Digipak Insert!

We created an insert for our Digipak using Photoshop as we wanted something extra for our fans to have once they purchase the album. This is also an incentive towards our fans to encourage them to buy the album. 
We stuck to the theme of the magazine advert and Digipak as we wanted it to be consistent therefore we used the same fonts and style of the other ancillary texts. 

Digital Technology!

Analysing Myself!

Using this to analyse myself showed me the aspects which I need to work on and what things I am doing well on. Using this I can construct myself into make my work the best it can be with the correct skills. 

Before & After Photographs!

sket

I decided to edit the pictures using the program Picasa 3 & Photoshop to enhance the images to their best. From creating a rough version of the Digipak & Magazine Advert, we found out that the images needed to be improved on, for the audience to enjoy the full effects of the pictures. As you can see above, the major difference that the pictures look compared to the originals. 

Potential Ideas #2!

When in the process of creating our Digipak & Magazine Advert, we had a few idea's along the way in which we rejected and accepted. Here are a few of them:
Blurry Lights - REJECTED
We came up with an idea for the inside panel of our Digipak to have a theme of blurry lights. As we couldn't physically photograph them, we decided to create them on Photoshop. I had an attempt at making them on Photoshop, through my attempt, we then decided that we would go with a theme that was more suited to our artist and therefore left this idea to rest.

Sphere Writing - ACCEPTED
We came up with the idea for our CD panel, in which we thought of creating a sphere text around the shape of the CD. The writing would consist of:
-Director -Co-Producer -Stylist -Photographer -Record Label -Backstage Help ETC.
We thought it would be stylish and different compared to other digipak's as we didn't want to leave the CD panel plain. To help us understand how to do it we researched onto Google & YouTube to see image and tutorials on how to achieve this.

Rough Digipak & Magazine Feedback!

Feedback from rough magazine advert

Feedback for our rough digipak

With the feedback we gained on our rough Digipak and Magazine Advert, it helped us to come to grasp with the elements that we had to change in order to keep in tact with the audience needs. Therefore we changed some of the images and the layout to ensure our Digipak & Magazine Advert were up to standards. Also, by changing certain elements it showed that we were able to take on board criticism and learn from it.  

Rough Digipak!

This is the rough version of our digipak. We created this to gain feedback from our audiences, to establish the elements that we had to change and which images we needed to keep and replace. 

Digipak Designs!

Number #1 Design For Digipak

Number #2 Design For Digipak

After taking the pictures for our two ancillary texts, I thought it would be wise to create two flat plans of potential  designs for the final outcome of our Digipak. I drew these to understand what conventions to use when making a successful Digipak, much like the Magazine advert I had to add basic conventions such as:

-Album Name

-Artist

-Record Label

-Release Date

Rough Magazine Advert!

...

Magazine Advert Designs!

Number #1 Design For Magazine Advert 



Number #2 Design For Magazine Advert

After producing the pictures for our Digipak & Magazine Advert, I thought that it would be best to create rough sketches of potential designs to help establish which pictures to use and where all the finer details would fit into the space available.

I had to ensure that the magazine advert held all the conventions to a typical music advert within a magazine. Some of the conventions included:

-Album name

-Artist

-Release Date

-Record Label

-& If possible, a picture of the album cover

To make our magazine advert successful, the pictures chosen had to be effective to the target audience as well as being clear and that all the elements of the advert were visible to all audiences.

Digipak & Magazine Locations!

LOCATION: SOUTHBANK

Why did we choose SouthBank?

There are many reasons to why we chose to use South Bank as our final location. Firstly, we liked the urban flavour of the area, the variety of the colours used in the location reflects the diversity of Lola's character as a artist. We had to think about how our target audience would take to the pictures, therefore we thought that this particular location would be catchy as it signified the isolation of Lola's character therefore the audience could relate the two.

Effective Points?

-The deserted tunnel signifies the isolation and loneliness of Lola's character and artist, which re-enforces the theme's we want to portray. 

-The graffiti and props used in the location's (such as unclean road, dimmed lights, rusty lamp posts, rubbish) made the location be portray more realistic in the pictures which was an important element to be considered.

-The art of graffiti adds to the punky edgy look that Lola projects through her music, which is effective, as the audience can relate to the lyrics, images and Lola herself.

Digipak Research & Analysis!

Record Label!

As we had to create a record label, I decided to take a look into a variety of different record labels who have different artists under their name. The logo's of the record label's are very important as they represent the label through the style of font, images, colours and layout. 

The process in which I took in the different program especially Illustrator to accomplish this new logo. Previously we created a logo last year for our AS Level, as you can see below:

This was our logo for our production company.

We had to look into the different kind of fonts we were going to use for our NEW logo. Here are the range of fonts that we looked at, we had to look at a font that was clear and easy to understand, whilst also giving enough effect to the words. 

Me & Riham did rough versions of the logo, to have a feel of the software we were using and to get used to the different tools we had to use to accomplish our logo. 

As you can see the bold bright colours used were a little too forceful, therefore we decided to combine mine & Riham's logo's to create..

New RAGE ENT logo

Illustrator Training!

Before using illustrator, we were lucky to get training on it. Illustrator is good for creating creative logo's and pictures, using vector tools etc. This was the first time that I had used Illustrator, however with the training it was easier to navigate around and use the program. We also used tutorials to help us complete our logo, as we tried to learn as much as we could on the program to enhance our skills as well as complete our logo to the best quality.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4OlkHjqrqkThis is a list of why we chose Illustrator over other programs.

 By using this program, we were able to create our logo by:
-Creating A transparent background
-Insert a graphic
-Choosing the font
-Applying the text
-Choosing the colours to complete our logo.

