Two Hundred Kings Digipak

This is our front cover for our digipak, we have chosen to make it as conventional as possible for the hardcore genre, we decided to take a photo of the band within the barn, this helps to link the album to the video to create synergy between the products. We set out the composition of the photo so that we had two members of the band on each side of the beam of light, this looks very effective and is a strong photo to have as the front cover.

We have used the same title on our digipak as we used on our website, this again helps to link the two products and also gives us a trademark that helps to give fans something that they will see and instantly link to our bands, this is conventional of a band as you can see from the Deaf Havana's album above.

This is the back cover to our digipak, for this we used a photo taken when filming our narrative, this photo has the box that is buried in the ground and the feet of the male character, these elements help to give the photo purpose as it links to the video which helps to create a visual link. We have again used the same title style for the song names as we have for the title of our website and front cover, helping to create a stylistic element for the band. We have also placed ratings from companies that people associate hardcore music with, this allows people to get a feel for how good the album is without listening to it because they know they can trust their judgement, this persuades people to buy your album, this is an unconventional aspect to hardcore albums, however we feel its an effective thing to have on an album.

Our inside cover is a landscape shot we took at the location of filming, because we thought ahead we were able to get a large scale photo that we could use to cover two panels, we took the inspiration from Deaf Havana's album Old Souls, as you can see below they have covered 3 panels. I feel this picture was a good choice for our inside cover as it is a very bold image and the fact we have used actual images instead of a digital design brings reality to the album and makes it look more visually appealing. It is also more conventional for hardcore bands to use photos of them instead of a graphic design.

We have added a note to thank the label and people we worked with to create the album, this is also common on hardcore band albums as they like to promote the people who helped them get where they are.

This is the front and back cover to our pullout. The left panel is our created logo, we have chosen a crown to link with the band name and then we have added the initials of the band name on it, this has given us a bold and effective logo design. We then used a shot that we took in the barn in which we were all laughing. This photo links with the front cover of the digipak which helps the two pieces link and it also gives of a less serious vibe about the band and shows we like to mess about and have a good time, an aspect that people like to see as hardcore bands don't tend to take themselves very seriously until they are extremely well known,.

This is the inside to our pullout, we have chosen to use this to have the lyrics in, this is an aspect nearly every artist and band do, it gives the buyer and opportunity to really read the lyrics and take in the meaning behind them and also people enjoy singing to songs so it gives them the chance to also do that.

We have produced a spine to go on our pullout, this spine simple has the name of the band on it in the font that we have used all our writing in, we have used this on the lyrics, our band ratings and our message of gratitude.

Two Hundred Kings - Website

WEBSITE LINK : http://twohundredkings.mbdesignsolutions.co.uk/HTML/Index.html

Above is the homepage for our band website, we have tried to stick to strong conventions within our website design, the main one being the pictures in the centre, this is a very important aspect of the website as it gives people on the website an insight into the band and also helps to promote the bands image. Alongside the images of the band, we have added a general information about the band and the aspirations to help provide people viewing the website a good understanding of what the band want to do.

On the left side we have the live Twitter feed, this gives our page viewers a real view of what the band are doing as the band will update this a lot more than a website, it also lets people view the Twitter straight from the website without having to have a Twitter account, making it easier to keep up with the band. This has become a very conventional asset to a website as more and more people are getting into social media.

Our website title and subtitles are all the same font style, we have chosen this specific font because it replicates the music genre which creates a strong link as we wanted something bold to create a more powerful impact when you are on the website, we have kept with the same font to create a style for the band, we have also used this on the Digipak to keep up the image along all platforms. This is a conventional aspect of a website because people associate certain bands with certain fonts or logos, such as on the While She Sleeps website I look at.

This page is our Band Information section,this is the second tab along our button selection, here we have tried to keep it very simple yet informative about each band member and what they do in the band and also what they do in their spare time and a little quote, this helps the viewers to feel like they can relate to the band more as they know more about them on a one to one level, we have accompanied the information with pictures from our video, this helps to show which person is which within the video itself. This is very convectional of a bandpage, however usually bands/artists tend to have their biography and then the band information on one page (as you can see from the provided image), where we have challenged layout conventions and split it between the home page and this one.

For our 'Music Videos' page we have embedded our video into the website, this is a really effective way of imprinting the video into the website and we feel it allows people to stay on the site whilst they watch it and don't get distracted by leading them to YouTube to view it. This is conventional of a band website as it makes it easier for people to just watch the video on the website itself and makes it look overall more professional and visually appealing rather than just a link to the video, an example of this is While She Sleeps' video page, linked to all their videos from both Youtube and Vimeo, all watchable from the website itself.

This is the band merchandise page, this offers our fans the ability to purchase some of the clothes we have designed, band merchandise is very popular for hardcore bands as it gives them a chance to get more money in where it is much needed because they wont get the publicity that large pop artists will and also is a nice way for fans to show their appreciation to the band. Buying merchandise such as t-shirts is also effective as a lot of people like to wear the band t-shirt when they go to see them preform live.

Larger bands will pay photographers to set up a shoot to have people/band members wearing the products, this helps the buyers to see how it looks on and also helps get an idea of how it fits. While She Sleeps have got a picture slideshow above the products to promote all the different clothes in a bold and visually appealing way, we decided to keep our website very simple in that aspect and keep to having the clothes there for you to access simply without being distracted.

This last section of our website is something we wanted to have that wasn't conventional of a hardcore website, its a feedback page that allows people viewing the website to comment on how much they liked it and anything we could improve on it, we feel this helps give a better feeling that the fans are making a difference with the band, creating a stronger link between them.

Posted By Kieran Hill - www.kieranhilladvancedproduction.blogspot.com 

Music Video: Two Hundred Kings - Broken Knees

Graphic Match

During the editing process we discovered that we had two clips that we could perform a graphic match on right at the end of the video. This would create a dramatic ending to the video and would create a final link between the narrative and performace of our video.

The impact of this ending is much bigger than our first plan of the single clip of throwing the microphone on the floor. By graphic matching this with the other clip when throwing the spade in the narrative.

The inspiration for this originally came from the 'shower scene' in 'Psycho' where the blood draining down the bath plug hole graphic matches to an eye. 

Clip Of Throwing The Microphone

Clip Of Throwing the Spade

Walking Overlay Clip

Another of our initial ideas during the editing stage was to split a long clip of the happy couple walking through the woods into three clips and overlay them to make the progress of the quick much quicker whilst giving the impression of time passing. This is a technique previously used in a thriller opening produced last year by a member of our group. 

However when we tried this out during editing it turned out that due to the shot not being filmed on a tripod, that when the clip was split up and overlaid it was very jumpy and didn't give the desired effect. 

After discussing this we came to the conclusion that we could not perform any more editing to this idea that would rectify the jumpy result and therefore decided to change this clip for some footage we had not yet used of two first person shots of the couple smiling at each other. We feel that this flows much better in the video. 

First person shot of couple looking at each other

First person shot of couple looking at each other

Split Clip Idea

We had an idea when filming to film two shots from the same position, one of Kieran sat looking at a photo and the other of him singing the lyrics at the edge of the shot so that we could merge the clips together with a split. This would create a shot of Kieran shouting the lyrics to himself which we thought would be a very unique and memorable element for the 'bridge' part of our track where it cuts to vocals and piano before kicking back in.

When editing we had a problem with this as although the shots where taken from exactly the same place, the colour of the clips where noticeably different when placed next to each other. After trying some colour changing on the clips we had another idea to use the opacity of the clips to overlay them rather than splitting them. This resulted in a really nice effect where the version of Kieran shouting the vocals is less defined which really links the narrative to the lyrics in the way that the lead vocalist / guy in the narrative is annoyed at himself for the mistakes he has made with the break in his relationship. 

Clip using 'Split technique' during editing

Developed clip using 'Opacity technique' at a later stage during editing

Institutions & Promotional Strategies

Institutions

YouTube - YouTube is the one of the main institution to exhibit promotional videos and allows anyone with an internet connection to view millions of videos for free via its online streaming website. This service has impacted the music industry dramatically as it is much easier to watch music videos on demand for free which has increased the need for artists to produce a good promotional video to sell their music and talent to their target audience. With YouTube available on devices such as: tablets, mobile phones, and smart Tv's, it is even more accessible to people wherever they may be; this results in the music videos being watched more than they used to be and working together with the music as the full media package product. 

YouTube offers bands the ability to create their own channel of their music, this is an extra ability that will allow fans to subscribe to for free and be notified about any new music videos as they are uploaded to the channel. This helps keep the fans more up to date with the band with much less effort than the traditional ways meaning more people are willing to dedicate themselves to be a supporting fan of artists. 

Music Channels - Music channels are the other main, more traditional institutions to exhibit promotional videos. Although they lack the ability to view videos selected by the user and the music videos played are selected by the institution, they have the advantage of presenting videos to users that they may not choose to watch on YouTube. This will then consequently increase the popularity of the videos selected by the institution which will give them much more power over which bands are promoted to the public the most. Consequently it is therefore important for bands and artists to present themselves to these institutions and get on the right side of them so they will agree to show the music video and promote the band to their audience.  

Promotional Strategies

For a band it is very important to promote their music video in order for people to go and view the video in the first place. Although the institutions promote the video to a certain extreme, the artists can carry out other strategies that advertise the video to members of the public so they then go and watch the video through one of the institutions. 

Social Networks - The main promotional strategy that gains the most success for bands is social networks, this recent invention has given bands a way to communicate with its fans and broadcast news and information to thousands or millions of people very easily. On social sites such as Facebook and Twitter it is very common for bands to have their own profiles that people will follow so that any information or media placed on that profile will appear on any followers news feeds and accessible by a few clicks. The technology of social media allows bands to share their music videos via these sites allowing the audience to view them very easily and then share them with their friends. This has been of great advantage to artists as it allows them a very effective and simple way of promotion for practically free.  

Magazines - Another way to promote their video is to go for traditional advertisements in music related magazines such as 'Kerrang!'. Although this method of promotion is more expensive than social networks it is not extremely expensive but can work very well at widening the audience and using an alternative method than online material. The more promotion a band can get the more successful it is going to be due to the interest it will gain from members of the public. 

Digipak Research

General Conventions Of  A Digipak

• Digipacks are based around CD / Vinyl / DVD
• More expensive - Special Edition
• Limited Edition
• Directed at collectors and devoded fans
• Incoprorate something extra - Booklet, Band images, Information on band, Lyric sheets
• Have elaborate designs - 4 - 6 panel
• May include special features (DVD)
• Extra Tracks / Hidden Tracks (CD)

New Model Army




This digipak is for a hardcore punk band called 'New Model Army' and abides by many conventions. Instantly we can see by the artwork that the band/music is not upbeat and happy because of the dark and gloomy artwork on the front of the digipak. It is very conventional for the artwork to relate to the style and identity of the band which will help it appeal to the right audience. 

The contrast of the black white and red is very harsh and bold which also relates to the style of music such as more acoustic songs may use more pastel calming colours. This colour scheme has been applied through all panels of the digipak including the label on the vinyl and the colours in the lyric book which again help the band to contain a consistent identity. 

The cover of this digipak is kept very basic but still is very attention grabbing because of the harsh contrasting colours; this contrast separates the cover into two where the text and logo can be inserted on one side and the primary artwork on the other. 

Website Research

General Conventions Of A Website

• Theme is applied to suit with the band image / identity
• Elaborate artwork and logo's relating to the band create a title bar
• Colour scheme very contrasting (dark colour schemes for punk / hardcore / rock)
• Feature band artwork and music videos
• Purpose to sell the band to its target audience
• Offer a way of buying official band / artist merchandise

Conventional Hardcore Band Website - While She Sleeps

Instantly on the home page of this website we are able to see the 'While She Sleeps' logo in the centre of the page to draw attention. This is very conventional as the well known logo will link the website to the bands identity and allow the fans to relate to it.  In addition to the logo we can see that the bands colour scheme from their latest album is exactly the same on the website and the vintage effect of the case has been applied to the website background; this not only makes the website look attractive and professional but also relates to the logo and the known identity of the band.

Also on the page we can see news about upcoming shows/gigs; this is very conventional as it is an element that sells the band and will create them money with links to purchase tickets. This will also increase their popularity meaning the website is meeting its purpose.

The latest news section of the website is a very good feature as it allows the viewers of the website to feel more involved with the band by notifying them about the bands latest news. This is also conventional because by getting the fans more involved with the band will make it more likely for them to spend the money on tickets to gigs and merchandise.

The links to the social networking sites of Twitter and Facebook allows very quick ways to view information on the band on these websites by taking the viewer directly to their profile; this also makes information about the band more open to the viewer which helps them to relate to the band more.

Issues When Filming

Issue
On Monday 4th November we filmed the performance shots for our music video at our setting of the barn in Pickworth which went well as we stuck to the previously made plan. Although after reviewing the footage on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, we discovered that despite looking very good on the camera screen that when uploaded on to the Mac and played on a larger screen the footage was quite grainy.

Reason
Due to our experience with cameras within the group we knew this was because the ISO setting was too high for the location and the camera was trying to let in too much light than it could handle. Our ISO was set to 3200 when it would be more suitable to film in 800 where the footage would be slightly darker but of a higher quality cutting out the grain.

Solution
At first we used a different piece of editing software called 'Adobe After Effects' where we applied de-noise filters to the clip in order to see if we could revive our footage, however after this lengthy process we discovered that although the clips where less grainy they became very soft as a result which was also not the result we where looking for.

Because of this problem we came to the conclusion that we needed to re-film so therefore organised to re-film at the barn on Tuesday and as a result had to request permission from the farm and gather up any equipment we had borrowed and already taken back. After a spending Monday night organising we were able to gather all equipment and where prepared to re-film on the Tuesday.

After re-filming Tuesday with much better results in which we checked on the Mac throughout the filming to ensure we where gaining the best footage possible we quickly reverted back to our old plan and went to film more of the narrative in our woods setting.

Finally we decided that the fireworks footage was not needed due to the range of footage we had already gained and therefore did not film on Tuesday night. This decision was also partially made on the limitation of lighting at the fireworks and the poor results we had already gained from filming in low light.

First Shoot - Grainy Shots

Second Shoot - New and much better quality shots

Weather

 

The weather on the monday is suitable for our shoot as their is no rain which could cause complications with the transport of our equipment for our performance and also the filming of our narrative for our video. 

 

We are going to try and aim to film the happy times of our couple around 15:00 when the weather is sunny. This will help show the contrast between the happy times together and the sad times once the couple have broken up.

 



 

As we are only fliming at night on the Tuesday, we are also not concerned about the weather as it looks to clear up by the night which is the time we will be filming at the fireworks.





Filming Day Plan

Monday

9:00 - Drive to the location

• Matts Parents - Matt & Both Amps + Microphones
• Dan - Lighting, Stands, Effects
• Kierans Mum - Ellie, Kieran, Harry & Jake + Camera
• Ben - Drums

9:30 - Clear the Barn for setup

9:45 - Setup all equipment ready for shoot

10:30 - Film drum close ups

11:00 - Guitar close ups

11:30 - Full band shots

13:00 - Pack up equipment after performance shoot

13:30 - Go to woodland area around barn and start shots on narrative

15:00 - Finish shoot

Tuesday

19:00 - Meet at fireworks and film couple shots

Developed Narrative Storyboard



Lyric Shot Ideas

We have written up ideas on the lyrics for our chosen track in order to plan the structure of our music video. This is to ensure that the recording and editing stages work together with all footage idea's being filmed in case required upon in editing ideas and plans.

Developed Narrative Idea

Due to our location change and the new woodland area around the new location which we are able to film on, we have decided to develop our narrative to aid the continuity of the video and allow us to film more of our video in the same location.



 


The changes of our narrative include the burning photo being changed to memories of happy times being concealed within a wooden box and then buried within woodland area. The contrasting clips of the happy couple will still be incorporated and then the burying of the box will signify the break up between the couple. We are going to film some short clips at a firework display of the couple happy together to show more examples of the couples happy times together.

We have continued to base our narrative around amplification but have developed it to realte to the lyrics of digging a hole and burying feelings.

Performance Location Change

The new location which we have been permitted to use is a farm in Pickworth. This farm has an old looking barn with a large metal shutter door and stylistic features such as old thick wooden support beams and aged brickwork. We are happy with the new location we have found and after looking around have come to the conclusion that it is in fact a more suitable location due to the large woodland area around the farm which will possibly allow us to film some of the narrative at the same location. As this new location is similar to our old one we do not need to change the plans in progress for our filming.

Below are some shots of the barn we will be using for the performance location.

Group Meeting 28/10/13

After keeping in contact with the people who are allowing us to film on the location it turns out that our permission to film in the barn location has fallen though. After discussing other locations we decided we wanted to try and stick with the barn location as planned and got in contanct with some more owners of barns.

We came across a farm in Pickworth which an ex colleague works at and after contacting the owner have been given permission to film on this location on our previously planned date.

Music Deconstruction

Here I have deconstructed the track using comments on SoundCloud to brainstorm ideas on different shots and to get a general overview of the basic construction of our music video.

Storyboard