Font research- Digipak

The style of font within the genre of Alternative rock is often different depending on the artist but I have looked at some of the key bands in the genre including the Arctic Monkeys who are the band we are basing our artist on ans summarised the key font ideas:

From this research I have found that the font should definitely have a black theme to it and possibly something else other than just the name of the band. The font should either be in all capitals or all lower case and maybe could be blocked in by some lines as this is what is typically seen throughout all of these key bands in the genre. 

Institutional information to include- Digipak research

In a Digpack there must be information on the institution and the producers of the CD and from looking at different magazine adverts and digipacks I have found what information to include on the producers and the institution:

• It is very important  to include the name of the record company and is done on all digipaks, for our digipak we will therefore put "Domino Recordings" on our digipak
•  Often as part of both the institutional information and subsidiary content the names of the band members and their roles in the band 
• If the song is mixed by anybody then they too should be mentioned as part of the institutional information on the the digipak.
• It should also mention the place in which the song was produced/created. 
• The management of the band should be mentioned as some of the key institutional information. 
• Finally there should also be information on the people who helped with the design such as Art design and the people who have taken the photos. 

Images of artist- Digipak Research

From looking at different images of the Arctic Monkeys I have been able to see how the images are styled and therefore we will be able to create the right images for our digipak, as it will be clearer as to how the band create the images and how they frame the band as well as make the lighting effective.
This is demonstrated in the prezi below:

Editing session 3 (Rough Edit)

Today we were able to finish the rough edit of our music video and it has now been uploaded to YouTube and is attached below, this is useful for us as we will be able to get audience feedback on the video and will attempt to do another focus group with the participants of the first one to see what the target audience think of the video and what they would want to change. In this editing session I was able to edit in the final scene of the video when Alex enters the house and makes up with the mannequin after their falling out because he was late. For this I wanted to make it look as though Alex is scared at first and so there are longer shot when he pokes his head through the door to show his fear but then the shots become shorter cuts as they make up.

For the final scene where Alex and the mannequin dance in the snow and I wanted it so that it had no music over it but wasn't too far away from the end of the song. I struggled to do this at first as we felt it went on too long after the end of the song however we were able to eventually shorten down the video by removing another scene so that the scene fit well. At first we were slightly worried there may be some issues with continuity as the scene was of Alex walking into the house but we didn't see this as a problem and instead used temporal elliptical editing/temporal discontinuity. Therefore, the video jumped to where Alex pokes his head round to look it on the mannequin before he walked into the room.  I added a dissolve at the end of the shot so the ending of the video doesn't seem abrupt but is more tender as that is the intentions of the final moments of the video.
Alex and me discussed point of which to add in the band so that we could build more of a relationship between the band and the character which is symbolic of the relation between the audience and the artist. We did this through the video as in early parts of the song Bayley and Alex have a scene where Alex speaks the words in the song before the artist continues to sing them.
We took more focus into continuity in this editing session as we made sure that there were no sudden changes within the narrative of the video.

Editing session 2

In this editing session me and Bayley looked as his part of the video and he continued to edit it. In this session Bayley edited the section of the narrative where the man enters the kitchen and cuddles the mannequin as this is what is said in the lyrics. When he hugs the mannequin it is a flashback and that is why he used a flash as a transition from one shot to when Alex is in the kitchen. This fits in with the lyrics as they read "remember cuddles in the kitchen" as therefore we bared that in mind when fitting this scene into the video so that we can stick to the Goodwin's idea of illustration. Along with this Bayley used match on action in this scene when Alex walks through the kitchen.

We looked at the early part of the video and Bayley looked to see if he could refine it some more so that the scene was as good as he could get and he did find some ways to improve it and so will do so one we have completed the rough edit.

Subsidiary content on magazine covers- Digipak research

MAGNET is a magazine which I have looked at in reference to the subsidiarity content and found it is most relevant within their list of the top albums of the year due to their descriptions about the album. This will help us in our digipak production as we can incorporate some of the techniques they use when describing an album as they dont just describe the album but also the band and this is something we should so with our digipak. This is examples in their description of the Black Keys album "Brothers":

There are references in this review to live performances and comparisons between them and other bands not just descriptions of the album which is beneficial for us when we make our digipak as we will also reference the band and possibly the making of the song so it is not just a description of the Song/s.

