Creating the digipak/digipak advert

Original ideas

In the beginning when we were thinking of doing the video with representations of different classes in society, we initially wanted to have a split screen on our digipak of rich actor and poor actor on separate sides

However when our video idea changed, our digipak idea had to change with it. After careful thought, we wondered if it would be better to do the digipak for the single 'Bittersweet Symphony' as seen below rather than the album 'Urban Hymns'.

But once we took photos that we needed for our digipak, we realized we have a decent amount of pictures that we could use to represent all the songs on the album not just the single 'Bittersweet Symphony'.

I looked at The Verve's album cover for Urban Hymns for inspiration because there's not much effort used in the image. the Verve are sitting on the grass in what looks like a park, and each member is doing their own thing. Therefore on our album cover, i wanted Richard and Deon (the new Verve) to be in an urban setting, in casual clothing acting cool (which i succeeded in to an extent).

And for the album advert i wanted it to look similar to the album cover to some extent so it creates a 'brand identity' across all the products.

Here are a few of the pictures below...

possible digipak or advert

possible digipak or advert

possible digipak or advert

possible digipak or advert

possible digipak or advert

When we were editing

using Pixlr to create digipak

using Pixlr to create digipak

Final Idea

In the end I put Richard in charge of creating the digipak in which he did an excellent job on

This is what he produced for our digipak!

This is our final digipak after we made a few changes

And this is our final digipak advert which was created by Richard using Pixlr!

Editing from beginning to end/Audience feedback from final cut

Editing - Part 1 

• Last year we used the IMac's to edit our thriller project, so this year we used the IMac's IMovie programme to edit our work this year

• We uploaded our recordings on to the system, we then started to fiddle with the shots, to see what looks good

• The song was taken from my phone and uploaded onto IMovies so it could act as a guide

• After we noticed that the song we chose was too long (06.04) therefore we had to find a way to add clips that would get to a point where the song could fade out smoothly because we had a time limit of about three to four minutes max

Editing Part 2
We've nearly finished editing our film, we just need to add more clips to make the video drag on a little bit longer. Then we will create our digipak and then do our evaluation questions.

Editing - Part 3

Problems: 

We've come to school for a media studies lesson to finally add the finishing touches to our video but found that our work was missing from the computer....

But! after me and Richard kind of panicked, Deon said we're just going to have to deal with it and re-edit all over again :(. Sooo me and Richard had to re-edit all over again which took us 3 hours!!! but this is only because we used the rough copy that was on Richards USB as a guide line

However the video is still giving us trouble as it is shaking when shown on big screen but when shown on the editing screen it is fine.

Audience Feedback from final cut

This is the sort of messed up 'final cut' (shaky version) which Deon uploaded to Youtube

http://youtu.be/HnCpRkL_Zlw

Hopefully we can get the video to work properly and upload the proper version instead, because at the moment the video is not doing us justice

However, aside form that, Richard filmed the non shaky video onto his phone and showed it to a few of our peers and teachers in order to get feedback...

Here's a few of the comments we got from our teachers and students for our final project

Feedback from Mrs Gunter 

lip synching

. She believed that the snapshots of Camden were excellent 

. Lip syncing of a high quality 

. Liked the head/face shots flashing up 

. Liked the story told - dealing with religion and drugs 

lip synching

Advice

However Mrs Gunter felt that the head shots should of been faster to give a better effect but overall it was fine

Feedback from Mrs Folan 

"I think you have used the urban mise-en-scene really well, it goes with the theme your trying to give out. All in all this video is really good" 

She then went on to say "Richard you look like a real popstar in this" 

Advice

Mrs Folan then got us to think about doing a split screen, she believes it would show the examiners that we had some technical skill

Feedback from Marios D (Media student)

Marios believed we captured aspects of an urban area, he liked the way we got shots of Camden Lock to show some diversity. 

Constructive criticisms 

Marios believed we should add transitions so our music video runs smoothly, he believed our video was lagging time to time.

Filming: beginning to end

First day of filming:

• Shot the classroom scene where the lead actor is shown being a disruptive character in lesson and not taking education seriously
• We used a few of our peers as extras in the classroom

Second day of filming: 

• Me and Richard shot the walking scenes when we went to Camden
• Filmed different areas of Camden and different areas of our main guy walking around there
• In the actual video for bitter sweet symphony he was walking down a busy area too
• We filmed the house scene when he's making drugs. We made it ourselves using salt and some coconut bar which allowed the group and I to make the drugs look realistic. Then we wrapped up the drugs in cling film to add verisimilitude

Cons: 

• Because we didn't have a tripod, the shots that weren't POV shots were shaky so we might have to go back there and re-film
• It was really cold so when trying to keep the camera as steady as possible it was hard to do so because our hands were freezing (tripod would've really helped)
• Originally we was going to try and film our actor walking through the busy street lip syncing. However when we thought about it, we realized the street was too busy and it would be impossible to see him walking/singing as he would get lost in the crowd so we changed it up

Reasons for using Camden is because it's one of many urban areas in London and shows the diverse culture in our society. in addition its always busy, so people are always in your way. this links to the concept of our video which is a bout a guy who constantly has obstacles in his way so he cant change the life he's living.

Third day filming: 

• We shot the outside of a church when we were in Camden on the first day, so on this day we filmed us being inside the church and him praying or looking like he's praying
• This was achieved by using the school chapel which was already set out how we wanted it to be

Pros:

• Even though we did not have a tripod, the shots came out really good due to warmer conditions, so we could actually hold the camera steady

Fourth day filming:

• Lip syncing scenes were filmed in the school classroom 

pros: 

• We finally had a tripod which helped a lot

Fifth day filming: 

• I filmed Richard and Deon Lip syncing in the dark room 

Pros:

•  Everything went well we got the shots we wanted

Sixth day filming:

• We went back to Camden to re-film the walking scenes because last time the shots were too shaky therefore we wanted it to be stabalized

pros:

• The whole crew was present this time so we had more ideas between us regarding filming (three heads are better than two) 
• Shots were much better even though we forgot to bring the tripod (good improvisation techniques)

cons:

• Forgot the tripod but we balanced the camera on objects present at the time
• Weather conditions were still bad, but we coped a bit better this time
  

Seventh day of filming:

• We decided to shoot a POV scene where the main character is selling drugs in school to his classmates. This scene was done during lunch break so that it looks more realistic

We chose to film this in the sixthform block as it shows the main character is balancing school and illegal behaviour 

pros: 

• Richard did well shooting the POV shot
• The students around at the time of filming co-operated efficiently with him so there was no hassle

Final product(s)

The main product and two ancillary task below

digipak

digipak poster

The Verve- Bittersweet Symphony

There was an error with the Imovies software so our video is shaky throughout. Were still in the process of finding a way to get the original to work and send properly