Digipak Analyisis

Digipak Analysis

• What is the purpose of a digipak?

The purpose of a digipak is used to promote the sale of the album by providing special features that encourages the audience to buy the CD rather than downloading the music. A digipak is usually a 4 to 6 plate of folded card with a CD case in the middle. A digipak consists of images of the artists and provides the audience with content about the album. It also has a list of songs that feature on the album giving the audience an insight to what is on the CD. In order for the digipak to promote the album, the covers are usually designed to be eye catching so that it stands out attracting the audience attention.  One of the slides consist of a thank you note in which it tells the audience more information about the artist and the music behind it.

• How is a digipak different from a CD album? 

A digipak differs from a CD album as it provides the audience with more personal information about artist/band and therefore helps the audience build up a relationship with the artist. In comparison, CD albums are basic and provides less personal information about the artist.This in turn prevents that audience form building up a relationship with the artist and therefore reduces the likelihood of the audience buying the artists album. Digpaks are also effective as they often provide the audience with a special addition of CD album which may even contain bonus tracks; This is something a CD doesn't provide. In order for the digipak help the audience build a relationship with an artist, they consist of high quality images that have certain meanings. This helps connote a certain message the artist is trying to portray rather than just an ordinary picture of the artist. However a limitation to buying a digipak is that due to them being made of cardboard material, they are more prone to rip compared to a plastic CD case.

I am going to analyse a Ellie Goulding's digipak in order for me to gain a better understanding of what codes and conventions are expected to see withing a pop artists digipak. Therefore when It comes to me creating my digipak I will be able to use thins knowledge to create a conventional digipak.

Within the digipak, the artist has been represented as an 'Ordinary' person. This is evident as through her clothing the audience can see she is wear casual clothes. The images used of the artists either consist of a mid shot or long shot which she is seen to be wearing simplistic top and shorts. This therefore highlights that the digipak conforms to Dyers star theory and therefore portrays the artist to be relatable. This is effective as it enables the audience to build a relationship with the artist as they don't feel that they are superior to them. Therefore when creating my digipak, in order for me to conform to the codes and conventions I am going to use the same technique by portraying the artist as an 'Ordinary' person.

Within the digipak, an image of the artist is shown on all four slides. This is effective as it connotes to the audience the artists importance and focuses their attention on her. One of the images used on the digipak is a mid shot of the artist playing the guitar in the studio. The camera shot used is effective as it enables the audience to see her facial expressions in which she is seen to be smiling. This highlights to the audience her love and passion for music and shows her working hard in the studio. It also connotes the artists talent as she not only sings but can play musical instruments and therefore encourages the audience to buy the album. This is conventional to see within the pop music genre and therefore when I design my digipak I am going to use images of my artist throughout the slides, but more particularly images of the artist playing his guitar. Another image of the artist is a long shot in which she is seen sitting in an isolated locations. This is conventional to see within the pop music genre as not only does it focus the audiences attention of the artist but it connotes the artist emotions. I am also going to use this technique to convey the artist feeling vulnerable and lonely; these are both themes that occur throughout my music video.

On the digipak, the text that has been used consists of black and white. This is effective as you can see a contrast between the two colours making it stand out against the background. Therefore the texts becomes eye catching and draws the audiences attention to digipak and in turn entices them to buy the album. The colours used is also effective as it is non gender specific and therefore attracts a wider audience. However the text used is more swirly writing suggesting that her target audience is aimed more at females. On the front cover of the digipak, the artists name has been written in a large font placed at the top of the slide. This is effective as it makes it stand out and connotes the artists importance. The artists name is also a recognisable feature and therefore this is effective as it will draw her fans and other people who are fond of her work attention and encourages them to look at the digipak. The artist new single is also written on the front cover however in a smaller font. This reflects that its not as significant however it further promotes the artists work.

The digipak promotes the pop music genre by conforming to the codes and conventions. One convention is that on the front cover, the artists gives the audience direct eye contact. This is effective as it enables the audience to engage with the artist and therefore encourages them to look at the digipak. Through having the artist giving the audience direct contact, it attracts them to buy the album as it the are able to build a relationship with the artist.

The research I conducted in digipaks is going to assist me when creating my individual digipak as it have learnt that it is crucial to conform to the codes and conventions of the pop music genre in order to attract my target audience. Therefore I am going to use images of my artist that represents him as an 'ordinary' person. I am also going to use and image on my front cover showing the artist give the audience eye contact. This will be effective as it will attract the audience encouraging them to buy the album. I have also gained a better understanding of how o use the Photoshop software that will enable to create different effects using the different tools.

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Group Magazine Advert EDIT ME

Group Magazine Advert

How did your group share your ideas and designs around?
Before creating our group advert, we evaluated each group members individual designs. This was effective as we was able to look at the elements that was conventional to the pop music genre and use them within our group magazine advert. Within each of our designs we purposely tried to include elements of our music video such as iconography in order to show a correlation between the main product and ancillary texts.

Jagoda Jasionowska
Through looking at Jagoda's individual magazine advert, I realized the effectiveness of the fire in terms of it catching the audiences attention. Therefore as a group this is something we felt should be used within our group magazine advert as it makes the text stand out from a unique perspective and therefore it is different from other adverts. The magazine advert consists of conventions of a pop music genre as it included a mid shot out our artist. This appeals to our audience as the camera shot reveals micro elements such as clothing in which the artist is wearing casual clothing. This attracts our targeted audience as they are able to build a relationship with him as they can relate to him. This is something that has been considered through all of our work. I thing the advert could be improved through using different images of the artist. Through previous research into magazine adverts, I found that it was conventional for the artist to be facing the camera in order for the audience to see the artists facial expressions. Therefore the image used I feel prevents the audience from building up a relationship with the artist as they are in someways restricted.

Which magazine will you submit and why?

The magazine advert we decided to use was my individual digipak. The reasoning for this was

Group Digipak EDIT

Group Digipak

      

How did your group share your ideas and designs around?
Once each group member designed their individual digipaks, we all looked at them and discussed the strengths and weaknesses. We then decided which slide we liked most and combined the digipaks together in order to create our final group digipak. When doing this, we made further improvements using Photoshop so that they all linked together and conform to the stereotypical conventions of a pop digipak.

Jagoda Jasionowska

This is Jagoda's individual digipak in which she incorporated the theme of fire and playing cards in her digipak as these we the key iconography elements used within our music video. This is effective as it conforms to the codes and conventions of a pop music video through the connotations of the iconography and shows a direct link between all of the products. The narrative of our music video was based on a male and female who had broken up. At the beginning of the music video happy flashbacks were used to show the couple when they were happy and as the song progresses the relationship begins to fall apart. The use of playing cards represent the relationship and how they played each other. The king and queen of hearts are symbolic for the male and female characters. At the end of the music video we used a tower of cards and set them on fire. The connotations of the fire show the pain and hurt felt from the relationship and shows the destruction it caused. The tower of cards falling shows the relationship break down and them splitting up. As a group we all felt like using these themes would be significant in making our ancillary products successful and therefore we decided that we would use it within our group digipak.

The the images used within the digipak are conventional as she has used both long shots and mid shots. The long shot image of the artist enables the audience to see the artists clothing. This is effective as he is seen to be wearing casual clothing which is a stereotypical convention of a pop music video. This is because the artist isn't represented as superior to the audience in any way and therefore they feel as though they can relate to the artist. This also conforms to Dyers star theory as he suggested that the artist should appear ordinary for the consumer so that they are relateable. The mid shot of the artist is effective as it enables the audience to see the artists facial expressions. Therefore this conveys the artists emotions with enable the audience to build up a relationship with the audience. In one of the images the artist gives the audience direct eye contact which is effective as it draws the audiences attention making it more personal to the individual.

To improve the digipak, I think that it would be effective to incorporate some colour. Each slide on the digipak is black and white which is effective as they all link together however i think elements of colour such as the red on his jacket would be effective in connoting hidden meanings. Through using colour on the digipak it would also stand out more making it catch the audiences attention. Therefore this encourages the audience to buy the album making our products more successful.

