Construction In My Digipak

This is my process in constructing my digipak and the stages involved... 

Firstly, after doing a small test on a few images that I had taken, just to give myself an idea of what I was doing and to get a basic template which i could eventually improve on. After doing this I decided that I should start creating the digipak, since I had played around with the effects and had selected suitable photos to feature in my digipak. 

I began by making a paper template of the desired effect I wanted from my digipak and what I initially thought would look good. This planning was to help waste less time and to prepare me for placing everything together. Although I made this template I still had to play around with fonts and test out colour schemes in order for my house style to be consistent.

All in place

inside left 

inside right

front cover

back cover

I started by looked at a ranger of fonts as seen below.

I considered the house style carefully and what would be the most appropriate font for my digipak, out of those above. In the end I chose a font called "Port Credit" which is the third font down from the list above. I chose this font as I felt it was relatable to the house style and the photo which I used for the front cover. However, I had to consider this font not only for the front cover but also for the other panels on the digipak. I found this font suited well, as it was simplistic in its own way, was not too thick, and had a small curve on the ends on some of the lettering. Therefore, before deciding that I would definitely use it I tested it against other fonts and compared each to one another. After doing this, I did in the end chose this font due to its versatility and the ability to adapt to its surrounding very naturally as, the others did not have this versatility.

Front Cover

For my new front cover, I decided to keep the first image I had originally created in my "tester" front covers as I felt it conveyed the image of being "so close, yet so far away" which is the subliminal message in the music video, so it is linked in that way to my video. Here I added in a lighting effects to darken the picture and highlight the characters in the middle. This enabled me to work around the effect I had laid on the picture, such as adjusting the brightness and contrast of the picture. I was not completely satisfied by the lighting effect that I put on so I decided to use the gradient tool, which was set, black - transparent so that I could enhance these faded edges around the picture. As no one has perfect skin, I also had to use the spot healing brush tool, just to erase some blemishes and scars off of both faces, along with the red eye tool as this occurred too.    

gradient tool

brightness and contrast

 

showing where I added the effects in my labels

      

"FX" to add drop shadow

Next I added in the desired text that I wanted, this was after I had played around with all the different style that I liked and I thought were most appropriate. I then had to position it and choose a colour for it also. I decided to go plain and make the font white, as any dark colour would not allow the font to stand out against the dark background. To compliment the white and to help the font become more eye catching and noticeable, I put a subtle black drop shadow behind the text which is not so obvious at first however, it does enhance the text and it becomes the most attracting characteristic of the front cover, like a digipak should be. I also applied this effect to the name of the album, again to enhance it. However, I altered it somewhat, I also put a slight gradient across the "Way Back Home" text so that it had a bit of a 3D and shaded quality like the original Bag Raiders album. It does not detract from the other text of the image, yet, it is still noticeable, which means it has the right balance of contrast. 

to help eliminate spots and blemishes

Back Cover

Following on from the front cover, I next wanted to start the back cover which required a bit of extra research. I looked into the legal and copyright issues on a digipak and I added this onto the back of my own digipak. These are things such as, "copyright" and even adding in the website of the recording company along with copyright terms such as who owns the song and the lyrics writers for the album. Accompanying this was the barcode which you see on every album so that it can be purchased. I changed the fonts for these specific parts as it was legal rights and using the font that I had used for titles and text would be inappropriate. 

I kept the house style similar as I darkened the edges using the lighting effects and then enhanced this slightly by using the gradient tool. Again, to keep the house style and the conventions the same the original font that is used on the font was used on the back cover for the track list, this made the font recognisable to the audience. 

I positioned the track list down the centre of the photo as there was a lot of "negative space" around the characters heads and acted as a divide between both of them, again, exhausting the idea that they are "so close yet so far away". The house style is kept the same, in the font of the track list and is spaced enough so that it is not too close together and not too far apart.

Insides

The two inside pages that I have put together were one original image, that i simply split into two. I decided that by splitting the image it would create an exaggerated effect of the concept behind the video; "I can feel you in the distance but you seem so far away", this quotes the lyrics from the song where they are "so close, yet so far away" . This idea was simplistic yet effective in keeping the house style, the black gradient fading around the edges and the brightness on the face of the character was kept brighter and with a slight bit of contrasting added. I did this for both pictures. I placed the both back to back so that each panel was divided by the spine in the centre of the digipak, again to highlight the individuals isolation.

inside left

However, on the inside left image, showing James' face, I had to edit the background slightly as where I had taken this photo at night in the dark, some of the background lights did not show up on the far left of this particular photo. However, because there were some lights in the background, in Photoshop I simply used the clone stamp tool to clone some of the lights to cover the rest of the darkened image so that it did not look like I had added onto the photo to fit the size. The lights were arranged in a random and spontaneous order to make the image look as if it had not been edited in this area, and to make it look more realistic. 

inside right

CD

To keep a consistent house style, I decided that by using the front cover on the digipak and the magazine for the CD cover would be the best option as not only does it promote the image of the CD further it also is a memorable image for audiences to remember as it is used so frequently in promoting the band. 

