Digipak Analysis

Daft Punk

This is a digipak for Daft Punk album Human all after, their genre is french house music.  The first thing that i notice is the yellow theme that runs throughout the digipak. The typography that is used used is a constant theme that is used by Daft Punk, the typography is yellow which links to their genre. Bright colours can be associated with the genre of music, which then can allow people to gain the idea that the genre is related house music.  The typography is located in the middle of the front cover, this helps the digipak stand out and allows people to know the name of the group.The design of the digipak is linked with computers and technology, the fact that the title is human after all it links to the idea that technology is taking over the world but humans are still the rulers and in charge. The black background can be relate to the club environment which is dark, within the environment there tend to be bright illuminous lights which links with the bright colours used in the digipak. On the back of the digipak they have  put other name of songs that will feature on the album, they have used white typography so that the name are easily read and so they dont clash with the background. 

Jay Z and Linkin Park Digipack

MTV Ultimate Mash-ups: Jay Z, Linkin Park- Collision Course

Released:November 2004 - Sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Went to number 1 on the billboard 200.

Cover

• Rock Music doodles (Illustrated
• Graffiti (Messy Looking)
• Advertising - MTV
• Brown with a strong blue text
• Text is very loud, suggests it should be shouted
• A collaboration between Jay Z and Linkin Park

Inside

• Design follows to the inside with brown, blue and white with hints of orange
• Doodle style of drawing continues throughout
• Wallet styled design for the CD
• Design easy to fold up (Case)
• One plastic CD holder makes it more compact
• The collaboration of rock based imagery and the graffiti style communicates the genre of the artists and how they have combined

Album Covers

This is an iconic album cover for Blur, within the cover you are able to see the four artist within the band. The four artist are on the cover to show people what they look like, by doing this people then can associate their music with their faces. This album can link to the Iconography of the album cover article as it states that certain covers can inspire other people. This is a good example as this can be a reference to Queen Hot Space album.

This is an iconic cover, the name visual within the cover match the name of the single. The name of the song is called ‘5 years time’ covering the cover is a number 5 with different coloured shapes in it.  Within the lyric there is reference to sun shine; this can be seen through the background of the colour which is yellow. I believe that even though the cover is simple it is easily memorable

This album cover is a good example of how simple ideas can become effective. As you are able to see in this cover you are able to see all the members of Queen. From the image you are able to learn that from the four members the lead singer is the person at the bottom. You are able to tell this because he is doing more than the other members within the shot. The images of them are used so people are able to familiarise themselves of what all the members look like. They have named the album Queen II, the visual link in with the title which is why they have images of themselves.

Brief

Brief Overview

DJ BooSH is in need of a Digipak for his new album: One More Time. About Artist : DJ BooSH is a 25 year old modern Dance/house music DJ from Milton Keynes. He performs live at various local clubs, playing his music and mix tapes.


Artist Name

DJ BooSH

Target Audience

The CD will be played at the clubs that DJ BooSH will perform at , this is to intruge the clubbers and make them want to buy the CD. The target audience is 18-25, this is because we want to mainly aim the music at people that go clubbing. DJ BooSH will try to secure jobs at various clubs such as Ministry of sound, Ink and various clubs over the world.

Requirements

I need the following: Digipak: The main theme that I want included will be the theme of unknown, I dont want the artist identity to be revealed. For example, I want the four dancers to appear in the cover but I dont want there faces to be seen so they can be covered. Cover should include the Artists name - DJ BooSH- name of the single - One More Time. The name on the cover will be the artists logo, the logo will be blue. The design should have bright colours, perhaps strobe light effect used, this is to promote the genre of music(Dance/House).

Dance Rehearsals

This video shows the rehearsals that our group filmed in practice for our music video. As a group we needed to practice te dance routines that we are going to showcase in BooSH's music video. We firstly discussed the parts of the dances that we were going to use, the first dance moves that we learnt were from macarena. We first had discussion about the way that the dance goes, we first done the practice to the original song. This was helpful because we could then see how the dance move synchronised with the beat, with this we when changed the song to 'ONE MORE TIME' and then together we arranged how to do the dance moves to the beat. Once we had completed it and everyone was happy with it we moved on to another song which was cha cha slide.

