Digi Pack

A promo pack is everything used to promoted an artists album. This can be anything from posters and photos, videos, advertisements, press, interviews, magazine covers etc.

A digipack is a style of CD or DVD usually made of a book style paper or card outer binding with with plastic inside capable of hold a CD or DVD disc. They are often used for CD singles, special editions of CD albums and DVD sets.

The digipack should be linked to the music video through the location, style and costumes used in the video.

Analysis of 2 digipack covers

This is a video for the Lady Gaga Fame Monster digipack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eoy8O0xOAPw

The Fame Monster digipack contains the album for both The Fame and The Fame Monster. The two discs were identical to each other except for the number at the bottom. The disc on the left had a number 1 while the disc on the right had a number two, this is so the person who bought the digipack knows which songs are on which disc. The didpack also includes a booklet that has several iconic photos of Lady Gaga (including the photo of her with the large diamond sunglasses) as well as lyrics to the songs allowing the buyer to sing along if they don't already know the words. The photos on the front and inside covers of the digipack are in black and white giving it a sophisticated and classy look, like old Hollywood. The front photo being a well known Fame Monster photo. The writing on the cover however is in gold so it stands out against the background. On the back of the digipack is the well known photo from the cover of The Fame with the name of the songs written down the side. By using only a few colours for the design it gives the digipack a recognisable theme, rather than using several different colour schemes for all the separate parts that make it up.

Rihanna Digipack

Like the Fame Monster digipack, this digipack has two discs that have identical designs. The photos on the cover and the inside of the digipack are also similar. The cover is a close of Rihanna's face while the inside is one image spread across three folded sections of her laying in some roses, Rihanna is only on the left and middle section whereas the right section is just of roses. In both photos she has the same hair colour and style with the same makeup. By using similar photos it creates a theme for the digipack. The photos of Rihana used for this digipack are the same as for her music video 'Only Girl in the World' as she has the same clothing, hairstyle and makeup. This digipack also contains a booklet with the same images as the front cover - a close up of Rihana's face. The digipack sticks to three main colours for its design, red, cream and green to keep it simple and stylish, rather than have a rainbow of colours making each part of it seem seperate from the other parts. These colours and images also give the digipack a typical 'pop' look and is instantly recognisable as something by Rihana and therefore is more appealing to her fans.



My Digipack Flatplans

I designed three flat plans for a digipack that would be used for a Rihanna music album. Of these three designs, i chose the one that i thought was best to make using Photoshop. To make the digipack i had to take photos that would be used for the cover, back and inside as well as choosing font styles and song names. The digipacks will have to be in keeping with what Rihanna albums and digipacks usually look like to make it seem similar and recognisable to her fans. This means choosing convincing song titles and similar fonts and images used on previous Rihanna albums and digipacks.

When designing my digipack flat plans, i chose to look at the Lady Gaga and Rihana digipacks to gain ideas about what is normally included in a typical pop digipack. The Rihanna one was particularly helpful because it gave me an in site into the sort of things her fans will be expecting to see. For example, it gave me ideas into what sort of photos to take and what font styles to use.

1)

2)

3)

I ended up creating a digipack based on my second flat plan. I felt that this was my most effective plan as it was simple and more like her other album covers. I would have used my first flat plan if it was for a live album, but because it was a studio album i didn't think a photo of her performing would be appropriate. I didn't think my third flat plan was effective because there was no photo of, only writing, and this is very unusual especially for a pop album.

Link to digipack Cover:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7hCr4ttDC-rZDNjNGQxNDUtMzFlOS00ZTU2LThiYmMtMjk5ZmQ4NjU2MDVi&hl=en
Link to inside of digipack:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7hCr4ttDC-rNjhhNzdmNTItNGRhMy00M2M1LTkzNWMtZDQzYmExMzhkZDJl&hl=en

From this task I have learnt how to use Photoshop and most of the features on it. For example, I can now  curve text or make it go horizontally, crop and edit photo as well as adding in other images.

Feedback
I put my digipack onto facebook so people could comment and tell me what they thought I could improve on. The thing that stood out from what people said was that the background colour didn't quite go with the 'pop' image as it was too dark. They also suggested making some of the writing bigger to fill empty spaces.

Shooting Diaries

During the filming process of the music video, I filmed all of the interior shots as the other person in my group was required to be the male character. I also filmed some of the exterior shots in the fields, again because the person i was working with had to be in shot. When I wasn't filming, I was helping establish what was going to be shot and how it would be shot, including helping the female character in what she needed to do in the shot and any possible camera movements.
Whilst filming I came across a few difficulties. The first being the sun and not being able to see what was on the camera screen. To over come this issue we moved the camera around into different positions against the sun until we found one that not only provided us with good lighting in the shot but also allowed us to view the footage on the camera screen.
The second problem I had was also when we were out shooting in the films. Part way through filming the camera battery ran out and we realised we forgot to bring a spare with us. In order to not go over schedule we decided that I would plan how the female solo shots would look and get the female character to practise these shots whilst the other person in the group went back to get the spare battery as it would only take around 20 minutes. By the time he returned, we were fully prepared to film the shots.
The finale problem we encountered as a group was the issue of the female charatcer being shy and embarrassed about being infront of the camera. Because of this we ended up witha few wasted shots, but we kept offering her words of encouragement and support which we found helped her performance.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting schedule for California King Bed

Before our group started filming we wrote up a shooting schedule in order to keep organised when booking the equipment, finding when both cast and crew were free and to make the day of shooting run more efficiently. The shooting schedule also helped us to keep on track with the film.

Shooting schedule - Wednesday 16th February

10:30 - Group meet at  chosen location

11:00 - Group arrive at shooting location 1

11:00 - 11:15 - Prepare location and look for any potential safety hazards

11:15 - 11:30 - Crew to set up and prepare the camera whilst the cast prepare for the shoot e.g. costume and make-up

12:00 - Begin shooting the opening sequence of the music video (shots 1-12). The bedroom shots of the male and female characters.

14:30 - Lunch break

15:00 - Begin to shoot the female solo shots (bed, window and balcony shots)

16:00 - Move to location 2 (fields)

16:15 - Begin shooting the field shots of the female and male characters running and sitting by a pond.

18:00 - Review the days filming and plan a possible second day of filming if required.

Health and Safety

Before we started filming our music video, we decided to write up a health and safety sheet to ensure we were aware of any possible dangers or hazards that could occur whilst filming. We wrote up lists for our own safety and the safety of the camera. These safety lists were used for both locations that we filmed in.

Camera Safety

• Make sure the camera is securely attached to the tripod
• When moving the camera, remove it from the tripod
• Make sure the tape and battery are properly inserted into the camera

Personal Safety

• Make sure there are no tripping hazards such as wires
• Make it clear where emergency exits are
• Keep all doors and windows clear in case of an emergency
• Make sure there is sufficient filming space
• If filming outside, be aware of other people
• If working with special lights make sure you operate them properly

Storyboard and Animatic

Before we started filming we designed a storyboard in order to help us whilst filming. The storyboard will giove us a rough idea of what shots we need and how long they need to last. The storyboard will however, only be used as a rough idea, when we are editing out footage we will not be sticking to the storyboard shot for shot as it may not look right when we put it together.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene for 'California King Bed'

Before we started deciding on the costumes for our music video, we looked at some Rihanna music videos, live performances and images on google to gain inspiration for whats of clothes and makeup we should have. By looking at what previous costumes Rihanna has worn we were able to get a sense of the sort of things she wears, enabling us to make our costumes similar and recognisable.

Unfaithful Video

We decided to look at her costumes in Unfaithful' because the narrative of this video is similar to that of the narrative in our video. She is also wearing very simple 'everyday' clothes in this video which is also something we plan on doing.

Take A Bow Music Video

Again in this video Rihanna's costumes are very simplistic and plain. However, she has stronger make-up in this video rather than minimalistic like in the 'Unfaithful' video.

Ideas for our music video

Costumes:

Female Character - The female character will be wearing plain and simple clothes like Rihanna wears in 'Unfaithful' because it will allow the audience to relate to the character, especially if they have had a similar experience to what the narrative is explaining. She will be wearing a basic top and jeans. Her make-up will be very simple - again emphasising that she is an 'everyday' girl.

Male Character - The male character will be wearing plain clothes like the female character, again so the audience will find him more relateable. He will be wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans for the scenes with the female character, as well as a coat for the outdoor scenes. During the shots where he is on his own he will be wearing a t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, showing that because he is no longer with his girlfriend he isn't as fussed about his appearance.

 

Setting:

Our video will be set in a bedroom to create an intimate atmosphere between the two actors in certain scenes as well as loneliness in other scene. There will also be a few shots on a balcony. We will also set part of the video in a field to show the distance between the characters.

Pitch

Due to a change in our group and video idea, our new group was unable to record our new pitch.

Our presentation:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B_QUfHy0ObHTMzNjZTQ4ODItYWE3NS00ZWM2LWIzNWMtODFjODI3YjA1NjI3&sort=name&layout=list&num=50&authkey=CP-qtokJ