Digipak analysis

Digipak analysis

You me at six

Digipak analysis

Digipak analysis

The Script

The front cover of this Digipak (bottom right) shows a picture of two hands together, additionally there is a colour change, and the band has chosen to make the colour look faded. With the use of this colour it makes me think of a script, so maybe they used the colour to signify the band name. Additionally on the front cover they have the band name bigger than the rest that is to show that they are natural and nothing over the top is needed to sell their album. As there genre is soft rock, this genre connotes that the band is “natural”. Furthermore, the band has chosen to use a woman and males hand this could suggest that the songs are going to be about love.  Finally, the album is called Science and faith and I believe they have used the touch to show the science aspect. To conclude I find the front cover to be very affective and it does follow the conventions of other soft rock artists/bands. 

Digipak analysis

Digipak analysis

30 seconds to mars 

 

When looking at the 30 seconds to mars digipak it is a straight away representation of the rock genre. The colours used are very plain and simple, which suggests that they are trying to show the star image code.

Compared to other genres like Rihanna and Ellie Goulding, they also show the star image but they do this through a different way, Rihanna focuses on her lips because her music is seen to be seductive, but Ellie Goulding focuses on her face, because her face sells music, people will know her when they see her.

By the first appearance on the cover, it automatically shows the rock genre, the use of skulls shows it is dark and suggests it is not going to be up beat music.

Additionally the band have made good links between all the panes, this shows the band are professional. On the inside pane there is a picture of the band, this relates to Goodwins theory of star image. When researching the codes and conventions of this genre I found that this genre like the 'natural' image, when look at this case study I agree that it follows this well.

Digipak planning

After we had a rough image of what we wanted to create, I thought it would be important to link it to some case studies and theories. An earlier theorist we looked at was Goodwin, he argues about star image and how it is very important for the band/lead singer to be center image of slightly forward to the rest of the bad.

Focus group analysis

I will be analyzing the focus group. We decided to do a focus group because, we thought it would give us a more broad representation of our target audience. Although we only asked 3 people they helped get a image in our heads. When we constructed our focus group, we had to sit down and decide what questions we wanted to ask, these are the questions we choose;

What is your name?

·         How old are you?
·         What is your favourite genre of music?
·         Do you prefer narrative or performance? (Why they preferred this option)
·         What would you expect to see in a pop/rock music video?
·         How often do you watch music videos?
·         Where do you watch music videos?
·         What costume design would you expect to see in a pop/rock music video?
·         Do you feel star image is important in a music video?
·         Would you prefer to see the links to the lyrics and image in the music video?

We asked 3 teenage boys. The participants favourite genre of music include indie/pop, rock and rock/pop so this was good as they all had an interest in our genre of music which makes the results more valid when we are considering ideas for our music video as these people are a part of our target audience.

When we asked whether they preferred narrative or performance all of the participants agreed that they would like to see a mix of both performance and narrative in a music video because 'it is good to see both sides' and one participant went on say to that 'every artist gives a sense in every music video'. This was something we were very happy to hear because, it meant we could link it to Goodwin's theory. When it came to construction stages we sat down as a group and figured what parts of the song belonged to what. One thing we hadn't thought of was about the personality being portrayed, the second and third person mentioned this. So we agreed it is important that we get the artists personality across in the music video as our target audience would be able to create a personal identity and relationship with them.

When the participants were asked what they expect to see in a pop/rock music video they all expected to see the band performing on a stage, lots of shots of the band playing instruments and many shots of the band in general. They also said they expected a dark atmosphere so we could do this by having low lighting to get across the pop/rock element. One participant also said that the narrative should be based around the main member of the band. This was a trend we discovered both in the questionnaires and focus group, which just proved to us it was a key thing we couldn't afford to miss. Additionally after looking at case studies like, The Script, Lawson, 5 seconds of summer. This just backed up the research we had received.

Another question we asked was, do you watch music videos and where they watch them? Overall our participants didn't watch music video very often which suggests that the music video isn't very important to them but it stills needs to be enjoyable to watch when they do watch it. An overall consensus we got was that YouTube was the main place to watch videos was YouTube. This was a very good for us because, this was so accessible to us and this meant that we could get lots of feedback for out evaluations. It also relates to the active participant theory, this is when "ameteur" producers makes films / music videos. This is what we are so we were happy to hear that people didn't mind that.

When asked about the costume design they expect to see in a pop/rock music video they all agreed that the clothing should be casual such as jeans and t-shirt so the audience could relate to the band. When planning our costume design we will very likely to go with casual clothing because of our audience research and research into other music videos as all the bands we have looked at dress casually. This was a good support to our earlier research, when we done the conventions at the beginning of the year, one convention we found was the jean look. To support this we looked at similar case studies like, Lawson. Each band member looks similar but have that one significant thing which means you can tell the difference, this is what we wanted to achieve.

Finally when the participants were asked about their feelings towards the importance of star image (relation to Goodwin's theory) in a music video, there were mixed responses as dependent on the song they feel it is important however another participant said that it isn't important but it is good to see what the person singing looks like so when we are planning our music video we will include the band as our target audience would like to them in the video. Additionally each participant said that they would like to see the links to the lyrics and image in the music video so again when we are planning our video we will try to include links to lyrics when it is suitable.

To conclude, we found doing a focus group was very helpful and beneficial for the research stage. Although there were some responses what didn't find our genre, it was good to hear the criticism so we were prepared for the construction stage. We plan to take the advice on and act on it all.

Focus group

Shooting schedule

Shot list

Shot list for Arrows To Athens - Alive
Scene	Shot	Shot length (Seconds)	Location	Description
1	Close up	5 seconds	On stage	The guitar solo begins and is playing along to the music.
1	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	The guitar solo is continuing  and is still playing
1	Mid shot	5 seconds	On stage	The singer is walking to the microphone preparing to sing.
1	Mid shot	7 seconds	On stage	The singer begins to sing the song whilst looking directly into the camera.
1	Mid shot (Low angle)	4 seconds	On stage	The back of the bass guitarist playing along to the song with the lights shining down on him.
1	Close up	4 seconds	On stage	The guitar playing his instrument along with the song. (Not looking directly into the camera)
1	Extreme close up	2 seconds	On stage	The lead singer closing his eyes to match with the lyrics he will be currently singing directly in front into the camera (Goodwin’s theory).
1	Mid shot	2 seconds	On stage	The guitarist being relaxed on stage whilst playing along to the song.
1	Mid shot	3 seconds	On stage	The camera is following the guitarist, from the back, walking over to the drummer.
1	Long shot	3 seconds	On stage	The guitarist walking away from the drummer closer to the front again.
1	Long shot	2 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song.
1	Close up	4 seconds	On stage	A shot of the drummer to build up the sound of the drums.
1	Mid shot	4 seconds	On stage	A shot from over the drummers shoulder whilst he is playing along to the song.
1	Long shot	4 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song. (Not looking directly into camera)
2	Long shot	10  seconds	Backstage	A shot watching the guitarist setting up and then the camera panning across the equipment.
2	Close-Mid shot	3 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer, facing the camera, singing the chorus of the song.
2	Mid shot	3 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer, from the side, singing the chorus of the song.
2	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	A shot showing what the guitarist is doing at the moment in the song (facing the camera but not looking directly into it).
2	Close up	3 seconds	In the crowd	A fan in the crowd singing along to the lyrics being sung by the lead singer. (Not looking directly into the camera.)
2	Mid shot	1 second	On stage	A shot from the side of the drummer beating in time with the song drums.
2	Mid shot	1 second	On stage	A shot from over the drummers shoulder whilst he is playing along to the song.
2	Close up	1 second	On stage	A shot of the guitarist hands playing the guitar in time with the song.
2	Long shot	2 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song.
2	Close up	1 second	In the crowd	A fan singing along in the crowd. (Not directly looking into the camera).
2	Mid shot	5 seconds	On stage	A shot of the lead singers face from the side looking into the crowd and singing.
2	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song.
2	Mid shot	10 seconds	On stage	Individual shots of all the members of the band with the lead singer having arm movements to emphasise the emotions in the lyrics.
2	Long shot	10 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer closing his eyes and bending his knees to emphasise the lyrics whilst looking into the crowd.
2	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer holding onto the microphone stand and singing the song whilst looking into the crowd.
2	Close up	10 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer looking into the camera.
2	Mid shot	7 seconds	On stage	A shot from over the drummers shoulder whilst he is playing along to the song.
2	Long shot	8 seconds	On stage	A shot of the lead singer singing into the crowd with the drummer and part of the guitarist in the background.
2	Long shot	7 seconds	On stage	The singer pointing into the crowd with some of the fans in the shot.
2	Mid shot	6 seconds	On stage	A shot of the guitarist looking into the crowd and showing emotion on his face.
3	Long shot	10 seconds	Backstage	A shot of the band setting up the stage and laughing with each other.
3	Long/Mid shot	15 seconds	Backstage/On stage	A shot of the band walking up the stairs as they are about to start the show.
3	Mid shot	10 seconds	Backstage	The band setting up the equipment before the show.
3	Long shot	10 seconds	On stage	The band finishes the song and thank the audience.