An overview of our DigiPack

We have just finished our digipack and our magazine advert. They were both designed to advertise and sell the song, "Wicked Game". The digipack was designed around two main factors, the genre and the lyrics. These both influenced the final product. Taking these both into account, we decided to play around with different ideas for the final product. We did some research into other types of DigiPacks and magazine adverts that other bands had. We felt that they were all similar, and wanted to create something that stood out from the crowd. One thing that we did try to keep the same was, using a picture of the singer on the front of both of the products. We wanted to keep a strong connection between the layout of both the DigiPack and the Magazine advert. This way if people saw both of the products separately then they would be able to associate them with each other. E.g., if someone saw the magazine advert on a billboard, then they would be able to instantly recognise the cd in store.
The DigiPack and Magazine advert both featured an image of our main ‘character’ in the video, Danni. I placed two images of Danni on the DigiPack, one in white and another in black. This played along with the band’s name “The Girl in the Mirror”. Giving her almost two personalities, a good and a bad side. I wanted the front cover’s background of the digipack to be something quite abstract, something that would stand out from other CD’s. Due to the nature of the song being quite a simple song. I kept the other front panels quite simple, leaving the song names in the middle, evenly spaced out. Cramming to much information on the back cover of the CD seemed like a negative idea. The front panels feature three logos. A Dolby digital logo, DVD Video and an arista logo. Bassboosa is signed by Sony, so I thought this is a relevant logo to include.
Once you open up the DigiPack you start to learn more about the band, and what you benefit from buying a digipack compared to a standard CD. The inside of the digipack holds two panels of information. One with the biography of the band, and another with the bonus ‘features’.
I used the same font throughout the digipack and the same gradient on the text inside the digipack. Our digipack will be held inside a plastic wrapper. This wrapper will have the barcode stuck onto it, along with a security tag.
The magazine advert and digipack were made in Photoshop. The front cover image was made in Fireworks. Due to some green screening problems we faced during shooting the music video, Danni was slightly cut off in some areas. I had to ‘rebuild’ her in Fireworks, and smoothen her out. You cannot tell this though.
Overall, we were short on time when we made these two products. But I feel that they are both successful and do not look to ‘shabby’. I think that we met our deadlines on time, and our products get the messages across and could sell copies in store. What is most important is that the products do their job and promote the band and song.

Our Digipack and Magazine Advert

Magazine Advert:

Digipack:

Advertising for the Digipak

Here are some ideas for what we could include to increase the appeal of the single:
- Lyrics
- Limited edition status
- Live performances
- Interviews with band members
-TV advertisements
-Local gigs

Freebies:
- Stickers
- Posters
- Postcards
- Competitions
- Vouchers
- Priority tickets
- Signed stuff

Thoughts on the Music Video in general

Due to bad planning and people not attending the lessons we fell quite far behind. Once we found out the final deadlines we started to get a move on. We quickly planned out a short narrative and shot it in one lesson. Although our video was not as good as it could have been, we still included some of the conventions that a typical music video has, including lip synchronising. The editing and green screening we felt worked well, although some parts of it did not quite work. For example when Danni is singing in the street, people just walk through her, which we feel we could've made better if we had more time, or if we had planned better in advance.

The codes and conventions of a music video magazine

Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions for music magazine adverts are;

• Using the face of the artist to sell the product.
• Been unusuall and different to stand out and make people remember it and want to buy it.
• Advertise the brand name on the advert.
• Keeping the style throughout the different products the same, consitency, so people can recognise, for example a symbol.
• Song/Album title
• Visual links to videos- Intertextuality
• Condensed information on content
• Release date
• Artist name
• Where is it available to purchase
• Record label logo
  

font ideas

These are a few fonts we have found that match the image which our song creates. We will be using the same font from on the digipak and our magazine advert to show the connection between the two. However due to other group members the name of the band was changed to " the girl in the mirror" and not Bassboosa which is written.

