My individual plan for digipak

Here are my initial plans before we decided as a group how our digipak would be laid out

here is the front cover that i had designed (would have drawn a pictiure but im a terrible drawer)

here is the back cover i had made

this would have been the lay out i would have done as it is nice and simple (in truth the group agreed one is much better)

and here is the mind map i used to decide what needed to be in the the digipak

final digipak version analysis

the front cover of this digipak is very artisitc and has the same themed colouring of the digipak it draws the attention of the audience. The images in the digipak consist of natural surroundings nature being a big theme in this digipak and is one of the conventions of indie music videos therefore it follows the convetions very well. throughout our digipak we have gone for images of nature like on our top two (centre and right side) both incorporate nature as its what fits into the indie music conventions. we picked the colours we did because we found other indie digipaks often use bright colours. it also serves the purpose of showing our singer not in the right state of mind this is done to fit in with the name of the album which is unrest. we felt this would be best shown with different colours. we also thought it was important to show our singer which also follows the conventions. he is wearing pretty much the same clothing as he does in the video this is to create the link between the digipak and our music video.

initial branding

Before deciding names of the song the artist and the albums we decided to ask friends and other people what they thought of the names. The artist is called Oliver Fox, the album will be called Unrest and the song we made will be called Nights of broken sleep. In this post i will give a general view of the audience to each of the names.

What do you think of the name Oliver Fox?
The people i asked loved the name and said it gave an exciting image to the artist. They also said that it was easy to remember as it is so different from other artists which made it different and more likely to stand out to the audiences. i had asked 10 people this questions and 9 out of 10 said they liked it and that it fit in nicely with the conventions of indie music.

What do you think of the album name 'Unrest'?
Again i asked the same people what they thought of this name and 10 out of 10 said they liked the name. They said that it was very appropriate given the name of our song and that if fits in with the short snappy album names that are being released today.

What do you think of the song name 'Nights of broken sleep'?
When i asked if they liked the name of the song 8 out of 10 people said they liked the name of this song name as the main theme is obsessive love they thought that the name was very approriate. The two people who didnt like it stated that they felt it was too over the top in sadness and could of toned it down a bit.

location pictures

one of the places we filmed at was at a local shopping centre not far from school

we also used local parks as a location for our filming where most of it would take place

we also used a local pub and florist.

we also had a scene in our school

CD panel design

this is the final draft of my CD panel

I had combined two of my best pictures to get this one and copy and pasted the picture changing the colours each time then i brought it together to create this. here are the pictures i started with

the reason i decided on these pictures was because it fit in with the conventions of the indie genre. i also thought that it would be good to put on the CD panel because both the pictures look lonely and distant which is what the theme of the album name is. i thought it it goes well with the album name unrest because it represents the artists loneliness and show him to be separate from the rest of the word which i thought these pictures typify brilliantly

music video analysis

a)      In snow patrol – chasing cars the camera is always shooting close medium shots this is done to engage the viewers to the singer and to see the look on his face in which you can see how he feels.

b)      Medium shots and close ups have been used in this video this is to draw the viewers’ attention only to the singer. There is also an overhead shot too while the singer is lying on the floor. There isn’t any real movement from the camera.

c)      The main focus in the video is the main singer its always focused on him and nothing else this makes him the main focus of the video.

d)      This music video is not a narrative as it doesn’t show a story but it is conceptual. The video does reflect the words in the song but doesn’t show the story like other indie music videos which portray the story that the song is talking about. This shows that it is going against normal conventions of indie music videos.

e)      The editing used is skipping from a scene in a café to him lying on the floor Its not heavily edited like other indie music video Another use of editing is when its one minute sunny then the next it is dark in seconds.

f)       The props are just the natural surroundings of the city nothing has been put in place that relates to the song.

g)      The singer is just walking through the city and lying on the floor in the underground and on a zebra crossing. This video doesn’t have any actually narrative.

h)      The video is not the best and it doesn’t follow conventions of indie music its not the most effective video in that respect but it does grab the attention of the audience

a)      Arctic monkeys- when the sun goes down.  They use snorri cam in their videos briefly this is to give the feeling that you are actually there. They also use a lot of medium shots and close ups they use free hand to film some scenes this is to give it a realistic feel to the video.