 Which digipak will you submit and why? 
The digipaks we decided to submit was both mine and another group members (Jagoda Jasionowska). This was because we felt that ours both conformed to the pop conventions well and both showed a direct link between our main product and ancillary products. From my digipak, we used the front cover, CD cover and the thank you slide and from Jagoda's digipak we used her tracklist. We felt that our artist images could have been better location wise and therefore Jagoda re-done those slides to improve them. In order for both mine and Jagoda's digipaks to match we had to make some changes. As my slides consisted of elements we edited elements of colour to the artist's image. For example, through using photoshop, we kept the colour of the guitar and changed the rest of the image to black and white. We also used the same technique for the artists jacket. We felt that this would be effective in making the digipak unique and therefore stand out to the audience. 

Group digipak

Storyboards

Storyboards

What is the purpose of a storyboard?
The purpose of a storyboard is to help gain a better understanding of what we want to see within our music video and to display each scene in the chronicle order we wish to edit them. Through creating the storyboards, me and the other members of my group discussed the micro elements we plan to use when filming each scene of our video. These elements consist of the camera shot, location, iconography, lighting, actors, sound, and editing. Through creating our storyboard we was able to save time when filming as we all had a good understanding of what location we was going to use and what iconography we would need to bring.

How did you use your primary and secondary research that you carried out, to plan your music video?
The primary and secondary research I conducted helped me create my music video as I gained a better understanding of what is expected within a music video. The Primary research I conducted was questionnaires in which I asked 40 people questions on what they would prefer to see in a music video. One question I asked was whether they preferred to watch music videos that conformed to the conventions or whether they preferred to see a diverse music video. Once we gathered our finding we learnt that the majority of the people we asked preferred a conventional music video. Therefore when designing our music video storyboards we consciously included stereotypical conventions to the pop music genre as it would attract our target audience. Further primary research I conducted was the Vox Pops. This is where I interviewed people asking them further questions about music videos. This was effective as I learnt that the majority of people we interview preferred to listen to pop music. Therefore we felt that our chosen artist was a suitable to use as he is a pop artist and would appeal to our target audience.

The secondary research I conducted was looking at two different theories. The first theory I analyse was Goodwin's theory in which he suggested that a music video should show a link between the lyrics and the visuals. This is because it gives the audience a better understanding of the meaning of the song. Therefore when conducting our music video, we also used this technique for example when the lyrics say 'I remember years ago' we will show a flashback of the male and female. Goodwin also suggested that there should be a relationship between the music and the visuals. This is something we also Incorporated into our music video as when the songs is slow, we are going to use slow pace editing, however when the chorus starts the beat increases in which we will then use fast pace editing. The second theory I analysed was Dyers Star theory. Dyer suggested that the artist should appear ordinary for the consumer in order for them to be able to relate, however appear extraordinary to be viewed as an Idol. Therefore when creating our music video, we dressed our artist in casual clothing so that he doesn't appear as superior to our target audience. However when filming certain scenes, our artist was seen to be wearing designer clothing such as Super dry. This is effective as it shows the artist to be fashionable therefore encouraging his audience to invest in the same brand (extraordinary to the consumer).

How did you and your group storyboard your music video?
To create our storyboards, as a group we had a discussion of what we want to include in our music video. This required us to decided on specific locations and what iconography we could use in the music video. We also discussed combined our ideas and spoke about micro elements such as what lighting we would use when creating our music video and what actors would be needed in each individual shot. This was effective as when it came to designing our storyboards we had a good understanding of what we wanted to see within our music video and how we were going to achieve them.

How did you share the responsibility?
When creating our storyboards, we split the responsibility between two group members, myself and Jagoda. Jagoda took the role of drawing each camera shot whereas I wrote what location, camera shot, sounds, editing, iconography, and actors we would use.

Did you follow your storyboards, or did you make changes?
When filming our music video, we followed our storyboards as much as we possible could. However when we edited our footage we felt that is would be beneficial to add more happy memories of the male and female into the music video. This was because we wanted to show a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. We found that the song only increased pace and changed towards the end of the song in which we didn't have enough positive footage.

Digipak Reflection

Digipak Reflection

How did you use your research into digipaks to start planning your own?

