Adobe illustrator

 Today we started using adobe illustrator in an attempt to make some progress with the ancillary task of the digipak. I have never actually used illustrator despite being comfortable in using adobe photoshop and after effects and being very knowledgeable in using adobe flash. Because of my prior knowledge on existing adobe products, I found it easy to work my way around illustrator as the tools and navigational panels were similar. However as adobe illustrators function and purpose differs to these other programs I did have some minor difficulties.

The first tool I explored was the opacity tool which I like to use within graphic design as I find that it helps in terms of making certain things stand out and in terms of having images layer up on top of each other without making the aesthetic too busy and keeping a level of simplicity within the design.

I believe that this tool is one of the most important, the colour picker tool. This tool will allow you to change the colour of almost anything on the stage, primarily things you have created but also vectors that you have imported into the stage externally.

 This tool is used so that you can change ur font of ur text into something which fits the aesthetic of your graphic. This is helpful as you can quickly decide which font to use as they show examples on the drop down list.

 This navigation drop down list holds the tools in order to create a variety of different shapes which can be filled and have an outline with colours of the users preference.

 Here is the text tool, a tool used to create text I'm simple terms, this tool can be used with many other tools to create effects and aesthetics. This tool will allow you to include a text content within your work.

The make clipping mask tool, a complex but easy to use tool. This tool is basically a cropping tool but you can make it as specific as you want so that an image fits a specific shape such as a star or even a splatter shape.

This is the layers window this window is one of the most important features within illustrator, this is because it allows you to order and manage what goes where on the stage and also in what you can see or edit on stage. This is helpful as it allows the user to make changes specifically to one component of the design rather than disrupt the fluency of the aesthetic.

This tool is used to arrange your graphics on your stage so that things are in the right order. This can often be used with the opacity tool in order to make things look professional.

Test shoots

As you can see from this test footage I have taken shots from each of the scenes in order to assess the aesthetic in which that location produces and to then see if that coincides with the rest of my production fluently or if it looks out of place. I am initially happy with all of the footage in which I have gathered from the test shoots as I believe that they all look like the aesthetic from each of the locations will nicely coincide with each other, this is down to the quality, the colours used within the shots and the brightness. The club scene is filmed however on a different piece of equipment, a go pro, which is easily recognisable as you can see the quality is slightly worse than the rest of the footage. This however is fine as I believe it will constructively add to the level of verisimilitude as my production is not an attempt to glamourise or aesthetically enhance the rave culture but instead to show it from a real perspective.

Kyle's house:
I liked the location for Kyle's house because it represents Kyle in the way I want it too. As you can see from the neat and tidy environment found within this house, you can grasp the idea that he is not lazy or a slack character but he takes pride in what he has despite that not being luxury. He is from a working class background alike all of the characters in this production but he is not content at his social class.

Luna's house:
I also really liked Luna's house as I believed it captured her non materialistic weirdness well, the use of paintings and artwork helped with the depiction of a culturally rich individual who has little time for investment into material belongings in an attempt to impress others. The girly environment is also well captured in this environment which allows the audience to associate the naked woman painting and the texts with the characters sexuality.

Jordan's house:
I thought that Jordan's house captured the essence of deprivation well but maybe not well enough. The location could be made to look more grim and dirty in order to properly emphasise the fact that the character is disadvantaged economically. I also found that the tv was too big in the living room where Jordan's dad was passed out drunk as it gave off the opposite aesthetic to a poor and deprived working class environment.

Club:
I found that the club was perfect for my video, this is because it catered for an underground and almost illegal aesthetic by not having fancy strobe lights nor fancy bars and too many good-looking people. From this the audience is then able to associate the underground vibe with a more scary and risky experience with the characters pleasure.

Shed:
I found that the shed had a good aesthetic with the use of painting dotted around randomly on the walls, the use of old furniture all pilled into one room and the numerous people piled in with smiles on their faces.

Time management

Here you can see the messages which was sent forward and backwards between me and my actors with regards to arranging filming times and what props/locations are necessary. I used 5 actors in total and messages with all5 of them are shown below. I also used a group chat within Facebook messenger in order to communicate with my 3 main actors collaboratively so that no information is missed on anyones behalf.

Production update - 9/1/17

I am now at the point where I have obtained a large majority of my footage with the aesthetic which I wanted. I am now happy with how far I am am at this point in the year. I now need to get footage for one more scene in order to have all of the footage i need. In terms of editing I have made a good start in putting the clips in the right order and in the order which looks the best in terms of levels of continuity and professionalism. I must now work on arranging the correct times to get all of my footage together in order to continue with the final editing stages.

My aesthetic

As you can see from the filming my intention was to produce a specific kind of aesthetic so that I can successfully abide to the conventions of the social realism style in which my work belongs to. My intention was to create a socially realistic piece of work that captures a perspective which can be truly seen through the eyes of the youth today within the UK. In order to achieve this level of verisimilitude I made decisions accordingly, these decisions on my behalf include the camera work for example which led to me using a handheld camera for a vast majority of the filming. It also meant that I needed to use, on occasions, shakiness which can be seen as bad filming in order to give it the aesthetic of realism which can be seen through an individual under the influence of drugs. As you can see from the video the grainy and arguably low definitions a conscious decision on my behalf in order to give people a view which can be blurred and hard to see as it signifies and emphasises the dark and sinister vibe which can be created from the atmosphere in which rave give off today.

Rough cut 1

This is the first rough cut which I have produced for my A2 music video. This cut does not have all the clips I need and also has issues with regards to most aspects of the video. These include aesthetic, continuity, verisimilitude and the quality of the cinematography. However, I would regard this rough cut as a good foundation to start the editing process in order to make this video a professional looking piece of work. I know what I need to work on and how to achieve the top mark bands.

