Digipak- Ideas

Right back in September we were given the task of having to complete our music video, a website design and advertisement for our video all by December however as it seems everyone is having difficulties with just their filming let alone editing it afterwards, Sir has given us an extension for everything to be completed by February.

He has also changed the idea from us designing a website to designing a Digipak which seems less of a challenge but more of the fun:)

Our music video still needs to be completed by December but in the mean time here area faw pictures that I got inspiration from and may become useful for our own design.

Example of a Digipak:


Definition:

"Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging"










Ideas for our Digipak:

For the front cover:



















Or something like this?...



















I love the techniques of these. It really highlights either the film star that Edie was but her expression captures how trapped she was in such an environment or how fun her character was where not all her pictures had to be serious and model-like.
I would love Samantha to imitate these pictures for our cover!

Bob Dylan- One inside panel:

Dylan obviously was very creative when it came to his album covers however some were just very plain and simple with just a headshot of him or himself and his guitar.









Something like this is what i would like for one of our panels:



This picture stood out with its simpleness. The guitar symbolises Dylans love of music but his agonised expression can be linked to his lost of Edie.

Jack can imitate this picture!








Andy Warhol- 2nd inside panel




Just frighteningly mysterious. Perfect portrayal.












Final Panel- Love Triangle

Preparation

This half term, Samantha and I should finally begin filming!!

Before then, ive been doing as much research as i possibly can and have came up with a few ideas for our video.

Firstly, with the first lyrics being "Let me paint a picture", i thought it would be a good idea to get a pencilled or painted sketch of Edie from the internet and let that be the first image shown followed by Warhol in the midst of painting it with the real version of Edie (Samantha) in the background in the exact same position of the picture; depending on whether its a head or full body shot.

Here's a possible selection of sketches/paintings i found that we may use in the video:



A large headshot of Edie?


















Or a smaller one in colour?


















Or an unfinished painting?












Edie Sedgewick's real voice- her views:

I then remembered a technique used in "Factory Girl"- where they used the real voice of Edie Sedgewick and put it in the film throughout as a voice over. This made me think of using something Edie had said quickly about herself or her views on an issue right at the end of our video, just as the music fades out. This would give our video some more significance and make what she had said more meaningful and upsetting.

I searched around Youtube for any clips that had her speaking in it and found some documentaries where she spoke on love and drugs-which is what we are portraying in our video.
The two samples I found with the most significance were these:

Edie Sedgewick talk about love






Though her speech is 30 seconds long, that may be too long. If we were to use this i would suggest to cut out the first 10 seconds and use the last 20 seconds because you still get the basic outline of what she is saying.


Edie Sedgewick Interview




Obviously most of this clip isnt needed but the little speech from 50 seconds to 1:04 "I got my first introduction to heavy drugs at the factory...i would like to turn the whole world on just for a moment, just for a moment"I had found really heartbreaking, especially as it's slightly slurred and therefore agonising to listen to as it illustrates how she wasnt in control of herself and the state she was in was all because of the factory.

Technical Skills:

In class sir gave us a list of skills that is expected in every candidates music video in order for them to achieve the highest possible grade. Whilst studying the list, we analysed several previous music videos from robert clack students and graded them from matching up what they succeeded to do from the list. Most of them did demonstrate excellence in the creative use of the skills.
Here is the following technical skills required:

-Holding a shot steady, where appropiate,
-Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropiate,

-Using a variety of shot distances as appropiate,

-Shooting material appropiate to the task set,

-Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figurem lighting, objects and setting,
-Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer,

-Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropiate,

-Using sound with images and editing appropiately for the task.

Overview:

Name of Track: Let Me Paint a Picture

Artist(s): Gary Roberts

Name(s) of student(s) in group: Samantha Waite
Shelley Corney

Initial research and target audience:

-We looked at other videos portraying Edie Sedgewick's life visually(using look-alike actresses) or lyrically. Usually would be a montage of her.
-We listened to Bob Dylan's songs dedicated to or about her to get an idea of genre for our music.
-Our audience would be people from the 60's/70's who remember the era/model well and also teenage girls who follow the glamorous fashion and lifestyle of Sedgewick.

Outline Ideas:

Portraying Edie's life under 4 minutes; involving
-Andy's Warhol's art and obsession/close friendship with Edie
-Edie's fun lifestyle- partying, fashion, modelling, actress etc.
-Her downfall- drug use
-Dylan's disapproval/love for her

What resources will you need? (include actors, props and artist)

Two men to play the roles of Warhol and Dylan to display their rivalry
A woman to play Sedgewick- Samantha
Props- Guitar for the acoustic solo of Dylan, art work, drugs, 60's clothes items, alcohol and syringe, wigs, cam recorder etc.
Settings- Bedroom, art-room, restaurant. alleyway etc.

Audience Theory

Three questions to be asked;

1) Why do audience choose to consume certain texts?
2) How do they consume texts?
3) What happens when they consume texts?

There are three theories of audience that we can apply to help us come to a better understanding about the relationship between texts and audience.

1)The Effects model or Hypodermic Model
2)The Uses and Gratifications Model
3)Reception Theory

Other evidence for Effects Model

The "Frankfurt School" theorised in the 1920's and 30's that the mass media acted to restrict and control audience to the benefit of corporate capitalism and governments.

Key examples sited as causing or being contributory factors are:

"Clockwork Orange" (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks.

"Severance" (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt.

