Digipack Research

What is a Digipack?

A digipack is a trademarked product firstly made by MeadWestvaco. They are made out of cardboard or any other heavy paper material designed to hold and protect CD's. There are a few different designs to this type of CD packaging; it can either be flipped open like a book e.g. like a normal jewel CD case or there is the three panel digipack design which means the CD is placed in the center of the packaging so this time there is a left and a right panel to be flipped open, this allows more room for multiple CD storage and album cover art.

 A normal Jewel CD Case on the left.


And a three panel CD case on the right.

Research into famous Digipacks

Below I have chosen a selection of Album covers that I can gain inspiration from when shooting my music video and hen I made my own digipack. They each say a lot about the artist of artists featured within the video.

This first album cover by Ministry of sound, of whom I have mentioned in my blog previously I really like. The cover is simplistic and powerful. On most of Ministry of sounds album covers the logo is very big and bold however with the black and white theme, the lips and small logo it is a powerful design. The logo is meant to represent a heart, to say 'I love garage' however the logo replaces it which is a quirky technique that I really like.

This next album cover by Disclosure again follows the black and white theme which I like. The two separate type faces; Disclosure (face template) and Caracal really compliment each other as it follows the chalk on chalkboard effect. You will also notice that the Caracal has the Disclosure white face over the top of it. This is a unique effect that features in some of their videos and other album cover which I like the direct link in between.

Gorgon City being my artist of choice had the have a mention and as a matter of fact I do like the album cover for 'Lover Like You'. The cover has a brighter green/turquoise colour to it with a women swimming underneath the water. What I like about the cover is that it has nothing to do with the song and this makes is unique. I Like the Times Roman typeface that Gorgon City always stick too as well.

'Beauty Behind the Madness', was released in 2015 and was the biggest album released by The Weeknd. The cover has a black and white face with The Weeknds face on the front of it. It almost looks like his face was cut up and stuck on which was is effective and could depict the stresses that he went through the make the album and the amount of cuts it took. The yellow font sticks out and makes it unique.

My final album cover of choice again by Ministry of Sound is one of their old school album covers which just shows their history. The over features a large Ministry logo like I mentioned previously. The colour scheme of the cover is purple with two pink and yellow lights on the side and a reflection which is different to the others of my choice. The album states in the corner 'Anthems', so once you've seen that you know exactly what it is you are buying.

Another different concept of digipack that I loved was this more interactive one that Rudimental play at the start of some of their music videos in the 'Home' Album. This clip at the end, as a motionless picture is actually their album cover. However they have expanded the idea turning it into a time lapse effect that pans downwards from the sky. It then does actually pause at he end giving details of the album etc. Such a clever idea and one I have never seen before.

Promotion

Promotion for 'No More's' New Music Video

Promoting a music video like I found out from my questionnaire is extremely important as it spreads awareness that your video is coming out soon. It gets your audience excited to see it as they see it over social media. Above shows some great examples of social media platforms that are used by the big names in the industry to promote their new music, albums and music videos.

I have started my own promotion for my for the music video 'No More' firstly on Instagram. Instagram is a newer platform than iTunes, Facebook and YouTube however is seen world wide and is very influential. With my Instagram page I can post updates about the video and the followers can see how it is getting on and find out the release date. Here is the page:

Target Audience and Questionaire

Who is my Target Audience and any other research?

Question 1

The graph shown to the left essentially shows my target audience for my music video. Depending on the artist you choose basically determines your audience unless the music video is dramatically different to that genre of music videos normally. 

For my data research I went out into my local towns of Watford, Rickmansworth and Croxley Green to ask 100 different people if they listen to, have heard of or listen to music of a similar genre to Gorgon city's music. As you can see from the results, the 18 to 25 year olds were the most popular. I think that the main reason for this is because Gorgon City's music generally appeals the younger student generation rather than the older or younger age ranges. 

Another factor to bare in mind like all data is that it clearly isn't going to be terribly reliable because I only used a certain region of the Uk and I'm sure I would find completely different results if I were to go into central London etc. 


Question 2


In this next graph, asking the same 100 people I wanted to investigate what type of music video the public liked the most. I found that narrative music videos were a clear favourite with 66 of the 100 preferring them. They told me that they like a story to watch when watching a music video as it is more interesting and worth watching.

The next highest result, with 27 people preferring performance music videos was quite evident. I found that generally older people liked performance videos as they were a little more traditional. 

Finally with a grand total of 6 people liking concept music videos, it was clear to see which was the least favourite and probably a route I wouldn't take when planning and filming my own music video.

From these results I can conclude that a narrative music video would be a wise decision to make when making mine however I would like to include some performance in my video as it gives a little contrast and appeals to a wider range of people outside of the 18 to 25 year olds possibly. Featuring some performance in my video also gives me a task to make sure my actor knows the words and when it comes to editing that I can lip sync the mouth actions with the lyrics of my song.


