Digipak Final
This is the final Digipack cover, formed together out of my own research of past folk albums and more modern folk albums from Bob Dylan to Noah and the Whale.
I have formatted the digipack so the top two tiles are the inside front and back covers and are upside down as I have used a net template of a CD cover. The bottom two tiles are the front and back outside cover. I have made sure to adhere to the net and template so if the digipack was printed out it would fit perfectly to a CD case without any bleeding or extra image to trim off.
Outside front cover
Outside back cover + Spine
Inside Front cover
Inside back cover + disc space
Lyric Insert
This was just a concept on an idea that a lot of digipacks would have an insert of smoking to fill the space of inside the case so I made an insert, It is just a concept however as most lyric sheets have all of the tracks listed but there are just three here, too many tracks would make the writing illegible to fit, in real life they would use a magnifying glass to see the lyrics.
Final Magazine advert
Evaluation Q4
Prezi Presentation of my conclusion question.
Evaluation Q3
What have I learned from audience feedback?
I have had a lot of audience feedback from both classmates teachers and others, I have been given this feedback both vocally in discussions and on platforms such as snapchat Facebook. The feedback has ranged from extra ideas and improvements and cuts all helping to create products more appealing to an audience as well as the audience I’m trying to address.
All industry products and creation in any form be they music videos, photos, films, programs or websites all need to have feedback to ensure they can address the pros and cons of what they have created and to see if it is well received to the audience they’re looking to address. They can get this feedback though a number of methods and in a number of ways, a formal process involving surveys or informal word of mouth, Emotive and constructive feedback, such as online social medias or focus group surveys and some cases critics of products, with critics and the film industry, should it be reviewed poorly they would choose to focus elsewhere in an effort to cut their losses from flop of a film.
I used some of these types of feedback during the research and creation of my music video and ancillary products. I gained the most and the most useful feedback during the formative process of my products, I used social media to set up feedback events where I uploaded stages of my production of the tasks where my friends and family could view and make comments which allowed me to get a mix of formal and informal, emotive and constructive feedback. I learnt a lot about the stress and anxiety that can occur for film makers and people working in the media industry, as well as musicians and I also learnt to deal with criticism constructively and in a professional way by considering the opinions and how they could improve my work and make it more appealing to an audience.
The first mode of feedback that any company would use is the feedback in the formative process. This is the easiest feedback to receive, as generally in the media industry, co workers and specialists hired by the company would give feedback as well as the media technicians. They’re experienced in the media industry so 100% of their feedback would be constructive. Formative process feedback is useful because changes are easily implemented because you’re in the process of making the piece and big changes can be implemented and the rest of the work can be made to conform to the new changes.
In relation to my coursework I received a lot of feedback from my classmates, some who were also in the formative process so because we were in the same stage of production we had the appropriate mindset which is useful as we would be more useful and critical in feedback. I also received feedback from my teachers and technicians who are all experienced in the programs used and film making and codes and conventions in doing so.
One of the points my teacher brought up was to change the ending of my music video because it was lacking in purpose and was anticlimactic. This created a more powerful ending which is great because “it is the last thing that sticks in someones mind” as he has said. So in response to this I went and re-shot the ending with a new concept of the protagonist meeting someone and really it finished the video on a very powerful note and made the old ending quite inadequate.
Luckily for me there was no feedback or criticisms that I could not resolve or incorporate into my production but sometimes you can get some and that could become frustrating for some as they would have to keep their product but with flaws as maybe they could not re-film or re-shoot.
Another feedback type is the easiest to do and for people to supply their opinions is social media and networking, which is where I posted my product, on places such as Facebook and Youtube where comments could easily be made and my videos easily found. On Facebook I created private group made of friends and family which only took about 10 minutes to create and set up as well as to notify the individuals whereas doing a big survey with printed pages or creating a survey monkey is a lot of time which is a bit useless because of ease of doing it through social media. This is especially better now since the proliferation of social media, the internet and use of phones in everyday life now and this way I can receive and be notified of the feedback.
This is really helpful as I could put more effort into doing more research and the production process and for big popular film companies it means they will receive more feedback than using a focus group. A very popular film company would maybe receive thousands of comments in just a couple hours which is also a downside as filtering through these comments for constructive ones to act on is very time consuming especially when you have a chance that there will be individuals who will not give serious comments and are sometimes just rude and unkind.
I had about 15 people in my online group to look at the products and only got a handful of replies however some of them came to me personally to give me the feedback.
In conclusion I felt that I received a lot of positive feedback and very good criticism since It has definitely helped me shape my end product into something so much greater and I never got a negative comment or at least not one I could not use to my advantage. I had a lot of my feedback in the production stage which was great as all the changes and Ideas were so easily integrated into my work with some re-filming it all went towards a better product.
