My initial idea for my digipak was to have the artists fingerprint on the front of the album. My reason behind this was to have a sense of the artists identity on the album cover without even having his face there, this would create a sense of mystery. However, my genius idea was short lived when when my media teacher slightly burst my bubble when he told me that a fingerprint was not the best idea because of the fact that it was not linked to our whole project from the start. I got the idea of the fingerprint from Nicki Minaj's latest album "The Pinkprint". My teacher also told me that Nicki Minaj is an already established artist so she doesn't really need to have her picture on the album cover whereas the artist for the digipak is not well known so his face needs to be publicised. In the end, I will have to change the design of my digipak. I will be keeping you updated.
I am finding it challenging, as I am not too good with using technologies such as using Photoshop. The fact you must edit using layers is rather difficult, and even putting the original image itself onto Photoshop proved to be challenging. I need to learn how to use Photoshop efficiently as I want my Digipak and advert to be of good quality. I will not allow my images to be pixilated and they will be cut out properly. I will make sure my font also matches the artist and song choice.
I find using Photoshop rather difficult, however I can clearly see that this example of a DigiPak is not up to good standards. There are many visible mistakes, including; the shape of the cd, the font is rather unprofessional and hard to read, many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, including; "Thankyous, I'd, Forgott". I also think the photographs taken could to a higher standard, also the pictures should not be stretched to an unrealistic size as this distorts the image resulting in poor viewing. Photoshop has a lot of different effects that we can use, but not all of them look good and professional, the one amelia used does not look good at all. I will be sure not to use that effect.
Student's in the class of 2013-2014 were also required to make DigiPacks too. I have looked and analysed their digipacks, I must say they are very good. I am hoping mine will be up to their standard. In this blog I will be exploring these students Digipacks and advertisements strengths and weaknesses.
Video 28
Digipack
Strengths:
The synergy is carried out throughout
Theme of nature through out
She is wearing the same lipstick in all images (perhaps a unique selling point)
Good mise en scene, it all relates- earthy tones and colours
She also followed the conventions, she added a bar-code and small print
Weaknesses:
I personally dislike the font, I find it looks unprofessional and hard to read
This Digipack got 10/10
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Strengths:
I like the use of the guitar in the image, as she plays the guitar in the music video
The image is simplistic yet effective
Theme of nature relates
Weaknesses:
Yet again, I do not like the font
The advertisemt got 8/10
Video 19
Digipack
Strenghts:
Colours- dark suits the DJ genre
In the music video the artist was wearing blue lipstick, colour blue carried throughout Digipack
The video is dark, the album cover is also dark
Good synergy
Simple yet effective colour scheme
Weaknesses:
The student has edited out the artists eyes in 2 of the images, but not for the advertisement, I feel this editing should have been done for all the images
Advertisement
Strengths:
Colour scheme- element of yellow is a nice touch
Really like the font, suits electro genre
Weaknesses
Eyes are not edited
Video 21
Digipack
Strengths:
I like the images, they look natural and she looks like a real artist
Synergy- bright colours
Good theme
Weaknesses:
A bit too much going on, harsh on the eyes
Too much text and overlapping images
Dislike the font
Advertisement
Strengths:
Good image cutting, it is not pixilated
Also like the star rating
Weaknesses:
Yet again too many images, hard to focus on artist and music
A DigiPak is a style of CD Packaging often done for a special release of a CD,DVD or BD Packaging.It often takes the form of a book form made with cardboard outer shell and hard casing holding the Disc.When a person immediately looks at a digipak they should be able the determine what type of artist they are and what genre they represent.It is almost a physical representation of the artist and their music which is available for people to purchase.In order for a customer to feel they are getting a physical embodiment of the artist, all elements of an artists digipak must be clearly linked to them and their image.This can also boost the artists brand image and help to promote them because having something distinct which they can be recognised for makes them more unique and more viable.Therefore when customers buy these digipaks it can often be a way of establishing loyalty to an artist because all other things an artist may choose to incorporate into their image e.g merchandise will follow the same design as the digipak.
