2nd draft of digipak

This is the 2nd draft of my digipak. I have carried out all the things I said like making reference to the record label, a thank you note and a CD. I think that this draft has a more professional look to it and I think that all my pictures link together in terms of theme and colour. I have maintained the 'destroyed' look in my digipak and followed the colour scheme of blue, burgundy and beige. I think the fact these colours are fairly contrasting dennote an individual and edgy theme in my digipak.
On my CD panel I have included the name of the artist again. There is a white blur around the font and I think this makes the CD look modern and in a way fairly digital. This links to the theme of the video and the fact that people are becoming more and more alike and 'robotic'.
I have chosen to follow a few themes in the artists album cover, for example using the contrasting colours. The original is pink, pastel green and white, but I have developed mine so I still can show the American theme in my digipak by using different tones of each of the red, white and blue of the American flag. Therefore the message in my digipak is subtle but I have decided not to use the 'stars and stripes' of the flag that the original has.

 

 

Thankyou note for digipak

I am going to create a thankyou note for my digipak. When evauating my first draft I thought that I needed to add some more text to fill it out a bit. I thought a thankyou note would be an appropriate and professional thing to add to my digipak. I plan to put it on one of the inside panels. I plan to use a sans serif font to give a more personal feel to the message.


Firstly, I would like to thankyou for buying my album. I have always dreamed of being in this position, being able to sell albums and tour worldwide. Without the help of my record labels Neon Gold, 679, Atlantic, Chop Shop and Elektra I wouldn't of been where I am today.
I will be forever greatful to my fans and those who have supported me throughout this amazing journey. I am so pleased that all the hard work me and my colleagues have put into the album has paid off, and to celebrate we have released this special addition disk.

So again, thankyou to everyone who has supported me on my journey and making a girl's dream come true.

Marina x

1st Draft of the rest of my digipak

In a previous post I decided that I would set out my digipak with 6 panels. This is achievable as I have taken 6 appropriate photos that link togther to create a 'imperfect and damaged' look to my digipak.I am trying to represent one of the messages in the song which is about people contantly seeking perfection but this is difficult and often impossible. Therefore I am going to combine the 'perfected' of the artist with rough and broken backgrounds. This comes from my stairs and landing at home being redecorated and it looks very run down and damaged. I will create the front and back of the digipak, then combine them together.

This is the first draft of my digipak and at first glance I think it looks a bit bare. I think I would like to add some more text to my digipak,  maybe make reference to the record label.
I think that I've carried a colour theme throught my digipak and maintained the damaged feel I wanted to create in my digipak. I have looked at digipaks from other artists and found that they are all very different. The main convensions they carry are the front cover with the image of the artists, the artists name and a page with track listings. Apart from these things they all seem to vary, some just contain lots of pictures of the artist and others just have plain coloured backgrounds. I wanted to make something interesting to look at and for the audience to know the theme of the album in my digipak. One thing that I need to add in my second draft is a CD holder and the design of the CD.
So, for my next draft I need to:

- a CD holder
- a CD design
- many a thankyou note on one page
- reference to the record company

Draft 1 of my Digipak Front Cover

 

This is the my first draft of my digipak front cover. I adapted my text from the original album cover. I did this using GIMP to group the text and then save it. I then used Microsoft Publisher to get rid of the backgrounds. I used an internet editing programme called picmonkey. This software was extremly useful and I found that I could use it in the same way I used picnik in my AS coursework. I used; blemish remover, airbrush, blush tool, mascara tool and eye brightening.

Things I like:
- I like the way the text is layed out because it looks quite abstract and edgy.
- The font is sans serif and looks informal and modern
- the lip colour looks striking, but might want to make it brighter
- I like the original image as it was a huge improvement to my 1st Photoshoot!
Things I want to improve on:
- maybe airbrushing the picture more, maybe try some more edgy editing
- experiment with the colour of the font
- try changing the background on my image
- maybe make the eye colour on my image more intense

These points have been taken from members of my target audience and some I have added myself as they are my opinion, however after recieving the feedback I found that my views were similar to those in the
                                                                               audience.

Photos for Digipak and Advert

I was looking through my photos for my digipak and advert and I have decided (quite last minute I know!) to do some more photos again as I thought that the original ones weren't great and looked very amateur. I have one original image that was okay, but I still think that I could of done much better. I am going to redo my photoshoot tonight, this will be easy enough to do as I am the one in the digipak and advert.
I have also been thinking about the name for my digipak, and after researching a few digipak titles I have found that most of them have a name of one of the songs or extracted from a name as a title. For example:
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Ellie Goulding - Lights

Therefore I think an appropriate name for my digipak would be something like 'Hollywood', because it is the name of the song, and it already helps the audience identify the theme of the digipak and song.

