Final Digipack and Magazine Advert

FRONT COVER - CD and Inlay

First Double page spread of Inlay

Second Double Page Spread of Inlay

Thrid Double Page Spread of inlay

Back Cover of Inlay

CD Holder

BACK COVER - CD case

Magazine Advert

Fonts

Having had a flick through at the fonts that the other two have chosen I gave my opinion on which ones I liked and didn't like. The final verdict was to use 2 downloaded fonts for the digipack for their artistic merit and peculiarity as well as 1 of the standard fonts in PhotoShop to add a refined touch to the articles

Digipack Design

I have been playing around with photoshop and starting to use the images we have to create a front and back cover.

By doing this I have come up with the following designs.

These will need to be discussed further with the group, however we now have the template to be working with.

FRONT COVER - The original image that was taken, the people looked too small so with careful cutting and re-colouring I have been able to lay one image over the other and make it even better. It has enabled me to place them onto the hat so that they are sitting at the front of it. I then played around with the text and decided to put the artist name as though it was written on the hat. I chose the colour blue for this to add more sky colour into the image and so that is subtly stood out from the black and green grass. The yellowy, beige font on the album name I decided to use as it made it stand out from the grass but kept the natural colour in the image.

BACK COVER - This image was enhanced as a group making the frost on the grass stand out more. From this I have then used a the same style font as on the front cover and the same colour to keep the continuity. The black panels down the sides I have kept simplistic as from studying other albums these tend to have the same font used on the front cover but the background to them is generally a block colour. I also added the barcode and the EMI logo for extra effect. The track names were given to us by the original artist.

Digipack: Thoughts for Inlays

In today's lesson, as a group we managed to put together an rough overall layout of the digipack inlay booklet - this included making it as a physical object to make it easier to visualise it as a completed component. We agreed that the inlay should be a booklet rather than a 'fold out' and that the centre page should include one larger photograph of the band together.

Following this work, I have come up with a complete plan of the digipack (as the one as a group was a draft so therefore it had empty pages that needed filling). This draft idea should cover all the neccessary content for the 7 pages of the inlay booklet. This is one idea for the content and layout of our inlay booket for our digipack:

I have centred it around the lyrics of the artist's songs (Grace has contacted the original artist to enquire as to whether we are able to use their lyrics and track names - I believe we should have about 10 or 11 as this is becoming a generic convention of all artists in the music industry, it is almost an audience expectation because it represents value for money). I believe the printing of lyrics in an inlay is becoming more and more prominent, possibly because it allows fans to be committed to a band and 'get closer' to them i.e. so they can start to build a following, the audience seek the band's stardom. It is an aspirational lifestyle. I have also incorparated the idea of a computerised image to indicate a continuous theme throughout the album.

I have also noted down the other typical content found in an inlay (besides photos of the band and lyrics to their songs) for instance: the band thankyous on their own and together (centre and right), the note about the publishing of the album and other notable contributions to the album e.g. mixed/recorded/lyrics/photography/artwork by (left) and band member roles (centre).

If we decide that the layout and design for the inlay is not appropriate, then hopefully we can use this as content for the back pages of the booklet.

Fonts

 Henry and I have been looking at certain fonts from the wbsite dafont.com
We like the section script as we feel that there are many possibilities within it that can be used.

Here are some examples fron the Script - brush sections:

There are many other sections as possibilities to look at including Fancy - Eroded (Birth of a Hero and Master Plan). There are also some under Script - Handwritten (Throw my hands in the air [Possible inlay], Luna Bar and Hand of Sean).

I (Grace) also have a CD with over 1000 different fonts which can be looked at and imported if any are liked. 

Meeting

When we met today we managed to discuss the following:

1. Photoshoot date and time for digipack - Wednesday 24th November 8.00am at Newport - Weather permitting and Sam permitting
2. Insert for digipack (including fonts and sizes) - We decided on the photos to include in the digipack insert and have discussed possible content for the other pages including lyrics and credits.
3. Photos that we need to take to include in digipack other than those from the video - We need to take a pamoramic image of the band and also some posed photos (poster pictures) as well as the front and back cover photos with the hat

We managed to put together an rough overall layout of the digipack inlay booklet - this included making it as a physical object to make it easier to visualise it as a completed component. We agreed that the inlay should be a booklet rather than a 'fold out' and that the centre page should include one larger photograph of the band together.

