I had the job of researching Digipak's and I started by researching DJ EZ's digipak's as he is a very similar artist to Fragment.
DJ EZ:
This album cover is very simple and shows a country side or farm location which contradicts DJ EZ's style as he was a city artist and has very heavy and bass filled music. I feel that because our artist is new and fresh to the market we need to sell his image a bit more and show him on the cover because audiences like to know what they are buying in to. Boxinbox & Lionsize: Boxinbox and Lionsize are the artists of the song 'Don't Stop' (the song to our music video) and I looked at the digipak for 'Don't Stop'.
This contains a very abstract image of a zebra running and crumbling as it does so. I like the idea of the Zebra falling apart and I feel that I can take inspiration due to the fragmented effect, I do feel however that for our artist we need to show more than just an image or a logo because people are getting introduced to "Fragment" for the first time and so they need to see his style. Once the artist is more well known we can start adding his own logo (i.e the running Zebra) so that when people see that logo/symbol they know who it belongs to.
This is our original planning of the CD digipak, we want to go for the idea of distortion due to the artist's name being 'Fragment' deriving from the word 'Fragmentation'.
I feel that our artist should have the style or the common theme of being fragmented because we want to show to his fans that he will never be complete without his fans support and we want to try and incorporate the idea that his album is part of a "fragmented" puzzle that fans need to complete.
'Fragment' needs to be different and I feel that his digipak should represent him as an artist so the more abstract and distorted it is the better because then it will add mystery and deface him, making him a wonder to the fans.
HONOR'S WORK Flava D Flava D is a DJ similar to Boxinbox & Lionsize in the sense that they both create electronic dance music and remix songs to create new versions. Flava D is an independent artist and is popular among young people though not intensely well-known. She is more famous than Boxinbox and Lionsize, and this is mainly due to her release of the song “Rhythm and Gash” which has been taken and sampled in many other songs.
Here is an image of Flava D’s website and, as you can see, the focus is not on the artist herself, the main part of the website is her music and her most famous song, “Rhythm & Gash”. Though there is a picture of the artist herself, it is in the background and it is faded out and subtle. The main focus of the website is on the music itself, rather than the star image. This is important in realising that the artist herself is an organic artist, and is not trying to sell herself on her image, but she wants people to be much more fixated on her music.
Major Lazer Major Lazer is another DJ similar to Boxinbox & Lionsize due to them also producing electronic dance music of the same feel and genre. Major Lazor’s website is also mainly focused on their music and because of this I feel as though when creating the website for our own artist within our promotional music video, we should definitely keep it focused on the music they create rather than their star image, due to the running theme of this within all the artists I have researched.
Hannah Wants
Hannah Wants is a DJ who shares similar qualities to that of BoxinBox and Lionsize due to both creating electronic dance music. Hannah Wants' website is completely focused on her music, and her tour. She is going on tour at the moment and her entire front page of her website is dedicated to this currently. This proves that Hannah Wants is an artist that focuses entirely on her music, and not on her star image.
Here you are able to see how as you scroll on her website, the whole first page is taken up by advertising for her tour.
Taylor Swift In contrast to these artists, someone like Taylor Swift is very much focused on her star image and the way in which she is presented to her audience, rather than her music. This is displayed in the way in which her website does not display her music at first, in the same way the other artist’s websites do, instead it is a series of pictures of herself being displayed in a sort of presentation. Along with the websites themselves being different, their music differs almost entirely too in the sense that Taylor Swift’s music is within the pop music genre.
Digital editing is part of the creative post-production process of digital video making. The term editing is derived from the traditional process of working with film, but now it increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The digital video editor works with the raw footage selecting shot and combining them into sequences to create a finished 'pop promo'.
Our process
The intended outcome of the video is to be a lively, quick cutting video which involves as much as the dancers as possible and Jonty's DJ skills. This process should hopefully allow for good team workout within our group and working together to produce something professional. I believe, with the footage we have captured, we can create something extremely skilful and attention grabbing.
In the first week we managed to get a lot of the editing we needed to do done. Callum has done the majority of the editing in the lessons with Honor and I helping alongside. I have also gone up to the editing suite to get some of the editing done and I find it more interesting and easier then I thought it would be. It is difficult at times when you are not sure what shot to use next and thinking about the way you are going to add variety. But other then those points it is a very creative technique and gets us thinking about new ideas and new forms of visual interesting content.
This is the process of the video in the first week:
Throughout the process we have gone for more of a quality over quantity approach and instead of rushing to get any type of rough performance cut finished, we have begun editing with each shot in mind and thinking about the ways we want to develop the video in detail. We find this works well as we would simply be wasting our time with the performance cut; our video didn't really involve much lip sync in it and therefore we can go ahead with trimming sections of the shots and putting them together on the time line. This also means we don't need to be exact with the way the shots fit in with the song and we don't need to worry so much about the play back as it cuts to all different kinds of shots, not necessarily at times performed in the song. This means that we can play around with the orders and we can get all the effective, aesthetically pleasing shots we want in to the video and also place the shots depending on the beats of the song.
