Deconstruction of a Digipak 1

 

This is an indie rock Digipack, which is the same genre as what I have chosen to do. The things that are displayed on here are very simple which is very stereotypical of the genre, it has the bottom of an instrument pictured in the front cover, which is something else which is very stereotypical of this genre as they are more about the music than they are about anything else. The colours are very dull but warm which is inviting for people and the words ‘Oasis’, which is the name of the band, is written quite small in the centre of the Digipack but it is written in white with a black background as to make it stand out and catch the eye of people interested in the music. Most Digipack’s try and attract the eye of anyone passing, however in this case they are simply just trying to attract their niche audience, which is why their cover can be seen as ‘boring’ and ‘plain’. The front cover consists of the name of the band, what it is; Acoustic and the name of the album, it also states that it is exclusive, which means more people are going to buy it as they see it as it only being out for a certain amount of time so they feel they have to get it. On the back, it conventionally has the listings of songs that are on the album, this is so the audience firstly know what they’re getting but also for when they’re listening they know which tracks are what and so on.

The lettering of the band name is one that they always use so it shows it is legitimate but also it becomes something that is recognisable with the fans and is something that the will instantly associate it with, even when they don’t first look and read it straight away. The lettering is however white with a black background which makes it stand out a lot more. The word ‘acoustic’ is in bold, even if it is smaller because it is in bold you’d expect it to stand out, but they have done it in such a way that is does not take away from the band name as it is in a yellow which is a similar colour to the background features they have. The band’s name is actually in a very small font, which is quite unconventional of Digipack covers as you expect them to be in your face so that more people see them in turn making more be sold. The font of the writing is very simplistic, this is to compliment the genre of it being indie, the fact they are all about the music rather than the image.

The image on the front cover is the bottom of a guitar leaning against a wall, and the floor before it. The colours are very warm, they use brown, yellows and creams, and this could be seen as them setting up the mood of the album itself. The fact they use a guitar as their front cover is quite unconventional as it usually has a picture of the band members or the singer themselves, however it is something that compliments the band and the genre, and again reiterates that simplicity and simpleness they have allowing the audience to be able to be into the music rather than them. The lighting in the picture is very bright as it allows the warm colours to be illuminated and highlights the guitar, this tells us that this guitar is something special to them and is something that has helped them to create this album. The fact that we are only looking at the bottom third of the guitar is also very unconventional, which in a way represents them. Their target audience are likely to like the simplicity, but for people who do not tend to listen to this genre, will not take any or much notice of it as it comes across as something that blends well into the background.

This image is something that you would expect of this band, they are not like Madonna, who try to re0brand themselves every time they put out a new album, but the guitar is something that you do expect to see, this is a prop you would associate with this band, however it was expected that their faces would be on the front cover too, which is where this particular Digipack differs.

This Digipack is definitely something that would be classed as to represent this band and the genre, this is very stereotypical but in the least negative way, it is something that younger adults aspire to be like and enjoy listening to.

Their specific target audience are young adults, from around 18 to older people up to 40, these are mainly males, especially as the indie genre is male dominated, as it considered that men are more likely to be into the instruments. It is likely that people will buy this CD as the indie genre don’t do that well in main stream charts, so a lot of indie fans do buy the music rather than pop fans tend to illegally download, this comes with the kind of message each genre sends out to the audience. The indie music is more pleasure music but also is escapism.

What is a CD digipak?

What is a Digipak?

The digipak is an alternative to the typical jewel case, typically used for CD’s. Digipak’s are typically made from a book style outer binding that includes one or more plastic trays that hold the CD or DVD. The digipak is more commonly used for singles or special edition albums. They can be covered inside and out with graphics/photos which make them more visually interesting than the traditional jewel cases which only feature the paper inserts and booklets.

 

What does a digipak conventionally include?

·         Name of band/artist

·         Name of the album itself

·         Track listing (on the back)

·         Price (on the back)

·         Bonus material (could be on front and back or just back)

·         Could include links to websites, blogs

·         Inside usually has credits which include; the name of the record company, songwriters, record producer, musicians, when and where it was recorded.

·         A picture of the band

·         Band logo, if it has one

·         Record label logo (on the back)

·         Barcode (on the back)

·         CD logo (on the back)

·         The design and colour fit the artist/genre.

·         It unfolds

·         Booklet inside

Shot Lists

What is an album poster?

