Diary 12

Over Christmas I have been working on my digipak cover. I have completed the front cover now and I am about to begin the back cover. I think that the front cover is similar to what I thought it would turn out like and I am happy with the end result. I did find that I had to edit it quite a lot to ensure that all the darker areas of my face were pure white and that my features such as eyes and lips were really black and stood out on the white background.

I am happy that the design I chose first of all was a success and I am excited to go on and create the rest of the digipak.

This is the finished product:

Editing My Digipak Cover

I have created print screens showing the stages that I underwent to edit the image that I chose for the front cover of my digipak. I started off with an image in colour which I changed to black and white using features such as gradient and levels. I added drop shadows to my text to make it stand out on the white background and give the cover some depth.

The final cover:





Filming/Editing Schedule

Below is a table that I created in powerpoint to display the tasks that I need to complete, in terms of filming and editing my music video, when I have put aside time to do these and the people that I plan on needing to help me do this. This post is merely for my own use so I have a better sense of organisation of when I will comlete my work.

Contact Sheet for Digipak Cover

Below is the contact sheet that I created on Photoshop of the images that I took last lesson to be used on the front cover of my digipak. After I planned my digipak with a variety of designs and thought that the close up shot worked better on the cover, I was able to know the exact shot type that I wanted and capture this easily. Planning helped me here as the process could've been a lot more time consuming had I not previously thought about the type of shot size that I was after.

Diary 11

In the past couple of lessons I have been looking at completing  all the planning tasks that I was given. These tasks have included analysing adverts in existing magazines similar to my own, planning for my digipak and magazine advert such as creating a proposed layout and writing a written structure of my music video. These planning tasks are essential in order for me to complete my construction tasks so I am not completely overwhelmed when I have to create the actual thing, using Photoshop and Adobe.

Although I still have a couple of planning tasks, such as photographs and raw footage of my location to complete, I am going to go on to creating my digipak now as I believe that this is a good way to be spending my time in lesson. I have already taken the images that I need for my front cover close up shot this lesson, so I will begin to put that together in the following lesson that I have.

Structure of My Music Video

I have created a written timeline for my music video because, although I have already shot some of the scenes for it, I think that having a a written structure of what shots need to go where will help me when organising the clips that I have in to the correct order. I created this on word and exported it with Scribd.

Structure of My Music Video

Magazine Advert Planning

I have also recently begun working on my magazine advert to promote my artists digipak. I feel it's essential to create a couple of drafts before creating the actual product so I have a sense of what the design may look like. When drafting my magazine advert, I looked at two designs. Having already researched into existing magazine adverts and the kind of conventions that they use, I found doing these drafts to be quite easy. Both of the designs are relatively similar with different images and layouts however they universally include the same information. These are my two designs:

The first design includes an image of my artist so the audience can identify themselves with her as little or any of her face will be shown on my digipak if I go by the designs that I have already chosen. I have though included an image of the album artwork on the advert so the audience can link the two together. Alongside this, there is the name of the album, where it can be purchased, its release date and pull quotes from reviews of it. I have also included the artist's website twitter name. I think that it is very conventional to find a twitter name on a magazine advert nowadays because social media is largely dominant. This way, as well as in keeping with the zeitgeist of social media, the audience can find out more about the star, in terms of her personality. I think that this feature will be a success for her bigger fans.

The second design was inspired by the digipak design of the tree and the setting that I intend to use for my music video. I've kept the layout fairly similar to the first design and the information displayed is the same except that I have also included the artist's website so the fans can find out more about her. All in all I prefer this design because it supports some cohesion between the video, digipak and the advert which is essential for the audience to be able to identify the artist with. 

Digipak Planning

As I am now beginning to create my digipak on Photoshop, I thought that it would be helpful to plan what I want the digipak to look like to make the process of craeting it easier. These drafts mean that I now have a clearer idea of what I want the digipak to look like. Below are the four draft drawings of possible designs for my digipak.

I chose the first design of an extreme close up of an eye to reiterate the title of the album, 'Wide Awake'. I think that the use of an extreme close up is very eye-catching and will make the album stand out on the shelves amongst others. It also makes the digipak look more iconic and recognisable to the target audience or to any members of other target audiences that may be looking to purchase it. However, I think that this shot would be quite hard to recreate as I would need to include a lot of post-production and editing in Photoshop to make the eye look perfect and bold as there would be a lot of detail to be included in the image. Nonetheless though, I really like this idea.

The second design is still a close up, however I have not centered the shot directly on just the eye. Instead I have chosen to include the whole face. I think that the lips would look good if they were painted bright or dark red to add to the impact of the shot. The use of a slightly wider shot allows the audience to identify with the artist as well as being able to see more emotion in the model's face. The sucess of this image and design would be heavily dependent on the amount of makeup on the model's face to add to the dramatic look and to highlight her features. I think it would also look good in black and white with her face washed out so just the dark and defined features remain. I have an image of what I believe that this design could look like and I think it is my favourite of the two so far.

The third design is, again an extreme close up, this time of the models lips. I think that the eyes and lips are the two main, bold features of the face that can really show emotion. I think that the lips will relate to the artists singing career and will make the digipak very recognisable. Additionally, I have chosen not to include the artists name on the cover of the digipak as I feel that having such an iconic and out-there cover will make or 'force' audience members to remember it. Also this isn't the first album that my artist will have released and, as she would be a household name, I don't think it's crucial for her name to appear on the cover.

Finally, the inspiration for the fourth design came from the setting that I have chosen for my music video; the woods. I think that the image of the tree with no leaves promotes an idea of emptiness, longing and eariness to the audience and these mysterious traits may prompt them to buy a copy. This cover will also represent some cohesion to the music video which will be globally known. I therefore didn't feel it was nessecary, once again, to include my artists name on the cover. Furthermore, I believe that this shot will look better in black and white as the tree's branches will stand out and be defined against the white background.

To conclude, my favourite designs out of the ones that I have drawn are the close-up of the model's face and the shot of the tree. Both of these designs have the potential to look really sophisticated whilst, at the same time, being minimalistic and representing the actual artist in some way. I will have to think carefully about which one I will persue.

Analysis of Magazine Adverts

Below is a Prezi that I have created to display a variety of different magazine adverts for albums. I have analysed each one by the methods that they have adopted to market the album  for example quotes from other people or magazines or references to the hit singles off the album that the artist is well-known for. Additionally, I have looked in to the other conventional aspects that I can see are present within all of the adverts so as to provide me with a template for my own advert. I have found this task to be especially helpful as I am now at a stage where I have begun producing my own advert and I can take inspiration from the ones that I have looked at to make my own appear more professional.

Diary 10

In recent weeks I have been extremely busy with the production part of my coursework. I started off by holding a photoshoot in which I took pictures of myself to be used on my digipak front cover. I then went on to creating, and finishing the front and back covers of my digipak's first draft. I am however waiting to hold my actual video shoot to take the remaining photos that I need. Additionally, I have been working on my magazine advert on Photoshop and trying to make visual links between the two products.


I feel that I have defined the style of the artist by choosing what fonts and colour schemes will be present throughout my work. Furthermore, I have a day in mind this week for filming my video as I was unable to do so last week, due to the poor weather conditions. Although this was a risk that I took into consideration during my risk assessment that could halt the production of my video.