Digipack analysis (System Of A Down self titles album)

On this page i will be analysing the digipack of the self titled album produced by "System Of A Down" this album 1998 and happened to be their debut album.

As you can see when the album is purchased is does not only come with one disk, it comes with two disks and the disks appear to be in a vinyl record style but are the size of a CD this is different from other cd's released by other bands and this may attract more customers as it is uique and it shows some sort of  t the album on the inside of the album this may explain to the audience what to expect from this band or it may just briefly be a thank you for buying the album 

Digipack template

When I take pictures to do my album cover i will also need to use some pictures to create a digipack for the album to do this I will be using a template. This will make it easier for me to produce this digipack as I will know where to put the pictures on the digipack so i know which picture is at the front, back etc. the template I will be using is just a simple one i found on google images which is good because i don't want an overcomplicated template when it is going to look the same at the end anyway. 

Video analysis of "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters

This song is a protest song and was wrote about the iraq war. It is also about how the politicians lie to the people and the writer of the song sees straight through all the lies that they tell. "Keep you in the dark, you know they all pretend" when this lyric is sang it would appear asif he is singing directly to the american people and referring to the politicians as "they"and saying they "keep you in the dark" and "pretend"

In the first verse where the lyrics begin "bring in your skeletons" the singer could be referring to soldiers when he says "skeletons" this could just be a word used instead of soldiers or it could also be used because he may think the soldiers are as good as dead

Personal skills audit

From doing Media I will gather a range of skills that I will need in order to create a succesful music idea. I gathered a lot of these skills from doing AS media this will help me in my A2 project but my skills will need to be improved as they are not quite up to scratch to get the grade I aspire to get from  doing this A2 project.

The skills i will need are:

• Camera skills - I will need skills in order to take different shots to put in my video i am producing. 

• Editing skills - I will need to have editing skills as i will need to edit the shots i have taken to put them together at the right time in the music video.

• Creativity - I will need to be creative when I am producing this so when i come around to making my video it will not be boring and will show elements of my creativity in there. 

Photoshoot Planning

On this page I will be explaining what I intend to do when I do my photoshoot. When i get my photos from my photoshoot it will not only be for my photoshoot but i will also be taking shots I have taken to use in my Digipack and my music video advert as this it will be easier to take these shots at the same time and will be time efficient for myself. What I intend to do with my photoshoot is have several individual shots of each member of the band, in the photo of Peter (The singer) I would like to have a picture of he from the side whist he is holding the microphone with the drums behind him but edit the camera lens so that the drums are blurred. i would also use use a spotlight to emphasise on Peter so that would put less emphasis on the drums. I would also put the name of the song where the blurred drums are, I will do this by using photoshop to put the text over the top. I would also like to do the same shot of Peter doing this but facing the camera.

As for jake (the drummer of the band) I would like to take a shot of him with a drum stick in his mouth with his hood up I would like to do this as it would look good as part of a digipack for the band, I could also use this "drum stick in the mouth idea" to do shot where he appears to be writing song lyrics whist doing this. To do this i use a spot light in him and do a close up shot of the thought he is putting into writing the lyrics. I would also like to do a shot where he is leaning against his drum set and the drum stick is in midair and jake is about to catch it i would use lighting from the side of jake and use a medium shot here.

The idea I had for Jerome (the guitarist of the band) would be have a picture of him playing the guitar and have lighting coming from right to left, I believe this would make a more professional look for the digipack. I will also have a shot of him stood up playing in front of a microphone to show him doing backing lyrics this shot will be a close up.

For the bassist (Alex) I would just like to take several different shots of him, mostly without the his bass as if I have all the band playing their instrument it will not show much creativity and will not look like I have put much thought into the photoshoot as everyone will just basically be doing the same thing.

Photo editing software

When I do my photo shoot with my band for my Digipack, album cover etc. the software I will be using to edit the photos when I upload them to the Mac will be Phostoshop CS5 extended edition as this would be the best program I could use to do this to edit it if there is something i do not like in the photo or i just need to change a few things such as reflections etc.

Video editing software

The editing software i will be using is Final Cut HD i will be using this program because it has many uses in editing videos which will come in handy when i come around to editing the shots i have taken for my music video. This program offers a variety of techniques in which can be used to edit videos as you will see in the production of my music video.

Rough cut 2

This is my second rough cut as you can see from this there is quite a lot more shots have been taken than in the first one and there is some elements of editing in there also, this is not my final product i am still looking to get a lot more shots for this music video and do more editing as i know can produce a product that will be a lot better than this one.

