Digipack

What is a digipack?

A digipak has the size and look of a CD or DVD jewel case but it is made of paper with a plastic tray glued to hold the disk. With a typical clear tray, a digipak has 4-panels for putting the artwork on. One advantage of digipak over jewel case is that it has better shock absorption than jewel case. When a jewel case is dropped it breaks. But a digipak will still be in one piece even if it is dropped.

A promopack is an umbrella term that is used when talking about the diffrent types of promotion used in selling an artist / bands CD or DVD. The promotion would be the how popular the adverts are, along with the posters & the CD / DVD itself. This includes all the TV coverage they receive. They must therefore all be linked in order to portray one image in every media representation. This means that one theme should coincide throughout them all.

Digipacks are a type of CD / DVD packaging made out of card or otherheavy paper materials. Digipacks often flip open just like a book, or they can sometimes have three parts - one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the disk kept in the center portion. In this type of digipack, the portion of the digipack that hold the disk will usually be made of plastic like a traditional jewel case. The plastic part is simply attached to the paper background. Pictures of the band or the general setting from their videos are normally a common theme throughout photos used.

Research into digipacks currently available...

In order for my digipack to follow common conventions of a digipack, I will analyse some existing ones that are available from artists similar to Mumford and Sons.

I will be looking at:

- Images used

- Font / Text used

- Where barcodes are located

- If details of a record label are shown

- Messages from the band / artist

- How the track lists are presented

- If websites are mentioned

Analysis of existing digipacks...

Paolo Nutini - Sunny SideUp

The digipack cover shows a portrait of the artist sat at a breakfast table eating fried eggs (referencing album title). The background introduces a colour theme which is then continued throughout the digipack of yellow, red and green stripes - all three colours are very eye-catching and make the digipack stand out on a shelf.

The masthead showing the artists name and album are in a cartoon font and is the same again throughout the digipack. It is presented in a white font which contrasts well against the colourful background.

The track-list is printed centrally on the back cover in asimilar cartoon, white font used for the masthead. It does not use numbers, just lists the track in order they play.

A small barcode is printed on the ride hand side ofthe back cover along with the artists website and record company details.

Paolo Nutini's genre normally falls into the pop/rock category and I believe that his digipack works well in presenting this too. The bright colours and cartoon pictures all give a pop appeal yet with a rock edge to it too.

James Morrison - Undiscovered

The front cover uses a mid shot of the artist against a subtle / calming background of clouds using grey, white and other very pale colours. This relates well to the genre of the artist being soul / pop and his songs being very relaxing and also the names of his tracks eg. 'Wonderful World'.

A similar subtle / calming background with the same colour scheme is used on the back cover presenting a running theme throughout the digipack.

The masthead is vertically shown on the front cover, in a multi-toned green font along with the digipack name below it. The colours work well with the shades of the artists face in the photograph and are also shaped well into the little space available on the cover. A sans serif, upper case font is used, which makes it more eye-catching.

The track-list is presented on the left hand side of the back cover in the same font used for the masthead. Again it is not numbered, however the tracks appear in the same order as they do on the disk.

A barcode is vertically placed on the back cover, to the right hand side of the small print containing James Morrison's fan site and record company details and label.

James Morrison would be considered as a soul, accoustic singer and I think this digipack works well in encorperating this image. The use of a photograph outside shows depth in soul and the use of colours throughout also shows this.

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

The front cover uses a very eye-catching bright yellow background which immediately catches the customer's attention. An image is used of a tree with a man with a guitar reaching up to it. The image is extremely detailed in showing the leaves on the tree, however only uses the colour black which contrasts a lot from the vibrant background.

The back cover again uses the same bright yellow background with a continued theme of the tree coming down the right hand side now showing a thin trunk. Again, the image is very detailed but only uses the colour black.

The masthead is shown in the top right-hand corner on the front cover. It uses a very basic font with the artists name in black and the album title in white both contrasting from the yellow.

On the back cover the track-list is shown down the left hand side in the same font used for the masthead on the front cover. It is again in black. The tracks are unnumbered, however do, as before, appear in the same order they do on the disk.

Jack Johnson is seen as an accoustic, chilled singer. This is shown throughout the digipack by the 'chilled out' image used on the cover. The whole digipack is very relaxed and this is also noticed throughout his songs too.

Adverts

Why are adverts used?

Adverts are used to promote a product in order to gain it maximum publicity and therefore maximum sales. Placement of an advert is just as important as the advert itself as you should always aim to place an advert somewhere in which maximum numbers of your target audience can view it.