Front cover of insert same as album cover

First double page spread - we were thinking that this would consist of lyrics from the tracks and maybe a couple of images. We believe there should be about 7 tracks on this album as this is generally around the number that are on other new releases albums. We have emailed the original band to ask for some more track names and lyrics to save us some time in making them all up.

Middle double page spread - this would be a panaramic image of all the band members and down the sides would be an artistic design maybe including some iconography and some images that link with the names 'Said the Hatter' or 'Out of a Hat'.

Last double page spread - one page will contain the other track lyrics that were not displayed previous and the other page will contain credits with an image of a soundboard across the bottom - the credits will include things like record label and mixing e.t.c. This page should probably also include a small section about the label and who the band are signed to.

Back cover of insert - 4 images taken from the music video

Next Time

When we next meet I feel that we need to discuss the following:

1. Photoshoot date and time for digipack
2. Insert for digipack (including fonts and sizes)
3. Photos that we need to take to include in digipack other than those from the video
4. Magazine advert - layout and design and images which are going to be used

Digipack Designing

We have come up with a couple of images which we would like to try and create for our front and back cover. This has been done through much research and thought.
When looking we found that the front cover tends to be busy and have a lot going on partly to attract the audience through the use of the particular image and partly to give a message of whats to come inside. The back cover we found was much more simplistic in most cases, generally using the same location as the front however with only the use of one or two props (maybe the same as the front cover) but making them look less like the main feature. Partly the reason for this is because on the back the track names must be readable.
As we have the album name 'Out of a Hat' we wanted to make this image stand out and thought that by visually displaying it it would become more interesting to the audience. We have also taken the theme that has been running throughout our video of the artificial in a natural environment and tried to continue this on the front and back cover.


FRONT COVER
The connotations of this are that there is alot going on. The hat and band dominate the image. It gives the message that there is a lot that has gone into it and that there is a lot to come from the album. This links with the theme of the 'Mad Hatter'.
The sightlines in the image will all be different. A couple of the artists will be looking at the camera and the others will be looking at each other or at what they are holding/doing. The artists should be fairly straight faced as this is what creates mood and atmosphere in the image.
The colours in the image will be natural to link with the theme of artificial in a natural environment. They may be enhanced slightly to make them look bolder and to sharpen the edges slightly more.
The hat and artist are positioned centre of the image and fill more of the page to link with the connotations and to make the image stand out.
The image may be cropped slightly to ensure that the hat and artists are centre and fill the image.
Within the image there is some instruments and a radio. This are to add to the 'busyness' of the image and to generally make the image more interesting to look at. The objects also link to the music video and what was included in it.
Dress will be similar or the same of that used in the music video to keep a constant theme and to ensure that the indie genre is kept.

BACK COVER
This contrasts the front cover. It displays to the audience that the album is finished. They have listened and watched the business of the band and now it has come to an end - this is done through the use of an empty image. There is still the hat left to signify that there is still something left of the band.
The majority of the image will be similar to that of the front cover however as said above the content is reduced and the 'busyness' is reduced to wind down the album - this then links with the music and the video in that they both reduce in hype and 'busyness' towards the end. The hat is positioned off centre and is relatively small in comparison to the rest of the image to show the reduction. It is the only prop in the image, so the audiences attention is drawn to it.

Magazine Adverts

I bought both the NME magazine and also the Q magazines to study the magazine adverts within them.
There are all kinds of different adverts - some are very simplitic and some are complex. Many adverts tend to be more focused on the tour dates for well established artists with the digipack being advertised in small print. However there are also many adverts which are purly advertising the digipacks.

They are set out in many different ways within the music magazines, some filling half a page, some a full page and some are either just a quarter of a page. Depending on the marketing budget and the type of magazine that the artists are advertising in will relate to the size of the advert.