b)      Snorri cam was used as well as close ups and medium shots there are some instances where a medium long shot is used the camera is mostly at an angle

c)        the main focus was the girl actor in this video (she is on E4 hit show 'misfits') she was what they focused on the most

d)      The music video is a narrative they show the story of the song through the acting in the video. They use editing like quick cuts to different scenes to give the feeling of an event filled night and to make it feel fast paced in the middle of the song when the music is louder.

e)      To switch to other scenes the video is fast cut to the different scenes this is how they transition the video throughout

f)       The mise-en-scene develops the feeling of the girl actor being in a hopeless position and very bored with her life wanting better. They build the feeling of you being there in that position with the girl and you feel like its part of your life because the surroundings are so real and realistic of some of the places you get in England.

g)       the girl is on the streets just living her life but it all goes crazy as soon as the sun goes down this is shown by the distorted vision at points in the video.

h)      It is a very good film it is effective and gets you watching and listening to the song it follows many of the conventions of indie music so it would be a good template for the music video I will create.

what has been the impact of internet on media production part 1

Shirkey said ‘all forms of media is migrating online’. A way that this can be proved is when you look at video games. Before video games where only played by one person or two if there was someone with them but now gaming systems have gone online in the form of PlayStation network and Xbox live people can play with others from all over the world due to game systems migrating online. So now instead of playing alone now they can play with as many as 20 people from all around the world at the same time. This shows that more and more media producers are moving to the internet. While Xbox live is affordable it is not free its online system and layout is unique. PlayStation network is free and again its layout and system is very different and the online games are not as heavily watched by administrators as Xbox live is. Games that are most heavily online are Call of Duty and Battlefield. Call of Duty started as an offline one player game but as the PlayStation network was created the game migrated to the internet as well. This proves that my and shirkey’s point that all forms of media is migrating online. Another form of media that has been changed is music. With internet becoming so important in modern day life businesses had to make sure that their businesses were rolling with the times. Apple did this on the largest scale by releasing the itunes store on this app and website people can purchase music videos and music in general. Following this release all of the music producers want their songs on the iTunes store.

In the past, printing media used to be purely printing news, where people buy the paper to catch up with the latest news. They also include leaflets and 60-70 page booklets. Presently they have become more online based rather than just print. In the future newspapers will just be fully online as the actual paper format becomes extinct. Even TV will need to change to keep up with this online media. Now we can watch TV on online TV companies an example of this is BBC iPlayer from this website we can now watch previous days programmes when ever we want so now there isnt much of a schedule when it comes to viewing TV. In the past the TV companies had complete control of what is shown and at what times. The BBC for example set out a list of programmes without having to consult with the viewers but now they listen more to the viewers to keep their ratings up. In the future TV will be interactive and more of an online media than it is currently. Internet TV's are already in production now but as times go on it will be more interactive too the point that internet shopping and ordering takeaway can be done from your TV alone.

The internet also gave birth to a new form of audience. They are now more active in the media circle. This is because the internet allows people to share their ideas with each other and even in some cases test theories. Now professional media companies are being out performed by the audience the growth in prosumers has been phenomenal the internet allows people to create media for themselves and their own consumption. An example of a website that shows user generated content is YouTube. YouTube allows people to upload their videos which other people consume this is because the internet has made it possible. In the past media was mainly produced by media companies but presently the internet has more user generated content. Even news reporting has been affected by prosumers with more citizen reporters telling the news on social networking sites like Facebook or twitter. The future of the prosumers will most likely be that they will be viewed more than media companies and unless media companies change media in the future could be almost completely user generated.

With the rise in use of internet it also challenges the media companies that are around. One major challenge faced by the music and film industry is piracy. This has become a problem as it results in a loss in sales, shops are losing money due to lack of physical purchase. The media blame organized crime as being the biggest exporter of pirate films and songs. But this is not always the case. The media companies get statistics in an unusual way they see how many pirate items are sold for each film and then if 1 million people downloaded it they say that is 1 million lost customers even though this is not always the case. Some people download illegally due to not wanting to fund the artist’s lifestyle if they do not particularly agree with how they go about their life.