I completed my digipak through using Photoshop CS6, I went for a 4 panel design since it was easier to include two discs, one the CD and a DVD containing the music video for the track 'Emma'. I decided to do a folding design, I used this to separate the black and white design which greets you as you open the digipak, when unfolded you see the tiled images from the music video, creating a visual contrast. Below you can see the print out including cut markings and even a skeleton design including areas for print bleeding and placement of the CD trays.
Photoshop Screenshot
I printed the design out onto plain paper and using the design, I roughly constructed it together to ensure that it worked okay. I took some photographs of what it looked like once I had put it together to give an idea of size:
This is the deluxe CD edition for Nirvana's famous Nevermind album. The reason for creating this special digipak edition was because it was for the 20th anniversary, the tri-fold nature of the digipak is effective at housing both CDs that came included in this special edition. The Nevermind album cover was an attempt for Nirvana to break the mould from being the small independent band to a larger mainstream one and companies in America had a problem with its controversial album design, notably for Walmart was not the fact that the baby was going for a dollar that was on a hook but the fact that his penis was in clear view.
I believe that Cobain and co were anticipating this sort of reaction as they wanted to shock and create a memorable image for the basis of the following three years of their band and attempted to dispute the values that many Americans obtained. The cover had a baby greedily pursing the dollar hooked on a fishing line, symbolising the grubby temptation despite the innocent nature of the young baby, despite the fact that he clearly does not understand the meaning of a currency or it's use, big corporations will hook us in as young as possible, onto the consumerist nature that comes so naturally to many, because of this hook from a young age, this hook on greed, consumerism, ready to fit into the corporate system, this is likely the dominant message (viewed as producer intended) from Stuart Hall's reception theory.Ironically of course, this album pushed Nirvana to the extreme level of success, turing them into the political statement that they had once been attempting to express, although I can't say that the band really conformed to 'celebrity life'.
The uses and gratifications theory can be applied to the consumer of this album, where they would actively seek the music to fulfil their current mood. The use will mostly be for entertainment, such as the escapism that music can provide, and that is certainly true for this genre and album. However, because of the controversial nature of this album release (e.g. the naked baby), it's use can also be applied to social interaction because it sparks conversation between people, especially in this example, as it was frequently occurring on the news for the album art and for Cobain's drug abuse.
Original Release CD
The actual digipak its self has a personal touch to it with scanned in copies of the bands scribbles because the second CD included had some of their B side recordings on it and those that would likely purchase the album again would be fans of the original and thus to entice them into buying the deluxe edition this personal element draws them in. The handwritten track listing on both sides is rough and scribbly, which fits even the genre (Grunge) and their general personality, it also fits into Tess Perkins' theory of stereotypes, where this digipak has been aimed at, therefore the designers will attempt to conform to the grunge stereotype that their audience is known for having. The monkey used as the left panel in the digipak was originally on the back cover of their original release and it comes from early promotional stickers, as you can see above. It gives that personal throw back to the original album and although adjusted, still keeps the small details from the original release. The digipak generally conforms to the traditions of the rock and grunge but the CDs do not as they seem a bit too 'clean' and the design to me seems to simplistic and the design of the CD is similar to the Bossa Nova digipak I had viewed previously with simple colours, very different to the original CD design that was released, as you see:
The opening to the song by British band, Foals begins with a long shot of the mountains, which fades in from white, the general tone and mise-en-scene during this introductory shot gives the impression of solidarity and coldness, created through the over exposed shot with the bland white from the snow on the mountains. During this shot, to the bottom left hand corner of the shot, we notice a figure moving slowly, extremely subtly and it begins to create questions in the music video to what has happened prior to this. The editing of this shot is extremely long, lasting for over 1 minute (challenges traditional music video conventions of short cut editing) however it works well in conjunction with the lyrics, linking back to Goodwins theory of one of the five key aspects of music videos (Dancing in the Distraction Factory) are the links between the lyrics and video, in this case the song begins with "So I walked through to the haze", and the haze is visually represented here in the video with the weather.
