1. In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge the codes and conventions of real life media products?

Music video 

 

 Digipak and digipak poster 

Music video - final cut

Here is the final cut of our music video. To improve from the first cut, we have colour corrected some clips as well as adding a stabiliser to avoid slight camera shakes.

Digipak products

Since finalising the music video, I have shifted my absolute attention to the construction of my digipak. Below I have included images of the digipak products I have constructed so far. 

Front cover

Back cover

Design panel 1

CD 

Design panel 2

Inside front cover 

Digipak front cover - model change

I have taken the decision to change the model on the front of my digipak cover. Previously, I had the protagonist of the narrative of the music video. After some reflection, I think it would be much more appropriate to have the leader singer of the band on the front cover. Firstly, I have chosen to change the model because having the actor on the front would make it applicable to just the one song we have made the video for. In doing this, the album cover would not be symbolic of the entire album but rather one song. Moreover, choosing to present my lead singer means that the band is advertised well. More specifically, the lead singer. A defining convention of indie rock is the presence of iconic male front-men. And, although the band is limited in its popularity, this album will be a small step to representing the band in a particular way as portrayed throughout the digipak and music video.

Digipak photos

Music video - first cut

Here is the first cut of our music video. There are minor details that I would like to change. For example, some colour correction and stabilising will need to be done. Beyond this, I will be showing media students the first cut and asking for their opinion on it. Overall, I am incredibly pleased with what we have so far after months of planning, research and editing.

Design panel ideas

Here I have attached some screenshots of the designs I currently have. The most important aspect to consider with these designs is that they need to be engaging and creative. I feel that most of these achieve this. Currently, I am considering using both of the smoke designs that include strands of the colours used on my front and back covers. By using these I feel that the digipak will have a clear identity and a reoccurring theme throughout the product. However, I will explore different options too in order to implement an element of diversity to my digipak.

Poster - update 1

Here is the first stage of construction of my band's poster. I have included the band's name, their album as well as details of release and its formats of release. It was also important to include the the same typography and background as used in my digipak. By doing this, I have been able to create a brand identity for the band. This will create a sense of familiarity for audiences who will begin to recognise the key aspects of the band's appearance.

Note: I have not yet looking at stills from our performance that I could potentially look at using. This is possible because we filmed in 4K, meaning that the quality of the photo will be extremely high. I may look at using some of these because indie rock bands often prioritise their live performances for showing their own skills over studio recorded albums. As a result, this could adhere nicely to the genre in the sense that audiences will see the band right from the first appearance on the album promotion poster.

Music Video editing - update 5

Here I have included a screenshot of our video so far. As you will see, there is a large gap of around 25 seconds towards the end of the timeline. From our first cut, we have decided to change this section of the video. Therefore, we will be going through our footage and adding it where we want. This section will predominantly consist of narrative from the park scene of the video. The reason we have decided to include this at the end is because some of the shots work very well with the music towards the end. The mise en scene, too, offers a different appearance that finishes the video in the way we want.

Digipak finish product format

In order to make the construction of my digipak structured and well thought out, I have created a template to add each panel to when I have completed the first drafts of each of them. Below is the progress of the template. By doing this, I feel that the digipak will keep its focus in terms of design and colour. Essentially, I have done this to ensure that my digipak does in fact look a consistent product.

Digipak progress - panel 3

A key distinction between a digipak and a regular album is that digipaks contain two extra panels. Often these panels contain interesting designs that add an element of creativity and diversity to the product. Below, I have added my first 'design' panel, acting as the third panel in my digipak.

I created this design by downloading a series of brushes online. These brushes create a flowing movement that, when added together, still appear seamless as if one strand of smoke.  It was important to create a seamless image that did not appear unrealistic and so this design looks as good as I thought it would. I used blending option 'colour overlay' in addition to the smoke brush to add a change in colour throughout the smoke. This was because of the colour complexities in my front cover that I have aimed to match in order to create a consistent appearance to the product. As well, the colour are similar to the design on the back cover, ensuring a consistent image.

