Media products - Digipak and Magazine poster/ advertisement

These images/sketches are tho ones that me and Ben have chosen to use for our printed media. The crying eye will be the digipak image and we will use the image in different ways over and over again on the inside of the cd, or we will use another image of the band to variate our image choice. Then on the back of the Digipak we will have the track listings and the image of the band. We will have to also insert the informaton of the record company etc.

For the magazine poster, we want to use the image on the front of the cd as a background image and then one of the band at the bottom. We will have a small insert shot of the cd at the top with the bands name and some text to 'attract' the cd to metal listeners. For our text we will use colours of black and red, and the font of 'cracked' as this looks most like a 'rock music' font.





Image analysis:
Here you can see two images that me and Ben have chosen for the background of our magazine advertisement and our digipak.



We have chosen these images because they portray the feeling and emotion that comes across in our video. It was hard to look like i was crying as i had to make sure i gave of the right emotion, yet, make my eye look bold and the centre of attention. We shall emphasize this fact by using adobe photoshop. I feel that these images show an emotional connotation as of the emotion and colour in the eyes. I like that my eyes are slightly red which shows even more emotion as it looks like i am really crying, so we will not have to edit that part of the picture as it already looks effective.





Final Products:


The digipak:

Here is the 'digipak' that my group have created. We used all of our own images and edited them on photoshop. On the left you can see the back of the CD. We decided to use the same image and make it black and white at we thought repeating it would look effective. We have listed the tracks on the CD and noted that there is live footage and a music video contained on the CD.At the bottom we have pasted the record company the band belongs to and also a copyright sign and a dvd sign, these are found on digipaks and are always shown on the back.

The next image is the front of our digipak. We edited the image by using the burn tool around the eye to emphasize its importance a little more. We placed the band name at the top in red ad it stood out on my blonde hair. Then just left of my eye is the name of the album which is 'cries in vain'. It is unusual that we placed digipak at the bottom, but we thought that this would show clearly that this is what the CD was, and that it contained not just songs, but a music video etc. For this font we used 'cracked' as it looks most rocks and we gave the text a drop shadow to look like it was floating.

Finally there is the inside of the digipak. At the top is a quote from the song 'cries in vain' and the sophisticated picture under this suits the song quote well. (as they are expressionless). For the background we found an effect on photoshop that looks like a fuzzy tv screen, which suits the metal genre and emphasizes the fact that this band is shown on TV and there are music videos involved with this CD. This band shot is also shown on the poster but on here we used a fuzzy effect on them and darkened the image slightly to differ it slightly and to make them stand out on the inside of the CD.




The poster to promote our digipak:

Here you can see the magazine advertisement that me and Ben have produced. We have once again used the eye as the posters background image which we feel adds even more promotion towards our product. The font we have used is once again 'cracked' as we feel that we should stick to the genre we chose by using a font which portrays this well. We have used a poster effect on the band which makes them stand out in this image as we have given them an effect which emphasizes that they are in a rock band, as strange effects are usually used on rock bands posters. Me and Ben decided that by placing quotes from two famous rock magazines, 'Metal Hammer' and 'Kerrang', this would give readers of a magazine, that our poster would be issued in, an insight to how 'good' the CD, songs and video really is. In a digipak the video is the most important thing i feel, therefore giving the text 'digipak' a large font, it shows the main purpose of our promotion of the CD.


Magazines that would promote our advertisement: As our band are 'metal' and we are promoting a metal digipak, the types of magazines that we feel, as a group, it would be shown in would be Kerrang!, Metal Hammer and Rock Sound magazine. They promote music all the time (of different genres of rock/metal) in their weekly issues, so readers of these magazines would definitely be interested in our poster, as it has aspects to capture the attention of our chosen audience a of the colour choice, the band shot and the layout. We feel that we have used intertextuality well as the typical colours shown in a metal advert of on a CD are black,white, red etc and we have chosen an effective font and layout, with the band's neutral expression, the choice of text and font and also where things were placed.

Inspirational video to look at when filming band shots

This video is a good example of a simple video with various band shots. We want to show how we have used intertextuality a lot and I think that this video shows the kind of shots we will want to use in the next stage of our filming. It uses a slight lighting on the band but still sticks to the dark feel of the music genre - metal! We also want our crowd shots to look like the band are playing live, this may work but if it doesn't then we will try to make it look effective otherwise.

Difficulties in filming

We have encountered a few problems during the last stage of our filming. The first problem was the fact that it gets darker earlier this time of year, so when wanting to film the shots of Sean in the day, we had to do it after school, but his college course finishes at 4:30 and it gets a little dark and doesn't suit our video. Our video requires several complexed locations from streets to bedrooms to parks and finally an old out house. This means doing filming on different days which is difficult, due to the fact that some of the actors we required could not make it. Me and Ben did not want to continue filming without the actors who were missing just to get it done, we wanted to wait till they could all make it. We found a solution to this problem, as we have made another timetable that the actors agree to stick too (rather than it being last minute) so we can definitely get our filming finished and also for the dark shots we used different types of lighting but still, we needed sean to be able to act in the daytime. With our timetable, we hope to overcome the problems that occurred during this stage and make our video look the standard we are hoping it to be. We hope that we will have enough time to do our crowd scene, as it is quite difficult to have a lot of people free to film at one time and the space we would like to use is limited.

