RS - Digipak Research - Kiss - Sonic Boom

• Album name is the largest text on the front
• Kiss logo at the top and central in the typical font
• Each band member is featured on the front 
• Stickers highlighting that it is a special edition CD with bonus features to appeal to fans
• Multiple layers are used
• Cartoon type feel to it
• The portrates have been manipulated to have cartoon effects

•  Back replicates the front
• Same layout but with the album name smaller and moved upwards
• Track listings
• Bonus features below 
• Barcode
• Kiss logo featured
• Record Label logo
• DVD logo
• Band + Record label url's
• Small print with the copyright
• Bonus DVD "live in Buenos Aires"
• Produced + Co Produced located in the middle

• Very large images of the band members
• Gives their names + what instrument they play
• Goes with the typical theme of the digipak with the circle design effect

•  CD cover has the same effect as the cover and the album title with the same font
• Plastic holder for the CD

•  Special Edition CD + DVD right at the back of the digipak
• Held in cardboard holders
• Only half covered so you can see they are seperate from the actual album
• Typical Kiss font on them but with altered colours

RS + SP - Digipak Research - AC/DC - Iron Man 2

Front Cover

• Front with the album artwork accompanied with the artist name and the album title

• Stickers are usually found on the front of the digipak saying "includes "...." in this album!"
• The outside of the digipak can use very bright and inviting colours to make it attractive on the shelve and then use darker colours inside the actual digipak.
• Digipaks are seen as the LP's of this century and can be seen as a collectable like LP's as they are much more interesting than a standard jewel case. 
• The spine of the digipak usually has the artist name, album name

Back Cover

• Back cover typically with the tracklist including time of the songs. The back cover also typically contains:
• Bar Code
• QR code (becoming more common)
• Smallprint with copyright laws written
• Website for the artist
• Twitter/Facebook sites (becoming more common)
• Usually the bands record label logo can be seen

Inside

• Inside the digipak there is sometimes text displaying the names of the composers for each song in smaller print than the song title
• There is sometimes a small handout which contains further artwork, maybe some images of the artist playing live or possibly lyrics
• The actual CD can usually be found in the main part of the digipak in a plastic holder with two panels to each side
• Some digipaks have two cd's within the card case. One for the actual CD and another for behind the scenes or some sort of DVD

RS - Digipak Deconstruction - AC/DC - Back in Black

• Very large sticker on the front, completely different colour to the front cover so the audience notices it first
• AC/DC logo is very large and to the top of the front
• Album name is smaller and the same colour as the digipak background so its harder to see
• Very simple background only one colour and no image at all
• "Remastered" to appeal to the old school fans
• Everything is on the sticker to sell the album again even if the audience has it on vinyl

• Very large image of guitarist Angus Young as he is considered the frontman of the band and very iconic
• Black and white theme throughout
• Lyrics booklet inside (left pannel)
• Shot of the whole band playing live with black and white effect again
• Inside relates to exterior with black and white colours

• Collage of images of the rest of the band with their names on the image.
• CD is the same style as the exterior of the digipak with the same colour scheme
• Contained in a plastic holder

• Tracklisting central
• Barcode at the top (unusual)
• Record label url above the bar code
• Producer under the track listing
• Small print at the very bottom
• Band Url in small font
• Record label logo

RS - Digipak Deconstruction - Santana - Supernatural

• Album name at the very top covering the whole width of the digipak
• Artist name in typical "signature" styled font
• Multiple layers
• Hand drawn album artwork on the front
• Very colourful
• No stickers on the front cover to advertise that it is a special edition/reissue of the original album

• Large image of the artist to the right of the digipak
• Doesnt relate to the front of the digipak
• Text at the top of the back with a bit of explanation behind the CD
• Tracklist divided into two sections
• Original Album is the first
• Bonus tracks is the second and is exclusive for the digipak
• Record label logos
• Small print at the bottom
• Artist/Record urls
• Producers named
• Barcode

•  Two panels are inside before you get to the actual interior of the digipak
• The two panels are linked with the blue tint effect on both of the images
• One is of Santana performing and the other is a photo shoot of the artist

  

•  CD's held using plastic holders 
• The artwork behind the holders relates to the digipak artwork on the exterior
• The CD artwork contains a basic blue background for both and artwork relating to the exterior once again
• Artist name + album title are featured as well as record label logos

RS - Muse's Profile in 2011

2011 was a quiet year for Muse as Band. They had finished touring for "The Resistance" and only had 17 live appearances throughout the year. The reason for this was because they were intending to start recording for most of the year and run the recording into 2012 hoping to finish some time at the start of the year.

