Photo Manipulation

 I wanted to make the greens and yellows in this image really vibrant, therefore I decided to adjust colour. The first thing I did was made a duplicate layer, and then I began to adjust the colours like above. The whole image became really green and the colours because really eye catching and vibrant.

I then erased sections of the layer (shown above) to make the artist and the sky and the brown colours more normal as it revealed the image underneath. This stopped the artist looking yellow and the greys looking a weird colour, therefore making those colours stand out. I then decided to adjust the contrast to make the image really stand out. Below is the final image: 

Digipak and Advert Layouts

Below are my two layout plans for my Digipak and my Advert. They are based on the conventions of ones that I already have seen in order to make them look more realistic once they are actually done. The digipak will have four folds, one for the front, two on the inside and then one on the back, all of which I have based on ones I have seen. On the front will be the artists name and album name, as well as an image of the artist. This is quite common as a Digipak always includes the artist name and the album title, and most do decide to use an artist image, however an abstract image can also be used. I decided to do an artist image to reinforce her star image and help link to the music video. On the back I will have the song list as well as the small print, which includes logos, rights and terms, as well as an image of the artist again, as I feel it is important to include her as much as possible to create star image. The inside fold will just be an image of the artist and the CD will be made to look like the base of a guitar, as it is a huge part of her star image and folk/indie music in general.

Digipak:

  

Again my advert is based on the conventions that we noramlly see within album adverts in order to make it look proffesional and realistic. At the top, I have decided to put the artist name and have it as the largest font as it is important that the audience know who they are buying into. Below will be the album name and 'out now', in order to inform the audience that it is out and the name of it. The background image will be of my artist as they will need to associate her with the name and again it will help link to the digipak and music video as it will be a similar image that will be represented. On the right hand side I will have quotes and reviews, as the audience will want to know how good it is by what critics think, and this is common in adverts as good ratings help sell the album. In the corner will be the image of the album so they know what it looks like and in the left corner will be logos and places where it is available.

Advert:



First Draft Digipak Images

During filming today, we also decided to start taking some digipak images for our first draft. We looked around the location and did some shots in places we used for the video, as well as looked at some of the other surrounding objects that we could use. Here are our images:

Extra Shots to Shoot

When looking at my feedback, I realised that we needed to include more camera movement, and when looking at the first draft, I realised that we didn't actually use a lot. So I started thinking of ways we could encorporate movement into the video to help it flow and create meaning. Here are some of the ideas I come up with that I hope to film on Thursday morning or afternoon depending on the weather:

·         Close up of feet on zip wire

·         Mid tracking shot of the zip wire

·         Point of view shot/eye line match, panning then zooming in on actor

·         Panning and Tilt up shots of Artist on the rock

·         Panning shots of artist singing on the floor

·         Mid shot of actor chucking money at the artist

·         Close up of confused reaction

·         Close up of Artist kissing the penny

·         Long shot of money being thrown at the artist

·         pan around the zip wire in  a circle

·         Tracking from behind on the zip wire

Filming Update

Unfortunatly, the weather hasn't been on our side with week with regards to filming, and as the only bit left to re-shoot is in the park which is outside, we haven't been able to stick to our filming plans. On Sunday, it snowed/rained for the majority of the day, therefore we could go and film. We then hoped it would have stopped by Monday and aimed to reschedule filming for then , but again it rained in the afternoon when we had time to film, therefore making it impossible to get out and film. At the moment, i'm hoping that it has cleared by tomorrow morning so we can go and film the last few scenes and take some pictures for the digipak.

However it isn't looking too promising by the weather forcast:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2650430

Font Ideas

When considering fonts, I figured it will be best not to have anything overly fancy as the image will already be quite crowed and in adding a bold font will make it seem unprofessional. I want something that's going to represent my star as feminine, but quite down to earth and normal, so I started to look at simple fonts that will work well with everything, as well as some rounded ones, as rounded ones seem to look more young and fun, and then I can decide which one will work best later. I also had to think about a font that will match the writing on the 'Fantastic Day' rock, as I aim to use that as the album's title, therefore the font has to be quite similar. Here are some of the idea's that I had:

 

Alpha fridge magnets:

 
 

            Street Humouresque:

 

            Old Republic:

 

 

cedarville pnk fun:

 

my lucky penny:

            Dr Jekyll:

 

 

 

Digipak Plan

When I'm out filming, we are also going to start taking images for the Digipak and Advert. Here are the main idea's I have for each, however were aiming to play around and take loads of pictures and then see which one would be best based around our star image. Below are my initial idea's about shots I want to use for the Digipak as I have a really good idea of what I want to do with it, however for the advert I will decide when I'm out as I will look at what there is for me to play with and get some good shots.

For front cover:

Extreme Long shot of the artist sitting on the 'Fantastic Day' rock from the music video, playing her guitar

 

Location: Central Park, East Ham

Props: Guitar

Costume: The one worn in the music video

 

I thought this would be a really good shot for the front cover as it helps to create a clear link between the Music video and the Digipak, and emphasises the star image. In the editing process I aim to make the colours really vibrant and bright, so it all stands out, as we are trying to represent her as quite fun and i think that should be reflected by vibrant colours. I think having the guitar in the shot is also very important as she is a folk artist who does play a guitar, and again this is part of her star image, therefore in including the guitar we are reinforcing this. The mise-en-scene is also really important as it has to help represent the artist, and by keeping it in the park it again reinforces this idea of her being down to earth and like a normal person. It also again links well the music video as it is a prominent location within it.

 

Inside:

 Mid Low Angle shot of the artist laughing whilst sitting in a tree

 

Location: Central Park, East Ham

Props: None

Costume: A Black lace skater dress with boots

 

In this image I really wanted to emphasise the fun side seen to the artist in the music video and represent her as somebody to look up to, which I've done in using a low angle shot to have people look up to her. Also I think it's necessary to get a bit closer to the artist, so therefore in this mid shot you can see more of her face and see that she's quite normal and down to earth. I chose to have her sitting in a tree as it ties in with the theme of nature that's running through the Digipak as we are using the park as the location, plus it will help create a nice low angle shot. Again by her sitting in the tree she will seem really relaxed and down to earth, emphasising her star image. I also decided to change costume, as in most Digipaks I have looked at the artist has different costumes for each fold, therefore I thought it would be nice to stick to the conventions, plus it allows us to steer away from the music video a bit and develop more of an image. The plain black dress is appropriate as we want her to seem quite girly and feminine, without being too over the top, so a simple, plain dress helps demonstrate this. Again in editing I want to make it seem quite bright and vibrant, again to give off this fun feel that will appeal to the target audience.

 

CD

 

For the CD I thought it might be a good idea to make it look like the middle of the guitar with the strings going through it at the base, as the guitar is a huge part of my star's image and the genre, and the CD is a good shape to create this. It will be the wood colour that the actual guitar she uses is and have all the small detailing. For the backing of the CD I will take a long shot of some of the scenery at the park to place it against and dim the colours in Photoshop so the CD itself really stands out as the wood colour I will brighten to make it really eye catching.

 

Back

Long shot of the artist walking through some flowers and holding on to some.

 

Location: Central Park, East Ham

Props: Flowers

Costume: Black lace skater dress

 

I took this shot from one of the CD influences I looked at, as I really like the cover of Bella Hardy's album, and she has a similar, plain star image, therefore I thought I could use her as inspiration. The Picture will be framed to the right, as the song list will be on the left, and it will have my artist walking through some bushes and flowers in the park holding one to smell it. This again creates a link with the music video as it's the same location and it's a love song, and her smelling a flower will represent a young girl in love, and I think that ties in well with her star image, as we want he to seem soft and feminine. Again in using the park I'm sticking to the nature theme as it shows her as down to earth and links to the music video. In editing I want to make the colours vibrant but especially the flowers to show this fun side and make the Digipak really eye catching.

Filming Update

Yesterday didn't go quite to plan as I had hoped, however we did manage to get the filming done that we intended. Due to timings, I didnt manage to film as much as I had hoped in the mornin,g as we used our lesson to film, however i had to cut it short as I had  a lesson afterwards therefore had to come back to college. Instead, seen as I finished at half 12, I went back to the park and it actually turned out better as it was quite sunny, so the light was really good. The only issue we had was shadows, as you could see the person filming's shadow in the shot, but we solved this by them moving out of the way whilst I was actually performing. This time I tried to really open my mouth and make the words clear so hopefully when we upload it will be clearer to see that I am actually singing and it will help us to get the syncing perfect. Later that day, I magange to book the lighting, so I went back to my house and re-filmed some of the getting ready shots but this time with me singing. The room is quite small so we had to make sure that we weren't casting obvious shadows, but we adressed this as we filmed. Over all it was a good day filming, and we hope to get back out on sunday in the park to do some more stalker shots and work on some camera movement in order to boost our grade.

