Individual digipak - Miss Miller

Individual digipak - Miss Miller

There are many uses for a digipak in terms of the promotional and artistic benefits for a musician and their subsequent record label. The use of a digipak not only results in added features which will appeal to fans of the artists as it includes aspects such as lyrics for the songs and also a personal message from the artist which adds to the personalisation and resultantly the relationship between artist and audience the digipak also results in an increased revenue as it means there is an added source of income in addition to the album and the song itself. Below are the 6 slides that make up my digipak I will discuss the slides in detail and analyse them to discuss the features and how they are conventional to my genre.

Individual Magazine - Miss Miller

Individual Magazine - Miss Miller

The use of magazine adverts are incredibly important to artists and their correspond record labels for many different reasons; firstly the use of a magazine advert means the artist's album is publicized more as magazines have thousands of readers and thus a successful advert could appeal and attract a reader which in turn could result in increased sales of the album and a wider following. The use of a magazine advert can also result in creating a new image of an artist, as the use of a variation of lighting, editing, font and colour scheme can portray the artist in a different light, which can result in targeting a variation of readers, not just constricting it to their initial fan-base as readers of magazines vary greatly in terms of age, music preference and general interests which means using a magazine advert that would be deemed conventional and mainstream is effective as it attracts the largest conglomerate of readers which will result in heightened sales. Within my magazine advert there are several features that appeal to the audience, firstly in terms of positioning of the poster, the main character and protagonist of the song "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" is in the center of the poster, this is as he is the main focus in the music video and is thus should be the main viewing point of the poster. The font of the poster was entitled "Keep On Trucking" and derives from a psychedelic website that has many different psychedelic fonts, the use of this means that despite the abundance of conventional or mainstream features the poster still has psychedelic rock roots, which will appeal to the primary fan-base and may also appeal to other fans of the genre whom are not aware of the song or album. The use of several filters such as Artistic and Texturise, combined with a vibrant colour scheme also appeals to the fans of psychedelic rock genre as the music videos within this genre are famous for their trippy styles which us a variation of special effects and colours. Below is the magazine advert I have created for the promotion of my album and the song "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards." In terms of the positioning of the text the title "White Rhinos" and "Escapsim" is in the middle of the poster below the main image, it is large and catches the eye of the viewer due to the colour not matching the scheme of the background. In terms of the effects used I used Diffuse Glow, and Plastic Wrap, as it gave the buildings a strange glowing look that was unusual and relevant to the drug link within our music genre, I also used blend and burn tools to make the text stand out more.

Research into chosen music genre - Miss Georgiou

Research into chosen music genre - Miss Georgiou 

The genre of which we have chosen to use within our music video is psychedelic rock, there are many reasons as to why we have decided to use this genre of music to create a video for. Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired by psychedelic culture, pioneered by artists such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and the experience of taking mind altering drugs, the music also takes roots from Indian music and implements the usage of instruments such as sitars and ragas, there are many different features within this music genres of which we will implement within our own music video. I will be investigating 2 different music videos of the psychedelic rock in order to discover features and conventions to implement within our own music videos and to draw inspirations and ideas that will further aid the end product of our music video.

The first music video of which I will be analysing is The Black Angels - Entrance Song, there are several features within this music video that I will take inspiration from as they are conventions within the Psychedelic Rock music genre. One feature within the music video is the use editing within the video, the abstract and over exaggerated colouring effects within the video. The abstract and strange colouring within the video reflects the nature of the music genre as the music itself is abstract and out of the ordinary. I will consider using a variety of lightings within my own music video through the editing software iMovie as it makes sense to reflect the music genres ethos.

The second music video I will be analysing for inspiration and information in the Pyschedelic Rock genre is Animal Collective - Monkey Riches. There are several features within this music video, such as the use of editing, specifically the use of stop motion and fast editing within the music video. These aspects are effective as they link with the high tempo of the song this intertwining with Goodwin's theory of music and visuals having a link. The stop motion is effective as it is enjoyable for the audience if it is done well through editing, the stop motion is portrayed as magic within the video and makes the video more believable. The fast editing reflects the high tempo of the music and creates a more exciting impact as it is fast paced. 

Initial group planning ideals - Miss Georgiou

Initial group planning ideals - Miss Georgiou 

My group consists of 4 members including myself, Luke Durrance, Harry Hyett and Bryce Yarwood.

