Digipak

A Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging.

I'm going to design a Digipak which will be presented along with the music video. I want the Digipak and the video to have a similar look and image so it is clear that they are from the same artist, Lady Gaga. With these together this is the promo pack for the artist.

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This is the final front cover and back cover of my Digipak. To fit the genre and to appeal to the target audience I chose to feature a picture of the 'artist' as a prominent part of the cover. However because I also wanted to reflected Lady Gaga as an artist more specifically I went for something more unexpected and different to a traditional beauty shot. The picture also relates directly to the video as it was taken inbetween shooting a scene of the music video. Like the video the close up of the mouth relates to the songs title 'Teeth'. I wanted to keep the cover simple as I feel the image is the most important part but I didn't want to overcrowd and make it too busy. Like 'The Fame Monster' CD cover I chose a simple font to show just the artist and the title of the work clearly. For the back again I wanted to keep back cover simple too. The picture actually covers the whole two sides of the DVD as a continuous image so I didn't want to interupted the simplicity of it. I kept all the information down the bottom of the cover. I kept it all in-line and clean to make it look professional as possible. I kept the font the same and the colour just to not confuse and make the cover look messy. I actually went with white font in the end because it showed up better on the image compared to black. It has more of a contrast and is simply more easy to read.

Shooting Schedule

Initial shooting schedule

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BNTFkMzUwOGYtNjRiMy00MDA4LTkxMmYtYzVjZTI5Y2RlNzA5&authkey=CLW1md8J&hl=en

First bit of shooting. Practice and Test shots shooting scripts.

Lip Syncing part of the video. filmed in room 3 of the libary agianst a white board. It was a static shot, witht he camera mounted on a tripod.

Take 1 - Niamh lip syncing with red lips. Managed 28 seconds of footage before the cmaera ran out of battery. The footage was good though, good shots of hair flicking which we could use to filll out gaps in the video. The sync was in time to the music. Little problem of hair in the mouth at the beginning of footage. Shots we could use in it.

Take 2 - (Niamh syncing) 1 minute 50 seconds of footage. Good shots, though some forgetfulness of lyrics in 2nd verse. 1st verse and chorus good. Slight ipod showuing in beginning that needs to be cut out.

Take 3 - (Niamh syncing) Mouthing the back up vocals - good and in sync. Slightly out of focus in some shots that could be cut out. Managed good shots for both verses.

Take 4 - (Chloe Syncing in black lips) Managed full 3 minutes of footage for back up vocals. Good shots of teeth.

Take 5 - Tried seeing glitter effect infront of the camera ut it didn't show up in the lighting, or we just didn't have enough to make the effect.

Health and Safety

Things to be aware of while making my video:
Health
Not have anyone under hot lights and near electricity for too long as it can cause sickness.
Safety
There is a lot of equipment and lights and wiring in the studio so I will be careful to keep it in order know how to use everything.

I need to be able to know how to set up everything properly before shooting so we have practised with setting up the tripod and camera and using studio lights and backdrops.

Mise-en-scene

Setting/Location - For our video we have decided to mostly film in the use the studio in college available. I'm hoping the lighting and backdrops will make it the video more professional rather than just filming outside or in front of a blank wall where we wouldn't have proper lighting. We figured we might as well use the facilities available as we also don't have enough indoor space anywhere else to be able to dance in.
Props Costume and Make-up - As we don't have the same wardrobe as Lady Gaga available we are instead going to to the home-made approach which she also sometimes does. We will source all the outfits mostly from our own wardrobes and have asked some friends to chip in a few pieces.We also want to experiment with some materials maybe we can create things with. Our video will be in black and white so we have chosen to go with a limited colour palette when thinking about costume and make up. No more than black and white will be used. We have also done some research into Lady Gaga style make-up so we can capture her image and pay homage to her. We have chosen to go for an overall look of pale skin dark lips, dark eyes and heavy contouring.

Colour - In terms of colour we've decided to keep it mostly black and white. We feel the song would fit in the same genre as her song Alejandro which was very dark and limited in colour and had a black and white appearance.

