OH - Digipak Analysis

Back middle cover

Back cover 

Front cover 

Inside 1

Inside 2

inside 3

How is the genre of the track/artist evident?

• The plain nature of the digipak, denoted by the bold title and the limited difference in colour, and the focus on a few colours is iconic of the dance/ house genre.

•  The use of a girl poolside on the digipak front pane is a symbolic sign of the dance music genre. This immediately reveals the genre of the artist. This is aided by the use of white space or the plain blue shades, attracts attention towards the image.

What visual techniques are used? (two-thirds, texture, colour, tone, mise-en-scene)

• White space is important in affecting the dominant reading path. This is particularly evident on the front pane of the digipak, whereby white space contrasts with the blue box where the title is held which identifies the album to the consumer.

• The use of centering the female on the front cover in the digipak contributes to her meta-narrative through portraying him as important if she is part of the album. Colour also achieves this contribution to meta-narrative, as other parts of the album cover are mainly shades of blue, whereas the female is subject to a tanned skin colour which allows her to stand out. This could be seen as negative however as she is objectified on the front of the album, as she's in limited clothing on her top half which highlights whats wrong in the patriarchy society.

• This use of lighting also contributes to Dyer's paradox star image theory - whereby he poses that a star must be simultaneously present and absent. As she's present on the front cover however she doesn't exist on any of the other covers of the digipak.

• Also on the inside covers there is a clear hierarchy to the colour scheme, the black is used on the title of each song, the darker blue used on the artist and the lightest blue used on promotion companies associated with the artist. This makes for very easy reading for the consumer which i like the idea of and could use in our own.

• There really isn't much creativity on inside 2 and 3, this soft creativity suggests that this album is aimed at original consumers of the music, who will buy the album for its music content and not the aesthetics of the digipak. 

BWB - Digipak analysis

What is a 'Digipak'?

• A digipak is an album case which is usually made of card. Digipaks are often in astle where the case can open up multiple times often containing multiple disc trays. Oppose to the traditional jewel case which is two-sided containing just one disc tray.
• The general content of most digipaks includes the CD case with the album/single name on the front cover with the name of the artist just below. The disc is inside along with information and the lyric booklet. On the back there is almost always a track list of the albums songs including the duration of the track.
• Design and execution of the digipak is essential as it is the front of the cover that catches the customers attention when the product is on the shelf. The front cover must feature an appealing house style of fonts and colours which will be maintained throughout the digipak. Also, the name, logo and image of the artist will repeatedly be presented on the cover as frequent as possible in order to make their image clearly recognisable.

Conventions of digipaks

• Visual image
• Band/artist name
• Album title - on main cover and along the spine
• Track list
• Basic background information of the band/artist
• Bar code
• Copy right

Group - Concept Development

Here are some of the ideas from the most recent class discussion which involved topics such as framing and camera work, cast selection and examples of work from other artists that is similar to our own.

FC - Technical Analysis

This video is relevant to our video in terms of the song and the video. the song is a similar genre to ours and the video focuses on one main character and follows him around. This video has been helpful because its a good example of how a music video can be filmed in a crowded urban area like Los Angeles. its also been useful because the shots used to emphasise the character in the short amount of time are very effective. As well as the city the video also features a beach similar to the one we filmed on in Brighton, using a familiar or famous location makes the narrative more clear because the viewer is already at ease with the environment. The cutting rate in the video is driven by the narrative, however the cutting rate still works with the song despite its random nature. This is because the narrative was written with the song in mind, this shows me that when we develop our narrative it is very important to get it in the correct order so that we can make the cutting rate work with the speed of the song.

0:00-0:06	Stormy beach location. Man emerging from the wavey sea. Text appears in the centre of the screen. Natural lighting.	Wide extreme longshot	Song begins with vocals with a beat in the back ground.
0:06-0:10	The man is shown walking to the shore. He has long hair and a beard as well as a white robe, obvious Jesus connotations.	Mid shot, the camera moves slightly to keep the man centred.	The same vocals and beat continue.
0:10-0:15	Man is drenched with his arms held out continues wading out the sea with an expressionless face. Text with the songs name appears top centre of the shot	Medium long shot, camera is still	The same vocals and beat with a drum beat speeding up into the next shot.
0:15-0:17	Man’s feet are shown walking on the wet beach with the mans soaked garment visible in shot.	Close up of feet walking.	The base kicks in with the vocals changing.
0:17-0:19	Man is shown walking towards two young boys sitting on the beach eating ice cream, the weather is still overcast.	Mid shot follows the man who is centre of the screen as he walks towards the kids.	The vocals pick up into the verse and the beat continues
0:19-0:25	Bare feet again emphasised, simple clothes, sandy background, man stops just short of the two kids and smiles warmly at them.	Close up of feat pans up towards the man’s face
0:25-0:26	The two boys look up at the man, they have confused facial expressions.	High angle shot, emphasising the man’s height.
0:26-0:27	The man kneels down in front of the two boys.	Medium long shot taken from the side, looking across the beach instead of towards the sea.
0:27-0:41	The man uses his powers to multiply the ice cream he then gets up and walks away. The two boys are then seen looking pretty chuffed with their new ice cream.	From a low angle the camera pans across the man’s back and then back onto the two boys. This is so that you don’t actually see the new ice cream appear.
0:41-0:46	The man walks out of the shot the focus changes onto the two boys again as they are attacked by seagulls in the background.	A mid shot that utilises deep focus to change the focus from the man and then the boys in the background as the man exits the shot, there is then a zoom in on the two boys getting attacked.
0:46-0:48	The man’s feet are again the main focus as he walks away from the beach.	Close up of the feet as he walks away whilst the camera follows after him.