Blog Feedback

Job Roles

Me- Location

I put myself forward to be in charge of finding and obtaining a location where we are going to shoot our music video. I knew that we needed to shoot part of our music video within a school, we came to a conclusion that we didn't want to shoot it in Welling School for the main reason we didn't want it to be predictable and it to be a location that people recognize. I decided that I would like to use Woolwich Polytechnic to shoot part of our music video, I would have to contact them and see if we can get permission from them to use their school. Another location that I will try to obtain permission to use is a drama room, within this we will use a green screen and shoot parts of the music video. Its my job to get permission from both locations so we will be able to shoot our video in these places.




Luke Shelley - Director


As a whole group we decided that Luke should be the director of the music video, we chose him because we all thought that he is a good leader when it comes to media studies. We thought that he was the most organize and has the most determination to make our music video the best it can be. Luke’s job will to make sure that all of the people within the group are doing the correct things and he can work with them to make elements better.

Aaron Vander - Cinematography

Aaron's role within the group is cinematography is to be in charge of the shots and angles we use during our music video. Aaron will have an idea of the shot that we are going to use before we start to shoot, when it comes to shooting some of his ideas might change and not work so he then will have to think of different angles that we are able to use. Aaron will be working alongside me when I comes to choosing the location because the location will be determined upon the type of shot we would be able to obtain.

Jason - Costumes 

Jason is in charge of obtaining all of the costumes that we are going to use in all of our music video, this is a big part of our music video as we are going to spoof pop videos. For the audience to know what video we are spoofing Jason will get a costume similar to the ones used in the original video so the audience know what video we are doing. Jason will not fund the costumes himself as a group we will all equally split the costs. Jason has been given another small job which is to make sure that every member of our group is up to date with blogging. He will suggestions to the group about things that we could possibly put onto out blogs, this will keep the group as a whole organized.

Production Plan

Potential Errors With Our Music Video

There are several potential errors that could affect the shooting of our music video. The first and major problem is that our first choice location, Woolwich Polytechnic, may be unwilling to allow us to film there, we also have to get permission to use the rooms that we are going to be in use, we plan on using a drama room and we will have to get permission to use it from the teacher in the room. Both of these problems can be avoided by simply getting permission before we go there and getting a time slot as to when we can use the spaces that we want, and after we have got the permission then we will be good to go on with filming. Another potential problem is that we all have to learn the dance routines that we will be performing in the music video. We can eradicate this by making sure that we are all practising the dances prior to the filming and together so that we can all try to be in time when it actually comes to shooting the video.We will have to edit out the green-screen and make sure that the lighting is correct so that during editing this doesn't cause a problem a error with the lighting could lead to us having to re-shoot the whole video as the lighting was just wrong, and we have to make sure that the green-screen is set up properly to give us the best results. If we can avoid all of these errors then we will have made the best music video that we possibly could.

Ideas and Discussion

One More Time - Animatic

Animatic - One More Time

Once we had finished the storyboard, we decided to create a animatic to get a primary idea of what the final video would look like. We took photos of the storyboard and put them in to a movie with the music behind it. When then had to match the timings of each shot, to make sure it all works together.

The feedback we received form the course leader was very positive, with a few minor criticisms. The first piece of feedback was the music did to sound high quality and it did not match the storyboard exactly. This meant that the slow part of the song One More Time was out of sync with what we decide it would go with in our video. Despite this comment she believe that the video has a lot of potential and if the video is shot well it could be very successful. We are very happy with this feedback as it allows us to move on and start to shot the music video properly.

