Digipak- Draft

Pictured below is the draft of my digipak:

I am very happy with this draft as I really like the colouring and the overall layout of it. I chose to follow a very similar theme to that of my music video as I really liked the contrast in shots that we used throughout and believed that they would be very fitting for my digipak.

I wanted to keep the front cover of the album plain and simple, displaying just one main focus in the frame with the titles placed above. I really like how it turned out, however on my final draft I wish to include the title of the album as doing this will attract the consumer as it will make the album identifiable amongst others.

I chose to use the beach shots for the outer packaging as the colours blend very nicely and allow for text to be placed over them. I chose to use the darker yet more colourful shots inside of the digipak as it will provide an eye-catching contrast to the design of the outer packaging.

Changing our song...

Once we began to edit our music video together, we noticed that the footage that we had put together didn't seem as though it belonged to the song we had chosen. The sound and visual did not seem to match up very well and we really weren't happy about the outcome of our initial attempt of editing.

Whilst choosing our initial song, we struggled choosing between our top two choices. Our second choice was a song called 'Sorry' by the band Nothing but thieves. The song talks about an individual battling their inner deamons and eventually finding it within themselves to ovecome them. We felt that this was very fitting for our storyline as the song does not specify exactly what the individual is facing, leaving the song open to interpretation. The lyrics to the song are pictured below.

Sorry- Nothing But Thieves lyrics

You might kill me with desire
Wind me tighter than a wire
It's something that you do to me
I run away like mercury

And I know you think it's rough
When you're try'na patch us up
And I say honey what is love?
You just say I drink too much

Maybe I'm defective
Or maybe I'm dumb
I'm sorry, so sorry for what I've done
Maybe I'm bad natured
Or maybe I'm young
I'm sorry, so sorry for what I've done

And I'm the t-shirt that I wear
Pick the thorns out of my hair
I broke your heart so carelessly
But made the pieces part of me

And now it hurts what we've become
'Cause you taught me how to love
It's me who taught you how to stop
And you just say I drink too much

Maybe I'm defective
Or maybe I'm dumb
I'm sorry, so sorry for what I've done
Maybe I'm bad natured
Or maybe I'm young
I'm sorry, so sorry for what I've done

I've waited for this
I'm ready for it
I've waited for this
I'm ready for it
I been waiting so long

I've waited for this
I'm ready for it
I've waited for this
I'm ready for it
I been waiting so long

Maybe I'm defective
Or maybe I'm dumb
I'm sorry, so sorry for what I've done
Maybe I'm bad natured
Or maybe I'm young
I'm sorry, so sorry for what I've done

.

Draft Storyboard

Target audience

When filming a music video, it is important to know the audience that the video will be targeted towards. Doing this will allow the video to appeal to a selected group of age range, creating a basis for the narrative or theme that the video will follow. Having a broad target audience is more likely to allow to video to be shared, as a wider range of people would be encouraged to watch it and be interested in the message that it holds.

We have based the target audience for our music video off the narrative that it follows. The narrative of the piece follows a young girl struggling with her sexuality, which is a issue that many other young people face also. Having young people at the top of our target audience means that our video can almost serve as inspiration to them. The idea behind the video is to embrace different sexualities and to almost normalise the idea of same sex relationships which we believe to be of great importance in today’s society.

Due to the topic of the piece, we have also chosen to target those of older generations. Due to traditional views, the idea of homosexuality is often not accepted amongst those of these generations. We believe that the creation of this video would help to encourage some of these people to change their views and become more accepting towards this way of life. 

Our chosen song- W.D.Y.W.F.M?

For our music video, we have chosen to create a video for the song W.D.Y.W.F.M? by The Neighbourhood. We chose this song as we believe that the lyrics have a very deep meaning and can be interpreted differently by many different people.

The acronym W.D.Y.W.F.M? stands for 'What do you want from me?', the main hook featured throughout the song. The desperation of this line is one of the main inspirations for the narrative of our music video. Our storyline will follow the protagonist who is facing issues with her sexuality, resulting in a devastating impact on the foundations of her current relationship with both her partner and the people closest to her. 

Ideas for our music video

Pictured below is a bubble diagram that I created, displaying some of the ideas that we have come up with as a group that we would like to include in our music video.

Costume and Makeup

Costume and makeup will play a large part in both the look and symbolic nature of our piece. As a group, we decided the outfits worn by each character carefully in order to assist in the narrative of our piece. 

Hannah

We have chosen to dress my character in colourful clothes when she is with Jade and plain clothes when she is with her boyfriend Josh. This serves to represent her inner emotions whilst spending time with these different characters and her feelings towards them. The use of these colours will represent my character's happiness when she is with Jade in comparison to when she is spending time with Josh. It will also symbolise the different colours featured on the LGBTQ+ flag, representing the inner feelings of my character.






When my character is featured in shots with Josh, I will wear dark, dull clothing. This will symbolise my character's feelings towards Josh and our relationship. The use of these dull colours will not be in place to represent hatred or a bad relationship between the pair, but will symbolise my character's insecurity in a heterosexual relationship.



I believe that the use of these contrasting outfit choices alongside our choice to put the beginning of the video in black and white will assist in amplifying the narrative of our video to allow a greater understanding by the audience.

Josh

Josh’s character will only be featured in the first half of the video. Our choice to do this was based upon the idea that Jade’s character will almost replace him, showing that she is the person who is significant to me from that point on in the video. In order to further emphasise this, we chose to dress josh in dark colours when featured alongside my character, similarly to the outfits worn by my character. We have chosen to do this in order to demonstrate the lack of connection between the two and the unppiness seen throughout their relationship.

Jade

In complete contrast to the outfits worn by Josh in the video, Jade will be featured wearing bright, bold colours. This will help to demonstrate the complete contrast between the relationship between me and jade and the relationship previously seen between josh and I. She will wear these colours to represent the connection that we hold and will also symbolise the LGBTQ+ these strongly featured throughout.

Along with her bright outfits, Jade will also be featured wearing bright, bold makeup. He use of these bright colours will help to further highlight the theme throughout and will also demonstrate her femininity in comparison to the dull and dark shots featured with josh.

Chosen song- Sorry

Pictured below are the lyrics to our chosen song, 'Sorry' by Nothing but thieves. The song discusses the battle of facing your own demons and overcoming them.

Overall, I am very happy with the decision that we made to change our song. I believe that it fits the look of the video far better and assists us in telling the narrative of our music video. 

Contacting the artist

In order to seek permission to use the song 'Sorry' for our music video, we decided to attempt to contact the artist, Nothing But Thieves. We decided to do this using twitter as we agreed as a group that it would be the best social media site to do this on as it is very current and is often used as a bridge between artists and their consumers.

We all retweeted and shared this post in order to try to get the attention of the artist and are waiting on a response.

Contingency plan

In order for the production of our video to run as smoothly as possible, it is necessary for us to create a contingency plan to ensure that all aspects of the production process were carried out in the time frame that we have been given.

Weather

As we are filming much of our video within the winter months, there is a very high chance of bad weather conditions. In order to combat this, we decided that we would gather as much footage as possible on the days where we had appropriate weather. This would mean that if we were to hit a patch of bad weather, we will not be lost for shots as we will  have these backups that were filmed on previous filming days.

Availability

As there are 4 members in our group, it is quite difficult to arrange days where we are all free and available to film for a long period of time. As I am strongly featured throughout the video, it is necessary for me to attend all filming days. As much of the footage is also set to include josh and jade, it will be essential for at least one of them to be present in the majority of our days for filming also. In order to deal with this issue, we decided that we would arrange filming around the availability of jade and josh. For example, if josh was unavailable, we would arrange to film the shots where jade is featured on these days instead. In order to keep track of our filming days, we created a group chat on Facebook in order to arrange days where we are available to film.

Transport

As none of the members of our group are able to drive, it will be difficult for us to reach some of the destinations needed for filming. We will need to rely on friends and parents to drive us to these places so we must arrange filming days around this. This will limit the amount that we are able to film, putting pressure on us to get more done on the days where we are able to film at these locations. In order to combat this, we will discuss filming days with these people and work out a filming schedule to ensure that all shots are filmed on time.

Potential song choices

Whilst planning for our music video, we have created a list of songs that we believe could be options for our project. 

We gathered a large range of songs that are liked by everyone in our group and narrowed the list down to our top 4. The original list is pictured below.

Our top 4:

Somebody else- The 1975

As a group, we are all very big fans of the band The 1975 and the style of music that they produce. This song talks about the breakdown of a relationship and reflects on one's opinions and thoughts after the breakup. We thought of creating a video that followed the protagonists thoughts as he tries to work out his true feelings towards his ex. The video would be created very stylistically, using a range of camera shots and angles to put across his emotions to the audience. We chose not to use this song as the lyrics were very strict as to what we must film and when, limiting our freedom within the piece.

No1 Party anthem- Arctic Monkeys

We wanted to create a video for this song as the lyrics tell a very clear story from the narrator's perspective. We felt that his vivid storyline would help to create a clear structure for the video, providing an ideal structure for a narrative music video. We wish to create a narrative video as this is the style of video that many of our favourite artists have used for their own music and we take inspiration from the work of these artists.

Anything- Catfish and the Bottlemen

We added this song to our list of possibilities as we very much liked the narrative of the breakdowns within a relationship. We chose not to use this song however as we felt the song didnt lend itself very well to our preferred style of video, narrative. As a group, we felt as though the song would be much better with a performance video but this was not the style of video that we wished to follow.

W.D.Y.W.F.M?- The Neighbourhood

This song also reflects on the problems in a relationship, eventually leading to the breakdown of the narrator. As a group, we saw the song in a different light and interpreted it in our own way. We had the idea of creating a video where a girl in a heterosexual relationship begins to question her own sexuality, leading to her own confusion and despair by the end of the video. We created this idea from many of the lyrics throughout the song but one of the main themes in the song is the idea of something being 'wrong inside.' We felt that this helped to shine light on a very topical issue, where many people questioning their sexuality are scared of being shunned and put down in society by being 'different.' We believe that creating this video would help to raise awareness to what is currently such a massive issue globally.

Risk assessment

When filming for our music video, there are many precautions that we must take in order for the whole of our team to stay safe whilst filming 

Beach

Getting cut off by the tide

We will film many of our shots at southern down beach. Before making the journey down to the beach, we will make sure that we check the tide times online. Doing this will ensure that we allow ourselves enough time to film without the possibility of us getting cut off by the tide.

slips trips and falls

when filming at the beach, we must make sure that we take precaution when walking over sharp rocks and pebbled areas. Doing this will ensure that we do not fall and injure ourselves whilst filming.

water damage

We must be very careful when using electronic equiptment at the beach as there is a high risk of causing water damage to the equipment that we are using. In order to combat this, we will make sure that we remain at a reasonable distance away from the tide when handling equipment. This will greatly help to reduce the possibility of water damage.

Bridgend town

stairwells

When filming some of the shots in Bridgend town, there will be many stairwells that we must be aware of. When walking down or around these stairwells, we will ensure that we take precaution and are careful whilst doing so.

Josh's house

burns fromhot drinks

We will be using hot drinks when filming the shots in Josh's kitchen. When doing this, we will ensure that we do not spill the drinks as this will increase the possibility of being burnt. We willalso make sure that we wait for them to cool slightly before use as doing this willalso help to reduce the liklihood of one of being injured in this way.

falling

When walking around Josh's house, we will ensure that we take caution not to trip over any outstanding furniture or anything that may possibly be lying on the floor. We must also take care when walking up and down the stairs to ensure that we do not trip and fall.

My house

cuts from glass

When filming the party scene in my house, we will be using lots of glass bottles in order to make it look like a party. Whilst doing this, we must make sure that we take precaution not to drop and smash them as doing this will open up the opportunity for a member of the group to cut themselves on the broken glass.

Country lane

Getting hit by a passing car

When filming in the country lane, we must make sure that we remain aware of the traffic that may wish to pass through. If we do not do this, there is a possibility of a member of the group being knocked over by a car so remaining aware will allow us to minimise this possibility.