2nd draft of advertisement

In this version the bands record labels logo has been included (bottom right)

1st draft of front cover for digipak

1st draft of Advertisement

Advertisement plan

For my magazine advertisement I am going to uses a simplistic design using neutral colours to help reflect the style of my chosen album.

Digipak Research

Before even planning my digipak I am going to look at various different indie pop digipak's.

To start off I will look at The XX's digipak:

The picture shown on the right shows two alternative versions of The XX's digipack, both have four panels which is the most common used for albums. The digipak has a very simple colour scheme of black and white, this is very conventional for indie pop, as these two colours together are highly associated with the genre.

The album cover (shown to the right) is very simplistic and almost reflects the sound of the bands music (calm, and not over complicated), I really like the design of it and I think it is very effective.

From looking at The XX's digipak briefly I am inclined to make my own with the same house colours. This is because it is very effective and it will also tie in with the black and white of my video which overall will help to create an indentitiy.




The Kooks:

The kooks as well as being a indie rock band are also an indie pop band, their style and following are all of the conventional type for indie pop fans. When looking at their digipak it alike The XX's digipak follows the forms and conventions of indie pop. The design of the digipak is in black and white, although also with red, the style of the people on the digipak meet the style of indie pop artists or fans. Te mood set from this item is very chilled, which is associated with this genre of music, this mood is given of my the way the artists are sitting (not taking it too serious) along with the colour scheme.
Alike The XX's digipak The Kooks' is also a four sided one.






Mumford and Sons:

Mumford and Sons alike The XX and The Kooks is also an indie pop band. Their digipak does not follow the other twos style using black and white however it does follow a simplistic approach like the others and has a neutral colour scheme, this colour schem in my opinion matches the style of their music (calm). The simplicity of the design is very attractive and effective. Looking at the back cover of the digipak I like the way in which the songs are listed, I may adopt this style as I thin it is very effective.


From looking at these digipaks I have gained a

Ancillary Task

For this I will be producing a Digipak for the album of my song and also a magazine advert for the release of the album. for this I will need to carry out some research into the conventional digipak's and adverts for this particular genre (indie pop) as by doing so I will be able to understand what I should include within them and what not too include. By being aware of this I should be able to create better products.

Editing begins

Now that I have a story board and all of the footage required to complete the story board I can begin the editing process.

Last bits of filming done!

All of the filming for the video is done. On Friday afternoon Polly and I carried out the filming on the cliffs at Upton. The footage turned out just how I wanted and so far everything is going to plan, the weather was spectacular and it will almost be a shame to convert the footage into black and white. Last night (Saturday) I carried out the nightclub filming, this was all organised, however it did not go to plan, I intended to film the footage on my DSLR however I were not permitted to take the camera inside the club. As an alternative I filmed the footage on my phone, this was not a problem as I as shown in the story board intend to have retro hazy look to the footage, this would of been done in the editing process however instead I now have the real thing. This morning I completed my filming with the shooting of the bottle clips, this was by far one of the more fun shots to film and the results turned out well.

Bellow is a clip showing some of the footage of the bottle I got:

Today's filming

Today I carried out some filming of ink droplets in water. The shots will be used to represent the chemical and emotional reaction to which the character is having, it will also be used as part of the transition between night and day.

Bellow is a video which inspired me to try this method:

Bellow is one of the clips that I shot:

I believe that after editing this and the other footage that I shot I should have a good element to include within my video.

More filming

Today I filmed Polly at Widemouth beach and in some Woods at Crackington Haven (same location as previous video). The filming was successful and everything followed the storyboard.

Filming

This morning I filmed the opening time lapse for my video. This was filmed at Sumerleaze beach, the shot looked over the dunes to the sky showing the sunrise.

The sunrise this morning was very bleak which was goodbecause it tied in with the mood in which I intend to set.

The majority of the footage within my video will be in black and white except for the parts which are filmed in the club.

Equipment list

Camera: Cannon 60D
Tripod
Additional light (for ink and bottle shots)
Glass container (ink shots)
Computer with editing software

My character

As mentioned there will not be an artist shown within my video but instead a character, this will be challenging the conventional style of indie pop music videos as they usually involve a performance based style. I have decided to challenge this convention as I feel that a performance based video would not suit this song as there isn't any lyrics in the song and it is purely instrumental. When looking at music videos in the past I have found that it conventional for music videos that do not contain lyrics to follow a narrative or to be concept based. My music video will be concept based .

The character that I will be using will be played by my friend Polly:

Story board and locations

For the locations for my video I shall need to film on a beach and in some woods or on  a cliff.

The beach location that I am going to use will be Widemouth bay:

The woods filming will be done at Crackington Haven where I previously filmed:

The location where I will film on the cliff will be in Upton:

In addition to these locations I will need to fil the ink shots as well as the bottle shots, these will all be filmed within my garage.

Audience feedback

Today I asked five potential target audience members and asked them about my concept before I begin to film and edit. The comments were very positive and all five of the participants liked the concept.

