Early Designs for DigiPak

As explained in my blog post below, I've designed the front and back cover of my DigiPak. There may be aspects of it that change as time goes on but certainly this is roughly how I expect it to look when I combine it with the inside cover design:

(The colour scheme is very much the same as the one I'm using for my website. The fonts are also something that is coherent in both products)

Production Process

Over the past couple of weeks I've not been able to chart the progress I've been making on my website and DigiPak. I've not had anything visual to show for my efforts as a lot of it has been planning and experimenting with different designs but I've now made real progress and feel ready to present some of my work.

The website is coming along well and I have a basic shape to all of my pages. There is a coherent style both visually and in terms of written work, which makes it seem professional and precise. There are small things that I can update over the course of the production, like the blog/podcast (to make it seem relevant), but other than that the basic information can remain pretty much the same. I will ask both Scott and Cathy to take a look at it and ask for some feedback on how they would have represented 'Digitized' themselves, and once I'm happy with it I shall post images and a link in a blog post.

My DigiPak is not quite so advanced in terms of it's progression but I have a rough template of how the front and back covers will look. I will post an image of this in a fresh blog entry above this one.

The video itself has entered initial production and as a group we've gone on location and begun filming small parts of it. We're unable to undertake large chunks of filming in one go as timing issues are proving to be a hinderance. We have, however, calculated a rota for filming schedules that we will adhere to after half-term (our first lesson back is Wednesday 7th November) - this not only helps us know when we have to go out and film but also helps us to ascertain a timeframe that we want to complete all filming by. We are reliant on the weather as if rain is too heavy or winds are too strong we can't film - so we are hoping for a bit of kindness from mother nature!

The plan is to upload an unfinished video (halfway through the process) and acquire feedback before posting a finished version on to a specially designed YouTube channel.

Equipment List

These are the list of things we require during our ‘Pogo’ music video filming process:

- Video camera (to be borrowed from Media department at Sixth Form)  - to film the majority of the video. Permission required and granted from Mr Butcher as we need to ensure no other Media students borrow it when we need to use it.

- Mobile phone (My own) – to film certain elements of the video and give the impression the audience are experiencing it with us. Incorporating new media in to our film and using new technologies to enhance the effect it has on those who watch it. No further permission required as it is my mobile phone and I'm happy to use it.

- Tripod (to be borrowed from Media department at Sixth Form)  - to help film some of the video. Permission required and granted from Mr Butcher as, again, we need to ensure we have it booked out to prevent other Media students from using it.

- iMac (in Media department at Sixth Form) – to upload and edit our video. Permission required and granted from Mr Butcher but this shouldn't be a problem as we are given access to them for at least 4 hours a week.

This is all the equipment we need for the filming process and now we have the necessary permission from Mr Butcher, we can take the equipment on-location to begin filming.

Filming Process

Myself, Scott and Cathy are now in a position where we are able to decide when to begin filming, the only thing left to organise is what equipment we will need to use/borrow.

We've developed a lyrical timeline and storyboards so we know exactly what we want to film, it's now just a case of going out and doing it. We need to do night shoots because of the nature of our storyline - drunken guys around town, chasing after a girl etc, which makes it difficult because it means we can't film during our allocated time at school. Having discussed when we are all available to film, we've found that it may be difficult on occasions due to work commitments, so that's something we'll have to finalise. The one contextual factor that could jeopardise our plans to film is adverse weather conditions but obviously that's not something we have any control over. We'd have to overcome these problems if necessary.

We've produced a recce for one of the internal locations - bedroom - and have scouted ideal locations around town to film all our external clips. 

We hope to begin our first round of filming shortly.

Pre-Production Recce

Having decided upon what the video is going to portray, we set about exploring potential locations for filming. Some of the early stages of the video will be set in a bedroom – with one of the lead males – and it will attempt to chart his progression from getting ready for a night out with his mates.

Photos of the bedroom we’re looking at:

We identified this room as a possible location for these shots and were impressed by it’s versatility in terms of the different vantage points it has on offer. The size of the room is small due to the large bed situated in the middle of the room, which makes it difficult to capture any long, establishing shots. However, it does mean we can get intimate in our filming and if this location is used, we’re hoping the fact it’s up in the face of the lead roles that the viewer will feel like they are there too. In reality the Friday/Saturday night party scene is rather physical and personal. As we want to reflect and epitomise suburban life realistically, we need to ensure we capture the essence of a real night out to help our audience engage with what they are viewing.

As you can see by the images sandwiching this paragraph, there are some potential lighting issues we would have to overcome. There are many obstacles in the room and although we specify that the location needs to be messy to represent a typical young guy’s bedroom, it does cause problems for us in regards to filming. Some of the objects have noticeable shadows due to the position of the lights, however, we prefer the idea of having the room as dark as possible when filming, with only a spotlight appearing on the character.

All sound on the video will be non-diegetic due to the song being played over the top, rendering the quality of the acoustics as meaningless.

On reflection, we feel this room could easily be the young male’s bedroom. We will experiment with filming there prior to making a firm decision, although, contextually, I would suggest this is as good a location as we’re going to find.

CD Cover Comparisons

It's not just the filming and website that I have to consider within this project. I also have to create a digipak that remains coherent with the rest of the 'Digitized' package. In this document I have analysed Digitalism's 'Pogo' single cover and explained how I hope Digitized can 'inject' a touch of suburban-ness to our own CD cover.

'Pogo' Storyboards

These are the storyboards for our shoot of 'Pogo'. There are explanations as to what type of camera shot each clip will be and whether it will be in standard colour or black and white. Clearly there will not be any sound effects as the only sound that needs to be dubbed is that of the song itself. There are 27 images altogether.