Digipack studies

Here are a selection of existing digipacks that were analysed for my own dig pack research. The analysis of digipacks belonging to current artists allowed us to make decisions during the production as to the usage of appropriate fonts, colour combinations, cover composition.

My EP poster

Here is the finished poster design for my EP advertisement poster.

I made the poster in Adobe Photoshop by taking a drawing of the album cover. I used line tools to accentuate some of the shadowing and make the band logo more defined, after that I inverted the photo. Inverting the photo made the main cover design a white colour connoting purity, I did this because I wanted the cover to be a symbol; purity and positivity struggling in a dark, bleak universe yet still holding on. The text was sized and then added over the top of the image. It is in a clear yet slightly unconventional font, this is so that the poster design shares the genre ideologies, it is positive and show business in style but it contrasts with the darker nature of the album cover.



Below is my feedback from other media studies  students. The featured poster is my final poster prior to the finishing touches made to the text, image and colour contrast. The feedback helped to understand the emotions that the poster invokes in other people.

Music Video Storyboard - Feel Good Inc.

Sub Culture video - Paramore - Now

Band: Paramore
 
Genre: Alternative/Pop punk
Track: 'Now'
Directed by: Daniel "Cloud" Campos
 
Paramore's music video for their single 'Now' is a highly relevant video to the Alternative youth sub-culture. The video is about a war against oppressive behaviour, the suppression of individuality and the inevitable triumph of those who show love and compassion. Universal platonic love is an Alternative ideology that I have explored in my 'Youth  Sub-culture' study.

The side that the band are fighting is the side of love. This is made clear in the establishing shot of the video showing the two 'sides' of the conflict the production portrays. On the right side of the shot the pink hue of the fog and the bright hair of the singer, the pink hue and bright hair connoting happiness and love contrasts against dark form of the opponent and greyness of the fog, connoting lack of identity as well as oppression and lack of expression. The idea of the enemy being seen as oppressive is supported by the use of a grenade prop and his dark and heavy costume. The grenade shows how his power is something physically obtained through force and the costume, the trench coat especially, carries connotations of Nazism from the trench coat's popularity with the Third Reich's SS. From this the video alludes conflict (Strauss'  theory of media) to the audience in the form of this initial stand off.

The band takes on the role of anti-totalitarian rebels. Their costume is simple and ragged, this connotes many things: the simplicity of the clothing shows how love is a stripped down emotion, that love is something everyone has no matter who they are class or wealth wise and finally, that even the lowest regarded people by society can rise up and become powerful, not through material advantage but through the shear power of love. The band's concentration of love stems from their religious beliefs, yet they are liberal with their ideologies making the band more of a humanitarian band than a religious one, even though their religion of Christianity is a dominant feature in their music.

During the first chorus at 1:25 the lead singer, Hayley Williams, is walking through the battlefield untouched by the conflict around her. She is a symbol for love and positive ideas, this is shown by the colour of her hair being bright and her make-up having a white hue connoting purity and simplicity, linking to her costume. The symbol of the lead singer being untouched by the conflict portrays the idea of love's indestructible nature, no matter what happens around it, love will always stride forwards. Furthermore, the shot composition of Hayley  in the middle of the shot shows how she is the subject and she is almost detached from the conflict because she is the symbol for love itself, this idea can be re-enforced by the close-up of her at 1:38, it shows her facial expression that she is unfazed and defiant in the face of negativity. This part of the video shows how true love is not tainted by conflict.

At 1:52 the coloured smoke furthers the prevalence of bright colours in the music video. The colours stand out making the band's presence more dominant in the shots, enforcing Andrew Goodwin's music video theory of artist presence.  The natural lighting frames the subject against the sky creating a silhouette, this is almost a form of religious imagery, showing power and divinity. This idea is further supported by the low camera angle making the subject look tall and powerful e.i. a symbol for the power of love. However, at 2:18 the enemy forces apply gasmasks, this portrays the message that the things that supress the spread of love are adapt and are hard to beat, highlighting that the fight for unity and love is not an easy one. At 2:46 the band members seem defeated and are beaten by their enemies, their blood appears brightly coloured powder furthering the use of colour contrast techniques into the video. Furthermore, the sudden domination of the mise-en-scene by the brightly coloured powder is a visual manifestation of the audio's crescendo prior to the chorus, this links the to the association of on-screen visuals and the audio in music videos, part of Goodwin's narrative theory.

