First Draft Digipak Advertisement

This is my first draft for my advertisement for my digipak. I have used the image that is on my front cover of my digipak as I want to keep a consistency throughout the digipak and the advertisement and it would make the album easily recognised. I have similarly used the white typography too as this is used in the digipak. I have changed some of the typography on some parts as it looked strange without a different typography and I am happy with the one I used as it makes the album name stand out. I have included the record company logo and the bands name as this is important for them, and the web address would allow fans to find out more about them. I have also included a star rating which makes it look really realistic but also because it makes the album seem really good and then persuading them to buy it. Adding to this, I chose to use the magazine 'Q' as this writes about similar genre based bands such as indie bands. This would allow people who read this magazine to encourage them to then buy the Digipak. 

I am quite happy with the overall look of the advertisement but I haven't decided yet on whether to use the image stretched across or to have a plain background. I am going to speak to my teacher and ask her on her opinions and how I can improve both my advertisement and my digipak. 

I took inspiration from bands/artists that are similar to the genre of our band. For example, Florence and The Machine uses her album cover as the image for her advertisement which is something I have done.
Kings of Leon use one image spread across the entire page and then the text over it, which is what I have also done, however they use a different image to their album cover but it is very similar which keeps the consistency.

25th November 2013

Journal: 

We need to start filming for our music video so we are going to plan when to film.

On Friday 6th December 2013:

• Filming all the parts that take place in Danson Park 

Saturday 7th December 2013: 

• Filming all the different locations in London 

Places to go: 

- Charing Cross

- London Bridge 

- Camden Town 

- London Eye 

- Trafalgar Square 

Filming for Music Video/Journal

Journal:

As we have done our animatics and got our feedback we need to start deciding when we can start filming for our music video, as we have a lot of different shots in different locations. I have marked off the days of next month when I'm busy but I'm free the majority of the time so we need to decide as a group when we can get together and start filming. We also came up with an idea today for our music video, for the notion of looking, where we want to film on a bus. We are going to go on the open top buses up London which will allow us to get a variety of shots and locations and also it would be totally legal to film with a tripod ect. 

21st November 2013 (feedback from animatics)

Journal 

Feedback from our Animatics: 

I am really really happy with the overall feedback from Leanne and the rest of the class.
People commented on how our genre was well presented and how we have used the genre characteristics within our animatics, which is one of the main things.
People said how we used Goodwin's theory really well which is really important as this is the main conventions that need to be used within Music Videos, so I am glad that people have picked up on this.
They said that the overall pace of the animatics was very good too and that it goes well with the song, which is something we wanted to present within this.
There were comments on the animatics suiting the target audience and that it would be something that would want to be watched over again.

People commented on the things that we needed improving on which was the notion of looking and the intertextual references. However, we have shown this in our music video but you probably couldn't notice it in the story board images.

New Digipak Photos

This is a video of some of the pictures that we took. I am a lot happy with these photos as they make us look more like a band and more friendly and relaxed with one another; this was one of our first issues. We have resolved some of the issues that people have said about. We have took a lot more close ups too which was something that was needed as they are a new band and need to be recognised. We had someone take our photos too which was also a lot more helpful for us.

Second Draft for Digipak

This is my second draft for my digipak. After getting feedback from the class and also from teachers about the quality of our pictures we decided to take some more. I was really happy with the new pictures as you are able to see our faces a lot more which is needed for a new band. The pictures are also quite laid back and relaxed making us fit into our genre more. I have stayed with the same typography as people agreed that this was suitable and also with the same colour. I am going to ask for more feedback on this digipak so I can make more changes if they are needed. The pictures make us seem a lot closer as a band which is also another thing which we needed to do.

Goodwin's theory

We have applied Goodwin's theory within our music video for certain aspects.

For example we have included:

• A relationship between music and visuals,
• A relationship between music and lyrics, 
• Intertextual Reference, 
• Notion of looking, 
• Close ups (the record label influence)

For the relationship music and visuals appears throughout a lot of the music video as well as music and lyrics. We have tried to link the music and lyrics but to an extent where it is consistent.

