After researching the range of artists and genres, we looked at one DigiPak in particular to use as inspiration when it came to creating our own DigiPak and how it is they come to reflect the artist's music and personality. This was the Justin Timberlake 20/20 Experience DigiPak which was a bestseller in many stores worldwide.
As you can see immediately the idea of the phoropter covering Justin Timberlake's eyes reflects the title of the album which is The 20/20 experience. The use of gold, black and white as the colour scheme makes the album stand out and also the gold represents the concept of luxury and wealth, which in relation to the cover shows the deluxe aspect of the cover. The signified wealth is also justified by Justin Timberlake's attire on the cover; quite suave and sophisticated which related to the black and white colour scheme.
The back cover is consistent to keep the classy look to the DigiPak with the colour scheme and also reinforces the idea of the phoropter again to relate and emphasise the title of the album. The use of the gold writing could suggest the quality of the artist's tracks.
The inside of the cover and the actual CD reflect the age demographic of his audiences and how he maintains this for wide age range. The inside cover shows a personal aspect; by having pictures of himself, it can attract a younger audience as it reminds of them of their role model or favourite singer. Whereas with the CD, it's a modern version of an old vinyl which also reflects the themes and stylings of his music, for example; Suit & Tie by Justin Timberlake uses a big orchestra and jazz trumpets which links to the old and vintage look of the vinyl CD. In addition, this song with it's jazz element links to the attire worn on his front cover.
From learning how DigiPak's reflect the personality of the artist as well as their music style and other personal aspects, this was the first draft of our DigiPak created for Esther and her single "If Fairytales Exist..."
As we didn't have enough pictures of just Esther we used our test shots to fill in the blank spaces until we can use some still from the music video. The black and white effect throughout the DigiPak relates to the final music product, as the artist's scenes will be in black and white and expressing the emotions through the simplicity of the colours.
Every Tuesday we meet up to work through the backing track, starting off with the instrumental then the vocals. In order to record and produce the song we are using a programme called Cubase on the MacBook Pro, which is new for me as I have never used this software so I am able to learn how it works and how to create a song.
We filmed our recording session, in order to add sections of it to the music video and also for our 'Behind the Scenes' video. We thought integrating short video clips from our recording sessions into our music video would be effective as it would show the process of how the song was created and emphasise the emotion and hard work put into the song. This would also help as Esther is a new upcoming artist and having this in her video gives her audience an insight into how she works and what she goes through when recording a song. The inspiration for this came while researching new artists on YouTube with a similar genre to Esther's music and how they put together their music videos. An example of this would be videos by new artist Hobbie Stuart, who is also a personal favourite of mine. Quite a few of his music videos consist of a storyline within the video as well as him in his studio recording his song, which allows you to contrast the role of the artist from different perspectives; as an actor in the storyline and the artist sharing his emotions through singing his song. Here is a short clip of our recording sessions: https://www.wevideo.com/view/310710966
While the other members of our group were following through with their tasks as editing and cinematography, I started to work on our Ancillary Tasks, starting with the DigiPak.
From our research we found that due to the popularity of the acoustic guitar in the industry, and how we are accustomed to the sound in society; one of our main images on the DigiPak should be of Esther with an acoustic guitar playing the song, either from a clip in the video or an image from behind the screens footage. Here is an example of some images we edited in different ways to see which image is more suitable. To help decide I asked people via social networking to see which image they thought would represent the artist's single.
Before our first recording session, I decided to research how to record and compose a song as this was my first time working and composing music. The video is by Tedd Josiah who is a music producer that works with recording artists mentoring them and showing them the basics to compose and record a song.
This video allowed me to also understand the technology used and what difference it makes when composing and editing the final media product. Later on that day, we started recording the instrumental for Esther's original song, starting off with the acoustic guitar first and then adding other instruments alongside music effects such as; * Bass Guitar * Acoustic Piano * Acoustic Guitar * Soft African Drum
Here is a clip from our first recording session, that is also a feature in our 'Behind the Scenes' video.