Within our first meeting we discussed what songs we were thinking of using for our music video, we quickly decided upon using the song Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by Tame Impala and promptly printed the lyrics and annotated them, to see what the themes and elements were within the song to see whether it would be suitable for our music video. In the meeting we discussed why we were going to use this song, going through the positives of the song and the features we wanted to implement within our music videos such as the time lapse and backwards editing, we also discussed the location of where we would shoot our music video and decided upon Central London as our location, we also decided upon our actors, with me volunteering to be the main actor within the music video and characters and also began to build up ideas on the narrative of the song.

In our next meeting we began to discuss the elements that would be implemented within our music video in terms of the cinematography and editing. We discussed and agreed on many different elements, in terms of editing we decided upon using many elements such as reverse of time, a time lapse, slow motion and fast editing all for an effect and as it corresponded with the context of our song and its lyrics. In terms of cinematography there were many different elements that were suggested as we agreed that we needed a variety of shots to make our video successful, camera shots such as arc shots, extreme close ups, tracking and panning shots and handheld shots along with the standard style shots were suggested and we agreed we would use them all to further our music video.

We quickly converged to create concrete ideas and all members were adequate in terms of contributing towards ideas and bringing suggestions to the table. We were able to use the information we gained through the meetings to contribute towards our storyboard, filming schedule and risk assessment. Below are the initial plans we made within our group in terms of the many sub sections that make a successful music video.

Date	Action	To be done by	By whom	Discussions
15.09.14	To decide on an artist and a song.	15.09.14	All group members.	Various ideas were discussed and the group created a mind map. Eventually we decided on creating a music video. For the song “Feels like we only go backwards” by Tame Impala.
22.09.14	Applying for copyright.	22.09.14	All group members.	Group members discussed the purpose of Copyright and how we would gain permission to use our song.
30.09.14	Lyric analysis.	30.09.14	All group members.	After printing out the lyrics for the song we analysed the lyrics for hidden meanings and themes.
13.10.14	Planning mise-en-scene.	13.10.14	All group members.	Members discussed the elements of mise-en-scene to be implemented within our music video.
15.10.14	Planning cinematography.	15.10.14.	All group members.	Many ideas were discussed in terms of the camera angles and shots to be implemented in our music video.
18.10.14	Planning artist image.	18.10.14.	Jazz Chrystie and Luke Durrance.	The two members discussed the image of the actors and actresses within the music video.
19.10.14	Planning editing styles.	20.10.14	All group members	As a group we decided the editing features and special effects to be implemented within our music video.

22.10.14	Group storyboard.	25.10.14	All group members	All members of the group discussed and finalised the storyboard to be used as a guideline for our filming process, and to maintain we know what features in terms of editing and cinematography will be featured in our song.
25.10.14	Filming schedule	26.10.14	All groups members.	Within this meeting we discussed the film schedule, which would allow us to be organised in terms of our filming schedule as we have a detailed plan as to what would occur within each shooting sequence in terms of location, date and time.
26.10.14	Risk Assessment	26.10.14	All group members.	As a group we discussed the many different risks that could occur within our filming process, after finding these risks we found ways in which we could prevent these risks or at least decrease the chances of them occurring.

Photo Shoot - Miss Miller

Photo Shoot - Miss Miller

Within this blog I will discuss the many different photos we took that reflect the music video and subsequently may feature within magazine adverts that advertise our album and our song "Feels Like We Only Go Backward," and within our digipaks that act as an exclusive bonus to more dedicated fans who make the purchase. I will also discuss the reasoning and background of each picture in detail making reference to its relevance to the song.

This is an image of the main protagonist within our narrative and the performer within the performance aspect of the music video.  This character is the key figure within the entire music video and thus this can be seen reflected through the character positioning as he is in the center of the image and the lack of any other characters meaning that he is the only attraction and thus must be the main point of focus from the audience.

This image features the protagonist within the music video however the majority of the shot is taken up by the lights within the fountains, the reason for this being that this is a still from a particular shot within our music video that holds importance. The use of stop motion within our music video occurs here and thus we deem this an important part of music video as the editing is key to our video being succesful and original. The lighting of the image is also aesthetically pleasing to the audience which can add to the appeal of the image. 

