Feedback for our initial idea

Digipak

This is my finished digipak - my main theme is the juxtaposition of vivid colours against dark background. It represents the semiotics of colours and how colour can represent emotion - i.e light = happy, dark = sad. Since our artist is called SPCTRM, meaning a spectrum of colours - we represent a different wave of emotions with the power of music.

I chose to used jarred typography in the front cover as it gives an imperfect feel to it. Unlike bands that follow a mainstream convention such as one direction, the photo on the front will be immaculate and will contain no flaws; this is because this band relies on their appearance to aid their album sales. Since I would consider my band as anti-establishment and doesn't follow mainstream trends - but - I would say I follow my genre's convention.  I chose to use a different typography for the back due to the aesthetic pleasure that I liked with this font. It also follows the 80's feel I wanted to go for.

Each panel contains a different side of this ambiguous girl and then her hidden face is on the CD. I wanted to have a 360 degree view of her on the digipak because with a meaningful album, it's very personal to the artist and allows you to get to know them.

Poster Ideas

For my album poster, I want it to captivate the tone of my album almost instantly. Here's some album posters that I like the look of:

The XX's album poster, which is a similar genre to my artist, has the juxtaposition of colours which is something I want to imitate for my album poster. The artist's name is in big font which dominates the entire poster, as well with the album's name. The blue is very eye-catching in contrast to the black and white aspects of the poster which is almost exactly what I want to do with my poster - comparisons of colours. The release date, which is the main purpose of this album poster, is in the middle of the poster.

It also includes ratings from popular music magazines, NME and Q magazine, which its five star ratings boasting on either side of the poster. Featuring other links such as myspace, facebook as well as their own website will enable people to interact them more on all these different types of social media. It's also intelligently done as it promotes their platform where they can promote even more.

Here's posters that are of a different genre:

Rihanna's poster uses all dark colours but the only splash of colour is the ones promoting her singles. Whereas Kanye's is very simplistic and doesn't even contain his name; this gives it a mysterious feel as you will want to know who this is.

Digipak ideas: Inspiration from M83

The theme for our Digipak will be based around colour and the 'Girl' which, at the moment, will be Taylor.

Looking at other Digipaks, Albums and music videos, we felt heavily influenced by M83's album 'Hurry Up We're Dreaming'. As it's bold, unique and very eye-catching. The bold and dominating font instantly tells you who the band exactly is. 

The colouration of the album is what we wish to explore with our digipak, using low key lighting in the background and the two-tone lighting illuminating the Girl, as the artist SPCTRM will not be seem on the Digipak. The idea of blue and pink representing sad and love is very intriguing, especially as two people are leaning on eachother. Love is a journey of all emotions and I feel like that's fully represented in M83's album cover. 

The single cover for 'Steve Mcqueen' by M83,  using the technique of coloured lighting behind a close head-shot and portrays chiaroscuro. This is exactly how we want to represent the girl in the music video through the use of a Digipak. The intimacy of a close-up enables an opportunity to establish a mood by the facial expressions of the model. The girl below has a very neutral but her eyes are intriguing. 

I really like the digipak of M83's, Hurry Up We're Dreaming as it's consistent black house-style juxtaposed with the bright and vivid neon colours is something i'd really want to adopt. The photography of the children is really beautiful and capture's their emotion. I love the blue and 

pink portraits of the children on each CD as it represents boy / girl or connotes other binary opposites. 

The lyric book is very simplistic and plain which is something I will want to take inspiration from. 

Production Planning: Location scouting

We're wanting to film around Soho in London as from personal knowledge, I know this type of area contains a lot of neon lights, abstract art and arcades. We're planning to go location scouting on Monday 14th December to get a proper understanding of the place we want to film.

Log -

• Date:  Monday 14th December
• Time: 11am
• Where: Soho, London 
• Travel:

10 Situations That Could Ruin My Music Video

These are the ten, potential situations, that could ruin my music video.

 1. Weather - The weather could be a potential danger as it's difficult to predict what the weather could turn out like. What I could do: Keep a constant eye on MetOffice's website to get a rough idea of what to expect with the weather. If it turns out to be something that I cannot work in, like a down pour, I will reschedule.
2. Camera battery  - In this day and age, we aren't quite there yet with having an endless amount of lifetime with our technology. So to prevent the annoyance of a dead battery, I will bring two batteries with me to maximize my time with filming; I will also ensure both batteries will be on charge the day before shooting.

3. SD card runs out - similar to the battery situation, I will bring a spare SD card with me so I don't need to worry about running out of storage. Also before shooting, I will double check what's on the SD card and see if there's any footage that I can delete to free pace.

4. Performer cannot make it -  One problem of relying on somebody to be in your music video is the danger of them not being available on the day of shooting. So to make sure I am able to get the most out of my actor's free time, I will make a Google calendar where they will be able to see days I will want them to shoot. I will also prioritise communication with my actor as if days they can't make it, I will need to reschedule. 

 5. Broken Equipment = Broken equipment is a risk, especially when borrowing from school, so what I will need to do is to double check if the equipment is fully working. Such as the tripod can stand up straight and all its legs can be pulled out.

6. Plan is not accessible - I understand not everything goes to plan when shooting a music video; there are situations that just aren't possible, such as filming in certain shops or arcades that I will want to do with my filming. So ahead of disappointment, I will email / phone the places I want to go to to see if they're happy with me shooing.

7. Erasing of footage  - Technical faults are always a possibility and it will completely throw me off task if it happens. To avoid this happening, especially in the post-production stage, I will continuously save my work so there's no chance of it being deleted. I will also back up any footage immediately from SD card to a computer, as well as my memory stick; so I know for certain, I have at least one safe copy of all ootage.  

8. Lip sync mess up - Lip syncing can be seen as a challenge for some people, luckily with a digital camera I am able to retake as many shots as my heart's content. If my performer's performance isn't up to my standards, there's no problem as we can just simply reshoot it.

9. Time management - Deadlines are always approaching when doing coursework and I will always need to meet them to ensure I get the best grade as possible. To avoid disorganisation and poor time management, I will keep a Google calendar so I know what my week looks like and what I need to complete.

10. Conflicting ideas - Working part of a team can be beneficial as work can be done more efficiently but there's a chance of ideas not matching. To avoid the conflict, I will run things through with my partner first to see if she likes the idea too (vise versa) and if not, we will work around it to see if we can edit it to compliment both of our ideas.

Feedback

   

 

First Cut