Through conducting research into digipaks, I was able to gain a better understanding of the codes and conventions for the pop music genre which I am able to imitate when creating my individual digipak. This would ensure that my ancillary product will be conventional to the pop music genre and therefore attract the target audience. One thing I learnt in particular when analysing a digipak was that an image of the artist is significant in creating a successful digipak. This is so that the audience recognise the artist and his music and are more likely to buy the album. Therefore when creating my digipak I used mid shot images of my artist in order for my digipak to be conventional. This is also effective as the audience are able to build a relationship with the artist through his 'ordinary' clothing and facial expressions.

Do you think your digipak is conventional to your genre? Consider the colours/connotation, images, layout etc
When creating  my digipak I conformed to the stereotypical conventions of a pop music genre. This was done by using long shots/mid shots of the artist within four of the slides. This is effective as it highlights the artists importance and enables them to see what the artist is wearing. The artist is seen wearing casual clothing such as jeans shirt and a coat as it would portray him as an ordinary person. This therefore the digipak conforms to Dyer's star theory and allows the audience to be able to relate to the artist rather than feel inferior to him. This is a stereotypical convention of the pop music genre. My digipak also conforms to the pop conventions as I have used images of the artists guitar. This highlights to the audience the artists talent  and therefore it further promotes his work. This is an example of how my digipak conforms to Dyers Star theory as it represents him as 'extra-ordinary'.

The colours I used within my digipak conform to the pop music genre.  Through using photoshop I edited all of the images to black and white, however I kept elements of colour. For example on the front cover, I kept the artists jacket the colour red. This was effective as it the colour red connotes love and hate, all themes that occur throughout my my music video. Therefore this shows a direct link between both of my products. The colour red is also non-gender specific and therefore I doesn't attract a specific target audience. The colour of the artists name is written in white. This is conventional as it stands out against the black background catching the audiences attention.    

Another convention I conformed to when creating my digipak was using an isolated location. This is often seen in pop music videos throughout the performance section as it focuses the audiences attention on the artist rather than distracting them with the location. Therefore when creating the images of my artists on Photoshop, I used a plain grey background in order for the artist be the main focal point. I used both a close up and mid shot so that audience we able to see the artist facial expressions in turn enabling them to build up a relationship with the artist. Through using isolated locations it helps the audience identify the music genre and therefore determines whether they will be interested in the album.              

Do you think your target audience will be able to build a relationship with your artist?
I think that the target audience will be able to build a relationship with the artist as in 4 out of the 6 slides on my digipak, I used images of the artist. Each of these images consist of the artist facing the camera. Even though in most of the images the artist doesn't give the target audience direct eye contact due to him playing the guitar, the audience can still see the artists facial expressions which conveys his passion and love for the music. This allows them to build up a relationship with the artist and encourages them to buy the album. However the front cover is the most important, and therefore I used an image of the artist looking at the camera. This is so that the audience can engage with the artist and are more likely to by the album.Within the digipak, one slide consists of a thank you message written by the artist. This helps the audience build up a relationship with the artist as they are able to get an insight the artist themselves as well as their music. The message further portrays the artists passion for the music and entices the audience to buy the album.

What choices and decisions did you make and why?
When creating a CD cover, I decided to create a newspaper effect and made the artist the headline. I included an image of the artist to the side of the article and some information about the album. I decided to do this as it connotes to the audience that the artist is popular attracting a mainstream audience. This is something different and therefore it is effective as it stands out from other digipaks attracting the audience attention. The text on the CD cover was written using different font sizes. The largest font size was the artist name as it is the most recognisable feature, therefore the audience will immediately know who the artist is encouraging them to look at the digipak. However I also used a large font for the artist new single 'Impossible' to further promote the artists album and the music video. This conforms to the pop music genre and therefore shows that my digipak is conventional.

I also decided used the black and white colours throughout each of the slides to create a continuous theme. My decision for this is due to the fact that within my magazine advert, I also used a black and white image. Therefore is shows a link between each of my ancillary products. However within some of the images I used Photoshop tools to keep elements of the colour. This subverts the conventions of a pop music video however I believe it is still effective as it shows something different. Therefore the audience will be intrigued and look at the digipak whilst making it stand out from all the other digipaks.

