Preliminary (Digipak Advertisement)

My completed Digipak Advertisement is shown below. Personally I think this is a good advertisement meeting the criteria and coheding with the previous task (digipak.) I kept a similliar theme and made sure that the initial digipak was visible on the advertisement, fading, lighting and blur effects were all used along with text inner and outer glows to emphasis important information

Questionnare (Quantative Research)

I have decided to produce a questionnare to help me gather ideas about my upcoming music video and what a wide variety of people expect to see and look for in a music video they enjoy. Below is a text copy of my Questionnare:

Below you will find a series of questions regarding music videos, please answer honestly and circle as many answers that apply when necessary.

1. What is your favourite music video?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2. What is your favourite genre of music video?


Pop Rock Punk Indie Acoustic Other (_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _)


3. What do you look for in a music video?


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


4. Do you know how music videos are produced?


Yes No


Other (_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


5. What is your opinion on mainstream music videos?


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


6. What is your favourite setting within a music video?


Field Club Warehouse House Street Garage


Other (_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _)

7. Which age group are you?

0 < 14 15 < 20 21 < 35 36 < 47 48 < 59 60 <

Looking at Theories

As I move further through the planning stages of my project I have decided to gather a list of media relevant theories and see if they can or already are being applied relevantly to my project so far. I have acquire a wide variety of theories and opinions from well known models within the study of media, many from existing notes others from new research:

Coates Examined that there are 4 ways to understand a society which links to Ideology and therefore can be implemented within the decision making of our characters for our music shoot. To some extent this has already been considered as we have thought about how the audience will react to our actors and the character they are portraying when being displayed in different scenarios and performing different actions, for instance the same actor being the bassist in the band as well as one of the characters the story focus around.

Cohen, S Coined the term moral panic in 1972. This was when media was often seen as the trigger for a decline in moral standards in society, this is more an expansion of knowledge than a theory that can be applied but knowing this will help me relate to panic in terms of media with a much better understanding.

John Corner Examined the process of realism within media texts, something which I personally aim to apply during the production of my preliminary tasks, and not so much within the ancillary itself, simply due to the nature of a post-hardcore genre of music video does not typically involve traits of realism and relys on abtract imagery and messages in its portrayal of a story.

Perkins, focusing on Representation gave arguement that the use of stereotypes can be good, that stereotypes can change and even be positive (1979.) I agree with this point although in terms of our music video stereotypes were not purposely avoided or used, excpet in the sense of the 'indie/punk' lead singer appearence, using clothes, actors and props. This worked successfully in predicting the result of A Day To Remember's attire and vibe.

Todorov, T  Identified 5 stages of narrative/story and the notion that plots have a circular narrative. Equillibrium and Disequillibrium. These narrative stages were applied in a rather disfigured sense to our video, and not as well as they could have in my personal opinion, but they were there, making sure an equillibrium and disequillibruim were achieved at different stages of the production.

Music Video Evaluation (Ancillary)

Now that we have completed our production of our music video. I am required and addditionally think it will be beneficial to evaluate it. I can already (and even during the proccess) think of things that I would implement if given a second chance to produce the music video. Not only will this section of my project demonstrate my understansding of conventions and effectiveness but the amount of my progression throughout this time period, from AS to A2, I have most definitely harnessed my skills throughout many aspects of media, including my comfortability with media related programs such as Photoshop, After Effects, Premier and many others.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Typically a post-hardcore music video follows similiar conventions to other more popular genres, like pop. For instance protrayal of love in the form of break ups and make ups is a common occurence throughout many of A Day To Remembers own productions. The diffference however occurs during other aspects than the storyline of the video itself. Dark and dissaturated colour schemes are a popular product of this genre, used amongst other elements to create imagery of the sinister sort and connotations to misbheaviour and a thug like nature. Our band shoot included a variety of spot, beam and strobe lighting, on the band themselves (primarily the lead singer) with a darkened surroundnig and closed studio blinds to cohede with this. However as a fan of A Day To Remember's music and their videos I and my colleauges were aware that they themselves challenge the conventions of the genre, both lyrically and therefore during their music videos also. As the songs lyrics are not directly displaying negative emotions to the narrator's ex/partner it made perfect sense for us to do the exact same thing, not only showing an understanding of how and when the convetions can be challenged but also contextual knowledge of the artist's situation. Within our video we challenged the conventions by including adding more shots of the stereotypical story 'break up' scenes, but included a wide range of lighting and scenarios with these to keep cohesion with the lighting that is used within the band shots of my (and others within the same genre.) This is evidence that our film develops like real media products, as we replect the same method use by an exisiting artist within the genre.