I have scanned in all the adverts from both the NME magazine and Q magazine and I have annoted the different types to show the range and left others blank as extra examples

NME Music Magazine

This images shows the artists sitting at a
table. This image and design has been
taken from the digipack however, quotes
have been added about the music. This
is effective because it represents the
digipack exactly.





This image shows a page which 3 adverts have
been placed on. There are two at the top and one
large at the bottom. The one at the bottom is advertising a DVD
which shows that they mix up the types of adverts and do not
group all of one type together.



Q Magazine



This is plain and simple but effective. It includes the artists name and their special collection. The artist name is big enough not to require an image to go with it. As its advertising a collection, there is no need for quotes as they are tracks that the fans will have heard before.



This is an interesting advert as it is advertising his original demo CDs that made him a legend. He fills a lot of the page as this is an important advert and he is looking at the audience which causes them to make a connection with him. Again it contains his website address so that fans will investigate further. It also contains the digipack covers for the cds so that the fans know what to look out for. The use of monochrome with the important writing in blue makes this stand out.

I like this advert because it is very simple but contains all the relevant infomation for fans. The use of the pattern in the top image creates a quirky feel which contrasts the black background. Again in this image there is no artist - whih must mean they are a well developed band. It is also advertising the fact that it is an Expanded edition and like the Bob Dylan advert above the important infomation is in purple to make it stand out from the less relevant infomation. There are many quotes included from fans and others which helps the fans to see what they are getting and what others thought of the album

These two adverts have been placed together as they have similar content. The positioning of the artist is very similar and the text is very large and eye catching. These adverts are aimed at a specific audience and so have been grouped together. Again they contain the release dates, quotes and the artists website.

From these adverts I think that our advert needs to include the following:

1. The name of the artist and the ablum - similar or same font as digipack.
2. Release date
3. Quotes
4. Artist website
5. A posed picture of the group to attract the fans - almost like a poster image - different from the album.
6. Either tour dates and where to buy tickets or a web address for dates and tickets.

Website - Digipack

After consultation as a group we decided to proceed with a magazine advert rather than the website due to the mass of information and complexity of constructing an entire website. Some principles however can be carried through, such as using some of the stills from the video to include though we may not necessarily do this.

Simplistic Design

Looking at the magazine adverts in different music magazines they tend to be very simple with either a plain background with a few images, or they have a large image as the background with text on top. Over complicating things can be counter productive as a potential consumer will look only briefly at an advert. In that time they may not be able to decipher the information and thus ignore it.

Too much information?

Feedback

Yesterday I emailed The Riot Tapes (original artist) and asked for feedback on our video, what they liked and disliked e.t.c.
I also asked if we could keep the same track name and their response to this was 'Sure keep the name!'

We have now recieved their feedback which can be read in the comment box of the Audience Feedback Ideas post or below:

'So, here's our feedback... overall it's very cool! Yay! In fact we really like it!

I would consider one small change..

That shot at 50 secs, of the drummer... he looks a bit freaked out... if you could switch it with anything else, it might be cool...It might just be the way he shifts his gaze off camera..?

That's it.. the rest we like :D

It's really funny to see our doppelgängers, and we think the mix of "live" footage with the more staged stuff is really nice!

Hope that's helpful!

Good luck!

-The Riot Tapes'

Audience Feedback Ideas

As we are now in the phase where we need responses from our video to progress with changes, we came up with some questions to ask some of our target audience (16-25). Feedback from the other range (26-45) of our target audience is difficult to gain at this time, however it is still possible through facebook contacts.

As a group we have decided to pursue avenues of YouTube and Facebook especially to gather audience feedback on our music video. This is because we can reach mass audiences very easily and within a short space of time. This also enhances the 'believability' of the band if they are available on sites like these in a industry that nowadays involves so much reliance on technology.

