Wednesday 22 October 2014

Digipak Conventions

What Goes on a Digipak?

Front Panel
Artist Name (Bigger)
Album Title
Artists Face
Captures the genre
Appeals to target audience

Back Panel
Song names
Barcode
Production company and copyright info
Website
Record company logo

Spines
Artist Name
Album Name
Record company logo

Inside Panels
Related images
Thank you message
Images spread over multiple panels
Lyrics (or possibly in a booklet)

CD Tray
Image

Digipak Template


Friday 10 October 2014

Music Video Director - David Fincher

Fact File
Name: David Andrew Leo Fincher
Age: 52 (2014)
Born in: Denver, Colorado, United States of America
Date of Birth: August 28th 1962
Height: 6'0"
Occupation: Film Producer, Film and Music Video Director

His Career
In early life, David Fincher moved to ashland in Oregon, where he started making short movies with his 8mm camera at the age of just 8, inspired by the works of 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Fincher was later employed by Korty films, then Industrial Light & Magic, where he worked on a number of films like Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the temple of doom. His big break came when he created a commercial for the American Cancer society, featuring a smoking fetus, which soon caught the eye producers in Los Angeles who gave David Fincher the opportunity to direct The beat of the Live Drum in 1985. From this point onward he went to make commercials for the likes of Pepsi, Levi's, Nike, and also went on to explore the world of directing music videos. Fincher is a critically acclaimed music video director, picking up two grammy awards for best music video and three MTV awards for best music video director. Now recognised as an established and highly regarded music video director, he has worked with internationally popular artists such as Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson. Amongst the vast collection of popular films he has directed, David Fincher has joined the likes of Spike Jonze to become one of the most awarded music video directors of all time.

His Work
David Fincher has worked with a variety of renowned artists. Below is a shortlist of some of songs he has directed music videos to.

  • "The Way That You Love Me"  -  Paula Abdul   (1988)
  • "Straight Up"  -  Paula Abdul   (1989)
  • "Forever Your Girl"  -  Paula Abdul   (1989)
  • "Cold Hearted"  -  Paula Abdul   (1989)   
  • "Express Yourself"  -  Madonna   (1989)
  • "Oh Father"  -  Madonna   (1989)
  • "Vogue"  -  Madonna   (1990)
  • "Bad Girl"  -  Madonna   (1993)
  • "Janie's Got a Gun"  -  Aerosmith   (1989)
  • "Freedom '90"  -  George Michael   (1990)
  • "Who Is It?"  -  Michael Jackson   (1992)
  • "Love Is Strong"  -  The Rolling Stones   (1994)
  • "Suit & Tie"  -  Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z   (2013)
His Style
Despite focussing on David Fincher's filming styles in direxting movies, tge following video lists some of his most iconic directing styles that are very relevant and visible in his music videos too.

 

His Influence on the industry
David Fincher has made a huge impact on both the film and music video industry with his crittically acclaimed award winning directing. Winning 55 awards and 53 nominations including 2 oscars. This is just a small sample of the level of impact he has and still is making on the music video scene. Iconic music videoas like Maddonas Vogue has set the standard for music videos and music video directing, which has been set extrodinarily high by David Fincher. I can take plenty of inspiration from his variety of his expertly crafted work being one of the worlds best directors.

Lyric Annotations

Below is an annotated version of my lyric sheet, of the song Laughter Lines by Bastille. The annotations outline my initial ideas for my music video and hilight key lyrics which would allow me to include various shots in relation to certain words.

Friday 3 October 2014

Preliminary Task - Animal Character Music Video Evaluation

My second preliminary task, the animal character music video, was more centered around the editing side of creating music videos, as audio and visuals were already provided for me. The task was to create an interesting music video to a song using the resources provided, which were a variety of different clips of animal characters singing and a soundtrack to go with it. Completing this task further enhanced my music video creating skills and gave me a better feel for what I need to do to create a visually interesting aid that goes with a soundtrack.

The interesting little project was fun, but taught me some valuable lessons to do with editing. The task helped me understand and get to grips with the fast paced editing of music videos, as the clips provided were often no longer that 2-3 seconds each. This surprised me, as editing this video was unlike any other I have had to do in the past. Last year for example, editing was far slower as it was a thriller opening and I was trying to clearly portray a story. Creating a music video I now know is far different, as longer clips can make the video a bit boring and lack that edge.
Another reoccurring lesson that I learnt from both preliminary tasks was the art of editing to the beat. This technique I included a lot in this particular video, as I found it made it more interesting and fluent opposed to having transitions and cuts randomly assorted.
I found this task valuable in discovering very important lessons that will help me in my own work in the near future, as I now know what needs to be done in order for my music video to be a success.

Vernallis Analysis - (Arcade Fire - The Suburbs)

My Vernallis Analysis chart of Suburbs by Arcade Fire.



Watch Arcade Fire's, Suburbs below: