Final Video

Merry christmas, folks! As a surprise we've decided to to upload our final piece onto Blogger. Enjoy it and don't forget to leave us a comment below - peace

18. Anca, Anthony, Larah, Dionne from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Digipak from last summer.

Last summer we created a mock digipak. This was my first time using photoshop and overall my work wasn't too bad. I didn't have copyright information on the cover, the text didn't really link with the genre or the layout and the picture looked a little odd, however, I have learnt valuable skills now and I am confident that my final digipak will look great. Below is a screen shot of the digipak I created last summer.

Ancillary Planning - Costume

For the photo-shoot, I think it would be safe if the women wore the similar clothes to the ones worn in the video (short-skirt, etc). With this we're conforming with Laura Muvley's theory of the male-gaze that's typically seen in pop music videos. I think if the women were attractive enough in their provocative clothing, it might entice members of the male demographic to look at, and possibly buy an album. 
For this digipak I'd like gold-jewellery to be the focal point of the album as this is one of our key forms of synergy and it may not have be displayed so clearly in the music video.  

ANCILLARY WORK: Fonts for Digipak/Advertisement

I have decided to use two fonts for all my ancillary work, and tried to find two that work well together, but that are also not similar to each other.
I looked online on website that offer free fonts, like dafont, and found one that I liked, called TodayPeople:

 

I installed this font on Mac computers using FontBook, which made the font usable with any software that is installed on the Mac, including Photoshop.

 

I am also using the font Trajan Pro, which I found already installed on the computers:

Ancillary Research - Examining Font Colour

As I mentioned at the end of my previous blog post, I was contemplating using gold as a font for my album. The reason behind this being that I wanted to create continuity between the gold-jewellery worn in the video and the gold title used for the album cover. I thought I'd look at Jessie J's album for inspiration. I found out she used black text on a white background. Personally I thought this was simple, yet effective and the inverted use of colour made it feel irregular, just like Jessie J's personality. Though my conflicting mind argues I'm over-thinking this, I think it was just as easy for Jessie J to use a black-background. But in all fairness, this isn't a typical convention of a digipak so I should emphasis my focus on the front panel more than anything else. I'll stick with the monochrome colour-pallet, with possible exception of red.

ANCILLARY WORK: Shortlist of Colours for Digipak/Advertisement

I have decided on the colours I will be using for my ancillary work. The background will be dark red, combined with black shapes (including the CD on the inside), and the text will be a combination of very pale pink, which looks very close to white, and bright red.
Here are the colours:

background                    shapes                      text(1)                     text (2)

Do's and Don'ts of Design work

Do's

• Minimum of 2 fonts that must work well with each other and your genre
• The colour used must compliment each other, the genre and suit the colours in the photos - Maximum of 3
• Clear photos that are in focus should be used and the size must be appropriate
• Follow the rule of thirds
• Barcode, date, copyright info, title of album, artists name, record company logo, website and artist website must be included

Don'ts

• Effects used must be appropriate to the genre
• Images should not be stretched to fit panels. This could result in loss of marks
• Text should not go across the artists face
• Follow conventions of your genre by looking at similar artists. You do not need too much photo's

Ancillary Research - Social Elements

Whilst looking at previous student's advertisements, I thought they were missing the social element due to lack of idents (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), however, whilst looking at artists in similar genres to ours (Pop), I noticed that none of them used the elements. Why? Is it because it's so obviously you're expected to search these artists on social networking sites? Or-Regardless, I did notice all three artists used a tagline telling consumers what retailers (HMV, iTunes, etc.) the album's available to buy from. But again, still no ident. The only ident I noticed in the every ad were record publications (Island Records).




Though this is a convention typically used with trailers and hollywood film-posters, I think to incorporate a hashtag (e.g. #CandiHeart) in my final product could arguably encourage interactivity from the consumers in a sensible, stylish way. Though he's certainly not the first to do this, Robin Thicke's and his video for 'Blurred Lines' incorporates hashtags well: he blows up the screen with hashtags, edits it to the beat and so fourth. However, 'Blurred Lines, the album' was a commercial flop because he failed to extrapolate this technique and advertise his album. Because I didn't use hashtags in my music video, it's something I'd have to give more thought to.