We used the cutting tool (the razor tool) just so that we were easily able to cut the clips into two. In our video especially this tool was very important as we have many short cuts in the video and this tool allowed us to simply break the shots up so that they could fit with each other and it saves us wasting time on taking the same shot from the library over and over again. It also helped us consider the shot composition as we thought about what clips could be broken down and which shots are mismatched within one another. For example, on the build up to the drop there are lots of beats and different rhythms which we cut the shots to and went between Jonty and the dancers constantly, using the razor tool to cut the shots on the right beat and delete what we don't need.
We didn't really think about the sequence and the order of the shots to begin with; all we had in mind was Jonty being dominantly shown at the first build up until the drop and the the dancers come in after the drop however this idea changed when we saw the footage and we began to use the dancers a bit at the beginning of the song too. Because the pace of the song is quick and sudden we didn't need to think about lip syncing too much as we could just take any section from any shot. This took a weight off our shoulders and allowed us to be far more free with what we chose for each section. There were little bits where Jonty lip synced, and some of the dancers, however we knew exactly where these were so we new where to go to for them. When I would go edit I would duplicate the first cut made and so that, if anything needed to be changed, it could be and it meant that nothing would be lost throughout the process. We decided not to produce a rough cut to start off with because our performance lip syncing element was limited and therefore we went through the song slowly but in more detail. This also allowed us to fix any changes we didn't like at the end of video when we had all the shots together and we knew what we were working with. We could also rearrange shots so that we had an equal amount of elements throughout the song. For example, the switching shots between Jonty and the dancers and the swipe of the camera. When we got to the end of the first cut we realised we needed to add more of these towards the end because there were so many at the beginning of the song so it didn't make sense to lose them all of a sudden. Music Video Conventions
The artist is portrayed in his element as happy and jolly as can be reaching out to the younger generations of the audiences out there. The video however is unusual and we have gone for more striking, unusual looks rather then the basic conventions: girl with pretty background singing into the camera for example. The dancers outfits really worked and allowed for 'strange' elements to be added to the video in a sense that we could use the lighting effects linked in with the colours of the costumes to create awesome shots to be edited successfully. The songs beats are pretty dance orientated and therefore we made sure we cut to that. The dancers movements helped to cut to however we found that even keeping one shot of the dancers dancing on for a while became boring if it wasn't cut swiftly to another shot from another angle or even one of Jonty. It also demonstrates a party vibe which is quite a usual convention of music however with a twist. I'm glad we didn't go for the obvious 'party' atmosphere as the way in which we approached it, with the dancers and crazy lights, worked well as it made the chopping of the video even more effective. This did make us think about continuity more e.g. linking shots of the same colour together as if it was like that in the shooting stage and not just random. The dancers are in dressed in a limited amount of clothing however covered up with colours and patterns which hides the fact they only have a sports bra on and trousers. This follows a convention as many videos have artists basically naked to look sexual and sell the look of them more. Although we didn't intend a 'sexual' message, the aesthetically pleasing look of the dancers was important to us.
Today we were able to watch the footage from the shoot day in the editing suite and get to grips with what we had to work with and the amount of footage we were able to use. To begin with Matt showed us how to sync all the different shots so that we had them all lined up in time with one another. We need to go slow with this
process and be very careful because, if we mess up any of the syncs, we could create a never ending negative ripple effect which will not be in our favour. As usual we are using Adobe Premier Pro which is good as we know about the software already (from our thrillers).
For each shot, we started by finding a random point/time on the clapper at the start of the shot and then we had to match it with the time code on the editing software. Then we dragged the shot, from the video icon, on to the time line and checked it was all in time. After that, we renamed each shot so that they were all familiar with what the shots were and this just generally makes our lives easier when it comes to editing the shots together.
We spoke to Matt in preparation of what was going to happen on the day and he gave us a whole lot of ideas. He had drawn out some sketches of different shots we could use and we discussed what could work.
First of all he mentioned having the Pixel lights around Jonty facing outwards instead of on his DJ stand as if he was playing to an audience as it would be more effective and we could do more with the lights and colours. We decided it would be cool if Jonty almost activated the lights when he walks in to the scene and then, like the domino effect, the lights will scope round the desk.