For our intertextual reference we have chose a section from her music video where the camera moves around her. We chose to do Blondie because we felt that the fans of the band 'After Midnight' would also be interested in this type of music. We have chose her as we want the band's roots to come from this era and their influences come from this too, however the band take a more modern approach towards their image/music. As we have included a lot of scenes that are based in London we wanted to choose and iconic artist that is famous in Britain. 

We have used the notion of looking through different cinematography, for example we have used a point of view shot to make the audience feel closer with the band. It also makes them appear natural and normal people who are just having fun. 

The use of close ups in reference to the record label is used in order for the audience to feel more in touch with the band. It also puts the bands image out there and for them to be noticed more. 

Animatics

So today we completed the animatics for our music video. I am really happy with the way it looks and it allows me to have a better insight as to what the overall video will look like. We have a lot of different locations and some are up london. When we film up london we need to make sure that we get loads of shots as it will be a lot harder to reshoot. We have included an intertextual reference from one of Blondie's music video where the camera turns round her laying down and we have done this for all of us.

Story boards

This is all the story boards which I have drew out. I am really happy with the overall look of the storyboards as I feel that it applies everything for the Goodwin theory and it corresponds well with the tone and pace of the song itself. I am going to put them into a video for the animatics so we can see the timings of each step which will help us to consider if we need to make any changes. I

14th November 2013

Journal: 

My current independent role at the moment is for the story boards. I have nearly finished the story board which was completed today. We discussed as a group what should be in the story boards as this is a team effort. We have also researched into intertextual references as this is the only element of Goodwin's theory that we are currently lacking. I though that Blondie was a good idea as she can be linked into the type of music and image that are genre adopts to. We have started looking into Blondie's videos and of Iconic moments that we could reference into our own music video.

Once all the storyboards have been fully completed I am going to take individual pictures of each of them to begin our animatics so we can change or edit the overall look for our music video. I am really happy with the progress that we have completed today as we are coming into the final stages of planning and then we can begin.

Digipak Pitch

This was our pitch to the class about our digipaks. We all spoke individually about our independent digipaks and what we wanted to be in them and of our first drafts. After getting feedback from our class mates and the teachers we are taking more photos tomorrow so we can get more close up shots of the band.

Discussions

This is one of our discussions that we had with our teacher regarding our overall progress of our project. We spoke about the intertextual reference and how it should be iconic and british. I mentioned that Blondie would be a good idea to use and we have progressed more ideas from this.

13th November 2013

Journal:

For my digipak I have been thinking about other ideas to portray the indie genre. After speaking to our teacher she feels that we need to have more close ups and I agree with this too.  I would like to have some close ups of all of us with a plain white background.
I also think that we should do my original idea of all of our heads places together. I think that as we are a new band we do need to have our faces properly shown so that the audience can see what we look like.
I am going to discuss with the rest of the group when we can take these photos, it will be easy to do as we can do this indoors and we do not have to rely on the weather.
We need to make sure that we exaggerate more to make us look like indie girls. So for the close ups we can make sure that we use make-up that presents this.

Posters

This is a powerpoint for analysing the posters that advertise the albums. I have chose albums that are of a similar genre to ours, and also ones that I like and would want to take ideas from.

Digipak Presentation

Digipak Presentation by hayleysollis

This is a presentation which I am going to present to the class about my ideas and first drafts for my digipak. This will be very useful as I want to get feedback from other people. One teacher has said we need to change our pictures so it would be good to get other opinions too and whether they like these pictures or not.

Digipak first draft

This is the first draft for my digipak, but as we have already spoken to our teacher we need to reshoot. We are doing a presentation on monday to the class to present our digipak ideas so it will also be good to get other opinions on what I have done so far. I am still certain with having an image spread over the interior, however I feel that my ideas may change for the outside pictures.

