What is a digipak? A type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs. Why are they made? Is there a particular record label that uses them exclusively? Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s. Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot"rather than a full plastic tray.
IMPAC Group, Inc. originally owned the Digipak trademark. That company was acquired by MeasWestvaco (MWV) in 2000 and folded into its AGI manufacturers around the world. MWV sold AGI Media to Atlas Holdings in 2010. In 2012, Atlas purchased Shorewood Packaging from International Paper and merged the two companies to create AGI-Shorewood.
What is the age demographic that would purchase the digipak? Are they made exclusively for a certain genre?
They were not for a certain genre however those who wanted to be more environmentally friendly would tend to buy them to help the environment. they also grew more popular with every record company and record labels as they had more popularity because
From researching what a real digipak is I have found out when they were popular and how they were created and distributed so that a larger range of people could get them. Looking at the different types of digipaks has also helped me to start thinking about different designs for my own digipak and how I should incorporate all of the different information that I need.
After researching the different music websites I have managed to find a genre and theme that I would like to do, firstly I would like to base my website genre around heavy metal and Gothic artists therefore I would try and base my design around the new years day and black veil bride website. But I would also like to use the unique style of catfish and the bottlemen's website with a moving video as the background. This would also help me to attract the target audience of teenagers and people who enjoy this type of music. I have also found that lots of website include links to their social media sites so that people can share their videos easily with images and embedded videos for the songs that they have as well as the artist and the band which is what I am planning to include on my website.
I think that this video idea has helped me understand how much of the narrative side of the story I an use. During the creation of this video I researched the lyrics of the original song and looked at the original music video, during which I discovered that it was based around relationship problem, therefore in my version there is also a relationship problem but it is between the father and the daughter. I believe the reason for creating this video was to show how to create a fast paced song with the use of lots of different cuts to display a narrative story. I think that creating the original narrative story was very hard as this song doesn't have a clear narrative story behind the words, I also thought that the filming went well and the range of different shots and timings during in the editing worked well. If I did this again i would change the section of the song that I used and possibly make a better ending with a better ct and fade out at the end. To incorporate this into a longer video I would combine different shots of narrative story-line and lip-syncing to create a mixture for the chosen song. I would also incorporate the different length shots in the editing to change the pace of the different sections of the songs.
During this song there were some points that I realised I should improve and remember for later on when I do my final version, One of these were the framing. A lot of these shots where filmed with he character i the centre of the screen which is too bold and instead I should have done some shots form the other angles, there were also sections of the flashback that would have been improved if I had filmed them from another angle as the focus point is the door.
One of the better scenes that showed a good shot variety and good editing was the darts scene which contained different shots in a short amount of time.
Although this section was good another thing to remember was to make sure my jump cuts made sense, there were some sections where the jump cuts didn't make very much sense therefore its was a bit jumpy and confusing so when the final video is being edited I need to make sure that there is a reason for jump cutting to a different section.
Doing lots of practising for music videos will help me when I make my final music video. Editing to lots of different genres of music will help me to understand the pace that I need to use in order to make my music video more interesting. Planning out how to do a chorus with lots of shots will help me when I have to plan my music video as I can start to think about pacing the video from the start.
Credit to Leanne and Emily for working on this video as well as myself.
After recording for 2 hours several different pieces for the lip-sync videos we finally edited it down to these two songs. We found that when working with lip-syncing it is best if the actor or performer knows the words that they will be singing and the song so that they know what the timings are. We also learnt that whilst lip-syncing it is best to over exaggerate all of the words to the song so that the camera can pick them up easier and it looks like you are singing it properly. one of the main problems for us was getting people to remember the words, as you can see in The Circle Of Life Leanne doesn't know all of the words therefore it is noticeable when you are editing as it doesn't mach with the rest of the song. We also encountered problems with timings, it is easier said than done to play a song and sing along to it as the camera has delays as well as the music as there is a short gap before it plays so starting off the piece without and instrumental is very hard to keep timings to. Also it is quite hard to display narrative during the lip-syncing as only little motions and gestures can be used whereas modern day music videos have choreography and other narrative backgrounds to them that also fit to the song an are edited in later. Another stage which we found hard was the editing, although it is easy to add both the video and song to the editing software in this case iMovie it is incredibly hard to match both of them together to be in perfect unison, as a result some sections are out of time however it may be possible to use the song played in the filming however the quality of sound would be lower and distorted leading to a bad sounding music video.
I think that the aim of this first lip-sync video was to show us how hard it is to get the lip-syncing perfect and possibly suggesting not to do the whole song through lip-syncing as it may go out of time which will disrupt the whole song. This also gives us experience in editing music videos as well as practice for finding the right song for our final video as a slow song is hard to lip-sync to as it looks boring and can easily go out of time whereas a fast song can be difficult to show what you are saying to the audience overall making you look like you are mumbling.
If I had to do this again I would personally change the songs to something more upbeat and to my taste of music so that I would know how to sing it. I would also decrease the amount of quick movements that you do in the video as it moves your face so it can't be seen lip-syncing. I would also try and neaten up the editing a bit more as in my personal opinion it still isn't exactly in time with the music and there could be some extra things added to make it look better.
My advice for other people would be to make sure you use a song that you know well as it helps to keep it in time and make it look more professional as well as making sure that it is at the right speed for the rest of your video as it can change the mood and the quality of the video very quickly.
In another previous attempt to this first lip-sync we used a different group of people to try and create a song with lots of words to show a large range of different lip-syncing technics, unfortunately this didn't end well as the lip-sync is out of time and the actors aren't really into the song which makes the video look worse. The video was also shot on a smartphone instead of a professional camera so there is a lot of glare and the image looks quite fuzzy. As well as this the editing isn't as smooth as it could be therefore all of the different shots look jumpy. Although saying this for the first lip-sync video the large range of different camera angles and locations makes the video more interesting to look at.
From this I have learnt how to successfully lip-sync and have gained the knowledge that I need to know to direct someone in lip-syncing. Looking at the footage that I shot it is important that in the future I check the recorded footage to see if the actors are exaggerating the words enough so that they can easily be followed by the audience.
All of these different music videos use different types of unique editing to make them more iconic, I think the only thing all of these videos have in common is that they stick to the same themes for example Hurricane continues to use its violent psychedelic themes to create the 18+ music video whereas singe ladies focuses on the dance moves to enhance the lyrics. Looking at these different music videos has helped me decide that I would like to do a fast paced song as the occasional lip-syncing is easier to do and looks more effective as well as the fact that fast songs can use multiple shots to keep the song busy and keep the audience entertained such as in Hurricane as there are lots of different cuts to different shots as well as the lip-syncing no occasion. I think that I would prefer to do a more narrative based music video after looking at Single Ladies with the dance routine and lip-syncing which i didn't think kept me interested in the music video whereas Thriller although having a dance sequence kept me more intrigued due to the facts that the narrative and dancing was mixed to create the dancing story line. After looking at other types of music videos I have also decided that there are a lot of similar videos that all follow the same patterns for the different genres tht they fall into for example rappers music videos are usually focused on drinking and smoking whilst showing the rapper in a gang or walking around an area, therefore I shall bear this in mind when I choose the genre for my music video and research into what other music videos for this genre look lie in order to make something different which will interest people.