I (Henry) thought I could use questionnaire type feedback but do it online for the above reasons. Here are some of the questions I came up with (to help focus the audience feedback we receive):

-What do you like about the video?
-What don't you like about the video?
-Do you think that the video fits well into the indie genre?
-After seeing the video, do you want to explore the band’s other work (i.e. their album)?
-Do you think we conform to or challenge stereotypes of indie genre within the video?
-Do you think the band members seem believable (i.e. do you think the band members could pass off as a real indie group)?

I (Grace) agree with Henry's questions. Some I had already included in the discussions board on the facebook page for the feedback I started collecting. The others I have come up with are almost identical to Henry's, but I was waiting to discuss them as a group, however now there is no need for me to post them.
The are a couple of questions I would add to the list:

- Can you think of any improvements to our video that would make it more interesting for you as the audience to watch?
- Which is the best part of the music video?/Which part was most interesting to watch? - I want to include this question as I feel that it will benefit us as a group to find out which part was most interesting to the audience.

Also I would re-word the question 'Do you think it fits well into the indie genre?' to
- Which parts of the video do you think fit with the indie genre and which parts do not?

I also asked Miss Mapp if she would kindly send out a message to her facebook friends to help us target the 26-45 age range as well as the 16-25 age range for feedback. From this we have had one response:
'Some of the edit at the start is a bit abrupt. Maybe look into fades or slow cuts. Attention to use of light is good. My main criticism is that unless abrupt cuts are purposeful, be careful of them.
Well done guys!'

Digipack

These are just some rough sketches of some possible digipack ideas.
As our video contains many images of artifical objects in a natural surrounding I have built on this idea.

The following image gave me some inspriration on an image.

This image takes the idea of artificial in a natural envrionment. I have taken this image and built on it, adding the band members to it to show the audience who they are.

Paramore have used the image I had imagined for our front cover on their back cover. This therefore linkes with the front cover as it displays them as a band on the back cover. However, for our front cover as stated above I imagined the band members at different positions on the sofa.

This image takes the sof idea in a natural environment as shown in the Paramore image but places the band members around the sofa i.e. member sitting in front, member standing next to it, member sitting on back of sofa and member sitting on the sofa.

This image takes the 'Out of a Hat' idea and this is an example of the band members sitting on the hat. However the band member in front I don't think will be possible because of the illusion that is created on the following image:

This image is a possible back cover. I have had the thought of placing the band members in the skate park at the top of the ramp either with their legs hanging over and the track names written down the ramp or them standing at the top and facing over the back and the image taken from the back.

Audience Feedback

So far we have recieved one comment back on the facebook discussion page:

'Watched it through twice - well done! It all works really well, the different shots/settings link together nicely. The beginning is much better as well in my opinion. Anyway, you're probably looking for improvements, so here's a few: during the shot of Jonny from 0:50-51 (timings on the Facebook video, btw), the music's quite powerful, but he's drumming quite 'lightly' - the image doesn't quite fit with the audio. From 1:47-52, the shot of the cymbal playing is nice but stays the same for quite long - maybe show the last two hits from a different angle/distance? Finally the 'sweeping' shot from 2:36-42 is a great idea, but the person in the lit window at the back slightly ruins the illusion that the band is alone practising (if that's what you wanted to portray). Only small comments though, very nice overall! x
Oh, and btw, I liked the detail you put into the 'CCTV' bits, changing the 'camera number' and the time for the two different shots - thought that looked good'

Progress

I have spent some time going through the video and taking stills.
I have now upoladed them to the our facebook profile and also the website.
I have also uploaded the video to both the website and facebook and requested feedback on the video from friends and made a discussion board to post the feedback. Following this i sent a message to the artists of the track to find out what their opinion is of the video and how they think it could be improved.

Meeting, Editing and Audience Feedback

This is a final copy of our video which we are now showing to audiences which will enable us to gain feedback so that we can polish it.

This video shows some of what we achieved yesterday. We had already got all shots into some sort of chronological order on Thursday and Friday, so our focus was to edit any shots which either didn't fit in the sequence or any camera shot which weren't great i.e. the steadiness of the shot or the framing.

