Previous Photoshop Work

As previously stated, I have experience using photoshop in my graphic design studies. Below are some pieces of work I have completed and how I went about editing them.

Photoshop Tutorial

Within todays lesson we were taken through the basics of adobe photoshop. Since being a graphics student, I am aware of the uses of photoshop therefore I should be able to understand the basics. I am familiar with the uses of the key tools such as magic wand tool whereby aspects of solid colour within the image can be selected and adapted. I understand the importance of using layers and how they follow a 'building block' structure and can be selected and adapted individually with effects such as emboss and stroke. This will add attractive features to my design as they will be bolder and stand out more against the background used.

In my lesson I used a simple use of layers and the use of a magic wand tool to remove the solid background of the image in order to make it look more realistic as there is no shape around the image.

Digipak Mood Board

Using my peer feedback, I have gathered my adjectives in order to gain inspiration for the front cover of my digipak.

Dapper

Romance

Gentleman

Cute

Classic

Playful

Fun

Cheeky

I will either use a handwritten font which I have designed myself, or I will use a curved font slightly like the ones opposite.  
 

I will need to create a pattern with both the music video and digipak. This means the same style should be worn by the lead male artist - by using the adjectives received from my target demographic this would fit under the word 'DAPPER.' Therefore a shirt and tie should be worn to achieve this.

I would like to have the lead artist appear 3 times on the front cover of the digipak- perhaps facing three different directions. Possibly having each photo with a different facial expression as if cheering up or portraying a rollercoaster of emotions. 

The colours should be bright and bold standing out when put against other digipaks ensuring that the character is relatable through facial expression and positioning of his posture and body.

One of my favourite locations used for the filming was the park for the bench scene showing the interaction between the two characters. If I didnt use this bench I would like to use one involving nature and being outside as this is where the majority of my video is shot. 

Conventions of Indie Album Covers

The similarities between these indie albums illustrate the opposing uses of colour throughout therefore meaning that colour may not be a necessity for this genre. All of the albums clearly display the name of the artist and the name of the album in order to directly address members of the public. Additionally, in all of the albums there is an indication to an artist whether this is the artist singing or not, there is a physical form of someone identified on the cover. Within a few of the covers, there is a sense of surrealism, for instance, Ben Howard's album shows someone in water swimming deep, this may relate directly to the theme of the songs being 'deep' in a sense of unhappiness. Yet an audience is unsure if this is Ben himself which creates a surrealist aspect. Alongside this, in three of the albums - Ben Howard, The Kooks and Bastille, the artist is not looking directly into the camera hence encouraging the audience to look elsewhere - this means the background and setting of the image is important. 

Digipak based on my Genre

Of monsters and men are an indie folk band consisting of one lead artist who is clearly displayed off central to the cover of their album - My Head Is An Animal.

The background is of a beach displaying somewhat of a vintage effect perhaps showing an old photo of the artist. The logo for the bands name is shown in the top left corner helping to make it noticeable to members of the public. The artist is smiling and looking into the camera suggesting they are happy within themselves and their genre of music on the album is overall happy rather than depressing as this may have shown the artist as down. 

The back of the cover illustrates a consisting theme with the logo still being identifiable at the bottom of the cover. Also the beach background is still continued into the back of the casing. There is a barcode visible alongside a track listing of the songs within the CD disk.

Overall, there is a light hearted happy aura emitted from this album enhancing the indie genre which I can use to help me with designing my digipak.

Digipak Research

In this post I will analyse an existing album cover which has addressed a direct message to consumers when purchasing the product.

Beyonce is an icon to many with her name echoing "Queen B." As such an inspiration she is looked upon as a role model to many opposing to many artists which have a smaller fan base and receive more hate than icons like Beyonce. Her album cover for '4', reveals her brand identity highlighting her overall persona to an audience.

Immediately, it is blatant that the angle used to capture the star image is a low angle shot. As learnt from my previous tasks and practical activities, a low angle shot looks up to the artist in this case, accentuating her admiring aura and power. Her eye line looks into the skies as if to act as a 'Godly' figure whereby people look up to her for inspiration. This empowering aspect of the album overwhelms the lack of clothing worn somewhat indicating that no matter what this female wears - she is consistently considered a role model figure. Her hair is somewhat messy and doesn't particularly match the glamorous aspect she is emitting yet it somewhat reflects a lion (also with the fur clothing), and this aspect of a lioness relates directly to being a leader and a 'queen', which she is renowned for. The name of the artist is central and at the top of the album cover. However, it is obvious that the image of Beyonce herself is covering this title, this somewhat anchors this empowering aspect whereby the image of the artist is recognisable to all making it less necessary for the name of the artist to be revealed.  The jewellery worn by the artist addresses her wealth and gives a focus to her face to enhance her beauty and 'girl power' approach. The positioning of her hands above her head gives an audiences focus to her body which in a sense fulfills an audiences needs by looking up to her for inspiration they look at her figure and womanly assets for motivation. Yet, this focus on her body does not override the powerful statement she is producing on this album cover to state she is a god-like figure to many. 

Conventions of a Digipak

What is a digipak and how does it oppose to an album cover?

A digipak typically contains bonus features consisting usually of a tracklist, lyrics to a track, perhaps how the music video was made or information on the artist. It consists more than what an album cover would stereotypically entail. 

What do we usually find on the various faces of the digipak?

Blatantly, the front cover of the digipak would be an image of the artist, the name of the artist and the name of the album/digipak. This therefore provides enough information for a member of the public or possible consumer to identify the aspects of the album making it a quick and easy way to choose which product to buy. The back of the digipak is usually identified with a track listing of the CD whereby the order of the songs are listed alongside the names. Additionally, the other faces within the digipak may entail lyrics to one particular song within the CD or perhaps information of the artist or how the music video was made. On parts of the digipak usually the back, there will be a barcode, typically adjacent to it being a price of the digipak allowing a consumer to understand the price of the product. If the song was to contain explicit content, there may be identification of this aspect through the well known explicit content tag (as shown below.) 

Does there need to be a theme between the faces?
It is a necessity to have a theme following through the faces of the digipak as the audience needs to understand that they all relate and have a purpose of addressing the correct brand identity for the artist allowing it to appeal to the specific target demographic. There should be a link in fonts, imagery and colour schemes making sure it is aesthetically pleasing to a member of the audience making it stand out from other digipaks when put on a shelf. 

Wordle: words describing my artist

After looking at my target demographic feedback, post producing my music video, I used the words from the feedback task to create a word cloud in order to aesthetically address my audience. 

Peer Feedback

In order to gather the final feedback for my music video, I asked my media class to answer several questions on the video giving me additional information which I could use towards my digipak research. I found that final tweaking was necessary towards the end of the video as there were several blackouts which I, myself thought fit with the anticipation of events, however, it seemed too unprofessional when asking my peers, therefore I changed this part. My peers very much summarised that my storyline was clear and easy to follow. The struggles of filming were unrecognisable by my audience which was beneficial as this meant I had successfully created a music video which made sense. The shots which I had taken time to take worked as they were congratulated on for being innovative and unique. 

Overall, I am pleased with my final product as amongst the piles of stress and organisation, I have successfully and proudly produced a music video correctly following a storyline which is clear to my target demographic. 

Finished Film

Below is my final music video of George Peachtree's, Symbolic. 

Targeting My Audience

My target market mostly falls into the description of teenagers. As this is something vital I need to address in my video, I had to include many aspects which allowed the audience to become related to the storyline and actors.

Firstly, the female actor playing the role of the 'crush', is seen as the girl next door. She is more comedic rather than fitting a specific stereotype which would be associated with the male gaze. This makes the audience relate to her more as the stress and build up before meeting a boy is identified in the video and this is highly relatable to female teens.

The panic and stress of her getting ready is what creates the humour for viewers as this is the most familiar aspect to the females. 

This scene shows a typical female who spends her time on her laptop, eating chocolate and being lazy in bed. Again this aspect is comedic and is highly relatable to female teens.

Using a phone in the music video allows the audience to relate again and this form of communication is highly common in teenagers of the 21st century. It would be a situation which the audience will be familiar of - both males and females, hence increasing how relatable and interesting the video is for viewers. 

The clothing worn by the artist is relatable to male teens as it is along the lines of what they wear on a day to day basis. This may make them look up to the artist as a role model, especially the way within which he talks and acts towards his crush, with gestures such as flowers, as this may not be familiar to boy teens of this century.

Editing My Footage

 

Throughout my editing, I wanted it to be clear that my star image was being addressed in the most specific and accurate way possible. It seems as though one key part of the artists image which is addressed clearly, is the way he transforms and 'grows' as an artist throughout the video. I used this aspect in the shots above which when showing members of media class and my teacher, they were impressed with how precise transformation was shown in this specific sequence. It conveys the artist walking from one location to another and to another, yet he stays in the same attire and the walking across the screen shows a development in time and maturity. This relates to my target market of teenagers as when commonly being a teenager, change and growing up is a key aspect in this part of life. The inspiration from this clip came from previous research, in Clean Bandit's - Rather Be. By using the same convention from an artist of the same genre, it has allowed me to meet the conventions and expectations of a baroque pop video. Below the Clean Bandit clip is shown.

 

Above are screenshots of one of the main storylines in my video. The female artist wears an orange ribbon and this is a key feature in the storyline shown throughout. This was something I had to add post my first filming period as when looking at footage I realised I did not have a complete storyline. I had to make this ribbon aspect clear in all of the video, ensuring I reminded the audience of the feature by showing it in different scenes and locations. This ribbon allowed a resolution in the storyline, hence improving the clarity of the video.

I included forms of intertextuality in my video to relate to my audience more. They will be familiar of the phone usage as teenagers use these technologies daily. 

Using final cut express, I was able to precisely edit my film in order to correctly address my storyline.

Overall Filming Review

I believe as a member of my media class, that I had the most hassle with my artist and filming throughout the process of producing my video. 

I chose a friend of mine which I believed would be trustworthy and loyal, unfortunately this was not entirely the case. It seemed for the artist that the job he had agreed to do was too much for him and it was too time considering his almost full time job as a supermarket assistant. To overcome this, I patiently met up with the artist various times, organising to film in locations which were easy for the artist to access and for shorter periods of time. Despite the organisation post deciding on a happy medium, the result of the miscommunication and lack of loyalty when meeting for filming periods, meant that when overlooking my footage, it often didn't fit together in terms of location and time of day when put in order. 

However, after closely editing and changing the order of shots, I was able to produce a music video I was proud of after the challenges I had faced throughout my filming procedure. It has helped me to learn that when choosing an actor for my products I need to be clearer with the necessary dates and times whereby the artist is required, and also encourage the artist to learn the lyrics to an exemplary standard prior to filming.

Reviewing Christmas Footage

Over the Christmas break, I recorded the female parts of the music video. I ensured that the locations used were similar throughout both the male and female parts to allow the audience to create a relationship between the two. I had to make the female parts of the video have more of a story therefore I accentuated the relationship and communication between both the male and female parts. By including features such as intertextuality, whereby phones were used between the two characters, it includes other aspects of technology making the video more relatable to teenage viewers with these technology uses.

I created a personality for the female being a typical female - painted nails, stressing about outfit choices, lighthearted, typically 'upset' teen after being ditched (chocolate, dressing gown, film)