DEVELOPMENT OF MY DIGIPAK CREATION

FOCUS GROUP

MISE EN SCENE

MISE EN SCENE REPRESENTATIONS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

Props - we will be using toys to represent youth and innocence. This will make the audience sympathise for the characters. It also helps to communicate the message of child abuse.

Lighting - general lighting of the video will be quite dark, illustrating its bleak narrative. This adds to the dark mood of the video, emphasising darkness in the characters' lives and suggesting that the lack of colour is symbolic in joy and optimism.

Colour - we will use filters to change the colours of the video to either sepia black or black and white when a flash back shows the destructive abuse of the young girl's father. This is used to show it as a memory and to separate the flashback from the narrative. This is appealing to the audience because despite the fact that they realise whats happening in the narrative and they can the story develop from different stages of the young girl's life. There are unexpected moments revealed as this shocks the audiences. It appeals to the audiences because they find out more about that specific moment, which supports their understanding of the video. 

REPRESENTATION IN YOUR VIDEO

The following social groups include:

Men - a father who is a dominant and aggressive force in the distorted family relationship. He will be represented as close minded and brutal towards his wife and children.

Woman - a caring mother who is abused and disrespected by her husband. A caring and mature figure who shows love to her children despite the father's inappropriate behaviour.

Children - two young girls who are represented as victims of their father's abuse. This will be shown through their character functions and the narrative development as our video will be made.

Ethnicity - The father will be a Somali male, whilst the mother will be a young woman from Yemen, their children will look mixed raced.

Conventional representation of stereotypes within this music video. A dominant male, a under looked female figure being the mother and the daughter. This will be portrayed through  a close up shot showing the fear and frustration from the mother's face and the children. A long shot of the setting will show the scared body language of the children. These negative representations will cause the viewer to sympathise for the characters. It will appeal to the audience as they can empathise the characters' feelings and capture the reality of a broken family to the audience. My group and I believe it'll promote these characters as victims of the society that they live in.

LOCATIONS LIST

The following locations are:

A bedroom - me and my group will record a scene in a bedroom and use a consistency of wide shots , medium shots and close ups. We plan on using this location to portray the natural setting of a broken family who are in a heat of an argument. We plan to use basic shots types such as the ones I've talked about and a low angle shot portraying the father figure as a dominant force in the bedroom scene.
The restrictions and rules are that we have a limit on time with this scene; we plan on making it about 4-7 minutes due to the file formatting. When making our first video we wanted to upload a 10 minute scene however the file size was too big to convert. We will overcome this by having a limit on time for each scene when constructing our video.

School playground. We will film a young girl on the ground crying to convey the impact of the father's abuse; our restrictions is that we might capture footage of students accidentally. Since we can't film anyone without permission if anyone walks into our filming session we will warm them about what we are doing. Again, the limit on time is something we will work on and we'll keep it at 3-5 minutes.

A dark classroom within our school. This room will be used to film a shadow of the dad on a wall. We want to capture the fearsome image of the father in a dark classroom and put it into our music video. One restriction is that we might not be able to access a dark room without autherisation. Therefore, we need to ask for permission from a higher authority. 

STORYBOARD AND LYRICS

Whilst planning the production of our music video, we decided to create a story board to carefully structure exactly which shot types we intend to use to help create a clear and direct link from the lyrics of the song along with the images being shown.  We believed that as a group, discussing and collaborating with one another to make sure we all agreed on which shot types to put together and exactly how much footage we needed and we considered the following:

- The mise en scene (dress code, lighting, location/setting)
- Post - production methods for enhanced editing.
- The availability of each us and a schedule for who and when were to film for our production. 

CREW LIST

Before the production our music video, my group and I created a crew list to make sure everyone understood their roles and we understood that each role would structure how we produced our video in a organised way. 

PROPS LIST

We will be using toys - these toys in the video will represent youth and innocence for the little girl who the narrative will be focusing on. It communicates the message of child abuse to the viewers.

Camera and tripod - we will be using a camera and tripod to capture additional images with a steady camera. This will help our developing production process as we continue to make rough cuts before the final production.

Clothing of characters - We will be using casual clothing, a sense of normality within a broken relationship family in the 21st Century. Black tops and jeans, whilst the younger actors will be wearing iconic clothing towards their role and age. For example, the little girl will be wearing children clothing with vivid colours. 

