Example of a real digipak

This digipak looks very feminine in the way it has been made. Rihanna has bright red lipstick, soft looking skin and a white dress on. The album catches the audiences eye immediately as the colours used are quite bright but also different. The album's name is LOUD which is shown in large capital letters which also makes it eye catching. From seeing the inside of the digipak which contains red roses, it immediately gives the idea of romance. The colour of the red also matches Rihanna's hair and lip colour. Again this digipak uses the conventions of having the Artist on the front, with their name and the albums name. The track-listing is shown on the back; there are two discs - one containing the tracks and the other a special edition disc and there is a small booklet which contains information on the tracks.

Digipak & their conventions

A digipak is a style of CD/DVD packaging. A digipak can consist of 4; 6 or 8 panels. Depending on what else you wish to include with the CD/DVD. It opens like a book rather than a plastic case, it is made from card rather than plastic. Digipaks are a registered trade mark of AGI World Ltd. They are often used for special editions of a CD or DVD as digipaks are less likely to get scratched compared to jewel cases.

To gain more of an insight into digipak's I am going to research existing digipaks and music albums for some inspiration.

Template of a Digipak

The front of the digipak will stereotypically have an image of the artist and the name of the artist.

The right hand side sleeve will contain the CD which includes the tracks.

The left hand side sleeve may contain a music video, a mini video of what they have filmed, cuts or un seen footage.

The back cover will show the tracks and their number listing.

The conventions of a digipak are:

• Name of the album
• Artists name
• A tracklisting - including any bonus tracks
• Price
• Website
• Credits/Who wrote the songs
• Sometimes lyrics are included in a booklet
• Barcode
• Logo

Praise You - Fatboy Slim

Kanye West: "Can't Tell Me Nothing"

Other funny music videos

I am trying to get ideas of what to include in my music video so I have researched other music videos that have a fun element to them. I don't know if I have found one video which i would completely take all ideas from as I like different ideas from different videos.

The two main videos I think I will base my video on include; Kanye Wests' - Can't tell me nothing and Fatboy Slims' - Praise You.

LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It

Another change of heart..

After a couple weeks of having difficulty trying to organise a music video for Goo Goo Dolls - Iris, I have changed my mind yet again and this time i WILL stick too it. After a long think, I decided the best option for me was to choose a song I could create a "funny" video too. Something that isn't serious and that me and other volunteers could have fun making. The song I have chosen is LMFAO - Sexy & I know it.

I find the song and the video hilarious and just thought I just want to have fun in making my music video, and if its fun it might intrigue more people to participate and to watch.

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris (Video)

Having seen the video for the song before it came as no surprise to me when having to analyse it. My first thoughts of the video were that the quality of video looks quite old fashioned. There are a couple cross dissolves but several cuts. The video captures two locations, one being the lead singer in a room full of telescopes looking out at people/a person, and the other location being in a tunnel of some sort which looks quite dark with few cars driving through and past them. The band are playing their instruments and singing loud. To show the band there are mid shots, zooming in, aerial shots and there is a contrast of dark and light between the band setting and the telescope room. There are some out of focus shots and a 360degree shot. The video also includes an instrumental which means I will have to fill this space during my video and at the end of the video they have aded a crackle/aged affect to make the end shot look old.

What the lyrics mean to me?

The lyrics to this song make me think of the people I love, not necessarily a boyfriend/girlfriend love but a family or friends love also. It reminds me of missing people that mean a lot to me but I still feel a sense of romance when listening too this song.

This may be how I interpret this song, but I also want to know what other people feel when they hear it too. For this I have printed copies of the lyrics to show people and for them to write down or tell me how they feel.

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris Lyrics

Verse 1

And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

Verse 2

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

Chorus

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

Verse 3

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

Chorus

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

Chorus

I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

Radical Change!!!

I have made a radical decision to change my genre of music video! After thoroughly researching into R&B music videos it became clear to me the high standard that music video creators have set. Having no budget, and not many resources I have looked at other music videos with low budgets and found that actually, they look quite indie/pop. Therefore I have chose to do the Goo Goo Dolls - Iris. After suddenly deciding this I have not left myself with much time to film.. However I have thought out my new plan and have decided that with in my village there are some settings that would look good for my idea. With the song sounding quite "rough" and I have interpreted it to be about Love, I believe the woods in my village would give my video an effective look - with leaves falling from the trees and the idea of being alone.