We also managed to continue to look in to and make decisions on our digipak work. For instance, we had an idea for the front cover of the album so we tested this an took some photos. Our aim here was to get the depth of field right otherwise it won't work. Also at the time of taking the images there was not enough light, so the turn out was not exactly as we wanted it.

The photos below are some test shots for our digipack. We decided to test this idea as one of the suggestiong for the album name was 'Out of a hat' and the front cover was suggested to have the band members sitting on a hat. Unfortunatly we only has a Trillby to hand at the time but if we were to develop this further we would use a top hat.

This shot is too far away to create the illusion of the person sitting on the hat

This shot shows another postition and how more than one person could be placed on the hat

This image is the best that we have. If we have we have a shot in the field were there is only the hat then this shot should be successful.

This shot is slightly too far away to make it look as though the hat is being sat on

Website

Finally got round to having a detailed look at the website which Henry has started. From what I've seen and played with it seems to be a good idea though filling a website for a band with relevant information when the band is fictional may prove difficult.
This is though an option for the digipack/ancillary texts as we have to produce a CD pack and Magazine advert and/or website.

The basis for making a website and the principle behind it is sound. The majority of our demographic will be internet 'savvy' either due to work or life style and will use it regularly enough to make a website worth while. In an ideal situation the information that would be on the website should we choose to continue down that path would include:

band biography
individual information
songs/lyrics
albums
tour dates
release dates
merchandise

A couple of different band websites that I am looking into for ideas include Paramore, Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay.

Editing

Yesterday we had a whole day editing and almost finished the video.
We have included many different effects into it that we didn't account for as we felt it added effect to keep the audience interested.

Today we are finishing our first final copy to burn and check that it works. This is also to allow us to show it to our audience to gain feedback for polishing.

Rough Cut 1 Comments

I have just been checking the Facebook Discussions board for anymore comments as here is another that has been posted:

'Really like it! As I told Grace, my favourite shot is the one of Emily dropping the money onto the floor, really artistic, makes it a bit quirky almost. Anyway as for improvements, I'm going against the other comments a bit and saying that I think the silent part at the start is a bit too long; makes it look like that bit's unfinished. I'd personally alter it so that in each of the different shots of her walking, you only show her taking two steps (e.g. step, step, change shot, step, step, change, etc.) to shorten it, but you might have other ideas on it. Once it gets going it's really good though, well done'

This comment is good feedback. We have already adjusted the opening slightly from another comment that was made but this information on the silent part and how our audience think that it should go should be taken into account. I also like the comment about the money falling to the floor and it being artistic and quirky because this helps justify and link images in our video to our artist name 'Said the Hatter'.

Website

Today Henry showed Jonny and I what he had started on the website.
I am very impressed with his design and today have chatted with him and had a play around with the features available. It is very simple and easy to use.

I like the fonts the Henry has picked and agree with the reasons for the choices in that the soft flowing font for 'Said The Hatter' communicates the individuality and the indie genre and then the hard font underneath shows the solidarity of the band and also helps to ensure to the audience that the website is trustworthy. It creates a bond between the official and truthfulness of the website with the audience.

I have linked the band Facebook page to the to the homepage of the website using HTML code.

As Henry has said we are only able to use it at a basic level so unable to upload videos and audio clips to it. However I have overcome this problem by using the custom HTML tool and using the videos from our YouTube account and embeded the code into the box. This works just as well as uploading the video straight onto the website because it communicates to the fans that the artist also has a YouTube channel, where they may be able to view more footage.

I also thought it would be good to include videos and images of the video in progress and so during the lesson today added the Video in Progress Page. One reason for this is it is often interesting to the fans to see the stages of production and how the finished outcome has been improved from the original rough cuts. It also brings the fans closer to the artist as it can make the feel involved in the decision process.

Henry showed me what he had accomplished on the band members page for two of the band members in terms of dragging and dropping the layout, and also what he had used to create the layout. I agreed that the layout worked well and I then completed it by adding the other two band members to make it a complete page in terms of layout.

We need to take stills from the video to put onto this website to help add more content and to bulk out the text.
As of yet we have not published it because it is unfinished and does not contain much content.