Furthermore the lyrical and visual cohesion which exists in the majority of music videos in all genres is the same with our video with changes in scenario adapting to the lyrics and the pace of the song. We even use certain cuts and effects to make further cohesion between the music and the visuals for instance a closeup on a drum snare in sync with music to show that the band is actually playing all the correct notes for the song and we are not just pretending to play the song, with random strumming, we made sure when we asked for volunteer actors that they could play the song necessary and addiitonally  looked the part, somethingt hat any official produciton team would commit to. This is further emphasized by the agression of our actors in particullar the lead singer, who is a real hardcore singer in real life, adapting to different parts of the song was able to use his knowledge and expeirence of 'flat' and 'scream' singing (terminology within post-hardcore music) to act accordingly and put energy in his actions to shows expression and emotion in his singing.

focus  on the protagonist and/or lead singer is also another noticeable aim for music videos of the genre. Use of close ups, extreme close ups, in to out pans, left to right and left to right diagonal pans are all used to reference the protagonist at different times of him singing the lyrics. We also centred him within the strucutre of the shoot to show his importance and used a section of our free hand film reel to adapt to his movement and energy on stage, something I feel personally worked really well as when comparing it to the 'Abandon All Ships' music video this same tehcnique was later found to be used.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?


For my choice of anicllary and preliminary tasks, I chose the combinaiton of the creation of a Jewel Case Digipak and a magazine advertisment promoting the Digipak, both relating to the production of the music video. 

The effectiveness of the digipak in itself, fits comfortably within the genre conventions, this can be highlighted when comparing the elements produced by myself to that evident in those shown within the research period for my preliminary ('See Research (Preliminary')) The use of the appaearance of the band members in particullar the lead singer being constant throughout both pieces gfives the audience something to relate to as the lead singer of a band is often the most recognizable and popular of the musical group. By keeping this continous throughout this became highlighted and it drew the audiences attention to this particullar character who they alreadya associate with the band and therefore know the artist just from any aspect of the tasks.

Additionally the inclusion of the Digipak in its full form, on the Advertisement itself was important as the audience need to see the product in the advertisement, this was seen in every advertisement analysed. Also coheding the colour scheme from one task to another was an important decision and kept the theme of the tasks the same between the two, so the album has its own feel. This worked particullarly well with the Elton John advertisment and I worked hard at replicating this with the continual use of grey and dark green, with effects on Photoshop, dimming and adjusting the light.

Lighting from the images is also a factor that I considered when producing botht tasks. The nautural light from the middle page image, helps contrast with the inudstrial 'fake' light added using Photoshop on the page where the lyrics are displayed, this for one reason, helps the text easier to read but also means the images are more in focus and draw the attention of the reader when there is less text and the other way round when there is more text. i achieved this very well and the images fade into the background of the piece simply.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the wide range of audience feeback we, as a group have recieved, the majority of responses focused on the relationship depicted in our film. The unstereotypical same sex male, friendship 'break up' did not seem a fitting choice for the genre, where stereotypical male/female relationships break up and the theme of love is much stronger. However I still agree that challenging this was a correct move considering the state of the band we were producing a music video to, and the lyrics of the song. In heinsight the use of a male/female break up could of fit nicely within the genre.

From feedback through Facebook, criticism on the composition of a few of the later shots was picked up, this was also mentioned by our Media teacher himself, and proper effective use of Tripods wa snot as good as it could of have been. The effectiveness of some of our shots, do not compare with the others which was dissapointing, as some of them, especially the ones within the subway were highly praised from all forms of feedback.

A positive note from many, was the mise en scene of the entire product with actors, dressed appropriately with correct insturments for the production of the song, and the correct note playing, and lyrics from our actors. This was something we planned and did not intend on pretending to play the song, avoiding a cheap imitation of the song. It was nice to see this was picked up on and we even recieved praise on the syncing of the music video from our A2 Media teacher. 

How did you use media technologies in the Construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?

The use of media technologies throughout all aspects of my A2 project was very usefull and important for the production. 

During planning the use of computer planning programs and internet access we were able to devise a mindmap with the appropriate conventions for a music video of our personal taste. This although taking some time was probably the most important part of our entire project and it really helped the rest of production run smoothly and achieve the reuslt we did. As we were constantly referring to the convetions and elements we wanted to achieve and how to achieve them, which made my tasks high grade material, hitting all assessment objectives. 

Advanced programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects were extremely usefull, being used to clip together the film taken with a classmates HD camera. My classmate had previous experience with the use Premiere, however both other programs I learnt how to use using online tutorials and through the plannning stage producing small edited images for my own benefit. During the choice of shot compisiton and editing all members of the group were present and putting forward ideas however Neelesh Joshi had the most experience with the program and used his laptop to edit the film whilst we were present formulating ideas together.