I will be creating an advert to promote the digipack I have created previously.

Research into current adverts for digipacks...

In order to gain the most knowledge I can into what is needed to make my digipack advert a success I will research adverts already used from artists similar to Mumford and Sons.

I will look at:

- The colours and themes used

- Images used

- Font / text used

- Details of product release

- Other information shown on advert

Analysis of existing adverts...

We Are Scientists - Impatience (New single advert)

You are firstly drawn to looking at the two men in this advert ( a band member alongside a warewolf) who are singing - one with a guitar. This immediately shows the person looking at the advert the type of music that is being promoted, however by placing a warewolf there shows that there may be a slight twist on stereotype of this genre.

The colours used, oranges / yellows / reds, are very eye catching and immediately catch the reader's eye.

The white font used for the masthead contrasts well from the background which again makes it easily visible.

The rest of the information includes details of the single and commentary from a popular magazine of that genre 'NME' . This is all in a very basic, easy to read, black font.

The bands website is also presented in the bottom left hand corner.

In the bottom right hand corner is a small 'Virgin' symbol of the record company that support We Are Scientists.

This digipack works well in relating back to the genre of the band as it shows an Indie approach and works well to present themselves slightly differently.

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night (New album advert)

Immediate attention is drawn to the image used for this advert as it is a mix of the members of the bands faces incorporating features of a bird. I think this is interesting as it fits fell with the indie/rock genre of the band.

The colours used are very basic, greens, blacks, whites with a little red. I think this is affective though as it makes it easily visible and also shows a twist of the norm. A similar intention is used through the simple text used making it clear to read.

The information includes a release date, a few tracks includedon the disk and the band and record producers websites.

Simon Webbe - Grace (New album advert)

The image is of the artist in a vibrant white shirt which stands out extremely well from the black background and immediately catches the person looking at the advert's eye.

The masthead is in a simple, white, but very effective font. It presents the artists name and album name and sticks in your mind as it stands out so well.

All important information is in white, however all secondary information is presented in a beige coloured font making it still easily visible but not as clear as the other text.

Information included is a message from the artist stating 'My new uplifting album', an exclusive track on the disk, information about downloading tracks to your mobile and the artists website.

The small print at the very bottom includes details of the artists record company.

Health and Safety

In order to follow health and safety regulations within our video we need to make sure we abide by the following rules:

- To make sure that the people working with our group are not exposed to any risks to either their health or safety.

- To ensure the camera and equipment is used in a safe manner, eg. making sure that when filming the camera is set up along with the tripod, in a suitable way that it could not involve anybody tripping or falling over it.

- For our specific filming area (woodland and alongside water) we also need to ensure that all members of our group as well as people working for us are dressed with appropriate footwear to make sure they did not trip over or fall into the water.

- As before we also need to ensure that all electrical equipment was kept well away from the water.

We will make sure all of the above are closely looked into before carrying out the filming for our video.

Storyboard

These were the shooting scripts created to help me and my group gather ideas about what shots should look like and how they will incorporate our initial ideas

. The pictures are not drawn in grave detail, but this still helped ignite ideas and allow us all to get a visual picture of what each shot will look like. These pictures encompass the forest, the band members, instruments etc.

Short descriptions are given of the type of shot and what will happen in this shot.

Mise-En-Scene

The mise-en-scene for our video will include:

Setting/Location:

We will shoot our video in a forest located in Barcome Mills, Sussex. We have chosen to do so because are trying to encompasses a mysterious edge to our storyline. Along with added effects we would like to portray the setting to be dark and gloomy - almost spooky. This will also put emphasis on the woman that is dressed in white - almost seeming as though she is a light for them to follow.

Props:

To incorporate the theme that Mumford and Sons already use, we are going to make the band members carry and use guitars - just like the boys do in the actual Mumford and Sons videos. There will be shots where we see the band members playing the guitar to the music and others were we see them walking with the guitars on their backs.

Classic acoustic guitar, used by the lead vocalist of Mumford & Sons(Marcus Mumford)

Costumes and Make Up:

Costumes will be chosen as similar to that that band members wear. These clothes are commonly worn in the indie/folk clothing range which each of the boys own already and are willing to wear. By dressing like the band members do it will make the video seem more realistic.
The woman is seen to represent an image of beauty - her dress and make up will therefore portray this. The white dress she will wear will be similar to that pictured and this will show her innocence and purity. It will also contrast with the dark background of the forest.

Below are some pictures we took of the band and a girl in a white dress. We included the mise-en-scene in the images to show how they will be used in our video. We've shown the band and the setting they will be in. The photos were edited using Adobe PhotoShop to emphasis on the points trying to be made in each photo.. We will incorperate similar effects when making our video to give the same effect.

