Preliminary Tasks - CD Digipak

What is a CD Digipak?
Digipacks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipacks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipack that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background. Digipacks were first created by MeadWestvaco, and their product, called Digi-Pak, is trademarked. However, as the format became more popular and began to be used by more manufacturers, the generic "digipack" came to be used to describe all soft CD packaging.
Digipacks have pros and cons:

• They look nice, and many bands and labels like to use them for aesthetic reasons. The three section digipack sleeves opens up more design options because there is more room. However, they're more expensive than traditional liner notes and jewel cases.
  
• Digipacks don't crack like jewel cases do, but they will rip and eventually the paper begins to peel apart and separate.
  
• The trays in digipacks break much more often then in jewel cases. There's not as much protection since the outer portion of made of paper, so the teeth that hold the CD in place crack and fall out easily.
  
• When the teeth of the tray does break in a digipack, the CD falls out of the bottom of the digipack, because unlike jewel cases, there is nothing to hold it in.
  
• Digipacks can be more environmentally friendly than jewel cases because they can be made of recycled paper - however, they aren't always in fact made in this way.

As part of the A2 Media Studies specification, you are required to produce two 'preliminary tasks' pieces; in my case these consist of a whole CD case (Digipack), producing both back and front covers and also the booklet describing the band found on the inside of the case itself. Along with that I will produce an A4 sized poster, advertising the band themselves along with the new CD. Firstly I am going to produce the CD case; for I can then use this on the poster as an advert as a large advert, adding diversity to my individual poster (for this is not done as a group). Here are some examples of CD covers from bands within the same genre of music our task is based around;

This is an album cover by the band 'A Day To Remember', a globally recognized band throughout the 'Rock' Industry. I really like this cover due to its simplicity in the sense that the foreground image is the same colour scheme as the text, which relates nicely to the colour of the background. However the cracks accross the Digipack give it a warmer look, taking away the monotonous feel to a simple Digipack and giving it a more realistic feel - something I hope to achieve in my Digipack.

This is a Digipack by Nirvana, now I'm sure you will have heard of them! This Digipack is phenominal in my opinion, the image tells alot about the album before hearing it, a deep feel is abundant. The text is fantastic, with the band name in it's usual font, (known globally, attracting viewer attention) then the album name in a contrasting font, however keeping in relation to the relaxing waves portrayed by the image. I believe the photo relates to chasing dreams, even from a young age, which is something Nirvana have persistantly achieved since they started back in 1987. The colour of the image is brilliant, with a vertical fade in the background image in the blue, and the text staying simple and punchy.

This is a the CD Digipack for Emarosa, although not known as globally as Nirvana, Emarosa are a specifically targetting band, with the singer doing variations to express the singularity of the band, branching out to other target audiences (with bands such as isles and glaciers etc) The image is a confusing one, leaving the viewer to interpret it how they wish - much like the Nirvana image, although due to the lack of realism, this Digipack could relate to any number of thoughts. I really like the colour scheme across the image.

Combining Research - How the 'Rock' genre has changed over the years, how will this effect the production of our Music Video and why?

As stated in an earlier post, the 'Rock' genre has adapted drastically since it first became popular; from the genre name, to the style of singing and instruments bands use. As we are planning to use a song from a more recent era, our music video will have to take into account the ideas and constructs of those from a more recent time, and leave behind the concepts used many years ago. The reasoning behind this is that if we get caught up in old style 'Rock' music videos, our target audience would effectively change; and we would be trying to combine a modern song with a very de-modernised style of video, which would not come across effective at all!
The modernised music video uses a variety of different shots to create a very gripping, effective portrayal of the band and the song itself. This is what we are trying to incorporate into our music video during production, the planning we have made and the production techniques we plan to use revolve around a modernised music video - using a variety of shots from different angles.


The effect on how the 'Rock' genre has changed throughout recent times will greatly effect the production of our music video because it changes the way any producer plans to distribute their work throughout a target or strayed audience. If we were to produce an old-style music video, distribution would be limited to more vintage shops, especially when just selling the video. Modernised distributors sell their productions to a specific audience through technological convergence (through the use of media and new technologies in and ever expanding world). If we plan to keep up with this style of production we must learn and produce techniques used throughout the 'Rock' genre when producing a video, otherwise our production will be highly unjustifiable within the modern world.


 Below are some screen shot clips from music videos by 'Slipknot', a band within the 'Rock' genre. I have used these clips because they show clearly how technological convergence is a huge part of music video production in the modern world and can give you and idea as to some of the lighting effects and mise-en-scene we plan to use in our video.

