Digipak

Front

Back

Side 1

Side 2

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The use of media technologies when making our video enabled us to work creatively as media producers in addition to aiding communication and collaboration with those I worked with.

There are many different technologies we used in order to be creative for this project. Having our coursework on a blog allows us to select the layout of our planning and evaluation making all blogs individual. This allows the blog owner to have full ownership of the product in addition to allowing for creative empowerment. As blogs on blogger are an ongoing multimedia platform, we can continue to update and edit them according to rapid feedback that is received, this makes blogs a practical, appropriate technology. My media blog allowed me to split my work under specific sections using the labelling tool which enabled my work to maintain an organised structure showing the breakdown of each section of this project, from research through to evaluation. Also, as blogs are accessed using the internet it permitted me to upload any required content such as stills from proficient sites due to the fact that blogger is a mass media. In addition to this, I could get feedback from my peers in addition to my teacher as they can access my blog as an audience. Editing our music video was also a way to be creative. Due to the high variety of post-production options, there was a lot of choice when it came to the techniques we wanted to use when editing. As we had the ability to edit our footage into a sequence, this provided as another creative outlet in addition to adding individuality to our music video. With the camera, we had control over the settings in terms of focus and zoom allowing creativity and further widening shot capability in terms of what we were able to produce and the addition of the instant playback setting allowed us to know straight away if the shot was okay giving us knowledge on if we need to re-shoot anything.

Use of technologies in media also enabled collaboration and communication to be a lot easier and more efficient. When we filmed, we used an SD card in order to get the footage onto the editing software. As the video was a collaborative production, this was convenient as we could separately film content and later piece it together when editing, the process of getting footage onto the computer using the SD card was relatively fast allowing us to get on with the edit with the time we allocated ourselves. The use of non-linear editing software further enabled collaboration as it let us edit our shots in any order, going back to things and further editing them non-chronologically so we could remove parts that were filmed again and improved. This let us refine our video to a higher quality. Technology also enabled us to communicate as we had to email the artist for permission to use their song “paper stars” for our music video and without technology, this could not have been done.

Technologies also allow access through the internet. Using the internet, we did all of the planning for our music video. Regarding my research, the internet held very high importance as without the use of google, it 
would not have been possible for me to find the unsigned band we used. This let us to the track we chose to make a music video for "paper stars", without the internet, it would have been very difficult to source such a variety of unheard-of bands to choose from. We additionally used YouTube to watch a large variety of videos in order to provide inspiration. I was also able to embed the video onto my media blog. This allowed my tutor to continually watch the progression of the video and provide feedback on how to improve. It was a clear way to share the video and present my work. We also used sites that show the demographic of target audiences to ensure the content we created was appropriate to the people who would listen to that genre of music. We also made visual plans online using technologies. The access to the software to do this allowed me to be creative with my planning.

music video completed

Analysis of two digipaks

Muse

The front cover of this CD takes a black background with bright blue, the contrasting colours creates an electric sense due to the vibrancy. The lady on the cover appears to be glowing with blue which provides a supernatural sense to the cover aiding the space-age theme that appears to be. This is reinforced by a moon or planet in the top left corner. This links to the style or their music aiding fluency between the album and the songs within it. The back cover has the three band members at a low angle shot making them look large and powerful in this space-age world implying they’re powerful in regards to the genre they fit into. Additionally, having them dressed in black with a bright blue background reinforces this dominance. This also conveys how they are establishing themselves as a rock band as oppose to a boy band elevating their status. This appeals to the audience due to the fact that is has the band member’s faces on it as the audience are fans. The space theme is also likely to appeal to their fan base’s aesthetic.

R.E.M

As R.E.M were one of the first alternative rock bands, their alternative style is evident in their digipak. The artwork for their album was done by Howard Finster who produced alternative abstract art and got along well with the band. The group using his artwork for their album is symbolic of how they establish themselves as an art house/ artistic band. The front cover is disjoined with random seeming scribbling’s that are done so finely they appear as scratched in aiding their alternative aspects. Doing this removes them from being mainstream maintaining their place within their niche market. The multi-coloured snake going across the entire album cover provides a grungy sense as the coloured that don’t go together provide an interesting twist. The digipak unfolds and opens out multiple times providing something for their fan base to properly open and explore generating a lot of hype around the product as people want to know what’s inside it, this is exciting to their fans. Furthermore, the handwriting is the lead singers which further links to audience appeal as it provides a more personal touch to the album.

moodboard and inspiration

Audience demographic

narratology

My music video follows a narratologically simple plot which has a linear structure. At the end of the linear sequence, the text ties off to a close making it a closed text. The narrative is convergent as there are multiple strands that all tie together when the text comes to a conclusion which are the siblings meeting at the end of the text. When they meet, the video reaches a climax which matches with the music at the time. The text has a lot of symbolic items, particularly in the scene with the boxes, all of the childhood items have symbolism as both siblings have the same items and the stars are additionally symbolic as they signify hope. The adoption papers provide the audience with the knowledge that they are siblings as the story focusses on the two coming back together. Our video uses a framing device at the start which is videos of their childhood before the main characters were separated through adoption. Through editing, the video appears aged making it a separate chapter from the rest of the video yet it does establish the tone of the video.