DIGIPACK RESEARCH

For my digipack I am going to use the usual general convention of a country pop genre artist. I have done research into what these conventions usually include and have come to the conclusion that there are two main things nearly all digipacks of the country pop genre have:

• A close intense imagine of the main artist often with the artists directly in the centre of the shot, or two one side of the image. They are rarely bigger than a mid-shot .
• The font they use is generally simple and clear and continued throughout the digipack. 

I am going to use these two trends in my final product as I feel my music video will challenge conventions in other ways and want this aspect of my project to follow conventions. I hope to have an extreme close up shot of my artist as the cover photo and will work around what fonts and colours look best with the shot. I hope to keep all aspects of the cover quite natural, using earthy colours and simply fonts. 

CD PAGE

I wasn't really sure what image I wanted portrayed on the page the CD was going to go on.
I therefore did some research and found a very simple image had been used for a professional CD.

I took ideas from this and as the theme of my album is quite autumny, i used a picture from google to see what it looks like.
Below is my first draft, obviously I know I will need to take my own image and apply it to this picture.

DRAFT DIGIPACK PAGES

Above are my first two drafts of the back and front pages of my digipack. I am aware the images are quite unfocused which is a lot of the reason I chose not to eventually use them. 

Below are my second drafts of the front and back covers. I prefer these because I think they are more conventional and the images are more affective and impacting. 

RISK ASSESSMENT

STORYBOARD

I haven't included all the shots I aim to use due to the fact that the shots I'm going to use in my video aren't going to be over a few seconds in duration and so my storyboard would go on for pages and be very repetitive if had included all of them. Instead I have just put on the ones I think are most important and will stick with the audience.
When creating my storyboard, before I actually started drawing the images I printed off the lyrics and annotated around them what was going to happen at important parts.
This then helped me to have a clearer idea about what i wanted to achieve and whilst looking at this and also listening to the song I created my storyboard. I know as the filming process goes along I will probably change and modify my ideas, but for now I think this gives me a clear outline to work from.

CHARACTER • LOCATION • PROPS • COSTUME

CHARACTERS:
There isn't going to be very many characters in my video. The main character will be the girl lip-syncing to the song. She is also the main character in the narrative story. I have a girl in mind to use for this however I'm not sure if She will available to use and so therefore I also have a back up character that I have already organised. Both the girls have brown hair and are quite musical and good at dancing and performing which will hopefully give my video a more professional quality.
Pretty much the only other characters that will be in my music video will be the father figure that acts as a drunk. I have got a middle aged man do play this part so that it is realistic.
The last main character that will be in the video is the young girl that will be playing a younger version of the main female singer. She will resemble the older girl and will have to act scared in places. I also know who I'm going to use for this and she is related to the main female singer so will create a sense of continuity.

LOCATION:
The main location I have chosen will be in a very rural field with trees and a river. Hopefully it will quite windy. Obviously I know that I can't control the weather but just having the natural aspects will hopefully give a good effect to the atmosphere in the video.
The other locations will include a dark room with just a few bright white lights spotlighting the main character singing. This will be a big bulk of the performance aspect of my video and will contrast massively against the rural other scenes.
Finally the only other place I will be filming in will be a house. Obviously this will be for the majority of the narrative aspects. I will mainly be using a living room but will also probably be using a bed room and the front door of the house. I will also be using the main road outside the house.

PROPS:
There won't really be very many props in my music video. The few that there are will include empty bottles of alcohol that will be used by the dad in the narrative part. The only other main prop that I will be using will be a microphone. I hope to be able to get an old fashioned silver microphone. However if I can't then I have access too just a normal microphone. This will clearly just be used in the performance part of the music video. The reason I want to use a microphone is so that it gives a bigger and more influencing feel that it is a performance and will therefore make the audience feel like the are more part of it.

COSTUME:
Due to the fact that my music video isn't going to be set in a specific time or have a genre that would require certain types of costume, what the characters will be wearing is going to be quite vague to describe. I don't want the costumes to be over powering and divert the attention of the audience and so the costume they will be wearing will be just normal everyday clothes that the audience can relate too. However in the performance aspect when it is in the dark room the clothes she will be wearing will be quite "cool" and make the audience want to be like the girl in the video.

INFLUENCING THE AUDIENCE

What we mean by "influencing an audience" is the impact a medium has on the individual and how it makes them question and change there views on a particular topic or if they are introduced to a new issue or interest, then it gives them a way of looking at something new which will then influence how they see it when they come across it again.