Green Screen Testing

Green Screen Test

This is our testing of the green screen in order to ensure that our music video will work as the green screen will play a very important aspect in our music video. As you can see from the video and the crazy dancing you can tell that the green screen will be able to work perfectly and we shouldn't have any problems in using the chroma key effect in our music video. We used a new programme in order to make this test work and that is called 'Adobe After Effects CS6'. What this programme gives us is a better chroma key effect on the video making me look like I am almost on a beach scene. I am glad this has worked as it means that we can now focus on getting the other aspects of our music video up to scratch.

Location of Music Video

There are many potential location's that we can use to film our music video, taking into consideration that we need enough room to use a green screen we had to decide on a big room so that we have space to dance and not damage any of the equipment. We have decided that one of the drama rooms would be an ideal location, this is because we will have enough room to set up the equipment we are going to use e.g. lighting, green screen and camera. In addition the drama room doesn't have any natural lighting, this will be play a major part when filming. By not having any natural lighting it means that it won't affect the green screen when filming, if there is any uneven light shone onto the green screen it could make it more difficult when editing the green screen out. Before we are able to use the room we have to be granted permission from the person who resides in the room, if we are then granted permission we have to negotiate a day and time we are able to use it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Another location that we are looking to shoot our music video at is Woolwich Polytechnic school for boys. We have decided that we would like to use a different location other than Welling School; this is because we do not want to be predictable in our locations and we would like to think we have made an effort in finding locations other than our own school and as a group we decided that too many videos have been shot in this specific location. Woolwich Polytechnic would be a good location because people wouldn't be familiarized with this location. We would use this location to film the dance routine for the song by Britney Spears - "Hit Me Baby One More Time". The location is the main part of the song as it is set in a school, before we can use it we have to obtain permission from the school itself. Again if we are granted with permission we have to see when we are able to shoot, we have to find a time and day that suits us all.

Green Screen Setup

BooSH Pitch Powerpoint

Jack Mitchell AKA BooSH is a 25 year old DJ named after his love the TV ‘The Mighty BOOSH’. Originally from Milton Keynes, he begun working in local clubs making demo tapes. He moved to London at 19 where he made a name for himself on the decks and featured on various compilation albums. He then went to Ibiza where he work with various artists to produce his new album. Now back in London he decided to make a music video for his new single.





BooSH states that he has many influences who play a large part in the music that he creates, these influences include Fat Boy Slim, Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy.The club music in Ibiza is a large influence within his music he says that Ibiza is his favorite place on the earth it has the things that he likes more than anything else in the world these things are sun, clubbing and keeping things chill, Mitchell was quoted as saying once that his ideology in life was “Party all night and sleep all day” and Ibiza is one of the only places on earth that this was possible.




The influences behind our music video, were similar dance videos such as Gangnam Style and the original video for One More Time. We realized that dance songs videos very rarely have a narrative to them and they are quite random however these types of videos usually have some kind of dance routine, conventions that we will also try to stick to. Also in the brief BooSH stated that he disliked ‘cheesy pop videos’ so we are looking at the possibility of spoofing certain videos





The audience profile above is the primary target audience that we have identified but with regards our secondary target audience it would be females within the same age bracket and similar tastes in music. The main way that the song would be heard by both audiences is in clubs, because clubs are unisex and the people within the age range listed above.






On our mood board we put plenty of pictures of acts similar to ourselves or acts that have inspired us. Also the words that we put around the mood board are either song lyrics or things that we are going to try and incorporate into our videos. 






We decided that BooSH should be signed to Sony as there are several similar artists signed to them including:

•Calvin Harris
•Skrillex
•Mike Posner

Also Sony have the ability to get him a lot of media coverage.





1) The one of our ideas for the One More Time video will consist of a select spoofed iconic pop videos. We wanted to do
 this as we wanted to take the mickey out of videos such as Gangnam style in a similar way to of Eminem’s ‘Without Me’
video. The idea of playing with intertextual references and mocking the mainstream pop industry.

2)For the costumes we feel that because we are spoofing videos we should try and make it look as close to the real one as
 possible, so we will try and get outfit similar to ones worn in the original videos, for example morph suits for the around
 the world video and drag for the queen’s video I want to break free, again another iconic pop video. The location that we 
are considering is public places with flash mob feel with a lot of people dancing, we could also use the green screen to get
 to locations that are not realistic to get to. 

