Digipak and Poster Progress

Poster process, some of the writing is hard to read so I will change that. However the purple border works well as it allows the writing to be read easier, also allowing the image itself to not be interrupted by text. It gets the message across clearly and simply. Another thing that needs to be worked on is the logo of the music company, as it looks awkwardly placed. The artist's name is placed at the top, and it stands out due to the contrast and is eye-catching. I have also established a house style through the digipak and poster, this is through the use of the borders and purple hue.

This is the whole digipak so far, I still need to work on the sides, add another CD and the details on the back of the digipak - such as a bar code. Overall, however the digipak is coming along well and I'm achieving the style I had in mind.

This is the finished front cover. It's simple and the neon title links with the location, genre and the artist herself. This image works better than the previous due to there being less red, and the amount of negative space pushed the viewer to focus on the visuals as well as the artist. This is intentional, as it's a convention of the elctro-pop genre.

Tracklist

1- Desperate Youth (MV)
2- Run
3- Honey
4- Dusk
5- Forever Young
6- Purple Haze
7- Rain
8- One Night in Paris
9- Automatic
10- You Don't Know

This is the tracklist for my digipak, it's simple and to the point yet still has an artistic feel to it. I still need to add the barcode, copyright text and Island Record's label to the back - however, I believe the design itself suits the rest of the album so far and it allows the viewer to focus on the front as it is not distracting.

Initial CD design

This is the first attempt for my CD, I like the abstract feel I have created through the white lines and gradient, with Raina blending in with the gradient. Although this works well and suits the album, the CD and gradient is too light in comparison to the rest of the panels. To fix and improve I will change the colours so it matched the rest of the album.

Digipak Draft(s)

Initial attempt (front panel):

The idea that has stuck out to me the most is the joint up writing for the title of the album, Jeunesse. This is because it gives off a chic vibe. However, the colouring for the texts and actual photo do not fit. It's hard to create the purple hue I want due to the amount of red in the photo, and purple text contrasts with the red. Therefore i will pick a different image and see if that works instead.

To create the slight blur effect, I duplicated the main image, reduced the transparency of the duplicate, and moved it slightly to the left. This worked well, as the eye contact from the artist makes the image seem hypnotic and more eye catching. 

Idea for the Digipak and Album Artwork

Albums in this genre do not have conventions and are experimental in comparison to other genres, because of this I will have complete freedom when making my digipak - however, I have looked at other albums from artists such as Kehlani and Charlie CXC to gather inspiration and ideas.

I want my digipak to be chic and simplistic in terms of editing and effects as the images we have captured are busy - with lots of neon lights in the background. Therefore I do not want my digipak to be overpowering.
Similar to the music video it will have a purple hue/theme that represents nightlife and the electro-pop genre. Other albums in the genre are also quite artistic whether that's shown through the photography or editing, therefore I can have a fair amount of artistic freedom when it comes to creating the digipak. I will mess around with a few ideas to see what works.

 

 

First Draft Feedback

After showing the class our first draft we received feedback, they pointed out things that needed to be improved and worked upon - such as lip syncing and reused footage. Although our group already knew this and intended to fix them, the feedback was useful as it also showed what worked well. For example, the complimented Kelly's (Raina) overall performance and the cinematography. We also received some pointers about editing which will be useful as they apply to the conventions of our music video and the electro-pop genre.

For a first draft it was relatively successful and with the necessary changes we will be able to achieve our desired result, as a group we will plan when to re-shoot due to our differing schedules.

Reshoot Plan

After viewing our first draft and being given feedback we met as a group and decided what we needed to do next. We agreed we needed to reshoot the arcade scenes as they were too dark on the DSLRs, and some lip syncing shoots in front of the white screen. This is because they allowed more editing and travelling to our previous locations was not efficient, due to differing seasons and the time we had left to complete the music video. Our reshoots will take place as soon as possible to allow more time for editing, as to fit the genre more we will be heavily editing the music video.

Blog Feeback

To improve my blog further i will consider using a variety of formats in my blog, such as power points and films of us talking about the working we're making.  I will also post the current drafts of my digipak, paired with an explanation of my ideas. 

Digipak Shoot

These are the most successful shots from our digipak shoot, as the lighting fits the genre and our artist's body language is carefree and relaxed, which was our intention. I will test all of the images and decide which one works best with the idea i have.

The location shots were also successful, and i will use these two for the digipak.

Filming

As a group we plan to film on the 20th January and the 22nd January, visiting two of our main locations - as the shots we capture play a large roll in the music video. These locations are God's Own Junkyard and an arcade. We will also try to capture shots for the digipak - as our artist's theme follows the nightlife and neon signs.

Filming - 03/01/18

As a group we headed to London Southbank to film some shots, mainly location ones, for our music video and digipak. We had used a purple film around the lens of the camera to give the shots a purple hue, this was successful to some extent as the camera could not focus on everything properly - the slight blur works for some location shots, especially one with lights, but the ones that feature our artist should be more in-focus. The hue helped us to created an idyllic nightlife around our artist, but we will add a purple hue through post-production, to see if it works better than using the film.

