Digi Pack

Promo Pack - What is a DigiPack?

When advertising your new album or single, there are many different branches you can take. Many artists like to create a theme in which their album and all the other aspects can link to. For example, Lily Allen generally wears brightly coloured dresses and these will appear in her videos, on posters and even on her album cover. Different elements of the artists the mise-en-scene such as costume, setting and the use of colour can help create this link.

When we began brainstorming about our different ideas, we wanted to create something similar to Lily so therefore we are going to use the same costume for the adverts, album and video (as does Katy Perry.) The coherence of the material in Katy Perry's 'I kissed a girl' video is a clear example, due to the theme of pink/retro that continues throughout. This is called a Promo Pack.

Digi Packs play an important role in the making of a Promo Pack. A digi pack is the packaging in which the CD, or in this case a DVD/CD will be held. Generally, they are made from card stock or other heavy paper or cardboard like materials. There are many ways in which the digi pack can open, for example it can flip open like a book, only have three parts with the CD in the middle section. Most of the time,the digipack that holds the CD is made of plastic such as a traditional jewel case CD - the paper or card is attached by small hooks. However, our digi pack will be printed on hard card and with have grips holding the DVD/CD in place.

Two CD covers by other Pop artists.

I have chosen Katy Perry's 'One of the Boys' to analyse as part of influencing ideas for my Digi Pack. Katy Perry is a successful Pop artist who uses her feminine appeal to attract both male and female audiences. Men lust over her and women want to be her. For this album she used a pink and retro theme throughout her video, posters and album cover. As she is a single artist, she is placed in the center of the frame and the other aspects are around her. Her name is straight above her head and is written in a hot pink and uses a diner type ice cream type font. She is wearing a 1950s type of swim wear such as high waisted shorts and a reddish pink crop top. She also is wearing red lipstick and has loose curls that fall on her shoulders and wears a over large blue hat that matches her shorts. In the background, the audience can see a picket fence that runs along the length of the shot. This background is also used in her advert. Katy is sat on a fold up white metal bed with a pink blanket covering it. The use of colour which appears on this album cover are also going to be used in my digipack. I will be using blues to create a link. I will also be having my artist center of the frame however i will not be having a reality-like background such as the flowers, blue sky or sense of distant towns.

As my second CD cover, i am going to analyse Florence and the Machines 'Lungs' album cover. Just like Lily Allen, Florence is a pop/indie artist and so this genre is key to creating the right Cd cover for my song. One thing that i initially like about this cover is that it is a medium close up of Florence. She is wearing a silver top which hangs off her shoulders in strands that is similar to the vines on the tree. Her hair is wavy but tied in a bun. The background is simply what looks like tree which is black and covered in vines and flowers. Florence looks to the right of the frame and has her eyes facing down. She wears black nail varnish which seems to match the black darkness of the tree. The main feature of this picture is her necklace,which is a pair of over sized lungs (linked to her Album name.) This is an important link because immediately the audience can tell which album it is, also because it supports the Promo Pack idea. The font used is simple and in white with stands out from the dark background. The font is also thin and therefore corresponds with the strands on her top. Some aspects that i will be using in my Digi Pack is the boarder that surrounds the image and the use of a close up.

Flatplans of 3 DigiPacks.

Digi Pack 1

This idea was based on an urban, city life theme. I wanted to use a brick wall theme to symbolise an industrial environment. However, i wanted to show my Lily as being happy and positive, disguarding any of the negatives in her surroundings. For the three main panels, for example cover, back and inner left panel, i wanted to use a block boarder saying Lily Allen. On the other hand, I feel looking back that this would not work because it is not clear enough who the artist is. The brick wall in the background would be dark and dull but the writing and images would be bright to create a contrast between good (sober) and bad (drunk or high.) On my front cover, i would use a box detailing that the CD offers 'Everyone's At It' and including the price. On the back cover, i will use a bar code and make a list of the feature my Digi Pack has to offer. This will include 'Everyone's At It, The Fear and The Exclusive Video of Everyone's At It.'

Digi Pack 2

For this idea, i wanted to use a bright colour theme. Bright colours are a connotation of pop music and as part of Lily's audience is the pop market, i wanted this Digi Pack to appeal to them. The Digi Pack is aimed towards a younger audience due to the bubble writing and simple shaped images, for example the panels not being too cluttered. However, as the song I am promoting is about drug use, this Digi Pack would be a unnecessary, as it would attract children rather than teenagers. Another thing i would change, would be the front cover images. Instead of again using the unclear block writing repeating Lily Allen, i would have used a picture of her so that the audience could see the artist clearly. Again i used a bar code on the back of the case to make it look more professional and used a dotted boarder to enhance the songs on the CD. Overall i dislike this digipack because i believe its audience is too young and does not demonstrate the songs theme clearly enough.

Digi Pack 3

For this digi pack, i wanted to make bright colours the central theme. I also know that neon colours are connotation of drum n bass or dance songs so this contradict my audience intentions. The top right panel is bright pink. Ive used the same image of the brick wall and bench as in my first digi pack, i did this to hint toward the urban, city feel. I have broken up the picture in different parts, which is to represent the destruction drugs can do to someones life. In the bottom two panels, i have used monsters symbolising hallucinations. The face is made of different shapes and features, a montage, this was to demonstrate all the different affects of drugs. Even though, i really like this digi pack idea, i do not think its suitable for my target audience. As i previously mentioned, neon colours are connotations of other genres of music so i believe if i wanted to use these colours, i would need to change my artist. I like the idea of the montage and the use of monsters however it may look childish.

Final Digi Pack

This is my final digi pack. As you can see, i decided to use the brick wall, urban theme. This was because i believe it suited the theme of the song and suited Lily Allen's persona. To make my digi pack, i used Photoshop. I found it difficult as i had never used Photoshop before but i managed to cut, crop, highlight and darken certain parts of my images to get the effect made.

For the top left panel, i used just a simple picture of a brick wall as this is where the CD will be so i did not want any important pictures or information here. Moving clockwise, the top right panel just a mid shot of Kelsey dressed in more streetwise clothing (the hoodie.) The image itself is a lot darker than the front cover of inner tray panel, i will come to explain why. My bottom right panel is going to be my back cover, i have used a font called Ransom which i found on Dafont.com. I wanted this type of effect because its related to crime and in London, there is a high crime rate. For my other information on the panel, i did not want to use this font as it is quite over bearing, so instead i used a font called Tempus Sans ITC. At the bottom of the panel, i have used the EMI (Lily Allen's Label's) logo. Under that, i have written some information about copyright as I had noticed this done of other researched CD cases. I put a black font for Lily's name and for the copyright law because even though it is important, i did not want it to become the text your eyes were immediately drawn to. The song information however, i used a white colour which stood out dramatically from the dark bricks. For my front cover, i decided to make this bright and simple. I used a picture of Kelsey and used the 'magnetic' tool to cut her out of the original picture, then moving the layer on my brick picture background. I used the Ransom font for all of my texts because there is not much information on this page and both bits of text are of great importance. The reason I decided to make the front cover light and the back cover dark and vise-versa inside the case was due to making the contrast between reality and fantasy. This idea came from Lily's video LDN, where she sees everything is beautiful but in reality, its dull and grimy. The front cover, Kelsey is dressed in a glittery silver top and has red lips and the sun shining on her however the inside right panel is dark and depressing.

My favourite parts of my Digi Pack are my choice of themes and font. I believe each create a connection with eachother and portray a certain image that would appeal to my teenage target audience. However, if i had to change something about my digi pack, i would perhaps change the font of the song information on the back cover. I believe it does not suggest my theme as well as my Ransom font and looks rather childish which would appeal to my audience.

Feedback

To gather feedback about my Digi Pack, i uploaded it onto Facebook, a social networking site, and waited to see what type os replies i recieved. I thought Facebook would be the most suitible place to gather feedback becuase it used a wide range of ages, genders etc.

