Phildel's Digipaks

Analyses of Phildel's existing Digipaks:

Since our chosen artist is Phildel, I thought it'd be best to investigate the codes and conventions of a typical Phildel album cover.

Considering there are only 4 collections, the conventions are relatively clear. 

With the anomalous 'Qi' not featuring Phildel, herself and diverging from the typical plain colours of the background in favour of a more ancient look, gives us breathing room creatively.

The typical logo for Phildel is simply her name in thin lettering spaced out or squashed depending on the placement of the central image of the album design.

Noting that we have to use only original material and focusing on the song 'The Wolf' we are currently set on basing the cover of our digipak on said animal. My personal view is that we use 'Qi' as a style model for our work: minimalistic in design yet remaining true to the dream-pop form of being somewhat ethereal. 

A clear nature theme is throughout all of the albums with each containing some form of either bird or tree homage. This could benefit us as we may integrate this into our wolf themes cover perhaps featuring a forest environment while remaining as minimalistic as possible. Furthermore, with the exception of 'The Glass Ghost', the tones of the covers have been all relatively earthy, boasting shades of brown to compliment the naturalistic theme.

Digipak Conventions

Digipak Research

What is on the front cover of album?:

Artwork that is synonymous with the artist. This may include:
- Photo of song artist.
- Colours that have been socially "trademarked" by the song artist (For example - Nicki Minaj's albums follow a cohesive theme of pink - The Pinkprint, Pink Friday, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded).
- Artwork that symbolises the theme of the album.
- Parental Advisory logo if lyrical content may be considered "inappropriate" for children.
- Title of album

What is inside inside a digipak?:

The main content in a digipak is the CD. It can also include:
- Song lyrics.
- Artwork that was conceptual designs for the front cover.
- CD is often patterned or decorated with a theme similar to front cover.

What is on the back cover of album?:

Track listings are the most obvious convention of a back cover. Others include:
- Track listing
- Bar-code.
- Record label

Soap/Training Wheels Collaboration (Melanie Martinez)

Video Analysis of "Soap/Training Wheels Collaboration" (Melanie Martinez)

The visuals of the music video illustrates a cohesive narrative that is connected to the album.

Soap:

"Soap" starts out by showing Melanie (in this case portraying Cry Baby) sitting in a bath tub talking on the phone. She invites a boy called Jonny to come round to her house. To which, he agrees.

There is an extreme close up to establish the scene of Cry Baby's hand submerged in water. Whilst talking on the phone, shots cut to yet another extreme close up of Cry Baby's face to conceal the top half of her face. A lullaby-esque tune is being played alongside the sound of dripping water. The conventions of this suggest a darker/creepy undertone to the feel of the music video which foreshadows the theme of the rest of the video. The use of key lighting further reinforces the creepy theme of the video in a shabby 1960's themed corridor. 

Melanie's hair is coloured with one side being pink whilst the other side is black. The theme of the Cry Baby album uses childish subjects to convey darker/mature matters. Because of this, her choice of hair colour illustrates the conventional use of pink (which symbolises innocence) and black (which is commonly associated with darkness and evil) to convey the meaning behind the album. Furthermore, her outfit is made up of a bib and pink shorts (to symbolise a nappy)  which is universally known as being associated with babies. As a result, manipulating the idea that this song is illustrating that Cry Baby is meant to be a young character. 

As the music video progresses, more supernatural occurrences become prominent. For example, the tap mysteriously turns on to fill the bath, candles begin flickering and curtains begin moving. An old fashioned TV turns on - revealing snippets of Melanie's previous visuals of "Soap" which was originally released several months before this one. 

Cry Baby (Melanie Martinez) aesthetic in Soap. The vintage visuals of her
costume & floral background to show a cohesive theme of
old-fashioned/modern hybrid throughout her videos. This helps to make her
story telling through her album/music video to appear more
professional and remain her style.

Training Wheels:

Follows the relationship stage between Cry Baby & Johnny which was established in "Soap". The overall visuals of "Training Wheels" follow conventional romance themes such as holding hands, flowers, two-shot camera angles, bright lighting and playful body language. "Training Wheels" symbolises the bike's training wheels as a metaphor for a relationship. To communicate this in the video, two separate scenes transition between one another: Cry Baby teaching Johnny to ride a bike without the need for training wheels and a literal visual of Cry Baby and Johnny doing couples/relationship activities. 

The visuals for this music video is a marginally less dark/creepy than "Soap"; to keep the close link between the two songs apparent, things such as the large eyes to represent falling in love are kept in both songs. Interestingly, "Soap" depicts Cry Baby as creepily appearing then disappearing in the bath tub before sharing a kiss with Johnny (which then leads to the giant "love" eyes). However, in "Training Wheels" it is Johnny who disappears as he is riding towards Cry Baby after learning to ride the bike which results in Cry Baby "love" eyes returning back to normal as he has abandoned her. "Soap" follows a creepy visual to illustrate the idea of the fear of saying something you probably shouldn't have (in Cry Baby's case, telling Johnny that her mum killed her dad and that she loves him). On the other hand, "Training Wheels" (being the only romance/love song on the album) conveys the the idea of love can result in sadness. As a result, both videos are able to keep within the theme of the album to show child-like subjects with mature meanings.  

Cry Baby (Melanie Martinez) costume for "Training Wheels".
Pink flower crown symbolises the romance theme of the song.

Songs Are Often Used For TV Shows & Movie Trailers

Often, existing songs are used for upcoming television shows or movies as they suit the theme of the story arch. Here is an example of Melanie Martinez's "Carousel" being used for the hit TV show "American Horror Story: Freakshow" trailer:

Original Melanie Martinez "Carousel"music video:

 

American Horror Story: Freakshow trailer:

This is a good example of how to recreate an existing music video whilst retaing creativity & the cohesive themes of a song artist's style.

Existing A2 Media Studies Music Video

A Different A2 Media Studies Student's Music Video

This idea essentially follows the same premise. A chase of some sort across a field or through a forest or some people having fun around town and getting into trouble.

The video will be light-hearted. Colourful and fun. This will not have a serious undertone.

Another idea I have been considering is people playing around and throwing water balloons then one accidentally miss fires and hits someone. This then leads to the person being angry and chasing the people with the balloons. The entire video will show the chase in a humorous way inspired by this video:




We could also be inspired by this video and show a robbery and a policeman attempting to get it back. Following this, I believe the idea of two people angering another and leading to a chase would be a great idea for the video and be entertaining to create.