Photoshop was used to produce both preliminary and ancillary tasks, and my skills have most definitely improved since last years AS tasks, I was much more confident in experimenting with advanced tools such as multiple layer tooling and masking, not just magic wand cropping and pasting. After Effects also, although this had a minimal usage within my project as I only required it for two effects when creating my preliminary.   


During the evaluation stage media technologies were used alot, with the addition of blogger to blog my entire project, tumblr to upload series of images and slideshare, sharing information in a powerpoint form making it much more accessible and hitting the assessment objective of using tehcnology in presentation. Additionally a key importance when using blogspot was the make the presentation of the entire project much more accessible and easy to highlight different stages of my project. Feedback was much more evident when using web 2.0 to interact with me and my classmates with video feedback (See 'Feedback') and comments both on Youtube and Facebook. Additionally I have recieved a personal inbox from another A2 Media student asking how we achieved a particullar effect on the making of the music video. I was able to respond to this person with use of Youtube's capabilites in web 2.0 and this interaction with the audience allowed for greater feedback, evidenced by the excess of 50+ comments on the comments section of the uploaded video via Facebook.

 

Music Video Analysis 2 (Shot Selection)

 As of today I have only posted one music video analysis, so I have decided to another of a local band which me and my colleauges like. I thought this would be a good idea if for this particullar analysis I focused on picking out certain shots and describing why they work and what they have done to achieve this. This is extremely usefull as we are hopefull that the 'clean' singer of this band is going to as the lead singer of our music video and therefore we can hopefully compare the form of shot they have used here with ones we hope to use ourselves, and take ideas of what looks good with the particullar actor.

When we break down the video, it is clear a wide range of shots are used with excellent lighting and cohesion between them all.

The first shot of the music video is of the clean singer, establishing the beginning of the story by introducing the farm type area that they are in as well as this black book. As the music begins, we are shown an establishing shot of the abandoned barn and due to the lighting from this shot, it leaves alot of mystery as you can only see the band members outline. The next shot, is a close up of Toby, as he sings the clean vocals at the start of the song. During the first 30 seconds of the song, we are shown elements of the story, all of the band members and a number of close-ups.

Genre Research

Genre spercific research is important to understand the conventions and requirements for our main production. To understand how the genre has developed its roots and why it acts the way it does is what this post will aim to achieve. Below I will look at the developments of the genre and some current popular artists within, seeing where they have come from to establish how the genre came about.

So what actually is post-hardcore?
According to various sources the definition for post-hardocre is as follows: Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement.

Tracking back bands such as 'Devil Wears Prada' and 'Killswitch Engage' I can see that many of the current post-hardcore bands originated at somepoint from the sub genre of heavy metal - 'metalcore'. Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity. The earliest of these groups, Integrity, began performing in 1988. Contemporary practitioners of the genre include Killswitch Engage, Underoath, All That Remains, Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Bullet for My Valentine and The Devil Wears Prada.

The meaning of the term has diminished to a certain extent and its true genre meaning of the word 'hardcore' has weakened, the genre can spread to songs which at sometimes are borderline pop, with much more electronic instrumentals being accepted in the genre. Punk bands have often merged into this genre, such as Dead By April (a swedish metal band.)

As the term explains 'post'-hardcore derived from elements of hardcore music, and is hence softening in its real rock roots and riffs. Particularly with the wide range of music genres one song can fit into several genres, and the increasing in genres does not necessaarily produce a more specific classification of the form of music. For instance 'Dead By April' have been described as rock, metal, metalcore, post-hardcore and even breakcore.

Breakcore is a style of electronic music largely influenced by hardcore techno, drum and bass and Intelligent dance music. Its sound is largely characterized by a high-tempo, well-timed mingling of distorted kick drums (also known as "Gabber kicks"), break beats arranged from samples of the Amen break, and audio samples from a wide spectrum of sources (dialog from horror films, instrumental snippets from metal and Gangsta rap tracks are common). Musicians and DJs such as Drop the Lime, Christoph Fringeli and Dj Balli have said that breakcore is merely a catch-all term which encompasses a variety of distinct electronic music styles that are related through a scene culture and aesthetics, rather than sound.

Looking at an artist

Recently, since I have started my media project, I have been tending to look at artists and musicians i see in my daily life through the media or listen to and, think about how their image and their profile is presented, as that is a huge part of benig succesfull in the music industry. One of my favourite artists , John Mayer in my eyes has one of the most unhinged and respectable representations as an artist, not letting fame go to his head like many others do so to speak. I've decided to compose a quick profile of his musical life and try to work out how he has chosen to portray himself or if he has been forced to be displayed in a certian way by music labels which many people are, especially female R&B or pop musicans, forced to be portrayed as an arguable sex object, being a bad role model for young female teens. I will however focus on relating this to my music video production and how the cohesion between my ancillary and preliminary productions will display the band in a way that my target audience expect to see them.