Within this image contains the protagonist of the narrative within the music video, and also the main performer of the song whom lip syncs the lyrics within the video. The protagonist is the key figure within the image and is positioned in the very center of the image, making him the main focus of the audiences attention as he stands out from the crowd. This image is a still taken from the time lapse within our music video, an integral element of the video that we are certain will be popular as it was a complex process to film and edit and thus we take a still to create a teaser in a sense for the audience.

This image is a still taken from a particular establishing shot in our music video. The intention of this shot within our music video is to set the scene in terms of the narrative as our music video features many different settings and thus in order to eradicate the prospects of ambiguity as the many different locations could be a little confusing to those without explanation. The picture is also very aesthetically pleasing due to the picturesque and nice area it is shot in, the photography is also very good and gets the buildings, sky and fountain in, the audience may find this picture appealing to look at.

Applying for copyright - Miss Georgiou

Applying for copyright - Miss Georgia

1) Introduction - explain what copyright is and why its used in the music industry.

A copyright is a legal right that grants a artist or creator of an original piece of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, published editions of works, sound recordings, videos, DVD's and broadcasts exclusive rights to use and distribute. The idea behind this is for the artist to gain compensation for their intellectual effort and creativity, it also protects their original work from being copied or illegitimately used for other organisation's profit. 


2) Applying for copyright - explain why you had to apply for copyright, discuss in detail what you 
did, identify the record label.

In order to use the intended song (Tame Impala- Feels Like We Only Go Backwards) for our music video we had to get clearance from the music groups record label to show that they would allow us to use their song. The groups record label was Modular Records, an Australian based record label, they are now partnered with Universal Music, thus we had to make contact with both Modular Records and Universal Records, we emailed them asking to use their music video for a non profit project.
Below is a screenshot of the email our group sent to the record label of the artists of which we want to use their music videos.

We received an email from Lisa Ward, a representative of Modular Records whom have Tame Impala under contract. She gave us permission to use their song within our music video and also gave us feedback and certain guidelines in terms of copyright.

Risk Assesment - Miss Georgiou

Risk Assessment - Miss Georgiou 

Conducting and creating a well thought out risk assessment is an incredibly important process of filming not only creating our music video, but the entire entertainment industry, in the proffesional world creating a risk assessment is a legal requirement when creating a project as the organisation is responsible for the safety of a group of people and thus the eradication of risks is a serious issue that must be discussed and highlighted.  There are many reasons as to why a Risk Assessment is integral to the success of our music video. Firstly the risk assessment provides our group with guidelines that have our health and well-being at its main intentions, every possible danger was discussed in a sensible manner in order to eradicate the prospect of a group member getting injured. There were many different risks that could possibly occur within our filming process, such as tripping hazards, filming close to train tracks, lifting hazards, and water risks, in a group we discussed each danger and how we would get rid of the risk, and within our actual filming process we had our risk assessment on us to ensure we felt comfortable to film as an injury would not only physically harm one of our members but would also effect the morale of the group and also would waste time that could be used for actually filming our music video. Although the risk assessment itself does not completely eradicate the possibility of an accident occurring that could harm somebody we felt a lot more relaxed and in the know during our filming process after we had completed the risk assessment. The group made sure we had a first aid kit on its inventory which had items such as plasters and bandages that could be used at any time possible to stop a member of the group bleeding, in terms of filming by the train tracks, which is incredibly dangerous, we were very cautious, and the actor (Jazz Chrystie) who was in the shot and closest to the track was looked after by the other group members to ensure no accidents that could potentially have been fatal would occur. 

Overall I believe our risk assessment is a successful and efficient guideline to ensuring the safety of all the group members and those involved within the filming process. The risk assessment is detailed and provides one with many different alternatives to prevent injury, such as the many different precautions the group should take to ensure nobody trips over equipment and other hazards on the floor. The guidelines made the filming process a lot safer and easier and meant that we could film without having to stop when changing each scene and have to discuss if there were any potential dangers as each scene we shot at had been scouted for risks. Below are screenshots of the risk assessment we used to prevent any injuries towards the group members occurring. 