3)Because there are not many conventions for dance videos we can go crazy with the ideas that we have and can make
 the video as random as we like, because we don’t have the constraints of a normal music genre with usual codes and 
conventions demonstrated by Goodwin

4)In the video we are trying to imitate iconic dances from the YMCA to Party Rock Anthem. The reason that we feel that 
spoofing videos is such a good idea is that in our artist brief he said that he disliked cheesy pop videos, and from there 
with the lack of codes and conventions that we had that we were going to spoofvideos.Drag is intertextual reference to 
Queens ‘I want to break free’.

Blog Feedback

Below are comments made on how I am able to improve my blog, I will take these into consideration and change the aspect required. I believe that the feedback that I was given is fair and that I need to invest more time into improving my blog.

• Add comments on what I have learnt about a theory and how they can have an impact in my product or how the theory can be applied our artist/ video idea.
• Keep up to date with journal posts
• Add labelsIn relation to the record company say what record label our artist will use
• Comment on reason for doing particular research and how it will support my product work
• Brief image isn’t showing 
• Use a variety of tool
• For video analysis add screenshots 

BooSH Pitch feedback sheets

BooSH Pitch

Centipede Video Analysis

This video by Knife Party follows Goodwins theory, one of the rules is that visuals should match up with the lyrics, the video does this well. When the word 'Centipede' is mentioned in the music video there seem to be centipedes in view, the name of the song also ties in with the lyric which proved people with an idea of what the song is about. In addition the theory also states that music videos are told in a way of a story, this specific music video has links to film noir and the title links to a film within the 1930's.The story of the music video is about pest control going to eliminate bugs, the video shows him arriving and going in home to get rid of them.This video by knife party goes against its genre of music (electro House) as they don't tend to have stories attached to them. When it comes to DJ BooSH producing his music video I believe that we can take the idea of having a narrative and do this within our music video as an audience could be intrigued about what is happening and the final outcome.

Journal

Today in our groups we had to produce our audience profiling, within this we had to decide on many things. The main thing that we had to decide on was the target audience, deciding this was a time consuming process as in the group we had many opinions. The main problem was deciding on the age that our target audience should start at, in the end we decided to choose 16. Once we decided to start our target audience at 16 we then had the choice to choose an age in which the target audience will end,     after a discussion we came to a conclusion that we should end the target audience at 25. By doing this it doesn't  mean that people older than 25 cant listen to our music but we will aim the music and style from people aged 16-25. We decided to end the target audience at 25 because we wanted to reach people that go clubbing and we thought that 25 is round about the age they stop. We believed this could stop because people age 25 might start to have family commitments and therefore no longer go clubbing. We then had to decide on a number of items and also text that relates to our target audience so we done this using photoshop.

Digipak

Audience Profiling

Criticisms On Our Audience Profile 

• One of the main criticism that we received in relation to our audience profiling was the age that we started the target audience. We wanted to aim the video at clubbers and people age 16 doesn't fall under this so we had to change it from 16 to 18. We needed to change the age because within our profiling we have alcohol which only people the age of 18 can purchase. So we are going to change our age demographic to 18-25 to reach out more to clubbers. 

• Another part of the audience profiling that we need to alter is the gender that we have chosen. In the first draft of the audience profiling it is just aimed at males, when we received feedback people said that people of both genders go clubbing and could listen to BooSH music.
• (Talk about psychographics being aimed at a more clubber audience)

Bounce Video Analysis

I have chosen to look at this video because it sits in the same genre of music as what BooSH produces. The video doesn't have a set narrative which is a major feature in dance music. This is feature that we have decided to use in our own video, we will use this as it is a feature that occurs a lot the genre. In the video that are many dance moves that are used, this song doesn't have a set dance routine which tend to be the case in dance music. So we have decided to use existing dance routines and use them in our own music video. There are bright colours used through out which connotes the club atmosphere. We are able to see the character enter a club which symbolises the type of music, we would be unable to do this but it is a good feature to represent the genre. Finally the artist appears in the video briefly, he isn't a major part of the video. We have decided not to feature the artist BooSH.

