Digipack

This is my finished Digipack and this is a link to a video comparing my digipack to other digipacks in the same genre. Overall I am very pleased with my digipack. I used black and white as a theme throughout my digipack (and advert) to mimic the conventions of the digipacks I looked at in an earlier blog. I think it gives it a more edgy urban feeling. Black and white representing the two sides of the spectrum, black and white people, good and bad and the struggle that groups like Wu-Tang Clan went through. I used urban modern fonts to help convey this message as well. The title of 'Wu Tang Clan' is in a graffiti font to represent the street style of the music and therefore digipack, the Greatest Hits title is in a stencil/varsity font to show the same urban feeling. They are placed at the top and bottom of the front digipack cover and are on either side of the image. The image has been edited to resemble that of the Public Enemy images. With a more real look to them, without being very stylised which is what I was going for so that the audience could relate to them more easily. The stencil look accompanies the fonts and make it look more gritty and urban. The expressions of the people in the photo also do this. This follows the conventions of many digipacks in the same genre, where the face shows the attitude of the performer and adds to the street credentials. I used a simple layout for both the front/back and inside panels. This is, again, what other artists in similar genres did/do. I feel it contrasts the content by being plain and simple allowing the listener to see exactly what they're getting. This is juxtaposed by the larger than life movements and lyrics to the songs and videos of the group. Also included on the back panel are the things you would expect to find on any digipack. The barcode and company logos are situated next to the copyright and trademark disclaimers. This is to add to the digipack and make it look more professional and authentic. Language used on the digipack is minimal but is fun. It introduces the group and invites the consumer to buy the product because of the many exclusive things it has. For example the exclusive video on the DVD makes fans more likely to buy my digipack than any other as it has something no one Else's has. Both on the inside and the out, references to song lyrics and titles are used. On the inside the text is from Protect Ya Neck The Jumpoff and in the description at the top on the back it mentions Bring Da Ruckas, a very famous Wu Tang Clan song. This is done to remind the reader of the songs and make them want to listen to it therefore buying the product.

And these are links to a Facebook page where photos of my digipack are displayed and comments have been written as feedback.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages#!/photo.php?fbid=10150545789865183&set=a.10150545789580183.645144.721940182&theater

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages#!/photo.php?fbid=10150545790195183&set=a.10150545789580183.645144.721940182&theater

Recurring comments from this is that people like the use of black and white and the contrast that throws up. The layout is useful in grabbing the attention of a potential user and makes it inviting to browse. I am very pleased with the comments and it has been said that it is clear who the target audience for this product is which is what I really wanted to push.

Another thing people seem to like is the choice fonts. Combining the urban look with an edgy professional finish. This is the effect I was going for and am really glad it is coming across.

A promo pack for a band is a group of different media that promote the band. It consists of a CD / DVD with a collection of the artists songs and an advert promoting the artist. The Advert and CD / DVD should link in some way, possibly a common theme running through it. For example similar imagery and catchphrases. The digipack is a form of jewel case, for holding one or more Cd's or DVDs, in which the outer cover is made of card rather than plastic. This holds the CD/DVD part of the promo pack. As researched in Blog 5 - Target Audience of Artist/Band, there is no 'type' of person that listens to Wu Tang-Clan more, the demographic is widely varied from a wide range of ages and ethnicity's. However this is in the present day, Wu Tang-Clan first released a single in 1992 and so the audience has changed and grown in the last 18 years. At the time of release, Wu Tang Clan appealed to predominately black males.

Wu Tang Clan only has the one digipack released and so I am going to analyse that of artists of a similar genre as well as the digipack that Wu-Tang Clan released. I will be using Public Enemy's digipack as it is in the same genre of east coast hip hop and rap as Wu-Tang Clan.

This is Wu Tang Clan's digipack, Wu, The Story Of The Wu Tang Clan. This digipack has the band's logo as the main focus. Inside the logo are all the members of the group. While the photo's of the members are in black and white, the background colour is very vibrant. The colour choice of red and black gives the feeling of anger and maybe even death. This is coupled with the expressions of the members faces. Also along the bottom of the cover is a landscape shot of New York's skyline which is very relevant as they are all from New York and took pride in that fact which can been heard in most of their songs, representing the east coast.

I think I will use similar aspects like black and white photos with simple, block colours that provoke strong emotions like anger or violence to accurately represent a similar target audience and message.

This is the back to the digipack and features the same colour scheme as the front with the New York skyline running round to the back. This shows continuity and helps establish a theme and brand. As well as this is shows extracts from music videos that Wu-Tang Clan have made and because of this are in colour. This contrasts the front but does so as they're action shots as opposed to posed ones. It also shows special features on the disk and a small blurb about the band and their career. These aspects, I feel are very important and I will do similar features to make it look as professional as possible.