As you can see throughout all three of the munched screen shot collages, many different lighting effects are used, some of which bring high contrasted attention to specific parts of the video, others are used purely for the viewers enjoyment.


Other note-able techniques would be the use of mise-en-scene throughout the clips. For example, in the third collage titled 'Dead Memories', the third row and middle picture you can clearly see a man as the protagonist within the shot, Light is almost radiating off his body and he is the clear target for the viewers vision. This is done through a range of medial effects, including the manipulation of lighting and scenery, as seen with the black lines almost being pulled out of his body towards to edges of the screen, giving the idea that he is walking down a never-ending corridor. At first glance these techniques may not be so obvious but after careful manipulation of the image it is clearly used to increase the viewers attention to one specific point of the shot.

Conventions of a modern day Music Video

Camera shots – Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots, this is a create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.

Camera movement – Movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise – en – scene - This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise – en – scene puts importance on the representation of something. A very good example of this would be ‘Mad’ by Neyo. The mise – en – scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connotes the angry and depressed mood. This is just one example of mise – en – scene used to give an idea of how it works!

Link to 'Mad' by Neyo

Editing – Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.


Other main conventions consist of;

• Lighting : Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look.
• Sound : Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson – Thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film
• Props : These are a vital in aiding to add the scene and create significance on particular objects or people

Questionnaire - Qualitative

As another part to my research I conducted live interviews with people after the results of the quantitative questionairre came back. My reasoning behind doing it in this fashion was because the quantitative research gave us a much broader and more consistant idea as to what people wanted to see in the video; we could therefore take these ideas and base the questions for the interviews around them - seeing if other people agreed or disagreed with the ideas we had. I asked a variety of different people from my school a set list of questions, and pushed them to express their thoughts on our ideas through a qualitative answer. This piece of research was particularly vital and will benefit us greatly when conducting ideas for our music video as the qualitative ideas of our target audience is crucial, these interviews effectively gave us the information as to what we needed to put in our music video for them to be successful within the target audience it is based upon.

Questionnaire - Quantitative

As part of our research into the genre and indeed the specific song we were going to choose to display our music video around; we each conducted some individual wider research. I decided to give 50 students throughout two schools a questionnaire to allow them to express their views on the matter. My reasoning behind choosing both the age and mixed gender of students that I did, was that these people would give a very precise indication as to what people within the target audience of our music video would be looking for.


In using the questionnaire I hoped to find out some answers as to what the viewers wanted to both see within the video, by asking them a variety of questions relating to the song we would play, and the style of video they enjoy watching. However; I kept the questionnaire (in this case) to multiple choice, this was so the decisions as to what we put in the video wouldn't be too marginally influenced by the results we got.


The questions were as follows;
1) What is your favourite genre of music? (if your favourite is not any of the following, please select your most preferable) -Rock (alternative) -Classical -RnB -Dubstep -Reggae


2) Do you like more RELAXED songs within the genre, or songs with a HIGHER TEMPO. Please circle one.


3) Here are two styles of filming when relating to a music video which are most commonly used, please select your most preferable - Lots of short, quick shots - Longer, more meaningful shots with a wider birth


4) Finally, do you prefer a music video with a storyline behind it? - Yes - No

RESULTS

The results we found were quite astonishing. Our group had already thrown around a few ideas as to what our ideal music video would consist of using the answers to the questionnaire.. (Rock song, high tempo, Lots of short quicker shots and no storyline) Suprisingly; within the variety of people we asked, both boys and girls ranging from ages 16-19, their answers came out almost identical to ours in almost every case.

These results were both shocking, yet very helpful to our group! The ideas we had had before conducting this research were commended and expressed through other peoples' thoughts also. This gave our group the information we needed to conclude on many very big decisions we hadn't yet been able to. The genre of the song - ROCK, the tempo of the song - HIGH, the shot styles - SHORT and also whether to include a story - IMPARTIAL.

Research - Our little introduction test!

Throughout media studies lessons and in our spare time this year our group has had hundreds of ideas about which song to use, which camera angles to shoot at and which shots to use etc. We finally decided on a few shots that would blend well together and found a little intro piece of music from the song Artbreaker 1 - Kids in Glass Houses. We filmed the shots off a school camera which we will hopefully use for our final edit, however only in a very rough state (the shots are not done properly). We purely did this to test timing and to get a small piece of film to play around with editing programs such as 'Premier' which is what the group intends to use on the final edit! Below is a link to the video.