Question 3

The research I wanted to undertake next was what style of shooting would be appropriate for the genre of music video I want to create. To make this decision easier I incorporated two lots of questions into one subset of answers as they are directly linked. I asked the question "What is your favourite style of shooting?" and gave everyone the choice between an answer on the grey bars and an answer on the black bars. For example they might have said to me they like music videos shot in black and white however also as night time. Or they might have said normal traditional shooting techniques during the day would be more effective.

Whatever answer I received is on the graph and it is clear to see that normal colour shooting and a mixture of day and night settings is a popular choice of style to shoot my music video. Although those to results stood out to be the most popular doesn't necessarily means I have to shoot my video in this format however to gain that largest target audience possible that would be an appropriate method.


Question 4

Choosing the right actor for your music video like any production is so important because it creates the essence of the video straight away and captures your audience. For example you would never choose an old creepy man for a house/dance music video as it doesn't work and is so unrelated to that genre of music. However as shown in my results a younger generation would be best suited to my video as my genre of music is what they listen to. As you can see results for children were zero and for people plus 30 were relatively low, which makes my final decision of using younger people teens and twenties are much better for my video.


Question 5

Locations make the video what it is and how good the final product is. Music videos range from being shot just behind a green screen, in one place (e.g a building) or they can be shot in several locations. 

To help me decide where to shoot my music video I asked the same 100 people where they thought would be a good location/locations for shooting. The results are shown in the graph above. You will notice that the results are sparsely distributed favouriting cities, parties, transport links and in the car. These results were asked to the same 100 people however they all gave different answers with some choosing just one location and others choosing 4 or 5 answers. This does make results unevenly distributed however gives me a wide range of results and options for shooting my video.

A key point to make about the location of any music video that you are choosing to recreate is that it isn't like the original video what so ever. Luckily for me, my song has no video so I have nothing to copy however I would like to take my attention away from other music videos Gorgon City have made so it is nothing like theirs too. 


Question 6


Promoting a new video nowadays is highly important as competition is fiercely competitive between artists trying to get number one in the charts. Promotion of your new video allows you to tell your fans when your video is coming out and when they can see it first. Using promotion you can allow your fans to feel individual saying 'you can be the first to see it!!!'. Promoting your video then means that when the video is then released it won't take time to build up views and make profit off the final product. 

You can see from my final graph that a popular way to promote a music video is via social media. Social media reaches so many different people worldwide and can be shown on all sorts of platform. Adverts on TV and billboards were the least popular ways to promote as they aren't the sorts of places you would look if a new video coming out. However YouTube and iTunes are popular places to promote because this is where the video will actually end up being, making money from people being it and views on YouTube.

Permission Letter

Permission to use 'No More'

" My name is Jamie; I am an A level media studies student at Aldenham School from Watford. I am a massive fan of your music, and being a local artist from London I would love to have your permission to use your song ‘No more’ featuring Liv for my media studies music video. I understand that you don’t currently have a music video for this song and as such no plagiarism can take place and the track would be very appropriate for my music video of choice. "

My Song

My Song

This is 'No More' featuring Liv, the Gorgon City song that I have chosen. The song was released in 2014 in their Sirens album. The song currently has no music video which I personally think is better because I don't have anything to copy and it can be my very own view. The song is fairly chilled and the lyrics are relatively simple for my actor to learn. 

The Lyrics

You are the man cause you wasted me

Ain't got no time cause you're chasing dreams

And you're alone cause you ain't gotta step

You'll never go cause you know I'll be there

Your heart is mine, you're haunting me

And now it seems you love her

Your heart is mine, you're haunting me

And now it seems you love her

No no no

I can't do this no longer, I'm torn

No no no

I can't do this no longer, no more

No no no

I can't do this no longer, I'm torn

No no no

I can't do this no longer, no longer

I look in your eyes as you look at me

Look to the sky is what I feel

Turning away cause you know my pain

And you chose cause you cannot complain

Your heart is mine, you're haunting me

And now it seems you love her

Your heart is mine, you're haunting me

And now it seems you love her

No no no

I can't do this no longer, I'm torn

No no no

I can't do this no longer, no more

No no no

I can't do this no longer, I'm torn

No no no

I can't do this no longer, no longer

No no no, no no no

No no no, no no no

No no no, I can't, no no no

No no no, I can't, no no no

No no no

I can't do this no longer, I'm torn

No no no

I can't do this no longer, no more

No no no

I can't do this no longer, I'm torn

No no no

I can't do this no longer, no longer

No no no, I can't, no no no

No no no, I can't, no no no

No no no, I can't, no no no

No no no, I can't, no no no