What could you change and why?
If I was to change something on my digipak it would be that I would use more than one conventional location. This would be effective as it would highlight to the audience what genre of music it is and therefore they will know whether or not they are interested in buying the album. Through using plain location it is hard for the audience to identify the genre and so it doesn't attract my target audience as much as I would like it to. 

How will this draft assist you with creating your group digipak?
Through creating my digipak, it will help assist me when designing our group digipak as it gave me a better understanding of what went well and what I didn't like. I think it is important to conform to the conventions as it allows the audience to identify the genre of music and therefore I would use simplistic, isolated locations. Through creating my digipak using Photoshop, I was able to gain better experience through using the various different tools and effects. This is going to help me when creating my group digipak as I understand what tools to use to create specific effects.

Magazine advert reflection

Magazine advert reflection

First Magazine Advert

My research into magazine adverts helped me plan my own design. Through looking at the magazine adverts of James Morrison and Plan B, I learnt that it was important to conform to the codes and conventions of the music genre in attracting the target audience. I also learnt that the artist was a significant element in terms of the promotion of the album. Therefore when I made my first draft of the magazine advert I used a mid shot image of the artist facing the audience. Therefore the audience will be able to see the artist representation and build a relationship with the artist through his facial expressions.

When looking at the Plan B magazine advert, the first thing you notice is his name placed on the top of the page in a large bold font. This is effective as it connotes to the audience the artists importance and therefore when creating my first draft I used the same technique. To make the artists name the most prominent feature of the poster I used a large bold font in order for it to catch the audiences attention. Beneath the artists name, I mentioned the artists new single. This was also done on both of the magazine adverts I analysed as it gave the audience a insight to the singles that are on the album. The artists new single being placed on the poster in a large font is effective as the audience will recognise the song and therefore be more likely to read the advert and buy the album.

On the first paper draft of my magazine advert, I incorporated elements that feature in the music video; this being the reoccurring theme of the cards. I have chose to use the king and queen of hearts as the cards connote the artists break up in which the song 'impossible' is about. Therefore it catches the audiences attention as they are intrigued to understand the meaning behind it. I have also drawn the cards on fire as not only does it stand out and catches the audiences attention, but it symbolises the artist emotions of anger and pain. Photoshop is going to help me when creating my second magazine advert as it will be able to edit the colours and images on the advert. For example the background colour is going to be black as it stands out enticing the audience to read it. The colour of the fire is going to stand out and draws the attention to the cards intriguing the audience. I also planned to use white writing on the advert as it will create a contrast with the back ground making it stand out from everything else on the poster.

Second Magazine Advert

The second magazine advert I created using Photoshop. As I had little experience using the software, before I began creating my magazine advert I learned how to use the tools and what they did. One tool i used a lot throughout the process is the magnetic lasso tool. This enabled me to crop out a shape and place it on a different layer. I use the tool to crop the outline shape of the artist and placed it onto a plain background. The image i used of the artist was a long shot. This was effective as the audience were able to see the artist playing the guitar highlighting that he is talented and can perform. It also allowed the audience to see the artist clothing, in which he is seen to be wearing a shirt and trousers. Even though the clothing is 'fashionable' they are still casual reflecting the artists representation as 'ordinary'. This is effective as the audience don't feel inferior to the artist and are more likely to buy the album. This also conforms to the stereotypical conventions of the pop music genre.

On the second poster, I used white writing on a plain black background. This is effective as it makes the writing stand out from anything else on the poster drawing in the audiences attention. The colours used on the poster are non-gender specific. This in turn attracts a wider audience rather than singling out a specific gender encouraging the most amount of people to read the magazine advert. I also used the same idea as in the original draft of the cards, however I used a red king and queen of hearts. The colour red connotes the love the artist felt in the relationship and the pain that was caused due to the break up. This gives the audience an insight to not only the new single but the meaning behind the album. The audience are therefore encouraged to buy the album as the are intrigued.

Final music video

Final Music Video