Digi - Pack

As you can see in my Digi-Pack, I have used many different effects to make a professional and interesting design. I really like the dark theme throughout, and this also relates to my music video itself, which shows the theme throughout both. 

I used the 'screen' effect throughout the process of making my design, as I liked how it gained a really interesting effect, as you can see in all aspects of my pack. I liked how it showed George to seem very unique, and different, so the audience will have to look deeply into the photographs and designs to see the deeper meaning. I got this idea from my research, as in the Ben Howard's Digi-pack, it is very plain and simple (like mine) however there is an interesting image of a scuba diver on the cover, my album artwork is supposed to represent the same sort of thing but in a totally different way. For example you can see how plain and simple it is, (relating to my research about most acoustic artists) yet I have also added a very different, 'cool' effect too, which can be seen with the firework theme throughout. 

I really like the firework theme, I think it represents George as being very subtle, yet it also connotes a sense of a spark within his image, and his music too. I have decided to also incorporate this firework theme within the music video itself, by adding some shots with sparklers. 

I like the fact that George is looking away from the camera in the video, as it connotes him looking into the distance, deep in thought within his music. I found that in my research a lot of acoustic artists are very much about their music, compared to their actual image themselves. Because of this I have tried to make it seem as George is more interested in his music, by the close up on his face, the black andy white effects, and the dark theme. 

After looking at many acoustic Digi-Packs, I noticed a lot of the fonts were quite 'normal' and therefore I decided to use Arial, as it is very plain and simple, thus making it look very professional. I have also used many small images, such as the apple symbol and decca records, to again make the pack look all the more professional.

I really like my Digi-Pack design, and I think it looks very good.  I am very pleased as it was exactly how I'd hoped.

Advert

Production of Digi-Pack

I producing my Digi-Pack on Adobe Photo Shop CS5 as I felt this would give me the most professional finish. I went through a number of stages in order to get to my final design and some screen shots can be seen below of exactly what I did:

This screen shot shows the transformation wrap of a firework image, I did this so that I could shape it around the body better, enhancing the artists image.

I added a gradient map to add some colour to the black background, I then set the gradient map to 25% Opacity, and the layer style was set to darken, so you can still see the artists physique. 

Because I wanted the firework colours to stand out more, I used selective colouring which you can see on the print screen.

Audience Research - Digi-Pack

DESIGN 1 

Before creating my Digi-pack on Photoshop CS5, I drew a draft copy of what I wanted the design to look like, my 2 ideas can be shown to the right, both designs are quite dark, which relate back to my research that I found when researching the genre of music, however the first design has quite a lot of tree's and greeny, bluey colours, much like the Ben Howard Digi-packs, but which a bit more of a countryside theme.
The second design has an orangey red theme, with a link to sparklers and excitement, which will also be seen in my music video.

DESIGN 2

The photographs in my 2 designs are both quite similar, however the colouring in each is very different.
Because I thought both would look good for my DigiPack, I decided to ask 6 people in my media class who were doing similar things to my own which they thought would be more appropriate, and which they liked most. As they were expecting high grades in Media, I thought they would be good people to ask as they know what they're talking about during the process of this task, I also made each person listen to the song this Digi-Pack was for, so that they could see which goes better.

The results were as follows:
DESIGN 1 - 2 people thought that the tree's were a good idea and related to the song choice that I have chosen for my final music video.
DESIGN 2 - 4 people thought that having sparklers, and an orangey theme in my music video was very inventive and unique, and that this would look professional, and the best.

Because of this audience feedback, I decided to go with the second design.

Production of Digi-Pack

I decided to make a 4 panel digipack instead of 6 because I thought it would be easier to create a more exciting Digi-Pack this way, as there would be less space to fill, I created this on Adobe Photoshop CS4.

We met up with the artist, George Bills on Wednesday the 21st of November, and took photographs of him in our home town Cleobury Mortimer which is where we plan on shooting the video. We took the shots in a small variety of places, such as a thin road, an alley way, and the church yard. Taking the shots at night meant it linked to the video, as we wanted a dark theme throughout the video. To take the photographs we made sure that George looked the part, and used props such as his guitar to influence the acoustic theme of his music with the album cover, so they connected with each other. We also made sure we took them in a safe environment, and risk assessed the place we wanted to go before hand. We also used a digital SLR camera which we borrowed from college, and two LED lights to capture our images, with the lighting we added some yellow gels to make George's face more warm to the camera, again relating to the music video itself. 

Some of the images we took can be shown below:

As a group, we used lots of warm tones by altering the shutter speed on the SLR, and using the orange gels on the LED lights to increase the colour intensity on his face. We also tried to incorporate the headlights and street lamps in the background of the images, as we though it would give the photographs a more realistic look. We took a number of images with the LED lights, however we also experimented by not using the LED's, and just using the light from the moon and the street lights however this gave us the opportunity to see that the lighting is very important, within the shoot, as the others looked very 'fake'. We also took some photographs of him walking away from the camera, with his guitar on his back, as this gave us a variation of different shots to use.