Planning of our poster /magazine advertisement and digipak cover

Here is a poster/magazine advertisement idea. Me and Ben have briefly sketched a poster idea. We decided that having comments from magazines (rock magazines) to give the digipak an authentic feel and appeal to people who are our target audience. We got the idea of the whole band on the page just standing there with a neutral expression (alike to the one i analysed) some text to shows the song is "out now" and a small thumbnail picture of the cd/digipak that is available now in one of the corners, we decided that the locations to use for these shots will be outside, but if too windy, then we shall film in the room we filmed out band shots in! We may decide to put the shot of the band at the bottom but if it works we will try and use the whole image. I think the colours and the image of the band will be the USP of this product.


Here is a digipak/cd cover idea. We thought that the words cries in vain in an interesting 'crying' effect would look good. then a simple band shot and the band name which will contrast to the colour of the background.It is a possibility that we will have the bands instruments in the background - at the moment this is not our favorite idea. The title of this product is defiantly the USP as it reflects our song choice and the emotion we give out in the video.


Here is another digipak/cd cover idea. Me and Ben think this idea is the best we have come up with so far. It will capture the attention of 'rock' music listeners as we will use lighting to light up the girls face (preferably me) so it looks like a shadow is on her face/low key lighting, which will add to the emotion of 'sadness' that the image is giving off. We will then have cries in wain in a glowing white colour so it stands out on her face and then the band name under the song name. We will maybe have a small inserted shot at the bottom of ben with his arm in the air holding his mic or even of him singing (as this shows it is a digipak as well as a cd - footage of the band live or a video as well as the music). The USP of this product is the image we use. The close up of the eye with a glow on the face to give a moody/emotional feel. It will attract the attention of rock music listeners due to the colours/image and font that we use.


Here is another poster/magazine advertisement idea. It is like the first poster idea we came up with. But this time it is just the band standing there - without any instruments. We will have a glowing light around them (we hope to do this either by effect or by the use of our own lighting. The reason we stuck to this simplistic poster idea is because many rock band posters are simple with its image but complicated with its effects - so we want to achieve this. Again the band image on this product will be the USP. Me and Ben will edit it to look interesting to our audience.

Chiaroscuro

In our music video, Chiaroscuro is very important. It shows how we have used intertextuality and how the mood the low key lighting has - how it fits into our video.
It gives an effect that portrays darkness and tension within a film or music video. We want to use it to create tension in our video and to show our understanding of lighting and how to use it appropriately.





*YouTube.com*

This video is something that me and ben found on the internet, it explains what chiaroscuro is and how it can be shown. I have posted it to show the kinds of things my group have looked at to help us in the development of our work.

Changes to original story board ideas

We started to film our video then decided that a few things could be changed when beginning our editing:
We have added a shot of the girl looking down before the ipod shot to show her turning it on (she's listening to it) and having the ipod from 2 seconds onwards as that is how many seconds it will be in on the song. The shot of Ben slightly breaks the rule of thirds so we should like to shoot this again so that we can change it to suit it and as the song is already playing, we thought that changing his head raising from looking down, to one of his face and holding the mic, would be much more effective (or we could try to use it to fit the rule of thirds and fit the part of the song)
The slowing down of the bands feet before hitting the ground (we decided) would not work as the song begins to get quite fast paced and slowing it down would not work as the rest of the song needs to have quick cuts and the synch would be out of time if we lengthened a shot. But we will use slow motion in another part of the song, it is before the last chorus and the song slows down, so when Ben jumps in the air and the band begin to play, there will be a jump - this is used a lot in rock music videos, therefore we continue to use intertextuality and it shows how we tightly stick to the correct genre by using ideas from real media conventions.

The shots of the girl walking down the street (me) worked well, but it was still quite dark. Me and Ben decided that that having my hood up would darken the shot too much so we left it how it was and chose to just use a little more lighting to make sure I could definitely be seen, without it being to dark and not suiting the chirascuro wanted.
When the girl (Me) walks to the house, by just having a long shot and a mid shot, it does not look very variated. So my group decided to give it an edge, by adding a big close up of the girls telephone - she is texting Sean saying "ITS OVER!!!" and a close up of it sending sets a story - the reaction i will act this shot to make myself look like 'i dont really care' about my actions.

Ben came up with the idea that at the lyrics "answer to my prayer's and your not there" - We will have in synch with the words, Sean drinking the alcohol he found in his kitchen, which shows how he has turned to that to calm his nerves as an escape from his depression.