Journal

Moodboard

Journal

In today’s lesson as a group we discussed potential elements that we could use within our music video. The first thing that we had to do is choose the brief that we thought would suit our ideas for the music videos best. As a group we had to narrow down from 7 briefs to just 1, we already had ideas in mind for the video. In the end we narrowed it down to the magna brief, this is because the genre of music which is dance will work well with the ideas that we have. So once we chose the magna brief we had to produce a name that would portray the genre of music that they are associated with. We brainstormed various ideas that we could use for names, in the end we came to a conclusion to us BooSH as our name this is because we believed that it can appeal to a wide audience.

Logo Choice

Below are a few logo's that as a group we have come up with, all of which could be used as a potential logo for DJ BooSH. All of these logo are the same colour as we all decided this is the colour that we want to use. We came to this conclusion as the blue can symbolize the genre of music that DJ BooSH is. All four of the logo's are similar but they all have their unique features which will then help use decided what one to use as the official DJ BooSH logo.

This image has been created with the genre of music in mind, we have created this image with an electronic theme in mind. The electronic theme can be used to help people establish the genre of music which DJ BooSH falls into. Above the two 'O' is a space invader logo we have inserted this to provide the idea of the 1980's when the game was invented, bu the main reason for inserting the space invaders is because the 1980's was when dance music started to emerge.  

This logo that we have created is an inter textual reference to superhero comic books, within them they feature sound effects such as 'Pow,Bang, Crash and Bap' We believed that BooSH is a word that is similar to these sound effects so we thought that violence tends to be linked to these words. The fact that violence can be linked to these word we thought that a fist would be an ideal image to insert into this logo.

This logo we decided to approach in a simple way, the typography that we have used is basic which gives it a simple feel. We have used a glow on the typography, this is to make the logo standout and appeal to any audience.

This is the final logo that we produced, this again is a simple design which doesn't portray DJ BooSH. We have inserted a lighting bolt behind the text but this contradicts BooSH as a lighting bolt doesn't make this sound. A element that works well is the bright colour of the lightning bolt, this can suggest the genre of , music which BooSH fits into.

Crisis in the Music Industry

In today’s lesson as a class we read through a article about the current situation of the music industry. Whilst we were reading through we highlighted important things about the current situation. From this we can see any changes that may need to occur or things that need to be stopped. For example downloading free music is one of the major factors that affect the music industry as they produce no income from illegal downloads. These are the important parts that I highlighted:

· The music industry is changing rapidly

· Consequences are the development digital media formats which can be reproduced and distributed by anyone effectively cost free.

· The losers are the musicians and corporations

· De-commodification of music - No longer worth anything

· In the 19th century music could be bought and sold for profit.

· Commodity of the music becomes effectively free

· Try to sell musical commodities at a relative profit.

The Iconography Of The Album Cover

Due to the advance in technology it has meant that music software such as ITunes has contributed to album artwork being a thing of the past. From this line the article is making it clear that more people are downloading their music rather than going to the shop and buying the CD. It shows that album art work physical presence is fading and that they are becoming digital. This means that when it comes to making a cover for DJ BooSH I will have to come up with new and interesting ways to intrigue people to purchase it.

Part packaging and part advertisement, the album cover provides an insight into the artists worldviews, leading to the success of collaboration between the creative minds, the best album cover art illustrates and accompanies the music in a way that creates a whole package. Certain album artwork has become a recognisable object in their own right and has lead to inspire other work shown in the media. From this paragraph I have an understanding that when it comes to making my album cover I have to use visuals that will help the audience gaining an understanding of the type of person the artist is and the genre of music that they fall into. When it comes to making my album cover I will use visuals that show the audience the genre of music does, it could mean that I could u bright colours or even gain inspiration from artists in the same genre of music.

