Ancillary Digipak Research

The image below is an example of a digipak. These CD cases are usually made of cardboard and fold out into about 4-6 differant parts. They are often used for double albums, or CD and DVD combination products.

Here is a slideshow video of some famous and relevant album covers which have given me inspiration for ideas for my digipak. As you can see there is a wide variety of differant album covers. Each one is very individual and styles are often assosiated with types of bands. Some bands have art type album covers, and others have photography based covers.

I will be designing a Digipak promoting my music video, here are some other famous examples of album covers i will be using for inspiration. The Queen album cover features the four band members against a black background. Although the cover is very simple, it has become one of the most iconic Queen images of all time, with the same concept later being used in the music video for Bohemian Rhapsody. This is something i am going to reflect on when i produce the digipak for my music video, by keeping it simple but effective.

The image below is the album cover for Arctic Monkeys first album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" The cover is a photo of a friend of the band smoking. The cover was somewhat contraversial with many people critisizing it, saying that it was promoting smoking. Some alternative album covers were released with a similar image but without a cigarrette. Once again this album cover is very simple but also very effective.  



This is a quick draft of what the front cover of my digipak may look like. I have edited one of the images from my location research on Photoshop, changing colours and adding text. I have changed the colours so that only the postbox is in colour, emphasing the importance of it.

I have also added a script type font for the title of the artist and song.

Filming Location Research

This is the postbox which will be used in my music video. This will be used in shot four, after the character walks towards the postbox and posts the letter. There will be a close-up of the postbox during this shot. I like the simplicity of this location and i think it's very suitable for the shot I am looking for. I also like how it stands out from the background and there is lots of room for filming. This location will also be used during shot five when the letters are collected from the postbox. For this shot i am planning on a side on shot showing the postbox opening. The picture above was taken from a low angle. The image below, shows the same location, but taken from a normal angle. I prefer the lower angle shot, because it looks more effective and realistic. The overall mise-en-scene of this scene matches the mise-en-scene i have chosen for my music video.  

The photo below is the road i am going to use in shot five, of the postvan driving away from the camera into the distance. I like the colours in this frame and how the road leads your eye away into the distance. Once again I think that it matches the overall mise-en-scene of my music video in general. The shot will once again be from a lower than normal angle showing the van driving into the distance.

I also made up a mock-up of one of the first shots in my music video below. Once again this shot is very simple, with paper and a pencil on a wooden table. I have matched the mise-en-scene of my music video to this shot. This will be one of the first shots in my music video, which is very important as it sets the scene for the rest of the music video.

Lack of posts

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but the county council have blocked Blogger from being accessed on our school network.

Treatment & Shotlist

Treatment

The main character, is at home sitting at a table writing a letter, for whom is unknown. We see a close-up of the writing of the letter, with the sound of the pen writing on paper the loudest sound. The music starts and the character walks out of the front door, and away from the camera along a long narrow road. We see a close-up of the letter being carried by the main character. He posts the letter in a small postbox and walks away. A few moments later a postman arrives in a red van, and collects the letters and drives into the distance. A 2X speed shot from inside the van is shown, indicating a long journey. The van drives past the camera through the countryside along a small country road. We then return to the shot from inside the car on a dual carridgeway merged with a map of the UK showing the letter moving across the map. A timelapse at sunset shows the daylight fading and turning dark. A series of night shots are included showing traffic on a dual carridgeway from a bridge. Another night shot is shown, from inside the car. The night light slowly fades into daylight by using a slow fade. The video fades to black and quickly shows a shot of feet walking along a gravel path. We then see that this person is a postman and he walks towards a large house. He posts the letter and the recipitent inside walks towards the door to find the letters on the doormat. The character cycles through the letters to find the letter in question. The letter is read and the person smiles.


Shotlist

Shot One
Male character in house sitting at wooden table, writing a letter.

Shot Two
Close-up of letter, viewer does not see the content of it.

Shot Three
Character walks out of door and along a small long road away from camera. 

Shot Four
Character walks towards postbox. Close-up of the posting of the letter.

Shot Five
Postman collects letters and drives into the distance away from the camera.

Shot Six
Shot from inside the car, 2x Speed driving along a country road.

Shot Seven
Shot of van from outside driving through the countryside.

Shot Eight
Inside car shot merged with a map of the UK showing the letter moving.

Shot Nine
Timelapse of sun setting turning dark.

Shot Ten
Night shot of a dual carridgeway, filmed from a bridge.

Shot Eleven
Night shot from inside car, timelapse fade into morning light.

Shot Twelve
Shot of feet walking along path, sound of footsteps on gravel.

Shot Thirteen
Postman walks into drive.

Shot Fourteen
Post letters and recipitent walks to door.

Shot Fifteen
Recipitent cycles through letters to find the main letter.

Shot Sixteen
Character reads the letter and smiles.

Shot Seventeen
Fades to black.

Audience Research

I produced 20 questionares and handed them to 20 people, including a variety of differant age groups and tastes. I am hoping that the results from my audience reseach will keep me focused on my production.

These are the questions which i asked.

How old are you?

How often do you watch music videos?

Where do you usually watch music videos?

Do you think that a music video should show a developing storyline narrative?

Can you name any specific music videos which you rate highly and why?

These are the results from my audience research. I have produced a number of graphs to show the results from my audience research effectively.

