show that passion and dance.

Props
Props we will be using for this music video are a mobile phone and a suitcase. This music video will mostly revolve around the two main characters and we will mostly focus on their physicalness and emotion rather then them using props. We will be using a mobile phone for this music video in one shot, this shot will show the main girl to text the boyfriend to meet her, so she can break up with him. This prop is relevant to our music video as technology is the most commonly used item for teenagers and our main audience is teenagers so we can show this by using the mobile phone.

We will also be using a suitcase in the music video which will have her belongings in. This will be to show that she is serious about leaving her boyfriend this time. The reason why this is relevant is to send a message to our audience that you shouldn't just stay with someone just because you love them, this will also link to our presentation where we mentioned that teenage girls will look up to the main girl as a role model.

Colour
The colours will we be using will change through ought the music video. As our music video is set in three different locations and at different periods of time, it is important for us to get the colouring right for each location. For the present day we will be using brighter colours, especially since it is beig set in the outdoors, the colours will be bright colours like white, yellow. This will represent her leaving her boyfriend and starting a new part of her life and also will represent freedom.

For the location set in the past, we will be using darker colours such as grey and black, and as it is set in black and white, we will show this in the lighting. This will represent the dark period of her life and how the relationship isn't working.

For the dance studio we will be using a contrast of a white studio and black clothing, this will show the passion and emotion in the dancing as these colours go together, the two feelings will also go together.

Costume
The costumes we will be using will change throughout the video. In the first sectionn of our music video which will be shot outdoors, it will be very casual. The colour scheme will vary between the two characters, the main male will wear dark and dull fashionable clothing, where the the female will wear right fashionable clothing. This will represent that the main female is ready to move on with her life, where the main male is shown as he is still in the dark place and not ready to let go of the female.

In the past both caracters will wear dark, less fashionable clothing. This is because we want to show realism in our music video's and the majority of people don't take much notice to their appearance when they are at home. We have also decided to use darker clothing to show that this is a dark part to the music video and a dark period in their lives.

The dancing part of the video will show more revealing clothing, this is because typically the dance sequences in officla R&B music video's have more revealing costumes in them, for example Cheryl Cole 'Promise This'. We decided to make the costumes black as we have taken the influence from other R&B music video's. This will show that we understand what appeals to the R&B audience and that we understand the diversity in which the video will need to make it a success.

Make Up
The make up in the music video will also vary in the music video. The female will be the main focus in the music video, this is because we want the music video to show realism and the main male will not be wearing any make up. In the outdoors part of the main female will be wearing less make up this is because the make up will be irrelevant to this part of the music video because the main focus will be her breaking up with her boyfriend. She will also be wearing less make up in the house scenes in the music video, again because it is irrelevant to what the scenes of this are trying to show. However she will be wearing more make up in the dance sequence, this is because she will be showing more sex appeal, and it can appeal more to the males, as we will be showing in some parts of these shots the male gaze.

blog 9- The Pitch

Powerpoint:

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B9a-Uc9Y-0cDZDNiOWVkZjktYzc1Ni00ODg3LTk1YzktODIwY2JlNjc3ZTdm&hl=en

Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9a-Uc9Y-0cDZDE5Mzg0OWUtOWE2ZC00ZjQwLThkZjUtNjI5MDNhNGY0Nzlm&hl=en

Initial Ideas

For our music video 'Brush you off', our initial ideas are to tell the story of why the lead female is breaking up with the lead male, to do this we will film in a house and also public areas, so we can follow her story through out the song and see the events from her point of view. The reasons why we will be filming in a house is because we will get to show the arguments/abuse going on at home. my group have also decided to film in public areas such as a pub, where the lead male may be cheating on the lead female with another female character we may use for this video.

We are going to split the music video into three sectors:
The first sector will be the main female dancing, this particular sector will be during the chorus as that is the most up-tempo part of the song, this is quite common in music video's within this type of genre for example Cheryl Cole 'promise this'.

The second sector will be the flashbacks of the main characters relationship, we are doing this to show why she is breaking up with the lead male. We have decided to show these flashbacks in black and white, which will clearly show that these shots are from the past.

The third sector will be in the present day, the shots we are using for this will be her saying goodbye to the lead male, with him trying to get her to stay. For these shots we will mainly be using close ups to show the emotion from each character and to show how hard it is to break up with someone.

The first sector we will be using will be shown during the Chorus and the Middle 8 of the song.
The second sector will be shown through the verses and the third sector will be shown during the whole song. We have decided to do this as it will make the video more interesting and the audience will be able to fully see and unnderstand why they are breaking up and how hard it is to say goodbye.