Along with this I also looked at the subsidiary content in the album "Nevermind" by Nirvana as it is one of the most iconic alternative rock albums and would therefore be very useful to investigate. This is an image of the subsidiary information in the album:

This subsidiary information is all some of the bands favourite lyrics from the songs on the album as well as the list of songs on the album. This along with other subsidiary content from different singles and albums is helpful as we can see them putting the lyrics of songs or certain lyrics from certain songs on the digipak will be important as it is almost always done. We will most likely put the lyrics of the song in as part of the subsidiary content or we will put in lyrics from the song which are in our favourite parts of the video.

Connotations of titles (Albums and Magazine articles)

Through looking at the titles of different Albums and magazine articles within the genre I have found many things which will help us decide on what the title on our digipak will be as this will be one of the fist thing people will see on the cover and so we must know what the connotations are:

The man who sold the world

The album "The man who sold the world" by David Bowie is an Album title which has many connotations and is an important Album in the history of Alternative Rock music. The title of the Album draws people in allows them to interpret the name of the album in their own way. Some of the ways in which the Album name can be interpreted as are:

• Can be seen to be suggesting that possibly David Bowie is describing himself as he could be the man who sold the world. The idea of selling the world is one which implies that the person who sold it has lots of power and therefore could suggest to people that Bowie is suggesting that he has lots of power and control.
• The title may also suggest that he is talking about somebody else and that he has possibly met somebody like this and that he the songs within the album will be about the person who sold the world. 

        American Idiot

• The album "American Idiot" by Green Day is a title which was appropriate for the time of its release as people in America and across the world would see this as being a title which is describing the year America have had. This is seen as it was the year following the beginning of the Iraq war and one which was opposed by many people as some believed 9/11 was an excuse for the government to go to war. There were also many other bad events that occurred in America and so the album was presumably named for this reason and it was very popular with Green Day being seen as one of the most popular musical groups that year. 

Whatever people say I am, that is what I am not

The album by the Arctic Monkeys which has the song Mardy Bum on it is called "Whatever people say I am, that is what I am not" and this has many connotations and is very relevant to the title we will give due to it being the title of the Album which the song we have chosen to make a music video for is on. This album title is rebellious and it suggests that people should go against what they are labelled to be. The band built up a fan base before the release of the album and when it was released it became very popular amongst younger people. The album along with the image completely gives the impression that people should break stereotypes and the rules of society.

Editing session 1

In this first editing session we firstly downloaded the clips onto the computes so that we could start to make our video. We had earlier added the clips from the band section of the shoot and after we added the narrative section we could begin editing.

We managed to make a rough edit of the first minuet of the song which contained both Bayley's and Alex's section of the filming. Alex decided to have the opening introduction as just before the band begin to play as they are setting up for the shoot. This was already filmed and so the raw footage was all we needed for this, but Alex did split the audio from the clip using the blade tool so he could adjust in according to the volume of the song. I suggested we should have the very beginning of the clip to open with static as it will add to the raw feel of the opening of the music video.

Alex and Bayley then decided between each other where the band should go and where the narrative should for this section of the song. Bayley had filmed clips where Alex speaks the song lyrics to the mannequin so we could put this in time with to music to create a link between the band and the narrative, this took some time to do and we had to cut the clip down and extend it is certain parts using the blade tool to get it so Alex speaking the words matched perfectly with the song lyrics. This took us some time to match up but now the clip is in sync with the lyrics. Another way in which we formed a link between the band and the narrative was a more simple and subtle one as we used the prop of the glasses. This is demonstrated as the lead singer of the band is wearing the same glasses as the mannequin which is representative of the constructions section of Dyers star theory as the fans of the genre attempt to replicate the artist due to the constructed personal created.

Along with matching the narrative with the song Alex had to pay close attention to the the band section as the timing of the singing had to perfectly match with the timing of the actual song. As I was able to play the song on the guitar I knew the right point as which to play from so both the footage of the guitar playing and the singing would be in time.

Between then Alex and Bayley decided the right points to add different transitions as there is mostly cuts between the clips however it was decided that the change is too drastic for a cut sometimes especially when going from the narrative to the band or vice versa and so most of the transitions across the two sections so far are fades.

Digipak conventions research

A digipak is a painted style of optical disc packaging. It traditional consists of a gate-fold paper card and inside a plastic case there is often a CD which in this case will be intended to the the song for our music video, Digipaks became popular in the early 2000s.
Here is an example of a some digipaks from different bands within the genre including the Arctic Monkeys and I have labelled the conventions of alternative rock digipaks on these which I have taken pictures of: