Evaluation of Digipak

I believe that this Digipak succesfully conforms to the persona that we are tying to Give Affie. Starting with the front cover, the plain black and white colour scheme reminds us of the 'old school' era that Affie's background is from. This combined with the album title 'Return of the Flattop' sets the scene of the late 80's and 90's with artists such as 'NWA' and 'Wu Tang' sporting this style. Affie is taking something which is old and classic, and reafirming it into the 21st centuary by linking old school hip hop to the relatively new, 'Grime' genre. We have also used the 'Flat top' hair style to create a tie in with the album, working as an extra movement which would set Affie away from the crowd. The idea in our video of Affie being from 'out of this world' is also represented in the Digipak, With a translucent effect being used on Affie giving him 'abnormal powers' (much like a superhero). This is continued through to the back cover where shining stars are the only coloured visual on the Digipak. This visual gives a subliminal story, telling us that Affie's home is far way and he doesnt belong on Earth. He is suposedly super human, hence his unbeatable lyric choices, beats and flows in his tracks. On the back cover, we also gave a Blackberry Messanger Barcode and Website, keeping with the current media technologies and making it quick and easy for listeners of the album to access more information about Affie and his music. We also used Tempa T's 'Next Hype' single cover to place him in the correct genre and therefore attract the correct audiences (preferably neiche and not mainstream as these are more suited to his lyrics and genre). Finally, the middle covers again are simple images, directly representing the audience he is targeting. the lighting shot gives the impression of a show about to start, or Affie's carrer to start.

Final poster and digipak

screen shots of process of digipak and promotional poster

Feedback

Can you blog a rough cut of your video edit?  Also you need to consider the structure to your posts, perhaps use two or three rather than just one entry.  What you have posted is sound, but in the last week you have done much more that what you comment on!

The Rough Cut

We felt that it would be a very good idea and beneficial to create a 'rough cut' to simply map out our ideas in a visual language. Creating a rough cut allows us to plan our order of our shot selection process and recognize more effective orders of introducing the different sets. As a group, we recognized that the blitz light set had the most impressive impact at the first drop of the bass line (a key part of the attraction to the video), so we decided to use the blitz lights as the first set, starting the video off with a hard hitting visual. having integrated Georgina's Blitz light shots into the start of the video, we then introduced the more subtle thrown scene which focuses mainly on the stature of Affie and pushes his 'out of this world' reputation. I realised that just having the Blitz lights the whole way through the video would be too much for an audience to keep there attention throughout, and there for loose interest, therefore the thrown set gives a nice contrast, with very little lighting effects being used. The street scenes were then integrated into the thrown scenes to make sure that the video in this part is not taken up by the fairly static shots of the thrown scene. Having the street shots of Georgina integrated with Affie, it ballances the movement out, with Affie not really walking around very much and Georgina'a shots based around her journey along side the banks of Guildford's streams. After making the rough cut, we decided that the quickness of the cuts were too slow, therefore not really matching the feel we want Affie to be giving out (unexpecting and 'off the streets'). this is where my idea for short, abstract shots came into place, making Affie's screen presence much more unexpecting, therefore inticing the audience to continue watching wilst they are drip fed little pieces of information about the mysterious grime artist.

Short Shot Idea

To keep with the unsuspecting feel of our artist Affie, we decided to include some short shots of abstract images and tonal lighting, adding an artistic element to our video and therefore identifying a neiche market. In the scene with the blitz lights, we zoomed into shadows and shapes made by the lights on the floor and on Georgie and Affie's clothes. We thought it would be a nice idea for the audience to work hard in understanding what some shots are of, therefore, they are not expecting the next progression in the video, much like Affie's appeal that we are trying to convey. An explanation for abstractest ideas in art also is given below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art

Feedback

Excellent blogging.  I feel that you have really captured the spirit of your shoot day.  Also in the critical reflection you need to consider the star image you were trying to construct with the set design and technical equipment, for example you mention lighting in the blog, but be more specific - you used a high key and fill lighting with a Starcloth to focus on the stylization of the artist, compared to the directional blinder lighting of the latter shots, connoting a more sinister side to the artist - just food for thought.

Magazine Advert

In our Magazine Advert, we decided to make the most of the set we designed. a tilted hero status shot gives him aditional power aswell as the royal red throw and the golden thrown which automatically gives him 'worship' status. The Font used is quite a futureistic almost 'alien' idea highlighting how his album 'Return of the Flat top' is not available yet, but also gives the audience the idea that knowone has ever seen anything like this young, lyrical assasin. The BBM barcode used identifies the target audience as the teenage section who are up to date with all the latest technology, with the Blackberry phone being at the forefront of the new era of mobile phone technology. This and the website make the poster very simple and easy on the eye as people can find out more information by simply using these new media technologies. By looking at this poster and 'Be Ready' being the final thing which is left with you, you get the feeling that Affie is coming from another planet to take over the world of Grime/HipHop.

Photo evidence of second and third set and surrounding.

Photo evidence of finished set.

Photo evidence of finished set.

Photos evidence of set building.

Account of Shootday

Overall, i believe our shoot day went to plan and was highly successful. we began the day by perparing our actor and actress in the desired costume that we thought fitted the situation. we dressed Affie in an 'old school' buttoned up chordroy shirt with tan trousers (being careful that his outfit diddn't clash with the red thrown scene). Georgie was dressed in a high waisted skirt and also a buttoned up shirt to keep the trend and highlight the target audience. we began shooting the most outlandish set of the three, the thrown scene, having affie sit on his chair and making the most of the royal set around him, sticking to midshots, establishing shots and slow, establishing tracking shots, flaunting the design of the set. with our lighting in this scene, we kept it rather simple. apart from the obvious star cloth we used, spot lighting was used to create interesting shadows on his face. I thought as a team we performed really well in this set, with a nervous actor, we displayed what we needed from him (directing) wilst taking it in turns on playback, filming and assistant set direction for the specific shot that was being filmed. Personally, i enoyed the directing and camera work, so i stuck to these things as much as possible for the thrown scene.

After Lunch, we then switched the set around, now bringing into play the full beam plane lights, giving a really nice siloutte of Affie and Georgie as they stood infront of them. I realised that the brightness of the lights could be used to our advantage and could pulsate to the beat of the bass of the track, so i enjoyed the lighting side of this scene. i also directed affie to make a large and abrasive movement once the lights are turned on fully to give the full effect of the powerful visual we were aiming for. affie throwing his arms in the air and jumping backwards as the bassline kicked in for the first time was the perfect action. As a team we used the tracking shots to our advantage helping eachother to create very fast tracking shots, indicating the pace is picking up. I also like the effect we thought of when the lights go completely off, and are turned on full bore.

Lastly we travelled to Guildford and set up camera where we thought would be interesting locations. we found an interestng canal area which we thought was interesting. we managed to create some nice square shots and off centered shots with Georgie with some publice stairs and walls we found.

Although i thought the shootday was very successfull, one thing i would change if i could do it again would be the timings we got into Guildford to shoot the street scenes. Although we got in in good time, because we were shooting in November, the darkness crept up on us quite quickly, so our time in Guildford was shortened because of loss of light. Luckly we did get the shots we wanted, but it would have been nice to fully cement the shots we needed aswell as have time to film so extra ones just incase. Below are some of the evidence of our shoot day in all different scenes.