Link to our Introduction Test

As earlier stated this was purely in the research phase and in no way planning for the real edit, as a group we just wanted to take in some of the concepts involved in filming and get a taste of what it will be like to use lighting and effects on editing programs!

Research - Music Videos (Evaluation and Comments)

Link to Music Video - 'Take One Last Breath'

'Take One Last Breath' - 'Abandon All Ships'. Another one of my personal favorite rock/metal songs, I especially love the video for this song as the effects are fantastic. The original shots are quite blurry, however with a dark background and stage lights that is of course expected. The effects are put to excellent use throughout this video, the use of slow motion and even rewind to fit drops and different phases within the song is phenomenal. An example of this is from 0:55-1:09, a fairly substantial part of the video, covering 14 seconds, is all in slow motion! However due to the lighting and lack of vocals in this part of the song it works incredibly well. Now, the use of 'rewind' within a music video is something that I am yet to see in any other bar this; from 2:18 - 2:22 the rewind of a Mic Drop is used to fit the Vocal Drop, and it comes across with an astonishingly good outcome. I hope to take some of these ideas and editing tips and discuss them with my group when conducting and producing our music video!

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A second music video I am going to analyse will be a personal favourite of mine: Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins – It’s Like that. This is a great contrasting video to the previous and I am going to go into more detail and bredth about the conventions that make this video so impressive in different ways to music videos within the 'Rock' genre. This video is also a prime example of how a music video can be successful without the necessity of an exessive use of special effects - Unlike the previous video.

Camera Shots:
The Music video starts with a side tracking shot, as the man is carrying the boom box on his shoulder. From this we are able to get a full shot of the man and we are able to get parts of his personality from this. There is a medium close up of the man with the boom box, which shows his expression and body language towards the group of dancers. The group of dancers are shown by a long shot. The video contains a low angled shot which tries to get a full perspective of the group of dancers, this helps to give the audience a good view over what is happening in the video. There is also a pan shot throughout the video trying to show the audience the whole scene and try to show them what is happening. There are a couple more side tracking shots throughout the video, which shows both groups of break-dancers in the video. There is also a close up of one of the dancers faces, which shows that the dancers are important to the video, as it almost tells the audience what the video is going to be about and the close up also shows the characters facial expressions/language.There is a close up of the boom box man’s hand, as he turns up the dial on the boom box. This portrays to the audience that their is going to be some dancing in the video, as the boom box represents Street Dancing/Break Dancing.

Sound:
The music in this video seems to be quite diegetic, as there is a boom box in the video. the boom box is being turned up and then used in the video which represents that the music is only in the video at that time and has not been added in after the video was made. You can also tell that it is diegetic, as people are dancing simultaneous to the song.

Editing:
There has been small parts of editing used in the music video, for example quick cuts have been used in the video, so that one scene in the music video can quickly cut into another scene, so it flows better. This may have been used to attract the audience, because if there are alot of quick cuts between each scene, then the attentionof the audience will be higher. The music video also contains a title screen at the beginning of the video, which shows the audience who the song is sung by and what the song is called.

Misé en scene:
The music video is set in an abandoned warehouse, this shows the audience that something quite big is going to happen, as the warehouse is a big set. In a lot of dancing videos, abandoned warehouses and big places like this are used for the dancing in the videos. Once you first see the people stood in the warehouse, you can straight away tell that some dancing is going to take place. This helps the audience to understand what is going to happen. All of the dancers are wearing quite formal clothes and they are also wearing clothes which people dance in. This shows that they will be doing some dancing in the video as there clothes show their personality and actions. Props are also being used in the music video to set the scene, for example a boom box is a prop and is used to show the audience that something is going to happen which music is needed for, for example dancing.


The conventions used in a music video within the R 'n' B genre are similar to those used in the 'Rock' genre in many different fashions. This is due to the conventions of a good music video fall under the four categories of Editing, Sound, Mise en scene and Camera work, any variation on these decreases the standard of the video.

My Comments on how the 'Rock' Genre has adapted over the years

As I stated in an earlier post Rock first began as a mixture of two genres; however in the modern era it is anything but that. It has expanded the most out of any genre of music and in my opinion for the best. Vocals within the genre have changed to such an extent that the technical term 'screaming' as a vocal style is now apparent within many Rock songs, this is in such contrast to how the genre used to sound, with the vocalists singing instead of compressing air from their Diaphragm to express a more harsh, screaming sound.