What may an artist include inside their digipak:
Images of the artist - In order create a strong brand image
Information - Giving the fans things they didn't know about the songs
Track list - Another more detailed track list perphaps revealing producers,writers etc
Graphic design - Use of the same type of imagery and design as found outside of the digipak
What will be displayed on the cover:
Artist name - Large font easy to read font so its easy to see who it is
Track Listing - In a style or font which fits the rest of the cover
An image of the artist - positioned and manipulated to fit the genre of the artist
Promotional stickers
Production info - Website, Record Label,Number of albums label released,logo and the name
Student's in the class of 2013-2014 were also required to make DigiPacks too. I have looked and analysed their digipacks, I must say they are very good. I am hoping mine will be up to their standard. In this blog I will be exploring these students Digipacks and advertisements strengths and weaknesses.
Video 28
Digipack
Strengths:
The synergy is carried out throughout
Theme of nature through out
She is wearing the same lipstick in all images (perhaps a unique selling point)
Good mise en scene, it all relates- earthy tones and colours
She also followed the conventions, she added a bar-code and small print
Weaknesses:
I personally dislike the font, I find it looks unprofessional and hard to read
This Digipack got 10/10
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Strengths:
I like the use of the guitar in the image, as she plays the guitar in the music video
The image is simplistic yet effective
Theme of nature relates
Weaknesses:
Yet again, I do not like the font
The advertisemt got 8/10
Video 19
Digipack
Strenghts:
Colours- dark suits the DJ genre
In the music video the artist was wearing blue lipstick, colour blue carried throughout Digipack
The video is dark, the album cover is also dark
Good synergy
Simple yet effective colour scheme
Weaknesses:
The student has edited out the artists eyes in 2 of the images, but not for the advertisement, I feel this editing should have been done for all the images
Advertisement
Strengths:
Colour scheme- element of yellow is a nice touch
Really like the font, suits electro genre
Weaknesses
Eyes are not edited
Video 21
Digipack
Strengths:
I like the images, they look natural and she looks like a real artist
Synergy- bright colours
Good theme
Weaknesses:
A bit too much going on, harsh on the eyes
Too much text and overlapping images
Dislike the font
Advertisement
Strengths:
Good image cutting, it is not pixilated
Also like the star rating
Weaknesses:
Yet again too many images, hard to focus on artist and music
As we have now finished the production of our music video will will now be moving on to the ancillary task. These include planning and producing a digipak and advertisement for our artist.Blog posts from this point on will be focusing on research to do with artists digipaks and adverts.We will use different softwares to create our digipaks one of which being Photoshop where we will edit and manipulate images and texts to create a visual which links to our artist.I am particularly excited about this part of our coursework because i like to use editing software such as Photoshop to edit,studying photography also means i have a vast knowledge of how to use it which should make it slightly easier to create a good digipak.
Hello, Dan and everybody else viewing this!
We finished our music video last week, and i'm glad to say it turned out really well. Prior to this we practiced using photoshop by making a front album cover, for me this didn't go so well as I do not know how to use photoshop properly. As we have now finished editing our video, we are required to make a DigiPack and advertisement. The software I shall be using is Photoshop, although I used Photoshop in the AS year, it was not to this complex extent. I will be attending workshops to perfect my Photoshop skills. I will have to cut images I have taken myself (either of the artist himself or our unique selling point- the Nike glove) and produce a cd cover (front and back). I will have to think of songs the artist would have on the album, I will think about this when editing the back of my album cover. Many, if not all professional music artists have album covers that relates to their image and song choices, they do this by carrying the same mise en scene and synergy throughout. Our song choice 'Clive Mercury-Hg' is that of a dark and eerie song, hence why our music video's theme is dark and eerie. Due to this theme, I will make my DigiPack and advertisement dark, I will edit using dark colors, including dark, deep blues and greys and definitely black. This will all help to promote our video.
I will also have to organize a time when Stephan is free for me to take an image of him to edit. It will be hard, but determination will get it done!
Here is an example of a well known artists album cover-
Emile Sande "Our Version of Events"
As you can see, the synergy is used well here. The theme of black and white is prominent within this album cover. Her music video to the song 'Clown' is also edited in black and white, which all fits in with the black and white theme.
The music video relates to her album cover, her unique selling point is perhaps her hair, and she keeps the same hairstyle in the video and album cover.
Now that we have finished our music video, we are now looking forward to starting on the Ancillary work, for this we will be required to make a digipak of top standard in order for us to get a good grade. Following the mark scheme to the fullest will allow us to create a good digipak. However it doesn't just stop at the Video and Digipak, we also have to create an advertisment which will promote the music video.
