More inspiration

Maroon 5's music video for "Maps" really inspired my group and I to incorporate a similar idea to our video:

What inspired us:

The idea itself is really distinctive to what I have seen in most videos. I love how they have gone against the cliché of flashbacks being in black or white or slow motion and instead have shown the flashbacks in a completely different way. And instead of referring to past to present then past again to present, they have kept going back in time e.g. the accident, the party, getting ready etc. 

The editing is truly inspiring because as well as editing to the beat (which is very effective and used often for our rock genre), it also includes smooth transitions from the present to the past which we will need to do correctly in our music video in order to show the difference in times. 

The lighting also conforms to the darkness of the theme - death - and although my group and I wanted to subvert from the conventions of low key lighting, this may be something we might incorporate in the flashbacks to show a contrast between life and death. 

Overall, this video really inspired my group and I to incorporate flashbacks and more of a story line in our music video, which we felt we were slacking. We have planned out what happens before and after the accident:

Framing and composition

When filming our prelim, we never considered the importance of framing and composition so most of our shots consisted of the placement of a person where ever. As you can see in this shot, the framing of the iron gates are not evenly distributed and the angle is slightly canted:

We decided to focus more on the framing of shots when filming our actual music video and to do that, we learnt about the rule of thirds:

The rule of thirds is simple: basically just imaging the image breaking down into thirds. The four dots allows you to choose your points of interest by placing the object or person either in the center or around the four dots. If the points of interested are placed along the lines, the image becomes more balanced and enables a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. People's eyes are often above or along the lines rather than the center of the shot:

I watched a video to expand my knowledge on the rule of thirds:

For our music video, we positioned the person in the right side of the frame:

Editing footage

I took a photo of my group editing our footage on iMovie. So far, we are really happy with what we have got but we have decided to go back to Trent Park and re-film one or two different shots. We also realised we haven't got enough footage for the intro and after a lot of thinking, we have also decided we aren't happy with our continuous shot for the first verse.

Story board

Here are our storyboards for the intro and first verse of our song:

Digipak design and band name

This is another image that Shoi took while we were out filming that could possibly be used for our Digipak design. I want my Digipak to contain at least two different images of the artist to be used as star quality image which is something commonly illustrated on Digipaks of the rock genre.

Also, my group and I have decided on our band name and song title in a Whatsapp group in which we are all added on. 

Band name: Enemy's Song

Song name: Half Remain

We got the inspiration for this from lyrics in the song we have chosen.

Filming

Yesterday, my group and I trekked to a forest location to film for our music video.

(image of Trent Park found on Google images)

(set up of filming first verse)

We decided to use an outdoor location instead of an indoor so that the enhancement of the natural light is contrasted with our concept of death. Also, we felt like the woody environment suited the song better as well as the genre.

Many music videos of our chosen genre (rock/alternative rock) are shot outdoors, especially in a forest. For example, "Decode" by Paramore.

We gained inspiration from this music video for the location, performance and also the lighting of the shots. In this video, the shots use low-key lighting however, my group and I have decided that we will brighten the footage so that our shots are brightly coloured and almost transparent.

I am worried that because all our shots are filmed outdoors in the same location, that the video may be a little repetitive however we do have studio shots of performance which we may need to use -

- such as this shot. The extra lighting provided sharper shots and a more professional look.

Digipaks

A digipak is a form of packaging for CDs and DVDs that are made out of cardboard. 

 

They were first created by MeadWestvaco and their product named Digi-Pak is trademarked.

Digipaks can have 2-8 panels. The most popular number of panels used is usually 4 as it provides enough room for logo, information and a track list as well as a panel for the actual CD or DVD disc. 

Our chosen genre is alternative rock and many bands/artists from this genre use digipaks:

Linkin Park:

I found this analysis of Linkin Park's digipak online which describes the connotations conforming to the genre of rock. Typically, this consists of the use of dark and bold colouring such as black, grey, white and reds. The font used is also described as "loud" which suits the genre of music and also the band's performance which is like a reflection of the artists' as a whole.

Bring Me The Horizon:

BMTH's digipak has many similarities to Linkin Park's choice of appearance such as the dark colouring yet this digipa's design is a little different as the contrast of white and black is used. The design could be considered controversial as the cover is very graphic which is something the band have dealt with and often introduce through their music. The second cover is again, controversial, however not as explicit as the first as it shows a topless male (nudity is often used in the media to attract audiences) where half of him is covered in what seems to be markings (tattoos?) whereas the over half is bare. This may represent a split personality as shown in the photo and then in the third, two people becoming one. As in many genres, artists refer to romance/love as one of their key emotions and this is portrayed in the third image of intimacy. On the back cover, there is also a barcode and the tracklist which is very important in digipaks.