 

 

They had intended to have a break for most of the year due to touring/recording pretty much non stop since they first started touring in 1999 and wanted to have a more laid back lifestyle they had desired for so long. The fact that they built their own recording studio for The Resistance and were due to record there again with the following album meant that they could have a more laid back style to it and not have to rush it if they were hiring out a studio like the previous albums.

 

 

NME Awards 2011

 

 

 

The start of the year consisted of a short South American Tour and a few dates in Europe. The awards season began at the start of the year and Muse walked away with a Grammy, an NME Award and an Ivor Novello Award. (See full list of awards here) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Festival 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

The summer brought the Summer Festivals and the main appearences for Muse throughout the year with 6/17 appearences in August. They started off touring the Festivals in the US and then finishing off the summer and the whole year by headlining Reading & Leeds for the second time and being voted the best performance of the two festivals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Recording Studio

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end of a fairly quiet year saw Muse returning to the studio later than expected in the year and announce that the new album wont land until some time in October 2012 a bit later than expected. Not much information about the album has been released as of yet.

ALL - Storyboards

Here are our storyboards that i have scanned in today that confirm our full idea. We still have the flexibility to change around with some ideas but this is the general order of shots and narrative/performance footage. We have filmed a couple of scenes including the ones in the 'Muse Nerds' living room and bedroom and also played around with some shots at the River Wharfe and the skate park. Performance and school footage are in the pipeline for over the Chrismas period and early in January when we return to school. Our Animatic will be completed soon as we have nearly finished editing it on the MAC using iMovie so that will be up soon.

ALL - Sixth Podcast: Animatic + Performance Footage Update

ALL - Deconstruction of Lyrics Sheet

Here is our lyrics sheet which we printed off in our media lesson today. We grouped together and went through the timings of the lyrics with our storyboards and went through an initial plan of whats going to be on screen at certain times in the song.

Lyrics Sheet With Deconstruction

RS - Feedback on our Second Sample Footage

Once we had finished editing our second sample footage for our music video we gave the exported file to our Media Teacher so he could upload it to Youtube. Once it had been uploaded we gathered all the students within the class together around the middle and screened our second sample footage to them. Once the screening had finished we had time to ask them any questions or for them to ask us any questions and this is what we recieved.

• Try not to show the face of the protagonist straight away (to keep narrative enigma)
• Create a CD/DVD print to put onto a blank CD with the name of our track + band on it to show to the audience.
• Try to time to poster "montage" shots with the music
• Instead of having copyrighted material being played on the TV have our performance footage played on it instead.
• Have CU's on the phone so it's easier to read and either speed up the footage or shorten the sequence down a couple of menus to save time
• Having the "Sony" branding in the frame could be seen as a viral advert
• Have the protagnoist using the QR code app on his phone whilst looking at our Digipak we will be making to help promote it.
• Have our magazine advert on one of the pages when the protagonist is reading it
• Make the collage of magazines more subtle not just in a big group on the floor
• Use multi-layering within the video so we can fit more footage into the sequence
• Have photos of the protagonist alone in various locations so it isolates him from everyone even more
• Redo some of the shots with the low-lighting and test on the day to see if lighting is suitable if not then use external light source
• First see the persons face when he puts the magazine down
• Try out with having shots without showing his face at all perhaphs for the entire music video and then get feedback from it all to see if it works!
• Have the protag looking through his wardrobe however the clothes are very unusual and makes him seem more of an outsider to the rest
• Look at Napoleon Dynamite for influence

We also recieved feedback from a past A2 student, Chris Lawrence!

ALL - Sample Footage Number Two

ALL - Fifth Podcast: Inspiration from Film & Music Video

Inspiration from Film & Music Video

Further Influences from Film & Music Videos

ALL - Second Vodcast - Location Scouting

RS - Further Influences From Film and Other Music Videos

The Breakfast Club (1985, John Hughes). This opening sequence is very useful to us due to the location the film is set in. It gives us a better understanding of how we would set up the shots.

Unfortunatley this clip has been mirrored so that it wouldn't be removed from Youtube however it's only the titles that are an issue to read.

 

Here are a few examples of music videos using high school locations within their videos. Most of these music videos are within our genre so it shows that the genre uses this location often and that it creates a good music video.

 

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

 

Pearl Jam - Jeremy

 

 

 

Aerosmith - Livin' On The Edge

 

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall

 

Van Halen - Hot For Teacher

 

Escape the Fate - Situations (An obvious reference to Hot For Teacher but with a twist!)

 

Escape The Fate - Situations from Brad Radke on Vimeo.

 

ALL - Inspiration from Film + Other Music Videos

Today as a group we all looked at the film opening for Trick or Treat (1986, Charles Martin Smith) and we found it very useful as it is very similar to our idea with the main character being seen as distant from the other students at school. We won't use all of the aspects within the Trick or Treat opening such as the nudity and some of the other shots however we do want a similar effect showing the protagonist distant from the others and not fitting in because of him liking a certain band similar to this. We want to use a similar panning technique they use in the bedroom scene where it is moving across all the different bands posters/accessories as it works really well and is achieveable by us. It's like a short montage which we could take inspiration from.

The sequence at the start with the protagonist in his bedroom is useful because of the use of mise en scene within the room. From the music posters to the calendars and even the books on the shelves have references to bands and show what his hobbies/interests are. We want to do a similar thing in our music video so using this as a reference is helpful. 

Here is the entire opening sequence to the film:

We also took inspiration from certain music videos including

• Waking the Demon by Bullet For My Valentine 

• Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus  

• Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day

We only want to use certain aspects from within these music videos so we wont go to the extreams of creating a werewolf etc however we do want to have similar shots like in these videos within our video. We are only taking inspiration from them not copying them.

RS - Track/Artist Record Label

Origin of Symmetry along with two other Muse albums was released by "Taste Media". Taste Media is a very small indie record label formed in Cornwall. Muse only stayed with them because they were also small and unknown at the time and could not get a deal with one of the big 4. However when Absolution (2003) was released by Taste Media and Muse started to get more into the mainstream scene they departed with Taste Media and formed their own record label named Helium 3 which is now a subdivision of Warner Music Group (one of the big 4 record labels). Muse are still releasing content from the Helium 3 record label.

RS - A Brief History of Music Video

The 1980s saw music videos become a more popualar form of media after the release of the channel MTV. The first music video MTV broadcasted was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. Although this was not the first station to show music videos the first one was BBC. The long-running British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, this meant a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week.

Music videos have been previously know as talkies, Screen Songs, Promotional clips and Musical films. Although modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of the accompanying single and album.

During the 2000s lo-fi videos started being made. Lo-fi is made with minimal budgets and not much shot variation, such as Yellow by Coldplay. The most common lo-fi music video is called a one-shot where the entire video is one shot. The reason for these types of music video becoming what it is known for today was due to the shift towards internet broadcasting and a rise in popularity for user-generated video sites with YouTube being the leader in the market.

Youtube is now the main way people watch music videos now due to it's ease of use and the ability to be able to watch any video you want and however many times you want without a video you hate being on. Some music videos have over half a billion views (Justin Bieber's "Baby"with 666 million views today, we all knew he was the devil!).

 

Music Video A Brief History

View more presentations from Greenwich Council

WS - Sample Footage 2 and our Second Vodcast

As school was closed yesterday, we thought it would be a good opportunity to attempt some more sample footage and take advantage of this by also making our new Vodcast in a different setting to where we normally would.

Due to changes in our idea following our first edition of sample footage, we needed more footage to reflect what we now want to include. Sample Footage One showed the main character been bullied around Ilkley (the town where some of our video will be filmed). This is still part of our idea, although we are going to try and represent the character as isolated and rejected by a number of people rather than just a couple of people bullying him. This isolation extends to his family and his home-life, which is where this second edition of sample footage comes in.