So who is John Mayer?

Besides being a great musician in the eyes of many, wikipedia tell us that John Mayer is "

How does he control his image within the media?

John mayer unlike other stars in the spotlight, is capable of controlling his own image and doing what he wants in his music career. One event I would like to reference however is an article by Allison Samuels a senior writer at newsweek talking about John's arguable racist comments within a Playboy magazine interview, you can find a link to the article below:

John Mayer Racism Shared

The article discusses how John Maye's remarks "not worth paraphrasing" about black women are mimiced by the predominant male society and then he himself is not a racist but did not necessarily confide what the majority of men do. An incident such as this can completely tarnishe an artists reputation, for instance the Chris Brown report on him hitting Rihanna made huge headlines purely because Chris Brown and Rihanna were already in the spotlight. In this incident, people around Chris Brown were controlling him advising him what to do and working around to communicate with interview requests, chat shows e.t.c. John Mayer deals with these himself and does not seem to act like he gets the attention he gets, which is basically all a famous person is, someone who is well known for something they have done.

His album artworks are not pushing his own personal talents, from this example it is just the fact that he writes his own songs that is being put to the front. Arguably this shows modesty but often displaying the skills and credit when credit is due of the artists is a good promotional tool. He however emphasises his band often, sharing the credit to all who deserve it. 

Final Product (Ancillary)

My initial reaction to the completed product, is that it hit the assessment objectives very well (see 'Getting Started' post.) It was very fun to make, and I have learnt a lot during the proccess. Throughout the production, my classmate and I shared an equal distribution of the worklaod, in both planning and production we were ofte

Publish Post

n gathered as a group discussing and sharing ideas.

Below is the final music video of our take on 'A Day To Remember - Monument'. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it!

A Day To Remember - Monument

We have decided to enable comments on the video, so people searching can give us feedback and advice, which is also useful for the analyitcal and evaluation stages. Additionally I decided to upload the video onto my Facebook page for friends to view and give their opinion.

Research: Band Shots

For my preliminary task I think it is important to take still shots of the band and the individual musicians. I have drawn on Tom Ang's professional photography tips and applied them where necessary. Taking good photos with the right light and positioning is very important as I am planning to base the poster on one overlying image of the band, so the shot needs to be effective in terms of mise-en-scene and other important areas. A link to his tips on the BBC website can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/apictureofbritain/how_to/

Additionally i found some not to dos and important things to keep in mind for the shots:

Avoid red eye. Red-eye is caused when your eyes dilate in lower lighting. When your pupils are big, the flash actually lights up the blood vessels on the back wall of your eyeball, which is why it looks red. If you must use a flash in poor light, try to get the person to not look directly at the camera, or consider using a "bounce flash". Aiming your flash above the heads of your subjects, especially if the walls surrounding are light, will keep red-eye out. If you don't have a separate flash gun which is adjustable in this way, use the red-eye reduction feature of your camera if available - it flashes a couple of times before opening the shutter, which causes your subject's pupils to contract, thus minimizing red-eye. Better yet, don't take photographs which require a flash to be used; find somewhere with better lighting.

Focus. Poor focusing is one of the most common ways that photographs are ruined. Use the automatic focus of your camera, if you have it; usually, this is done by half-pressing the shutter button. Use the "macro" mode of your camera for very close-up shots. Don't focus manually unless your auto-focus is having issues; as with metering, automatic focus usually does a far better job of focusing than you can.]

Try an interesting angle. Instead of shooting the object straight on, try looking down to the object, or crouching and looking up. Pick an angle that shows maximum color and minimum shadow. To make things appear longer or taller, a low angle can help. If you want a bold photo, it is best to be even with the object. You may also want to make the object look smaller or make it look like you're hovering over; to get the effect you should put the camera above the object. An uncommon angle makes for a more interesting shot.

Fill the frame with your subject. Don't be afraid to get closer to your subject. On the other hand, if you're using a digital camera with plenty of megapixels to spare, you can crop it later in software.

Compose your shot thoughtfully. Get rid of distracting backgrounds and clutter. If this means you and your friend have to move a little so that a tree does not appear to be growing out of her head, then do so. If glare is coming off the windows of the house across the street, change your angle a bit to avoid it. If you're taking vacation photographs, take a moment to get your family to put down all the junk they may be carrying around with them and to remove backpacks or hip packs as well. Keep that mess well out of the frame of the picture, and you will end up with much nicer, less cluttered photos. If you can blur the background in a portrait, then do so. And so on.

Creation of Digipak Advertisement

For the second goal of my preliminary task, I have chosen to produce a magazine advertisment for the previosly created Digipak. This post is intended to show in detail the proccess and decision taken during the creation proccess of the advertisement.