Costume Planning

In my music video my actors/band members will not have precise costumes such as costume etc. but i have told them to all wear zip jackets so, this will make them look more like a band, however the singer of the band does not wear a zip jacket and will wear a plain white shirt when the full band shots are taken this is to emphasise the fact that he is the lead singer and when the band plays most of the attention will be around him.

Other than this in the acting scenes/ playing instruments outdoors i just asked the people that will be appearing in my music video to dress casual. The reason i asked them to dress casual for these parts of the song is because it will seem more realistic the things they are doing and i don't want scenes in the music video i am making to be to out of the ordinary as i believe the audience i am making this for may not agree with this idea.

Band name

In doing my research in this genre i discovered that the band names in this genre are not generally just one word so when I was discussing with the band what the band name would be we had to had to think long and hard bout it. Eventually we came up with the name "One Time Only" this seems somewhat fitting to the band as the band do not ordinarily play together, they are all from different bands, this band name is also easy to remember and sounds good and catchy just like other band names such as "Panic! at the disco" and "The red hot chilli peppers".

This name will also look good on the album cover and the digipack i will be making for the band which would be good as it makes them look more professional.

Lyrics breakdown

"Can't Stop" Lyrics breakdown

This song could have many meanings but in my opinion when the lyrics of the chorus comes on "The world i love, the tears i drop, to be part of, the wave can't stop, ever wonder if its, all for you" makes me think think that these lyrics mean that we all face troubles in life and have ups and downs but we all experience these troubles in life together as we all go through them at some point in life.

Choice of band

I faced some difficulties with my choice of band as the band I first chose to help me do my music video were not very cooporative and did not seem up for the task at hand as they did not have the organisational skills that are needed in doing this project. However I decided to not use this band after several failed attempts at trying to organise shooting times etc. I decided to seek elsewhere for a band that would be ok with the times i wanted to record so I gathered several people that I know and asked them if they would record for me, these people were chose carefully, I took into consideration that they would put in more effort if they liked the genre of music I am doing which in turn would help me get my shots done faster. 

The new people I gathered were not already in a band together but had past experience playing in bands, these people did however know each other and decided they were happy to work together to help me with my project  

What is Genre?

Genre is a big part of not only the music world but also a lot of other things such as; TV, movies etc. In music genre is different types of music all sectioned into one 'group' with similar songs and given a name with we call the genre for example the genre 'Rock' includes a lot more rapid beat and and heavier chords etc. than the 'Country' genre would. This is important in the music industry as different people of different ages and cultures will have different tastes in music, this way when bands/singers make songs they will know their target audience will be people who enjoy music of the same genre.

In my project i will be choosing a song from a certain genre and make a video for the song. I will do this by researching other songs in this music genre and analysing the videos and I may also use some of the ideas i have gathered from doing this research, overall i will be trying to make a video that will please the target audience for this type of genre.

I will probably be doing a song that fits into the 'Heavy rock' or 'Modern rock' genre as that is my personal preference of music genre and i know a lot of bands that i can gain research from by watching the music video. This will also be good because this genre has a very large target audience so it will not be as hard to find out research on what people who prefer this genre like to see in the music videos compared to a genre where there is a limited target audience.

A2 Brief

My brief for my A2 Media coursework includes the following:

• A digipack of the albums released 

• A magazine advert for the digipack

My project is sectioned into different parts (shown on the toolbar ahead) in these different sections it will show my work i have done to research, plan and construct the music video i will produce, it will also show my finished product and an evaluation on how things went whilst making the video.

Rough cut

Rough cut 

This is the rough cut I have produced for my music video, the final product will be rather different to this. As you can see I have not done much editing on this video yet and i have not put the narrative in yet, this is because i was facing problems with the band i chose and eventually had to change the band I was using to make the music video so the time i had to make this was very limited. However the new band i gathered, co-operated very well considering it was very short notice when I asked them if they coud be in my music video and the work rate I received from them was very high and helped me gather the footage that is shown so far in this rough cut.

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

In my Music video I have many ideas such as get an actor to act our scenes which relate to the song or gather any people to act out the music video but the main idea that I am thinking of using for this is gather a band to play the song. I got the idea from the music video made by "The 1975" in the song "Sex" this music video inspired me to take some aspects of the video and put them into my own music video that I will be producing as it shows each member of the band playing the song in several different shots rather than just using one long shot of the whole band.

This is not the only idea I will be using when i am producing my music video as I feel it would not show much creativity and if the video is more creative it will be a better and more fitting for the song. Another idea that I seemed to favour was that i shall use some narrative in the music video. I will do this by getting the lead singer of the band to film with me and he will act and sing the words to the song. I originally had this idea but what really inspired me to do this is the music video created for "Pompeii" by "Bastille". In this video it shows the lead singer of the band in different scenery throughout the song acting the music video out and singing the song. This will be a good idea to use in my music video as it will show a meaning to the song and it will also show the people that are playing the instruments. It will also show the several ideas i am using to make this music video.



I also have many other ideas, another idea I was seriously considering using in my music video was when I am making the narrative for the music video I could get the actor/singer I have gathered to hold the camera and sing to the camera while he is walking down a street for part of the sequence. This would be a good idea because it will show a different way of filming the music video. I got inspiration to do this from the music video made by "James Blunt" for the song "Same Mistake" where for the majority of the music video it shows a medium close up of James Blunt in different scenery singing the song. However I may not use this idea whilst shooting my music video as I feel it may not fit in with the other ideas i will be using for my music video and my cause to much of a complication to the video I am producing.

Treatment Sheet

Treatment sheet from christotty95

Logo

This is my record logo, I used photoshop to produce this photo and google images to get the original image, after getting the image I covered the background of the photo in black and put the name of my record company in the bottom right corner, i also put a filter over the rose to give it more of a mysterious effect on the audience, I decided to call my record company "Rose Records" as i believe is will stick in peoples mind and it easy to remember.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Before I started filming i need to do a risk assessment for when i am filming so i am aware of the dangers around whist i am filming the music video.

Storyboard

During planning my music video I needed to decide what I was going to with my actors and my band etc. I created a storyboard so i have some sort of idea what I am going to do so this will make it easier for myself when i get around to recording for my music video and i am not just deciding what shots to take when i am videoing.

Sheet one (frames 1 - 6)

Sheet two (Frames 7 - 12)

Sheet three (Frames 13 - 18)

Sheet 4 (Frames 19 - 21)

On my story board it shows that i have planned to use 21 different shots, which does not seem like much but as you can see on some of the frames i have put that i will be using a montage of different shots for that part of the song. This may consist of five or six different shots during this time frame.

Analysis of Linkin Park 'Meteora' digipack

Analysis of 'Meteora' digipack

The album 'Meteora' was release on march 25th 2003 and was the second studio album produced by linkin park through Warner Bros. Record. Linkin park released several singles from this album including "Somewhere I belong", "Faint" "Numb""From the inside","breaking the habit" and "Lying from you" was released as a promotional single. 

This is the digipack for the 'Meteora' album by Linkin' Park this shows what you get when you buy the album from a shop. it shows that when you buy the album you get the CD with all the tracks on from the album which is what you would expect and then you get what appears to be a little booklet with it which could be a booklet with the track list in and the lyrics of the song. This will help attract customers by the fact that they may like to know the lyrics to the songs they are listening to whether they want to sing along or they would like to know to try and find out the meaning of the song. The band may also of done this to give a little more information about them to first time listeners so they can understand what the band is about and this is the type of music they do etc. 

Requesting permission

Requesting permission of Warner Bros Records

In advance to planning my music video I have to ask for permission from Warner Bros Records if I could use the Red Hot Chili Peppers track “can’t stop” so the work I will be producing will not be done for copyright not only did I tweet Warner Bros Records but I also emailed them on their site. This will help with the production of my music video as I will know that I can use the song for my video.

Tweet to Warner Bros Records

E-mail to Warner Bros Records 

Track Choice

Choice of track for music video

The song I have chosen to do for my music video is “can’t stop” the red hot chili peppers, this song is off the album “by the way” which was released in 2002. This album was a great success selling 1.8 million copies worldwide in the first week of release, 5 singles where released from the album (“by the way”, “the zephyr song”, ”can’t stop”, “dosed” and “universally speaking”) the title track “by the way” being the most successful reaching number 2 on the UK charts and number 1 on the billboard rock charts. Lyrically, the song “Can’t stop” is about just life in general, the song starts off slow the shortly into the song the chords start and the song speeds up and becomes more lively due to having more instruments in the song at this moment in time and more variation to the notes being played.

Video analysis of Linkin Park "Numb"

Video analysis of “Numb” by Linkin’ Park

The song numb by Linkin’ park is off the album Meteora, which was released in 2003. The song is about a person who is in love with someone who sets to high expectations for him or her

and whatever they do is not good enough for that person.  Linkin’ park are considered a nu-metal, modern rock type of band but this certain song was considered to be in the alternative rock genre. The song was directed Joe Hahn also known as Mr Hahn who is the director and the DJ of the band.  Linkin’ park are a quite successful band in the the “Nu-metal” genre and a lot of people like to listen to there music this may be because the type of music is not really heavy for people who don’t like to much screaming in a song and people who don’t like techno type music.

Lyrics:

I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
I don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
Become so tired, so much more aware
By becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

Can't you see that you're smothering me?
Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control
'Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow
And every second I waste is more than I can take!

And I know I may end up failing too
But I know you were just like me with someone disappointed in you

I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
I'm tired of being what you want me to be
I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
I'm tired of being what you want me to be

The lyrics of the song and the video have a strong link with each other from the beginning of the song right through till the end.  

In the music video it shows a female character who was forced into having a certain lifestyle and do certain courses at college by her mother, this is shown at the start by the shots of her when se I always by herself and shortly after the guitar and drums come into the song, the scene goes to her in school/college and she is drawing and not taking notice in the lesson. This is shown when the teacher asks her a question but she is not the lesson and the teacher has to tap the table in front of her to attract her attention. The lyrics links to this in the first few scenes the lyrics are “I’m tired of being what you want me to be, feeling so faithless, whilst under the surface” this is the suggesting that she is being forced into something that he does not want to do.

This shot shows over the shoulder of the female whilst she is in her lesson in class, it shows her doing sketch, this is showing she is not really interested in her lesson and is not taking much notice of her subject teacher.

After the first verse of the song when the chorus starts during the first few lines where the lyrics are “I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there” it shows her in her class still whilst time has speeded up and everyone is going past, this scene makes her look like some sort of outcast and shows that she does not fit in with everyone else because if the type of life style she has. This is the shot at the start of the chorus, this is probably used to show that she is oblivious to life around her.

When the second verse has started it shows a shot of the female in the kitchen with what appears to be her mother they are facing away from each other (the mother stood up doing the dishes the younger female facing the other way sat down at the dinner table) the lyrics at this point are “can’t you see that you’re smothering me? Holding to tightly, afraid to lose control” this could be linked to the video as it shows that they do not agree what the mother wants the lifestyle and life choices of her to be and what she wants the lifestyle of herself to be and it is tearing them apart as a family, almost making her feel like an outcast .

After this it shows several different shots of the band playing and the lead singer, then after the lyrics “everything that you thought I would be, has fallen apart” have been sang it shows a medium close up of the woman who appears to be her mother talking, it looks like she is complaining, maybe this could be used to show that the mother has seen that she is not enjoying this type of lifestyle and is not very happy so she is complaining telling her that she has to do it and she is only forcing it on her because it is good for her future.

 After this scene when the bridge to the chorus arrive it shows the female look like she is trying to fit in and enjoy this lifestyle that has been forced upon her, she may be trying this because after she had been tlking to her mother she may have decided to take an “might as well try if I have to do it” approach to it at this pint where the lyrics are “every step that I take is another mistake to you, and every second I waste is more than I can take” when these lyrics are same a long shot is used to show the female going to try and sit down with other people as a pose to sitting by herself and as soon as she sits down the other people on the table decide to gety up and walk away like they do not want to be seen with her like she is some sort of freek or outcast and it is not “cool” to be seen with her this could be because she did not really talk to many people before so people started to look down on her like a loner and did not want to talk to her

 

After this it shows several shots of the band, this is to show who is playing the music and singing etc. 

 After this the chorus is repeated several times and it shows the female individual throwing things at what appears to be a painting board, this is possibly used to show the fat that she has had enough and can not take this type of life anymore and she needs to be herself now and be who she wants to be and make her own choices etc, this is what is repeated to the end of the song.

Music industry research

Research into the music industry

In the 18^th century music was only really used in church, by the 19^th century sheet music started to be produced ad this dominated the industry of music for a while.

By the early 20^th century music started getting recorded and radio broadcasting became available in the 1920’s, this helped the music industry by getting music heard and it helped a lot of unknown bands become popular and get their music heard. Around this time record companied started to develop not many of them where successful though and by the 1980’s there was 6 music industries that dominated the music industries.

Over the years music genres have also developed as well as music companies, blues was one of the first music genres that was produced by slaves singing about their lives to help them get through the work they had to do. More instruments started to get produced over time which opened a wider range of options for music to be produced. In the 21^st centaury people are able to use technology to remix music and make music and now this dominates the music industry.