Student Digipak Analysis;

I decided to analyse a student digipak to give me more idea of what my final digipak would look like and see if I could get some ideas from it. I chose a digipak which was from the same kind of genre as my song which was Hip-Hop Beyonce - Diva.

This is the front of the digipak, which shows the artists composition to be central to the front cover. She is also wearing sunglasses which is a usual generic convention of Hip-Hop artists as they are seen to be cool and confident, this is also shown through her composition as being central and looking at the camera shows that she is confident and the centre of attention. There is a spotlight behind her, this conveys the message that she is in the "lime light" and is in the eyes of the public. The text shown on the front cover is different for te artists name and the song name. The artists name is in a italics and the song name is in capitals and impact. This makes the artists name stand out as it is bigger this draws people in if they recognise the name. I think that, personally, the song titles should be bigger than the artists name as you are promoting the song, but in this case I think it looks really effective and really grabs your attention when you see her name.

The back of the digipak is very dark, like the front which portrays a sense of mistery and unknown which could convey the message that this song is unknown and something she has never done before. There is some usual conventions of a digipak on the back. for example the barcode and the titles of the song in numerical order. Although I dont think the writing stands out enough to grab my attention this is something I will focus on when creating my digipak, making sure that all the writing is clear and visible.

This is the inside of the digipak I think this well continued from the front as it follows the same colour scheme and font. The main artist is seen on the facing page, as she is seen on the back, the front and the inside it shows that she is the main performer and is very well known. The sunglasses again represent the usual conventions of this genre. I think I would have the lyrics on the inside as I think this is a usual convention of a digipak and would make it look more professional. 

Analysis of Digipaks 3 - Rhianna

This digipak is very dark and mysterious around the artist. This allows us to be able to focus all our attention onto the artist which is central of the cover. She again like Tinie Tempah takes up most of the room on the cover this could represent that she is also very confident and bold. There is also direct address between the artist and the person looking at the cover this draws them in. This could also show that she is very confident which is a convention of a Hip-Hop artist. The colours which are used on this album cover are very dark which gives a mystical feeling towards the song and the artist. The type of font used is very small at the bottom this could because they want you to focus all of your attention onto the face of Rihanna I think this is because she is a very well known artist so just her face would draw people in if they haven't seen the image before 

Analysis of Digipaks 2 - Jay-Z

This digipak is very different to Tinie Tempah's as it only has three colours; black, white and red. These colours are used effectively, red being used in the centre this draws our attention to the cover as red is the first colour that we see. The background image is a collection of instruments. This is very interesting as it is contemporary and is almost like a piece of artwork. In contrast to Tinie Tempah's cover the artist does not feature on the front cover which goes against the convention of a Hip Hop digipak. This could be because it is different that it draws people towards the cover. Also the picture being black and white can emphasise the structure of a certain picture. The variety of ways that different colours convert to different greys means that you can have quite fine control over just what parts of your picture will be light and dark, in addition to lighting levels. This can help to make the picture and the album cover more interesting.

Analysis of Digipaks 1 - Tinie Tempah

This digipak is very clean cut and simplistic. This allows us to be able to focus all our attention onto the artist which is central of the cover. He takes up most of the room on the cover this could represent that he is very confident and bold. There is also direct address between the artist and the person looking at the cover this draws them in. This could also show that he is very confident which is a convention of a Hip-Hop artist. The artist has a stern look on his face which could portray that he means business and that he is very confident again. The colours which are used on this album cover are very dark which gives a mystical feeling towards the song and the artist. The style of the font used on this digipak is very sharp and edgy which portrays the style of the music as being contemporary. I really like this cover as the main artist is in the middle of the cover and is looking straight ahead this shows confidence. 

Conventions of a digipak;

Digipak;

1. Name of the album and artist
2. Bar code
3. Picture of artist
4. Record label logo
5. Website
6. Parental advisory
7. Stickers on the front; "featuring the single.."
8. Copyright
9. Song title
10. Producer

What is a digipak?