ANALYSIS OF DIGIPAK ADVERTS

This is a classical advert promoting the what had been the up-coming release for B.I.T.E music. The conventions of this include the colour scheme; the buzzing dark yellow background is interesting in promoting a fashionable Kerrang brand in the past. The capital white font usage shows normality and gives the promotion a classic Kerrang music content promotion. The white bold letter are highlighted in black in order to make the image's features of the what had been the up-coming content easier to read. The choice of image is a medium with a stylish body language; it appears to be a young woman crossing her hands and pointing her pinky and index finger upwards to show a sense of coolness and fashion. The design and layout consists of the features of this page being tilted to the side to make it look more fun rather then formal; these aspects of this advert communicate the pop genre and attract audiences.

This is a very modernised promotional image. The font style is very appealing and conveying the representation of pop with the bright red/pink colour. Also the pose of the young woman who is Katy Perry is very iconic for young woman through her beautiful and figure and her peaceful surroundings. The font style differs between the name and a slogan in blue where it says 'One of the Soya'. Near the bottom in white it has a description of the content which will be included quoting one of the songs '' I Kissed A Girl'' and saying that its a #1 hit. These elements all communicate the pop genre. 

ANALYSIS OF 2 OR MORE DIGIPACKS

EMINEM

The front cover consists of a music album which with the additional detail being highlighted in green with the name of the song in big, white capital letters saying 'WHEN I'M GONE'.  The conventions include the center of the image having the album's name. A medium shot from the waste below is used to show the professionalism and the theme of seriousness in his music with the roses on the stage floor together with his suit and glimmer black shoes. The wording is very formal and clear so that any consumer can easily understand it. This choice of shot has been used compared to that of any other to show the beauty in the song by showing a iconic view of the 'curtain call'.

The inside case of this disc consists of the imagery and the theme of his song being shown throughout the entire production; the front cover's name with the red letter in E also being put into the disc tells the consumer that the disc belongs to that case. Also, the conventions of the dark, atmospheric brown representation shows that its a song of a dark nature and a deeply emotional story line. The font is capital letters  for the name of the artist which is Eminem whilst the songs on the inside are listed in order so that the consumer can see what they've purchased. The layout follows the company and the producers that this artist is with saying ' B-ROKX ABC JAM RECORDS'.  These elements communicate the element of rap.



LIL WAYNE

The conventions of this front cover is that the music industry presenting the star which is Lil Wayne. a common convention is the dark theme which a grey background for the front cover, conveying the presentation of arrogance and evil. The colour scheme of the name shows the artist name in red in and a dark grey filter of the image showing a ominous theme and something interesting at first sight to the consumers. The wording is very appealing as the producers of the artist music is used in a unique font and written at the top whilst the rest of the wording is at the bottom with standard writing apart from the pun at the bottom. It says 'NO TALKING - NO SHOUT OUTS - NO DROPS'; this tells the consumer that the content is purely music and that the producer apply the mentality of Lil Wayne's image in the media is shown through the front cover.  The image choice is a medium shot portraying the focus of Lil Wayne's face . The design and layout are very clear and standard.

The inside cover of this music magazine portrays the list of 36 songs with this CD on the interior having a more brighter colour and the informal font fits in with the 'image' of Lil wayne. The choice of wording is very colloquial as webpage links to the music are given along with the list of songs from this artist. The informal font sees the creativity within the songs and appeal in a physical contexts to the audience ( what they see ). A left-sided long shot of the artist has been placed to that angle for the rest of the information to fit the page. The title and the name of the listed songs are that of a different colour to the webpage link and other information to show the consumer whats what. These elements communicate the genre of rap.

                                                            

The back case simply consists of a low-angle shot of Lil wayne sitting on a sofa; the low angle shot portraying his  power in his industry. That element alone already conveying the audience attraction. The font and wording of the letters slopping downwards also blends in with the image of the artsits, as this is a rap video. The iconography at the top let saying that its a explicit video with forms of aggression, violence and adult content. 

GENRE AND SUBCULTURE

The genre that i've chosen for my music video is Pop. The sub-culture is a mixed group of a young girl aged 6, a grown man for a father and a kind, and gentle mother. The 'family' grouping creates this sub-culture representation.

Artists - Beyone , Adele and Rihanna 

1) image- The image that they create female strength and power since all songs talk about struggles that they went through and their powerful vision of their futures that appear to be becoming more optimistic.

Ethnicity - Beyone has a American nationality, Adele has a English nationality whilst Rihanna is also American but has a Jamaican culture.

Age - Beyonce is 34, Adele is 27. Also, Rihanna is also 27

Gender -  They are all female.

Culture - Their culture is a American background; an American culture which confines the typical lifestyle of the US. The US has the largest economy in the worl.