The following scene shows Yannis Philippakis (the lead singer of Foals), the scene also cuts upon a beat but also it can be noted that it changes after the lyrics "Now I see you lying there" and puts the audience in the position of the directly addressed in the music video, as we are viewing directly the singer lying on his side. We also can begin to apply and see another one of Goodwins theories further develop from this point onwards as the bands frontman is now the centre of attention, this is used in order to portray the leading singers style and attract attention to his appearance as a young adult, potentially reaching out to their younger based audience.
He is represented as a young adult, conforming to many of the listeners of 'indie' music style, such as with the beard, stylised hair cut and clothes. He is therefore made a relatable and even given the image of a star (Dyer), therefore many of his audience base will see themselves in him.
The following scenic shots cut into the video after the protagonist closes his eyes, potentially referencing visually to the audience his thoughts, so blank but calm. The shots including the unknown plastic bag and beautifully cinematic close up of the icy ocean water. The movements within the music video are directly in beat with the tempo of the song, to the audience it creates a calm and peaceful environment to be in. This also gives the feeling of how time is passing by, made especially true by the more faced paced cutting in comparison to the previous clips.
The next shot that we see is a close up of the front man, Philippakis and again, this is a close up that is often cut back to at various points within the video and he is also the only person to feature in the video relates back to Goodwins theory of main star and protagonist from Dancing in the Distraction Factory. He is cut in and straight away the audience notices how he is singing softly toward the camera, addressing whoever is watching almost directly, as if he is explaining 'the horror' to them.This close up motionless shot allows the audience time to study and even relate to the person in view. The use of a black coat works well because not only does it broaden the potential target audience by not branding themselves to a particular social group or age but it also works well visually to balance the contrasting black from his hair and beard and the white from the background snow. The shot is extremely cramped, especially when in comparison to previous ones, when the filming location is so desolate and lonely it seems to have been done in order to create and further strengthen an idea that maybe he cannot escape from his own loneliness or even the surroundings, therefore this almost claustrophobic scene is cleverly used.
Following this, the video cuts to a scene where the protagonist is dragging what looks to be some sort of animal's carcass that is wrapped in plastic out of the water. The high angle shot makes is seem as if he is struggling with the weight of the dead animal both physically and mentally. The music video being concept based is very abstract and it depends upon the viewers understanding of the lyrics I believe in order to interpret the video. The shot is accompanied by "forget the horror here":
Forget the horror here
Forget the horror here
This has become a reference in modern literature such as Kurtz's last words from Heart of Darkness with a concept that there is nothing after death, the horror is the nothingness.
Leave it all down here
It's future rust and it's future dust
The terms combined create a meaning that to me signifies that the future will fade.
The use of repetition in the lyrics at this point, emphasises the loneliness once again possibly, the idea that nothing new has happened, the horror is still gripping him, the repetition is also in the video as he struggle to pull the carcass up the stones.
The music fades back down to the chorus and once again we get a glimpse at the cinematic close up scenic shots, they movement once again calm but slightly more vivid than previous shots and this is a response to the music. e.g the vocals have become louder and further instruments have been added to the backing track and they relate back to this with "now the waves they drag you down" (become more aggressive than before).
Goodwin has stated that "the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist" and this is particularly relevant to our video, considering he is the lead singer and the only person featured.
As he struggles to climb the mountain with the animals weighing him down however he perceivers onwards. To me, the dead animals represent the trauma that we as human beings endure through from time to time and this whole idea of being alone, eternally with the 'horror' of nothing after death, the nothingness. It's a very powerful and gripping idea that is proposed in this video and presented very well visually too as it represents the themes of fury and this idea of a nightmare place.
When he reaches the top, he proceeds to burn the animals, to me releasing the trauma and horror that he has been confronted by, a release to him. The images we see are no longer so washed out and the (small) contrast between scenes is there and begins to show how the character is improving and just letting himself release from these energies, a potential reminder not to saturate himself so much later in life.