A digipak is a style of CD or DVD packaging which is used to promote an artists new album or single.

My digipak will have between four and six sides, including a front cover, reverse cover, spine and disk impression.

Black & White;

I decided that a way to make my video look a lot more stylish and slick I thought it would be a good idea to have parts in black and white at high contrast. This makes the video more stylish and sleek and also relates to Hip-Hop being this way. I think black and white when used in the right way can make a video or any product look very professional. Making the contrast higher I thought would work really well. This makes the image more sharp and makes the black, black and the white, white.

Writing shots; rough cut;

I decided that for the writing cutaways within my video that I would try and create the same effect as the writing in "All of the Lights" this I feel will fit in with my video as it is shot within a club and the writing being flashy and bright could relate to the lights in a club and give out the same impression. I also feel that this will keep the audience interest as there will be a variation between shots and writing within the video.

I began to create the writing cutaways for my video. I tried to get the font to fit in with the conventions of a Hip-Hop video being big and bold. Also the font being bright with a red outline means that this could be flashing to make the same effect as "All of the Lights" video.

Fonts for music video and poster;

I have choosen mainly bold fonts. The reason I have chosen these is because I believe that it catches attention and peoples eye. Also having bold easy to read text which is simple but affective I think is best as for example on a poster people will only glace at it as they walk past so it has to be bold and be easy to read quickly. My final decision was to use; Tw Cen Consensed Extra Bold as I feel this one works the best and is the simplest and also the most clean cut.

Filming Schedule;

Location are seen in orange.
Still to shoot;
- Shots of the main performer singing in two different locations wearing different clothes. Drama Studio or the hall and Photography (black screen)
- Person walking down the stairs from different angles. Outside photography; mental stairs.
- Another shot of a person falling backwards into a big mat used throughout for different cutaways mainly slow motion. The gym.
- Long shot of four people dancing for end scene switch between four last shots. Drama studio; use the white wall.
- CUTAWAY of around 20 people dancing in the drama studio with different shots used; close up; going through the crowd, long shot of people dancing and mid shot. This is my main cutaway, so I need to get a lot of shots that I will be able to use. Drama studio.


- Cutaways;

• Long shot of lights with person walking across - hall or sports hall.
• Water falling to the fall in slow motion - outside the front of school; markings on the floor.
• Mid shot person throwing clothes into the air - hall.
• Close up and high angled shots of a person playing the decks; different angles - above the hall.
• Close up of man with glasses on and another shot of man with a necklace on - using the black background thing in photography.
• Shot of the speakers moving with glitter on; slow motion? - Wherever the speakers are; sixth form common room.
• Close up of someones hands clapping to go in time with the music - drama studio.
• Mid shot of car wheels and lights - on my driveway or my friends.
• Slow motion effect of confetti stars falling to the floor with black background - photography.

- Shot of lyrics on the screen for 10 cutaways; different fonts but with the same theme of hip hop for the continuity of the music video; "hello" to be the the British flag, "bonjour" to be the French flag and Halo to be the Spanish flag.

Thursday 6th October;

1. Shot of car wheels and lights used as a cutaway.

Friday 7th October;

1. Filming main performer in one of the locations specified.
2. Slow motion confetti falling

Thursday 13th October;

1. Shot of four people dancing in the drama studio.

Friday 14th October;

1. Another location shot of main performer.
2. Close up of man wearing glasses and necklace.

Mood-board;

This mood board was created to show the conventions of a Hip Hop music video. I also wanted to create a mood board so that the signs and visuals associated with the genre would be fresh in my mind when it came to my own filming.

Editing Green Screen;

With editing green screen there is a way of being able to get rid of the green part and put an image or a video in the background to make the shot look more interesting. To do this I wrote down the steps;

1. Effects
2. Keying - chroma keying; click and then drag onto the video stream line;
3. Use the dropper tool to select the green
4. Then use similarity and blend to get rid of the green part of the video;
5. Put smoothing to; high
6. Do the same with eight point garbage for steps 1,2,3 then; crop the outside away