ANCILLARY WORK: Shortlist of Photos to be Used

I have created a Photobucket album (link) of the photos I am most likely to use on my ancillary work.
Here is a screenshot of the album on Photobucket, as the embed feature doesn't seem to work on Blogger:

Ancillary Research - Record Labels

Doing research for my digipak, one of the most important things to feature in my album would be the record label, but which one? I can't use a random one such as indie rock label 'Fuelled By Ramen' for a girl's pop-group. Using Wikipedia to search up pop-groups (The Saturdays, Sugababes, etc.), I found all of them used Island Records. Though I'm fairly adamant that I'm going to use this for my final product, I couldn't help but think whether I wanted to use a label more independent for my album? A label like Syco, responsible for a lot X-factor contestants such as Little Mix & One Direction. But then again, I don't think there's a correlation between record labels and commercial success, it more to do with advertisement, meaning I should centre more of my focus into that. Keep a look out for some posts on that!

Mock up of Digipak and Advertisement

Digipak

Notes:

1. 2 fonts: Cursive and bold 
2. Main colours: Black and white
3. Tracklist multicoloured (Inspired by The Saturdays back cover)
4. Line separating each member of the group (Inspired by Little Mix album cover)
5. Single shots used

Notes:

1. Group shot
2. Black and White background
3. Black cd
4. 'The Candi Hearts' multicoloured and It aint easy' in white

Advertisemment

 Notes:

1. Same image used and image layout used as the album front cover
2. Album front cover included
3. Ratings from Magazines
4. Places it is available: Amazon, Itunes, HMV

Pitch in the lift
I had to explain my ideas for my digipak and advertisement to Rebecca. Her feedback was I had some good ideas but she wasn't sure about my idea to have a multicoloured tracklist because have more than 2/3 colours usually doesn't look good but I explained where I got my ideas from (The Saturday's) and she understood. I had forgotten to do my spine and the release date of album.  Rebecca also said I should think about the magazines/newspapers I had out down and be a bit more realistic in terms of the genre and the fact that they're a new group.

Analysis of 3 digipaks

The Saturday's Chasing Lights

This is the digipak for their first album. The different coloured dresses is a reoccurring theme in their videos and advertising so that acts as their aspect of synergy. It's also used to make them stand out against black and white background) and it relates to the pop genre of which their music falls into. They are not wearing the same dresses to signify individuality but they are wearing the same heels to make their look cohesive. I like that the tracklist is in different colours which is similar to the front cover and the font used is the same as the font of the album title 'Chasing lights'. The only thing that is not clear is that the name of the album title is on the cd but not on the front.

Jessie J Who you are

Jessie J's digipak follows a theme of black white and gold which I think suits her and the genre (rnb/pop). She has the same distinct, unique hairstyle that she has in her video's and advertisements. It follows conventions and the back of the digipak has a good layout. It is quite a simple but it still looks good. One thing that isn't good about this digipak is that you can not see the name of the album even though it is there, as it clashes with her costume.

Little Mix DNA

Little mix is a typical pop girlband and their meant to signify youth and be bright and colorful. They have a different target audience to the Saturday's as they aiming at younger audiences. This evident through their digipak and their use of a range of bright colours and quite childish fonts, which are used in their single albums as well. There are only too main fonts used which I think is good. The colour scheme is quite consistent with their video's and advertisements, it works well and fits into the pop genre. They have not used a group shot but individual images to make them all stand out but they all have the same amount of space on the cover.

Analysis of advertisements

 The advertisement photo and the digipak are set in the same place and the same fonts are used. the most important information on here is the release date of the album and a website but it doesn't have where this album is available.

It is easy to guess what genre the artists is. The colours, images and fonts used give it away. The artist name has a graffiti type font and there are are spray paint affects. There is a tower block in the background which means he is an urban artist. The same image from the album is used for this advertisement and the same fonts, so there are aspects of synergy. It tells you where the album is available and also a website is available but I think it's quite small.

The same image is used from the album on the advertisement, as well as, the fonts and colour scheme. Most of the relevant information is there except where the album is available.