Filming Schedule - Miss Georgiou

Filming Schedule - Miss Georgiou

Creating an efficient filming schedule was an incredibly important job that required all group members to converge in order to finish the agenda; there are many reasons as to why it is so significant to the quality of the music video we are creating. Firstly with the use of the storyboard we created previously we had an outline to determine what resources would be needed within each day of filming, for example on the first day of filming the two main characters within the music video (Jazz Chrystie and Robyn Tansley) both needed 3 different changes of clothes, and for the female actress a change of make-up. Two changes of clothing were needed for flashback scenes and one for shooting in the present time, whereas the second and third days of filming we only required one change of clothing, and only the male actor needed to be present as we had filmed the parts the female actress was needed on the first day. The effectiveness of this is that we don’t waste time the time and effort of group members and ensure that only the necessary equipment, actors, iconography and other elements of filming are present at their needed times. The filming schedule also removes the prospect of ambiguity, as there are clear subsections for each aspect of the filming of the music video within the schedule meaning each group member will know clearly what day we were filming, where to meet and at what time, as all the information is there. Filming schedules are also beneficial to the group as it means no time is wasted and can also aid the filming process in terms of creativity, although both the contents of the storyboard and the filming schedule will be manipulated when it comes to actually filming due to new ideas arising or certain circumstances, the shooting schedule provides an outline for the content within each shot, and how long we should be spending on each shot, this means that we can spend as little time on each shot as possible as time is incredibly valuable and can be put to better use such as planning the editing and other pieces of cinematography. If a filming schedule is done carelessly and without any effort then there can be chaos, especially within our group as we were incredibly ambitious with the diversity of camera shots and editing styles within our music video we needed to be well organised. A bad filming plan would result in filming over schedule which could not be done at all costs within our group as we relied on the weather staying the same within all our shots filmed over three different days and could also result in members not bringing the right pieces of equipment as within certain shots we used more than just the tri-pod and camera as we had our own handheld tri-pod for a reverse handleld shot, this was vital for our filming and without the filming schedule the group member in charge may have forget it. Below is our filming schedule we used to efficiently film our music video wasting no time or effort.  

Planning Digipak - Miss Miller

Planning Digipak - Miss Miller

Digipaks are an effective method for artists and record labels to gain extra income and promotion through distributing and selling exclusive special edition versions of an artist's album. Digipaks contain more features than a regular CD album, such as a lyric book and a personal message from the artist to the fans. The Digipak targets the audience more and engages them, creating a stronger bond between the artist and fan, this thus will result in better reviews and thus more sales and better publicity.

Through the research of digipaks that are relevant to my genre of music, I have conducted my own plan and have a vision as to how my digipak will be layed out so it is the most effective and thus can ensure my album is succesful. I will discuss the different aspects within my digipak below:

• Colour - My digipak will feature a variation of bright colours, there are many reasons as to why I chose this colour scheme, firstly in regards to Pyschedelic Rock, many digipaks I found were incredibly bright and varied and thus I will stick to this convention. Bright colours are also attractive to people that like all different genres of music and thus the colours can appeal to not only those who enjoy the Psychedelic Rock genre but a majority of people.
• Font/Text - My font and text will be large and bold, and will also be very conventional to the Psychedelic Rock genre, with a retro style font being used as the entirety of Psychedelic Rock was influenced by the 60's, 70's and 80's by artists such as the Beatles and the Pink Floyd. The boldness within the text will make the name of the band a focal point and the title of the song will grab the attention of the viewer. 
• Features - My digipak will include many different features to appeal to the fans and create a relationship between audience and fan. Firstly the digipak will feature a personal message to the fans that thanks them for the support and hopes they enjoy the music, the use of personalized synthesis means the reader believes they are personally being targeted. The digipak will also include lyrics for the song "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards," so that fans can learn the lyrics and can enjoy the song more. 
• Connotations - Within the digipak there will several different inuendos making reference to drugs, this is incredibly conventional of the Psychedelic Rock genre and thus must be implemented within my own digipak. The use of a "trippy" effect, a variety of  shapes and colours and the band name "white rhinos" will provide double entendre that will intruge the reader and be conventional to the genre.   

