My Final Digipak Design

Evaluation Question 1

Keith Negus, in his book Producing Pop talks about the two distinct ways of thinking about potential artists from within the music industry. Each ideology develops the artist's image and career in different ways and markets the artist to different audiences. These ideologies are:

• The Organic ideology of creativity 
• The Synthetic ideology of creativity

There are clear differences between the different types of artists, that are represented in order to ensure long or short term success. While organic artists are sold on their "authenticity" both musically and socially, synthetic artists are sold on the way they look and their trendy personalities and style. While both types of artists' appearances look their own and seem "unconstructed" record labels spend hours on end creating the right look for that artist.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity

The synthetic ideology of creativity focuses on a mixed approach to artists and material. Most synthetic groups are strangers put together for the reason to produce hits. In order for them to be popular they have songs written for their use leading to number one hits and a popular first album. Synthetic artists are often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences. The reason for synthetic artists is to create immediate short term income for the record labels, to usually spend on their organic artists.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity

Record labels give a 'naturalist' approach to organic artists. Unlike synthetic artists, organic artists are given time to grow to progress through their career, being supported and 'nutured' by their record label. As well as this organic artists have more say about their look which is just 'enhanced' by the record label.

Underneath is an organic band's music video and a synthetic band's music video.

                                        Mumford and Sons - "Little Lion Man'

There are certain aspects of this video, showing us that Mumford and Sons are an organic band.
First of all, before we see any members of the band, we are shown close ups of instruments including a banjo. The banjo helps portray the band as being organic as it is an instrument not which is used often in music, as it would not fit in with the norm. Secondly, The music video appears to be set in a barn which portrays the naturalistic approach they have taken in the music industry. Unlike synthetic artists we do not see any close up of the band members face for the minute of the song. Furthermore, we see by the unique sense of style the band has a say over their look, unlike synthetic artists. As well as this, the lighting in the video produces autumnal tonnes portraying they are organic. Lastly, the video is all performance based. This is unlike most synthetic artists showing they are organic.



                                        One Direction - "Story of My Life"

Unlike organic artists, within the first ten seconds of the video we are met with close ups of the member of the band, without instruments. This portrays the fact that the band is more into their looks and style then the music it self and that they can only sing and everything else has been handed to them, this shows that the band as a whole is being sold on their looks more then anything else. Furthermore, their are close ups of the members' tattoos. This method is used to bring out their rebellious side in order to attract a younger audience, mainly teenage girls. Lastly, unlike organic artists, the music video is very narrative based although they are singing. In this case it is to possibly show they vulnerability in order to continue to attract a younger female audience.

Underneath is an album cover of an organic band and a synthetic band.

One Direction - "Take Me Home" album cover

The first thing I noticed about this album cover was that its sunny and has summery colours, this portrays that the band is disposable and a synthetic band. As well as this you can see that they are selling themselves on the fact they are British,with the eccentric British style and the iconic telephone box in the middle of the cover. This shows they are  possibly trying to become popular in another country such as America. Furthermore, none of the band are holding instruments, conveying the fact that they are sold more on their looks rather than the music. Lastly, the band is showing the viewer their youthfulness and their rebellious side in order to attract a younger female audience.

Oasis - "Definitely Maybe" album cover

Oasis' album cover represents them as an organic band. Unlike synthetic artists, a member of the band is holding a guitar, portraying that the band is sold on its music. As well as this, there is a picture of Burt Bacharach  , a famous colt musician. This shows that the band has grown up with music as they have a knowledge of musical history. Furthermore, the lighting of the room produces muted colours showing that the band does not have to be as flashy and "colourful" as synthetic groups.

The Making of my digipak cover

Once I had pictured in my head the design of my digipak I began to draw and colour it in. Once i had finished drawing I scanned the image into my computer.

After I had uploaded the image to my computer I opened the image on Adobe Photoshop CS6.

In this software I was able to increase the contract and darkness of the colours, outline the tree and girl in more detail and blend the girl into the photo as you could see that I had drawn the girl on another piece of paper and stuck it over my first attempt. Once I had fixed the colouring of the photo I was able to insert the bands name in the bottom of the image.

My final digipak front cover

Here is my final digipak design

The below image is my digipak cover with the dimensions of a common cd case

Inspiration for the Digipak Artwork

Pierce The Veil - Collide With The Sky

This album grabbed my attention due to the style of the digipak. Unlike most albums this design only includes graphics. However as this will be my bands debut I feel as though my album needs to include the band members. If i choose to use a graphics based digipak, I will need to find a way to o include images of my band members in order to help create their star image.

All Time Low- Dirty Work

Unlike Pierce the Veil's album, Dirty Work contains all the members which would be good for my band as it would help create their star image. As well as this, I like the dark red background contrasting against the bands logo and the members of the band. From this digipak I will take the use of dark colours and apply it to parts of my digipak.

Digipak Dimensions

I have chosen to use a "Maltese X" style for my digipak. I have chosen to use this design as it allows me to insert several large images of the band to help show of their star image and to sell the band members as well as the album.  With this design all the side squares fold into the middle, creating a normal sized digipak. When all the sides are folded into the middle the digipak measures 12.5 X 12.5 cm.

Examples of "Maltese X" style digipaks are Watch the Throne by Kayne West & Jay Z and Demon Days (Limited Edition) by Gorillaz

Demon Days- Gorillaz

Watch the Throne- Kayne West & Jay Z

editing

When we reviewed all the footage in the editing suite, we chose to discard  the low angle shots as parts of them were out of focus and never had the people fully in the shot due to there constant movement. As well as this we had too many long shots of the band, which lacked engagement with the audience. For this  we replaced several long shots with close ups and medium shots where the audience would be engaged. For example, after our first draft of our music video when Bennie started singing he head was down, no one could see his face and his hair was covering everything. As we felt this unengaged the audience from the very beginning we decided to re film and replace the shot with Bennie looking straight at the audience we instantly engaged them.

In order to create the narrative we had to film each part of our storyboard. Once we had done this we put all the shots in the editing software and started positioning the shots according to the story board in order for the narrative to be clear to the audience. Eg. If the video started with Gail and John the narrative would have a whole new meaning. Once we had sorted out the narrative we started swapping shots round wich fitten better with the timing of the song without changing the narative e.g. bennie walking down the street (which he does a few times).

Through out the music video we made sure when we changed shot that the cut was to the beat. We did this as it is a convention of music videos in genral and the cuts would look unnatural if they were not cut to the beat perfectly. In oder to achive this we listened to the song and looked at the visual as one and would reposition the fottage or cut it short in order for it to cut to the beat. A perfect example of this is the first couple of seconds of the song. The song starts with the drummer tapping the hi-hat (cymbal) 4 times. For each tap we had a different shot of Bennie and Gail happy together.

we played the song through speakers wile the band was performing in order to keep them in time. As the band was lip singing when we put the footage into the editing software we could only hear the song in the background. This made it easy to match up the lip syncing as we had to make sure the song in the background from recording fitted up perfectly with the music we had placed in the editing software. Due to the lip syncing task we were set at the begining of this course we were all capable of sorting the lip syncing in the video.

During editing I think that editing the performance element of the music video worked really well as we were able to edit all the shots we took into the video. As music videos have no real structure we were able to be creative with the oder in which we placed each shot as we recorded the band playing the shot a several times from different angles .

Although, I think the editing was a success if I was able to refilm and reedit, I would instruct Bennie to not move around as much as we has to discard several shots as Bennie kept hoping in and out of the frame, this was particually during the close up shots.