This is Public Enemy's digipack, Power To The People.

This digipack also uses colour and the lack of to contrast and draw attention. Where Wu Tang Clan's images were black and white and the cover was colourful, Public Enemy's images are black and white and their logo is colourful. The image of the members is done in a way to make it look like a stencil or graffiti which gives it an urban or hip hop feel. Again it uses a red colour which is quite confrontational.

Both digipacks have similarities, they both feature the members of the group and the group logo as main focal points. They both use colour to contrast and both use bright red colours. They are both relatively minimalistic in that they both use 3 or 4 colours and are mostly block colours.

For all my flatplans I plan to use limited colour (Black and white) with graffiti fonts and stylised images to resemble a graffiti stencil. This is done to represent the target audience and be in keeping with digipacks by artists in a similar genre.

This is my 1st flatplan for my digipack. This is the inside panels. I wanted to use lyrics to the song we're doing the music video for and thought that putting it behind the disk as well as having it printed on the disk it would represent the digipack. I then thought that using a group shot would correspond to that of digipacks I analysed.

This is the Front and back. On the back I used a shot of each of the members of the music video's eyes and then wanted the track listing over them. I think this could be a bit crowded and look messy but it looks styalised with the images of the eyes. Also the front is just the Wu-Tang Clan symbol - which later found we cant use - to represent the band that I'm making the digipack for. With simple bold writing for the title and band name.

This is the 2nd flatplan. These are the inside panels and have the lyrics to one the songs on the digipack as well as 2 group shots of the people in the music video. I think having the lyrics on the inside is the best place for it. As well an image of the band so you can see who is in the

band. However the images would be hidden behind the disk and so may be wasted slightly.

This is the front and back and is my favorite, having text introducing the band and digipack as well as track listings broken up by images of the band members. This makes it seem more busy and professional as there is a variety of images and text. Also having a group shot on the front establishes the band straight away and gives the digipack an identity. This way its easily recognised. Again using simple text and the Wu-Tang Clan logo.

This is the 3rd flatplan and is the most basic with the lyrics and the logo on the inside panels. This is simple but I think could be quite effective. It could look too bare though and basic.

This is the front and back which features a group shot on the back with track listings broken up by image. This is really effective as it establishes the band and shows the songs on the digipack. This matches the digipacks I analysed. The front has individual photos of each members to establish an identity for each member separately which is what they did on the existing Wu-Tang Clan digipack. Then have the title and band name in between the images. This looks a little messy but I think is effective.

My finished digipack resembles aspects of each of the flat plans but not any one in particular. My ideas changed while constructing it partly due to the images we captured as the digipack needed to include them.

Shooting Diaries

This is a picture of the first four shots of our music video on our shooting script. It details what shot was next and what costumes and props we needed to shoot that particular shot. It also outlined where each shot eould be in relation to the video so it was easier to edit at the end of the process. Lastly it showed us which shot was the best, in an attempt to save time in editing, this was we didn't have to look through all the shots and decide. It was already dont and we could select it and edit it very quickly. This was very helpful as we had to keep track of all the different cameras. This part of the filming was quite straight forward, we set up the studio and then shot the verses all the way through untill we got the right one. I helped with setting up and directing the music video as well as being a camera man.

Shooting Schedule

09/02/11 Plan to pick up equipment at 12pm and set up in the studio. Actors will arrive at 1pm and we will start shooting at 1:30 after costumes are assembled. Shoot the first 3 verses from all angles. - Studio wasn't available so we used a classroom in Southover with a greenscreen on the wall behind. 10/02/11 - 08/03/11 Capture back and edit the footage caught on 09/02/11. 09/03/11 Plan to pick up equipment at 1pm and set up in the studio with green screen. Start filming after actors have arrived at 1:30pm. Shoot the remaining 3 verses and addon shots eg. group shots with no lip syncing. Equipment List: - 3x XM2 Cameras - 2x Portable Lighting Rig - 3x Tripods - 1x Green Screen Costume: - 6x Flat Caps - Various Hoodies - T-Shirts - Chains and other various Jewelry

Health and Safety

This was the Risk Assessment Form we had to fill out each time we wanted to book the studio or equiptment. It highlights what risks there will be and how we could prevent them. It also includes our names and numbers in case anyone needed to get hold of us if for some reason we were late to the booking or forgot to give a camera back.