From reading therough my feedback, i discoverd that many people have the same likes and dislikes as myself. Many people have commented on my choice of font and the brick theme used throughout.

There is one thing my reviewers commented on in which i could change. They liked the idea of having the font look like it was printed on the wall itself and on my front cover, 'LILY ALLEN' overlaps Kelsey's hair. This would not have taken much to change but i did not want Kelsey's hair to cover up the end of the name, as it is the most important. However, if i had perhaps moved the main picutre slightly to the right, this problem would have been avoided.

The Change.

With six weeks to go, and after a number of filming sessions and countless hours of planning, we have decided to rethink our video idea. We had numerous problems with using the camera correctly and capturing the important aspects. I also was not confident performing in the video as i felt I could not pull off the correct attitude which needed to be portrayed. On Wednesday 24th February, Kelsey, Jade and myself decided to change some of the storyline/scenes and also who would be playing the main role in the video. Charlotte was not present at the time due to a Netball match commitment so we took the matter into our own hands and made the significant change. Instead of myself playing the Lily character, Kelsey was now going to, and I would do some of filming along with Jade and Charlotte. I found this much more benefiting as I enjoy using the camera and it was enjoyable being able to execute my camera skills that I had learnt previously.

The changes to the story lines are as follows:

- The school, classroom scene has now been cut. Our first reason was, being that because we had swapped roles anyway, we would have had to re-film with Kelsey. We also found difficulty in finding other students being able to participate in this scene because as it would be being filmed during class time, and people had other commitments within college and our breaks did not match.

- We now open the video with a montage of clips from the entire video, using short, quick cuts in time with the tempo of the song. These clips will show the viewer what is to come as the story continues. I had this idea from Romeo and Juliet, how the beginning lines tell the story before the audience has seen anything.

- The first verse: Open on a close up of Kelsey's face as she is sleeping. Pull the camera out into a mid shot of her getting out of bed as she is miming the lyrics. The swap from close ups to mid shots again to emphasize her facial expressions and her body language. Kelsey is dressed in sleepwear, such as a striped top and grey baggy tracksuit bottoms. Her hair is messy and down while her make up is minimal.

'It's meant to be fun, but this just does not feel right.' These lyrics will be delivered to the camera as Kelsey opens what looks like her bedroom door. It begins with a high, mid angle shot of Jade spread across the door, asleep and holding a bottle of vodka. She has heavy make up down her face suggesting this scene is the aftermath of a house party. The door opens and we see Kelsey's feet walk over Jade's motionless body. The camera follows up Kelsey's body until we see a mid close up of her face and she exits left into what looks like a bathroom.

- The Chorus: At the beginning of the chorus, 'Why can’t we all, all just be honest.' It starts with a close up of Kelsey as she opens the bathroom door. She is no longer dressed in casual clothing, she is wearing a silver sequin t-shirt type top and black leggings. Her hair is still down but groomed and curly. Her eyes have black eyeliner, lots of mascara and she has red lips. The aim of this was to make her look like she was going out to a party or clubbing.

As the chorus continues, we cut to a low angle shot of her walking down the stairs, all the while still miming the lyrics. She gets to 5th step down and stops. Kelsey then sits on the stairs and puts on a pair of black patent high heels. She then continues to sit and sing to the camera, the camera in using zoom to show her facial movements at certain points. For example, near the end of the chorus before a little instrumental of music, there is a repetition of 'Everyone’s at it.' During this, Kelsey is taking a step every time it is repeated. She gets closer to the camera and there are three repetitions in total. By the end of the chorus/instrumental, Kelsey has walked down the stairs and has exited to the left of the camera.

- The Second Verse: For this verse, Jade and I are also involved with being on screen. At the time we found this difficult because there were only three of us present and we needed all three of us in the video. We used the tripod to set up a wide shot of my kitchen. Kelsey is sat on the right side of the worktop and I am wearing a pink dressing gown, I have my hair tied up and I have basic make up, this is to portray a mother-in-the-morning type figure. As Kelsey begins the second verse, I clean the worktops around her, being completely oblivious that Kelsey is there. 'You go to the doctors' When these lyrics are being spoken, Jade enters from the left holding her head like she is in pain. She is wearing the same clothing so the audience is led to believe that this is the girl who was drunk outside Kelsey's door. As Kelsey continues to mime, I comfort Jade and turn around to get something out of the cupboard behind me. I get out a large box of what looks like tablets; it will then cut to a close up of me giving the 'pills' to Jade. Then it will switch to another face on, close up of Kelsey singing the concluding lyrics of the second verse, 'Little do you know, she already takes crack.'


Our plans for the next chorus, bridge and concluding chorus's will include a mixture of front on, from behind and side medium shots of Kelsey as she walks down Newhaven High Street. We decided to film here because unlike Lewes High Street (our initial filming street location) Newhaven has some boarded shops and has been made from concrete; Lewes had a brick path and cobble side lines. We thought Newhaven suits the gritty, London feel that we are trying to portray; we are trying to make our set look as authentic as possible without travelling to London. Newhaven is also a convenient location because it is not far from my home; therefore we do not have to struggle with the camera equipment. In these shots, we will also be experimenting with the focus too. We will focus on Kelsey as she walking through the streets so that the background is blurred thus creating the allusion of a drug affect (which is still the main focus and message for our video.)

We are not changing the Brick Wall scene. Kelsey will be dressed in the same costume, singing the lyrics as we capture extreme close ups and wide long shots of her glittery, bold clothing against the plain and aged brick wall. We will be using these shots throughout the song as fillers and to help break up the storyline.

Storyboard, Anamatic and Shooting Script

Storyboard

This is the first part of our storyboard. The first six shots are mainly used to introduce our singer to the audience, using her in every shot.

Shot 1: This is an establishing shot of a classroom with a teacher standing at the front of the room next to a white board. By showing the teacher from the students perspective, its suggesting that this video will be following a student, therefore putting the audience in the youths shoes. The teacher will be writing a brainstorm about 'THE EFFECTS OF DRUGS' on her board.

Shot 2: This shot is a medium close up of our 'Lily' character. By showing this character first, it show the audience that she is the most important.

Shot 3-4: This is where the camera will zoom through the main characters eye, as if going into her brain symbolising that this story will be told through her eyes or it will about her.

Shot 5: In this shot, Lily will be walking down a high street which will have rubbish along the pavements and empty alcohol bottles to signify our overall theme of abuse. Filmed in a long shot.

Shot 6: This is just a filler shot, it will be used throughout the video, to add another location that creates a more urban,city feel. Lily will be standing in front of a dull,old brick wall while she is in her bright clothing. Filmed in a mid shot.

Shot 7: This is where Lily will leave this location and she walks to her next location which is walking past a group of teenagers smoking.

Part 2 of Storyboard

Shot 8: A group of teenagers will be standing with their backs to the camera in a mid shot.

Shot 9: The camera will then cut to a wide shot as Lily walks across the screen from left to right.

Shot 10: "It just doesn't feel right" For these lyrics, the camera will cut to a close up of a young girl looking as if she is in pain.

Shot 11: In this next shot, it again is a long shot in the high street. Lily is now walking down a street surrounded by people smoking tormenting her. There is also numerous couples portraying promiscuity. Lily is confused and scared by this and so walks fast towards the camera.

Shot 12: This is a extreme close up of a couple kissing. This is uses to make the audience feel uncomfortable and awkward when watching. Using it to shock them.

Shot 13: " I get involved" For this shot, it is an a over the shoulder shot of a threatening looking man inviting with this hand to Lily.

Part 3 of Storyboard

Shot 14: This is an extreme close up of a hand holding a pack of prescription drugs handing it over to a young feminine hand. We will make sure the female hand had nail varnish to help specify the gender in a quick shot.

Shot 15: Here a wide shot is used to show a mother standing in the kitchen shouting and looking worried towards the camera, as if the audience is now the girl.

Shot 16: It then cuts to a mid shot of Lily sitting on the worktop next to the mother. While the mother is crying, Lily continues to sing the lyrics to the song.

Shot 17: An over the shoulder shot is used again in this shot to show Lily opening the door of the kitchen and walking out.

Shot 18: "Why cant we all just be honest" Is sung during an extreme close up of Lily's lips.

Shot 19: This is a wide shot of two mature men sitting behind a voting table, representing politicians. This is going to be in sync with the lyrics "From grown politicians"

Part 4 of Storyboard

Shot 20: A birds eye view shot is used here to show a group of teenagers (the same group as in shot 8 & 9) in a counselling class.

Shot 21: This shot is again in the high street in a long shot. Lily now starts running towards the camera.

Shot 22: Now back to the classroom. From a point of view shot, we see the teacher coming towards the end of her teachings. She will be rubbing off the writing on the board.

Shot 23: The camera will then pan round to Lily, who will be in a mid close up. Lily will my singing the lyrics "Everyone's At It" three times.

Shot 24: Now from an over the shoulder shot, the other student will start to leave.

Shot 25: Now back to a mid close up of Lily, smiling to herself and the camera then goes into a fade for the end of the song.

Amimatic

This is our animatic. We made this for two reasons. Our first being that as students, we had never used Final Cut Pro before and therefore it was good experience before we made our final video. Secondly, by putting the shots in time with the music, we would be able to see if our idea worked well together and discuss any changes that we might need to make to our ideas. I found making the animatic difficult because i had never used this software before and found all the different keys and tools confusing. After watching my teacher go through some of the simple tools, we managed as a group to put the different clips in some type of order. To make the animatic, we used a camera to take pictures of each of the individual shots on the storyboard. After uploading them into Final Cut Pro, we then dragged each picture onto the timeline, where we had already downloaded our song and put it on a different timeline. Then by using the 'cutting' tool from the selection to the far right, we cut each picture down to go in time to the song and its lyrics.

Shooting Script

My group decided that our video was going have a main character that mimed the lyrics in sync with the music. To help us organise what order the shot would be in, we drew a Shooting Script. This allowed us to make a brief outline of how we would sync the footage to the lyrics. For example, 0:26 - 0:55, Lily would be miming as if she was waking up, she would then turn to sit on the bed towards the camera and there would be a zoom into a close up on her face.

Analysing Two Lily Allen Videos.

Lily Allen - LDN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYT79tPvLg

The first video that I have looked at for inspiration for our video is LDN, which is another hit song from Lily. This video does not start immediately with the song. There is 0.42 seconds of dialogue at the beginning where Lily is in a record shop. The set is small and filled with different records. There are two men behind the desk like counter and Lily appears to be the only female. She may have done this because then the attention is specifically on her, she is also the only character with dialogue.
As the music begins, the camera cuts to a long, wide shot of a record shop, named 'Grade.' The lighting is dark and the building looks deprived. There is sight of a concrete pavement running along the shop so the audience gets the idea of a city road. There is clutter and rubbish put outside the shop window, such as cardboard boxes and black bags. This also gives instantly a gritty image. In front of the shop, three male teenagers run across the screen from the right, followed by a policeman, instigating the high crime rate, which generally occurs in large cities. The next thing that I noticed was some special effects, a thin wave of white travels from the right of the shot to the left. As it passes everything is touches turns into bright colour and the shop no longer has rubbish outside, but a bike. From the dark shot to the bright, the audience gathers that the darker is the real and the bright is what Lily sees it as. To achieve this, the Iris is closed slightly to let in less light into the shot, whereas it is opened wider to make colourful shot a great deal brighter. Almost fairy-tale like.