Even though the cause of the band seems hopeless, the low angle shots of the soldiers makes them look dominating and powerful yet, the band keeps fighting on. It can be suggested that this represents how seeing the victims of violence increases human sympathy and love for those people, that seeing them suffer unjustly drives people to fight against oppressive forces. This gives the lead singer the strength to keep fighting and break through the enemy ranks.
 
The climax of the video involves the lead singer finally breaking through to the leader of the oppressive forces and hugging him, making him see the light. This is literally manifested by the sun's brightness intensifying when this happens, the use of lighting connotes happiness and victory, the darkness ending. These emotions are verified by the close-up shots of the band member's faces, allowing the audience to see their relief and happiness at finally winning the war.

This music video is almost the perfect video that would appeal to my chosen sub-culture. The video's content correlates in a plethora of ways with the Alternative lifestyle and ideologies. Whether it's the theme of the spread of love and positivity, the use of bright colours and simple clothing or the anti-right wing political messages. There is no reason why any Alternative rocker should not love this music video.

Sub-culture and sub-genre research - Altnernative Rock

ABC Transition Project - Editing

Here is my ABC Transition Project to practice editing, parallel to music. This task helps to understand the editing software before starting our main artefact, therefore making our time in post production more efficient and of higher quality.

Editing tempo is key to the production of music videos. In this exercise I practiced



Editing software: Adobe Premiere Pro.

Music Video analysis #3 - Biblical - Biffy Clyro (2013)

The music video for Biffy Clyro's 'Biblical' explores life's cyclical structure through a repetitive storyline, as well as showing how some parts of life are inevitable no matter what you do.

The opening shot involves a close-up of the lead singer of Biffy Clyro, Simon Neil. Immediately Goodwin's theory of artist image is adhered to, the close-up allows the artist's face and tattoos to be seen in detail. The combination of the close-up shot and the use of a prop bed creates a sense of intimacy with the artist and the audience, which in turn links to the deep and sincere content of the lyrics .

The close-up of the telephone prop is used a narrative device as a symbol for new beginnings. The use of the telephone ring being much louder than the music highlight's it's role as a key aspect of the video's narrative.

The costume, hair and make-up in this shot is typical of the alt rock genre that Biffy Clyro belong to.dc The dark costume of the vest and shirt, juxtapose the orange background of the set, the vibrant tattoos on his shoulder and the dark hairstyle creating a clustered mise-en-scene to contrast with the next scene few shots of the video

Music Video Analysis #2 - The Neighbourhood - Let It Go (2012)

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The Neighbourhood's, music video for their track, Let it Go explores the themes of the corruption of capitalism and the persecution of women.
Their opening title is sans-serif , which is done in a 1950s style font, this connotes to ideas of the old and how capitalism and patriarchal societies that should be left in the past are still here, but becomes evident later on. The title screen is inter-textual with other videos by The Neighbourhood, the same title screen is also seen in Sweater Weather and Afraid; this links to the prevalence of the artist image, mentioned in Goodwin's narrative theory.
The mise-en-scene involves a close-up of a woman doing her nails. From the start of the video this foreshadows the messages of the product and introduces the fact that this music video is actually filmed from the perspective of a woman, a housewife who holds up a positive façade in the face of blatant lack of gender equality.

In this shot of the housewife character is going about the everyday, stereotypical life of a 1950s woman. Props like cookies are used as well as make-up, necklaces, feather dusters, wireless radios and cooking utensils. These items are regularly associated with the stereotypical, domestic life of a woman during the 50s, and were considered everyday essentials for the married females of that period.
The lighting lights the room well, allowing the audience to properly see the environment she's in and let them make the sexist link to women and kitchens. Furthermore, her face is well lit so that her forced expression of positivity can be easily identified, highlighting the repression of her emotions by society of the time.
The rule of thirds is also taken into account with the character's position being off-set to the right from the centre.

