Types Of CD Covers

DIGIPAK

A digipak is a styleised package made out of paper, containing a CD/DVD; of which, the packaging, CD/DVD, booklets, posters they may contain help to promote the band or film of thier product, beliefs and representations. They are composed by a type of binding (often plastic or paper), a tray or packet of somekind to hold the CD in, and can consist of 2 or more panels. An example of a type of digipak is the GATEFOLD CARD CASE design.

JEWEL CASE



[Snow Patrol - Eyes Open]

Alternative to digipaks, CD/DVD are sold in jewel cases. Jewel cases is a plastic case that typically consist of 4 panels and include the CD, track names, studio/copyright data, and a booklet listing lyrics to songs, tributes and photography.

Jewel cases can also (for design purposes) also are used when an added layer of paper covering is used in preference over the plastic.
For example, Evanescence here have used a paper design, and glued a booklet into one pannel containing lyrics, photos and tributes, and have a plastic holder for the disc. Otherwise like before, front design panel will include the artist name and title, and the back will include a listing of song titles.


[Evanescence - The Open Door]

JEWEL CASES can also come with a sleeve. This is usually just to add appeal to the likely audience buying the product.

[The Enemy - We'll Live And Die In These Towns]
BOX SET
A box set however will contain similar features to a digipak, with more in depth information and more components than a typical jewel case does. Often these will combine in a series of CD's and DVD's.

Music Video Project: Ammendments

Pre-Production
Originally, we had planned to use a male unsigned artist, however the mp3 file that was required was not good enough quality to use. We did attempt to record the song in better quality in the music studio, however our artist turned up late to record and only gave us the instrumental part of the song and not the lyrics. This was insuffient therefore to use for our music video, which meant all of our planning (storyboards, what wehad of the treatment) went to waste and we were back to square one with the deadline 4 days away.
We proceeded to look at unsigned bands and music on unsignedbandweb.com and came across Chris Cohen. We listened to "If you only knew" and began brain storming possible ideas for that track. Our teacher gave us consent to use the track and have since contacted Chris Cohen seeking permission to use the track, and have actively begun planning as the previous artist and planning going to waste has meant we are two weeks behind, and have had to ask for an extended deadline to meet and complete all necessary planning as soon as possible. We don't want to fall far behind and lose time on the shooting schedule as this will leave us rushing to complete the project, which we don't want as this could affect the quality of our video.

Production
During the production process, when experimenting with camera movement, we found that for certain shots the lighting or the movement was ineffective. Such a shot was the shot of the male character walking towards the door to meet the female character. Originally this shot was to be an over the shoulder shot however we felt the camera does not track his movement well enough in this shot. Therefore we felt a tracking shot was more effective and also this shot allows variance for types of shots in our video.
A shot where we found the lighting was effective was when the male character stands at the door on his own. We had not planned this shot, however with the inclusion of this shot in our video, it allows us to pull away from the story narrative of the video which will add to the appeal of the video and help our audience understand his thoughts and emotions.

Post-Production
By editing the footage together and trimming what we needed with the razor tool in adobe premiere elements, we found ourselves short on footage. We had to be creative and booked out a camera and shot extra footage we could use. We felt it would be suitable to shoot footage to show the male character's journey home after the argument as this area of the video in previous planning was skipped completely, and it would have been difficult to expand the other footage in such short notice at previous locations. As we shot we deemed it appropriate to include a long shot as we had not previously used any of these in the video, likewise with the close tracking shot of the male characters face. Again, this adds to variety of shots and appeal to the audience. By including establishing shots as cut aways, this allowed us to be creative with lighting and make our video look more artistic. Such artistic shots that included the birds served the purpose of isolation, each charactedr being alone; which when combined with the sign post, represented the possible avenues the characters could go down to resolve the relationship and all the thoughts in their mind and feelings. These at the end of the video converts to two birds to show the characters in unison once again and a saved relationship, also representing this is the shot of the two arrows of the sign post pointing to the one sun (common purpose).