Today we decided to get some test shots of how we want Esther's role in the music video to look and which camera angles are suitable to represent the emotion linked to the song. When looking back at test shots/videos we took, we came across a couple mistakes.
Through our test shots we were able to see what mistakes we made and also how we wanted the camera angles to be and how they should be edited.
As we haven't got the lyrics just yet due to Esther still adding last minute touches to her new and original song, we decided to design a storyboard plan and shot plan that we could potentially use for Esther's part in the music video. The storyboard plan and shot plan consists of the type of transitions and effects we can use when editing our final media product as well as the storyboard for the storyline of the lyrics.
As a group we decided to produce a music
video as it was something we all had an interest in and found that it would be
suitable to all our skills sets. Having the ability to produce a music video
would allow us to use our knowledge about this generations music and come
together to produce a media product which will be popular towards our target
audience. We decided to use
the
BTEC music students from our year group as
part of our cast and performers in our media product.
Our main singer Esther Putzgruberwe
felt would be perfect as she is a singer and songwriter and her
music fits the genre we would
like to incorporate into our video. Also Esther has her own YouTube
channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/EstNP/videos) so she
is comfortable singing on screen and she already has what our target audience is looking at. In addition with her original songs we will have no
copyright issues regarding music.
(https://www.youtube.com/user/EstNP/videos)
The genre we are looking at is slow romantic songs which matches Esther's songwriting skills and tone of voice.
Research/Inspiration
We researched quite a few popular artists and songs that were currently in charts from our chosen genre and those that had previously been in charts:
* Rhianna - Stay
* Beyonce - Best Thing I Never Had
* Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
* Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One
* Drake - Just Hold On We're Going Home
* Adele - Set Fire To The Rain/Someone Like You
* Justin Timberlake - Mirrors
* The Script - Six Degrees Of Separation
* Passenger - Let Her Go
* John Legend - All Of Me
* Tori Kelly & Professor Green - Lullaby
* Take That - Patience
* Chris Brown - Superhuman
* Tracey Chapman - Fast Car
* Blue - One Love/All Rise
* Usher - Confessions
* Ne-yo - So Sick
When it came to narrowing them down, we chose 3 videos in particular that stood out to us:
* The Script - Six Degrees Of Separation
* Ne-yo - So Sick
* Destiny's Child - Emotions
The reason for choosing these videos was because of how they were produced and the effects the editing of the media product had on the final piece. Our main inspiration was The Script - Six Degrees Of Separation.
We chose this video in particular for its editing style. The use of the panels that showed the singer aswell as the story behind the song made the video more effective in addition to the black and white effect in contrast to the story which was in colour. We decided to invoke the same idea into our own media product to prove it more effective and draw in a wider audience, just as "The Script", "Destiny's Child" & "Ne'yo" did.
Locations:
In order for us to create the right ambiance and atmosphere for our music video we decided the most suitable locations for us would all be in our school building;
* Drama Studio
* Balcony (drama)
* School field
We're also using the school recording studio to record the backing track and vocals for Esther's original song. All these locations are easily accessible for our entire team and provide equipment needed for us while in production. Also, as we have other commitments with out of school activities and consortium lessons during school time, these locations allow us to work around our timetables in school time. On the right is a test shot of our one of our locations (school drama studio) and an example of what the ambiance and atmosphere can look like in our media product. Consumer Research: As part of our consumer research we used our social network sites to see what our audience thought of Esther's music genre and what songs they thought would listen to in the same genre as Esther's choice. We also matched these answers to songs played in the Official Singles Chart UK - Top 40; at least 35% of the songs from our slow song genre and most listened were in the charts.
The inside of the cover and the actual CD reflect the age demographic of his audiences and how he maintains this for wide age range. The inside cover shows a personal aspect; by having pictures of himself, it can attract a younger audience as it reminds of them of their role model or favourite singer. Whereas with the CD, it's a modern version of an old vinyl which also reflects the themes and stylings of his music, for example; Suit & Tie by Justin Timberlake uses a big orchestra and jazz trumpets which links to the old and vintage look of the vinyl CD. In addition, this song with it's jazz element links to the attire worn on his front cover.
