Digipak Screen Grabs

 I  am working on each cover individually within the digipak template, through hiding layers I can focus on just one area of the digipak.
The bottom left cover is now complete, just as I did with the front cover, I placed leaves around the TV to make it appear as if it is really within nature, and also used the magnetic lasso tool again to cut out the back of the stand so you can see the background nature through it.
I had already decided on a very simple clear fine font, as that was the recurring theme throughout my research. The black ink stand stands out well against the busy background of the pictures. My audience feedback suggested I make the black text stand out more against the background. I put an outer glow around the text both on the front cover, and the inside cover, which does enhance the text on the picture.



 I have kept the font the same throughout the digipak and will use the same font in the advert as well to achieve unity.

Digipak Screen Grabs

It has taken me quite a lot of time playing with Photoshop and deciding which technique works best before deciding on this feathering technique. I have also cut and pasted leaves from some of the other pictures and placed them around and on top of the cardboard box to make the picture look realistic. There was a slight shadow on the plate which is on top of the box and therefore I drop shadowed the leaf placed on top of the box as well.



Throughout this process I asked my peers, who are also my target audience for feedback. It was suggested that I desaturate the bedroom photo, and brighten the nature photo in order to make the nature seem more appealing. I will now use this technique in all other the other pictures.

Update

 These are just a few of the nature shots that I took yesterday that I thought would work well with the shots of the bedroom.













As well as the nature photos, I also took pictures of bedroom items, a dressing table, a TV stand etc. I have  decided that the inside cover and back cover will show bedroom items outside in nature; I will use the magnetic lasoo tool in Photoshop to remove the items from the background.

Update

Yesterday the photoshoot was successful, and I managed to take some pictures that I think will work well within my concept. I will be using the picture at the bottom as my one of the two pictures on the front of the digipak. The darker wall will hopefully disintegrate into a nature shot.

I am booking a camera out again tonight, because the photos I took of nature on the college grounds have too many obstacles in order for them to blend properly.  It is obvious I believe that these pictures are not taken of fields and trees without any surrounding buildings, but instead are taken on the college site. 

Change of idea

After taking pictures on Thursday 17th November as I had planned, I began editing them, using the art history brush tool to make the Jake stand out in black and white. However through this process I asked for feedback, and it was agreed that the idea didn't really connote the music video idea as well as it could. 

So after some sketching, and rethinking, I have come up with the final idea. The sketch on the left isn't very clear, but I have decided to use the magnetic brush tool to merge two pictures together. One of Jake in in room playing his guitar and one of the outside nature. Hopefully I will be able to merge the two pictures so it looks as if half of his bed, bedroom items ect is in his room and the other half is outside. 

I am going to be taking more pictures tomorrow, on the 22nd of Jake in a bedroom environment.

Due to the change in idea, my time planning has had to be re-arranged. The new concept will take a lot more work on Photoshop than the last, and so therefore instead of getting feedback once it is completed and then correcting, I will receive feedback throughout the production process. 

Time Managment

Planning

From brainstorming my ideas, I have decided to go with the idea of taking pictures of jake surrounded by nature, but photoshoping the pictures so his whole body is black and white, and the nature is coloured. Our video message is about how he is daydreaming about being free in nature, and I hope that the digipak will connote this.

Summery of Digipaks and Adverts

From conducting the research on digipaks and adverts I found there are some key elements that ran through all four that I believe makes the media texts look really professional and realistic; therefore I will attempt to use these in my final productions.

- keep all writing the same font and colour in both digipak and advert

- keep lighting the same in all pictures to make sure they flow together

- only use half a horizontal page for the advert (low budget artist, wouldn't use full page)

- make it redundant enough for the audience to understand, but ethropic enough to be recognisable as Indie

- simplicity is the key, don't make the page look too messy

- stick to a few key colours to use throughout the digipak and advert

Print Research - Second advert

Different to La Roux's advert Ellie Goulding's takes up the whole a4 page; this could be because she is a more well-known artist, and therefore making more money and being able to afford the whole page. However, she is still an authentic, indie artist and this is clearly visible through this advert; the reviews at the bottom are from indie music magazines such as 'the  fly', clearly highlighting the audience that Ellie is targeting.
There is also a continued theme from her digipak, similar to La Roux; the lights in her hair and the font size and colour enable connection to be made to the digipak, again presenting both media texts as one promotional package.
It could be connoted from this advert that Ellie Goulding is actually more important then the album/songs; it is her name that is in the considerably bigger font, and the album title that is noticeably a lot smaller. As a  reader you are automatically drawn to the bigger writing first, you are positioned to see that her name first and then show interest, therefore perhaps suggesting you are buying the album because of who the artist is, not because you are interested in the actual music.
Similar to her digipak this advert is more redundant then it is entropic; there is nothing about this advert that surprises you, however the use of colour is striking. Indie artists tend to present their work as more entropic then redundant because the audience is itself more entropic then redundant.