Stages of filming

Here you can see screen shots of the filming me and Ben have produced so far. I have print screened the shots that show how we have used different camera angles and which show how we have stuck to the story board. We decided that the best thing to do with the band shots was to film them last so we could focus on getting the sync correct with the correct timing with the chosen song.



This is a close up of Ben's face, in this part of the song he has to look like he is really singing the words "your cries". We played around with different angles but the best one was at the side and a close up as it showed how he is in synch with the song and looks exactly like he is singing it.


A close up of feet can represent rush, page, anger and excitement. In our video it is used to show pace and anger/hurt. The shots go from Sean on the bed, to him about to walk out of his room, then to his feet. The variation of shots fit in with the quick paced cuts wanted in our video and used in many rock videos. Clear intertextuality here.



Here i have pasted a screen shot of me, that Ben filmed, showing an eyeline match shot. It adds to the darkness and tension of the video and as you can see, me used lighting on my face to show much more clearly, the shot we were aiming for.


This shot is a close up of the bands feet (all in time) hitting the ground. The shot before shows them about to jump and in the air, then a quick cut to their feet. Me and Ben thought that this would be a good way of showing how we are variating our band shots and using different techniques that we were inspired by from other media conventions.


This shot shows how I had to act well. I had to look moody and give off the impression that i was about to do something i may regret (dump sean). As you can see we once again used lighting on my face. Ben used a small torch which looks like the light of an ipod shining on my face, which is what we wanted to achieve, as i turn on the ipod and the song starts. As said in the story board, we chose the ipod shots as the songs name "cries in vain" links to how I am supposed to feel, my cries are in vain as i have broken up with sean and I regret it/am upset about it, yet do they really mean anything? - The feeling of being upset and angry comes across a lot in metal/rock music videos, for example in "waking the demon" so here we have used our knowledge on what we know about music videos and therefore, have used intertextuality.


This shot is a slight high angle shot of the band. As the lead singer, Ben is at the front (slightly more) and this is typical in rock music videos. We used my coach house to shoot the band shots, it is dusty and old and gives off a 'rock' effect. In a lot of rock music videos there are sometimes 'strange' locations and referring back to my analysis of 'my hero' they are in different rooms each time they sing - we have also tried to so this. I used a slight high angle shot because the band are made to look dominant in this music video - are on Seans side!


Premier Pro:

Premier pro was very difficult to use at the start of our editing stage. So we decided to edit our video in strips. This has been working well so far and we have played around with black and white/fade in effects to see what looks interesting to use and to see how easy it is to add these into our video when loading on the shots of the 'flashback'.


-Here are a few screen shots of what premier pro looks like. The bottom image is the timeline of where you can view and edit your shots. The song is placed on the bottom like and as you can see the shots look really small, but there is a scroll button in the bottom left hand corner where you can make the shots look bigger so that they are easier to cut.






Here is the side toolbar on premier pro. It displays all of your uploaded footage and sound tracks used, so if you wanted to re use any footage all you have to do is drag it to the timeline. Under this are all of the things that you ca use to edit your video/film trailer. There are sound effects, video transitions and various video effects to make your video interesting to everybody.

Timetable of filming so far

As you can see, here is a time table of when we can film our video. Me and Ben spoke to Sean and discussed what days/nights we would be able to shoot the video. We also had to book the camera from school so we made sure we had a timetable to show when we would like to use the camera. We plan to film most of the video in these seven days, the week after we plan to do the band shots on the weekend and then look at editing it later the week after to finalize our video. The colours at the top show the days of the week, each box underneath shows the date of each day over the space of October/November. The orange squares show the days we have been available to film so far. In these days we shot night shots on different days, shots of Sean in the house and some of the band shots. I feel that it has worked well so far but for the other half of our filming, me and Ben will have to choose when we can film the daytime shots on a weekend as it will take around one full day to two to get enough footage to have a variety of shots when it comes to the editing stage.

Why Mise En Scene is important

For our music video, Mise En Scene is very important. We need a clear understanding of the 'code of clothing' as being a reflection to a person who listens to rock. This means dark clothes, red clothes,converse shoes, vans etc.
It is important in our video because it reflects the use of intertextuality of other music videos that have inspired us, as in those videos the band and the actors all wear dark clothes that reflect the metal genre.
The lighting is very important for us also. Chiaroscuro/low key lighting is important in the video as it signifies the mood of our video which is dark and upset (depressed feeling). The Mise En Scene in our video is mostly important because it shows how we have used and interpreted the use of theory within our video and shows our narrative through the lighting, locations etc
A key element of mise en scene in our video is one of our props, the rose.
Rose's symbolize love, therefore, when Sean gives 'me' the rose, he is expressing his affection and indicating to the audience his true feelings for me. The rose is also brought back in the end of the video. I get it out of my pocket and it is dead and broken - this is a symbol that the love me and Sean had is now broken so different connotations are given off by this rose and it is a very important aspect of the music video's story line.