Throughout this task, I continually compared my own product and its progress with the research and analysis sections of my project. Trying to employ as many techniques as possible to help  make the adveritsement achieve its goal and fit the correct target audience. As the band and therfore design of the digipak is based around the genre of post-hardcore, I tried to follow the idea of 'edited realisim' to create cohesion between the digipak and the genre also.

For the first step of my magazine cover I wanted to ensure I retained every possible similarity to an original digipak or album advertisment, so i ensured the measurements for my working canvas fitted the size of other real advertisements. The majority I found (especially of this particullar genre) although scarce were A5 size, taking up half of a designated advert page. I found the correct mesaurements for these from www.papersizes.org and set the canvas using the canvas size tool on Photoshop. I continued using photoshop as it would allow me to work very closely from my finished album cover and sides and the advert itself. I was able to to do this using the tabs at the top of the program to switch between the two and copy and paste elements to the advert. This was very important for succesfull cohesion, esepcially colour schemes and caligraphy.

 

Creation of Digipak

For my A2 Preliminarry task I am going to show the proccess taken to produce my digpak cover including four sides to fit a standard jewel case. Showing the method used when producing this is important as it will help me to adjust and re-design certain elements of it. Additionally it will be a great tool for analysis as I can see the seperate stages that I have taken to produce the product and where I could of changed it to produce something better.


I decided to lay out four seperate 347mm x 355mm Photoshop blank canvas as a base for my four sides. I researched the measurements for a standard jewelcase bar the trim so that they would fit in a case after, and so that I knew what images and shapes I could fit within the canvas before


Before I even added any images or effects to the start the appearance of my digipak cover I decided to choose one and then complete it before moving on to the next side. I chose to do the cover first, as the cover controls what the rest of the digipak looks like in some respects as the theme and colour scheme should continue throughout. I knew from my analysis and research of Digipaks that multiple layers are often used and can help making the digipak have depth and colour.  I set out a variety of layers, with the enabled tool to add more if necessary later. I started with a 'Background' and one additional layer, with copy ability so I could copy the layer as many times as I wanted to produce a new additional and individual layer once edited.


Next I added a brown background which I found from google images, I used the scale tool to fit it within the canvas and then added a saturation effect, boosting 20%, giving the brown a nicer distinguished look as a backgorund, knowing images could fall into the colour almost as a ghostly outline.


After this was complete I added my first image into 'Layer 1'. This was taken from a camera during our music video shoot and was simply pasted and sclaed into the layer, infront of the background. With this image in position I applied a filter using the filters toolbar, and selected the area immediately around the image to fade in transparncy, as well as setting the overall transparency of the image to 50% to make it fade into the image. Once this was complete I used the 'Magic Wand' tool to select the left side of the image and paste with a much lower transparceny, creating the effect of the head splitting apart from the other head, looking in a different direction due to the rotation. Additionally the collar split seperately as I had to reselect this and copy the above for this section of the image.


Next I copied the previous layer and deleted the images within it, keeping the same colour and transparency settings I added another image, this time of an existing A Day To Remember artist, so that the album cover corresponds to the band themselves. Aswell as my interpretation of the meaning of the album name and the album itself from the 1st layer. I then scaled and moved the image to the empty space of the layer, where only the background was currently showing due to the positioning of layer 1. I decreased the transparceny to 8%, ensuring the image on the right with is ambient glow was the focus of the cover.


Lastly I spent some time matching rounded, and crisped font for the appropriate text to fit the chic and simple look of the cover.

My next choice was to start on the blank canvas for the back of my jewel case. I wanted to make the back cover look much of a real photography opposed the front cover, and gradually become more realistic throughout the pages of the digipak. I thought setting both ends would be a good idea as I knew what changes and the dgeree of changes I would have to make, when making the other pages.


I began by creating 2 layers as before, and setting the background as an image taken from www.obscurewallpapers.com with a life like rain effect applied, as well as great bright lighting which is helpfull to help the transparency of images apparent. I scaled this image, moving it so that the brighest light of the image was on the right, allowing it to highlight images being place either side, especially with a transparceny of under 30%. Next I added another image of the lead singer of the band, corresponding to the previous image used in the front cover (another common device used in album covers, where there is cohesion throughout the digipak and especially between the front and back covers, often having front and back shots of the same scenario, telling a story in many respects.) The back cover itself, I felt at the time needed more range of colours, closer to the cover as the look is completely different so my aim of what I wanted to achieve with this had to be clear. I added some charcoal effects to the background image using the preset photoshop fillers, but decided on removing them as the shadows did not show, which I think adds realisim to the shot. I increased the transparceny on his line on the left of the page, helping to highlight the image and the dynamic of the cover itself.