Using Stuart Hall's audience reception theory, which suggests that the producer of the media encodes the text and then it is the job of the audience to decode it, depending on their social identity, age, gender amongst other individual circumstances they will likely form a different reading. I have found personally that this is a very difficult medium to decode unless you know about the genre.
Once I had all the clips collectively together, I imported them all together into Final Cut and began to organise my timeline of clips, I used my storyboard and rough idea to begin piecing together the shots in order and cropping them. To the left you can see some of the imported clips that I had from my camera, and other items such as the sound for the song. This is my Browser and although not even half of the clips I recorded got used, it was necessary in order to make sure that I had every angle possible, therefore most things I shot twice from separate and differing angles.
In my timeline on FCP, I had many different video layers, so I could arrange the shots in a more effective and organised way. The layer below the video timeline is the audio, there is only one external audio source from the clips which features at the beginning before the music starts in the video.
For the most part I just jump cuts, I desaturated all of the clips only slightly to conform better to the dark tone of the lyrics and story.
Props:
Nirvana Mug
Matches
Zippo
Cigarette
Flask
Phone
Alarm Clock
Coffee Press
Notepad
Dirty Plates
Strobe light
Blue Fairy Lights
Letter
Laptop
I used various props, some for specific reasons such as the Nirvana mug for intertextuality, the phone to give further context into the story, along with the pad and paper to present to the audience the letter so they can understand the ending. Lights were used to present the characters in a specific light and to reflect their personalities using the connotations of the respective red and blue colours.
The bedroom was used to present Lester's untidy nature and to visually present his mental instability and state. The bedroom also presents areas of intertextuality, such as the band posters on the walls, e.g. Saint Raymond seen in the above.
Party environment
The party environment was originally meant to have greater inclusion in the music video however much of the footage was far too grainy to save and was far too awkward, it didn't really manage to present the character of Emma as stable without the Lester character, rather she just appeared like a normal teenager. The environment was set up with the blue lights to create strong silhouettes behind Emma. The colour is there to represent Emma. It connotes ideas of stability, softness and tranquility about her and it's meant to be reflective. Where as I used red to symbolize the character of Lester, which connotes ideas of danger, love and uncertainty.
Outdoor footpath
The footpath was used as a location for shooting, it created a link between both Emma and Lester, a mutual place and a representation of their relationship, dark and dying (since it was shot during winter). I had to do various shoots here, especially since during my times of filming occasionally it was too overcast and dark to film without capturing a lot of grain, therefore I had a lot of footage to include in the edit if needed.
Indoors
A late shooting location and the last after I done my audience questionnaire where I had to do a last minute update. It included a shot of Emma finding the letter and merely looking at it and then putting it in the bin. The location was intended to represent a working environment and the normality she still lives through despite Lester being sectioned.
Kitchen
The kitchen is an extension of a representation of Lester's untidy environment and further representation of instability, without care. The shots that are in the kitchen feature dirty washing, unwashed plates and a dripping tap, once again placed in order to create the sense of abandonment.
I only have two actors play the characters in my music video, simply because the story revolves around a fragile relationship, I thought that adding anyone else would simply confuse the story and therefore I chose to represent the story that the artist tells us through his lyrics.
The first actor I needed was to play the position of Lester himself and therefore I asked my friend Joel to enact this part. He fitted the position well because of his relevant age to the lyrics and story. Further his look was generally fairly spaced out, as though there were something constantly occupying his mind in all the shots I have filmed so far, this was the expression that I attempted to get him to show and I feel that it has been executed successfully, since the audience in this sense will not likely be able to make a link with the character.
I used Amy to play the role of Emma and the girl in the relationship, the shots that include her as the character present opposing emotional states and this is exactly what I wanted. She suited the role well because of her innocent look, especially during the scenes that I shot featuring the 'imaginary' Emma, the side that Lester imagines in his mind. Like Joel, her age is also relevant to the actual character in the story making her a more immersive actor.
