Comparison of digipak promotional adverts

The task for today's lesson, was to look at some magazine adverts for digipaks, and look at some conventional features and differences in the posters, to help influence us when we create our poster.
There are many distinctive features that can be seen in magazine adverts for pop music digipaks, the adverts tend to have features and conventions that are commonly found in pop music. Detailed below are the similarities and differences that are found in magazine adverts for pop music digipaks. 

• As can be seen here, there is usually a colour scheme that is followed in the poster, often vibrant, which can be seen in Rihanna's poster, or they are darkly lit with bright fonts so that the font will stand out, which can be seen in both Ellie Goulding's poster and Jessie J's poster. 

•  Often the pose used by the artist is serious and simplistic, as seen in Rhianna and Ellie Goudling's poster, the artists are looking away from the camera, making them seem more serious about their music, connoting there is meaning behind the songs.

• Often, pop music posters for digipaks, use imagery that is relevant to the name of their album, for example Ellie Goulding's album is called 'Lights' and she has used a bright font that looks as though it is illuminated, and streaks of her hair have been edited to look like she has small lights in her hair. Evidence of this can be seen in Rihanna's poster, as she has used loud bright colours, for her album called 'Loud'. 

• Digipak posters also tend to have small detail about the songs on the album, usually it is a small line that says if the album includes the 'hit song...' or any kinds of awards the album has been nominated for/won. 
• Another similarity between Ellie Goulding and Jessie J's poster, is that the name of the artist is bold and distinct, to immediately establish whose album is being advertised. However Rihanna's poster does not do this, perhaps because she is a more well established artist who does not need to put emphasis on her recognition. 

Sketches for digipak design

We have started planning our digipak, to go with our music video, as we discovered that it is conventional to create a four-panel digipak to go with the music video as a form of promotion. We have started to plan what we will put on each panel of the digipak, and this stage of production is important as it gives my group and I an indication of whether our ideas are conventional for our chosen genre, and it also allowed us to get some feedback before the final digipak. Shown below are the sketches we have created for each panel of the digipak;

Analysis of Digipak's

Our task for today's lesson is to look at some digipaks from popular artists. After spending some time looking at some digipaks and understanding how artists use them to promote a certain image of themselves, my group came together to take a look at some pop music digipaks and find some key similarities and differences between them. Below is some of the work we came up with, and justification as to why we chose these digipaks.

Below is an analysis of digipaks from Indie singer Marina And The Diamonds, and pop star Britney Spears. We chose to look at these particular artists because their target audiences are similar to mine - teenagers.

I chose to look at another digipak, from an artist who sets out a similar image and sits in the same genre as our artist - Katy Perry. The digipak is of Katy Perry's album teenage dream. Instantly the digipak promotes a colourful and bright image, suggesting this is a representation of the style of music that could be found on the album. 

The colours used on the digipak are quite visually appealing, and on inspection we can see that the CD's are imitations of sweet foods, also usually something appealing to most people, this possibly suggesting that her music is aimed at a wider audience. By having the music aimed as a mass audience, we are sure that this is a pop music album and that it conforms to conventions of a pop music digipak.

The images of Katy Perry posing almost naked in quite a provocative way, are contrasted by the child likeness of her album, as she has used a background image of candy floss as though they are clouds, and there are images of sweets which are generally associated with children. Conventions of pop music has been applied here, as Katy Perry is appealing to her male audiences, which is compatible with Laura Mulvey's male gaze. 

Rejected footage

Our original idea for our video was to use a green screen and put a background over it, as seen in Jessie J's music video 'Price Tag', which suggests that it is conventional of pop music videos. She used pastel colours such as pink and purple and we attempted to recreate the idea.



 













We chose two backgrounds from Google Images which we wanted to use our background for our green screen.





Simran has uploaded the video in which we experimented editing with a green screen in Final Cut Pro.



The reasons we didn't include the green screen was because:

• It didn't look realistic. It had a clear line around Beth making it look fake and like we had obviously put her over the screen, and not giving us the desired effect of her actually looking like she was there.
• It glitches and fades around certain parts in the video. We tried to alter this as best as we could but it still failed to blend in with the background. For example, Beth's hand.

Therefore, the reason we didn't include the green screen in our video was because we didn't want our footage to be bad quality as it doesn't look professional. This could have brought down the quality of our overall video so to replace the green screen we have decided to use a white screen to replicate a studio. We also chose to use a shadow effect for the bridge.

Music Video Preparations - Health and Safety risk assessment

In order for my group and I to demonstrate our understanding of the dangers and potential hazards of filming and creating a music video, we have formed a health and safety risk assessment, which will be presented in the form of a slideshare, which i have embedded below.

Music video risk assessment from simrantakhar

This activity has been particularly useful because it has made everyone in our group aware of possible dangers and hazards, and has given us reason to be more vigilant when filming our music video. By creating a health and safety risk assessment, my group and I will be able to continue filming for our music video in a safe and practical manner, which will ensure everyone's safety, meaning our overall filming process will go according to plan.

Music Video preparations - Filming Schedule

Today we needed to come up with times and dates that were suitable for all group members to be available for filming. We decided that it is likely to be more convenient to film during free time at school, or weekends. After going through timetables, we decided to split the filming into five parts. To ensure we will have enough footage to accommodate for any mistakes or unconsidered issues that may arise, we have decided we will film the character performing the entire song in each outfit we have planned. We have chosen four outfits, and this will account for the first four sessions of filming and the fifth will be experimenting with different ways to film the bridge of the song, as we noticed it is conventional to have a different atmosphere for the bridge than the rest of the song. Below are the listed dates and times that we are planning to film;

Monday 3rd March 2014 - 12.25 - 13.10

• Filming in costume one 

Thursday 6th March 2014 - 10.00 - 11.05

• Filming in costume 2

Sunday 9th March 2014 - 12.00 - 13.00

• Filming in costume 3

Wednesday 12th March 2014 - 14.25 - 15.00

• Filming in costume 4

Thursday 13th March 2014 - 09.00 - 10.00

• Filming the bridge part of the song

This activity has been helpful, as it has taught my group that planning is essential, as not sticking to a schedule can cause issues, as it is uncertain when another opportunity to film will arise Therefore we have noted that in order for us to stay on track and avoid falling behind, a schedule is essential and necessary. The impact of having a filming schedule will benefit our final video, as my group and I will have all of our filming done in time to start editing, so we are able to edit to the best of our abilities.

Music Video Preparations - Shot list

Today's activity was to come as a group and create a shot list for our final video, and we have uploaded it onto slideshare, as seen below.
http://www.slideshare.net/simrantakhar/music-video-shot-list-33444925

This activity taught me that it is crucially important to have a variety of shots in our music video, because shot variation is important for keeping the music video entertaining and upbeat. This will be useful when it comes to filming, because we will have something to guide us, to ensure we have used a sufficient amount of shots. Therefore our final music video should be enticing and entertaining because a multiple amount of shots have been used.