Finished Magazine Advert

Finished Digipak

My Completed Digipak

Bottom Right: Back Cover
Bottom Left: Front Cover
Top Left: Inside Right (where CD will be laid)
Top Right: Inside Left photo

Above shows the layout and the template I used to design my digipak and place it in order as to be used in a real digipak. This is my completed digipak for my album, and below are the isolated pictures, one by one including my CD design .

Front Cover

Back Cover

Inside Left and Right 

LEFT

RIGHT

CD

Putting all of these together I wanted to get a better perspective of what the Digipak looked like, so I played around with my finished products.

with CD in place

without CD displaying back panel.

I used Photoshop to edit these, I found a 4 panel template, which I used to place my finished products onto to get an idea of what it would look like if produced. I used the distortion tool to place my photos at the appropriate angle so that it would fit on the panels properly. I also changed the opacity on the back panel underneath the CD so that it gave the illusion that the plastic covering dimmed the picture slightly. 

Video Construction

 When constructing my video, I had to apply the forms and conventions I had previously learn't form analysing other music videos along with correcting errors made in my rough cut. Although I had changed my entire story from my rough cut, I could still apply certain corrections into my final cut, these were things such as:

• Lighting in the shot
• Making my narrative clear and easily understandable
• Cutting down on walking unless the walking serves a purpose behind it
• Considering more realistic locations and more realistic scenes. 

I felt that in my final cut these were all applied, however, feedback from my target audience will be able to tell me whether my own opinion of the video is true or not, as if I were to depend only on my own opinion this would be biased. 

I began by uploading my footage into Final Cut Express, a programme which offered me flexibility in my editing due to infinite number of video and sound layers to enable a professional approach to editing my own video. 

The features where like that when I was editing for my rough cut however, I added in some new feature for my final cut.

For example, I added text inside a text box as my moving "title box" which contained the album name and song title like that when seen on a music channel on television. I added this into my video for authenticity and to add professionalism to the video as if it were to be broadcasted to the nation through this music channel. 

Not only did I add this title box at the beginning of my video, but I added the logo of my targeted music channel  in this case I chose "MTV". I decided MTV was the best suited music channel to host my video because of its vast range of genre's that it hosts on the channel. 

The two combined helped to add a professional approach to the video and this was easily achieved in Final Cut. By adding text I could then place a box on the background of the text and then add transitions to each so they faded in and out of the video when it first began. I was also able to alter the time that the text and box were on screen for during the beginning of the video. 

Similarly, the MTV logo was a simple .gif that I added into the video and could be placed there through the duration of the video by simply adjusting the length of the time it spent in the video layer. 

I could also resize and reposition the image to where I wanted to place it and what size I wished the logo to be. I chose to keep the logo relatively small so it did not detract the audiences attention away from the video, and to aid this I kept it in the top left hand corner, as this is like most of the music channel place their own logos.

To help this process the infinite number of video layers aided me in this process as they did not interrupt or get in the way of my video which was playing while the title box was fading in or out and the image placed in the video was not causing an obstruction either. 

I altered my use of transitions in this video too. I felt as though in my rough cut I used too many. To do this I decided where the transitions would be most effective and relatable. Therefore, I decided to place my transitions in the areas of "past memory" where I could use them to my advantage, by making it obvious to the audience that they were used to display the past. 

I also managed the length of shots more carefully in my final cut as before I did not think of continuity editing, therefore instead I cut to the beat more and arranged my shots and frames more effectively rather than just placing them in order, this I felt kept the audience engaged and responsive to the video so the could depict what was going on in the music video. 

Final Cut Video

Magazine Layouts an Conventions

To aid me in making my own magazine advertisement I have begun looking into adverts and posters which I think will help me in designing my own.

Above shows David Guetta's and his promotional poster and album cover for his CD "Nothing But The Beat". I chose to analyse this style of conventions and layouts as David Guetta is a popular and well recognised figure, so by looking at how his promotional posters are laid out, may help in creating my own. 

It shows a long shot of himself, while he is leaning back at an angle away from the camera and is tilting his hips forward whilst raising on his tip-toes. His direction of gaze is away from the camera and staring out and away, this body language presents power to the viewer and emotes the feeling of control over many other artists and rightly so, due to how quickly he has risen in the music industry

. The largest text displayed is of the artists name, and is written in its own unique font that is relevant to Guetta's music and is written in the font that the whole era's media is from. The font also represents his name and keeps the same style throughout many adverts and is used in pretty much the majority of all his promotional adverts. This helps with recognition and again allows the audiences to recognise who he is instantly.

 The second largest font displays the album title but this is of another font, however, it is relevant to the artists title too, it has the similar house style with complimentary characteristics to the style of music, thanks to the "Courier" effect.

 Noticeably, the promotional poster is extremely similar to that of the album cover, this is to ensure a house style is kept, and that it is maintained at a strict level. This means that there should be no new styles of image, font or layout that is not already on the album. This promotional poster is effective because even from a distance people will be able to recognise that this is David Guetta and being a notorious artist at the moment people are easily able to recognise him. The colour scheme is also very effective and reflects David Guetta well. The theme of black, red and white with some greys enables to viewer to find it less complex and focus entirely on Guetta in the centre of the picture.

Promo poster

album cover

This second poster promotes the Kasabian's album Empire. This band is well known in the Indie Rock and Indie genre and recognised for their unique sound and chart hits with a few Top 10's under their name. I have chosen this band to analyse in their conventions and layout, as although not as highly recognised as Guetta, they are still a very well known band among many fans and Indie-type genre audiences. They are a successful band and by looking into this "lesser mainstream" band I hope to understand how they promote themselves as well as they do.

  They have used these elements to create a simple yet effective poster. The largest text shown on the poster is of "Kasabian" in the centre of the poster and  is very similar to that of the album the only difference is the colour of the displayed in the artist title. This text is shown in a big bold font and even has a white boarder around the outside of the text to highlight the text shown and to make it stand out even more, and make it evident to the viewers.

 The difference in colour could be due to recognition, as people will see the poster, recognise it, and relate it to the album. This is also a very effective technique as it makes people think, in the fact that after they recognise the poster they begin to wonder if there is a colour change on the poster or whether it is the same as that on the album; in so the viewer ends up thinking about the band and its promotion, and may even ask friends. This is spreading awareness and at the same time- effectively promoting the band in doing so.

 The release of the album is also displayed at the bottom which is styled with similar conventions to the poster. There is also a banner across this "Playing Card" effect which hold the title of the album, this is extremely effective, as audiences instantly recognise the effect used and it is easily relatable considering the majority of the population around the world have played, seen or held playing cards at some point in their life. The title does not detract from the image either. The title is clear and eye catching so people know what band is being promoted, and the image also draws peoples gaze to the poster due to unusual effect. The colours are what draw the audience in most. It is an effective poster because of all of these aspects.

Digipak Ideas

I next needed to begin exploring my own digipak front covers, so I began to test with a few photos I had taken. The idea I had in mind, was that both characters are close, yet so far away, and there is usually an object obstructing them which metaphorically divides them both. I have played around with Lighting effects and Contrasts to try and make the most out of the images. As the original band- Bag Raiders has two in the band, I have decided to make sure that the two people in my cast, are the only ones especially on the front cover.

 I used the lighting effects in this picture especially to highlight the bodies and faces of the characters and to make sure that the text would stand out. the original picture I took was quite dark and a bit bland therefore I played around with the contrast and the brightness slightly just to make the picture stand out and brighten up a bit. I used a simple font for this text. I did not want to over do it as the photo is quite simple itself so if the font was too vibrant or outrageous it would either destroy the picture or it just wouldn't look right.

I am quite pleased with this photo, it will need some work if I were to choose this as my front cover such as playing with the fonts a little more, as I am not content with the style or colour of the band name. I also think I went a little overboard with the brightness and I would like to adjust the lighting effects so it was slightly darker around the side edges and the bottom. Also I have edited around some lettering that was on the lamp post, so I will have to go over that as it is obvious at the moment where I have edited over it. However, I believe this photo has potential.

My second tested image. Again I like this, as it displays both characters in a "close but so far" image, yet the bench doesn't completely portray that. Again, as it being quite a dark shot I played around with lighting effects and the contrasts to make the images stand out more. I used the same fonts as in the previous tester photo, however, in this one I colour picked the band name from Shannon's top. I was not content with the first colour so I thought that by colour picking it may have more of a place than randomly choosing colours. I also added a drop shadow behind the band name, this time a lighter colour than that in the foreground. I felt it gave a subtle 3D effect like that used in the actual band digipak. This photo also has potential, however, I do not think as a front cover. Instead, I think this would be more suitable for the back cover containing the track list, due to the large space in the middle of the two characters, I think it would look more appropriate and more fitting used in that context.