Print Research - First advert

This magazine advert for La Roux's self titled album is horizontally half a page; a lot of more indie style adverts are only a page, perhaps due to not being signed to huge multi-conglomerate record labels, and therefore can not afford a full page of advertising. Similar to the digipaks of Charlie Simpson and Ellie Goulding, it is extremely simple. There is a clear colour scheme of red, black and white, the three colours blending well together to create a striking advert; the white writing clearly stands out on the dark background, which makes it easily readable for the audience.
The advert is clearly spilt into two sides; the left which is actually the album cover, and and the right with reviews, and information. Through the use of the album cover on the advert it clearly intertwines the digipak and the album as one promotional package, and audiences who see the advert before the digipak know exactly what the cover looks like, saving them searching high and low in HMV for example. On the right hand side the reviews are symmetrically spaced, all in the centre of the page, again making them easily readable and eye catching.

Print Research Task - Second Digipak

The most noticeable feature of this digipak is the relationship between the pictures we are being shown, and the anchorage that companies them. The album is called 'Bright Lights' and throughout the digipak we are being shown bright lights; in Ellie's hair on the front cover, out of focus behind the song titles on the back cover, and all around her body and face on the inside picture. The use of the effect of the 'lights' enables the digipak to have a clear theme running throughout, and for different elements of the digipak to compliment each other. On the front cover we are shown a picture of Ellie swishing her hair, and on the inside cover she is leaning back in a way which allows her hair to fall down her back; the lights seem to come from her hair and Ellie herself, perhaps connoting to the audience that she is the bright light that her album title refers too; the lights aren't in the background, they are within her.

A element that is both similar and different same to Charlie Simpson's digipak is the text. Unlike Charlie, who had one font and colour for his name and one font and colour for everything else, Ellie sticks to the same font and colour to whole way through. The curved writing is a lot more feminine compared to Charlie's long thin writing; the digipak as a whole is very feminine, and I believe would not appeal to both sexes at all, although her audience is not predominately male, but female, and therefore the digipak caters to that audience perfectly.

There is nothing enthropic about this digipak at all; although she is an Indie artist, and her music therefore is authentic, the digipak provided is extremely redundant. It could be said that the lights coming from her is s lightly enthropic idea, but it is not as highly enthropic as for example, putting a goat and a human holding hands on the front cover.

Print Research Task - first digipak

Perhaps the most obvious feature of this digipak when first looked at is its simplicity. The long shot is used for both the front and the back; not connoting laziness on behalf of the producers but a desire to not over complicate. The front shows the singer Charlie Simpson playing the guitar; the guitar is not on the floor beside him, neither is he holding it by one end, it is clearly signifies that he plays the guitar he is holding, he is a musician, not just a singer. The guitar as mentioned before in my blog, is a clear symbol of indie music; demonstrating the genre of the music expected in the album.
The font used throughout the digipak does not remain the same; the font in which the name is written in is also a different colour to the rest, ensuring that the first text we read is the white text in thin capital letters 'CHARLIE : SIMPSON'. The colon that is placed between the artists first and last name is unusual, it is not a feature that is used in everyday English Language, and therefore this punctuation placing is weird, authentic and entropic reflecting the genre of music.
The nature background is something that is not unfamiliar to indie music genre; in both Ed Sheeran's The A Team and Ellie Gouldings Your Song, both videos have clear elements of nature in them. By placing Charlie in a very naturally beautiful setting the audience are situated to see him as a very natural, authentic artist; he is not in a night club getting drunk like many of the 'poppy' artists. Instead he is playing his guitar outside in the countryside, joined with the fact that he only appears in one picture on the entire digipak the album clearly  connotes that it is centred around the music, and not the artist.

Redundancy/ Enthropy

Redundancy and ethropy are two terms that are used and can be found within all media texts. 

Redundancy is used to describe an image, clip or text that is highly predicatable; for example if you were told you were going to be shown a picture of an apple, it would not come as a surprise when this image was shown. It is completely predictable.

However you would not expect to see this image if being told you are going to be shown an apple; it is unpredictable or in media terms ethropic.

How redundant or how ethropic an image is, can depend on cultural knowledge; for example, an image that is an everyday occurrence in one country might not be for another, a person that lives in America might find a picture of a tractor driving down a road completely ethropic, whereas if you lived in England this would be highly redundant. It could also depend on a person's personal life, and how familiar they are to certain things, for example a person who is a tattoo and piercing artist might find an image of someone tattooed head to foot redundant, but a person who lives in a Amish community might find it ethropic.

When it comes to producing our own video we need to consider our target audience and genre when deciding how redundant or ethropic it will be. Our genre is 'indie'; which is a genre seen as slightly kooky, different and authentic, therefore our video, digipak and advert should not be utterly redundant, but nearing towards being highly ethropic. However our audience is c1, c2 and d on the jicnar scale, and therefore can not be too over complicated or the audience will not understand it; our end products need to be ethropic enough to be clearly identified to belong to an indie genre, but redundant enough to convey a clear message.