We were also thinking about doing a crane shot of the dancers doing a lift. There will be nothing in the shot and then sally will be thrown in the air, getting into the frame and then the camera tilts back down with her. Below are the specific shots we would like to take of the dancers:
Matt suggested we use the track to weave in and out of the dancers and have them on either side with the camera moving directly forward. We could also have a dancer on the track and the camera facing them moving backwards whilst there are other dancers coming into shot when the camera passes them. With this, we could also track around the dancers and then when we shoot Jonty we could do the same shot so that when it comes to editing, it will look as though the camera is moving from the dancers, back to Jonty, back to the dancers etc.
I edited the shooting schedule so that the timings for the girls make-up are considered as they will take quit a while. I figured it would be best if they had their make-up done while Jonty is being shot in the morning and this will save some time. Everyone needs to be in school by 8:30 so that we can get started as soon as possible. Also, the girls need to practice the dance before we shoot them so that they are fully prepared and ready to go.
Costumes for the dancers:
We need to make sure the colours we have chosen match and that the dancers have the correct things so they look in unison. I will check with them about what they have to make sure. Also, I have spoken to the make-up artist
Choreography of dance:
Ideally the dancers need to know the choreography inside out by the shooting day so that we can shoot them quickly and easily without them getting confused or messing up. As they are one of the main aspects of our music video we need to make sure they pull of the routine with as much 'sass' as possible and with as much energy as they can give. The rehearsal times will be a vital part of this prep leading up to the shoot and therefore we need to get it done as soon as possible so that they can pull it off on the day.
Make sure Jonty knows the song well enough
The more Jonty is familiar with the song the better he will look 'DJing' the track as he can relax into it more and put all the energy he has into it. It also means he will look more realistic mixing on the decks as he will have an understanding of where and when the chorus's (etc) come in. To check he is familiar with the track Callum is going to do a mini test shoot with him on Wednesday evening.
Check the 'DJ' set up works and that we have everything
We just need to finalise the actual equipment that we are using so that it makes the Jonty's decks look full and professional. This is a major element to the video that we need to really nail so that the video looks slick and energised.
Media production is social collaboration which requires a decision of labour- specialised skills in order to manufacture the right shots in getting the correct representation of the star image for the 'pop promo' and single release. Together, Honor and I discussed who was going to do what on the day of the shoot and we decided based on characters, personality and who enjoys what. This is what we researched and decided:
Director -
A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualises the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. A music video director is the head of music video production. The director conceives of videos' artistic and dramatic aspects while instructing the musical act, technical crew, actors, models, and dancers. They may or may not be in collaboration with the musical act.
The director on the day of our shoot is going to be Vogue. I think Vogue will suit this as she has a good idea of what the video should look like and will be able to get her opinion across easily.
Camera Person -
A camera operator, sometimes informally called a cameraman or a camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film or video camera.The camera operator is responsible for physically operating the camera and maintaining composition and camera angles throughout a given scene or shot. Important camera operator skills include choreographing and framing shots, knowledge of and the ability to select appropriate camera lenses, and other equipment (dollies, camera cranes, etc.) to portray dramatic scenes. The camera operator is required to communicate clearly and concisely on sets where time and film budget constraints are ever present.
The camera person on the day of our shoot will be Callum. I think Callum will be a good cameraperson as he has told me he works well with cameras and I trust that he has a good eye for the types of shots we want.
Art Director -
Art director is in charge of the advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television and the Internet. Also, they are in charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vision. In particular, the art director is in charge of the overall visual appearance and how it communicates visually, stimulates moods, contrasts features, and psychologically appeals to a target audience. They make decisions about visual elements used, what artistic style to use, and when to use motion.
The art director on or shoot day will be Callum because he is very good at knowing what he wants when it comes to the look of the video and I think he will be able to project this to the people we are working with when it comes to the day of the shoot.
Producer -
The producer needs to be willing and able to make everything run smoothly on the day so that there are as little hiccups as possible. They also need to be slightly strict so that everyone sticks to what they need to do. Music video producers are constantly under pressure trying to keep within budget, meet schedules and ensure the smooth operation of the whole production.
The producer on the day will be Honor and she will be fill a variety of roles such as overseeing everything and make sure everything is going to plan. I think she will be good at this as she is very understanding and extremely organised.
Sound playback & lighting desk -
This is the person that is in charge of the sound playback, so listening to the sound and making sure it is okay. Video playback provides a point of reference for, and a method of monitoring, everything that is shot by the camera crew and recorded by the production sound mixer. This person also needs to be in charge of the lighting and putting everything into place. They will do this using the script or brief from the production team to design the specific look required for each shot. Also, using advanced technical skills to realise the design and, with the help of the rest of the lighting department, to set up and operate specialised lights and accessories.
On the day, we will have lighting designers helping us as we will only be able to direct them with what we want lighting wise. However, we will all share the sound playback role as will all be able to have a turn making sure the sound is correct.