Digipak Research

Alike every media product digipak's have their own set of conventions and generic style in order to fulfil its purpose effectively. 

These generic conventions include:
- Have a recurring house style throughout so that it looks like it all fits together. This can be achieved by using the same colours, fonts and graphics.
- Have the album and artist name which is visible so that the individual can Identify the album at first glance.
- Have a tracklist, usually found on the back of the digipak which will allow the individual to learn what songs are used within the album.
- Has a barcode which is primarily there for a commercial advantage which will help retailers with regards to selling the product and also for stock control uses.
- The digipak will also often have a small paragraph which will be found next to a few graphics. This is often the copyright and publishing information which tells the user which company's were involved in the publishing side of the album.
-Another convention of digipak's is having the name of the album and the artist on the spine of the digipak. This is because when the cd's are stored away or on show at the retailers, the spine is the only bit you can see of the digipak, because of this it allows the digipak to be identified easily without having to pull it out and look at it more closely.

Digipak example: Chase and status - No more idols

I decided to have a look at the album which the song I am using is a part of. This album is No more idols by chase and Status.As you can see already, this digipak follows each and everyone of the generic conventions highlighted previously. These include the trackless, the layout of the spine, the copyright details, the name of the album and the artist and even more importantly the house style of the digipak which runs throughout. As you can see the digipak is limited with regards to the colours used, it uses a greyscale image with yellow lettering and a black background for the rest of the digipak. I believe that this is used specifically in order to obtain a simplistic style of the digipak. I believe that the image of the bulldog also captures this level of simplicity but also grasps a sense of patriotism. The dog is a British Bulldog and as the duo are British themselves it comes a cross as the intention that they are showing off their British identity. This can also quite conveniently coincide with the name of the album 'no more idols' which suggests that as a national identity, British people do not need to look up to any other countries and envy the way they do things. In fact its more of a sense that as a British bulldog can be linked to a working class mentality that individuals should embrace their national identity despite what social class they come from.

Digipak example: Pendulum - In Silico

Pendulum’s second album, titled “In Silico” meaning “created by or performed on a computer” is the first time the artists logo makes an appearance on a digipack, the round labyrinth like disc. This time in different colours with a fetus in the centre. Behind appears to be a circuit board, which is blue in colour on a black background. It follows the usual Pendulum themes in the fact the background colours are often very dark/black, with the colours in the foreground being much more bright and colourful.The fetus in the centre of the logo, when coupled to the album title could be an intertextual reference to Nirvana’s album “InUtero” which literally translates as “in the womb” so this album could paint an idea of being “born digitally” in a computerised world, as well as highlighting the contrast in styles and differences of the two bands, which again portrays Pendulum breaking away from accepted norms and conventions found within mainstream society, and as a band that “stands on it’s own” in terms of genre, which appeals to existing fans who like the idea of not fitting in and being themselves rather than feeling trapped into conforming with the rest of society.



Digipak example: Nero - Welcome reality

This digipak as you can see is conventional in the sense that its layout is specific in order to follow the conventions of this media product type. The bands name is large and in their house style font allowing the album to be easily associated to that artist and allowing it to also be easily recognisable. The colours used throughout are dark as there is a dark and sinister aesthetic to the whole digipak which runs throughout. The fact that this theme and style does run throughout adds to its level of professionalism as all components of the digipak look linked and like they should be together. The graphic image shown is 2 people looking at a skyline of a city, this city however looks like an urban wasteland as the colours red and black are heavily used. There is also a thick layer of smoke adding to this desolate depiction even more. I believe that the name of the digipak ties in well with this as it suggest's that the desolate city is our reality and the two people approaching the city are being welcomed to reality. This is not a nice way to review reality but I think its important that they focus more on realism more than a utopian fantasy. The cd itself is fully black with white lettering, this can be connoted to give a documentary style approach suggesting that Nero have tried to reach a level of                                                    social realism.

Digipak example: Disclosure - Settle
Here we have disclosures album entitled settle, this albums front cover depicts the artists when they were younger sat in a chair. The two kids however have the famous doodle faces on their faces which is often found within disclosures music videos and marketing strategies such as posters, this white doodle face is used as an icon almost which directly relates to the artist so that whenever people are to see this they will automatically assume that disclosure is involved somehow. You can connote the relation between the name of the album and the picture used on the front cover in multiple ways, one could simply means that the two boys with smirks on their faces would not sit still when the photo was taken and there for the word 'settle' as in settle down would fit appropriately. The colours used are brown/orange which can connote the 90's era where the photo was taken but also a level of simplicity and realism. It can therefore tie down with the sense of honesty as they haven't made an attempt to produce an amazing aesthetic with beautiful pieces of artwork. This can the coincide with the name of the album 'settle' which can connote a sense of being appreciative of what u have and to settle for it.



What I have learnt from this
By undergoing this research into digipaks I have been able to conclude some points which will help me in terms of creating my digipak and in terms of following the conventions of my chose genre. I have found that on more than one occasion digipaks which belong to the drum and bass/underground dance music genres often avoid using conceptual pieces of art. These digipaks in my research are mush more likely to use realistic graphics which can be there to raise awareness of social and environmental issues which we face today within society. I found that the honest and realistic approach is preferred as it doesn't glamourise non glamorous aspects of the world which are often made to look better aesthetically in an attempt to shy away from the issues we face. The colours used are often dark and dull in order to present this idea of realism further.