Digipak Inspiration

Here are some female artist digipak covers that are simliar genres to my artist:

Digpak

·         What is a digipak?

Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI-Shorewood, an Atlas Holdings LLC company.

·         What strategies are often used by the record company to encourage the audience to purchase the digipak (remember, the album of songs can easily be downloaded from i-tunes, so why buy a digipak - in what ways is it different to a regular CD album?)

Digipaks are used to emulate the star image correctly by showing many imagers of them rather than just one. It shows dedication to the artist music as it’s a physical copy of their work rather than a digital one. It creates awareness around the artist as it is seen in stores and often has images that link to their recent music video’s to attract audiences and create continuity about their work as it is all linked and clear what they are trying to represent themselves as to their target audience. Also the cases tend to be more attractive and show more of the star, again enticing people to buy a digipak. It also creates hype around the star as digipak are easy to advertise and purchase in stores, making it easily available to their audience

·         What are the key elements that make a good digipak? Refer to images, text, and style.

Digipaks tend to be the typical gatefold style, allowing the company to put multiple images and information about the artist on there. A digipak really has to represent an artist so they tend to vary in style, however they have certain elements the same in order to sell the artist. We tend to see many tight framed close up shots of the artist in order to show them and make the audience feel close of them. There is always a clear mise-en-scene show that often links to recent music videos and the star images they are trying to create. This is evident in the Katy Perry – teenage dream digipak I analysed, as she was going for a sexualised candy themed digipak, which links to her ‘California Girls’ video, as it is set in this candy-like world with loads of images to sweets, therefore it shows how they often tie in with a certain popular music video of the artists to generate hype and also create links as they would recognise it as hers from the mise-en-scene. The font also helps link to the star image, as it reflects the artist’s style and image, so for example if they are going for an innocent, feminine star image, we tend to see smooth, elegant writing to reflect that idea and connote to it. We always see an album title and name of the artist or band to make it clear to the audience who they are buying into, and there always tends to be a track list and some small print on the back of the cover, however again a digipak mainly consists of images of the artist. Long/mid shots are often used to show setting as well as the artist as it can sometimes help to create star image, however they tend to use close up shots to sell the artist.

·         What information is included on the back of a digipak?

It’s often all the small print information, like record labels and copyright information.

·         What information should be included in a poster to promote an album/digipak?

The advert should have some connotations to the digipak; therefore it normally works well if they are in the location or with similar costumes. It is also quite common to include one of the same images of the digipak or a small image of the actual digipak its self in order to make it recognisable to the audience. There also tends to be critics ratings on there in order to entice people to buy it as they think it is really good because of what critics say. They always have the artist name and title and the release date, so it informs the audience when it is out and what the name is so they can easily find it in stores.

Filming Update

We managed to go and film on January 25th, however it was only at my house as it started to rain so we couldnt go outside. We did mainly shots of the artist singing and playing the guitar on the bed as we realised we didnt have much footage of her singing in the first section of the first cut, therefore in our final one we wanted to show more of this. We didn't film on sunday as my shift changed at work and I wasnt able to make the filming. This worked in our favour as we had a feedback session in our lesson from our peers, which now means we have a clearer idea about what we want to re film or add into the music video, as well as thinking of ideas that we could us for our digipak and advert, as we think it will be good to use the same area to link it all together. We've spent all week re-planning and evaluating our work so here is the new shooting schedule for the next week in order to make the changes we want.

Date	Location	Cast and Crew	Purpose
6th February	Connie’s House	Connie and Nicky	Film the beginning section of artist singing whilst getting ready
7th February	Park	Connie and Nicky	Re do some of the singing shots and play around with camera movement. Also take some images for Digipak and Advert
10th February	Park	All cast and crew	Film some extra boy and girl bits to tie in the singing and the narrative. Film some more shots of stalker on zip wire and in the park. Also take some images for digipak and advert.