Email to The Shape Of The Earth of music video

After The Shape Of The Earth email they replied to us from asking them permission to use their song Alone In This, we emailed them back.

After we finished our music video for their song, we emailed it to them as they asked to see our final project after we completed it. We let them know that the link to our music video on YouTube to watch and a link to our website that we created for their band and music video to their song Alone In This.

Meet the actress

Name: Sky Croxford

Age: 18

We had a few problems when we first began filming. We had a different actor originally, however we had to change due to the times we wasn't all available at the same time as each other in order to film our music video. We then got together as a group and decided it would be best for one of us within the group to do it as then we would all be available at the same time. I then volunteered for the role. I played the main character in our music video. It made sense for me to do this as I have drama experience in the same way our previously actress did. I did GCSE Drama and therefore I am used to taking direction and acting as a different person for roles.
It has been a good idea to use someone within the group of the actress within our music video, not only for the convenience of having the same lessons free to film the music video, but I was able to put across the image all the group was imagining and wanting during the research and planning stage of the A2 Media Studies production.

Camcorder shot change

We have decided to make the handheld camcorder shots more clearer to the audience. We have done this by making a 'REC' and a red light on the shots that are handheld. We have also made a battery symbol and the frame around the shot to create the look of it being from a home camcorder. This is what we are aiming for and we feel that the audience will be able to see this more and get more of a fell for the storyline and the idea behind the video itself by making the handheld effect obvious.

We came to this conclusion of adding the handheld camera effect in this way due to the audience feedback. We had feedback that the storyline wasn't clear and the shaky handheld shots looked messy as they didn't realise that they were meant to be handheld by the characters within the music video.

Our digipak

Above is the digipak that we have created for our 'Alone In This' music video and 'The Shape of The Earth' album. It features 9 frames;

• The front
• The back -song list
• Lyrics page
• Three photos of Sky (main character) taken from the video
• Final picture of Sky alongside a message from the band to their fans
• CD holder without CD
• CD holder with CD

Finally, we have also included a spine which contains the album information such as the "The Shape Of The Earth - Alone In This". 

The front, the back and the spine.

To the very left, is our front page. This is our album cover. Conventions of an album is to feature some sort of picture or image alongside with the artists name and song title. We had decided whilst we were filming to take some shots so that the music video and album cover will have a link between them. In the music video you see the main character - Sky, walking through a field, with her key props; the parka jacket and rucksack. She is facing front ways as it is the front of the CD, its the start of her journey, we have the front view of her, and its like the audience is ahead of her. The rucksack indicates she is travelling whilst the coat links with this as she has a big item of clothing to keep her warm throughout the cold seasons. The picture we decided to use was this one of her standing in the woods. This picture is very effective as the key element of this music video is her being physically and mentally alone, therefore the fact she is standing in the woods, alone, with nothing else but her rucksack shows that she is physically alone. Also, with the picture being in the woods this again, shows she is travelling as she is surrounded by nature instead of people, places and properties. Sky is wearing a dark washed out green parka coat which actually camouflages well with the forest and green scenery surrounding her. This almost works as a camouflage of her life. She feels invisible to everyone around her, almost as if she blends in with everything and no one sees her, she doesn't stand out from a crowd at too, she's barely even there. This links in a lot with the title that is placed just above her which says 'Alone In This', linking with the picture, album cover and then with the music video. In order to follow the theme of not standing out we made the white box that the title sits on slightly transparent so nothing is standing out, making sky completely level with the whole cover, there is no higher importance anywhere. Another reason for the white box was to link in with the beginning of the video which was all black and white to continue with the theme of being sad, lonely and life just overall being dull. A really important aspect that we have used in our digipak design is that any writing that we have used within our digipak has a specific colour, this colour is Sky's coat. We have done this to ensure that everything has a meaning as well as linking to one another. The font colour is a dark green, the exact green of the coat that is hugely featured throughout the video.

Above, to the right I have inserted pictures of the front and back cover actually in the process of being taken using our Fujifilm Bridge Camera and tripod to do this.

Between the two frames above is the spine. This is just the strip at the side of the two that states the album name and artist name. We have continued with the same theme throughout the whole digipak therefore have used the forest background with the white box transparent over the top. It's simple yet still informative.