Evaluation Q2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
The main production I made individually was a music video. Alongside this I created a page sized advert in a magazine and a Digipack CD case and album art to promote the music. Because they’re all based around one thing, the Music I need them all to connect in style, genre and mode of address to the audience a good rule I’ve followed is that you should know they’re linked before seeing the title. Media companies who wish to promote their film/album successfully always make the products surrounding it all recognisable and linked to the main product to make people more inclined to get it.
Techniques and things I considered while making all three of these media products include:
- Keeping a consistent style
- All products reflect the Folk genre
- All products reflect Music
- Mis-en-scene all match
- All promotes the music video/song
A way I ensured that these products were successful in combination was by maintaining a similar style from one to the other. I had a colour scheme of yellows, oranges, green and browns, which are consistent through out all three products. These are all very bright colours and are clearly viable in the ancillary tasks and the colour scheme is the same throughout the video albeit with more blues. The font is also consistent throughout the tasks, in all three the title font at least is definitely consistent due to the trading and how the title associated with my product. The fonts in the ancillaries also vary so it follows codes and conventions of their respective mediums. In my opinion I captured the style from all three products thanks to the help of my research into professional versions of the products found on the internet.
Originally my idea was to have the bubble writing of homeward bound as the title but this font and colour scheme would be breaking the conventions of the usage of a recognisable font as a name so I ended up putting the logo thats used for both the artist and the title logo so I can strengthen the connection between the products.
I think this could be improved by putting the artists name in the classic logo/font I have used in the other two products into the music video itself.
As I am created products around the genre of Western Folk/Americana I tried to really embellish and go over the top in my products to really convey it within my products. This is necessary as the audience its trying to address will know straight away from telltale signs that it is this specific genre and the one for them or even know the genre without the knowledge of it. I made this apparent In three and majorly apparent in the advert with the colour scheme provoking a nostalgic, sepia look. This and the use of the Polaroid a lone artist and the wooden table are all elements of the calm folk genre. One big give away is the little hint of the Simon & Garfunkel CD slightly in frame, this also has connotations of sharing and listening to music which is a big part of the folk genre and that is why its inclusion is appropriate. The use of just a single image of the artist and the minimal design on it goes well with connoting folk as these codes and conventions can be found on many other products.
In the album cover I had just as many links to the folk genre with the use of an instrument and the mis-en-scene as the backgrounds are natural and connote a bit of peaceful serenity which comes with folk. The colour scheme is also present in the album cover/digipack. Most of all however my digipack links to the music video, having many ties such as the same character, however dressed differently for variety, the costumes showing calm and stillness and another showing travel which is a direct link to the music video. Another massive link is the ghost woman on the front page which signifies a missing person who is almost there which is the idea of longing for someone which is reflected in the music video. Also the graphics of trains also promote the travel idea which is also in my music video and the use of calm backgrounds and then one busy backgrounds which is another theme throughout my product, the want to get away from the busy streets and go somewhere calm hence why the end of the music video is in a quiet park.
I intended the mis-en-scene to be similar in all my products and although they are not identical, they’re still representative of all the products and genres of folk, the costumes in all three share the same idea of a folky traveler. He is also almost always with his guitar, cementing this idea and also making him a lot more recognisable. However in my opinion over exaggeration of the mis-en-scene with use of props and such would take away from some of the meaning of the minimalist folk genre.
Along with all the connections I attempted to also make the two ancilliaries promote the main music video with uses such as the font, the reoccuring character and the several graphic links such as the trains and traveling style.
In Conclusion I cross promoted my music video very will with all the links in my digipack, but also more links could be added in the advert as the advert kind of leans towards promoting the digipack, my guess is I got carried away as usually all of these products professionally would go towards selling the album rather than promoting a music video. I could have had help with this by getting feedback on all three products looked at as a whole rather than one at a time.
If I were to do this again I would make more links in the advert to the music video, as the coursework suggests, rather than the album.
Evaluation Q1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
There isn’t really much you can do to challenge normal codes and conventions in music videos because, music videos as its own platform of media it has always throughout history been trying to break norms and conventions since it is the musical artists way of conveying more of what they believe from the song into a visual dimension. There has been so many breaking of conventions in the music video industry that what was once convention breaking, new, powerful and videos to provoke emotions has become its own convention of music video, for instance all of the abstract and powerful ones have become concept videos and videos that fade into narrative music videos.