Ideas for Magazine

For the background of our advert we are going to use the same picture that's the background of our digipak. This is an abstract version of the sunrise featured in the original music video, the reason its abstract is to match our abstract music video. Our magazine advertisement will also have the same font used on the digipak so people can remember and associate the digipak with our advert. Our advert it will consist of:

• The name of our band

• The name of our album

• The dates of our tours

• Our website

• The name of our most recent songs
  

• The other types of media available. Eg. itunes, DVD

• Our record labels logos

digipack idea

We are making our CD available as part of a digipak, which means it will come with bonuses such as special features including an interview with the band, a making of music video documentary & posters of the band. It will be in the style of a unique CD style which folds from the right and overlapping from the left having the information and images on the outer casing.but when it is put into a DVD player, the interview and making of... will be able to be viewed.

the final music video

this is our final music video.

What images would be useful and why?

I feel that the images that would be useful for the digipack and the magazine advert, would be the image of Danni when she is doing the green screen, the establishing shot of her, but we could turn it into black and white, so that yo would not be able to see the slight bit of green that couldn't be deleted in final cut. Another image that we could use would be the sky scene at the start of the video, but we could add a effect on it so that we couldn't tell that it is that picture, but it would still look like the sunset. what we would need to do is to cut a strip off the edge and then stretch it to the size that is needed.

Bands Similar to Bassboosa

Some bands similar to Bassboosa are Chungking, Fauxliage and Natalie Walker. Chungking is a Brighton born trip-hop band consisting of Sean Hennesey, Jessie Banks and James Stephenson. Fauxliage is comprised of Sixpence None the Richer vocalist, Leigh Nash, plus Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of Canadian ambient pop outfit Delerium. Natalie Walker is an American musician from Indiana. She was formerly vocalist of the trip hop group Daughter Darling, and has produced two solo albums.

Institutions that would make our product.

The original band "BassBoosa" is unsigned therefore i have been researching what record label they may be part of, i have looked at the chris isaak who originally wrote the song. and his label is the Warner Bros. Which i feel wouldnt be the right record label as it does not fit the genre. So i looked for other bands that are the same genre as our song, which i found that nashville have bands the same genre, and as there are many different nashville labels, i chose the one that fitted our band the best, which was arista nashville. here is a link to the nashville record labels. http://www.sonybmgnashville.com/

List of things to do! 21/11/09

1. What images from the video would be useful and why?
2. what institutions would be making this product? record labels, find appropriate logos.
3. parental advisory? barcode?
4. Is the packaging/cover appropriate to the genre of the band/music track
5. What magazines/websites would review this DigiPack- put quotes on the magazine advert.

DigiPack

Function:

Collector's Item
Interviews with Band/ Behind the Scenes on Tour/ Documentaries
'Making of' Featurette
Live Performance (video and audio)
B-sides/ Covers/ Rare songs

Conventions:

Song/ Album title
Artist's Name
Visual links to video - intertextuality
Reviews - newspaper/music press/celebrities/DJs
Tracklistings
Ratings
Record Label Logo
Running Time
Band Members - Pictures
Personal Notes

Music Video Feedback

In today’s media lesson we watched each other’s music videos.

"I liked the introduction part, with the sunset fast forwarded. It almost sets the scene for the video, as to what is going to take place later."

"The nature of the song is quite laid back, and i think you have done quite well with this particular genre."
“I think that ‘slow editing’ and low amount of transitions really match the video.”

“Compared to the original this video does it justice. The original has hardly any variation in shots.”


I was quite pleased with this feedback, due to the fact that it is not biased. The original music video does not have that many shot types in it. The original video does not really have a narrative, but does however have a lot of scenery shots and lip synchronisation.


Original Music Video:

About Bassboosa

Jasmine and Tim met whilst working in a London record store a few years ago and began writing and recording songs together, blending atmospheric pop with strong melodies, stirring lyrics and a creative mix of electronic and live instrumentation.