These act as preliminary pictures to our video that we will be creating. It has also helped us get ideas and see how the effects are used including the mise-en-scene and exactly which effects to use.

The Pitch

Each group was asked to create a presentation and present it to the class titled The Pitch. In this powerpoint we were asked to include the genre of our band, their target audience, our key ideas and how we were going to aim to meet the same image the band had already portrayed. Our presentation was then filmed.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B31_jt7GO8IVOWYwNTZmOTYtNzNjYy00ZmFjLTk1Y2QtZTQxY2RlYjE1MjI1&hl=en_GB

Here is a link to our filmed presentation -

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0ByoIaJx-w8iQOWI4OGI3MGUtNzNlNC00OWE2LWIzMDYtOWJkNmE0

Initial Ideas

Narrative:

Setting - ‘dark forest’ gloomy, bitter crisp weather (Expected due to season ‘January’) effects will be depressing, dark and mellow – In comparison to the ‘image of beauty’ (A woman) she will be dressed in white clothing with connotations of reflective beauty, purity and virginity (Christian belief)

The band will have to dressed in ‘indie attire’ to help replicate the ‘Mumford & Sons’ look, guitars and piano would help make it look more authentic.

Storyline:

The band (Replica Mumford & Sons) will be lonely in a dark forest, cold bitter air surrounds them. Then there is a glimpse of beauty, a woman, dressed in white. The band is full of lust and yearning, there fuelled intent in meeting this girl seems to fulfil them, they walk through this dark wood, searching into the depths of it to find her. To fill in the music video, we’ll have to have shots of us ‘playing’ the instruments, whilst cutting through shots, of this ‘desire‘ for this woman, and also playing the instruments. This in total should help lead to quite an ambiguous setting, whilst making it look authentic and real with the introduction of us playing the instruments

Woman dressed in white symbolizes purity and beauty.

Foals created a video called 'Olympic Airways' which was set in a forest, with dark tints to it - - above (to the right) is a screen shot of it. This will be similair to a shot in our video, with the dark/indie tint.

Copying an Existing Video

In order to learn new skills to use when making our own music videos, we were asked to copy an existing video that had been made. We chose to replicated Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag. We thought it would be easy to do as the video is based in a high school setting, similar to our college environment and everything in the footage could be easily copied. During making our replica video, we learnt many new different techniques.

This included:

How to use a camera - setting up the camera in the right mode and making sure the shutter speed was at PAL 24 framers per second.

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  Computer shortcuts for the program final cut - eg. 'J' = rewind, 'L' = fast foward, 'space bar' = start and pause.


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  How to create a linear structure of the video.


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  Different types of edit - eg. assembly edit (cutting out the bad shots, leaving the good shots and ordering the shots), rough edit (where youd define how the shot went and start timing it to the music) and the final cut (where cuts are tweaked and how they flow, also where any effects wanted are added in).

Here is a link to the video that we created -

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0DnGj06WOfoNGUyYjRmYTUtZGFmZC00NGJiLWIzM2MtNGYxODBhOTJjNDE3&hl=en&pli=1

Video Analysis

To help inspire me for ideas for my music video, in this blog I am going to analyse an existing music video from the same artist. I've chose the song 'The Cave' as it is a popular song in the charts at the moment.

Mumford and Sons - The Cave

You immediately look at this song to be a break-up song (but nearly every song around can be too), however I believe it's real theme is about finding your own self in the world; letting go of things keeping you back, seeking your own strengths in faults and shortcomings and doing what is best for you. I think "the cave" is a metaphor for being held back. He sings, "come out of your cave walking on your hands, and see the world hanging upside down". In the final thirty seconds of the song, the person professes his need for freedom, and is not going to listen to what the others will be singing; he is finally living his life for himself.

This video helps us to develop an idea of who Mumford and Sons; who they are and what they are like. We notice the clothing they wear which is a key thing because as we do not have the actual band to shoot the video with, we can only represent them through their clothing and way they act. The picture above shows their clothing how old fashioned it is.

There is also intertextuality between the video of 'The Cave' and a popular film from the 60's 'Quadrophenia'. The members of Mumford and Sons are riding round on bikes (pictured right)which looks similar to when 'the mods' did in 'Quadrophenia' (pictured left). We aslo notice that their sense in fashion is also quite linked with wearing smart suits on these bikes. This could be something that the video was based on so therefore should be considered when making my video.

