Original Digipak Idea;

Whilst brainstorming for digipak ideas we went through our un-used footage in order to spark our creativity and really nail the artists aesthetic in order to bring this to the album. We knew we wanted something quirky in order to engage our target audience but we also wanted something that fits in nicely with the indie/pop theme therefore bringing in colour as well as star image. Whilst stumbling across our footage we found this an print screened it in order to annatate it.

As you can see this image that we captured is bright, fun, quirky but not yet refined. So we took ideas from it and adapted it to our final digipak cover. What we picked out from this picture is the fact sam is sitting in the bath with his clothes on, we took this idea and adapted it as we thought it was quirky and different and had a house-party young adult feel. We also took the idea of having the rubber ducks in shot as it creates a really fun aesthetic as well as being quirky and bringing vibrancy to the shot; as utimately we wanted to create a bright, fun and quirky digipak.

The negatives that we picked out from the shot is all the uneccessary props in the background that make the mise en scene look moderately messy. Therefore in our final digipak we removed these to create a more thought out look. Also we realised the bottom of the ducks are cut out of the shot so we wanted to make sure we got them fully in, in the final shot just to make it look more professional and planned. Moreover we ditched the umbrella as we thought it make the shot look too cluttered and we wanted to keep it simplistic and fun, rather than it looking too messy. Overall this shot really inspired our final digipak album cover, therefore we realised the importance of brainstorming and looking over older footage in order to get inspiration and spark our creativity to create something fun and quirky which will engage our target audience.

This is our digipak image and as you can see there has been vast progression from our original idea, such as the lighting, the overall mise en scene and how we portray the star image.

Our use of a mobile phone in our music video;

When we were constructing our music video we knew we wanted to have a section of it purely showing a mobile phone texting/tweeting and facebooking in order to portray a sense of modernism as well as keeping the theme of quirkiness; adding a fun twist with tweeting the actual band. Originally we were not sure how we were going to add this to our video whilst achieveing continuity however we realised it would be a 'cool' idea to text/tweet and facebook the lyrics of the song whilst it was playing (kind of like lip syncing.)

To make our use of a mobile phone even more effective we decided to sync the writing with the rapping part of the song...

'you dress for the weather i dress to impress her.'  - we purposely used as a text message because we wanted to make the lyric more personal, like the artist is texting his friend, devoting his love for the weather girl.

'channel 4 is the home of the best girl in britain.' - this next lyric, we tweeted on to the actual polar collective twitter page in order to advertise the band as well as to engage the audience to add a suprise to our video. Twitter is also a conventional social media site in which participants make bold statements, therefore we thought this lyric was appropriate for twitter.

'This song was written to express my feelings and im feeling quite smitten so im gonna take a minute.' - this is the final lyric that we filmed posting on facebook. The reason we posted this on facebook is because it was the longer lyric which fitted in with facebook well, as well as conventionally, facebookers put quotes on their homepage therefore we thought this lyric was appropriate.

Overall our use of a mobile phone worked really well in our particular music video as it followed the contuinity of bringing a sense of quirkiness to our video alongside technology and modern advertisment which is used specifically by our target audience, young adults. We believe this section of our music video will be popular with our target audience as it is familiar to them, also it shows how they can become closer with the artist/musician as they can follow them on twitter, moreover we used a blackberry which next to the iphone is the most subscribed phone in 2012 with people aged between 13-19.

Above is a screenshot from our specific music video when we were filming typing the lyrics on to twitter. As you can see the main words which stand out are 'Whats happening' , that being a young/hip phrase which attracts our target audience. Furthermore above is the official polar collective twitter page which engages the audience fully as now they are aware they can follow them on twitter as well as the artists being more relatable to their audience.

Throughout the editing process we used the speed up tool 'Ctrl -J' on final cut pro and sped it up by 150%, we did so in order to sync the typing with the actual lyrics in order to create a professional look as well as to encourage the audience to be able to sing along.

Advertising/ DigiPak;

Advertisment and promotion is what ultimately sells our product and whilst designing our digipak we have had this in mind. We analysed the bands original digipak and then we compared it with ours and drew parellels and differences with it and we believe we have made an effective digipak that reflects the bands ethos as well as the music video we have made for one of the tracks on the album, 'weather girl.'

This is the original EP for polar collective, as you can see they are on itunes as a form of advertising and promotion which is the most popular music download station currently. The actual front cover of the EP itself  is of a sepia colouration with various miniature toys scattered over a table with the band behind it. The colour of the EP suggests a vintage feel as well as the various props which bring a sense of quirkiness to the front cover. This is important as their target audience will be engaged by this as their audience will be young teens who enjoy indie/pop music therefore something far from mainstream and something more quirky. We have taken inspiration from this for our digipak as we wanted to go for the quirky feel also as well as bringing some vintage aspects to it also, as we know this is what will attract our target audience. However for our own individual front cover we have focused more on Goodwins star image and bringing a sense of vibrancy to it as we wanted it to fully stand out.

As you can see above we believe we have achieved this look, bringing a sense of quirkiness, colour and simplicity to our digipak. We also believe this will definitely appeal to our target audience as it is some what similar to the original cover however brings a different aspect to it of star image and colour.

Digi Pak Photos;

Yesterday me and sam went to shoot some pictures for our digipak. We had a firm idea in mind of the pictures having a house party feel to them therefore shooting in sams house with some additional props of a guitar, rubber ducks and beer bottles. We chose these specific props as we wanted to really focus on the quirky look we are going for throughout the music video as well as our album cover. We had the key idea of using silly string within our shots and we kept this in mind, and when we covered the guitar in it it achieved a really effective shot, highlighting the party feel that we hope our album will be all about. After editing I watered the pictures down to having 4 really effective ones, the album cover itself, the back cover and 2 other images that I hope to use within the album.

This is the image we chose for the album cover. As an album cover we thought this shot was really effective as it has been lit rather well, with a 2 point lighting system, it also employs the rule of thirds as well as being a nice photo of sam, enhancing the star image. The ducks are significant within the shot as it brings that quirky feel we were after as well as bringing some vibrant colour to the shot. To edit this shot i used a free editing programme and after playing around with the different functions i came up with this effect. As it has a vintage, polaroid look to it this highlights the quirkiness as well as attracting our target audience as the vintage look is in fashion currently. The font is still in a working progress as it is what we are looking for, something quirky and cartoon like however i believe we could make it stand out even more, and to do this I was thinking about putting the font in seperate boxes, enhancing the animated look as well as making it stand out even more than it does already.

This is the image we constructed and chose for the back of our album. This image really epitomises the house party feel with the rustic guitar covered in silly string with beer bottles staggered over the shot. Like the front cover shot it has been lit from above with 2 lights pointing to the guitar from different directions, this has created a vibrant image with the guitar stickers jumping off the shot in contrast to the wooden floor which gives the shot a 'basement feel' to it. We wanted our album to have a sense of continuity to it therefore i chose the same font for the back cover as well as the front cover. To highlight the text i chose to differentiate between black and white as well as putting a cartoon cloud in the top right hand corner, bringing another aspect of quirkiness to the shot as well as referring to our music video.

This is another shot that we want to include within our digipak,maybe as the inside cover however we are not sure yet. Likewise this picture brings a sense of contuinity to our digipak, linking to the front cover of our shot. What makes this shot so effective is the use of leading lines, the front duck being in complete focus whereas the last duck seems to be a bit blurred, i believe this really works as there is also a hidden duck in the background bringing another element of quirkiness and fun to our digipak. I edited this shot on the same editing programme however used a different effect, which really enhances the vintage look of the shot. I believe this would work as an inside cover as it doesnt have sam in it therefore focusing the audience's attention on the front cover yet it is still a dynamic image which is engaging and quirky.

This is the final image that we chose for our digipak to use as one of the inside shots. It conveys sam as a party animal with silly string thrown all over him as well as his guitar.. also he is holding a beer bottle which highlights the house party feel we were going for. Likewise sam's facial expression is very neutral therefore showing no emotion, which is conventional with young adults, our target audience. We believe our digipak will engage our target audience as it is fun and quirky yet is still made up of effective shots that conveys sam's star image.

Filming in the Studio:

On tuesday we reviewed our music video and what we needed to do in order to complete our final first draft. We realised that in order to get a wide range of shots and to fill up minor gaps in our video we needed to film more, and we had the idea of filming in a professional studio in order to achieve the performance aspect for our video. We also decided to film a section of our video in a studio as it is conventional for the indie theme as it shows musical raw talent, which is emphasised by the lighting and body language of the artist.

The studio consisted of a dark grey/black screen and we had 2 high key lights pointing towards Sam from both the left and right direction. We did this in order to light up the whole of sam to achieve a flawless image as well as to contrast with the dark screen; we were not sure if this was going to work but when we filmed several shots we realised it did work and did achieve a professional look as well as having a  music video feel to it, especially for the indie genre.

Filming in the studio enhances the musically raw element to our music video and therefore engages our target audience, of young/indie adults that appreciate musical talent as well as a quirky twist.

Our Text Editing

This is an example of the text we have recently edited over the top of our footage in a certain part of our song. We decided to do so as we believe it enhances the quirky look of our music video as well as bringing a literal meaning to it. In the song a different singer sings 'youre not dating her' therefore instead of getting someone else to perform we had the idea of putting text over the footage. In order to get the text on to our screen, we searched dafont.com to find the perfect font for our particular music video. We knew we wanted something almost cartoony as the song has a real animated feel to it, therefore we wanted to mirror this in our editing.

We decided to layer up the text in order for it to appear on the screen seperately when each lyric was sung. This was quite time consuming as we had to almost edit it like we would lip syncing, however after we did so, we were so happy with the result as we achieved the perfect timing as well as a clear link between the lyrics and the video.

