Digipac researching - Genre

After researching some digipaks that were produced by artists that fall in the indie/rock genre it became evident that they share many of the same conventions. Below are just a selection of album covers that I found inspiration from.

The most noticeable feature is the simplicity of the visuals and designs. They rarely include the feature of voyeurism that Andrew Goodwin spoke about but instead feature some sort of icon that links to the artists theme of music. For example Bon Iver's music is especially calming and pacifying, hence the mellow colour palette of oranges and browns. Additionally The Arctic monkeys design holds the trademark of cigarettes and smoking, which is closely linked to the nature of their music and music videos.

 I also particularly like AM's digipak as it includes two images that relate to each other. This is a convention I wish to include in my digipak design as I feel it includes the audience in their 'behind scene' banter.

Stills and compositions shot so far.

 Below are a selection of just some of my favourite shots that we have taken so far.

These two specific shots were captured in our first location, alongside the canal.

The bench is framed in the centre of this shot making it the focal point. However this changes when
Janadhi enters the composition as she is then placed where the vertical line indicating
where the rule of thirds compostion of '9v9' would be, drawing attention
from the bench onto her.

This shot is my favourite from this location. It was one of the many Kelly captured 
whilst she climbed and walked along the bridge. Not only does it establish our setting with its wide angle composition, but it also emphasises the vastness of our location by the prominent diagonal line that runs through the shot. 

The next three were filmed in our school gym.

To comply with the 'rule of thirds' Jan was positioned in a way which seems 'natural' and 'comfortable' to the audience, this is due to the symmetry framed by the positioning of the rowing machine bike against where Janadhi's body is. 

By leaving the rowing machine in the foreground out of focus and placing it entirely on Janadhi's face, it enhances her facial expression and draws attention directly onto her. 

By directing Janadhi to act out this particular body language, it paints to our audience how exhausted the protagonist is, and emphasises and in a way foreshadows the struggles she is currently suffering and what she is to expect.

These last few shots were taken at our last filming location.(The agility park in Primrose Hill)

This high angle close up shot has her hands gripping the bar, in focus. Whereas her face, which is distant is left out of focus, this is one of many shots where we chose to include a varied number of different and 'unique' angles in which we can capture her exhaustion yet determination to succeed.

In order to capture her empowering facial expression in this specific shot, Janadhi was framed in the middle of the shot, her arms acting as the two vertical lines to comply with the 'rule of thirds,' this allows no distractions to occur leaving her face as the dominant feature. 

Similar to the previous still shot, Janadhi's arms during this close up of her 'attempting' a push up follow the two vertical lines of the '9v9' grid, leaving her in direct view for the audiences attention. 

Costume change.

Not only did we need to film Janadhi training in the agility park, we also needed to capture Jan in her official army uniform running up the hill and standing at the top. The main message within our video is focused on the empowerment of women and to inspire the movement of equaling the gender gap within certain sectors of the economical world.

To showcase this message we wanted to capture a wide angle panning shot of Janadhi standing at the peak of the hill looking down at the city of London framed in the distant background, symbolising her character reminiscing on the past struggles and achievements she had to go through to get to where she is now.

Make shift equipment

In order for us to capture the steady tracking shots of Janadhi running we brought our friends skateboard along with us. We aimed to be able to place the camera on the flat surface of the skateboard, and roll it alongside Jan as she jogged, this angle would be able to capture just her feet, but we imagined it would be a successful way of achieving the shots that we wanted.

When it came down to actually using the prop, rather than filming Jan running on the flat surface of the ground, we ended up wanting to film her running along an extended wooden beam that was included in her workout routine instead. 

However with the camera sitting on the flat surface of the skateboard it wasn't elevated high enough to capture her feet running along it. After much brainstorming over the items we had with us at the time, we decided that propping the camera up with my scarf was the best way to capture the perfect shot, and it worked! Me and kelly rolled the skateboard back and forth to each other which enabled us to get some really nice steady shots. 

Filming Action shots.

At our Primrose hill location we were attempting to capture all of our agility training shots. These shots reveal Janadhi in her army uniform and her journey through her intense training.

The montage of her action shots need to last approximately 45 seconds, as these are shots needed to fill the instrumental section found in the middle of the song, because of this we needed to film A LOT of Janadhi working out in the agility park, and as we were filming for around 3 hours I'm hoping got all the footage we needed!

Below are just a few of the behind the camera shots I took showcasing the workouts Janadhi had to endure through, I must admit I was very glad I was on the other side of the camera.

Third filming location.

Last Friday Kelly, Janadhi and I traveled up Central London to the fitness park located in Primrose Hill, at this location we focused on filming the agility course shots of Jan in 'training.' These specific training shots differ from the previous training shots where the protagonist is in her 'local gym;' they feature Jan in her army training uniform, working out in an outside gym\ agility course, giving the shots more verisimilitude of featuring the theme of being 'army-like.' 

 We specifically chose this location due to its agility course present on the site, however it also features a very prominant steep hill, the views acquired from the top of the hill are rather breathtaking making it perfect for any climatic shots that we could use as an empowering ending scene.

Digipak analysis

A Digipak is 'a type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs.'

CD Digipaks can also give a product an expensive professional look and feel – especially when well designed CD artwork is combined with clever use of specialist print finishing options such as Matt Lamination, Spot UV or Embossing.

Another advantage of using the Digipak is that it can be made from recycled card and producing the pack uses much less plastic, therefore reducing your carbon footprint allowing you to have an exclusive yet eco friendly product.

Gorillaz - Demon Days.

Ed Sheehan - X (Multiply)