The last frame of this picture is the back of the album. This is the back page that includes a song list, this is a list of all of The Shape Of The Earth's song that are involved on this album, including Alone In This. On the back we have once again, followed the theme of the forest and the white box. The different between the front and the back cover is that Sky has gone from facing the front to us now viewing  the back of her like we are watching her go off and go on her journey to find happiness. The back cover contains a lot more information as this is the main element of this section of the digipak unlike the front cover where the picture was more of the main focus. We had decided to create a QR code to feature on our album alongside with a bar code. This adds to the realism of this digipak. The QR codes links to our website that we had created for 'The Shape Of The Earth''s music video for Alone In This. This code had been created using www.QRstuff.com which allowed us to create this free of charge. In order for this to work you simply take a picture using a smartphone which will then redirect you to our website. The bar code is what will be scanned when the album individually or the digipak is sold. In order to ensure that nothing on our digipak can be copied like the pictures, song names or designed we have had it copyrighted to ensure that this is now our property and it will be illegal for anyone to copy these. The last piece of information that we have used is linking our website and digipak together by stating it at the bottom 'www.theshapeoftheearth.weebly.com' this is so if anyone is interested they can visit the website.

Disk holder - with and without CD
The next two frames that I am going to talk about is the inside of the digipak; this is the disk holder and the CD itself. To the right of this picture is the disk holder, this is the plastic bit that the CD clicks into, to hold into place. For this we have used the tree picture to ensure that everything has a continuous theme running throughout it. We have faded the whole picture slightly out as this would be heavily covered in plastic therefore you wouldn't get a very clear image by this point. The grey shape that is layered over the top of the image is where the CD would fit and then the finger parts around it is what you would use to pull the CD out of its case. The actual CD is then to the left, this is the trees, so when the CD is in the holder it will look like one big picture. This picture isnt the same as the first two pictures, instead its taken from a different scene of the music video, its still in the same location however Sky doesn't feature here. This indicates the inside of Sky, we have the front of her on the front cover and the back view on the back cover, therefore this part of the digipak in located right in the centre almost to work as the 'inside' of Sky, showing how empty she is, adding the idea of loneliness and being lost.

Lyrics page
To the left is our lyrics page. Alone In This is the main song of our digipak therefore we have included a page that feature the songs lyrics for people to read through and learn if they wanted. This helps people to understand the words being said therefore the link between the video and the lyrics. Throughout our whole digipak we have used the images containing the background of the forest, this indicates Skys journey when travelling, on this page we have tried to follow the theme of linking our images with the video but wanted to differ from the original photos featuring the forest. Here we decided to use one of the more happier scenes in the video. In the video, the beat kicks in and this is when everything starts to get better, the scenes turn from dull black and white shots featuring council estates to pretty scenery including blossom and daffodils. The image we have chosen is the shot we have overlooking a stream being covered by a blossom tree. This shows that there is some happiness contrasting with the sadness and loneliness. Despite this difference, we have followed the theme by including the white box to once again tie everything together. We have also used the green colour matching Skys coat to ensure everything is continuous throughout the digipak.

Outer images
To the left are the photos that are featured throughout the opening of the digipak, these are the first images that the reader will see when opening it up. These pictures are from the opening scene of the music video where Sky is in her room, in bed. She's lonely, and all she can hear is her parents arguing. You see her moving around the room and bed looking very restless and frustrated, looking very unaware of what to do. We thought it might be quite effective to get some good close up's of the star character. We chose these images for our digipak as we thought it was a good contrast against the dark dull colours of the forest, although all the images are representing the same message; loneliness.

Inner images
The last two frames are the ones from when things are starting to pick up, therefore the colour of the scenes look happier, healthier and brighter, containing a lot of colour and no coat, indicating the change in season. The left image shows that although Sky is with people, she does still feel alone so we mixed in shots of her alone and with people to represent feelings mentally. Sky feels mentally alone although she is physically far from it. The different with these scenes of her being alone is that although she still looks unhappy and lonely, it overall still looks quite happy as its better and brighter settings. The last image with in located to the right is the last image we have used. This is the 'star image' of the music video. This is one of the climax shots. This is when you see Sky looking truly happy and as though she is actually having fun, because of this we decided we definitely wanted to include this in our digipak due to its importance. We use this on one of the biggest build ups in the song. On this picture, we included a message from the band to their fans to make it quite personal, making the fans know they matter.  

This video shows us opening up the digipak. We have done this to show clearly how we have set it out as we feel it isn't clear through the images alone.

Update: Completion of filming

Yesterday we had filmed some more around Werrington lakes and now think that we have enough shots to editing the whole production therefore filming is now complete. We have now got all the shots we need like the scenery shots, the handheld shots of when the character meets friends and also many still shots and images for our digipak and CD disk. 

We are now editing the whole production together and finishing the digipak. 

Started editing

Now that majority of our music video is filmed, we have started to edit it by importing all of the video clips onto editing software; Adobe Premiere Pro in order to start cutting and positioning all the clips together. 

Whilst in the editing process of our production, we have had some new ideas which have consisted of having the video black and white at the beginning to emphasis the character being low, isolated and depressed by using the dull colour effects. This will then have a contrast to when the girl then starts travelling where the video will then be in colour to show her happiness shining. 