Florence & The Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)

In order to give me inspiration from another band from the same genre as Mumford and Sons, I decided to analyse a video by Florence & The Machines. Although Florence & The Machines is a very different character to the boys in Mumford and Sons I gathered some interesting things from this video.

I think this song is about baisically about being in the music industry and learning that you have to be brave. It's about her becoming brave, offering herself up to the industry because she has a gift, and has to use it, but she understands that she's going to have to change to survive that industry.

The video does not correspond with this meaning though. It shows Florence & The Machine as the type of individual artist she is. Her fashion sense is seen in her old fashioned style fancy clothing. This could show that for folk music - old fashioned clothing is the style they wear.

Both Mumford and Sons and Florence and The Machine are of the same or very similar genres. Evidence of this is seen from where they performed at the Reading festival in 2009 and 2010.

Above are the line ups from both Reading festivals and I have circled them indicating that they both involved in the NME stage which is directly targeted at Indie audiences.

Target Audience of Mumford & Sons

This is the Facebook page for the band...

You can click on the screen image to go directly to the Mumford and Sons Facebook page.
You can see that this site has 463,747 members, of which all are from different social classifications.

Looking through their fan base on Facebook, I looked at 5 members to see how old they were and where they were from. I found:

• Kris Flynn Hutt - 17 years old - Seaford - Other music interestes: MGMT, Foals, Lil Wayne, Lostprophets, Biffy Clyro
  
• Daniela Peclová - 19 years old - Czech Republic - Other music interests: Greg Pattillo, Jamie Cullum, The Hives, Francis Albert " Frank " Sinatra, Alton Glenn Miller, The Last Shadow Puppets, The Beatles, Jamiroquai, Lauryn Hill & The Fugees, Franz Ferdinand
  
• Jon Ballantyne - 20 years old - Burgess Hill - Other music interests: Red Eight, Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, Bloc Party, MGMT
  
• Hannah Wardle - 19 years old - London - Other music interests: London Elektricity, Mimosa, JOKER, Jamie T, Babyshambles, Gerry Rafferty, Mungos Hi Fi, The Clash, The Streets, Attak, Jack Beats, Jack Penate, Skream, Miike Snow, JME
  
• Ben Potts - 16 years old - Uckfield - Other music interests:Alicia Keys, Bombay Bicycle club, Plan B, The King Blues, Cheryl Cole, Get John and Edward off Xfactor, Matt Costa
  

This is a NME magazine cover that Mumford and Sons have appeared on.

From this reader profile we can see:

• The readers go to live gigs.
• On average readers spend £667 on audio equipment a year.
• They spend on average 2.4 hours a day on the internet.
• Buy on average 6 DVD's a year.

We also notice that:

• 69% are male
• Average age is 24
• 52% are in full time work
• 29% are still studying

Using the table that I found on http://www.nrs.co.uk/ it showed me what different socio-economic classification might be interested in watching our music video. It is set out as ABC. A standing for a higher class range of people with jobs such as doctors and lawyers and C standing for a lower class society, such as people with jobs like office workers. When researching into the magazine NME, it appears that people within the C-B category read this magazine and view this site. This therefore should be my main target audience. Research also shows me that nearly double the readers are male (approx. 296000), compared to woman (approx. 91,000) so predominately the main target for my music video should be males. NME's genre is Indie.

Statistics for NME:

65% Male*
50% 16-24*
23% 25-34*
79% ABC1*

Permission

Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works” and includes such things as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual creations, both published and unpublished. Copyright does not protect ideas. It only protects the specific and original expression of the idea. This is a copy of the email I sent, asking for property right permission to Mark Crossingham, the managing director of Island Records (the record label for Mumford and Sons), for us to use their song. The email was sent in order for us prevent breaking copyright laws.

Song Choice

The song my group have chosen to use is 'Mumford and Sons - Awake My Soul'. These are the lyrics..

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes

I struggle to find any truth in your lies

And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know

This weakness I feel I must finally show

Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all

But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall

Lend me your eyes I can change what you see

But your soul you must keep, totally free

Har har, har har, har har, har har

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die

Where you invest your love, you invest your life

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die

Where you invest your love, you invest your life

Awake my soul, awake my soul

Awake my soul You were made to meet your maker

Awake my soul, awake my soul

Awake my soul

You were made to meet your maker

You were made to meet your maker

We originally came about finding this song by looking through albums that we all owned. We found that Mumford and Sons was a popular choice between the four of us and we also all enjoy music from this genre and found that it would be easiest to aim our video at as we could take inspiration from ourselves and piers.

