I found the digipak to be one of the hardest parts of the whole project, this was mainly due to the fact that I find editing with Photoshop very difficult. To get the digipak to a good standard it took more than one attempt.
In order to complete the digipak i undertook a lot of research and in the end decided to use the Gorillaz's digipak as inspiration for mine.
I found this digipak very helpful when creating mine as it shows that to make a good digipak you dont need to use loads of different special effects, you could just use simple images and colours.
In order to create the digipak I first used the camera on an iphone 5s in order to get the images to use.
The iPhone gave us some good shots, which was surprising for a phone.
Next i imported the images into adobe Photoshop. I found this program quite difficult to use however with practice you can create some quite amazing things.
Constructing the advert was a long process that we found quite difficult. This was because we had very limited Photoshop skills, to fix this we needed to go back to it multiple times in order to get it to a reasonable standard and learn how to use Photoshop on the Macs.
To get inspiration for my magazine advert I looked at real adverts and the adverts from previous year groups. I saw that all of the adverts featured a qr code and a website, which mine did not so it looked unprofessional.
To make the advert better me and my group went and took some group photos for the main advert image, we then removed the background and placed the image onto a backdrop that matched the theme of the song. I then created a qr code and added a website to make it look like a REAL advert.
Below is an early version of my advert cover, this one wasn't very good but was a good way to learn how to use the Photoshop software.
Overall I feel that the magazine advert is okay. The band shot shows that the band doesn't take itself too seriously in contrast the background shows that the song covers a serious topic. There is an iTunes advertisement, QR code and a website link. If i were to do it again I would use a better font and maybe use a better band shot just to give it the "extra" bit of professionalism.
Editing the music video was a long and tedious process. This was because we had to have so many cuts in order to fit the pacing of our song. This was okay it was just our lack of shots that made it difficult to stick to this fast pacing, because of this you do see some repeated shots in the finished products but we got away with it a little bit due to the repeated shots being mainly band room footage so it still looks natural.
Below is a photo of me doing the music video.
When editing the video we had a play around with transitions and video effects to try and make our footage look a little more interesting, however when showing this to a small audience nobody liked the transitions and it looked as if it slowed down the pace of the editing whilst the some was very fast paced. We therefor decided that in our final piece we would have no video transitions or effects at all, this made our music video look a lot faster and more convincing as a music video.
Whilst editing our video I got a lot better at using the editing software which made the video look a lot smoother, this is because I learnt how to use all of the things that Adobe Premier Pro had to offer.
As a result I feel that the music video is very good and is the best product that I have made including last years thriller.
Overall I feel that our final product was very good, this is down to good shots and good editing. The music video would have been a lot better if we had more shot variation however this was not possible due to camera issues when filming and lack of time. If we had more time our final product could have been even better with a wide range of locations and more creativity, this had to be limited to to time and location constraints.
The video editing software that we used was Adobe Premier Pro, Below is screenshots from video editing.
Filing the music video was a difficult and time consuming process. this was because it is hard to create a good music video that includes key conventions. We also had to overcome things such as weather and lighting difficulties as well as travelling to locations at a convenient time for everyone.
We also had to take in consideration how congested the place was as we didn't want random members of the public in our shots. Another difficulty was transporting the camera equipment, as we were travelling on crowded buses it became a nuisance to try and keep things such as the tripod out of peoples was.
The filming process was made a bit simpler by the use of high quality cameras and basic camera accessories such as a tripod, this guaranteed steady shots that would have been otherwise impossible. Even though we got good shots when we got to the editing stage we found that we did not have enough shot variation. This meant we had to go out again to get more footage in more locations, When we came to uploading our new footage we found that the camera didn't catch any of the footage, we later found that it was because the camera had ran our of storage however we didn't get no warning message so all of the footage from that day was lost. At this point we had no more time to film so had to use the footage we did have to the best of our abilities, this can be seen as our video has some repeated shots, mainly band room footage.
Below is an image of the group members just before filming commenced.
A problem we had whilst filming outside was the noise level, as we were playing the song in order for me to lip sync the sound became unhearable which meant I had to learn the song word for word and time it perfectly. The inside shots, the band scene, was much easier as it was a quiet environment with loud speakers.
