Digipak Draft

Here is the draft version of my digipak that I created:

My draft both coincides with and differs from my original drawn plan for my digipak in a few ways.

The 3 panels that will form the outer-side of my digipak are all fitting with my plan, as I have included the images that I said that I would. On the front cover, I have included the artist name and the album title, which fits with conventions of a digipak. I have made sure to centre Hannah in the middle of the frame, as this signifies her importance, and it draws your eye to focus on her. I have made sure that the artist name is bigger than that of the name of the album, as the artist is the selling point. It is important to make sure that this is the most prominent feature, so that the eye is drawn to it. Different to my original plan, I have separated the artist and album name's by using a thin black line. I liked the use of the line on Eminem's cover for his album 'Brainless' underneath the artist and album name, however, I thought I would use it to separate both of those things as I thought that it helped you to differentiate clearly between the two names. I selected a colour from a section of the sky in the image on the front of the digipak, using the colour selection tool, to use as the 'theme' colour on for the borders of the images and the spine, as I felt this co-ordinated the digipak very well.

On the panel that would be the back cover, I framed the picture so that Hannah's reflection was on the right hand side. This was appropriate framing, as it did not confused the focal points of the cover. It allowed the track list to not cover Hannah's reflection, which meant that it was more easily readable, and that it did not take away from the image I used. Additionally, the text did not disappear into the image. On the back cover, I made sure to include the copyright details and the barcode, as these are important conventions of a digipak.

I made sure to include the name of the album and the artist on the spine on the digipak, as this is what would be visible to people in shops, when the album is on the shelf. This allows people to identify the album if they are searching for it, and it also means that people will be able to easily see who's album it is, before picking it off the shelf.

The images that I used on the inside of the digipak differ from those I used in my original plan. In my plan I said that on the left-hand panel I would use the two shot of Hannah and Jade in Winter Wonderland and on the right-hand panel I would use the medium two shot of Hannah and Jade's. I also said that, on the CD, I would use the close up shot of Hannah and Josh's hands whilst they are holding hands, and on this panel, I would use an image of bokeh effect lights at Winter Wonderland that we had in spare footage from filming there. However, when creating the piece, I thought that it would be visually impressive to split the two shot of Hannah looking at Jade in Winter Wonderland and use the halves on two separate panels, which I thought looked very effective. To highlight Hannah and Jade in these shots, I blurred the backgrounds to give them a dreamy feel, and to draw your eye to focus on the characters. On the CD, I decided that I would use a a section of one of the beach shots, which just showed the pebbles, sand and the sea. Whilst producing my draft I decided that I needed to include the album and artist name on the disk, like I have on the album cover, but this could not be seen effectively over the close up shot of Hannah and Josh holding hands, due to lots of detail of pebbles interfering with the relatively thin typography. Using an image of the beach meant that the titles could easily be seen, and it also provided a nice contrast to the Winter Wonderland images on the panels either side. Behind the CD, I chose to use a shot from the beach which is a close up of Hannah and Jade holding hands, instead of the bokeh light shots that I had planned to use. I thought the close up shot was better suiting, as it came together nicely with the beach scenery that I chose to use on the CD. When I chose the close up shot, I made the framing shot that the CD covered the hands of the girls. I thought hiding this behind the CD kept the narrative hidden at first glance, and then when the CD was taken out, the image would be revealed properly.

In my design, I wanted the the outside and inside of the digipak to be representative of the contrasting moods in our video. I wanted the the front and back covers to represent Hannah's characters loneliness and isolation. Therefore, both of the images I used were of Hannah alone, is empty places. On the panel revealed when you open the digipak, I wanted to present the relationship of the characters played by Josh and Hannah, so I used a long shot of them standing close to each other at the beach. This kept with the natural mise-en-scene that I had been using for the outside of the digipak. I wanted the inside of the digipak to provide a contrast to the isolation/misery of Hannah's character that was displayed on the outside. Therefore, I chose to use images that represent the relationship between Hannah and Jade's characters. The colourful aspect of these images made them very eye-catching, and the contrast to the semi-bland colours on the outside made the digipak more interesting. I included some beach imagery on the inside of the digipak, to provide a connection to the outside, as I thought it was important to make it feel visually fluid, at the same time as contrasting.

Digipak Planning

Below is a labelled drawing of the original plan I created for my digipak:

Editing: iMovie

We transitioned from using 'Adobe Premier Pro' to iMovie, and though it happened for regulation reasons out of our control, it actually proved to be extremely beneficial to our group and our final product. The process of editing became much more efficient, as we had access to iMovie at school and at home, and we did not have to travel back and forth to the college in order to edit. Eliminating the need for travel for our group was very beneficial as none of us are able to drive, so we were relying on lifts there, which meant we had to accommodate our editing time around other people's schedules. Having access to the editing software both in school on the selection of macs that are available, and on my laptop proved useful. It meant that during any free periods in school, we could access our edit to work on it. Having the software on my laptop also meant that I could spend multiple hours outside of school hours editing, which proved essential in us being able to edit our final draft with such precision as we did.

Although our group had experience in using Adobe Premier Pro, we still found that it was very complicated to get to grips with. We had found that time that could have been spent editing was being spent trying to figure out how to use certain tools and effects. As a group, we found that iMovie was a much more simple piece of software to use. Hannah and I had previous experience in using the software, which meant that we were aware of most of the features it had to offer, and could use them effectively.

What tools/techniques did we use?

We used the crop to fill tool to turn this relatively long shot of Hannah and Jade into a medium shot, as we felt that this would be more effective in the piece. Making the shot more focused on the girls highlights their emotion, and removes the unnecessary background that was included.




When using iMovie, we were unable to use techniques such as isolating colour within a shot, as the software was not capable of advanced techniques such as this. Instead, we used a split between a black and white filter on shots, and standard colour on the rest of the shots, to demonstrate the protagonists transition between self-conflict, sadness and isolation, to happiness and acceptance of her sexuality. To create the black and white filter effect, we used the colour correction tool to erase the colour and leave the shot in black and white.








Throughout the video, we used the slow motion technique on a multitude of occasions. We felt that slowing down the clips to 80% of their normal speed helped to make them more poignant, and added to the emotion of the shots. In coloured part of the piece, we used slow motion as a method to make the shots seem very dream-like, as we wanted to represent the protagonists relief and intense happiness that she had finally accepted herself, and was falling in love again.

Cross dissolve with slow motion

Cross dissolve with increased speed

In our piece we featured sections of footage where we used cross dissolves. This was a technique we were unfamiliar with before this project, but we thought that using cross dissolve techniques worked almost like time lapse in a certain sense. We used a cross dissolve of Hannah and Josh walking on top of the rocks to represent sadness and how time moved slowly because the protagonist was so unhappy. We also used a cross dissolve in the reversed shot of Hannah walking on the pebbles away from Josh, to demonstrate the speed of her return to him, as she could not bring herself to let go.





We used the stabilisation tool on this long shot of Jade and Hannah at the beach, as due to the strong wind that day, the footage was a little shaky. The stabilisation tool proved to be quite effective, as it zoomed in on the shot more to decrease its shaky appearance.





Opinion on using iMovie...

I believe that switching to using iMovie was the best decision we could have made for our the editing process of our video. Our familiarity with the simple software allowed us to edit the footage a lot better than we would have using 'Adobe Premier Pro'. We could make full use of the software and its features, and for that reason, I believe our final edit is of a much better standard than we would have been able to produce using the more complicated software.

Music Video: Our First Draft

Here is the first draft of our music video:

Feedback...

We asked for feedback on our first draft from our media teacher and our peers. As a group, we would reflect on their comments after watching our first draft, and then we would go back to the editing process in order to attempt to improve our piece, with the improvements made based on the feedback that we received. Obtaining feedback is also a good way for us to be able to find out what people like about our video.

Here are some of the comments we received:

"The opening shot is effective in portraying the mood and isolation, but there needs to be some sort of sound paired with the track, whether diegetic or non-diegetic."

"The argument scene is very effective. The order of shots and the way the footage is edited on beat creates a very professional feel to this sequence."

"I think the way the title comes in is very effective, as is the size of the names in comparison to each other. However, I think that the font is a little too curly for the alternative genre of music."

"The final sequence in which the relationship between the protagonist and the other female character is developed is organised in a way that tells the narrative effectively. My suggestion to improve the sequence further is to edit the sequence more closely on the beat. This would be very visually impressive for the audience."

"Some of the shots are a little unstable, so the piece would look more professional if the shakiness could be minimised"

"Some of the shots could be more effective if they were in slow motion"

When considering the feedback we were given, these are the improvement points that we can initially see to make:

• Look for a different font for the titles. We can do this on the video editing app, as we want to keep the size and introduction of the titles the same.
• We will add the diegetic sound of the sea over the opening shot because this will make sure the audience do not lose interest.
• We will revise the sequence of shots that are at the end of our piece. We will keep their order the same, however, we will edit them so the movements of the people within the shots coincide with the beat. We will also edit the sequence so that the shots change on the beat, too.
• We will use the stabilisation tool on iMovie in order to stabilise the footage that appears shaky
• We will experiment with using slow motion to extend certain shots, in order for them to have more impact

What changes will we make based on what we think?

• We will alter the order of the footage before the argument scene, to attempt to make sure the narrative is more clear.
• We will remove the scenery shot, as it does not appear to have any relevance to the narrative and seems pointless.
• We will add the black and white effect to all of the footage prior to the shot of the Hannah deleting the photo of Josh, as a means to demonstrate how Hannah is much happier once she learns to embrace her sexuality.

Filming Day: Ogmore-by-Sea with Jade

Location: Ogmore-by-Sea

Date: 13th of February

Group members present: Jade Dibble, Hannah Martin and Jasmine Greene.

Our final filming session consisted of us filming shots for the final sequence of our music video. We wanted to attain the shots that would actually establish the relationship between Hannah and Jade's characters, after the build up to it in the prior shots. This location is exactly the same that we used when filming with Josh, which meant that we could directly replicate certain shots.

The lighting at this time of day was absolutely excellent for what we wanted. The sun started to go down slightly whilst we were filming, which created a semi-romantic mood in shots that we made use of the lighting to make silhouettes.

Due to the nature of the location, and how the beach is very open, we encountered problems with the wind. As Hannah and Jade both have long hair, we found that in many of the shots that we had planned to film, their hair was blowing in the wind and covering their faces. This meant that we had to abandon filming certain shots, as we could not find an angle in which we could prevent their hair blowing in their faces. As a result, we had to improvise and brainstorm different shot ideas that we could use that would create the same effect. We had to think of entirely different shots that would be similar to those planned, or shots that were just slightly different to the original plan.

To achieve an effective shot of Hannah and Jade running away from the sea as it washed in, we had to attempt it a few times. Whilst I was avoiding getting wet, we found that I could not obtain a shot that was smooth, and that I could not obtain a shot from a good angle, or use steady camera movement. It was then that I made the decision to stand in the sea, and let it wash over me, so that I could obtain the desired shot. Not only were we competing with the cold weather already, but the decision for me to stand in the sea meant that this would have to be the final shot that we filmed that day, as I would need to return back to the car to attempt to warm up. Thankfully, the shot that we got was very effective, and it was what we had wished it to be like, so it was very much worth it.

On location, we found that obtaining the shot of the tide washing over the word "Sorry", that we wrote in the sand, was actually very time consuming. We had to attempt this shot multiple times, and we had to experiment with where worked best. We found that we had to write "Sorry" at a distance away from where the tide was washing up to at that moment, because otherwise it would get washed away before we could finish it and start filming. However, this meant that we had to leave the camera filming and wait for quite a long period of time for the water to reach where we needed it to, in order for it to create the shot that we wanted. We were very happy with the shot once we had achieved it.

In the video above you can see us working on the beach during this filming session. We were in competition with tide, as it was coming in, which mean that the sand we had to film on was gradually becoming less and less.