This means that I have tried my best to reflect as many codes and conventions as I can with little breaks in the conventions here and there. The formatting of my video reflects professionally produced work in some areas for instance the entire video is running at the cinema standard 24 frames per second which give it the look of a professional cinema film. It really puts it apart from the much faster looking 60fps of most individually produced music videos which do tend to look very low budget and very student video like. The end of my video has the standard but also classic MTV like credits at the end of the video mentioning the music and artist swell as the record company. A break in the conventions was the intro, not very many music videos put up the title of the track in an ornate reveal right at the start none of the music videos I analysed for music video had an intro title so I consider this a break in conventions. Another twist up of the conventions was to create a hybrid and twist and mix both narrative and performance together into a single genre, although this has been done b before in music videos, it isn’t done often. A weird but still a convention break to most modern music videos was my wide use of fades instead of the normal cut, although some cuts where present it was mostly made up of fades which gave It a great story told feel to it.
My Digipack is where I really start to reflect the conventions of other song albums and rightly so as by following these conventions the album cover has come to look like a real professional piece with feedback from peers and teachers reflecting that idea. Even topping it off and adding some conventions such as a lyric sheet insert like they used to have in CD albums but have faded out of use because of the internet and the ability to just search song lyrics instantly. I followed conventions by considering the size of the authors name compared to the title, there isn’t really a norm to which is bigger, some artists have their name bigger some have the title bigger, its usually 50/50. Some artists who are well established use their name as the selling point and have their name bigger, but since this is an album of covers I have the album title as the biggest denoting that the music is more important and placing the music over the fame. Ive made great effort to add all the minute details a album cover would have such as the serial number, title, name and record company on the spine. Placing record company and licensing information on the back the information I used it real information for the company and includes everything that is on a real cover.
Magazine advert drafts
Mode of address
My idea was mix of a poster with the sylized writing wrapping itself around the image and one of a polaroid and another using a wooden wall background, I have amalgamated these into one original piece using ideas from all 3 researched posters and magazines. These posters all have the theme and mode of address for my audience so it will match what my audience want.
First draft
I got an idea originally to try and recreate a chicken scratched biro affect on the polaroid to make it seem like someone has written on it, but this would prove very difficult without owning a polaroid myself and drawing on one, the concept of this did not turn out anyway good so it was scrapped for this. Feedback commented on the use of the bubble writing around the edges and enjoyed it quite a bit and the extra long bit on the H they also said was a cool idea. More feedback was given on the ‘Bound’ as the U was quite thick and I had not taken this into account so it has been adjusted in this one. When creating this draft I came up with the idea that the background would represent a table and it would promote the reason why a polaroid would b there. I also chose the idea of a polaroid to provoke nostalgia which the genre reflects. Noticeable is the colour scheme matching the overall theme between my products, Some feedback was given to change this to reflect and link into my other products as well as move the title .
Second draft
The feedback was used from last time, the title moved somewhere else and I have put the artists name there instead since the polaroid is of him, I also have used a picture of him facing away to try and level out the Artist to Album promotion ratio in the magazine making an effort not to prioritise the artist over the music and vice versa.
I added a coffee stain to try and get more colour variation and break up the background as well as anchor the fact it is a table and to promote a calm feel along with the colours as the mis-en-scene of a coffee stain can either connote a workplace or a calm environment since people associate coffee with relaxing much like tea.
Third draft
This has had some nice serifs added like at the end of ‘homeward bound’ and it has had release information and the record company added at the bottom with variation in fonts which I have seen in other magazine adverts which look very nice as the font I used is one that ties with my folk genre. A peer added that I should add in a quote from a magazine or radio show inside, probably from a well known folk magazine. A Simon and Garfunkel CD has ben thrown in to further link the inspiration and theme and genre of he advert as well as anchoring the fact it is a table and one that is clearly owned by a folkie.
Fourth Draft
Here is the final version with the quote added by FRoots magazine, an established magazine in Folk and Roots.
Final draft
This final last minute edit saw me creating verisimilitude by adding detail to the polaroid making it seem weathered, worn and lower quality to really drive home that believability and nostalgia.
Magazine advert research
I have looked through a bunch of Folk magazine adverts as well as poster to get an Idea of what they tend to theme around and trying to incorporate it into the theme I have created to appeal to my audiences.
This one is great I enjoy the serifs and fancy symbols used around the picture as well as the style of polaroids, the polaroids give a great nostalgic feel which reflects the genre.
an example of stylised shape conforming letters which I think look great, also this poster is nice and simple and is coincidentally the same colour scheme most of my products follow
another example of stylised conforming text done by a professional artist, instead here the text itself creates an element rather than fitting into one.
This one is great I like the idea of the weathered and worn look with scratches defacing the image.
Although most of these are adverts for festivals it still gives an Idea of what I’m looking to create
Digipack last minute edits
One last thing I got feedback was to look over the placement of the title of the album on the spine and how it was to one side and after going back to consult my research i saw that the title tends to be in the centre of the spine so one last change has been made to correct this.
Kevin Wickens HSDC Media 