Another setting I think would be effective is the Locks in Woodford. There is lots of greenery, there is a bridge which portrays the idea of "building bridges" with the person the song has a relationship with.

My plan is to include, two main locations. One being the woods, and the other of a "band" in the drama room which will be quite dark. I have developed my woods idea to have me or a volunteer wearing my old prom dress whilst running through the woods looking alone and lost. With other shots in the woods also - not just running.

Editing

Montage Editing

Montage editing is a style where unrelated clips are juxtaposed to represent a passage of time or some sort of event. Sometimes montage's are held together by music. I have used Hitchcock's Psycho shower scene as an example.

Hypodermic Needle Effect/Magic Bullet Theory

The HNE - Hypodermic Needle Effect, is a piece of media that is meant to give the audience a mental image of the direct and strategic message to an individual.

An example of this is in 1938 when The War of the Worlds was broadcasted and the reaction of panic from the American audience was wide spread, this was used as a form of propaganda. The first two thirds of the sixty minute broadcast was presented as a series of news bulletins. This seemed to suggest to many audiences that there was an actual alien invasion in progress. This was broadcasting on the Mercury Theatre on the Air which was a show that ran without commercial breaks, which seemed to add to the realism of the broadcast to be "real".

The way the programme used a "news-bulletin" format was described to be "cruelly deceptive".

It seems to be that if the government tell you/broadcast something we assume it MUST be true!?

Theory work

Audience theory is just general theories to do with audiences. Such as when audiences are PASSIVE receivers of meaning/ideas/values or messages. An example of this is Eastenders' Phil Mitchell. When audiences see this character act in an aggressive manner, they may unconsciously think everybody that looks like him will act the way he does.

Another example of audiences being PASSIVE receivers is the News. Audiences sometimes think is the first item/piece of news mentioned on the news the most important? Else why else would they choose that item to be mentioned first?

Oppositely to this, audiences can be ACTIVE receivers of meaning/ideas/values or messages. This means that they do things with the text for their own gratification or satisfaction. An example of this is audiences that watch music videos. I can honestly say that I in fact do this. But until now I haven't thought as to why I do chose to sit and watch music videos. However I have found answers on my behalf as to why I do watch music videos. I enjoy watching the quality of the video; what the people in the video are wearing or how they do their make up, I like to feel I have seen a song/video before any of my friends - it gives me some sort of feeling like I have achieved something?! And of course this way I get to keep up to date on what I like and don't like.

Our Music Video.

For our music video, we have decided to use the song "I wanna" by Ciara and Nicki Minaj. Because me and Sarah know the video is not going to be up to the standards of proper music videos, we are going for the "grainy" look. So far we have taken test shots of different people dancing, also Sarah's sister and friends have agreed to dance for us in the video because they are dancers. As Hannah (Sarah's sister) is younger, we feel she may look to young to sing in the video as well as dance. We want to have the "grainy" looking part of the video, and then a more effective, better quality looking parts to the video. For this we are going to use our schools drama room where we can have a white background and lots of different lighting and this also makes it easier for us to edit. The song is quite a "dancey/fun" song so this is the type of video we are hoping to create.

Branding

Artists create a type of brand for themselves. For example Beyonce, she is branded as a strong,assertive sexy woman who is in control and other woman idolise her.

Lady Gaga; This is the irony of the name.. She is simply Gaga! This artist is portrayed as being abit crazy and likes to look "unique" or "individual" but it seems she tries too hard. Not so many people seem to idolise this artist, but they still are intrigued to see what she is going to do or look like next. In this image Gaga attends and award ceremony in which she wore a "Meat Dress'.

Rihanna; Rihanna used to look like a pretty innocent teenage girl who had a great voice and made good music.. The transformation from that to Rihanna in 2011 is clear to see.. Now, she represents herself as a promiscuous woman with plenty of attitude. Obviously as Rihanna started to get older, she started making music that appealed to older teenagers which became not so innocent. Because of this she has made a "brand" for herself as this promiscuous image which she now has to maintain.

Hoodie Allen - You Are Not A Robot Music Video ( Student Project)

After looking..