Magazine Advert Research

I am going to be looking at Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard for my magazine article research because they are artists in the same genre as my performer, and therefore I believe their audience will be similar to mine, and so some aspects of their advertising will attract my audience, as well as theirs.

A shown to the right, this is Ed Sheerans magazine advert - this is approximately A4 size - although the artist is an acoustic artist, he is very popular in the charts today and has a very large fan base, along with a huge record deal - therefore he can afford to have a full-page adverts in magazines/papers.

This image is a totally different image to the one in his album artwork, the album artwork has a close-up of his face to really show off his star-image and represent his contribution to his music, and his simplicity within it. The advertisement however completely flips this - as on teh album the majority is bright orange with a small section of white/grey for the album name - '+' to make it stand out to his audience. In the advert however, the majority is grey, and small parts are in bright orange, to make them stand out, unlike the album cover, the advert tries to represent more about the artist himself, as teh artists name, 'Ed Sheeran' takes up the majority of font space, in an entertaining and interesting font; and the image of the artist takes up a large section of the advert, in a mid-long shot, all with a black and white effect, however his ginger hair is bright orange - matching his name. This could connote his actual, personality image, and could be a humorous approach to the album as it is quite unique having such a talented, famous man who is ginger. To be con traversal, the artist is holding a cat which covers most of his body, accept from the top of his face. This could connote the uniqueness of his music, and the irony that he is in ginger instead of the cat - which is what would be more likely. All the key details are stated clearly on the advert, such as credits, record label logos, copyright, critics quotes, release dates, iTunes links and availability... The advert holds more information in one place, whereas the album cover is more spread out over various sides of the digi-pack.. and so the advert tends to look like there is more going on - more busy - less simplistic, however it still has an aspect of simplicity, with quite large areas of clear space - however the colours are still very similar, and the same theme runs throughout. (in this case, orange and grey)

In my advert, I am going to have it A5 size, because I don't think an artist, such as George Bills, (who I am using for my A2 Media project) would be able to afford such a big space in a newspaper/magazine and to make it look as realistic as possible, I am going to have half a page for my advert.
To follow the acoustic genre, I am going to be using the same colour theme throughout both my album artwork and advert to make a complete and realistic digi-pack - and these colours will be quite dark and gloomy, however both will be very spacious, and simplistic, to represent the music my artist produces. 

Album Artwork Research

WHAT ARE DIGI-PACKS??
"Digipacks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipacks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipack that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background."

http://musicians.about.com/od/ah/g/digipacksleeve.htm

An image of a digi-pack template is shown to the left; I will have the front cover for the album, where the CD is held, the inside of the album, and finally the 3 parts at the back of the album.

EXAMPLE'S OF DIGI-PACKS - 

WHAT COULD BE IN A DIGI-PACK???

• Most Digi-packs have various photographs of the artist - or something related to the album's music ie- guitars etc.
• A list of songs on the album
• The name of the album
• The name of the artist
• The CD
• Advertisements
• The company it's made by
• Bard-codes
• Sponsors
• Record companies  

The song we will be using is called 'Over Night' written by the band Eyes like Giants, the genre/style of music is acoustic and so for my research into the album artwork I have looked at various other acoustic artists, and their album artwork - to therefore try and entwine that with my own to produce a realistic and professional digi-pack. I have also looked into our specific target audience so that I produce a Digi-pack which would be relevant and appealing for my target audience - I think that the song is aimed at  a more individual audience because it is an acoustic piece of music and so therefore it isn't as generic as most pieces of music in the charts, as it could be considered to be more rural and original. However on the contrary, it could also be considered as being aimed at a more hedonist or inspirer audience, as the music video itself is quite mainstream - with an amplifying narrative, and in today's society, more acoustic pieces of music have been introduced into the charts by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard, and so our piece of music could be seen as quite popular - and this is where our mainstream audience could appear. On the jicnar scale, I think our audience would be around B, C1 or C2 - and our age range is quite varied, however we are specifically aiming it at late teens - 30's.

GENRE- ACOUSTIC ;

The simplicity of this album cover could connote the simplicity in his music, and the raw talent he has as an artist - the first thing that catches the eye is the bold, big and clear name of the artist across the top of the album cover - this could mean that the artist wants the audience to notice his name instead of his image which isn't typical for a usual artist. This could mean that he is trying to promote his music instead of himself as a person/'celebrity' ..this is seen quite frequently within acoustic music, with close up's of key objects instead of people, for example guitars. The album itself looks very sophisticated, with simple fonts, very little detail to show his simplicity of himself and his music and simple, neutral colors throughout the cover - the blues, whites and greens create a very pastel effect which connote soothing and calmness, which could represent his music and what the artist tries to include in his music - the mise-en-scene also relates to this, as it is a man diving under water, with a long shot showing a full image of the man diving - this connotes a man in a world of his own doing the thing that he loves - which again connotes directly to the music that Ben Howard, the artist, makes. The layout of this album cover doesn't reinforce the artist as the star image as such, however it contributes to the creation of the music, and his style/attitude towards his music instead; which is what the artist is trying to achieve by this album artwork. The album artwork as a whole represents a high degree of entropy because without looking into it too deeply it doesn't show a very familiar or usual album cover and it is quite unique, however it is also interesting and inspiring to look at, and it does directly correspond to his music which is what the album artwork is supposed to do, as well as appealing to his target audience of teenage, to 30's, male and female. - therefore I think Ben Howard's album artwork is very good and achieves what it should in a very simple, yet intriguing way.

Another artist who is very similar to the artist I am using for my Media Coursework is Ed Sheeran, as he is in the same genre: acoustic. I am also going to look at his album artwork so I can decide exactly what sort of digi-pack is appropriate for my style of genre and artist - which will appeal directly to my target audience.
Ed Sheerans 2012 album, is shown to the left - the first thing that the audience can see is a close-up photograph of the artists face, this is quite common in a lot of Album covers as they aim to gain recognition for their star image, and so this follows the conventions of a usual album cover, it also adds reinforcement to the artist himself. The lighting in this photograph is very recognizably bright orange, this is to make the album stand out, and it also makes the artists face seem quite dark and gloomy - which could connote dark love or deepness, which can be heard in some of his music/songs. The fonts are mostly irrelevant on the front of the album cover because their is just a small, bold, white '+' on the  bottom right of the cover, which is made very noticeable by the contrast of colors, which enhances how important the name of the album is for the artist - it also reinforces what the name of his album is, to make it more recognizable for his target audience - thus could show how important the music is, more important than anything else - as there is no other writing on the front of the album cover.The simplicity in the album cover also connotes calmness, yet at the same time, bluntness, which suggests that his music is also quite edgy, yet with a calm, acoustic feel to it too - all of these features can relate to his target audience of the hedonists, male and female and families audience, as it a very wide, mainstream image - hence this album cover has a high degree of redundancy as it is quite common for an artist to have a close-up image of their face on their album cover, and so it is quite predictable - yet the album as a whole can also be seen as being very simplistic, with most of the detail on the back - which can be seen as the least important side... The back of both album covers is very plane and simple - with just the names of the songs in the album, again creating a sense of simplicity and directing the main focus onto just the music itself.

As well as these artists album artwork - many acoustic digi-packs have objects instead of photographs of people, as such.. below are a few example:

Using objects such as guitars can also connote that the music is very important to the artists, instead of focusing on the star image themselves.

From my research, I have decided that I would like my own album artwork to connote what the music is trying to achieve, or say to the audience - and therefore I may try and have quite a dark theme throughout, very similar to the music video itself. I am going to try and adapt the usual acoustic album feel, of neutral, simplistic effects, by making the photographs quite dark and gloomy instead of neutral colors, however I am going to keep it with the theme by being very simplistic and plain, to focus the attention on the music, instead of the artist himself - therefore I will be challenging the conventions of  the acoustic genre.

PITCH.

PITCH FEEDBACK

When presenting our pitch, our class gave us their feedback - below is both the feedback (good and bad) and what we aim to do to solve the bad things/answer any questions they may have about our music video plans.

THEY SAID:
"All looks good, how are you gonna get a smoke machine??"
WE SAID:
"Sam has a smoke machine, laser light and strobe light at her house, which is hers, and so we can use this."

THEY SAID:
"It looks good, but it looks quite normal, like not unique"
WE SAID:
"We wanted it to appeal to our mainstream audience as well as our individualists, and therefore we have incorporated that within our video, however it has got some unique aspects as well."

THEY SAID:
"I like how the dark theme runs throughout, it looks well thought out."
WE SAID:
"Yes, we got a clear inspiration from Ed Sheerans video and we have tried to link this to our video, in an effective way so the audience can see the theme throughout."

THEY SAID:
"The pitch was very professional, I liked it a lot."
WE SAID:
"We did it through Apple however we were very proud of it."


To get this feedback, we gave out some feedback sheets for people to fill out, an example of some can be shown below:

Prezi of Creativity

Research on Prezi

Experimenting with animation - Research

Experimenting with green-screen 

Permission

On the right is the text from the artist/writer we wish to use confirming we can use the song 'Over night' by Eyes of Giants, George Bills is the a solo singer, however has branded himself the name 'Eyes like Giants' - he later confirmed we can also use him for the video and Digi-pack.