Digipack

Myself and my group have started to creat our digipack. This is the album artwork and information that is provided when buying the album in store or online. What we did was take many pictures of the artist (Kim) in the dark room in the art department which was useful as it is a room designed for photography which allowed us to capture quality photos. We used a range of angles and closeness so that we can work with the images in different ways using adobe photoshop.

 After the photoshoot, we had enough time to use photoshop and experiment with the images. One of the ideas we had was to layer over three images that are similar but not the same, so that we can imitate movement. Here are a few of the photographs that we took and thought these in particular are the best out of the whole lot that we took. 

In addition to these photos, we still need to take a lot more which could include different locations and think about photographs that do not include the artist as to point of focus.

Having Adobe Photoshop at home, I was able to experiment with the software myself and portray my own ideas:

For my first idea, what I did was experiment with the lighting which is an important element in our video. I selected this photo as she is not looking at the audience which I believe is powerful as she is not able to face us after what she has been through. All her emotions are portrayed in her lyrics which is why I thought that she should do the same for the album artwork which will therefore give the audience an idea of what her song is about and what we want to exemplify in the video.

For my second idea, what I did was add a colour splash to the flowers and leave everything else black and white. I selected this photo because again she is not looking at the audience.What I wanted to convey is that the artist is living in her black and white world as she is not able to move on. I gave the flowers colour to show that there is still hope and that there will be a brighter future. The use of colour also allows the reader to understand the artists emotions which give the audience an idea of what her song is about and what we want to exemplify in the video.  

Record Label: Dramatico Entertainment & Dew Process Records

Sarah Blasko is with two record label companies; Dramatico Entertainment and Dew Process Records:

Dramatico Entertainment is a record label which was found by singer/ songwriter/producer/arranger Mike Batt which is run by Batt himself and his ten employees, with its first success in 2003. Artists on the small label include Sarah Blasko, Katie Melua, Robert Meadmore and Mike Batt. Dramatico have also established a publishing company based in New York City, U.S.A. Artists signed to Dramatico Publishing include North Americans Reyna Larson and FL Jones as well as Australian indie band, The Paper Scissors. Dramatico's set-up is unique among the other record labels, in that it controls marketing and sales throughout much of the world by means of direct control from London, rather than licensing to other labels in other territories.Currently, this record label is into pre-production on a high-level CGI feature film "Ergo, The Chronicles Of Don't Be So Ridiculous Valley" and are developing two stage shows and a TV series.

Dew Process Records is an Australian independent record label based in Brisbane, Queensland found by Paul Piticco. The label essentially develops talent from Australia as well as provide promotional, marketing and distribution services for foreign artists looking for a home for their music in Australia and New Zealand. Dew Process distributes in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Australia.   

Footage and Ideas

Location 3: Iva's house

For our third location, Iva's house was used to film more of the music video. What we needed was the mirror and bed shots from a variety of different angles. Kim and Iva managed to capture two hours of filming and took advantage of the costumes changes.

Location 2: Chelsea Embankment

For our second location, we have chosen chelsea embankment in the city. We filmed predominantly on the bridge but also other areas where there are more people. This is because we wanted shots of Kim walking around whilst people are walking past her conveying that she is in her own world. Whislt editing what we could do is have her in slow motion and everyone else in a fast motion which could not only be an appropriate technique for the song, but also help improve my editing skills.
This time, we did not have to worry about the time and how soon it was going to get dark as I thought that what we can show in our video is day slowly turning into night rather than having random shots of night, day and evening which would look unprofessional. This way we can show that her day is eventually coming to an end.

What I've Been Listening To...

Sarah Blasko: All I Want

Sarah Blasko: Planet New Year

Sarah Blasko: No Turning Back

Sarah Blasko: Bird On A Wire

Looking at some of the other videos Sarah Blasko has done for further inspiration, what I like about her videos is that she does something different, unique and creative for each, grabbing the audiences attention which is what myself and my group hope to achieve. 

Planning: Digipack

During our lesson, myself and my group decided we were going to start our editing as we had uploaded all three tapes of our footage onto the finalcut express software. Unfortunately, we were not able to edit as there were problems with the software. What we did instead was start our planning for the digipack. Our teacher had shown us examples of what previous students had done which helped us and gave us an idea of what not to do and what you should do. For example, images should relate to the genre that is chosen and not be random.
What we did was look at different websites which had a vaerity of different album artwork, fashion photography that we could use and photographs from magazines. One of the websites that I went on which had inspired me was booooooom.com. What inspired me in this website was the use of different colours and patterns and objects. I thought that using different objects such as broken glass or a rotten flower could symbolise the protagonists feelings; how she has been hurt and heart broken.

Looking at Sarah Blasko's albums, I came across one which had also inspired me. In this image she is lying down not looking at the audience which is powerful and links to the song we have selected. What I thought of is that we could have Kim in the same position and instead of the blue hair, we could have different patterns in black and white. The reason why I thought of black and white is because it reflects her mood and feelings and also because it would look strange if we had used colour. Not only is it inspiring, it also refers to intertextuality:



In the end, we all decided to use light as a theme for our digipack as we have experimented with lighting and shadows in the music video. Therefore we wanted to keep a running theme throughout the whole image, album, artist and music video.

Planning

In our lesson, myself and my group realised that everything is not going to be completed in time which is why we decided to split up in twos to get the work done quicker. Kimberley and Iva did the house shots and myself and Almaz continued with the story boarding. We were also meant to start editing the footage we had already, however we were not able to do this as the tape was not on us.
Kim and Iva were able to film the mirror and bed shots. They were also able to take advantage of the location change and made a costume change as well. These three different days of filming allowed us to complete the three costume changing task. Using a different range of clothing has also allowed us to make our music video look fresh which will help keep our audience's attention.
Because we have footage for the first three stanzas, looking back at our ideas, myself and Almaz came up with a few more ideas so that we can plan what else is needed for the rest of the song. What we had thought of for the forth stanza was to have Kim in shots where she is in her own world walking about as it would be most appropriate:
"I always thought you knew yourself
Better than anyone
The season was lost
And you started listening
To everyone else"Then for the next stanza, we decided to introduce the male character as it includes words such as 'devil' and also have them arguing as it is mainly talking about how she has suffered alot:
"But cast in as devil
I've got the metal
The means to make things right
Tired of the guilt
Tired of being sorry
Well, haven't we suffered enough?"
Discussing this later with the rest of the group, unfortunately we were not able to find someone to play the role of the boyfriend for our video. What we are now going to do is improvise and complete the video with what we have.

Filming: Day 3

On Saturday the 7^th , Myself and the group all went up to Embankment where we filmed all the shots we needed from south bank and the bridge. We met at 2.30 and filmed until it got too dark for us to keep continuity levels at a realistic level.  

During filming, we came across some problems. Firstly, Kimberley found it hard to remember some of the lyrics to the song, but we overcame this by writing the lyrics on paper so that she could read off them while looking at the camera. However, before taking a picture as part of our evidence, the pieces of paper flew out of Almaz’s hands into the Thames. Secondly, while filming the shots where she had to remain stationary in the middle of the bridge, many people walked past her and the public found it very hard to not look at the camera or back at us whilst filming which was frustrating after some time.

Overall, We had a productive day where we stayed focus, on task and was able to get everything w needed. We are now up to a point of filming where we believe that we can now focus on the editing aswell of what we already have, which is roughly about 5 hours’ worth of film. Once we have edited a good enough stage of work that we can do the initial showcase, we will continue filming the remaining locations, and if necessary, the previous loactions as well if we need to capture anything else.