One of the problems we had faced last year is that we didnt film enough shots therefore had to keep going out to refilm, so that this year we ensured that we almost 'over-filmed' in order to make sure we have many shots to choose from that we can use. This worked really well as when we was editing the video we had realised just how many shots we had meaning we did not need to re-film this scene. 

Filming update

Another area we have filmed in is just around the corner for the image above. This has a small field and bench that we are having the character feature on by sitting here to emphasis the fact that she is all alone. 

We have filmed the first section all in one area as it is based at home, in the girls bedroom mainly, and house. In this scene it shows the girl unable to sleep due to her parents shouting and arguing, the next scene takes place in the same location, her bedroom, but shows her packing her stuff and then leaving through the front door. 

We have then done more shots of her travelling around Werrington. The reason we chose to film some of our shots here was because the area is filled with council houses and flats which we thought could add to the idea of her not being very wealthy and this would add a contrast to where she will be later on in the video.




We have filmed our latest shots in the nice Werrington area, the lake. This consists of large fields, bridges going over the lake, the lake, forest areas etc. This is a really nice area so we have recorded many shots of the girl on her own, scenery shots, animal shots and also her meeting her friends. 

Update

We have made some changes to the production of our music video. We have decided to keep the same ideas etc however we have changed the main character in the video and will be re-filming due to the original person not having enough spare time to feature in our piece. This is for the best as it will help us to film more as the character is Sky, who is part of our media group, therefore she will be a lot more available. 

Our digipak so far

This is our digipak at the moment. We have been researching into other digipaks which I have shown in previous post in order to follow the correct conventions and include as much as we can in order to achieve our best. For our digipak we have used six frames. We are planning to have a: 

• front cover
• back cover
• inside image page
• lyric page
• CD case
• 2nd image page

We are currently working on the front and back cover pictures. We want to follow the colour theme of grey and white, keeping it basic and following the bands other covers. By using the white writing over the top of the darker grey helps create a contrast between the two colours, making the white 'pop' out and attracting the audience to read it. 

The image that has been chosen is one of the shots we are using in our music video. We have used this exact photo because it shows her emotions clearly through her facial expressions and body language. By including an image from the video, this will allow our audience to know that there is a video for this song therefore will be promoting the video by enticing them to watch. This is about as far as we are at the moment for the digipak as we are now focusing on editing the video. However, we will be finishing this shortly after we have done more of the music video enabling us to do the front and back cover too. 

The Shape Of The Earth CD covers

Above are some of the CD covers that band 'The Shape Of The Earth have used'. By looking at all four covers you can see that they follow some sort of pattern in their CD cover designs. Each cover has the look of being drawn or painted through the aspects of their pictures and the font that is used. Their designs are very basic, therefore we have ensured that the images we use follow their conventions of being simple. For our production we have kept the shots all very simple but effective with a strong storyline. 

Below are some of the ideas we have come up with to follow. We decided as the song is 'Alone In This' and the story is about a girl who has a hard upbringing and feels constantly sad and isolated that the idea of having a crowd of colourful people with one blacked out person shows that whilst everyone who is around her is happy, she is the one that stands out, the one who cannot find happiness. Below are some images that we found interesting and throught we could work with and make it our own. They are all full of crows of people and we thought we could stick with the idea of having everyone colourful, and as I said, there will be one person who is just blacked out which will feature our main character. 

The Kooks digipak

This digipak is The Kooks. This digipak has a colour theme running throughout all aspects of the product. This use the colour of black, white, grey and red. Red is the main colour, which is used for thye CD and smaller parts of product like some of the writing. The CD stands out more due to it being red. Red is a colour which is used to attract attention therefore this is a good colour to use. They have also followed the codes and conventions of the usual digipak by using certain aspects like having a list of their tracks and using pictures. A lot of the time most indie bands do not use photos of themselves so this differs them from the rest.

Michael Jackson digipak

 This digipak is of a famous and very well-known artist; Michael Jackson. In this photo of his albums digipak you can see that they have included one of his iconic dance moves done by him himself, wearing his famously known white glove. By doing this they are allowing the audience to establish who it is straight away. In this digipak it includes five CD's, each with their own picture of a different dance move that is known to be done by the artist, this also helps establish which song it is. You can see on the bottom middle, there is a little booklet which is likely to have all information about the record label, websites and addresses and information on the producers and other musicians who may feature on some of the tracks. This digipak is also likely to include lyrics  and a list of their artists tracks. Looking at this digipak you can see that there is a running theme throughout. Each CD is set out the same in terms of the font, colours used and style, with the only difference being the information stated and the pictures of the dance moves. 

Digipak

Digipaks are a special type of CD albums that is styled in a way of a folded book. Sometimes the digipak will include a CD as well as a DVD which are located in slip pockets. Digipaks often have a selection from one to four folds that will contain different elements of the band/artist of the album.

These digipaks are usually made of card which are different to the plastic material of normal CD albums.