Pitch

Our script we used as a prompt along with our powerpoint presenation

'For our music video we have decided to make a video to the song TEETH by lady gaga. Lady Gaga is well known on the mainstream pop scene for her unique sense of style which she expresses in her music videos and live performances. Her individual sense of style is forever making the headlines with outfits such as her meat dress and full body lace outfits. Lady Gaga is a global superstar selling over 51 million singles and 15 million albums worldwide. Gaga has a huge global fan base, known as her ‘little monsters’. This is shown by her number of friends on social networking sites such as Facebook (over 18 million likes)MySpace (over 13 million friends) Twitter (7 million followers) and the amount of page views her official website has received. Lady gaga appeals to people of all ages and genders. You can see this from the vast range of genres of magazines Gaga has appeared on the cover of. Gaga has been on covers of fashion magazines such as Vogue and Elle as well as music magazines like Q. She also appears on the cover of gossip and celebrity magazines, normally with articles about her individual and sometimes controversial outfits. We can also see through demographics on Gagas YouTube videos that her biggest viewing fan base is females aged 13-17 and males aged between 35-54 which shows a large difference in audience. Gaga’s videos are normally set out like mini movies or elaborate storylines. Videos such as Telephone have a whole storyline, plot and dance routines all combined. SHOW CLIP Gagas videos always show Gaga in a huge range of very unique outfits which have not been seen in music videos before, making them dynamic and make the audience remember them and make them stand out from the usual pop video. However the memorable dance routines are Gagas forte when it comes to the music video. Something that we hope to recreate. To make our video meet the criteria of your average Gaga video we have looked at different performance and body shape for inspiration. These pictures are some ideas of what we want to achieve in our video. We are looking at different shapes we can create and unusual camera angles to make our video stand out from others. We have a theme of darkness and death but in a sexy way that we want to portray through our video. We have decided to film it all in black and white to create the dark theme and the use of shadows and shots of ‘dead people’, teeth and blood will also help create this. As we are doing a Gaga video we understand that it has to be shocking to our audience, like a Gaga video, something no one’s seen before. To make it shocking we think we are going to incorporate a theme of religion in the video as we know this may cause controversy like a Gaga video. We have also looked at pictures of makeup styles that inspire us and we may recreate for our video. The use of dark eye makeup and bright lips to draw the audience to the mouth and the darkness to go along with our theme. Our costume ideas need to be unique and these pictures and some ideas that we want to try and replicate in our own way. We are going to use a lot of lace, netted costumes and leotards, very much like a Gaga video. We have also decided to make face masks, leaving the mouth exposed for singing and shots of teeth. We have looked at different shots for inspiration. We know we want shots of just someone’s teeth singing to go along with the lyrics in our song. We also want to achieve some shots like these as we like the lighting and poses of some of these pictures. In our video we want to shoot it in three parts. Firstly have a storyline opening the video like a mini movie, probably shot in a studio with clever uses of lighting and give the audience a good sense of what theme we are trying to achieve. We then will have groups of dancers performing a dance routine that we have choreographed from watching Gaga’s live performances of the song. The third main part will be of someone’s teeth singing the lyrics to the song. Throughout we are going to have still shots of people dressed in costume matching our theme, for example for the lyric ‘bad girl meat’ we are going to have someone dressed quite vampiresque holding a dead dripping heart. '


https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BzZ6urxriOlaYzA3YTUwOWItOTY4Yi00YzI5LTg0MWEtOGNhZWRjMmRjYzhl&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