After looking at the amazing quality of todays R&B music videos, I can honestly say.. My video will unfortunately not look that great! So, I decided to youtube student music videos to look at the quality of other students work and to try and work out how they created their project. This makes me feel disappointed because everybody will compare your video to the standard of, for example, Colin Tilley's videos.

One video that stood out to me was Hoodie Allen - You are not a robot. It does not look overly expensive, but the effects and shots make me feel reassured that it is achievable to make my video look presentable as a music video.

Similarities!

After watching the videos I have listed, I found several similarities.

• At the beginning of every video (minus the Lose Control video) it starts with "Colin Tilley presents" and often it goes on to show the artist/s and the name of the song.
• There seems to be a trend of the way the male artists are dressed. In every video it seems the men are dressed with jeans or trousers with military style boots, jewellery that stands out, and often they are wearing "sunglasses" and the men usually have tattoos.
• In Colin Tilley's videos I have recognised that there is always dancing.
• In the examples I have shown below, the videos look "rough" but the effects and set up still look amazing! There is always carefully placed lighting to give the video that quality look.
• The setting of the majority of the videos seems to be either on a street type scene or underground.

Keri Hilson - One Night Stand ft. Chris Brown

Jeremih - Down On Me ft. 50 Cent

Keri Hilson - Lose Control ft. Nelly

Chris Brown - Look At Me Now ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes

History of your text

Directors of music videos - (r&b)

Colin Tilley

Colin Tilley is an award winning music video director, born on June 27 1988 in California. Colin has directed music videos for artists such as:

Chris Browns;

• Next 2 You ft Justin Bieber
• She Aint You
• Look at Me Now ft Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes
• Yeah 3X
• No Bull****
• Deuces ft Tyga and Kevin McCall

Keri Hilson:

• One night stand ft Chris Brown
• Lose Control ft Nelly

Chipmunk:

• In the Air ft Keri Hilson
• Champion ft Chris Brown

Jeremih:

• Down on Me ft 50 Cent

Jason Derulo:

• It Girl

As my music video is going to be under the genre of R&B, I am going to research the music videos he has directed and see if I can see any similarities within the videos.

Kanye West - Touch The Sky (MTV Version) ft. Lupe Fiasco

Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up

Influences of older songs..

I have noticed that in more recent music, they're seems to be a key influence of previous/older music. For example, Curtis Mayfield's - Move On Up, was released in September 1970. The video for this song is visually poor, but musically great! (Video posted above) The genre of this song is Funk/Chicago Soul.

Kanye west uses the backing from Mayfield's - Move On Up in his Touch the Sky track in 2006. However the genre for this song is classed as Hip Hop. This shows how music has cross pollinated from what once was classed as Soul but has now influenced Hip Hop music. (Touch the Sky posted above)

Although Touch the Sky is relatively younger, listening to the song you can tell that the same instruments are used from Move On Up.

OK Go and The Muppets - Muppet Show Theme Song

OK Go - White Knuckles - Official Video

OK Go - End Love - Official Video

OK Go..

OK Go are a rock band composed by Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka and Andy Ross. However, they are best known for their quirky music videos rather than their actual music.

The original members formed as OK Go in 1998 and released two albums. Their video for "Here it goes again" won a Grammy award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" in 2007.

The band have gained a lot of fame from their low-budget but creative/different music videos which you can find all of through youtube. Their most recognisable music video is from 2006 for their song "Here it goes again", where the band perform a routine on treadmills. This video has received over 50 million views five years later.

OK Go have their own website which is:

http://www.okgo.net/

Above this post I have shared a few examples of their music videos, obviously I had to cut down on how many I could post on here else I would end up with a blog of their videos. Their latest video which includes The Muppets was released on August 23rd. Enjoy!

Function At The Junction

Soul Function

During a media lesson yesterday, we watched a short film based on soul music and dancing called Function at the Junction. This short film was made in 2002 but is set in the 70s. The plot of the film is a club owner that tries to fix the winner of a Northern Soul dance competition in his own club, but a pleasure seeking male is determined to display his dancing which changes the plans.

The film is fourteen minutes long and the budget for the short film was £14,000! Which is NOTHING compared to other films.

Above this post is the short film, from youtube.