There are several different theories about how a media can influence an audience. I think the theory that most relates to my video is the Two Step Flow theory.

Before this theory came about the most believed theory about audience influence was the Hypodermic model. This theory states that media injects ideas and opinions into the consumer by how they portray something in their media. That the audience have no choice by to have the thoughts and ideas of the producer of media, now be their thoughts and ideas. For example, if you are watching something violent then you want to go out and do something violent.

However researchers didn't like this theory as it was too clumsy and they wanted something to define the relationship between mediums and audience.

Therefore, the Two Step Flow Theory was created. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet analysed how voters made the decision of who to vote for during the 1940 presidential election campaign and then published their results. Their findings suggested that information doesn't directly flow from a media into the audiences mind, but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who them communicate to less influential people. However the opinion leaders have influence over these people.
The consumer then mediate information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts given by the opinion leaders. Furthermore, not being influenced by a direct process but by two steps, therefore, the two step flow. This however did lower the amount of power media had in the eyes of the researchers and so they concluded that social factors played a huge part in the way audiences interpret mediums. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm.

Social factors are not only celebrities who have the power to influence anything about a person because of the power the media has allowed them to have. They are also messages and subconscious you get from seeing people in the street, your friends, magazines, the radio, etc.

I think this is the theory that most relates to the music video I want to create. However I don't really think I'm trying to influence my audience in a particular way, more tell a story of how a girl could never rely on her father and ended up getting hurt because not only could he not look after her, he couldn't look after himself either. However I do hope that my music video will influence people in the aspect that it will make them think about the hardships that some children have to grow up with and then later have to deal with the impacts for the rest of their lives. I'm not trying to portray that every father is bad and that anyone that drinks is an alcoholic but I would like to achieve a sense of hatred for the father in the video and a sympathy for the daughter.


USES AND GRATIFICATIONS 

The uses and gratifications theory is one of the most important theories when looking at audience pleasures. According to this theory everyone uses the media in different ways and we make choices over what interests us and therefore what we want to watch. In so many words, this theory states that we don't just encounter different pieces of media for entertainment but we expect to get gratification from the text.

The individual has the power to select the media that best suit the consumers needs and attempts to satisfy those needs. The psychology basis for this theory is the "Hierarchy of Need" defined by Maslow.

There are four types of gratifications in a text we aim to gain:

1. INFORMATION
This is when the individual tries to gain more information about the world and society not only around them but all across the globe. They want to know more and so the best types of media that fit this category are things like documentaries and the news. When people gain information it gives them a gratification that they are gaining knowledge and a satisfaction that they are learning.

In my case, the information that my audience might want to gain from my music video, could be a deeper understanding of what they song is about. This would increase they're knowledge of the song and also allow them to feel more a part of the song and performance.

2. PERSONAL IDENTITY
This is when we look at mediums for example TV and look for role models we can identify with. For example we may look for individual in the soaps we watch. Characters in the media help us decide what we feel about ourselves and often if we agree with their actions and they are successful we feel better about ourselves. A good example is when your favourite character succeeds in a programme, think of that warm feeling you get.

Within my music videos people will be relating to the main artist who is also the main talent in the video. Hopefully my target audience will be able to relate to her and so when she succeeds and triumphs over her dad at the end of the video they will feel gratification.

3. INTEGRATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION
Sometimes a use of the media to find out more about other peoples circumstances. Occasionally watching a show helps us understand, empathise and sympathise with the lives of other people. We may even end up thinking the programme characters as friends even though we might feel stupid for admitting it. At the same time TV gives us something to talk about and therefore can allow you to maintain friendships.

Like I have said before, because of the relatable aspects of my music video and talent integration and social interaction will probably be a big outcome of my text. The video is going to be very personal and so it is likely you will empathise and sympathise with the talent in the video. Also it will give you something to talk about with your friends and allow you have things in common as to enjoy the music video you will have to enjoy the artist.

4. ENTERTAINMENT
Sometimes we just purely use the media for enjoyment, relaxation and/or just to fill time. This what the majority of people will think of when they think of what the media is used for in my opinion.

A huge part of my music video will be the music. Although it is unlikely that people are going to carry they're phone or tablet around just watching the video, it is likely that people will be consuming the the song as an audio text. This will be used as relaxation and just to pass time. It is more likely that the video will be used for entertainment and will give a greater pleasure than just listening to the song.