The music played has disorientated from what it originally was and is now a lot more varied; for example 1950s Rock n' Roll music consisted of (usually) a vocalist, one guitarist and one bassist, usually without a drummer. However now, now Rock music cannot function without a drummer providing a drop-line and also a beat for the rest of the band to follow, drummers also now use fills to create tension within the music making it more enjoyable to listen to

In terms of the actual music videos when comparing the two eras , they are in an almost complete contrast, however a minimal amount of techniques/shots are carried through to today's music videos from videos of an older generation. As seen in the comparison of Elvis and A Day to Remember; the still head and shoulder shot is used throughout the Elvis video, and it is carried through to the A Day to Remember video however with the odd twist, making the shot jittery or even at a slant. Here are two still frames from the two music videos, it is clear that old techniques of filming are still being implemented today within the music industry!

Comparing a Music Video From Early Rock Music To The Music Of Today - Elvis Vs ADTR

Elvis Aaron Presleya (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".

Elvis's first single, 'heartbreak hotel' was an instant number one hit. The link below is the original music video for 'heartbreak hotel'.

Link to Music Video - 'Heartbreak Hotel'

You will notice, as I did, that the whole video is almost a simple still shot with the singer (Elvis) as the clear protagonist and his guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black as his understudies. Elvis was the first real name to bring 'Rock and Roll' as a genre to the public, and the reason behind me showing you this video is a comparison as to how 'Rock and Roll' music has changed throughout the years. Firstly, it has gradually become just 'Rock', as the public and modern era believe the genre lacks the blues side of music in this day and age. Which is understandable, as the link below to a very modern rock song will reinforce the official loss of the slow, almost jazz style blues tint 'Rock and Roll' used to possess.

Link to Music Video - 'All I Want'

This song; 'All I Want' by 'A Day to Remember' is a personal favorite of mine. You will notice straight away again that it is completely different to that of Elvis's video. The shots are never still, keeping the viewer interested in not just the music but the video aswell. This particular video has certain lyrics almost spewed out across the screen at times, sung by other famous artists. This allows the viewer to see that other producers and artists appreciate this genre and what the band are doing with it. Most of the shots are clear, they are all single shots, mostly from the waist up - a lot like the Elvis video.

Research into Music within the 'Rock' genre

"Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources.

Musically, rock has centered around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based music with a 4/4 beat utilizing a verse-chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse and common musical characteristics are difficult to define. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. Rock places a higher degree of emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music." - Wikipedia definition of 'Rock Music'.


It is hard to believe, but there was once a time when there was no rock music. Most historians trace the beginning rock back to the year 1954, when a new type of music, then called Rock and Roll, appeared and revolutionized musical tastes, at least among young people, and pretty much changed the world.


This new music, of course did not develop in a vacuum, but resulted from the convergence of two musical styles, Rhythm and Blues and Country, as well as a series of technological developments that created a new market for music.


Like Jazz, Rhythm and Blues developed from the music called the Blues. The Blues, "grew out of African spirituals and work songs sung by African-Americans in the South. Many of these people had been brought to the United States as slaves, and before the Civil war they labored in difficult situations on the Southern plantations. 'Call and response' was often used as a means of communication by the workers in the fields, who fooled the plantation owners into thinking that their music was the 'happy' music of hard working slaves."


Rhythm and Blues developed from the Blues, and Rock and Roll developed from Rhythm and Blues (R&B). Little Richard, one of the great innovators in 1950's rock music, has often said that "Rhythm and Blues had a baby and somebody named it rock and roll." He, of course is absolutely right, and a number of important R&B artists were part of the beginning of Rock and Roll. Among them were Muddy Waters, Willie Mae Thornton, Joe Turner and Ray Charles.

A2 Media Studies Specification

Below is a link to the specification for A2 Media Studies

Link to A2 Media Studies Specification

Starting at
3.4 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

This can give you a vague idea as to the concepts of media the brief is looking for us to study and look in to.

However, this is the main piece of information that is vital to candidates such as myself, there are various pieces of work that must be presented in the coursework area for A2 Media Studies, including;

• a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts;
• a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in electronic format(s).

Working in a group has had its many advantages when comprising together ideas for our media portfolio; and we have decided on the outcome of a music video for our main task - this will come in a video/sound format - like most other music videos of this generation! The ancillary tasks will consist of the creation of a CD case, both front and back covers; for the specific band we have decided to choose, including album tracks and information on the band - as seen in any modern CD case! We will also be creating a poster advertising the album as seen on the CD case.