Once this was complete, I move to the 'middle page' in between the two previously created sides. I thought this would be a good place to insert the lyrics of the song, which is often included within many digipaks. I removed all three previous layers and started a new blank canvas, with a white background. I wanted to keep the cohesion throughout so an image of the same lead singer was necessary, however I decided do this by using a whole band shot, with the centre image being t he lead singer. This makes the reference to the previous and future pages but shows the necessary contirbutors and imagdes that need to be shown for an accurate representation of the band. I kept the mise-en-scene corresponding with the genre, with dark colours and reflecting lights onto the bodies of the images. I used a 'spotlight' filter to add the 'staged' look to the photo where the light shines from the top right inwards, despite being in a dark scenario at night. The lyrics come across the entire image, so that they can be read easily and are brought to the attention of the reader. I inserted the 'Monument' text at the bottom right, adding further cohesion and creating the sense of moonlight/green lighting for the image.

My last page that I created was the 'Inside Cover' page which I think combies many of the previous elements employed. Using layers I added a darkened image of a desolate area of woods, matching the genre oncemore, with the metalcore/post-hardcore genre. I applied a luminouzs filter to the closest section of the image, making the image now become more of a centered image opposed to just plainly a background image. The information on this page is not of huge importance, as the basic necessities had already been input. I thought however the credit to band members for our music shoot could be included here, as this is seen similiarly in other album inserts and jewel cases. Additionally i played around with the transparency of the cover, removing certain sections using the selection tool and then customizeing their transparency, attempting to make the top half of the image appear further away or faded compared to the rest. This was not as effective as I had hoped and decided to reduce the entire image's transparceny by 5%, aiming to keep the realisim of the image apparent.

In general, I focused on the cohesion of the images, and kept in mind that the images where designed to come together as part of a digipak, so therefore this was an important factor in the prodcution. When making them my choices primarily revolved around this opposed to what I personally felt looked good. My research and planning prooved helpfull in my understanding of the genre and product conventions and made my decision making much more straightforward than without.

Location Selection (Ancillary)

My colleagues and I have been thinking recently about where we should film our music video, how many different scenarios and all the other variables regarding location, such as mise-en-scene, fitting the genre and does it reflect the characters or work with the story. On a quick drive around our immediate area we decided to check out some of the locations that could work for a shoot of our music video, keeping in mind different areas can be great for different sections, even if they are only on or two seconds in the final piece. Below you can find a list of some popular locations among our group:

Before the list is shown I thought I would add this quote from Dan Lucas, which really reflects my view on the location for a music video "Pick somehwere that means something to you, that is relevant to your music. I recently saw Gummo and Buffalo 66, two outstanding films that were both shot by directors in the places they grew up. They were both deeply connected to their environments, they understood their surroundings, and they could see the odd and subtle beauty in each scene making them extremely personal and moving films. I'm not saying you have to go out there and become the next Harmony Korine, but just think about what you're trying to say in the locations you choose. Resist the temptation to shoot in your dad's garage just because it's easy and free."

Poole Park
Poole Park is an urban park adjacent to Poole Harbour in Poole, Dorset, England. The park was opened during the Victorian era and has remained popular with visitors ever since. It is open all year round and hosts a number of events. It is likely to be a great spot for areas of the story shoot as it fits nicely with the mise-en-scene being urban, youthfull artchitecture and relevance like a underpass with lighting and graffiti. The lights at night provide an interesting shot additionally.

Canford Heath
Canford Heath is a suburb and area of heathland in Poole, Dorset with a population of just under 14,500.

Canford Heath has also given its name to a housing development built on the heathland during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Now an established part of Poole, Canford Heath has grown its own community life with two public houses (The Haymoor & The Pilot), a selection of churches, two supermarkets (Asda and Somerfield), five schools and a range of social activities for young people. The Tower Park leisure complex is nearby.

Poster Analysis 2 (Genre)

Social Distortion

Social Distortion is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Fullerton, California. The band currently consists of Mike Ness (vocals, guitars), Jonny Wickersham (guitars), Brent Harding (bass), and David Hidalgo, Jr. (drums).