Initial ideas

Copying an existing video

Video Analysis

Alejandro - Lady Gaga

Alejandro is a 2009 electropop disco song by Lady Gaga."Alejandro" is influenced by ABBA and Ace of Base. The Ace of Base influences are prominent in the beats of the song, the vocals and the melody and in Gaga's non-English accent while singing the song. On the first watch you can see the video is also highly influenced by the style of Madonna. Gaga has said her self that the video is of a 'homoerotic military theme' as it features an all male dance ensemble. The video also heavily features a religious theme which has been recieved with mixed opinions. The photographer Steven Klein who directed the video has said that,'The religious symbolism is not meant to denote anything negative, but represents the character's battle between the dark forces of this world and the spiritual salvation of the Soul'. The narrative of the video roughly matches the story in the song. The meaning of the song can be easily interperted but it roughly tells the story of a woman (Gaga) and her relationship with Alejandro and also a love triangle with Fernado and Roberto. She appears to not want to be with Alejandro and at the end of the song says goodbye to him. The video shows Gaga at a funeral at the beginning which suggests that she is singing to a Dead Alejandro. I think the audience of the video is primarly people who were already fans of Gaga. The video was released on a countdown and to much anticipation of her fans. So I think it is directed for a younger generation (age 16-25) who want to see something unique and contemporary. I think the video would also attract those intersted in the work of the photograher Steven Klein as his name is credited at the beginning along side Gaga's name. I think overall the video is about religion and death and about a woman's desire to resurrect a dead love and who can not face the brutality of her present situation. The pain of living without your true love.

Paparazzi is a 2009 song by Lady Gaga. The video shows Gaga being almost killed by her fame hungry boyfriend who sets it up so photographers see them together. He then throws her off a balcony after being hounded by paparazzi. Gaga then seen in a wheelchair and crutches as she returns home. She then apparently kills some girls which are seen in the video and then kills her boyfriend with poision before being taking away to prison at the end. The video and the song suggest the pressures of fame which drives her to murder. The video explores ideas about the lengths people will go to in order to be famous. Most specifically, pornography and murder. The video and the outfits also pay homage to films like Veritgo (Hitchcock) and Metropolis (Lang). Both of her videos I have looked at are also beyond the length of the song by a good few minutes. The videos are often refered to as short films as a result.

Target Audience of Artist/Band

When making my music video I need to be thinking about the demographics of the fans of the artist. The video needs to appeal to the fanbase already established. This blog is to establish who Gaga's target audience is in terms of psychogrpahics, demogrpahics and socio-economic classifications.

First I looked at how many fans she has by getting data from social networking sites. I learnt from this that she has fans globally and a significant amount use social sites to find out about her.



















She has nearly 19 million fans on Facebook, the worlds most popular social networking site.















Another way of finding out about her target auidience is looking at the magazines she has featured in. She has covered nearly 100 magazines the more popular being Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, V, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Vouge (not US version). Although most of these magazines are targeted at women and fashion e.g V and Elle, she also features on Rolling Stone which is wideley known as a Rock and Roll magazine.





Here are some of the readership details from NRS.ORG for some of the magazines Lady Gaga has covered.

Song Permission

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Song Choice

In my group we have chosen to create a music video for the song Teeth by Lady GaGa. We felt it was a good idea for us as we have many creative ideas and are both fans of Lady Gaga and her image and videos. We initially brainstormed our favourite artists to get iany idea of what we both wanted to do between us in our groups.

We saw Lady Gaga as a good opertunity to be as creative and imaginative as possible. When it came to choosing a specific song we went with one which did not already have a music video. Teeth was the song that stuck us as having a straight forward meaning lyrically which would be easy to work with.

Songwriters: Germanotta, Stefani; Riley, Teddy

Don’t be scared
I’ve done this before
Show me your teeth
Don’t want no money (want your money)

That shit’s is ugly
Just want your sex (want your sex)
Take a bit of my bad girl meat (bad girl meat)
Take a bite my me
Show me your teeth
Let me see your mean

Got no direction (no direction)
I need direction
Just got my vamp (got my vamp)

Take a bite of my bad girl meat (bad girl meat)
Take a bit of me boy
Show me your teeth
The truth is sexy

Tell me something that’ll save me
I need a man who makes me alright (man who makes me alright)
Just tell me when it’s alright
Tell me something that’ll change me

I’m gonna love you with my hands tied
Show me your teeth
Just tell me when
Show me your teeth
Open your mouth boy
Show me your teeth
Show me whatcha got
Show me your teeth teeth teeth teeth