They have just completed their much anticipated, self-produced debut album which was written, recorded and mixed almost entirely in Tim’s makeshift studio in his parent’s attic! Coming from very different musical backgrounds - Jasmine’s influences from the likes of Jewel, Alanis and Tracy Chapman, whilst Tim has come from a strong classical background with a passion for electronic music – they have created a unique sound of their own, instantly recognizable by Jasmine’s intoxicating and infectious vocals combined with Tim’s intricate and atmospheric musical textures and production.

Thanks to huge support from Sat Bisla’s Passport Approved radio show in the US (aired on Indie 103.1, LA, WEQX, NY and KNRK, Portland, OR) 2006 saw Bassboosa finding themselves a loyal fanbase before they had even finished or released their record.

Their cover of the Chris Isaak classic "Wicked Game" became a No.1 hit on KNRK, Portland, Oregon. "It is the most requested song we've ever had in the 11 years we have been on the air," says KNRK programme director, Mark Hamilton. Word is now spreading fast and radio stations all over the US and now in the UK are picking up on the Bassboosa vibe.

2006 also saw Bassboosa move onto the stage with their fantastic band. In May they played their first US dates. As well as a packed acoustic evening at LA's Key Club, they also headlined to a capacity audience at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon, selling over 1700 tickets.

Now, with the album ready for release, the video for the new single "Succumb" nearly finished and tour dates announced in both the US and Europe, 2008 looks set to be an even more exciting year for the band.

Contact Bassboosa Management on management@bassboosa.com.
Profile artwork by: Johnny Lighthands

information from : http://www.myspace.com/bassboosa

Effects & Camera Angles List

We aim to use a variety of effects and camera angles in our production.
Within our music video we have chosen many different types of shots, which include;

• over the shoulder shot of toms phone rejecting Alicias call
• establishing shot of Danni in the street (green screen)
• close up of Dannis face when she is singing.
• Shot reverse shot of Jacob and Tom, then going to Alicia by the Shed.
  

Also within our music video we plan to have many different effects;

• Green Screening of Danni in the streets.
• The three way shot, like it has been done in Blink 182,
  
• Fast forwarding, we have planned to fast forward two different shots, which are, the sky scene, and the street scene that will also be in black and white.
  
• Sepia, we have planned to do the bed scene in sepia tone, to give a atmospheric feel to the video, to fit in with the conventions of our music video.
  
• We also plan to zoom into Danni's eye, then from that go into another shot.

Our New Pitch

Due to the fact that we have a lack of footage and no storyline we have decided to completely remake our music video. The only two shots that we are going to keep are the Street Scene and the Sky Scene. We only have a week and a half left so we are going to have to finish our video quite quickly. Our rough cut was only a minute and a half long and made no sense at all. We are going to come up with a short story to tell and try to get the scenes to match the song.

Crew List

We have 2 characters in our video. One is Tom from our group and the other is Danni who is from a different group in our class. As this song is quite personal and about love we chose to just have the singer and her love interest in the video.

The reason why we chose Danni is because she does not mind being on camera. We found it quite hard to find someone that was confident enough to be on film. Danni is very confident on camera, and has helped out quite a lot of people with there media projects. I worked with Danni on our year 12 project and we worked very well together.

Our Song choice

We decided on Bassboosa - Wicked Game because of the slow flowing pace of the song along with heartbroken lyrics. compared to the other songs this one had the most potential for good ideas, seeing as others had an energetic vibe. working with a slow song you can use different filters such as black and white to link in with the lyrics.

We also chose this song because we thought we could make quite a relaxing, mellow video for it. We wanted to do something quite diferent compared to the original music video.

Thoughts on Roughcut

We did not submit a rough cut because we did not get enough footage for one. We had about thirty seconds of footage. We did not believe that it was worth submitting something that made no sense whatsoever. We are going to take this as an incentive to get some more footage and try to pull together a roughcut, and then work from that to create our final cut. We are now going to put together a storyboard and try to create a narrative with some conventions of a typical media video in it.