Snoop Dogg Dr.DrEE - Still D.R.E

Nicole Scherzinger - Right There ft. 50 Cent

Memes & Tropes of R&B/Rap Music

Basically, looking at several examples of r&b/rap music, all of the videos contain:

• Half naked black females
• Hats/Caps
• Jewellery/"Bling"
• The artists (the males) are never seen alone, when rapping they do not stand on their own, they may rap alone but theres usually somebody standing by their side. In one example I have shared from youtube onto my blog is "Right There" by Nicole Scherzinger and 50 Cent. When rapping Nicole is stood/dancing behind 50.

Prelim Take Two!!

Ok, change of idea already! I was thinking to complicated.. now I have decided to film from my point of view and as if I was a ghost but I will film others around me carrying on their daily lives and coming into school. The film will show what I used to do but with others not noticing I'm there, like they are looking right through me.

This way I won't have to depend on anybody else as much and I can film during my studies, lessons and lunchtimes.

Prelim Idea

My first and main idea - at the moment, for my one minute short film, is going to be based on the idea of the shows such as "The Only Way is Essex", "Made in Chelsea" and the other shows which are basically filming of peoples lives. Although the people are real, sometimes the situations are not as the actors/actresses are put into a situation for your entertainment. Especially in this case as my short film will include students at my school. I thought this would be a good idea for my short film because I only need it to be one minute long and with ordinary people everywhere in the school/sixth form area it would not take so long to figure out because I do not have one main character. This film will be called "A day in the life of..A student."

To get a good idea on how I will go about filming and what I decide to film I have researched the shows via youtube to gain an insight into what they are like.

The Codes & Conventions of Short Films

Short films are easily identifiable by the aspects that make them work - in most cases. It is important for the short film to be understood immediately because of the short space of time there is allowed for the film. Certain aspects are used to make it possible for the audience to understand the film.

Some techniques of short films are:

• Establishing characters quickly
• Little Dialogue
• Not many locations
• Little Costume change
• Varied Camerawork
• Sound Bridges are often used
• Incidental Music
• Silence
• Slow/Fast Motion

Slinky

Examples of Short Films

Fearnley Homework !

For homework Mrs. Fearnley gave us the job of researching several genres of films from the 1910's to the 2000's.

So far I have got to the 1940's and I have been quite suprised at how many films there are so early on in time.

I found in the 1910's:

• Frankenstein - Horror
• The Sheriff's Dilema - Western
• Riders of Vengeance - Action
• The Mask of Love - Crime
• A Trip to Mars - Sci fi
• A Day in the life of a Coal Miner - Documentary
• A Christmas Carol
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Alices Adventures in Wonderland

1920's:

• The Girl in Number 29 - Drama
• The Big Catch - Western
• Caravan of Death - Silent German
• Der Golem - Sci fi
• Moana - Documentary
• Way Down East - Romance
• The Cabinet of Dr Caligan - Horror
• Blood Money - Crime

1930's:

• Member of the Jury - Crime
• Hell's Heroes - Western
• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Sci Fi
• An American Tragedy - Romance
• Bride of Frankenstein - Horror
• The Public Enemy - Acton

1940's:

• The Fighting 69th - Action
• The Bandit - Crime
• The Range Busters - Western
• Monster and the Girl - Sci Fi
• Boom Town - Romance
• House of Horrors - Horror

Film Genres

During the same first lesson, we designed a mind map of the different film genres we could think of.

As I cannot do a a mind map on here to show I will list the genres instead.

Film Genres:

• Thriller
• Horror/Slash
• Musical
• Heritage
• Rom-com
• Sci-fi
• Bollywood
• Romance
• Western
• Crime
• Action
• Bio-opics
• Chick Flicks
• Fantasy
• Detective
• War
• Disaster
• Animation
• Film Noire
• "Guy" Films
• Mella Dramas
• Weepys
• Road
• Sports
• Supernatural

*Comedy and Tragedy are film styles rather than genres.

A2 Coursework Briefs..

Our first lesson after finishing AS level media the A2 options for coursework were put across to our class. The learning objectives for this lesson was to:

• develop my knowledge of film genre
• develop my knowledge of coursework briefs for A2

Coursework Brief for A2

1. Short film in its entirety (5 mins) and choose 2 from; a film magazine review DPS of your film; a poster for your film; a radio trailer for your film.
2. Music Promo Video; and a magazine advert for the digipak of a band; a digipak
3. A (new) film trailer; a poster for the film; a film magazine front cover

In the next several weeks, we will decide on which brief we choose to do.