Marketing 1!

To find out a bit more on how we would market 'Lola Malibu', we looked into an artist which is similar to her style and characteristics, therefore we chose 'P!NK'. As the internet is the main front of marketing in these times, I researched on-line, on different websites that P!NK was marketed and publicised on.

These are official pages created on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook, these social network pages are three of the biggest networks across the globe. By creating official pages like these, allows fans, agencies, competitors to see what the artist is up to, new songs that are out, and general feedback. It also a very effective way to publicise and create an awareness of the artist! 
By looking at this, I decided to create a Facebook page for Lola Malibu to create awareness about her new album and her new song and official video. 

I have posted different things like her new official pictures of her upcoming album and also a sneak preview of her official video to 'Don't Let Me Get Me' to gain feedback from fans.

Feedback 2!

I gained more feedback from my teacher on how my blog is going. She also included some of the good points of my blog and gave me some advice on elements that I need to include from the list provided. With this feedback, it helped me to be notified whether there are any concerns with my blog, whether I needed to change anything, which would benefit me and on my final grade. 

Final Music Video Feedback!

Finishing Editing!

As the editing for the music video, was coming to a close, I had to make the last edits to the conclusion of the music video to make the transactions of the video to be on beat with the music. Some of the transactions I used was a 'cross dissolves', which faded one shot in with another as you can see below:

We used many effects to help give the same light and colours in every shot, we achieved this by using a tool called 'Colour Corrector'. This tool helped to set the scene to white balance and help to create the same colours, rather than having each scene in different, different colours. 

                                                              

To create even more effect on our music video, we decided to input to video's on top of each other, to give an effect of two people. We did this by playing around with the opacity of the two video's, so that both people could be seen in the shot, giving the effect of one person chasing another.

Throughout the process of editing, I did majority of the editing as my partner was more of the writing type, we both attempted using Final Cut Express, however I ended up liking it more. 

                                          

The major difference in working with Final Cut Express was the jump from using Premier Pro in AS Level. The jump helped me to extend my skills further by using a more complex program and a variety of them as well. I was allowed to create and edit using tools that I myself didn't know existed, which was a pleasant surprise. 

Progression From AS to A2!

Media Choices?

Here are some of the media choice, that I thought our artist and the type of music she does would fit into from music channels to music magazines.

The main music channel's I felt that would host our music video and the type of music that our album holds. MTV 2 is a very popular music channel along with Kerrang that mainly show indie/rock music which is the genre that our music is. Therefore, our music video would fit in with the other music video that they show on a daily basis. 

Moving on to radio station, much like the choices of our music channels, we have chosen three popular radio stations two being Kerrang and XFM which are well known for playing rock/indie and some pop music. Forum's show that majority of audiences with these music tastes listen to either one of these radio stations on a daily basis.

Now for the selection of music magazine. We have chosen three of the most popular punk magazines NME, Kerrang and Q magazine. As you can tell from the examples above, the magazine advertise only the best indie/rock artists (Lily Allen, Hayley Williams from Paramore & Madonna), all these artists are key female artists in the media at the moment. Therefore Lola Malibu would fit perfectly with the type of artists that the magazine would like on their front cover and in their magazine.

Rough Cut!

We created a rough version of our music video to test on our audience to gain feedback on certain elements to improve and scenes in which we should take out. An advantage to creating a rough cut, is to help improve our music video to make it as good as it could be. 

Band & Album Names / Tracklist

Track List 

1.Don't Let Me Get Me

2.Terry

3.Subliminal

4.Good Times

5.Lost & Lonely

6.Ready Or Not

7.Commander

8.Gone Away

9.Ordinary 

10.Finally

Audience Profile!

What Do The Audience Like?

I decided to go out and ask two different audiences a series of questions such as:
-What's your favourite genre at the moment?
-Your favourite artist at the moment?
-Favourite music video at the moment & why?
I felt it was important to understand audience's likes and dislikes as much as I can, therefore by doing this it helped me established what the audience like in a music video and what style they like their artists to be portrayed through. 

Timeline!

Photoshoot Plan!

Here is a 'Photoshoot Plan' which details the different shots, I am expecting to take for my digipack and magazine advert. It details different factors in which I need to consider, this is an effective way of helping with management with my time and to ensure planning prior to taking the pictures. 

Photography Lesson!

Prior to taking pictures for our Digipak and Magazine Advert, fortunately we got the chance to have a lesson taught by a former photographer. Ms.Jones taught us some of the profound elements of photography which are 4 key factors:

1. Composition
2.Exposure
3.Lighting Effects
4.Post-Production


Composition is the most important factor as it simply means how your image is put together. When using composition, you need to take into notice 'the rule of third', which means that each section of the photograph should be at certain points of the frame. Take a look at the example below:

In addition to composition, exposure is another important aspect of photography, as it monitors the quality of your overall photo. To ensure that your picture quality is high at all time, is to ensure that your camera is set to correctly according to whether your taking your picture in high key lighting or low key lighting. You can also tell by the histograms you get on your cameras:

In having more practice with lighting effects, we got the chance to have a try to create the perfect lighting for our own photo. We did this by moving around different lights onto different aspects of our model's feature to enhance that part. We tried to create two different photo's. One enhancing just the face and the other showing the outline of our model's face, personally I thought we successfully achieved this through practice. 

                                                                                         

Character Profile!

'Good Girl' Character                                      'Good Girl' Character - School Scene 

'Bad Girl' Character                                                          'Rock Star' Character

PROPS

Prop For Band Scene                    Performance Scene

Prop Used For The School Scene