Music Video Analysis; Q2: Representation

2. Representation: OneRepublic – All The Right Moves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCXxWNrUing



The historical context of this video sets up the setting of around 1800-1900’s, which is supported by the use of warm colours such as orange, gold and brown; sepia lighting, costume, the boy introducing the act (OneRepublic), the traditional dance hall location, the masks that are worn by the dancers and the style of dancing that they perform, and the use of a cello and organ (instruments used commonly in music of this era).
The young boy – assumingly hired by the masked man in the black suit to dig for money – is a social issue that can be associated with everyday life, in the sense of bands busking for money or individuals charging a fee for entertainment.
The use of masks for the dancers to wear depersonalises them, instead directing them to become figures in unison (like a community). So with the use of tracking camera movement to reflect their dancing, this makes the video appealing for the audience. As the music builds up in instrumentation at the chorus, the editing speed and the dancing speeds also quicken. By doing this, this makes the video more exciting and appealing to the audience and gives a feel of match on action in respect to the pace of movement in the video.
By avoiding giving the dancers an identity, this allows the video to focus more on the band as they are then not compared to the dancing figures, but the dancing figures made into dancing along to the band. Shots are most often used as an establishing shot of the band on stage (2:36) – which is also done by including dancers which are shaded out to be made into silhouettes with use of key lighting on stage where the band are situated (2:17). Other shots that are used are close ups of the band instruments such as the guitar (typical to the genre) and also mid to CU shots of the lead vocalist (who without a mask, is concentrated on to bring character and personification to the lyrics (artist/band beliefs)). Band image is highlighted in the way that the clothes they wear are not from the time period that the dancers are set in, so with the lack of identity of the dancers (which makes them a collection of their time period), it gives the sense of OneRepublic using their band image to state independence (the intro shots of the masked faces staring at OneRepublic and them staring back set the sense of opposition) and the modernisation of their music with use of electric guitars not used in music of the 1800-1900 era.
The lyrics themselves are in context with the music video. “All the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down” This relates to the commonly shared intention of dance, but wrong choice in location in respect of them losing money and other valuables that the young boy steals throughout the video. “I know things are looking up but soon they'll take us down before anybody is knowing our name.” and “Are we just sinking in an ocean of faces?” relates to the way that the dancers are wearing masks and therefore lacking desired identity and also links back to the social issue of being scammed.

Male Gaze Theories: Laura Mulvey

Mulvey is best known for her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", written in 1973 and published in 1975.
In study of cinematic spectatorship, she focused on how 'subject positions' are constructed by media texts. Mulvey noted that the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (usually erotically) objects. “In the darkness of the cinema auditorium it is notable that one may look without being seen either by those on screen by other members of the audience”. Mulvey argues that various features of cinema viewing conditions makes it easy for the viewer to see both the voyeuristic process of objectifying females and also the narcissistic process of identification. She declares that in patriarchal society “Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female”. As the spectator identifies with the main male character, he concentrates his look onto that of his like, so that he is in favor of the male character as he controls events and coincides with the lure of the erotic look. Traditional films present men as active and controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men in both the story and in the audience, and therefore do not allow women to desire sexual subjects in their own right.
Mulvey distinguishes between two modes of viewing for the film spectator; voyeuristic and fetishistic. Voyeurism involves the controlling gaze and Mulvey claims that this associates with sadism: “Pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt - asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness”. Fetishism in contrast; “The substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous. This builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself. The erotic instinct is focused on the look alone”. She suggests this leads to “Overvaluation” of the female image and to the female movie star. Mulvey argues that the film spectator fluxes between the two.

Reference: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html.

Music Video Analysis; Q1: Media Forms And Conventions

1. Media forms and conventions: The Parlotones – Overexposed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIb76iJCXYY



The mise-en-scene is presented with the theme of a child’s life as the main characters in the video within the narrative (excluding the band) are a child and his mother. This “child like” image is created with the use of animation avatars (like graphics used in computer games), the animation characters playing football in the street and the silhouette doll of the band member the kid finds at the end of the video (interests and hobbies of kids). An everyday typical adult scene of an industrial town is recreated to almost empty the industrial scene of adults and adult politics and introduce such characters as bunnies jumping down the street. This personalises the video into a child like view and encourages the audience to see the video as such. Lyrics to the visual and the music also emphasises this and gives us a sense that the child in the video is describing to us his ideal world; “Shiver, shake, shudder and make my mistakes, this is my life” these lyrics convince us to side with the child in the story of the music video as he attempts to rebel against his mother (the hand to guide him through his life) and does smile and point at the giraffe at 0:32 – which is where such lyrics as “make my mistakes” backs up this rebellion in the child and desire of him to express himself and his preferences. Stereotypically, the lighting and colours of the video are also bright (sunny day and bold colours of avatars) to help appeal to a younger audience, and the CGI of the video uses a variety of camera angles, bold and quick movement. An example of this would be at 1:59 over the lyrics “Get out, get out” the camera zooms out at quick intervals (giving the effect he is pushing his mother away). When the characters all group at the end 2:16- 2:22, this gives a rather claustrophobic feel to the shot which could relate to the title of “Overexposed”.
In the way this video relates to genre, in this case alternative rock, typical attitudes from the band like throwing the guitar, kicking the music stand and close up eye contact with the camera are commonly used within this genre.
Inter-textuality of this video can relate to other bands, one most commonly known as the “Gorillas”, that have a cartoon image within the same genre, therefore perhaps The Parlotones are aiming for the same target audience with this approach to their music video “Overexposed”.