Digipak Analysis 2

This is the digipak for the album 'Hold your colour' by Pendulum. The front and back covers contain the same main image, which is a very vibrant collection of objects surrounding an eye. This image links to the album title, as there is obvious use of colour, but an interpreation of the phrase 'Hold your colour', could be as a reflection of the idea of holding your own identity, which in this case could be represented by the central eye in the image, as eye colour could link highly to a individual identity. Through this the band could be making a statement about their own music style, as this album made a significant impact upon release, showing a vast range of heavy and soft styles of Drum and Bass, a variety not heard before on one single album, and this unique approach reflects the idea of their own style, that they have stuck to this rather than opt for the more conventionally, typical style of Drum and Bass previously heard.

The inside cover shows a very abstract blend of colour, and connects to the image behind the CD, creating one large image. This is primarily of a pair of hands holding what appar to be small animals, including a butterfly, and the hand appear to be setting these creatures free, which could represent the release of cretivity this album has set in motion upon release, now the bands style has truly been appreciated. There is a definite link in these images between the huge use of colour, and the idea of creativity, as their music is very bright, and extremely layered as there are many different styles of instruments inputted towards their final sound. The creativity of the band which seperates them from most bands in this genre, is the manual approach to the music they create, namely incorporating an electric and bass guitar, live drumkit, and live vocals into their music, as apposed to creating everything digitally. Through this approach we could interpret the use of the line 'Hold you colour' as a statement to stick to your own individual musically style, even when it may not seem conventional, and is reflected by the album cover through the strong use of colour to represent creativity.

Digipak Analysis 1

I will be analysing 3 digipaks from CDs from similar genres, looking for the codes and conventions portrayed in each, and analysing what effect has been created by the band or record company. Each digipak wil include the front, back, inside booklet and image behind the CD of an album.

 This is the digipak from the special edition of Their Law by The Prodigy, which is a compilation album of their singles from 1990 till 2005. The main logo on the front cover and design behind the CD is a recoloured vesion of the logo on the standard edition, which resembles a Police uniform badge, and links with the album title 'Their Law', which creates the idea that their music is the 'law', or what should be listened to, which in this genre is very true, as they are the main pioneers of electronic music in the 1990's. The background of the front cover and the page behind the CD is very dull, and appears almost evil, which links to their style of music, which sounds very sinister, unlike any music of this genre heard before. All the images link with the Prodigy's style of music, and appear rough and simple, but with a definite dark undertonetone to them.

 The back cover contains an image of stacked tapes, wth each song title on a seperate tape. This reflects the sort of technology used when this album's songs were released, and we could interpret this image to mean that even though these songs at the present time may seem outdated, or something to be kept in a collection, they are still worthy even by today's standards.

The inside cover contains a written quote from the song 'Their Law', and is a very blunt, solid statement, which links with the album logo, but also could be referring to the development of the electronic genre, which the prodigy may see from a negative perspective, as they were striving to create a brand new, iconic sound different from any other heard before, so this line could be a statement against the current electronic artists at the time, with 'the law' representing the electronic genre. The background for the inside cover is an empty corner of a room, which could again link to the electronic genre, as this could represent that until The Prodigy came along, there were no real impacting artists in this genre, no-one who stood out. Alternatively this could represent a similar idea to that of the back cover, that The Prodigy's music, though outdated by today's standards, is still 'the law' and is what any artist in this genre today is influenced by, the 'law' in this case being the band that literally created modern electronic music today.

Editing/Cutting Down Song

Here is the process of editing our song.

Shooting Complications

Initially we had planned to film our party/rave scene at The Victoria Pub function room in Birmingham City Centre, and had managed to organise a saturday afternoon in December to film, but we soon found out that there were complications with people being able to attend on this day, and also the Victoria failed to tell us that the use of the room would cost over £100. Therefore we were forced to reconsider, and are now planning on filming a house party, as this will be a lot easier to organise.

Another complication that has arose is with the quality of our camera when used in low light, or when filming fast motion, as the image appears dark, grainy and generally low quality. However there is very little we can do about this problem, but this shouldn't be too much of a problem as the video is intended to be cut really fast, and so each individual shot should not be visible for more than a second or so before another is used.

Recce Shots

Here are some shots we have taken of the function room inside The Victoria, where we plan on filming the party scene. Here we have an idea of the amount of space that will be available, and different locations where we can film from, to link with our storyboard.

Animatic

We have used our storyboards to create an animatic of our music video, which gives a general idea of how the video will link to the song and the order of events. Through making this video, we have gained a clear idea about our own strengths and weaknesses for this project, for example I realise now that I am a lot more suited to editing work. We have got a relatively clear idea now of how the video will be structured, and have overcome certain problems that would've arose while creating the video, for example we originally planned on using a timelapse shot at the start, but now realise that the alternative shot (the close up of a clock which zooms out and shows the worker in an office) is a lot more suited to the theme of the video, and will work a lot better.

We have shown this video to several of our friends, and have recieved quite positive feedback. The general view is that the video will work well, and our ideas are closely linked to this particular music genre. Several of the audience who were shown this video commented on our use of narrative with performance, and agreed that the two will work very well alongside each other. Whilst everyone who was shown the video liked the links between our video and our chosen song (namely the links with escapism), some commented that we could feature the narrative section slightly more within the video, for example at the start before the first 'drop' in the song, as opposed to the meetup scenes. The reasoning for this, is that some would prefer to be introduced to the narrative right from the start, as opposed to midway through the song. We have taken this into consideration, and are still deciding which scene would work best, but this feedback has been very useful in helping us structure our video.