Ideology - The values of women empowering their destiny and the ideology of female strength runs through all these artists' music videos/

Major/Independent record label -  Rihanna's label records include the following: Def Jam, Rock nation, SRP, Westbury road. Beyonce's record label include Columbia records. Lastly, Adele's record labels include XL and Columbia.

VIDEO 

Content - The content of the music video of beyonce evokes the singular representation of each artist. The music video simply shows for Beyonce a fake or illusion of what 'love' appears to be and her message to her viewer is that falling in love with the wrong man is extremely dangerous. Adele's music video simply shows her passionate feelings and her optimism of her previous relationships and how she wants her previous spouse to be happy despite she is alone. And Rihanna's music video indicates the power of confidence woman should have as it shows he in multiple locations such as the water that she is floating above on to represent her singularity and female equality.

Style and length of editing - The style of Beyonce, Rihanna and Adele's music video seem to show sparks of emotional connection. Beyonce inappropriately dressed showing her audience that physical and mental beauty can be powerful ( mise en scene) and that the length of the music video is 4:14.
Rihanna's music video portrays the mental security that she has as her main lyric is 'shine like a diamond' and this represents the values of confidence and maturity within herself as her locations set the style of her message; the length of the music video is 4:43. Lastly, the style of adele appears to be different as a more dark filter has been used with the camera tracking her movement across the riverbed setting, the songs length is 4:45.

Mise en scene - Beyonce is inappropriately dressed in the first half of her music video whilst she is wearing a wedding dress in her other half of her video; make up and her hair done to portray female beauty. Within Rihanna's music video in the beginning she appears to be naked with the camera only showing the top half her body, whilst in other parts of her video she seems to be wearing normal,feminist fashionable cloths. Adele seems to be wearing appropriate clothing with a black jacket covering her body which links towards the dark cinematography used.

Locations - The location of Beyonce's video is in her bedrooms and in a beach where a out-side wedding is shown. With Rihanna her music video is created in a dark stage. together with a bedroom and a sea-side where she is floating in the water. Adele's music video takes the viewer to a bridge which passes across a river.

Star development - Their careers developed through their record labels and their growing reputation of the ever so growing technology, medium broadcasting of TV's , online websites such as YouTube and Mp3 players .

Camera shots / angles - Within Adele's music video a tracking camera on a bridge tracked her movement for the entire music video; simply allowing the audience to focus on the lyrics rather then the dark setting of the music video. Secondly, for Beyonce a consistency of medium, wide shots, long shots and ELS constructed the narrative of her music based video. Within Rihanna a high angle shot of her on the water shows her feminist side as well as the close ups of her face allowing the viewer to focus on the singular representation of Rihanna.

Characters - Since all music videos construct singular-narrative based representations , no other characters apart from those stars are focused on in the music video.

Colour and lighting - As I've mentioned before , in Adele's music video a dark atmosphere has been created through the dark filter which matches the theme of loneliness within her music video. Beyonce uses very bright light editing of sunlight shining down on her as she approaches the wedding stage, also in her bedroom the natural lighting captures her beauty. Within Rihanna's music video a dark theme has been set together with natural lighting to convey sides of her life-style and complex mindset of the theme 'shine bright like a diamond'.

                                                      Beyonce - Best thing I never had 

Rihanna - Diamonds 

Adele - Someone like you 

                   

AUDIENCE

Audience categories can range from factors such as: age, gender, personality and inspiration.
Audiences have a certain line of expectation that needs to be crossed when creating a music video. When analysing and looking at music videos audiences are different and are interested in different genre elements or categories which depict their interest. For example, a TV show which is on-going such as The Walking Dead, a certain age factor is drawn from young adults and above; this can be seen through the ages of 15-40.
The intensive violence and weapon usage restricts the interest of children and draws a limit of expectation to the audience of that age group.


When looking at gender, specific artist such as Lana Del Ray will peak the interest of the female gender more since she has a feminist representation and is iconic towards the understand of woman through her song. For example, summer time sadness focuses on a lesbian couple who positively reflect on their lives and who commit suicide. This appeals more to woman who have a interest in other woman; excluding the vision of men being a target audience for this video.  Personality and inspiration can come from life experience that people may want to re-think and reflect on; this can be done by watching videos which remind them of situations similar to their own which interests the audiences. This can be done through music video, TV shows, etc...

ALTERNATIVE MUSIC VIDEOS: CUNNINGHAM AND GONDRY

Cunningham 

Cunningham's music is very unique and creative; one theory which I've noticed that isn't applicable to this music video is Laura Mulvey's theory. Mulvey, aged 74, argues that the camera/audience always represents a heterosexual man's perspective of the scene objectifying women. This is not shown, as a young woman is objectified as a independent woman who talks about a single man who can control how she feels when she says '' only you can tear me apart '' from 1:52-1:58. 