We filmed the footage at Rob's house and this is a planned setting for part of our music video. The shots we have taken were supposed to make the character look isolated and alone, but with a real love for Muse and their music. We attempted this through the mise-en-scene, but also through the framing of shots. Posters, magazines and DVD's make up most of how we are trying to portray the character as a 'Muse nerd', but the framing of the shot and positioning of everything within the shot is vital to making him look like a 'loner'.

We filmed quite a large range of shots yesterday which has allowed us quite a lot of freedom when editing the sample footage to 'play about' with it and try and find things that may work for the actual music video. An example of this is showing the character selecting our chosen song on the iPod and turning the volume up to full. This is when we plan to introduce the song to the video. The whole idea for this came about while we were filming which emphasises the importance of practice filming and sample footage.

In total we recorded around twenty-five minutes of sample footage, the majority of which will probably not be used but we felt it is always good to experiment with footage. We will have to await feedback to see what fellow students (people who will be within our primary target audience) think and see what improvements they can suggest.

As well as sample footage, we felt it seemed like a good time to make a vodcast. We decided to do this to keep the Vodcasts different, and the fact that we could film it in a setting where the music video will take place seemed like a good idea.

The Sample footage and the second vodcast will be evidenced on our blogs when we have finished editing them.

ALL - Fourth Podcast: Facebook+Twitter Pages, Digipaks+Mag Ads and Perf Footage!

Here are links to our summaries of Digipaks and Magazine Adverts

Digipak

Mag-Ad

ALL - Third Podcast: The New Idea, Sample Footage + The Problems with Uploading

RS - School Closures

Today (Friday 25th) the school will be closed for Review Day. Our Media Teacher will be in during that time so it is possible to come in during the day and catch up with work over that period. 

Next Monday (28th) school will be closed again due to Jubilee Day however school will be completely closed so there will be no opportunity to work in school at all.

And finally next Wednesday (30th) the school will be closed again due to the teachers going on strike which means the entire school will be closed so once again we will not be able to get into school to do work.

On all of these days we (Swillob Productions) expect to do relevant blogging as well as catching up on a Vodcast on Monday as well as more sample footage which will then be screened to the class for further feedback. We have also booked out "Trick or Treat" (1986, Charles Smith) to look at the opening sequence for inspiration for our coursework idea and "U2-18videos" to do research on directors in music videos.

WS - Lyrics and Timings

Lyrics Timings

SP - Feedback on our First Sample Footage

Today we finished editing our first peice of sample footage that we filmed at the weekend. We exported it and gave it to our Media Teacher so he could screen it in front of the class. Once they had watched our footage we listened to any feedback our class mates had to give. Our Media Teacher also gave his thoughts on our progress and this is what they all had to say: 

1. The major point that came up frequently was regarding our acting. In our first sample footage our class mate thought that our idea meant that it might be quite difficult to act in. This was highlighted in our footage because people thought that it made our music video look unproffesional. This was not our intention so we had to change our idea slightly which meant there was less acting involved. 
2. What people suggested was that instead of having a particular social group we should have individual people picking on this 'Muse nerd' at different locations. Another thing that we are considering is instead of this particular person being bullied like he was in our first sample footage, he should be isolated from everyone else. He is going to be left out from what everyone else is doing just because he likes Muse so much. 
3. Another location we will be able to use with this changed idea is this 'Muse nerd' is that persons house. We will be able to shoot in the teenagers bedroom and in the living room of the house. We will be able to show how he is becoming isolated from his own family as well as people at school and around town. We will also be able to show this 'Muse nerds' obsession with the band by having shots of posters, magazines, CD's / DVD's, clothing and on a computer with iTunes etc. There is alot more scope with this new idea to really exaggerate how much this teenage adores Muse. 
4. However the good thing about this changed idea is that we can still use all of the locations we were going to with the original idea. We can still film at school as there are a few places we intend to use including in the 6th Form Centre, in an empty coridoor, by the 'Muse nerds' locker and on a lonely table. We can also film in Ilkley town centre by the river and skate park as we have just done in our first sample footage but just slightly change what are going to happen in these locations. 

Once we have a firm idea of what we want to film we will shoot some more sample footage and repeat the feedback process. We will edit, export and upload to YouTube and again use the class to give us some more suggestions on our changes.