An album poster is another way to advertise the album to a wider audience and gain as many buyers as possible. Album poster's conventionally have the below included in them;

• Same photo on the album cover, usually the fuller photo, or the photo with something else in addition, part of the photo, or something similar, but it usually the same so the audience members can recognize it instantly
• Release date
• Name of the artist
• Name of album
• A popular song, e.g; 'Includes (insert best selling/best know single name)
• Record label name/logo
• The artists website

Locations

For Locations, I looked numerous different places, such as my sixth form's dance studio, theatre and field. My friends barn, a field owned by a farmer not far from my school and a public woods. For the actual filming I only used two of these locations, the theatre and the public woods. I chose them both because they were such different places to use which is conventional for music videos. I wanted to use the woods so I could illuminate the colours in editing to make it more dreamy, I then wanted a big contrast and bring it back to reality but using a plain and simple room and background with no props or things going on around her so it was simply focusing on the artist, the theatre was perfect for this as it was simple, but I was able to use the lighting to enhance it and make it look better without taking anything away from the artist herself. Below are some shots of the wooded location and the theatre location.

This is the woodland location in Brandy Hole Lane, this is a public woodland in Chichester, so I did not need permission as its public. There was obviously only natural lighting available to me, which meant that there were potential problems if the weather that day was bad. The weather could also pose other problems, such as wind, rain, storms etc. I looked around at numerous places on my visit to the set before the day of filming, I looked at particular places to film, what kind of shots I could get from my storyboard and bring to life. It was very spacious and open so it allowed me to not be restricted to the kind of shots that I was going to take. There was also a lot of naturally lifted and dipped bits of land allowing me to get different heights and levels for different shots. This location became pretty perfect for what it is that I wanted to do.

 

 

 

 

This location is at my sixth form; Chichester High School for Girls, in Chichester. It was in our Theatre. I only needed verbal permission that I could use it, just because of time slotting and not clashing with lessons. There was existing lighting in the form of a full lighting board, with an array of different lighting settings for me to use. There were close amenities around, this location did not pose any problems to me. I looked around the location before hand to look at camera angles, but it was apparent I could only really take any shots from the font or side, however this was fine as I storyboarded it this way, so it worked for me.

Filming Schedule 2

Filming Schedule 2

 

 

Shooting Date: 1st Decemeber 2013

 

Time: 11.30am-4.30pm

 

Brandy Hole Lane, Chichester 

 

Cast: Abbey Lamb - Singer
          Mollie Watson - Dancer
          Molly Key - Dancer
          Madison Lyne - Dancer
          Ellie Thomas - Dancer
          Lyka Levy - Dancer
          Martha Bosco-Brown

 

Make-up: Abbey - Colourful eye shadow, heavy eyeliner, red lips
                  Rest of Cast - Range of festival looks using face paint crayons.

 

Hair: Abbey - Straight, but big with daisy head chain.
          Rest of cast - Natural hair, with bits clipped back.

 

Costume: Abbey - Red dress with wellington boots and spotty Kimono
                 Rest of Cast - Range of festival like clothing, e.g; Checkered shirts, short shorts, wellington boots, jean jackets etc.

 

Props: Camera, Tripod, Lights, Poppers, Balloons, Glitter, Bubbles, Make-up

 

Shot List:

 

•                 Running shots of cast through woodland, shot of feet, faces, from behind, tracking shots, high angles, low angles
•                 Mid shot, long shot, close up's of Abbey singing in different locations around the woodland area
•                 Mid and long shots of the 'party'

Make-up

For the make up I was heavily influenced by Florence herself and her outgoing sense of style which is very indie, and that of festival make-up, for example below;

These were the kind of looks I wanted within the music video and was something I felt would add to the story line and the music of the piece.

My make-up turned out like this for the extras on set, I used some paint crayons to do this on their faces to create the look.

For the main actor in the first location we looked at numerous different styles of make-up and experimented with an array of styles such as;

These first five are ones we tried out first, it began with a smaller section of the eye in colour, but when I saw it i felt that for her to stand out more it needed to be bigger, more vibrant and more eye-catching, so we looked at opening the space more, adding to the colours to make them darker so they would stand out more, but also adding more eyeliner to add definition as well as drawing attention to the area. This make up not only went with the indie festival theme I wanted but it also enhanced the forest colours.

For the shots in the drama studio I wanted it to be a lot darker, as this part in the song is darker on an emotional level. We tried the white eyes with the black eyeliner but I felt it didn't work, so I asked for a glittery smokey eye, with dark lips. The dark eyes worked really well, but I was unsure on the dark lips, so I asked her to change it to the red that was used within the woods sequence which would allow me to have a thing for my artist.