CCCS - All sub-cultures don't originate from mainstream music videos. However, it does apply to this alternative music videos in Cunningham's work. Family is a sub-culture shown through youth as a young boy and woman are portrayed. The interests of music videos compared to that of just the music is dying out but it strongly applies as his videos are mainstream. He was won many honours such as the MTV music video awards for breakthrough videos. Also, he was nominated from a Grammy for best short film. However, his unique quality in his music videos generate completely unique ideas. 

Cunningham's work does reflect Hebdige's theory of cultures in their own rights as this music video portrays the love and aspiration of a young woman ( family being the sub-culture in this case ) by having own rights, the rights in this case having the right to love whom you chose. 

McCracken's - People indeed do change, especially within age and become adjusted to different sub-cultures. The theme of love is expressed in this music video; love empowering people's choices and influences as they change for those they love. This is shown through the lyrics of this music video.

This video doesn't support the paradoxes, the video shows no contradiction and doesn't indulge in a star representation as shown. Only two characters are represented.

 Chris Cunningham is a British Video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire and raised in Lakenheath, suffolk.
He was famous for directing music videos on ambient music and electronica acts; this included Autechre and Aphex twin.











GONDRY 

One theory that this music video supports is Andrew Goodwin's. One part of his theory indulges with a visual link between the images portrayed and the lyrics. This is very powerful in this music video as a triple narrative is shown of the 3 different woman who appear to be having a stressful day. The continued line of ' How are you doing?' reinforces the busy life style shown and shows a link between the visual imagery and the lyrics.

The mainstream mise en scene representation ( which Gondry is famous for ) shows a normality within his work in this video. A old fashion, triple narrative edit shows the mainstream idea portrayed. 

Hebdige's idea of little cultures in their own rights strongly applies as the typical, stereotype of an American house wife is shown in the suburban representation. The modern and daily life style of this woman reflects that culture strongly. 

McCracken's theory doesn't apply since there is no character within this video changing within age. This artist can't be applied to Gondry's work. 

Dyer star theory on paradox is rich within his second theory which states that ' a star is both present and abscent'. This there is only one character shown, its clear to the viewer who the star is.

Michel Gondry is a french film director, screen writer and producer. He is famous for his intensive vision on visual style and manipulation of mise en scene. Ranked as one of the greatest film of the 2000s, he won an academy award for best original screen play as one of the writers of eternal sunshine of the spotless minds. which came out in 2004. 

EQUIPMENT LIST

1) Digital Video camera , canon DSLR  - The canon digital camera is a high quality camera which will enable my group to gather any images that we need to incorporate into our music videos

2) Camera recorder - The digital recorder will certainly be used to record the footage which will make the music video.

3) Mobile phones - After production, any additional footage which needs to be captured can be done individually before beginning to edit our music video.

4) Apple mac computer - After all the content is gathered, the mac computers will be used to finalise, edit and create our music video.

5) Tripod - A tripod will be used to capture clear, and study shot types.

MEDIA BROADCAST PLATFRORM

Mediums are imperative for the content of music videos to reach their audiences'. Exactly what is a 'medium' in media? Well, a medium in media is a agency or means of doing something. This is applicable towards my music video because we will be broadcasting our music video through YouTube, the TV and online through websites. Knowledge can be consumed through these mediums and its easy for them to access them since its online. Youtube channels which will have a 'recommended' section will also broaden our music video visually.

CONVENTIONS

What are Conventions ?

Conventions are ''common features''; these features are important towards what they try to represent.

   
Conventions of a music video in general ( e.g close ups, cutting to the beat of the music, etc ) demonstrate audience expectations through natural prop usage ( mise en scene ) to make sure that everything vital for a music video's success is included. Conventions including cinematography of appropriate use for the video. Cinematography which exploits the common understanding of what the audience can assume to happen; the setting and location together with what the narrative is saying. For example, Breaking Bad consists of illegal crystal meth cooking, this can be exemplified through the hidden locations which is expected of the audiences and their working suits which protects them from harmful chemicals. The camera shot mainly using medium, long, ELS and wide shot portraying the situations and locations that audiences expect.              

The conventions of music videos of rap consist of a appropriate setting, a more 'cool' location such as a inner city, clubs, parties and activities which include swimming and having a day out in the city. Normal conventions within a rap video include the characters mise en scene such as costumed clothing of rappers idolised or clothes with a strong and popular brand which signifies popularity. My  music video genre is Pop aimed at females; this will include female-like clothing and a more dark atmospheric background as the video focuses on events of negativity.