In depth research; Digipak

As we have now decided what images we want to create for our digipak i have down some more in depth research about similar digipak's that i have found online, that contain the same imagery as ours. So a man with a guitar, certain similar locations and mise en scene. The reason for doing this is so i can grasp a better understanding of the conventions within the music industry in which sort of album cover appeals to a certain target audience. Therefore for our particular album we wanted to create a conventional album, a man with his guitar however we want to bring our own quirky twist by using some unique imagery alongside it, for example we are planning on covering our artist and location in silly string which will hopefully create a quirky and dynamic image.

This is the first album cover that i have analysed in order to get a better understanding of the type of digi pak we want to produce. This is similar to what we want to produce as the main  focus of the cover is the artist with his guitar and this is what we want to achieve however we want to employ the rule of thirds to create a better looking shot. Furthermore the constructor of this album has played around with saturation and different colourations, we also want to do this, however we want to desaturate our cover a little bit rather than to create a yellow tone, we want to desaturate ours a little bit in order to create a more moody atmosphere, this will be popular with our target audience as it will have a serious, musical feel to it as well as a quirky twist alongside it.

This is an example i found of an ed sheeran image which is similar to the type of shot we want to create for our digi pak cover. The location is what stands out in terms of what we want to use for our digi pak, Ed is sitting on a bench which is a conventional setting for a songwriters album, as it shows their humility as well as portraying their raw talent through the raw location of a bench. However we want to create a different shot to this one as we want to use the rule of thirds and leading lines to enhance our image further, this will focus our target audience's eyes on to our artist and his guitar, which is ultimately the most important thing. 

DigiPak: Focusing on main idea

Throughout the past week we have been brainstorming digi pak ideas and what we want our album to achieve, looks wise in order to engage our target audience. After much deliberation we have decided on a range of shots to include within our digipak. As we are aware this digipak will be to promote an album rather than a single so therefore we have decided to deter from using imagery from our actual music video, rather that we are going to go a completely different route, focusing on sam (the artist) with his guitar. However, althought we want to stick to the generic conventions we also want to add our own quirky twist as the band itself is very quirky and different therefore we want their album to directly portray that.

For the front cover of our digi pak we have come up with an exact image that we want to create. We want to use the rule of thirds alongside a mid-close up with sam sitting on the bench with his guitar. You may say this sounds generic however to add a quirky twist we are going to cover him with silly string, which as i have seen before, creates an engaging and effective image, as the colours stand out as well as the fact sam is with his guitar, highlighting that he is in fact a musician.

The picture above is an example of the type of image we want to create. The colour saturation is also similar to what we want to create. We want to achieve an engaging look with the multicolours of our silly string however we do not want this to look too vibrant and over the top as we still want to emphasis sam's talent etc. This particular shot has used leading lines which is also what we want to achieve with one of our inside cover shots, as it focuses the stance of the artist with his guitar, portraying how the guitar is almost an extension of himself. This sort of image will engage our target audience as young adults appreciate the talent of playing the guitar, however quirkiness is currently in fashion, and as our album cover is going to portray this we believe our audience will be intrigued by this. As well as this our female audience will be engaged as sam is a male with a guitar which is often a desirable image towards young females.

For the Back cover we want to carry on the guitar theme however we want to mix it up a bit to keep the audience engaged as well as our album cover being coherant and continuous. The shot that we are hoping to capture on Thursday for the back of our album is sam walking away in a rural location with his guitar either on his back of standing up next to him, this emphasises the isolated location, fixating the audiences focus on sam. This image also conveys a literal meaning as the back cover of the album represents the end, and sam is walking away from his audience, emphasising how the album almost has an intimate gig- like feel to it. 0

6/12/12 - What we edited today

In today's lesson we uploaded the footage we filmed the other day and unfortunately it worked out that a mistake occured with the camera and none of our footage was what we wanted it to be, therefore we had to set out minds on to something else. However we have planned to re film on tuesday to film more lip syncing , a segment where sam is in the bath and some more scenes which include barbie; such as her doing snow angels in the snow, her sitting on the edge of a wall gazing at sam and her sunbathing.

As our footage was unable to be edited we focused on doing something else that we wanted to include in our video, making our lyrics come up on the screen by using a cool/quirky font. We were not sure how we were originally going to achieve this however after some  trials and tribulations we have managed to achieve what we wanted. Originally we were going to use photoshop to create our on screen lyrics however we realised that the same look can be achieved simply by using final cut pro itself. In order to get the font we wanted we went on to dafont.com and scrolled through the 'comic' section as we knew we wanted a 'cartoony' feel to our font/lyrics as this enhances the quirkiness of our video.

This is the font we chose to use 'que fontita' as we believe this would create the kind of look we were trying to achieve. The exact lyrics that come up whilst using this font is 'you're not dating her' we chose to put this bit of the song in fontasised lyrics as we believed it fully got the message across as well as creating a new dimension to our video.