Digipak Template

 This is the template we have chosen for our digipak.

To make it more clear, this sketch demonstrates how the template folds...it has 5 pages, one contains the disk, the other 4 will contain photos and probably some written text, we have not made up our minds yet. In total, with the backs and fronts we will have to fill in 8 pages.

Digipak front cover

These are our ideas for our digipak. Below are some drafts of colours and designs which we will use.   They are hand painted.

 

 

These are just examples of colour schemes we have tried, we think it is safe to say that the first one is the most successful try, so we are going to do it all over again, bigger and neater, so it is good enough to become a front cover of the digipak.

Ideas for digipak and front covers

                            These are our 3 options for digipak cover and layout.

We have decided to call our album ''Monsters are Real'' and the 3 covers link to that name.

After a brief discussion, we have decided to go for the First front cover, the Second Back cover and the Third layout.

Mood board

This is our inspirational mood board, containing covers of digipaks of some of our favourite bands, which have given us a bunch of interesting ideas for our own project. Most of them are animation based and quite colourful, which will be the image will will be aiming for as we are considering the idea of creating our front cover picture by hand- original and creative.

Where we are so far

We have currently just filmed part of the narrative of our music video, however there is still more we need to film. This will take place after half term as we will be filming off location at someone's house. We will also be looking to the performance to our music video, this will take along time.

Until we film the rest of the video and can start editing we are researching and planning our digipaks. We have so far sketched some layouts for our digipak and are now deciding which themes we would like to follow.

On the 01.03.2014 we will go to London, where we are going to finish the narrative part of our project and then we can concentrate on the performance and the creation of the digipak. Then we will be able to start editing, hopefully by the end of  08.03.2014.

Digipak analysis

 

 

 

A bit of background:

Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, drummer Tré Cool and guitarist and backing vocalist Jason White, who became a full member after playing in the band as a session and touring guitarist for 13 years.
Green Day was originally part of the punk scene at the DIY 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases were from the independent record label Lookout! Records. In 1994, its major label début Dookie released through Reprise Records became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands Sublime, Bad Religion, The Offspring and Rancid, with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States.

Reprise Records was formed in 1960 by Frank Sinatra.One of the label's founding principles under Sinatra's leadership was that each artist would have full creative freedom, and at some point complete ownership of their work; including publishing rights. This is the reason why recordings of early Reprise artists (Dean Martin, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, etc.) are (in most cases) currently distributed through other labels. In Martin's case, his Reprise recordings were out of print for nearly 20 years before a deal was struck with Capitol Records.
Other artists signed to this record company:

• Michael Bublé
• Depeche Mode
•  Stevie Nicks
• Never Shout Never
• Oasis

...and many more.

Reprise Records represent a variety of music genres, they do not seem to have a specific type, however there are definitely a lot of punk rock artists under their control.

Green Day is a very famous band, they have their own site and have even created a game:

http://www.greenday.com/

http://www.rockband.com/games/greenday

Back to the digipak:

 

This is a cardboard packaging. It has 3 panels: two for the CD and one for further information or something about the band, it is not clear from this photo. The layout looks quite traditional; there seem to be a booklet which contains 2 pages. Most digipaks have this layout- the CD on one side and a little booklet on the other. In my opinion it is too predictable and the designers should make more usage of the creative opportunities this type of art offers.

The back and front cover are not very different, they both follow the pattern of the colour red and contain a picture of a concert- the front is just the artist on the stage (his siluete) and the back is the crowd-from the artist's point of view- and a line of pictures of the band members on the stage. Using pictures from concerts is very common among rock bands, because everything looks more natural and in the heat of the moment, which gives the consumers of this digipak the feeling that when perceiving it they are going to gain the same excitement and emotions that the crowd got on the concert. The two covers have a fresh and exciting look, not too cheesy or dark, keeping the band's cheerful image and still indicating that the genre is rock, through the colour scheme and the concert images. The font has a very simple but solid look, it is white and thick, which makes it stand out on the red background. It is rotated a bit, creating the same gradient as the one of, what appears to be, a dancing person at the background. All this, combined with the circles around that person, in different shades of red, gives a vibrant look to the cover, making it almost look like it is actually moving.

The CD has 19 tracks, the DVD contains the performance of the songs on live concert. Some of the songs are very popular and my personal favourites: American idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Boulevard of Brocken Dreams, Minority and Wake Me Up When September Ends. Some of the names of the songs sound quite lonely, pessimistic or rebellious: American Idiot, Boulevard of Brocken Dreams and Minority, which fits perfectly in the punk/rock genre. There is nothing specific about the language used, there are no taboo words or anything romantic, it's mostly random.
Other things we see on the back cover are the logos of the record label and other sponsors or companies being a part of the creation of the CD. Then at the bottom, next to the labels we see te 2 main sites for contact- that band's and the record company. At the top there is a list of people who are given credit for directing and producing the DVD. Last thing- we see the barcode. The only details on the front cover are the parental advisory and the DVD logo.

The inside of the DVD contains the 2 CD panels and the little booklet. The background is again red and presents shots of the band members playing as if at a concert. The combination of black and red creates the sense of comfort and romance, but also looks vibrant and engaging. The inside of the booklet is only text and no photos. The shrift is small and unreadable at this point, but the thing that drabs the eye is the ''bullet hole'' on one of the booklet's pages, which links directly to the name of the album ''Bullet in a Bible''. This also brings out the question if with this image they are referring to their album as the bible? That

either means that they are a religious or the complete opposite; which would be typical for a rock band.

In this case the CDs are very unusual, because they do not follow the theme of the rest of the digipak. One of them is black and white with red writing (darker red) and the other one is green and yellow, which is completely random. It is true that both of them have the pictures of the artists at the front. The black and white one is actually the clearest of them all and is very important because that way the audience can see their faces and recognise them. The other one is taken on the stage again and just one artist is shown in a mid-shot and a low angle, but the projectors more or less hide his face, creating that gloomy, moody light and giving a sense of the atmosphere at the concert.

Analysis of Digipak

Background about the band:

My Chemical Romance is an American rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guirarist Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way. The band singed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album 'I Brought You My Bullet, You Brought Me Your Love' in 2002. They then singed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major label debut 'Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge' in 2004, this album was a huge success, and was awarded platinum status a little over a year later.

My Chemical Romance signed to is'Reprise Records'. This record label was formed in 1960 by Frank Sinatra in order to allow a wider  variety of artistic freedom for his own recording.

Other artists signed to this record company:

• Michael Bublé
• Depeche Mode
• Stevie Nicks
• Never Shout Never
• Oasis

Digipak:

Front Cover:

The front cover is very basic and to the point, displaying not a lot of information just the bands name and the name of the song. The colours used on the digipak are very dull portraying a serious tone, from this it suggests that the album will consist of 'dark' songs with no beat. The font used to display the bands name is very unique, and attracts the audiece due to how bold and big it is. The font used looks as if it has been scetched on free hand giving it that edgey look.  The image used is also very symbolic to the name of the album 'The Black Parade', a marching sceleton figure is used which again gives the album that serious touch.





 
Back cover:

The back of the album is very basic displayinng just the name and the names of songs. Although it is very boring the information which is needed is there. The back of the album doesn't have to be eye catching as on the shelves customers will not see the back. Aswell as showing the album songs, contanct details are also displayed. The CD contains 13 songs, all song names are bleak and negative 'The End' 'Dead'.  

CD:

The colours used are white, black and red. This suggests a scarey element to the album, the horror-like characters used towards the inside of the CD also add to this scarey/serious mood of music which the album consists of. The names of each song are written around the CD in different fonts, which is very unique and different from other CD's which are very plain.









The same theme is used throughout the digipak, the colours black white and sometimes red are used. Different fonts are used thoughout the digipak ranging from bold to italic, writing however stays the same size.

Research into Music Video directors

Spike Jonze:

Is an American director, producer, screenwrite and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television.

He started his feature film directing career with 'Being John Malkovich' (1999) and 'Adaptation' (2002), both of these were written by Charlie Kaufman, and then he started movies with screenplays of his own with 'Where the Wild Things Are' (2009) and 'Her' (2013).

Spike Jonze is well known for his music video collaborations with Fatboy Slim, Weezer, Beastie Boys, and Bjork. He was also a co-creator and executive producer of MTV's 'Jackass'.

He was a co-founder and editor of Dirt magazine along with Mark Lewman and Andy Jenkins, as well as an editor for Grand Royal Magazine and senior photographer for Transworld Skateboarding. In the past he shot street skateboarding videos, Blinds high influential Video Days in 1991 and Lakai Footwear's Fully Flared in 2007. Also he co-directed the Girl Skateboards film Yeah Right! and the Chocolate Skateboards video Hot Chocolate.

Spike Jonze is one of the greatest music video directors of all time. 'The Breeders' 'Cannonbal' (1993) was rated one of his best music videos.

Beginning of shooting

We have finally started shooting. The first scenes we desided to do were the ones with the girl sitting in her living room, annoyed that the male protagonist is bothering her, when she sees him ot TV and realises she still has feelings for him.

These are photos taken during the process of shooting, showing the location, props and change of costumes. We will start ulpoading the footage and edit it as soon as possible and keep updating pictures of the process.

 

 

 

Cast

As our music video is both narrative and performance based, we have engaged a lot of people.

For the narrative part we have the female and male protagoinist: Venecia and Fiacra.

Venecjia:

The blond girl next door, which has doubts about her feelings for the boy.


Fiachra:

(The one on the right)

The punk rebellious teenager (everything is very stereotypical) who may look tough, but cannot resist the girl and lets his romantic side on show and als tuns out to be the leader of the band:



For the performance part, our band consists of 2 people:

Donna-Maria- Guitar Player

Alex-  Drums

Shooting Schedule

 

This is our shooting schedule and unfortunatelly we are struggling to fill in the exact time and dates, becouse as we might have mentioned, we are facing severe problems with getting everybody together and working around their budy time tables. But we are positive that the first two scenes will be shot withing two days -03.02.2014 and 04.02.2014. Now it's filming time!

Risk assesment

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problems Occuring

So far the planning has been successful; however we have recently come across some difficulties. For example, some of our band members are taking part in a college production and we find it difficult to get them together and actually be able to shoot something.

Then, organising the Douay Hall with the lightning and the big stage would be challenging, therefore we have decided to have a back plan and maybe choose a smaller and cosier space, for instance- the drama department.


  

Treatment Sheet

Proposed Title/Song: Marianas Trench-Perfect

Synopsis of song lyrics: The lyrics are a description of the feelings of a young man, they are quite strong and tell the story of a relationship that has gone wrong and the guy is trying to fix it by changing himself to be a better person and meeting the needs of his partner. Although things might seem hopeless at times it could be described as ''too little too late'', the male protagonist does not give up which gives a positive hint to the situation.

          Storyline: The video is meant to reflect the lyrics of the song in a cheerful and humorous way, indicating that that the situation should be taken lightly, but can also be very emotional. The storyline presents the combination of a narrative and performance based actions, which collide at the end and become one story. At first the boy and girl get into a fight, then we see the male sitting on a couch thinking about the old days when they used to be together. That is when he decides he wants her back, so he buys flowers and goes to her house, but she slams the door at his face, meaning she is still mad and hurt. He tries that several times with a change in costumes, hoping to impress her, but that doesn't work. Throughout the scenes there are pieces of the performance of the band, especially for the chorus and guitar solos. After several trials, the protagonist gives up and enters the performance room, where we become of his relationship with the band members and the fact that he is the lead singer. As they make facial expressions indication the question-''How did it go''- the boy shakes his head and takes the microphone. Then the story returns to the girl, which is sitting in her living room and suddenly sees something (we are not yet sure what) that reminds her that the boy and his band have a concert, so she realises that she wants to go and see him and probably show him in this way that she is willing to give them another chance, so she exits her house. The concert has already started and when she enters the room she sees the boy in the middle of the performance, then their eyes meet and the song he is singing become the unspoken words we wants to say to her. A bit before the end of the song he gets off the stage and walks slowly towards her, reassuring her, with the lyrics, that he ''will make this perfect again'' and the scene ends with him almost whispering the last words and them hugging.

          Characters: Venecia and Fiachra and the female and male protagonists in the narrative part. And the 3 boys and 1 girl and the band from the performance part (AJ, Alex, Donna-Maria and ...)

          Setting (time and place): The scenes will be set in modern times. The two main locations are the concert stage where the performance will take place and outside locations (a street and the front of a house). The scenes with the flashbacks will also contain outdoor locations, mainly fields and near ponds.


          Length (time and shots): The introductory narrative will only take less then a minute, until the lyrics start (only the instrumental music will be on), therefore the video is not going to be longer than the official song length, which is 3.04 min.


Format: Mini DV

Style:

          Genre, mood, influences, claims to originality: The genre is punk ( a bit POPy thought). The performance scenes will be darker, giving the impression of a basement or a gloomy pub, whereas the narrative part will be colourful and cheerful, to create a more light-hearted edge to the video.

          Camerawork/ type of shots: there will be a variety of shots, CUps (performance-instruments, facial expressions) and Long shots (as the boy is walking down the street), and Mid Shots when the boy and girl are together (end and ''slamming the door'' part).

          Length of shots/ editing: the video is going to consist of  lots of jump cuts and fast pace cuts as that is the rhythm of the song. the editing is going to be cross cutting/parallel between the performance and narrative. The flashbacks are going to have a dreamy look, to make clear that these events have already happened.

          Movement and action: The male protagonist will often seek for the girl and walk towards her (her house) or make actions to impress her.

          visual qualities: The video will be shot in colour. The band will be wearing the same costumes, as well as the female protagonist (except the flashback shots), only the boy will have a change in costumes. In both shots in living rooms there will be typical props, as well as the performance shots (instruments, microphones and so on).

          handling of narrative: The storyline is pretty much straight forward even with the use of montage or cross cutting/parallel editing and flashbacks. The climax appears with the ending. Happy ending-cheesy and full of hope, reassuring teenagers all over the world.
                   

Target audience:  Our target audience are young and vibrant people, typical teenagers (literally or in heart and soul) in search for themselves and  seeking comfort in knowing that someone understands how they feel, especially when it comes to relationships. They are between 14-35 and can be both male and female.

Technical aspects:
        production methods: We both will act as directors and focusing on lighting and props. (Kalina and Angrea)
        equipment: cameras, lightning (even projectors), musical instruments, costumes and editing equipment
        locations/studio: Most of the locations will take place in St Edmund's College, The performance part and the stage are in one og the buildings called Doway Hall.

 Resources
        people: The cast is listed and there will be extras for the crowd.
        time: Limited time for rehearsals, most time spent on shooting.
        budget: No budget
                     
Rationale
        Why is this video worth making?
This video will attract a great young fan base. The fact that it is both performance and narrative based will make people watch it over and over if they like the story or the characters. It might look cheesy at first sight, but it gives a positive message and also the actions of the male protagonist might be found ''cute'' by female fans.

Pictures of locations and props

All the locations above can be used for the ''flashback''scenes of the boy and the girl together.

And the next one is the road next to the house on which the boy may be walking.

Below is the house which we will be using to shoot the scenes of rejection from the female protagonist.

We are not yet sure about this house, because it is abandoned and it might be dangerous, it also looks creepy, which is not the effect we are looking for.

This is another possibility for the road on which the boy walks towards his loved one.

We were considering using this field al a location of the cheesy ''flashbacks'' but it was too predictable and stereotypical, therefore we gave up on the idea.

This will be the door where the female protagonist will enter the hall to return to the male protagonist, and show her ever longing love for him.  

The stage above will be where our performance part of our music video will take place. We will use different lighting and props to make it look as realistic and believable as possible. Their will be a small audience watching the band perfrom. Although their will be an audience watching the band will be very chilled performing very informally.

 This was our other option for the performance based scenes, but we decided that it will not fit into the image we want to create as it is too simple.

Below are a range of instruments which we will be using for our performance. We will choose only one of these drums and it's probably going to be the blue ones, because they are eye catching, but that depends on the costume colours.

This is the room in the girl's house where she realises that she wants to see the boy. And probably (if we manage to do it) she will see him performing on that TV screen.

Below is scenery which we will use to shoot memory footage which he remembers while thinking about her when he is sat at home.