-In each case there was a media and political outcry for the texts to be banned.
-Laws were changed, films banned and newspaper demanded the burnings of DVD's.
-Subsequently it was found that no case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts.

The effects model contributes to moral panics whereby:
-The media produces inactivity, make us into students who wont pass their exams or "couch potatoes" who makesno effort to get a job.
-The media produces violent "copycat" behaviour or mindless shopping in response to advertisement- "Shake and Vac Advert"

The Uses and Gratifications Model

-It is unclear that there is any link between the consumption of violent media texts and violent imitative behaviour.
-It is also said the Effects model is flawed as many people do watch text and appear not to be influenced.
-Therefore a new theory is necessary.
-This is called the Uses and Gratifications Model.

This is the opposite of the Effects Model!
-The audience is active
-The audience uses the text and is not used by it
-The audience uses the text for it own gratification or pleasure.

Here, the power lies with the audience and NOT the producers. The theory emphasises what audiences do with media texts- how and why they use them. Far from being duped by the media the audience is free to reject, use or play with media meanings as they see fit.

Audiences therefore use media texts to gratify needs for:
-Diversion
-Escapism
-Information
-Pleasure
-Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one's own.
-Sexual simulation

The audience is in control and comsumption of the media helps people with issues such as:
-Learning
-Emotional Satisfaction
-Relaxation
-Helps with issues of personal identity
-Helps with issues of social identity
-Helps with issues of aggression and violence

Controversially the theory suggests the consumption of violent images can be helpful rather than harmful. The theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violence. The audience's inclination towards violent is therefore sublimated and they are less likely to commit violent acts.

Reception Theory

Given that the Effects Model and the Uses and Gratificiations Model have their problems and limitations, a different approach to audiences was developed by the academic Stuart Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970's.

This considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded by audience.

The Theory suggests that:
-When a producer constructs a text, it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience.
-In some instances, audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say.
-In some instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message.

Hall identified three types of audience readings (or decoding) of texts:
1) Dominant
2)Negotiated
3)Oppositional

Dominant
Where audience decodes the message as the producer wants you to decode them and broadly agrees with it.
E.g Watching a political speech and agreeing with it.

Negotiated
Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views.
E.g Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested.

Oppositional
Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for Cultural, Political or Ideological reasons.
E.g Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition.

Case Study 2- The Murder of James Bulger

This is another example which can back up the The Effects Model Theory. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were thought to of murdered Bulger under the influence of the film "Childs Play 3" in 1993. Its been suggested and linked that the two boys acted out what they had seen from this violent film onto the defenceless two year old.

However there has been no evidence that the two 10 year old boys had ever even seen the film and it has been known that they both came from neglected and abusive backgrounds which may have been the cause of their violent outbreak. Therefore it needs to be asked; was it actually the film or the years of abuse that created this murder?

Its also greatly believed that politicans only put blame onto this film in order to cover up their own failure on not picking up upon the poor systems that was going on in society e.g. social services not visiting abusive households frequently.

Overall it had to be said that the boys must have been mentally unstable in order to participate in such a crime as they were at an age where they could think rationally and know right from wrong. A film could not have made such an impact that it forced them into killing another innocent being.

However there has been experiments in the past to try and prove The Effects Model. In particular one done in the 1960's by Albert Bandurn called "The Bobo Experiment" which explains about aggression.

Aggression must explain three aspects:
1) How aggression patterns of behaviour are developed
2) What provokes people to behave aggressively
3) What determines whether they are going to continue to resort to an aggressive behaviour patterns on future occassions.

The Experiment- Children witness a woman aggressively attack a plastic clown called the Bobo Doll. After the video, the children were placed in a room with attractive toys but they couldn't touch. Therefore the children become angry and frustrated which they use to take out on the identical toys used in the Bobo video.

88% of the children imitated the aggressive behaviour!!!



There are 3 major flaws in this experiment i believe to dismiss this idea about text violence being linked with replicating it.
1) The children were being intentionally provoked beforehand therefore are going to need to take out their frustration somehow afterwards
2) There wasn't much else you could do with a Bobo doll other than push it whereby it will immediately right back up which will make the children want to push it again- Its all part of the game.
3) If the children were given a hammer and a gun and they know what their purposes are then of course they are going to use them in the exactly way. A Bobo Doll is a perfect toy for them to use these items on.

I also highly doubt that if Banburn put a real human being in the room with the child instead of the Bobo doll that the child would use the weapons on them to outlet their frustration. Because the doll was in fact a toy, the children knew they couldnt harm it and therefore no crime is being commited.

In conclusion i find this experiment to be unreliable. To the extent that violent texts could be influential enough to replicate isout the of question; there are plently of other reasons and causes of these to why crimes are commited.

27th September- Photos

Samantha as Edie Sedgwick :)


Samantha and I began to take photos to see the outcome of what our video may look like when we dp begin filming, we wanted to get the right 60's look to give it some authencity; like a dress rehersal. We could also use these pictures for our CD cover and website design and even put them in the background for our video.

We first had to go into Romford to get a few props for the photo. We were meant to get a blonde wig however couldnt find any of the right colour or shape so ended up just putting Samantha's hair up and as the pictures will be black and white there shouldnt be a major difference!
I experimented with make up; but mainly focused on Samantha's eyes. It was the false eyelashes that was most challenging. The glue kept drying so the lashes didnt stay on for very long.

However we finally took some photos, mostly agaisnt Samantha's black wall so when Samantha edited the colouring later to black and white, her self would stand out more.

Here are a few samples: Im really pleased with how they turnt out!!