Things we will have to keep in mind: - Synergy - what we carry across from the music video to the digipak and advert - Making all the elements suit our genre - Making sure our font and colours are clear and easy for our audience to read
Hey everyone! Heres an update of where we're at right now. We've finished our music video which turned out amazing (hooray!). It took a while to do but we did it. At this present moment I am going to start our ancillary work. This involves making a Digi Pack and a magazine advert. I am going to be using various technology including photoshop. This part is as important as the music video itself so I'm going to have to work quite hard. Hopefully this turns out great too...
Here we have some footage of us either being silly, or messing up which results in absolute banter! There are many shots in this blooper video that we did not include in our music video, as it did not fit into our mise en scene or Stephan tripped (lol).
Enjoy!
From all our feedback we gathered helpful opinions about our music video. As mentioned in other blogs we came to a joint decision to remove the footage of Stephane infront of the starry backdrop using the projector, as many people who watched our music video said it did not fit in with the rest of the video, as the rest of the video is all shot outside and in the dark, unlike this scene where stephane was inside. Our feedback was more positive than negative, so there was not that much to improve on. Mary did suggest that we add more slow motion clips to make the video more visually pleasing, we did that, and it has infact made our video look and flow better.
We conducted a questionnaire using the emelemnts of mise en scene to see what fellow students had to say about our music video, here's what they had to say;
At 11:30 this morning the editing we had been doing randomly deleted! We were in utter shock and dismay...
Here are some images you may find distressing (look away now if you are faint hearted)
Traivon and Stephane feeling sombre as they pray our work appears again.
"Where's our work?!"
But don't worry treffor came to the rescue and managed to find all the work we had edited, wohoo!
We have decided not to use the projector, as we got feedback from our fellow peers and they said it does not fit. Stephane looks as though he is not putting effort into his lyrics, even though he is it was not portrayed that way. Also we felt as though it was not:
eerie
dark in nature
focused
The projector was also shaky when we looked back at the footage. It was initially a good idea but through editing we realised it did not match the rest of the shots we had previously shot. It was a nice close up, but we have used other close ups that look even better.
I would say that my progress has been good but of course there are still areas that need to be focused on, for example it may come across that I am allowing the group blogs to boost my numbers up, therefore the individual blogs was something that I wanted to make a main focus, blogging has been a vital part not only in the A2 year but also in the AS year, and I look to carry what I have learnt from the over into the current year. I would say that the amount of time I have spent blogging hasn't been the utmost greatest, so that is also something I will focus on in order to boost my grade. At any time that I edit or whenever the group goes out to film, making a not of what has been done during the course of the day is essential.
Throughout the course of recording as the artist I didn't actually know all of the lyrics, it was a struggle because the song is recorded at such a fast pace learning the lyrics did seem like it was going to be an obstacle, when it came to editing, there were various shots that we did want to use, but due to the fact that I did not know the Lyrics them shots could not have been used, however as we went out more and listened to the song a lot more, I have learnt the whole song in a matter of weeks which was a plus as it helped our filming and editing run smoothly.
"I ought to improve my quality of work and need to use more media terminology. I need to do my work quickly yet efficiently, and I need to improve my time keeping skills."
I gave myself a 10/20.
These are the three improvements I gave myself at the beginning of this term. I would say I have improved my quality of work and have tried to refer to media terminology when blogging. I have also been using less pictures in my blogs like I did in the AS year as Dan made a point of not posting irrelevant photo's that does not necessarily relate to the blogs being written, which is true. I'd say I am 50/50 when it comes to doing my work quickly and efficiently, I should make an effort to do blogs the day I get them, instead of letting it pile up. My time improvement skills have improved as I feel my blogs are quantitative and I have the right amount of blogs, hopefully my blogs are now on a B.
I would give myself a 13/20.
Here we can see Lenya asking fellow media classmates about their opinions on our video. We chose to interview Devon and Daniel as tthey are both male and as our music video is male dominated we were mainly trying to appeal to teenage males from the of 15+. Devon and Daniel are both 17-18. They were asked a series of questions, including what they feel we could do better. Both of the guys agreed that they did not like the footage of Stephane infront of the projector, due to this we have decided to remove it as we want our video to be the best it can be and as these boys are our target audience, we took their opinions on board. Recieveing feedback from target audiences is really beneficial when it comes to media, as it gives us an all round perspective of what we can do better to appeal to our audience, it is also nice to hear positive feeback, as we want to please our audience also.