Social Distortion temporarily disbanded in 1985 due to frontman Ness' drug addiction and troubles with the law which resulted in extended stints in various rehabilitation centers that lasted for two years. However, the band reformed around 1986 and have continued being active today, even after the death of longtime guitarist Dennis Danell, who succumbed to a brain aneurysm in 2000. Since its inception, the band lineup has been a virtual revolving-door of talent with many members coming and going – Ness has been the only constant member.
To date, Social Distortion has released seven full-length studio albums, two compilations, one live album, and two DVDs. The band released its debut album, Mommy's Little Monster, in 1983. Social Distortion did not release their second album, Prison Bound, until 1988 which attracted the attention of Epic Records who signed the band in 1989.
In 1990, Social Distortion released its highly successful self-titled third album which peaked at #128 on the US Billboard 200 and featured their well-known hit singles, "Ball and Chain", "Story of My Life", and the cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." The next three albums, Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, White Light, White Heat, White Trash, and Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll as well as the Greatest Hits compilation album which spawned the previously unreleased hit, "Far Behind"), were also well-received.
Social Distortion's most recent studio album is 2011's Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes which entered the Billboard 200 at #4 marking the group's highest entry on that chart. According to Ness, an eighth studio album is currently in the works which will likely be released in 2013.

Digipak Analysis 2 (Genre)

Emarosa - Emarosa

Emarosa informed fans that they had begun recording material for their new album via their YouTube channel. and on January 2, 2010 Emarosa entered the studio to record their second full length album working with producer Brian McTernan who had contacted Emarosa previously with plans to record their second album. While recording the band posted updates for fans from the studio which can be seen on their Tumblr blog.

The album was released on June 29, 2010 through Rise Records and received a good amount of praise. In an interview with Punktastic, the band spoke about the overall sound of this album. "I remember during the recording process, ER and I talked a lot about wanting to do more folk/indie stuff for the next record. Really bare bones, mellow and raw." Shrednews said "Emarosa have taken this album to a higher level, with more complex and animated guitar riffs, and pounding drum beats that you will make you headbang without even realizing it."
Craig stated that the band would be traveling to Portland after his solo tour to record a B-side for the self-titled album. He also stated that a version of "The Game Played Right" featuring Modsun would be released in.

While on tour, the band is known to occasionally play "Casablanca" with a guest vocalist. So far Cody Anderson (formerly of In Fear and Faith), Chris Roetter (of Like Moths to Flames, formerly Emarosa and Agraceful, who actually wrote the song), Austin Carlile, Jon Mess (of Dance Gavin Dance), Kyle Tamosaitis (formerly of Burden of a Day), Chris Moore, and Jerry Roush have performed this song alongside the band.

During the summer of 2010 Jonny Craig and Jon Mess both rejoined Dance Gavin Dance (of which they were original members). Although Craig had not announced his plans for his relationship with Emarosa, he is currently concentrating on his work with Dance Gavin Dance whose new album Downtown Battle Mountain II was released March 8, 2011. In Craig's absence Emarosa picked up ex-Tides of Man touring vocalist, Tilian Pearson. On February 27, 2011 Alternative Press broke the news that Craig had turned himself into detox, stemming from reports of Twitter scams and from a longtime addiction.

On April 11, 2011, Alternative Press announced that Craig had been kicked out of Emarosa. The band stated that "as of today, Jonny Craig is no longer a member of Emarosa. This decision has been a hard one to make, but we feel it is in the best interest for the band going forward." Tides of Man vocalist, Tilian Pearson is currently a touring member for the band filling in for Craig. According to an Alternative Press interview with the band, their ideal vocalist would not be like Craig tone wise. "We’re not looking for Jonny Craig 2.0. We just want to find someone who can bring something unique to the band," states Stewart.

Film Equipment

When planning the shoot for our music video, carefull consideration into what equipment should be used at what parts of the video was taken. My approach was to bring as much as possible and if at the end of the day it was not needd it doesn't matter. Better to be safe than sorry. When planning which equipment to bring, I matched our list of planned shots and went through each section invisioning the shot in my head and thought very carefully about logistic problems such as obtaining a smooth trracking shot without being able to obtain a proper dolly. To overcome this I suggested the idea that was to use my skateboard along with my friends skateboard and place the tripod on top for a 'make-shift' trolley to roll the camera across. The results prooved effective, supplying us with a nice smooth shot!

Below is a list of proffessional equipment used within music videos as well as our own and alternates:

• 1080P Sony Digital Camera

The SonyHD-50 1080p Digital Camera, was supplied by our school and was able to capture high definition film, which when tested worked perfectly for our film which was inteded to be rendered at 480p high definition for the best quality with our back up camera. Clearly it was not within our budget for the music video to purchase a top quality film camera, but this was more than acceptable for our shoot giving decent quality despite some trouble with continuity due to lighting changes.

• Camera Tripod

For our camera tripod we once more stuck with the supplied equipment from our school's media department, which I poersonally was more than pleased with. I as the designa ted filmer for the band shoot quickly got the grasps with how to handle it and adjust its height, angle and loosenes for panning and other active shots. The main trick with this was how to use this in combination with other pieces of equipment such as a height drama stage box, allowing us to get a crane view over the band. This helped a lot when looking at the finished product as there were not hand-held produced shakes in places where there are not meant to be. 