The first chart I produced is a very simple one, showing the range of ages who partook in the survey. As you can see I asked at least one person from each age group, emphasising on the 16-24 age bracket, as this is the main age group which i am aiming at. I asked 10 people from 16-24, 5 people from 25-33, 3 people from 34-42, one person from 43-51 and one person who was aged 52 or over.

The second chart i produced shows the results from the "Where do you usually watch music videos?" question. As you can see the most popular source for watching music videos is online on websites such as YouTube and MTV. This shows the development of the internet in the media industry as it is now the most popular place to watch music videos amoungst my questionare answerers. Television music channels are still very popular, but with many music videos now available online on demand, the internet seems a better option. As I will be distributing my music video using the internet, it allows me to reach a wide range of audiences for free.

I also asked how often you watch music videos. A pie chart showing the results is below. The majority of the answers said that they watched music videos occasionally, with 30% of people watching them very frequently. Only 5% of people said that they never watch music videos, and these answers were from the older age groups.

The final question in my audience research questionare was could you name any specific names of music videos which you rate highly. I recieved a wide variety of differant answers, from many different music genres. Here is a list of some of the music videos which were given.

Coldplay - The Scientist

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Feeder - Just a Day

My Doorbell - The White Stripes.

Lady Gaga - Telephone

Conducting audience research has been very helpful during the research and planning stage of the production of my music video. I have learnt that the age group which I am aiming my video at (16-24) mostly watch music videos online frequently. My audience research has also focused me on exactly what audiences want from music videos, and looking at music videos which people rated highly has helped me understand what makes a good music video.



What I have learnt from my research and analysis of similar products

I have learnt a number of useful forms and conventions of music videos from analysing similar media products. One convention of music videos that i noticed during analysis, was how there is often a small section of video before and after the clip, where no audio is played apart from diagetic sound, for example characters voices or sounds from objects within the video. This is something which i am hoping to implement into my own A2 production music video during the editing process. During research i also learnt that music videos don't always have to contain musical instruments and the videos are often conveyed as short films rather than music videos. For example, during the video for "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve, no instruments are seen throughout. This shows how the music video is changing, with videos often becoming more like short films, showing a journey or a story of some description.

Jack Johnson's record label

Brushfire Records is the record label of In Between Dreams, which the treack Breakdown is included on. I will be emailing the record company, asking permission to use the track on my music video. I will post the results here.

Lyric Analysis

These are the lyrics for Breakdown by Jack Johnson.

"I hope this old train breaks down

Then I could take a walk around

And, see what there is to see

And time is just a melody

All the people in the street

Walk as fast as their feet can take them

I just roll through town

And though my windows got a view

The frame I'm looking through

Seems to have no concern for now

So for now"

 
I think that the first verse of the song is very meaningful. The main story of the lyrics is about how inbetween tours, Jack didn't ever have time to explore his surroundings as he was always on the move between differant venues. The next segment is the chorus which is repeated three times throughout the song.
 

"I need this

Old train to breakdown
Oh please just
Let me please breakdown"

Therefore he wanted the train to breakdown so he could explore. However i think that these lyrics can apply to everything, not just train journeys. How we should be aware of our surroundings and explore how things work and differant parts of the world. The next paragraph is the final verse before the chorus is repeated for the ending of the time.

"But you cant stop nothing

If you got no control

Of the thoughts in your mind

That you kept in, you know

You don't know nothing

But you don't need to know

The wisdoms in the trees

Not the glass windows

You cant stop wishing

If you don't let go

But things that you find

And you lose, and you know

You keep on rolling

Put the moment on hold

The frames too bright

So put the blinds down low"

 

This verse is also explaining about the missed oppourtunities and how we should take time out and explore our surroundings and how things work.

 

I think that this song is very suitable for my music video idea, as many people are unaware and of the long journey of a letter across the country. I think that it will show the long journey of a letter and how much work goes into it.     



History of Music Television

Music Television (MTV) is widely known as one of the most influential factors on the popularity of the music video today. MTV was launched in August 1981 at the first music video played was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. During the first few minutes of MTV only a few thousand people in New Jersey could recieve the channel. There were small black cut cards between music videos as the DJ changed the VCR tapes. MTV had an international influence on many people's musical tastes as local record shops started selling international music as seen on MTV. When MTV first launched the original concept was to play music videos 24/7 by VJ's (Video Jockeys) but this was later dropped. MTV also moved into showing live concerts aswell as music videos and these became very popular. Like many other music channels MTV does not focus on one genre of music, but broadcasts a wide range of differant genre music videos, both old and new.

Like many other large organisations, MTV has been constantly adapting and changing to advances in technology. MTV has it's own website where content can be accessed online, and music videos can be watched on-demand from the website. MTV Music, a feature of MTV.com allows users to access a catalogue of music videos, dating back to the first ever music video shown on the TV channel "Video Killed the Radio Star" in 1981. MTV wanted to also dominate the online market aswell as the television market, and succeeded becoming one of the most popular music video streaming websites today.

MTV is now a global music television brand, broadcasting music videos and other music related features in over 83 differant countries to an estimated audience of over 300 million people. This is a far cry from the first MTV broadcast which was only available to around a thousand people in the US state of New Jersey.

Audience research questionare

Please answer the following questions for my audience research below by commenting on this post.

1. What do you expect to see during a music video?
2. What do you think makes a good music video?
3. Where do you usually watch music videos, online? music channels?
4. What do you not like to see during a music video? 
5. Can you name any specific examples of music videos which you rate highly?

I have also created a printable questionare, which i will be handing out to students and other possible audiences. I will post the results later.

Thanks.