Julian house a album cover designer said in Relation to the music industry work we do a pitch but only if we feel that the client has come to us because they like what we do, rather than being part of a bigger competitive pitch process. If I was to choose a company to produce the album cover for BooSH I would choose them based on me liking the work they have previously done rather than the reputation or money they have. If I was to look at the work that Julian House Company has made and I liked it I would consider using them because they would be an ideal match.

How much input does the designer have?

There may be a brief from the record company that covers the basics, like whether the artist need to be on the cover, who the demographic, ect. But we take most of our directions are from the artists. More often than not this involves sitting down and talking with them about the ideas behind the album, anything they’ve seen that they like. Then well go off and do several sets of visuals and present them, then hone it down from there.  This shows that album cover designer are mostly under instructions from the artists, it shows that the artists inform them what visuals they want to see on the cover. The designers will make a few drafts and the artist can choose which one they prefer. If I was to do this for BooSH there would be few important things that I could insert, I would use bright colours to symbolise the genre of music that DJ BooSH falls into. I would also insert 4 people who’s identity is unknown, this is because we believe that DJ BooSH shouldn’t be shown in the video therefore we not going to show his identity on the cover. I would give the designer some freedom into what they think should be included on the cover, this would be shown in some of the drafts that they would make.

Who made it , why, how, for whom and for what purpose?

It’s important to think about not just who made the media text and why, but who the audiences is and how they respond to it. Before making my album cover I have to consider the target audience and the people that are going to purchase and listen to DJ BooSH, with this taken into consideration I then can aim the cover at my chosen target audience. As DJ BooSH fits into club music genre it will mean that the visuals that I use will be linked to clubbers, this is so the target audience can empathise and relate to the music that DJ BooSH produces. Target audience is a major part, if it isn’t chosen correctly it could mean that the correct people wont listen to the music and the song wont be successful.

Associations and connotations

It is important to consider the difference between denotations and connotation. Denotation is simply identifying the elements within a image and connotation which means identifying the meanings that the images can portray. When it comes to making my cover I will try and use both denotations and connotation to provide the audience with ideas of what certain images can show and mean.

Adorno and Horkheimer Theory

Leona Lewis

An artist that fits into Adorno and Horkheimer theory is Leona Lewis. Leona came to fame on the TV Show X Factor and since she won the show in 2006 she has had three number one songs. Leona Lewis fits into the theory because she can be typed as a typical TV Show winner. Leona Lewis can fit into this type because most X Factor winners obtain the Christmas Number one. When She first auditioned she was an ordinary women who dressed how she want, this can be seen from her first audition she was dressed well but she didn’t have much makeup on. If you look at her now it looks like her image has been branded by other people who want her to look like a superstar. Now she wears make, has her hair straight and wear expensive brand clothes.  The theory states that shows like X Factor produce stars that are all similar and that many of them aren’t unique.

Lady Gaga

I believe that an artist that doesn’t fit into the theory is Lady Gaga. I believe that she doesn’t fit into the typical women singer; I think this because she has her own style and doesn’t follow other people. Lady Gaga is known for her unique dress sense, one of her most famous dresses is the one made out of meat. Even though she is a well know artist she differs from the typical women artist such as Leona Lewis and Alicia Keys. This is because she doesn’t fit into the typical category she took inspiration from David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Queen. With this she mix them together to make her own image which separates herself from the others.

Westlife

I believe that Westlife are a typical boy band within the music industry, I believe this because of their style and the type of music they sing about. Their song Uptown girl , relates to a girl who lives in a posh family it is a typical song as they talk about love and girls. Another example of a band that does this is JLS who also can be seen as typical. Band like Westlife within the music industry tend to be similar, they start to produce products that can make a bigger name for themselves, and this is because the industry wants to make as much money as they can through the band. The Adorno and Horkheimer theory states that the artist go through the same process, this could be that they make their first single they want to make a name for themselves. Even though this is the case Westlife have become one of the most successful boy bands, the audience have became adjusted with how typical a band is that they don’t have high expectations.