Got no salvation (no salvation)
Got no salvation
Got nor religion (no religion)
My religion is you
Take a bite of my bad girl meat (bad girl meat)
Take a bit of me boy
Show me your teeth
I’m a tough bitch

Got my addictions (my addictions)
And I love to fix ‘em (and I love to fix ‘em)
No one’s perfect
Take a bite of my bad girl meat (bad girl meat)
Take a bit of me boy
Show me your teeth
I just need a little guidance

Tell me something that’ll save me
I need a man who makes me alright (man who makes me alright)
Just tell me when it’s alright
Tell me something that’ll change me
I’m gonna love you with my hand tied

Show me your teeth
Just tell me when
Show me your teeth
Open your mouth boy
Show me your teeth
Show me whatcha got
Show me your teeth teeth teeth teeth
Show me your teeth

My religion is you
My religion is you

Help need a man
Now show me your fangs (my religion is you)
Help need a man
Now show me your fangs (my religion is you)
Help need a man
Now show me your fangs (my religion is you)
Tell me something that’ll save me
I need a man who makes me alright (man who makes me alright)

Just tell me it’s alright
Tell me something that’ll change me
I’m gonna love you with my hands tied
Show me your teeth
Just tell me when
Show me your teeth
Open your mouth boy
Show me your teeth
Show me whatcha got
Show me your teeth
Teeth teeth teeth
Show me your teeth
It’s not how big, it’s how mean

Show me your teeth
Open your mouth boy
Show me your teeth
My religion is you
Show me your teeth

I just need a little guidance
Show me your teeth

Exploring Music Video

Blink 182 - Always

dir. Joseph Kahn

Blink- 182 are an American pop punk band formed in 1992. The song Always was released as a single in 2004 along with this video. The video is edited into three horizontal panels in which the three members of the band interact with a female character. The panels sever the onscreen participants in three. The woman appears as a fractured whole, while parts of the band members combine to make one character. The video tells a short story of a relationship between the band and the woman but also shows shots of the band singing and playing their instruments so the video isn't completely free from performance. Most bands in the punk pop genre including Blink- 182's previous videos feature a 'live' performance. Along with the video the lyrics help convey a meaning. It apparently tells the story of a break up and a possible reconciliation.

I've been here before a few times

And I'm quite aware we're dying
And your hands they shake with goodbyes
And I'll take you back if you'd have me
So here I am I'm trying
So here I am are you ready
Come on let me hold you touch you feel you
Always
Kiss you taste you all night
Always

Weezer - Keep Fishin'

dir. Marcos Siega

This video for Weezer's Keep Fishin' was released along with the single in 2002. It features a performance from the band intertwined with a story line featuring Weezer and members of the Muppets. The video fits the alt rock/pop sound of the band who usually have a comedic aspect in their videos although at lot of their songs are lyrically not so happy.

Waste my days
Drown aways
It's just the thought of you in love with someone else

It breaks my heart to see you hangin' from your shelf

The story in the song doesn't appear to fit the video plot but I think this is common with alt rock bands This is the first of their videos in which the band acts.

Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait

This is the latest video from Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It is an interactive video using the latest HTML5 technology in conjuncture with Google Chrome. The song and the album heavily feature the subject of home-towns and suburbs of your youth and so the interactive video allows you to enter the address where you grew up. It then personalises the video to you with the help of Google Maps and Google Street View.

HTML5 Canvas 3D engine renders a flocking bird

simulation that reacts to the music and mouse.

Generative typeface triggered by keypress, uses an

SVG path reader and individual canvas compositing for each letter.

Choreographed windows are triggered by the music

and placed relative to screen size.

Map tiles are rendered, zoomed, and rotated in a scripted 3D environment.

This is a great video as it sticks to Arcade Fire's usual unusual approach to video making but also looks into new technology and new ways of looking at music videos. The way the video is personal to any individual is also new and original and brings the meaning of the song closer to the listener too.

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi

Introduction

My task is to create a music video for a song of my choice and a blog to accompany it. This task is a development of my skills shown in my AS Coursework. (http://sdcmediaasniamhoneill.blogspot.com/)