We filmed after three-thirty in the afternoon so the sun had started to set, which gave us time to shoot in dimmer lighting before it was completely dark, again helping us create a nightlife look that is conventional in electropop music videos. One issue our group faced was how windy it was, this meant some of the shots were shaky - to prevent this next time we will take a steady cam.

As planned, Kelly (our artist) wore dark clothes, this helped her blend in with the nightlife, as well as allowing more focus on the scenery around the her. The clothes were simple yet stylish, with puts an emphasis on our artist's interest in fashion and the arts. The beret is our artist's trademark so it will be seen on our artist throughout the music video.







     Shots from locations:

       

Outfit Ideas

These are three outfit ideas for our music video, to show what kind of look we aim to achieve for our artist. As we will be adding a purple hue to our music video patterns will stand out. 

We aim to have an outfit change in the two-thirds of the way through music video, it will be noticeable but is not a significant part of our video.

Animatic

This is the animatic for our music video, we plan to follow our artist exploring in and around London - visiting locations such as an arcade, God's own junkyard and South Bank. We're placing an emphasis on the locations as well as the stamp text to link to follow the conventions of the genre.

Album Artwork Suited to the Genre

(From Left to Right)
Lorde - Melodrama
Santigold - 99c
Goldfrapp - Silvereye
La Roux - La Roux
Taylor Swift - Reputation
Sia - 1000 Forms of Fear

I selected a few album covers that are in the electro-pop genre to help get an idea of how mine should look. All of them feature the artist or some form of iconography that shows the artist, such as Sia's wig. They are experimental and eye catching, with most using bright and stylised colours - which makes them stand out amongst other albums.

 

Santigold's 99¢ album is bright and bold, and resembles something for sale - which links to the albums name itself. She is positioned in the middle of the frame, meaning she is the focal point, drawing the viewer's eye to her; and then follow her arm that points to the album's title. The title stands out, and as previously stated, looks like its selling what is inside the plastic bag. She is surrounded by a number of miscellany items, such as toy pianos and plastic shoes - further pushing the image that she is a doll for sale. Her name itself is only seen on a cars number plate amongst these items, which signifies that herself as the artist's name is less important than the music, or image, for sale.  It is diagonally alined with her skirt, meaning they will only notice her name once naturally following the line placed.

Production Call Sheet

The production call sheet, it vaguely outlines the duties within the group along with the props and costumes needed. We will refer to this whenever filming to make sure we have everything. Everyone within the group has a role, with a friend being the actress.

Edit: Due to schedules we have decided it'd be better if we had Kelly be the actress. This will allow us to film and shoot the digipak images easier, which will be utilising our lesson time  

Outfit Moodboard

Kelly (in charge of Mise-en-Scene) created a moodboard for our artist, following street style, with a retro/vintage vibe. The outfits are casual yet stylish, neither extravagant or plain  - which what we aim to achieve with Raina's outfits and image, as it also shows her interest in the arts. We are certain that Raina will be wearing a beret throughout the music video, and that it will be her trademark, which links to her French origins. Her clothes will have cool-tones and dark colours, which suits nightlife she will be in, and also allows her makeup to stand out.
From this we will gather possible outfits and make a poll voting which outfit would suit her the best (with our artist wearing the outfits).

Props do not play a significant role in the music video because of the genre (electro-pop), the only props that are involved are interactive ones - being the things the artist naturally comes across/are in the location already. For example, food/drinks, doors, the game machines; this is because the main focus of the music video is the visuals.

Week Review/ Plan

On Friday we managed to get shots to practice editing, as well as getting an idea of how the shots will look when we film our music video. The shoot was successful, as we managed to get many shots including some lip syncing parts to see if they fit with the camera angle. This week we aim to practice editing, and make the animatic.

Poll Results

We handed out the poll to a group of 10 people of a similar target audience age (the majority were 17/18) this is because it shows what would appeal to our target audience the most, as well as which font is the most eye-catching.

 

The most popular font was the fourth (as seen above) and as a group we have decided to use this one as our logo. It suits the genre of our music video, with the purple fitting the nightlife we aim to film in. The logo will appear at the beginning of the music video, alongside the digipak and posters.

Week Review/ Plan

Due to schedules and our planned filming time being eaten into we wasn't able to achieved what we had hoped. However, we did make progress on our logo ideas as well as research into electro-pop conventions, and individually I was able to look into some of the techniques that we're planning to use. This week, as a group we will finish the story board to the best of our ability, and blog about it. We will also do a handful of quick test shots so we can practice the stamp text effect - along with making the animatic if we have time.

Red, Unavailable
Green, Filming
 

We plan to re-do our test shots on Friday, if the footage is suitable we will use it for editing practice.

Initial Logo Ideas

Fonts 1-3 and 5-6 Aural
Font 4 Manbow

Colour palette used.

As a group we have been experimenting with our logo idea, we decided that the Aural font was our favourite. We used the colour palette from before, and it works well against a dark background - resembling neon lights that we aim to have in the music video. Although our favourite is the first, we will create a poll and ask people similar to our target audience which one is their favourite.