The remaining two design panels I will create will differ slightly from this. One, being an image of the lead singer of band and the other being some similar to this. In order to relate to relate both of the them to the rest of the digipak, I will endeavour to use the colours (organge-red) that I have used in the rest of my panels.

Digipak front cover - update 3

This post contains minor amendments of the front cover of my digipak. Here you will be able to see subtle adjustments to the actor's face in comparison to my last post. This includes the use of the patch tool and spot healing brush.

Music video - first cut (uploading constraints)

After multiple weeks of editing, we now have a first cut of our music video. This includes the most part of our filming with the exception of some minor narrative scenes that we have filmed in a different location. The reason for this lay with the fact that we encountered an encoding error whilst creating a proxy on this footage. To resolve this, we will be incorporating this footage to our first cut on another computer. 

The reason we are able to show just a screenshot of our first cut is because of encoding constraints. If we would want to encode our first cut from a lower resolution back up to the 4K we filmed in it would take over 5 hours to get it on to YouTube to embed on this page. As a result, we will be showing our progression through the use of screenshots. In addition to this, I will be interviewing people after they have watched our first cut about aspects they do and do not like. Moreover, I will be keeping up to date editing diaries on our progression throughout the remainder of the editing process. Whilst being unable to show our progression in editing through the presentation of first cuts, I think the fact that we will eventually be encoding it back to 4K makes it all the more worthwhile. The camera quality is beyond anything I expected to be using at the start of the year and I believe that it ensures our music video is to the highest standard. 

Screenshot of first cut with minimal gaps in timeline.

Digipak back cover - update 2

To progress with the back cover of my digipak, I have added some key codes and conventions of the product in the real industry. As you will see below, this ranges from institutional information to the inclusion of margins on both sides ready for printing.

Digipak back cover - update 1

Here is the first update of the construction of the back cover of my digipak. Here I have included the addition of the songs on the album as well as a design to accompany the centre of the screen. Both of these aspects are incredibly important to my back cover as they include key codes and conventions of an album's back cover.

Digipak front cover - update 2

After reviewing the stage of the construction of my front cover, I felt that there was a lack of 'indie rock' identity about the cover. With this in mind, this second update includes aspects that aim to show my band as an indie rock band.

Music video editing - update 4

Today I spent 3/4 hours integrating the majority of our performance into the narrative where applicable. This proved extremely difficult, as expected. The main issue I came across was interchanging between performance and narrative throughout the song. Whist we want the narrative of the video to take priority, the performance must be included regularly to avoid confusion when it is shown at a later part in the video. Below is a screenshot of our work so far. We will endeavour to upload rough cuts of our work to show progression. However, I don't deem this necessary at this early  stage because of gaps in the video with some footage yet to be encoded onto the software. 

Screenshot of first cut with minimal gaps in timeline.

Digipak front cover- update 1

After taking some photos after filming the other day, I have began to construct my digipak. Here are some screenshots of my front cover so far. It includes everything from the very simple plain background, to the use of shapes and eventually implicating the picture into the product.

Filming day - second part of narrative

As originally planned, we filmed in another location for the narrative aspect our music video. We found this to be very helpful insofar that it brings a variety of setting to the overall product, keeping the audience engaged, as well as allowing the opportunity to vary the length of shots and camera angles. These aspect were something we had identified as lacking in editing so far (from the narrative and performance that we have filmed.)

From our first impressions, we felt that the filming went fairly well. Whilst this filming day did not hold the majority of the video's narrative, it was useful for reasons explained above. The main issue we did encounter was the use of the steadicam. This proved difficult to use on uneven ground so we had to choose our filming location carefully. 

Proxy editing - performance

Now that we have filmed the performance, we are being as quick as we can at getting the footage we have onto our editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro. From this, we will be able to begin editing shortly with plenty of time to work through what we have. By filming early, we feel that the editing process can be as thorough and skilled as we need in order to create a high standard product.

Digipak practice - photoshop

With my digipak ideas roughly planned out, I have has a go at using Photoshop to practice the ideas have in mind. By doing this, I feel much more confident about making the front cover of my digipak look legitimate and credible. This sort of design links to my music video in the sense that it follows the idea of the main character tackling issues both psychologically and physically.