Planning Ancillary - Shortlist of Design

I made this using Google Docs and uploaded it on Slideshare. This should give you a greater insight as to what I'm planning for my own digipak

ANCILLARY WORK: Things to Include in the Advertisement

Here are the things that should be included/used in the advertisement, in order to make it look professional and appealing:

 - group and album name
 - same fonts and colour scheme as digipak
 - digipak front cover
 - logos: iTunes, HMV, social media
 - release date
 - tour/concert dates
 - graphics

ANCILLARY WORK: Things to Include in the Digipak (Front/Back and Inside)

Here are some elements that I need to make sure I include in my digipak:

Front:
- artist image
- album title
- artist name - bigger font than album title

Back:
- track list
- copyright information
- record company
- barcode
- web addresses

Spine:
- album title
- artist name
- cd number

Inside:
- CD shape on right panel

Location for photos

We decided to take pictures against black curtains as we wanted to stick to a dark colour scheme. We also took pictures in front of the green screen so we had more options when it came to creating the digipak and advertisement on photoshop. For me I really wanted the black curtain in the picture as it goes with my design of dark blacks, greys and reds.

Colour scheme for digipak

I've decided to keep the colour scheme quite dark for my digipak and use blacks, dark reds and greys. Below are the colours I'm thinking of using. The dark reds will be used for the hearts in the logo. These colours go with the video as we had a monochrome colour scheme for that and bright red lips. I decided to make a quick gif for these.

Design and Layout for digipak

I'm thinking about having a picture of he group sitting down in the middle of the cd cover whilst the group name will be above their heads and the title of he cd will be below the picture. I plan on having a black background for the outside of cd cover and then for the inside I plan on using the gradient tool in photoshop to create a black and grey background. I plan on having the track list inside a dark grey heart on the back of the cd cover as well. For the cd I'm planning on using a massive heart on it as it is the group's logo. My design and layout wont be too complicated and hopefully it will look classy as well as edgy.

Ideas for font

Below is a gif of some of the fonts I found online that I am considering for for my digipak. I need to use a maximum of three different fonts for this and I need to make sure that the fonts go with the style and genre of the music.

I plan on using dark grey and dark red fonts for my digipak as it goes with my layout ideas.

ANCILLARY WORK: Costume for the Photoshoot - Synergy

Our group had a photoshoot in the green screen room in the college.
We decided to create some synergy with the music video through our costumes - keeping the black/white theme for the clothes and having bright jewellery on.
These are the clothes I wore for the photos:

Do's and Don't's of design work

DO'S:

• Use photos that are clear and in focus
• Follow the rule of thirds
• Make sure the text and size of photos are appropriate
• Make sure the colours go with each other
• Make sure the barcode, copyright info, title of the album, name of the artist, record company logo and website are included.
• Watch the spelling and grammar.

DON'T'S:

• Stretch images to fit panels
• Put text across artists face
• Use appropriate effects
• Break the rule of thirds

Analysis of existing digipak work that influenced mine.

Below are some annotated pieces of work I created on the 'pixtrix' app which show the work that influenced my digipak design.

Analysis of existing advertisements that influenced mine.

Below are some screen grabs of the annotations I made on the app pixtrix. These are looking at the advertisements that influenced my work.

 

 

 

 

ANCILLARY WORK - RESEARCH: Do's and Don't's for Digipak/Advertisement

Prezi illustrating what should and should not be done in our ancillary work:

Shortlist of photos for digipak larahyearwood's photostream

larahyearwood's photostream on Flickr.

Shots for digipak

These photos are of good quality and are in focus which is the main reason why I chose them. With the photos taken against the black curtains they will go well with my colour scheme of blacks and greys on the outside panels.

'Pitch in a lift'

I was able to quickly pitch my design ideas to my teacher and decided to create a brief prezi on it.

Analysing adverts

I decided to create a prezi for this just for a little fun :) below is my embedded creation.

Ancillary Production - Shooting Location

We used room 333 to take the pictures for our digipak – Lol. We took pictures against the black curtains so that the background colour will fit into our monochrome colour-scheme. I think we chose to avoid outdoor locations because it doesn’t fit in with the convention of pop music, you wouldn’t see any other pop groups doing this.  

Photoshoot!

Flickr photostream
 

We planned a photoshoot in order to have material for our ancillary work. We chose different costumes from the music video, but they are based on the same style: black and white clothes and big accessories.
We took the pictures in front of the green screen/black curtain, which will make it easier for us to replace the backgrounds with other colours or images. Each member of our group will decide on a number of photos to use in their digipak and advertisements.
Here is a Flickr Photostream of our photoshoot.