Digipak Analysis 2

This is the inside of a Digipak and it contains two CDs.

The Digipak is of Linkin Park's album Minutes To Midnight, I have chosen this image because it shows what is contained in an average Digipak.

On the left side of the packaging we see an information booklet, this usually is the artist's impressions and how they were inspired to release the album with the songs that they chose. The booklets sometimes include lyrics to the songs and the track listings.

The centre of the Digipak holds the main CD

In Other News.....(Digipak Analysis 1)

For the past few weeks we have been having bad weather which is not suitable for us to film in. This is mainly due to rain ad snow which could cause damage to the cameras and equipment we are using.

So, until we have clear weather I have decided to begin work on my Digipak research.

The first Digipak I am going to analyse is this:
This is the digipak sold for a special edition Oasis CD. It Contains 2 CDs and the pack itself has 3 folds.
This picture clearly shows what type music is stored on the CD. The first thing that a person would see on this digipak is the main image which is guitar shown in a low angle dominant photograph, it shows that the genre contained in this CD is Acoustic and this is also written below the picture.
The main title on this Digipak says "Oasis" this is written in white writing on a black background so it stands out and people know who the artist is of this CD.

On the back of this Digipak it gives information on the track listings and other artists that have featured on this track. The writing stands out in front of the background which is an acoustic guitar, which is used to compliment the main picture on the front of the digipak.

We cannot see the fold out but we can see the CD which looks very plain and has a track listing printed on it. On the left side of the CD, which we cannot see, it is highly likely that the band name is written on it.

The visible spine of this digipak contains nothing more than the information on the front and it is likely that the other spine will be identical to this one.

Our Storyboard

Here are a few sheets from the Storyboard me and Andrew have decided is the final one for our video to be based around, if needed it can be changed.

These are just a few of the sheets of our storyboard because uploading the whole thing would be too time consuming.

The music video has a non-linear structure so we are following none of the narrative structures proposed by the narrative theorists such as Todorov, Jean Baudrillard etc.

A Little Change

After looking through the song many times me and Andrew both realised that the song we have chosen is too long, so because of this we decided to shrten it by taking out one of the verses.

This should still work well because the whole song links in with the use of choruses.

Locations

Today we went to look at some locations to film in. We took the following pictures in daytime and in the dark.

We also took some time to get used to the new video camera.

The Conventions of the Rap Genre

Conventions of the Rap Genre

The rap music genre consists of many things that other genres do not, which makes it unique and recognisable by almost everybody.
Usually ‘rap artists’ are seen as black African/Americans because the genre itself was created by an African American. Nowadays there are many White rappers including Eminem.

Rap songs are sang or “rapped” at a fast pace. Which is iconic of the genre, it is how everybody recognises it is a rap. The beat itself has heavy/deep bass.
Artists in the rap genre tend to use more explicit lyrics than any other genres. One of the most popular explicit terms used is “Nigger(s)”. This term is used because it used to be used by White people back when racism was a big issue in society. Nowadays the term is controlled by Black people not as a sign of racism but more to show their roots and how they were brought up.

The rap genre also consists of baggy clothing and exaggerated jewellery. The clothes show that the people of the black communities will never let go of nor forget how they started, having to buy big clothes which they could grow into because they could not afford to keep buying new ones. The jewellery shows that they now have the money to spend on what they could now afford to buy many a year ago. The same concept is shown through the use of cars in the music videos.
Many rap songs have the rapper as a protagonist and the society, along with the police force, as the antagonist.

Some rap songs are about relationships and girls. Girls along with the cars and jewellery are a sign of respect and success. Rap songs are usually based around a theme this could be; violence, drugs, sex etc. These themes are made clear through the use of acting and the lyrics used. The tone of voice is also a factor which can indicate the theme of the song.

Wealth is portrayed in every rap song through the use of Jewellery and cars as mentioned above and also through the use of branded clothes. Not only are the branded clothes shown in the music videos but also mentioned during the song itself, E.g. Giggs “True Religion jeans matching the Ralphs”.

Violence is also one of the conventions for rap songs as nearly all rap songs mention fighting and weaponry. The violence from the genre is again linked back to life lived by African Americans when racism was a big issue in society. It shows that people had to fight for freedom and to have rights.

Overall, the conventions of the rap genre are there to represent the life, as it was, for Black people in comparison to how they are living now. How everything has changed for them and they are free to live their lives as they wish to. Still though, the rappers have chosen to respect their roots and keep wearing their baggy clothes as a sign rap and Hip Hop.

Costume

Since we will be following conventions as well as breaking them we will be needing various costumes and types of clothing.

For instance, we will need big over sized clothes and baseball caps for one character, along with big shiny jewelery and a big belt buckle.
For the second character we need more fitted clothing, perhaps polo t-shirts and smart shirts, to show that he is a gentleman that can rap.

Our Schedule

November 1 --> Animatrics to be shot and finished.
November 8 --> Video shoot to be shot and roughly finished.
November 15 --> Video shoot to be fininished and ready for editing.
November 22 --> Video should be ready for editing and the remainder of the time will be used for reshooting what we need to fix.
November 29 --> Continue with the editing and start the two ancillary texts.
December 6 --> The editing should be in the final stages or even finished and the ancillary texts should be finished by the end of the week.
December 13 --> Our video is done and dusted and ready to upload onto Youtube and we should be aiming to finish our evaluations by the end of the week.
December 20-21 --> We will be asking friends and family and classmates for feedback on our video.

Analysis of The Lyrics

I am going to analyse the lyrics of our chosen song, after they have been sized up onto an A3 piece of paper. As you can see in the post before, the lyrics really,have understandable meaning to them and lots of slang is used. We will be translating the slang terms and should hopefully be able to understand the lyrics.
Once analysed, they will be posetd onto blogger.