Digipak Photoshoot

This is a short clip of some of the photos that we took on our photoshoot, and as you may notice there are some issues with the photos that we took. After reviewing these, and speaking to our teacher, we are going to make some changes and take some more photo

Digipak photo ideas

As we are taking inspiration from the band Haim and also some ideas from Lana Del Rey I have made a collage of ideas for our digipak photos to ensure that we portray the right genre. We were struggling at our photoshoot with the angles and the lighting so this collage helps. Also, another thing was the way we were posing in the pictures. As shown in some of these pictures they are laughing and others acting quite natural, but in all they look like a band that are all close. I like the picture that shows their faces but you can see the sky in the background as it gives quite a nice feel to it. I also like the picture on the bench, as it is quite similar to ours, however it is quite planned. I think after looking at these pictures it has helped me get a better view on what my teacher was saying about some of our pictures. On the next shoot I am going to make sure that the lighting is right and that we get full body shots.

7th November

Journal 

Today we showed our teacher the photos that we took the other day, and she feels that we need to take more photos that have better lighting/ poses from us. Obviously we want each of our digipaks to look professional so we are going to arrange another time that we can take pictures. Although we wanted it to be sunny if it is a little bit cloudy this does not matter as the sun will not ruin the overall contrast and lighting of the pictures, so clouds might be useful for this. We need to make ourselves look more like a band as in some pictures we are quite distant and serious. This is something that I agree with as we need to use pictures that portray us to be really fun and close friends. When we next take photos we are going to make sure that we take as many different photos as possible so we can get a variety of different shots.

From my original plan of my digipak some of my ideas have changed. I still want to have one picture that fills my interior as I originally planned to do so, because I like the idea of having scenery in the picture. However, our first picture of having all our heads together has changed (due to weather reasons) instead I really liked the picture of us on the bench. I want to retake the picture on the bench but obviously sit closer and be laughing to make us look more relaxed. I still like the idea of having a long shot picture so that I can make room to put the text for the tracklist in.

I have decided on my typography for the digipak too which is:

Feedback from Pitch

I am really pleased with the overall feedback that we have received. I am pleased that people think that the band name is appropriate and that there is an indie vibe presented. People have also commented on the well chosen record label and the plot of the music video which is also more positive feedback. We are also going to take on board the things that need developing. We are going to do some audience research which is something we needed to do. Also, people have said that the logo needs more work as it does not portray an indie feel, and as a group we also felt this too. We have already started looking at different types of typography to use which I have already put on my blog. Other things commented on were the bands image, which we did not mention in detail in the Pitch but as a group we have all put research into this so it's not a problem. Another was the filming of our music video, one about how to film on a train. We have discussed this and we have agreed that there will not be much filming but more or less amateur videoing to making it look more 'indie'. We didn't really go into much detail about the overall narrative of our music video but we are in process of completing the story boards and there is an element of a narrative. Overall, I am really happy with this feedback as most people thought our idea was good and there is some but not much that we need to work on! 

Pitch to class

This is the pitch that we presented to the class to share our ideas and planning for the music video and for our overall ideas of the band we want to portray.

4th November

Journal:

Today we took our first pictures for the digipak. The weather was finally on our side so we were able to take pictures where the sun was in the background and also with blue skies. I think that this was very successful because it adds to the indie vibe that I want to portray. We took a series of different shots and angles and we did find ourselves straying away from our original plans but I am still happy with overall outcome of the pictures we took today. The floor was wet so we were not able to take the picture of us all laying on the floor but we have arranged a day when we can take this picture. Once we take this picture I can begin to construct the digipak. If I find that I need more pictures then we will have to arrange another time to do so. Overall, I am very happy with the beginning of the digipak and with the photos that we took today!

Digipak Planning

We are planning to take pictures for our digipak tomorrow, hopefully the weather will not be too bad so we can still take photos. This is a picture of outfits that I am going to wear for the digipak. For the digipak the location and the style is quite important as it typically portrays the type of genre that the band is, and we are doing this through what we wear and the locations. We are planning to go to the woods as it is a great location that can allow us to look as if we are 'in touch' with nature and portray the indie vibe that we are trying to achieve.