The next shot is a wide shot of Lily, dressed in a bright red, long dress. She is wearing large gold, chunky hoop earliner and gold glitter on her eyes. Apart from the peachy lip gloss, the rest of her make up is minimal and her hair is tied back. ‘Riding in the city on my bike all day,' this is the first line of lyrics from the song. Instantly there is a connection to the urban (real) shot, linking to city, and the bike which is outside the shop.

It then cuts to a close up of Lily. From here there is a sequence of close ups to wide shots of Lily walking down the street, this movement is called a Follow shot, which is done by using a Dollying technique. When it cuts to the wide shot, the white wave special effect is following Lily, creating everything bright and colourful into dark and gritty, changing a happy couple into a man pulling a women’s hair on the steps outside of a house. This shot is low angle shot. Instead of the blue house in the happy couple shot, there is a wire fence behind the women, again insinuating a city surrounding.

After continuing with more close ups, there is a low shot of the back of Lily's feet. She is wearing trainers, indicating she is using a signature look to appeal to her audience, for example a summers dress with white trainers, perhaps she is trying to set a trend?
Following this shot, it cuts to a close up of Lily's back as she is walking along a bridge. As she continues down the bridge, the shots switch from mid close ups of her face and feet.

The follows a camera movement called 'Tilt,' showing an elderly lady walking away from the camera. The shot could possibly be a long shot because we can see down the pathway. As the audience hears the lyrics, we discover that they are creating a story for the video. This is defiantly an idea that we are going to use for our video. Each line of lyrics will be linked to what is being shown on the screen.
Some important props used in this video such as rusty heroine needles and used cigarettes on the floor are some features we also may use in our video.

Lily Allen - Smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxDrVUrSvI

From the start of the video, Lily is wearing a similar costume to her LDN video. One signature item is her gold hoop earrings. Unlike LDN, there is use of many different shot types in just the first 0.24 seconds of the song. Shots such as a mid zoom, wide panning and low angle. The location is meant to look like Lily's bedroom; it is bright orange which is also a signature element of Lily's appeal. We will be using the 'bright' and the 'bedroom' idea for our video.

As the lyrics begin an Arc movement is shot, moving to the left of the screen and zooms in on Lily until it cuts to a mid shot.

It then cuts to a wide shot with Lily in the middle. She is leaning against a building that separates into three parts, thus creating the Rule of Thirds, with her centre; the attention is on her.

One of the following scenes is held in a run down cafe, still suggesting the urban, city environment. This is a two-shot, of Lily and a male actor. There is a 'diner' like table between them is filmed in an eye level angle.

The next shot is an Over the shoulder shot which is indicating conversation between Lily and the man. As the man is talking, it cuts to medium close ups of Lily singing the lyrics.

It then cuts into another scene not involving Lily. This is also different because it is filmed in a different camera type, suggesting a hand held home video camera. It is fairly darker than the Lily scenes and the colours are not so vivid.

The video is made up of snappy cuts, purposely looking like it is skipping sections of time, but only seconds. An example of this is when there is an extreme close up of Lily opening a packet of Laxative tablets.


The next scene is again not featuring Lily and is also filmed using a hand held camera. In this scene there are Point of View shots and high angle shots. It then cuts back to Lily's bedroom where is sped up slightly showing the man explain something to Lily and she comforts him. In our video we will not be having a male protagonist. The video will be completely focused on our actress. In the following Club scene, there is also use of Tilt.


The end of the video consists of a tracked shot, also used in LDN where the camera is moving backwards as Lily walks down the street towards it. As previously mentioned, we will be using this idea in our video because it is commonly known in Lily's videos therefore connecting with her immediate audience.

Pitch and Powerpoint

To experience how a production company would have to get permission to go ahead with their ideas, we were asked to produce have to show a pitch. Each member of my group and I spoke about the different aspects of our ideas and then receive feedback from the rest of our class.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B5WUAYNvqSRQNjgxMjA2ZTAtMmQyOC00Y2ViLThhOWEtZjNlOGVkOTE1Nzhl&hl=en