Concept

I intend to follow the forms and conventions of the genre and focus the concept on the topic of youth culture, there are various different options such as Violence, Drugs, Sex, Teen love and all of the other stereotypical things. I however have  decided to take a cliché topic (youth and nightlife) and explore a different perspective to it and rather than view it how it is usually glamorized within other indie pop music videos and videos from other genres I intend look at the follow up of such events and the less glamorized aspect of youth and night life. I have come to this decision because I feel that this song lent itself to this theme with its heavy beats and slightly dark tones

I intend to deliver this concept through the use of particular camera angles and editing style to create a confusion that will make the audience question the emotions that the subject is going through and hopefully play on possible similar experiences that they themselves have experienced.

Target audience

My main target audience for my video first of all is fans of The XX, this is my primary target audience as they will already have an interest in the song and this may help with the connection to my video. The majority of these fans will full under indie pop fans. Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, with its roots in Scottish post-punk bands.
The term "indie" had been used for some time to describe artists on independent labels (and the labels themselves), but the key moment in the naming of "indie pop" as a genre was the release of NME's C86 tape in 1986. The compilation featured, among other artists, Primal Scream,The Pastels, and The Wedding Present, and "indie" quickly became shorthand for a genre whose defining conventions were identified as jangling guitars, a love of '60s pop, and melodic power pop song structures


When researching indie pop I came across this quote from allmusic.com "Indie rock's more melodic, less noisy, and relatively angst-free counterpart, Indie Pop reflects the underground's softer, sweeter side, with a greater emphasis on harmonies, arrangements, and song craft. Encompassing everything from the lush orchestration of chamber pop to the primitive simplicity of twee pop, its focus is nevertheless more on the songs than on the sound, and although both indie pop and indie rock embrace the D.I.Y. spirit of punk, the former rejects punk's nihilistic attitude and abrasive sonic approach." From all of the explanations of this genre I feel that this one really helps give an understanding of the difference between indie pop and indie rock.

Permission letter

I have used the same letter that I previously sent to James Vincent McMorrow's label, as there is no need to write a new one as it is appropriate.

Dear Copyright Holder, 

I am an A-level media student and I am writing to you to request your permission to use the track Getting Nowhere by Magnetic Man ft John Legend.

With your permission the track would be used in my current A-level Media studies project in which I have to create my own music video as well as creating a digi-pack and poster for the artist.

If I received your permission the track would only be used for educational purposes and would only be viewed by my media class, teacher and the exam board moderator.

The artist and your company would of course be fully recognised throughout production and the final video itself. If you wish for there to be a copyright notice to be included in the video I would need any information sent to me so that it could be included in the project. If this is wanted please inform me with further details.

I look forward to your response,

With thanks

            Jake Claridge

Song research

The song that I have chosen is called "Intro" This song was made by the the indie pop group The XX, the song was released in August 2009 with the album that it belongs to - XX. After being accepted by music fans the album gained the Mercury prize in 2010. Intro has been one of the many succesful tracks from the album and is recognised from its usage  during NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games,and Newsnight's coverage of the 2010 United Kingdom general election. It was also sampled by recording artist Rihanna for her song "Drunk On Love", from her 2011 album Talk That Talk.


The XX is made up four band members:
Romy Madley Croft - Vocals, guitar
Oliver Sim - vocals, bass
Jamie Smith - beats, MPC, producer, mixing
Baria Qureshi - keyboards, guitar

Choice of NEW song

The song that I will be making a music video for will be Intro by The XX. This song is of the indie pop genre and in my eyes will be a good song to make a video to, this is because of the beats within the song which lend themselves to a good pace of editing in which the flow of the footage will be able to be regulated by the tempo.

Digipak and poster ...

Like my usual indecisive self, I have again changed my song. this decision has been made because the result that I ended up with was ok, but lacking certain elements, due to not being able to see any other elements I could add to the video I have been advised to film another video.

Bellow is my digipak and poster (not fully complete). Due to changing song I will no longer require them, but I have decided to post them.

by designing these items I have been able to gain some experience which will help me when designing my final pieces.

Digipak's

As part of this coursework I will need to create a digipack for my artist.

What is a digipak?

Well quite simply a digipack is a casing that holds a cd/dvd within.

When looking into what exactly a digipack is I found Wikipedia to be very helpful and it gave a brief history of didgipacks. Bellow is a link to the page that I looked at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digipak

The typical digipaks is 13.8cm wide, 12,5 cm in lenght and has a 6mm thick spine is made either by card or plastic usually. A four pannel digipack is the most commmon type however you can also get six or eight pannel ones.

Typical features of a digipak 

Text

 Name of the band/artist

Name of the album

Track listing

Price

Bonus material
Website
Credits
Recording information, producer, where it was recorded and when, who wrote the song.
Thanks

Pictorial

Pictures of the band/artist

Logo

Barcode

CD logo

Website banner

Design

Colour and style to fit artists genre

Unfolds

Cardboard sleeve/

adverts

CD

Booklet

CD case

     

Why have a digipak?... 

Well they look good to start off with, this can be advantageous for a band/artist as by having an artistic and therefore attractive digipack the item should if designed properly attract people to buy the CD. A digipack often comes with additional information about the band/artist or production of the music, such information can be appealing to fans and will attract them to purchasing them.

Annotation of a digipak

A video I came across 

When browsing the internet looking for information about digipack's I came across this video, it does not provide any actual information but gives an insight to how elaborate a digipack can be, for example the U2 one in this video.

Annotation and analysis of digipack #1 

(please click on the image above to view a larger version)

Complete video

After editing all of the clips I have ended up with this finished product.