Problems during editing

I have just spent an hour converting all of my videos for my coursework into the appropriate format for it to be compatible with iMovie. Orginally my files were .mod, but they needed to be .mp4. Because of this I have used a piece of software called YouTube Downloader to convert my videos. This piece if software was extremly useful and very fast, but unfortunatly I can only convert my files one at a time. I brought my original .mod files home on a memory stick, now they have all been converted, I can put them back onto the memory stick, ready to load onto the Apple Macs at school Monday morning. In future I will bare this software in mind incase any other insedences like this happen again.

Eye of Providence and my video

I have only used the eye of providence for a quick stop motion amination in my video however I did think that it was relevent to the message of the message of my video.

The Eye is positioned above an unfinished pyramid with thirteen steps, representing the original thirteen states and the future growth of the country. The lowest level of the pyramid shows the year 1776 in Roman numerals. The combined implication is that the Eye, or God, favors the prosperity of the United States. It is sometimes interpreted as representing the eye of God watching over humankind.
The Eye of Providence is featured on the reverse side of the one-dollar bill.

I decided to briefly show the Eye of Providence in my video because of its American and religious roots. For example, I tried to create a representation that shows approval in society. As it is a religious symbol it can create a connotation of God, rituals and religious norms. By this I mean, society has become so Americanised it is becoming normal and like a religion, where people are following certian people at the top of the 'hierarchy'. People are following in terms of fashion, make up, attitude and values. I have done my best to try to follow these convensions in my video.

Film Noir and Femme Fatale

Film Noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the last depression.

The term film noir, French for "black film," first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was not recognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively. Before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic film noirs were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars.

Femme Fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotise her victim with a spell was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural; hence, the femme fatale today is still often described as having a power akin to an enchantress, seductress, vampire, witch, or demon.
In contemporary culture, the femme fatale survives as heroine and anti-heroine, in Nikita and Moulin Rouge! (2001) as well in video games and comic books. Many women who are created in movies, comics, games who are supernatural in movements which a normal women can't do. Often combined with strength, beauty, intelligents or sometimes superpowers succeeding the normal person.

Britney Spears Femme Fatale Album
Femme Fatale is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears, first released on March 25, 2011, by Jive Records. Spears began working on the album during the second leg of The Circus Starring Britney Spears, while also working on her second compilation. Femme Fatale is a dance-oriented album that incorporates elements of various genres, such as dubstep, techno and trance. Spears explained that she "wanted to make a fierce dance record where each song makes you want to get up and move your body in a different way." Spears stated that Femme Fatale is her best album so far, and also a "fresh-sounding" record for clubs. It was also Spears's final album with Jive following the label's closure in October 2011.
This is some information I have adapted from wikipedia. In my opinion, I think the genre of music contrasts the meaning of femme fatale. Femme fatale is classic edgy and classy, whereas dubstep music (and similar genres) is becoming increasing the norm of modern music. I think that maybe the title was chosen for the album because of its literal meaning (deadly woman) rather than the roots behind the phrase. To support my opinion I have analysed the front cover of the album.

The first thing I noticed about the cover was the colours used. The use of colours such as white, cream and ivory connotes innocence and purity, whereas the actual meaning of femme fatale is dark and mysterious so I expected to see dark colours such as black and burgandy. The makeup and hair had been done in such a way that again contrasts the meaning of femme fatale. The women in the film noir movies, typically had dark sleek hair and very pale skin. They also had defined eyebrows, eyeliner and red lips. I think that this image is definatly contrasting the original image of femme fatale. This image has bronzed skin, messy hair, soft makeup on the lips and undefined eyebrows. The only thing that I think represents femme fatale is the font and the colour of the font. The dark grey could represent danger and mystery, and the font (sans serif) looks sharp and knife like.

Why does this apply to my video?
I have based the look for my character on femme fatale and these types of women would often appear in film noir. For my video, I wanted to create a classic Hollywood representation and I believe that the image of femme fatale from these films is a basis which has been used in order to create new American styles and trends. These trends have gradually been spread throughout other cultures and therefore have become an iconic and famous image of femme fatale. Most film noir movies have presented the same sort of plot of a woman being dangerous and greedy. This applies to my film because in my opinion, the majority of non-americans living an americanised lifestyle usually appear to be greedy and self absorbed.
The film noir movies were filmed in black and white and therefore connote a vintage and classic theme. I thought about maybe editing my video into black and white, but I wanted to create a modern twist to film noir and femme fatale.
The setting for these films were often surburbia, rural areas or the open road. I have filmed in a surburbian area, therefore following the convensions of a film noir movie.

My filming and Photoshoot

During my filming and Photoshoot, various problems occured which made things a little bit harder.

Filming
During filming several things happened that made my filming much more difficult. Firstly I planned to use the tripod for some shots, this became a problem when the part of the tripod that holds the camera wasn't working. The screw-like part of the tripod was sitting too far into the mechanism that held it, therefore making it impossible for the tripod to hold the camera securely. I was able to balance the camera on other things such as furniture, but this didn't give the effect I could get from the tripod. Because of this, it was more difficult to do certian shots such as tracking shots and zooming without the camera shaking.
Another thing that hindered my filming was the battery in th camera wouldn't charge. I have used the school cameras before and know how to charge them and use them. Unfortunatly, as the battery had stopped working this made it impossible to use the camera without it being plugged in to a socket. This made my filming extremly difficult, as I had planned to film in locations that I would have not have access to electrical sockets, I had to change my ideas to fit in with this. In addition to this, as my fiming took place in half term, I wasn't able to let anyone know about the problems or swap cameras.