In this second shot (below) the lighting on set is reduced to create a darker scene with more shadows, connoting the darker nature of this section of the music video and how this is what she actually feels when not in the 'light' of social pressure. This darker scene juxtaposes the earlier scene and involves the housewife smashing the plate of cookies, a symbol for her domestication and her rejecting it. Furthermore, the housewife's hair and make up are made to look messy to denote her anger and frustration at keeping up the façade of positivity.
Throughout the music video the pattern of scenes depicting expectation and reality are repeated, this applies the same message of repression to different situations.

 

This second scene depicts a bedroom setting with both the housewife and husband. The bedroom setting is significant because it is meant to present an intimate scenario when in actuality it just shows how even in the most private areas women are still oppressed. The housewife is serving the husband, who is lying in bed, she is also getting dressed into her elaborate, un-revealing nighty while he sits there in a plain white t-shirt with underwear on. This depicts the idea of gender expectations and roles in the past, more was expected of women. However, this music video seems to empower women: the juxtaposing darker scenes show her expressing herself and seeing through the fickle nature of society her higher position in many of the shots involving her husband connotes power and control. The significance of the fact that we see her pulling off her tights and putting on her bra straps links to Goodwin's narrative theory and the presence of voyeurism in most music videos. Onscreen relation to the music can also be seen by the nature of the mise-en-scene changing with the tempo and pitch of the music e.g. the use of lighting in relation to the music like previously explored.

Yet again, the lighting is bright a harsh to suggest an air of normality and positive attitude. Props like the teacup are a symbol for upper classes as well as the domestication of her role in life.

The juxtaposing scene afterwards yet again uses the light to denote her view when she is not exposed, when she's in the shadows. The positions of her hands on her face suggest pure anguish in life and the make-up running down her face as a result of tears, re-enforces her negative emotions. Furthermore, her wedding ring is clearly visible on her hand connoting that perhaps marriage is a huge factor, if not the cause of her oppression. The double of her to the right of the shot is yelling at the husband who lays sleeping, in bed. The fact that there's a double suggests that there is so much that needs to be expressed that the director needed to incorporate her twice into the shot. Moreover, the two people showing different emotions is schizophrenic imagery linking to how the patriarchy is literally driving her mad. The only proper lighting falls across the face of the close-up of the housewife on the left. This helps the audience to see her emotion in more detail.

The mise-en-scene in this shot below shows the couple previously seen in the video and another couple sitting around a table, a staple image of everyday life furthering the impact of the everywoman idea. The touching of wine glasses connotes happiness and cheer as well as wealth and is the focus of this particular shot with the wine glasses being positioned in the centre of frame. After the previous two scenes within the video this situation seems like a total fabrication to the audience and makes it impossible to miss the over exaggerated emotions of the characters.
The costume of the male characters are suits linking to the almost completely male role in business at the time, the hairstyles of the men are similar as well highlighting the generality of men and enforcing the 'everyman' character in the music video.
The setting seems like a regular middle class dining room, yet again alluding to the theme of these characters being any one. They're normal people. Furthermore, the slightly elevated camera angle connotes and idea of false security, that these people are not as powerful as they think.

The final transition into darkness during the video comments on many more issues apart from female oppression. The housewife looks at the camera and puts her glasses on the lens, as this happens the lighting turns darker and her make-up runs just like previously in the video. This breaks the 4th wall and creates the impression that the characters know the audience is watching, the inclusion of the audience increases the power of the message behind the video because it is directly communicated with he viewer. This validates the previously conceived notion that the dark scenes are from her perspective. Furthermore, her glasses being put on the camera allows the audience to literally see the world as she sees it. Afterwards we see the male characters eating money instead of food and smoking roles of notes connoting to the vulgarity of capitalism. The cigar of bank notes is a close up because it forces the audience to concentrate on that symbol. The editing increase pace at this climax of the video to possibly show the chaos of materialism and how erratic society has made people.

The Neighbourhood's music video for 'Let It Go' (2012) is a commentary on the social injustices of our time and how they seem to be just as prevalent as they were 60+ years ago. The video comments on capitalism, oppression of women and the fickle nature of people. This links well in my studied sub-culture also, because the attitude towards the division of people in the Alternative culture is that we should concentrate on love and humanity not greed and individual success.