Before creating our final piece we made a rough cut and showed it to a small audience, the feedback informed us that overall our video was good however they didn't like the video transitions and effects that we had on as it made it look more like a story instead of a music video. soin our final piece we had to video transitions, this gave our product a faster pace and look more convincing as a real music video.
Below is the rough cut;
Overall the shots we got were good thanks to a high quality camera and some smart camera positioning, this gave us the ability to create a quite convincing music video. We also knew that any problems we had with the footage could later be fixed during the editing stage, such as poor lighting.
After showing our video to other classmates we found that overall people thought the video was okay however the general consensus was that the transitions and video effects ruined a generally okay video.
In order to create our media product we has to carry out some audience feedback on the rough cut in order to see if we are going along the right track for our final product.
From this feedback we can see that overall my media product was okay, not great. Around 14% of people said it was outright bad and a similar amount said they wouldn't watch it again. A big problem we had with our video appears to be the slow edits and long shot duration, if I could do this again I would get more shots in order to have more variety of shots to chose from and make my video look more interesting.
Overall i found this feedback very effective as I now know what I did right and what I should change if i were to do it again.
Below is the finished rough cut;
We planned to film our music video project over the christmas holiday. However due to various circumstance, with recurring themes. However, we have managed finally to get some filming done, however, we have not been able to get as diverse an area or as much filming as we would like. however, we have managed to find some symbolism within our shots, making the best of a bad situation.
Our decisions were limited by time and locations, due to members of our team not having a lot of transportation outside of walking, and and a looming deadline assured that we had to take whatever footage we could grab, and worry about the quality of which later.
On day 1 of filming we went over Hanault forest. however, due to our mistakes, instead of lip synching the full song, we only got about a minutes worth of footage per time. This means that although we got some decent footage whilst we was out, we had to go and get some more. This was fine as we had to go out and get some urban shots. There we got some shots of walking from different angles, to fit with the general theme of the song.
To finish the first bout of filming, we went and got some shots of us in the band room, to imitate the look of people playing instruments. however, due to a minor mix up between shots, two of the members swapped instruments, and due a filming taking place at a later date, there was a sudden change of clothing halfway through.
Then we came to our first editing session. We were struggling to put together a coherent piece with accurate lip synching, so we had to go out and get more footage, especially of the band, since our current produce was disappointing with neither the lip synching or instrument playing being any good. However after we re-did the shots, it came out looking much better.
We needed some more shots to amplify the feel of the music, so we went out to Valence park, and did some recording there, namely on the different pieces of equipment. Some of this was removed from the final product for looking too out of place.
What is a Digipak? •Digipaks typically consist of a bookfold paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic
trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. It means
the CD comes in a cardboard flip-out case rather than a standard plastic hinged case. •Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or
special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak is
used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets.
What goes on a digipak?
Six Panels
Spine
Bar code
Track List
Disk impression
Membership postcard
Band info section
Free image
The Digipak for michael Jacksons this is it is a tribute to the concert that never came to be. It features all of his best songs and a backstage look into rehearsals.The concert looked as if it was going to be a massive success but unfortunately michael passed away before it could get underway.
Adeles digipak is very simplistic as adele is all about the music and not all about "Showing off". It appeals to a wide audience as it looks like just a music album and isnt specifically targeting a single group. Nothing stands out on the cover its just a simple photo with a track list on the back.
Above is a basic template for a digipak and it is the one ill be using when i come to create mine. We will have the disc held in the middle surrounded by photos of the band members and band props.
In this meeting we began storyboarding. Each person put forward ideas for stories, locations and shot ideas. We then mixed and matched ideas to come up with one idea for narrative. The duration of the meeting was around 40 minutes.
The band from unsigned.com have been inactive since 2009 it was very hard to contact them, all of their social network accounts have been closed and all we had to go on is an email address. I sent them the email above a number of weeks ago therefor i can safely assume that they no longer use this email or don't monitor it, as i have made every effort possible to contact them i will continue to use their music anyway.
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