On our shoot there are several potential hazards which we had to identify and take precautions to stop these from harming any persons or equipment. 1. Wires and tripods are a tripping hazard that could potentially mean lighting rigs or cameras could be knocked down or broken. We resolved this issue by taping down any wires that were a potential risk so we wouldn't trip. 2. Lights are a hazard as they can get very hot and are a potential for burns. We made sure everyone knew the lights were hot and positioned them as out of the way as we could while retaining the lighting effect we wanted. 3. Dark atmospheric lighting means that all the risks are even more likely as its harder to see. We told everyone to take care when walking around the room and keep moving to a minimum while the lights were down.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard. We approached this part of the task slightly differently than other groups. Our central idea is based on the 6 individual verses there are in our song choice (First 6 verses - Verses thereafter were inappropriate.) This meant that we wanted each verse to be sung by one actor. After discussing this we thought we would film the 6 shots from 3 different cameras at 3 different angles and then edit them together. This way the continuity would be flawless as well as looking interesting. Because of this our storyboard had 6 main shots and then a loose idea of what it would look like. However it is very hard to draw up a storyboard if we don't know at what time and place we will cut to one of the other angles. This is why it is quite short. We wanted the majority of the shots to be front on to the actors at eye level and stay consistant throughout the video. We wanted group shots of the band, having 2 others dancing behind the one performing the verse. The first shot starts at the feet of the first actor (Georgie) and as the song begins it tilts upwards to her face, she then begins the song. The rest are straight forward static medium close-ups. With the exception of a handheld shot where Georgie sings into the camera at a slight low angle shot. We then wanted shots of the band standing still looking into the camera while the camera panned from left to right or vice versa.

Our storyboard came out more as what shots we needed as opposed to the order, because we didn't know what order we wanted them. That decision was going to be made at editing when we decided which parts from each camera (Seperate angle) looked the best.

Mise-en-scene

Setting/Location

For Setting/Location we wanted to use a mix of different urban locations. We wanted to use places with graffiti in it and that had an urban vibe to it. We thought that the streets of Brighton would be perfect as there is a lot of urban culture in Brighton that we could use a back drop to our video. We wanted to do this as it is common in Rap / Hip Hop music videos and we wanted to follow this convention.

We thought that, like the videos we looked at, we could a lot of filming while tracking the actors walking down the street performing into the camera. Having graffiti and other urban aspects in the background would improve the shots. These types of things are scattered throughout Brighton for example the corner of Cheapside and Station Street where the second photo was taken. Also In the lanes in Brighton would be perfect as the urban culture is at a high point here.

Also several friends of ours can drive and have their own car so a possible setting for some scenes could be in a car whether it would be stationary or moving depends on the actual ability to shoot and if it is possible to do so.

The idea to change from an urban setting like Brighton to the Studio was because of several factors that could affect it. We wanted to a get a really professional finish to the video and we felt that using a studio would be more in tune with that. We felt we could get more consistent lighting over several weeks of filming as well being able to control the weather in the shots. Another bonus is that Brighton is quite densely populated and we thought it would be difficult to control this. We also felt that if we used the studio the equipment would be closer and more easily available. Plus we could get more help from technicians which means it looks more like we want to. Lastly we would have had to get permission from the council to shoot in certain places where the studio is very easy accessible.

Props

We decided that the main feature of the music video will be the people performing so the emphasise will be on costume. We are doing this to make the audience focus on the performers which is a common convention in videos of similar genres as its almost showing off the success of the performer. Some props we are going use include; cigarettes or cigars, money (lots of notes), microphones and possibly a car. These will all be used to support the image of the performers portraying a rap artist. Hopefully it will give a balance between the glamorous and the urban feels we want. Cigarettes or cigars are typically seen as 'bad' and 'cool' and also associated with urban culture. So, having the performers smoking or holding them it will add to their status. The money will be used to show the wealth of the singers. This is common in this kind of music video as it is being showy. Microphones will be used to sing into and wave around in the way that hip hop / rap artists would. Finally the car might be used to sit in, or to drive around and show wealth again and status as well as being linked with urban culture. Driving around with friends at night.

Costume

Costumes we're going to use will be a mix of typical urban clothing and glamorous clothing. Things like over sized hoodies and jeans will be contrasted with brightly coloured jackets and jewellery to emphasise the lavishness of the performers.

Colour

The colours in our music video will be very bright, the costumes being worn by the performers will be extravagant and loud colours to show their presence and status. Also the colour of the urban setting will contrast the bright colours of the costumes and props.

Make-up

We aren't using make up that much, just on the 2 female performers. We want it to be subtle to bring out the features of their faces while leaving them looking natural. This is to keep the main focus on the content of the video; the lifestyle as opposed to the effects we use.

The Pitch

These are two videos of me and my group doing a presentation of our idea for the music video. Also attached is the presentation shown.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1M_7vjfm84ZNDdlNWI3YzYtMmIzMS00NTdlLWJiMmEtNGFhYjQzMDA1ZmI3&hl=en_GB
These are an outline of our research so far and the ideas we have for our music video.

This is a link to our pitch that we videoed

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B4-5YKV5LgbpY2E4ZmZhNDgtMmJkZi00OThkLWIyODEtZmRkN2QwNzY5OWIx&hl=en