My blog is a simple layout which made it easy to follow. The labels are on the right hand side and they will direct you through my work. The work has been labeled as- Digipak Advert Research, Digipak Research, Evaluation, Final Digipak, Final Digipak Advert, Final Digipak Advert, Final Music Video, Music Video Planning. All my work which I have done is in a grey and black font. All work which has been completed by my group will be in a red font. Because the Bridgend county borough networks had problems with connecting to blogger we couldn't access blogger in school for 6 weeks.
For our audience responses we decided to interview 2 teachers and 1 pupil. We decided to interview these people becasue they would be able to give us relevant and helpful advice towards our music video.
The people we asked talked about what the best parts of our music video and what we could try and improve. From the video the audience understood the narrative and understood the realism we tried to show within the backstories of the characters. Another part I am also pleased with is that the audience also understood that ashley was the lead protagonist and I was the lead antagonist. This made the audience want to support Ashley though the music video.
I felt that I have taken a lot from this audience feedback. One example of what we have taken from the feedback was that some people said that the opening was too slow and that it should include something to attract the audience. We acted upon that feedback and we decided to overlay a clip of a panning shots of cards on a poker table, allowing the audience to know where the character is going to/ what is on his mind. This feedback allowed us to improve our final product.
Audience feedback can be extremely useful becasue it allows the creators of the piece to develop there work to fit their audience. The audience is what the film is directed at and feedback from that audience can be invaluable to the films development. Making audience feedback a very important tool.
Other than the film I also received feedback on my ancillary tasks. The people I asked said that the overall design on both of the ancillary task, which were the the digipak and digipak poster, was good. One person said that the design was good because it fit into the theme of the music video. They also gave me feedback on how to improve both of the tasks. One person also said that the font of the design could be improved for it to stand out from the rest of the poster. He also said that the font colour for 'Out Now' to make it stand out. I then acted upon that feedback and changed the colour of the font to make it stand out from the rest of the poster.
As well as the interview we videoed we also gave out questionnaires to the members of the audience. These were all answered and gave us a wide range of helpful feedback. Many people commented on the types of editing techniques we used and how the transitions between the backstories helped split the past from the present.
Many people who answered the questionnaire ticked the box which said that the narrative attracted them to the video. This showed that the narrative for or video didn't go unnoticed. Another person also had also written that the 'narrative conveyed with the conventions of the story and both of these themes of poker and a strong narrative work really well.'
For my digipak advert i decided that a Ace card would be the main backdrop and theme for this advert. I had many ideas for my overall magazine
From this original design I added the main title at the top of the page in a similar font to the 'A'. I put chips in the left hand corner of the screen. I also minapilated a image of Ashley so it would look like that he is staring through the ace card.
I then customised the main title font to make it stand out and added 'The Heavy' to the bottom of the page to show the artist name.
I felt that having the poster just being a card didn't give me much room to work with. For example I was unsure where to put the picture of the digipak and the QR code. I added a pack ground to the card to make it look like it was on a poker table. I also added some more chips to the poster to make it simertical
I started with a simple design of trying to make the two main character look at each other. I done this to show the rivalry between the two players. I have used a picture of the chips in a pile because it is a good background which will accuratly display the theme of the album.
I then added the title and the songs which are on the album. I included the barcode and the name of the album on the spine of the cover. I put the barcode on the back and put 'Produced by HAT productions'.
After much consideration on the overall design. I decied to change the main front cover of the digipak and used a fan of the cards picture as the front cover. I also used the chips for the inside of the digipak. I then put the picture of Ashley over the picture and changed the opacity of the image so we can see both me and Ashley.
I have changed the front cover of the digipak because it worked better with the title. I then changed the brightness of the images so it is more visible.
The way advertising in the music industry changes over the years to fit with how the music is distributed. An example of this is becasue streaming music has become more popular the advertising for different albums are now seen online more often that on paper printed adverts.
One way they have overcome this problem is through social media such as twitter and facebook
. Social media has made it easier for record label companies to reach their target audience. The record companies can that advertise directly to their target audience. A way that streaming websites like spotify advertise upcoming content would be that they release demos of songs instead of poster advertising.
Many music companies advertise through interviews and general poster adverts in music magazines which suit their genre. An example of this would be and indie rock artist interviewing in NME magazine about their upcoming album. If we were going to advertise in a music magazine on our digipak we would chose NME becasue they cover the indie rock audience. Meaning it would also target our target audience
The Gorillaz- Plastic Beach
The first digipak advert I will analyse will be 'The Gorillaz- Plastic Beach'. This poster overall uses a simple design with the cover of the CD as the main background. The top half of the background shows a small cartoon island. The bottom half of the background image just shows the ocean showing where that the camera was sinking into the ocean. At the very bottom of the page it says 'The new album out not'.
In the centre of the page The name of the band and the name of the album. The use their typical band font for the title but have put a wave effect to show that it is in the ocean. They have use a dark colour scheme to advert this new album.
This simple design catches the audience's attention create an enigma code for the album.
Kings Of Leon- Only By The Night
The second digipak advert I will analyse will by 'Kings Of Leon- Only By The Night' This advert has a simple layout becasue it follows the rule of thirds. It follows the rule of thirds by having the title at the top the image at the middle and the name of the album at the end.
They uses a distinctive style in this advert. The use a monochromatic colour scheme to display the artist. The main image is split up into 4 sections and in each section is a different member of the band. But also in each section apart of the image has been merged into a different image. The image it has been merged into is an image of a hawk. This was done to represent the band and the CD. The overall cover is meant to represent a CCTV camera view. This would also fit in with the hawk and what that also represents the theme of 'being watched'.
Stereophonics- Keep Calm And Carry On
This advert also follows the rule of thirds due to the title at the top, the image in the centre and the information about the album at the bottom. They have used a simple font on this advert in both the title and the information about the releases.
The main image which takes up the whole page is the band sitting at a diner style table in the sea. This image draws the attention of the audience which would also create an enigma.
These are the typical codes and conventions required for a digipak advert. Most would include the important information such as the name of the band with forms of their identity, a main image and a release date.
The image for the advert is the main focus and can be the most important part because it brings the audience's attention. Usually the band will use the same image from their digipak to advertise their album. This is usually because it brings a form of identity to their new album
I have chosen a few photos for the digipak which I will take into consideration for creating the digipak. I will use this photos to show what genre the band is. I will use the photos taken from the music video. I will make the digipak the same theme of the music video(poker themed). These are some of the pictures I will use.
I will use this photo in the digipak because it shows the main protagonist looking at his opponent. this would be good to have on the right hand side of the digipak.
This image will also be good because the character is also looking at the other opponent. This means i can have both characters on either side of the digipak.
I might place this image on the back of the digipak to show the main theme of the digipak.
These last two photos will be used for either where the CD will go or use as thee front cover photo.
The editing process lasted over a few days. In this we used Ashley's macbook to do the editing. The editing proved to be more difficult than we first thought. It was more difficult because some of the shots did not fit with the tempo of the music so we had to replace some of the shots to fit. It was also difficult to get the shots and timing to fit in time with the music. We all had a go at editing the film but our main editor was Ashley
But we did this at the end once we got continuity with the video itself. As we were editing we realised that different shots could work to improve the scene. So we went back and filmed different shots to help it fit with the video. An example of this would be the shot which links with my backstory. We filmed this shot to try and get it parallel with the linking shot of Ashley's backstory.
Main people buy the digipaks rather than the normal CD's to by in a sense 'close' to the band or artist. Buying a limited edition digipak would also give you more rather than a normal CD. Some people chose a digipak because they look better than a normal jewel cases. With the digipak many artists can be more creative with the design because they have more options. But because a digipak is normally made out of cardboard it can be damaged easier then the normal jewel cases.
Why did digipaks come about
Digipaks came about when digital download got increasingly popular. Digipaks were created to give more to the audience but also to challenge to rapidly growing digital download and streaming. One example of a music streaming service would be Spotify. The digipaks gives things like commentary and other perks which are not available on streaming websites.
For my digipak audience research have asked 5 people a small questionnaire. I asked them
The questions I asked them were
What would you say are the most important features of a digipak?
2. What price you pay for a digipak?
3. Do you think that digipaks are becoming out of date?
I then ask the people why do they think that the digipaks are becoming out of date.
One of the answers stated that because streaming music has become so popular over the past few years, the digipak has become less popular showing that it is becoming out of date.
This is The Black Keys 'El Camino' digipak. This digipak has a simple design on each section. On each section they have placed a picture of the car the 'El Camino'. They have put a different one on each cover. Inside the digipak they have put the CD on the right side and a small booklet with information about the band and the lyrics to the song on the left side. On every picture they have put a vintage tint over the image to give it a nostalgic feel the digipak. Each car is in the same position as all the others. The cover its self does not give anything away about the genre of the music but in doing this it has created an enigma about what this album includes. They also have the name of the band and the name of the album at the top of the digipak in a simple font.