Photoshoot
The main problem I had in my Photoshoot was the tripod again. From past projects at school, I know that the tripods from school fit my own digital camera. As I have explained before, the tripod was unavaliable so I had to take my photos free hand. Because of this, I found it difficult to achieve the photographs I had hoped for. Since my first Photoshoot, I have recently done another one to try and get some better pictures. I have a few to choose from, unlike last time.

Thinking about my photo for my Digipak/Advert

I've been looking for a few ideas to do with the photography for my digipak/magazine advert. Typically, they show the artist in a closeup/mid shot, the artists name and the name of the album. These conversions have been followd through a long period time. I have found artists such as The Beatles and Madonna (earlier work) following these conversions on there album covers. However more recent artists seem to do the same such as La Roux and Lady Gaga. These convensions also seem to fit into a lot of genres. The artists listed above are quite different from each other and present their own individual image. Overall, it varies greatly when it comes to use of colours fonts and layout. However they all seem to avoid covering the image of the artist with the writing on the cover. Direct mode of address seems very common amongst these album covers, personally I think this is very effective as it allows the artists to connect with the audience in a more intense way. 
I also noticed that these convensions seem to spread across other cultures. For example I was researching images of album covers and come across some from other countries. Despite the different sort of text (use of symbols rather than letters) the artists name is shown and what I think is the name of the album. 
The image can be edited in many different ways, for example airbrushing, sepia etc... And the location the image is taken in can vary, for example some photos have been taken outside, others ways to expose a background (eg a room) or behind a back drop like a green screen and then the background is edited on. 

 

 

Editing Schdule

I plan to finish my filming on the 5th November. If this all goes to plan this will allow me plenty of time to edited and complete my video. I think it is only logical to start editing the beginning of the music video, finishing with the last part. At the moment I think that the more footage I can get the better my video will be. It will take me a longer time to film and edit but I believe that my final product will come out much more professional looking!
I have already done quite a lot of stop motion animation, so this in theory doesn't take much future editing, all I need to do is upload it to iMovie. I know what I am going to need to film and have a good estimate of how much time it will take me.

So, my editing will begin on 6th November after my footage has been uploaded. In addition to this, I need to consider some time to edit my digipak and magazine advert. I plan to create a few drafts of each of these to make sure I can create something that looks professional and importantly, create a positive image of my artist and present the message that I intend to create in my video, also in my advert and digipak.

Storyboard

This is the first section of my story board and I chose to make a storyboard to help me when it came to my editing schedule. I have made it quite in depth as I have a reasonable clear idea of what I want to achieve in my video.

Recce Photos

These are the locations for my music video. I will be using my house as the location as I want to create a home environment for my video. I will be using my bedroom, landing/stairs, and garden.

This is the stairs and landing at my house. This area hasn't been decorated yet but this has worked to my advantage. I want the person in my video to be seen as perfect, surrounded by a destroyed and imperfect environment. I plan to take my pictures here for my digipak and magazine advert. I also plan to take pictures of the carpet to give a old feel and maintain the theme of the video in my advert and digipak.

 I am going to use the outside area for a 'smoking' scene. I chose to do this (although controversial) because I think that my actor smoking could connote famous American idols and stars such as Marilyn Monroe.

 Im not planning in using this area for much but I want to use my wardrode and do a shot of my actor looking through the wardrobe for outfits and shoes.

Call Sheet and Info

When it came to me starting my filming, I had a few problems with my initial plans. Unfortuantly, 3 out of my 4 actors/actresses are unable to film, one had to work, another is at university and the 3rd didn't want to film, however I am lucky to be left with one at least! My additional plan was to create 'storys' for each of my characters. Now, because of changes to my plan, I will be carrying on with the same concept but instead follow the journey of one actor in more detail. As I only have one character now, I have a small call sheet and information to give to her.
Due to a very busy schedule over the half term, filming my actor will take place on Saturday 3rd November to Monday 5th November.

I have provided my actor (Lucy) with all the information she will need for over the next few days. I made sure I did this in plenty of time as I want my filming to run smoothly. This is what I put on the call sheet for her;

Lucy - 3rd Nov - 5th Nov
What to bring:
Various outfits including: smart dresses, shoes to match (needs to be quite dressy/formal), lounge wear (like pjs, dressing gown, rollers, slippers, socks) 
Make up (foundation matching face colour, mascara, bold coloured lipstick etc) 
Cigarettes 
Costume jewellery 
Hair curlers 
Umbrella 


There are other things that arent on the list but these are already on location and I will provide for her.