Planning Storyboards - Miss Georgiou

Planning Storyboards - Miss Georgiou

Storyboards are an incredibly important process of creating a music video as they create the outline for not only the narrative of the video, but also the other elements that make up the video such as the Camera Shot, Iconography, Lighting, Actors, Sound, and Editing. We worked on our storyboard both in and out of lesson in order to have a detailed outline of our narrative, as we wanted to eradicate the possibility of any ambiguity occurring when we began our filming process. As this would waste a lot of time and could lead to us rushing filming footage which could have led to having low quality clips and errors which thus would negatively effect our grade. Every member of the group helped add to the storyboard and we made sure we all had our say in each individual section to make sure it was a fair contribution from everybody. The narrative was fairly easy to come up with and ideas came quickly, it was a fairly easy process and we completed the storyboard so soon we began filming before any other group. Although the storyboard was used within our filming process in terms of looking for what shots we would use and mise-en-scene aspects such as character positioning, setting and costume, we found that we had to go against the storyboard in some parts due to conditions not in our control such as weather and too many people in a certain area, and also better ideas springing at the time of filming. Below are screenshots of the storyboard we created. 

Planning editing - Miss Georgiou

Planning editing - Miss Georgiou

Editing is an incredibly important feature in terms of not only music videos but the entirety of cinematography and the entertainment industry. Editing helps shorten the sequence and remove unwanted aspects of a particular piece of footage within film, it can also help add an effect or create an atmosphere within a particular scene through the use of special effects and editing software. Editing enhances certain aspects of a film and can in some sequences add more to a scene, for example fast editing and a hand-held shot could create a strong sense of urgency whereas slow transitions could create a sense of either relaxation or tension, depending on how its done. Editing also helps smooth the produced piece as there will be several rough cuts and irrelevant aspects within the first time filming that will eventually get edited out. Editing can also help combine different shots together to make them a whole sequence which in our case will occur as we have filmed several different shots that we will combine and align with our music video. Editing helps keep the audience engaged as the transitions and variety of shots keeps them engaged, below is a list of the different types of editing we will use within our music video. 


Slow Motion - I will be using slow motion within my music video for several different reasons, firstly the use of this effect is entertaining to the viewer as it is unique and different to what they may expect to see within a music video. The use of abstract features and unique elements that would not typically be seen within mainstream music videos is a common convention of Psychedelic Rock, as it essentially attempts to break the modes of society, this is thus why I have decided to use slow motion as it will be groundbreaking and catch the eye of the viewer. The use of slow motion is effective as it in certain aspects, (such as a particular scene in which the actor is seen in deep thought) highlight an area or give it more emphasis. The lyric "every part of me says go ahead" represents indecision which with the implementation of slow motion can further the feel of the video. The use of slow motion will also be used within the fight scene in our music video, as this is a feature used in many action movies and fight scenes as it highlights the fight and means the audience don't miss anything, thus making it more entertaining.

Time Lapse - A time lapse will also be an incredibly interesting feature for the audience, like slow motion a time lapse is not a common feature within music videos. The purpose of the time lapse within our music video is to portray the artist as in deep thought, whilst the entire world contiues to move around him, this corresponds with the lyrics and essential ethos of the song, such as the lyrics "I get inside my head all day" and "the seed of all this indecision isn't me, oh no" thus creating a link between the song and the video. The speeding up process is an extremely complicated process however it will be worth it as this is a very sophisticated style of editing and thus will make our music video look proffesional and more entertaining. This is not a conventional editing feature, which goes accordingly with the ethos of Psychedelic Rock, the speeding up also goes accordingly with the theme of the song.

Reverse of Footage - We also plan on reversing our footage at the end of the song for effect. This element links accordingly with the key motif within the song, the lyric "it feels like we only go backwards" and also with the entire theme of the song itself as the song is about going backwards. This form of editing will be very effective for our music video as it creates a visual representation of the entirety of the song, thus the audience will create a link between the video and song, which in turn will eradicate the prospect of ambiguity. Through researching other music videos of the Psychedelic Rock genre from artists such as The Black Angels and The Essex Green I discovered that the use of reversing footage is actually conventional and was used in many occurances, this thus makes it all the better for us to use this editing sequence.

Fast Editing/Slow Editing - The use of both fast and slow editing within our music video will be implemented for many reasons. Firstly and in terms of fast editing, a sense of urgency can be exerted through fast transitions, we decided to combine this editing style with the use of a handheld camera shot, as the two forms of cinematography and editing combined will create strong tension through the shaking and fast paced nature of the sequence. The use of slow editing within this piece will create the opposite effect to its fast paced correspondant, as the lack of transitions will represent serenity and calmness, this style of editing is more conventional than fast editing as the majority of Psychedelic Rock is calm and slow paced, dating back to its mellow, drug related roots.