Group - Concept Development

After the Brighton recce, shot collection and editing, its clear what was good about the piece and what wasn't. The cutting rate was no where near fast enough for the pace of the song, so for the final piece we will definitely need a lot more shots when it comes to that. Also the lack of narrative ended up in the piece becoming boring after the minute mark.

 The start of the song was good and the way that the camera cut as the beat staggers as the camera moves up the stairs worked well. Also there were no where near enough decent dancing scenes, which if we included more could end up in it looking boring so its clear that there will need to be a lot more actors/dancers involved in the piece for it to be interesting. 

Not only this but when watching the clips back it was clear that we hadn't thought about how to position the actor in the shots which made the clip quite hard to watch, so next time the shots will have to be more intelligent when positioning the frames, if that is in the centre of shots or if it means applying the rule of thirds.

OH - Technical Analysis, House Every Weekend

Duration	Shot Type	Shot Movement	Mise-En-Scene
5 secs	Medium long shot	No movement, slight handicam	Low lighting on the street, the camera is positioned at the centre of the shot and the man walks into shot.
3 secs	Medium shot High angle	No movement, slight handicam again	Low lighting again, the only lighting is the artificial one, the male stands in the centre of the shot again and the camera is centered at an eyeline height.
3 secs	Medium shot low angle	No movement, slight handicam again	Female walks into shot, the lighting is a lot higher key, she is dressed in a tight crop top and high jeans with running shoes on.
3 secs	Medium shot	No movement, slight handicam again	Male walks into the shot in a park where he is centred in the middle of the shot, he stops when he reaches the center, there is high key lighting again.
2 secs	Just smoke	No movement	Smoke blows across the camera with the lights making it appear in different colours, this makes it seem as if its in a club or dancing set such as a club.
2 secs	Close up over the shoulder	Camera follows the runner on his shoulder	Man with headphones on and dressed in a tracksuit top, runs down a residential street at a fair pace.
1 sec	Close up on back	Camera smooth track of the dancers movement in CU	Man seen dancing in car park and the camera follows the back of him.
1 sec	Medium shot	Follows the runner again but from further away, very smooth camera too	The shot is of the runner again where we can now see his top half, and again he is centred in the middle of the shot.
1 sec	Low angle looking up at windows	Smooth camera, it is at the same speed as the runner	Houses placed on the right side and the camera is aimed at them making it out as if the camera is in the position of a POV
1 sec	Close up meat shot	Follows the runners speed again, but the shot is slowed down.	Runner with tired expression on his face runs in the centre of the shot. As he looks from left to right
2 sec	Medium close up	Follows the movement of the dancer again, however the dancer faces the camera this time.	The camera faces the runner who is now only dressed in a black tank top as he dances in the shot.
3 sec	Medium close up	Tracks the runner again by the side parallel	The runner keeps at the same pace but the camera now face the runner from the position of the road.
1 sec	Medium shot	Slow zoom into the female actor	The female is now sat on the top of the washers/dryers. She looks at the other side of the shop.
1 sec	Medium shot	No movement	Shes now up dancing in the middle of the shop
1 sec	Close up	Moves with the females dancing again	Close up shot of her midriff as she shakes her torso to the beat of the song, however the speed of the song is slowed down.
3 sec	Medium close up	Slow zoom in on the females expression	Sad expression on the girls face as the camera zooms up onto her.

When analysing the narrative of the video its clear that there are these four actors who are partaking in their day by day activities in the week however they cannot but help themselves from dancing in these places such as the dryer shop. Not only this but they would then go to a dancing club and partake in a dancing group where they then practice for when they then go on to dance in the club which is where the video then finishes up, where they all dance.

The video has given me a lot of help for our video, as it shows that we could use a similar narrative in our video, where by all of these people come together to dance as the genre of the video is very similar to ours. Also, the cutting rate of the video is very fast, even though its so fast the viewer is still able to get an idea for the narrative of it. Not only this but its clear that the positioning inside the shots is very important in making the video look as professional as possible. We could use a similar style in our video to create the same vibes as this video gives off, as the song is similar to ours. Also the inclusion of the slowed down shots helps to

Stills - 

The female actor is centred in the middle of the shot in a very British set

Again the male is placed in the centre of the shot in an urban setting of the carpark

The same as the two above, the male is centred and placed in an urban setting of the park

The male, centred in the middle of the shot, is in a dance club which we could use in the final piece