• Backup Camera

We definitely need an alternative if the world of technology decided to fail on us during our shoot, as we only had one or two potential attempts at getting the shoot done due to our actor's schedules in the future. We kept a camera with the same definition to the previous used, relying on lighting and small tweaks to be performed on Adobe Premier after.

• External Microphone

An external microphone is something many people decide to bring for capturing sounds within the video itself, however within our planning of the video we had not decided to use any of these sounds as the sound is being played from a seperate track over our video and we had worked hard on ensuring clean syncing with it. Addiitonally an external microphone of sufficient quality was hard to pick up at our level, if we did decide to use extrnal recordings of sound, our current film camera was more than acceptable.

Digipak & Poster Planning 2 - Programs

When creating my Digipak, I will need to decide which programs to use when following certain parts of my plan. From my previous experience during my project last year at AS level I have learnt a lot about the decision of programs and your experience with them. Moreover I grew in confidence with Macromedia Fireworks and the image manipulation involved within the software. I do regret not purchasing adobe photoshop and using a more advanced and 'more suited' program, however this year at 'Poole Grammar School' we have purchased Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 and during the original decision stages of my project and the very beginning of the year, I have slowly been learning how to use the program, from experience and online tutorials, which have prooven very beneficial. I found practicing certain manipulation effects and use with other tools has really given me the confidence to be creative with this program and make my own. I would highly reccommend practicing with your program before use, untill you are at a comfortable level, to be creative and not worry about learning during the proccess of your preliminary task.

Adobe Photoshop CS5.1
Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop. The CS rebranding also resulted in Adobe offering numerous software packages containing multiple Adobe programs for a reduced price. Adobe Photoshop is released in two editions: Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Photoshop Extended, with the Extended having extra 3D image creation, motion graphics editing, and advanced image analysis features. Adobe Photoshop Extended is included in all of Adobe's Creative Suite offerings except Design Standard, which includes the Adobe Photoshop edition.
Alongside Photoshop and Photoshop Extended, Adobe also publishes Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Lightroom, collectively called "The Adobe Photoshop Family". In 2008, Adobe released Adobe Photoshop Express, a free web-based image editing tool to edit photos directly on blogs and social networking sites; in 2011 a version was released for the Android operating system and the iOS operating system.
Adobe only supports Windows and Macintosh versions of Photoshop, but using Wine, Photoshop CS5 can run well on Linux.

I found the benefits of this program came with the range of 'set' effects and tools allowing quick and easy manipulation at your picking, as well as custom manipulation when necessary. Within my Digipack the control of layers and reveal helped show multiple images to create a feeling of hardening and softening textures with light and dark lighting effects.

PaintDotNet
This program was great for small edits, such as copying and pasting images with need for small scale changes, it prooved much easier to do so on a much more limited and simpler program as I could import and export edited and images in the progress of being edited to and from Photoshop so that I could make slight transformations. With my poster this prooved very helpfull when cropping images taking from the set of our music video shoot, and arranging them before putting them back into photoshop as a new image and or layer. Additionally minor light effects and the 'blur' effect were interesting to play around with, as they differ from the custom effects from photoshop and provided an interesting dynamic in my method of production, which revolved around experemintal procedure, mixed with vague planning.

Poster Analysis (Preliminary)

I have decided to analyse a album advertisement in the form of a poster, to help me understand the conventions and hwo they can be applied in my own piece. The particullar poster I have chosen looks appealing from the 'get go' and I think is effective, upon analysis I will review its effectiveness in three key areas: Genre imagery (mise-en-scene), envoking and stimulation and colour scheme.

Elton John - Breaking Hearts

My first impressions of the poster show that the relatively low range of colours throughout, keeps a themed colour scheme, matching that of Elton John's English Rock style of music, and his portrayed character. The outfitt, and centred image of Elton himself, shows him looking looking mysteriously saddened, working perfectly and purposely with the message of the album and therefore the poster itself. The quotations "Sad Songs" reinforce this and the correlation between the two parts of the piece cohede excellently in this instance. Additionally the yellow 'decaying' tint on the whitespace of the image provides connotations of both the previous and the shining of light, doubled with  the cracking effect applied the distortion to the image does not disrupt the main focus, Elton John, and in fact provides two sides to the poster, light and dark providing obvious connotations of good and bad/heaven and hell, referencing once more the lyrical meanings of his songs, and the album in general.  His attire fits his perceived personality at this time, and fans can see him with similiar clothes in other scenarios, the hat being an almost trademark touch to his work as a musician.

In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in Billboard history. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

This poster, displaying his earlier career, and at the time providing excellent imagery and connotations for the portrayal of the album. The colours, cohesion and envoking of emotions all come together, providing a surface stimulus aswell as a deeper meaning to the images.