The main reason we chose to use this song inparticular was because after hearing it we all decided on a theme and setting for the video. We also all feel that the lyrics from this song were very inspiring and gave us all so many visions of how it could be done.

Another song I considered using was 'Ellie Goulding - I'll Hold My Breath'.

These were the lyrics to it.

Breathe air you're not used to, tread floors you don't fall through

Make waves...

You crash a symbol hard

Follow no one, always play the wrong card

Waste days, in foreign places

Shed light, on your better side

Reassure me that you'll wait for me, wait for me as long as it takes now

Hold my breath, I'll hold my breath

Until you see me in your dreams

We'll stay awake beneath the trees

We'll watch the buildings turn to dust

A sky of diamonds just for us

You are the risk I'll always take

The only branch I'll never break

Those fears we'll blow them all way (we'll blow them all away)

Fight fires in your best clothes,

Touch skin with your eyes closed,

Chase thunder...

With the volume down

Pack a suitcase, wander to the next town

Force quit, on your losing streak

Solve a riddle in a magazine, be tongue in cheek

Tell me that we're still too young, that we're still too young and I'll hold my tongue

Until you see me in your dreams

We'll stay awake beneath the trees

We'll watch the buildings turn to dust

A sky of diamonds just for us You are the risk I'll always take

The only branch I'll never break

Those fears we'll blow them all way (we'll blow them all away)

I'm here, I'm here to take you I'll swim, I'll swim to save you

No fall, I'm here to catch you I'll swim, I'll swim to save...

Until you see me in your dreams

We'll stay awake beneath the trees

We'll watch the buildings turn to dust

A sky of diamonds just for us

You are the risk I'll always take

The only branch I'll never break

Those fears we'll blow them all way (we'll blow them all away).

I initially would have liked to produce a video for this song, however it was then discarded as I decided it was a more feminine song and being the only girl in the group, I was quite out numbered. This song is however a good song to produce a video for as many deeper meanings can be found through the lyrics. Ellie Goulding's style and presentation through other videos are also fairly easy to convey.

Exploring Music Video

In this blog I will be analyzing four existing music videos. I have chosen very different ones that are aimed at different audiences and for different genres.

Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce - Telephone

These two well known artists teamed up to create a 9 minute 33 second themed short film featuring prison fighting, murders and two different dance numbers. It took music videos to a new level and had a lot of people talking about it. It is a typical Lady Gaga video featuring outrageous clothing, ridiculous scenes and an annoying pop song that everyone cannot stop singing. Although, Lady Gaga herself isn't your typical 'pop star' her characteristics present more of an indie idol and I think this video, along with 'Just Dance' 'Pokerface' and 'Paparazzi' show this. Her videos always cater to most types of audiences and have parts that everyone will love.

Beyonce - Single Ladies

This video is based on a dance routine. It is the only video made that has showed the feature artist is a better dancer than her backing dancers. It shows Beyonce in a white room, wearing nothing but a leotard and a pair of heels, singing and strutting her stuff to this 'get up and dance' song. It was a very cheap and easily made idea. Using nothing but one setting, three dancers, 14 takes and a few cans of red bull, it used nothing that couldn't easily be done from home. The video would attract any type of audience as it is simple but has you kept watching.

Eminem ft. Dido - Stan

The video for this clearly narrated rap song is that of a very deep and serious nature. The storyline is based on a overly obsessed fan of Eminem's, his name being 'Stan'. Throughout the video the audience are kept on the edge of their seats waiting for something to happen causing a tense atmosphere. The ending shows Stan killing himself and his girlfriend who is pregnant with his child, giving emotion to the song and vide. I think this would be aimed to attract an over 18 audience.

Michael Jackson - Thriller

This video started out the invention of real music videos in 1984. The genre of this song is rock/pop. 'Thriller' transformed the importance of music videos and brought the new television show MTV to fame. It is presented to the audience as a horror film, inspired by that that were around in the 1950s. The narrative for this video is hard to understand. We start off by seeing Michael and his girlfriend in the video discussing how they feel. Michael says he believes he is different to them in the cinema. They then leave the cinema and walk through a graveyard where Michael turns into a zombie and leads the dance when the music breaks in. After it shows the girl being asleep acting as if it had all been a dream. It is a video that can attract any audience, young or old and does not seek to thrill you time and time again.

Introduction

In my second year of Media Studies I am going to be working as part of a group to make a representation of a song through the form of a Music Video. This will be a song of our choice, with our only limitation being that it cannot already have an existing video. The techniques that I have learnt in my first year will be used to create a suitable video for the track. I am hoping this will advance my skills from my previous year.