Tangible digipak

It was very hard for me to come up with different ideas to design the digipak as this will be my first experience, so to be more precise about the shape and the style, I examined some real digipak which our teacher has brought in. From this I have noticed that there are different layouts used in making digipaks. Some which are simple, when you open the album, there's a CD and crediting. Like the image below:

This band is called "Heretic Pride" which is a Indie genre music. The weak contrast used in black and white creates a soft atmosphere of this album. 

The album is called "The mountain goats" which represents the clouds use din the front cover of the album. However, the reason to why it is called "The mountain goat" is a mystery. 

The back of the digipak includes the song titles.

2nd digipak: 

However, the digipak below uses colour and has a vintage look. Also the mind map used on the back is interesting because I think it's unique as I have never seen something like this before. 

This album is about 'anti-war' which links to why photographs of bombs have been used for the front album cover.

(Front of the digipak)

(Back of the digipak)

This is the back of the digipak which shows who makes the bomb or companies which do for example : "Raytheon Industries" is marked with "Standard missile company" on the mind map.

(The outside of the digipak laid out flat)

(The inside of the digipak laid out flat)

Inside of the digipak, there were pockets which included one of the CD pockets which included information of crediting. There is a CD inside this pocket which includes the song titles.

Researching extra artists

Website

From our group, Ben will be in charge of the website.
He has used "WIX" because it does all the html coding for you which means it will be easier to build a website as all you will need to include is text and images.
He has planned to set up the ........

So far Ben has completed:

• Biography
• Basic Info
• Tour dates
• Music
• Contact

This is a great start as we have plenty of time to plan out any more pages which will be included. It has taken a lot of researching to build a website up to this standard as he explained he has researched emotive languages other official music-related website uses to describe their band in their biography to know exactly kind of audience will love the band.

Also with the tour dates, Ben has visited few websites such as ticketmaster.co.uk, see tickets.co.uk and getmein.co.uk which has helped him to see how long the band usually goes on tour and key venues which is appropriate for their charisma level. 

I feel the Brixton Academy venue in London is perfect for our bands charisma level. As it is not big as Arctic Monkeys, but bigger than Twenty One Pilots as they singles and albums have sold successfully in the band (for Framasson). 

Planning 5:

Over the weekend, Lewis has visited the Richmond Park to find a location where we would film our music video and suitable for the music.

He has taken some photographs:

We all agreed to decide to film in this location as it is the most suitable location for us to film.

Designing the Digipak

To get some ideas of how the digipak will look, I have done some rough sketch and briefly annotated the colour and what will be included.

After researching the album artwork, it made it easier for me to come up with some ideas because I released that it doesn't really matter if your album artwork does not represent the genre, because people who knows the band will stop and look anyway, because they are a fan.

Although I realised about how many alternative genre bands album cover does not really represent "Alternative", I thought to keep the design simple and relate the album artwork with the band and he genre. 

Design 1:

Th front of the album artwork.

In this album artwork, I have included the band sign in zodiac which will the the bands logo, so any fans will immediately know the band, and only those who knows the band as they will recognise the band logo. I also included the 5 colts who will be featured in the Music Video as a group, we have decided that the song "Iron" will be the single. But I want it faded in to the white background because I want the logo to stand out, which will be in red. This red, black and white creates a horrid gore look.

If we decide to use this album artwork for Framasson, we will have to shoot the colts in our photography studio and use a white background, and later on remove the background and edit it on photoshop so the white is purely white and so that the shadows which may be created in the background will not be in the artwork. 

Creating the logo should not be so hard, but we will probably ask one of our art students to recreate it into something in higher quality. 

Design 2:

The front of the album artwork.

This is the second album artwork, I have used the pigs head which will be featured in the Music Video as the main object. It's quite hard to describe how I want this to look as I'm not too sure of it either, but a black background and contrast the pigs pink colour so it will stand out and give a "floating" look. Also the bands logo will either be "burnt" on the pigs head, like an burnt effect with a brand, or on the right bottom corner so it is balanced out within the composition. I would also like the lighting to be really strong, and a sharp shadow. However, it will be very hard to take the photo of the pigs head as we will not be allowed to shoot it in the photography studio.

Design 3:

The front of the album artwork.

The front of the album artwork.

This is the third album artwork. It includes the "Devils Net" which will be made by the group to be in the Music Video and thought this may be a fun idea as it will only appear in the music video for a little while but be the main object on the album cover. As it will be made out of wood, I thought it can be shot in the forest or woods so the trees will be in the background and will link to what the Devils Nest is made out of.

If we decide to this idea, we can shoot the Devils net in the park we will be shooting our Music Video in. Although, one of the con will be that we will not have the control of the lighting as it will be natural sunlight. 

Design 4: 

The front of the album artwork.

The back of the album artwork.

This is the fourth idea for the digipak. On the front, the main person of the colt will be photographed looking down. I got this inspiration from the red hiding hood, as it wears similar clothing and a head cape. Like the image below, I want the trees to be in the background. A strong shadow will make it more dramatic.

If we decide to use this idea, we can shoot the main colt character in the photography studio and edit the background in later, after making adjustments.

Design 5: 

The front of the album artwork.

 

The back of the album artwork.

(Need to complete)

Researching for the Digipak

As our group has planned to create a digipak and a website for the band, Framasson, I decided to do some research on similar genre bands digipaks which exists to get some inspiration

From Lewis's blog, I have researched The XX, Everything Everything, alt-J, and Swim Deep as these bands has similar alternative genre. 

The XX 

The XX digipak is very simple, and lack of use of colour. They have the same design with the 2 albums, the big X but just in a different colour, as the big X is their logo, fans will know that this is the band without been told obviously. 

The two album contains 11 songs and are mostly named in a word. 

Everything Everything 

The Everything Everything album is colourful and also bold. The contrast between the orange and the pink makes the album eye catching and also the way character has been drawn in blue/grey is interesting as its fanatical and the characters body gesture is not "normal" - unexpected attack.

The second album are the 4 band members of Everything Everything, they are all facing the same direction and wearing plain autumnal jumpers. I found it interesting how the back of the band connoted also the band is facing the back.

alt-J (∆)

In the alt-J album, the 2 album are both colourful and uses similar colour such as the yellow, purple green and blue. Both has a similar style of "not planned" finish, for example, the first album is painted by a paint brush but painted randomly. The 2nd album cover is a spillage of petrol on the pavement, and the way the petrol has separated is not done purpose. The finish is quite similar. 

The pastel colours make the album cover beautiful because the colours are not clashing. It gives a soft, gentle finish. 

The back of the digipak has used the same font and style. Big and bold.

Swim Deep

David Fincher - Biography

What is Intertextuality?

Intertextuality is the reference of one media text (Cinema/Film, Music Video, Television and Articles) in another media text.  This often means that both texts share an audience in some way because they wouldn't understand the reference otherwise.

David Fincher

Born: August 28, 1962 (aged 53)

Occupation: Film Director, film producer, television director, television producer, music video director.

Years active: 1984 - present.

Graduate of 

Music Videos Directed:

Films Directed:

Example from one of his music videos: 

Express yourself - Madonna

Vogue - Madonna

Love is Strong - The rolling stones

Intertextuality example:

Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston  and Suit & Tie - Justin Timberlake ft. Jay-Z

The "Suit and Tie" MV was also directed by David.

John Stuart describes music videos as "incorporating, raiding and reconstructing" other texts.  In this case I think that this indicates that the viewers of this music video would also be familiar with


Spike Jonze

Born:

Occupation:

Years active:

Graduate of 

Music Video Directed:

Films Directed:








Example from one of his music videos:





















Michel Godly