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FINAL: Music Video, Magazine Advert, Digipak

Music Video

Magazine Advert 

Digipak

Evaluation Question 1

Here is my Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Here is my second Evaluation Question

Evaluation Question 3

Here is my Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

Here is my answer to Evaluation Question 4:

Another Unsure Moment

So after my font uncertainty , I again have another uncertain moment for my magazine cover. Again, a tiny thing but I think I will come to an agreement closer to the deadline (next week, eek!).
I have two images and the whole uncertainty is whether or not I should have my dog (Jimmy) in the advert or not.

Have: because I'm faded and more like a little extra, I want to people to focus on the words and text of the album, I wanted Jimmy to be the same as well.
Don't: much of my magazine advert is quite full even though it is simple. So I don't know whether to add in another image to the advert and make it over the top, something Indie artists don't do.

 It's actually quite hard to take a picture of a dog so hence why you can't see his face or see him walk in the direction of where I essentially walking.

Decisions, decisions...

FINALLY!!

HORRAHHHH I've finished my album cover (I think)

Wanted to have the contrast of colour and black and white, something that isn't quite common in indie genres. However, to challenge that, more artists tend to have colour with certain hints of dark lightening, something which I noticed on the recent Mumford and Sons album "Wilder Mind". Instead, I wanted to have the inside black and white tones and the actual CD simplistic with symbols on the CD that I made to get a feel of what my band would be fro this debut album. I drew inspiration from The Neighbourhood for the symbols.

Although I have challenged real media product with my album colour contrast, I also developed on many indie artists the fact that they don't use a band or artist on their album cover.

Difficulties!

Whilst I am writing up my evaluation notes, I still have one more thing on my CD cover that I need to finish. And I've saved the hardest for last!!
What I want to do is have my flower pattern on the CD itself, however YouTube and Photoshop are my worst enemy.

However, I researched CD cases on indie artist and they're very simple, that just being a simple colour (monochrome is popular) and then the text of the band and album name on the CD.

So if I chose this, I would keep the flowers behind so when the CD was to be taken out you'd see it.

Magazine Covers

Now that I have finished my Album Cover, I thought I'd start with my Magazine Cover.

I wanted to keep things simple because many in magazines like NME and Q (indie magazines) tend not to be over the top and actually use simplistic images and merely sell for that alone. With that, I wanted to keep the text big and bold to have that as the main focus with the selling point  to the right demographic.

Having looked at previous years magazine covers that used the indie genre as well have used this technique and many have had a view/location to look at with the band name and album (or song) being sold larger than what it would be elsewhere.

Having the location as the main point I also wanted to include an image of myself (as If I was in the band) because that means the audience and readers of magazines would be attracted to it more and curious as to why the person isn't the centre of frame?

I chose this because many artists do in fact use themselves in their magazine cover. However, challenging this real media I wanted to not be the main focus and purely sell for the name and the band, many of which old indie artist and to do before the rapid adjustments to technology and social media.

Here are some examples of Indie Artists magazine adverts:

 Doesn't use any artist to promote their album

 This I found interesting because it uses the water in the background, something that is in my advert as well and having the band's name at the top of the frame.

Again no artist or band and it just selling purely on the art and it's name, including a single name. Which I have included with mine as Wash. 

This is an example of an artist who is selling with their own face and intact the same picture as the album cover but still has as strong emphasis on the name at the top.

First Draft

So Here's two ways in which my album could end up. I always wanted to keep thing simple but have more of an affect in the editing stages go the digipak. Two of these photos were shot on my camera (Canon) the front cover and back cover (the bottom ones) and the other two were shot on an iPhone (6 and 7). 

I prefer the bottom picture where it is colour vs black and white because it fits the conventions of an indie artist. As well as not having a artist on the front of the album cover itself. 

All i need to do now is sort out the flower picture as I want this as my CD cover not the entire background (not sure what would be behind it yet, maybe fire) and then finish the spine down the middle with the band name and album title.

After getting votes in from the demographic as to which my band would target (teenagers and young adults) and especially the buyers (audience) that are into the indie genre as they would be or prime sellers before any age. The question was asked which one they preferred (easy, right) and the majority of the voters said that the second one is the best looking one.  

 First Draft

The version I prefer and will chose 

Having A Laugh

Before the Easter holidays, Ruby and I was asked by both JB and Kirti to take pictures for their album cover as they both wanted to use a band on the front of their cover. Something which I have gone against.

I've chosen to not use anyone on my album cover because although many indie artist like Lana Del Rey and Florence and the Machine use themselves on the front cover, there are other artist that have not like Arctic Monkeys, Hozier, The XX and even Bon Iver, the actual band who's song we used for our music video.

Bon Iver themselves used nature in the album cover that "Wash" has come from. This is something I picked up on and used purely because while I was away in Sicily, I could of used anything from there as the whole island was so beautiful and picteresuqe. And that's what I done.


However, for my magazine cover I will possibly use an artist as my selling point as many artist have used that technique instead of the album cover.

Font Positioning

The end of the holidays is here and the digipak is due very soon (sooner than I hoped)

As i'm still trying to get used to photoshop (which is the most frustrating thing in this process!) I thought I'd would share my front cover of my band's album with two different colours of what would fit the album and conventions of an indie album.

 I love the fact that the band name is in the sky here and originally it was in white which is suitable and something I will go for as it can symbolise clouds and with the colour of the sky it suits the whole aesthetic. also I like the fact that it's white because it can also represent purity and the fact that my bands name is pure in Spanish I thought that white would look good.

However, I also thought about having the album name black which meant there was a problem due to the dark background down by the cliffs in the picture. This is because I wanted to have the band name in one colour and the album title in another. However, looking at other indie artists and their album names (Lana Del Rey, Florence and the Machine and Arctic Monkeys) they all use the same coloured font for their name and the album title which would work as the white will blend over the dark cliffs which you can see in the first picture. 

Justifying The Bag Situation

After our media feedback, one of our audience members was startled why my character dropped off her bag and kept on running.

Reason: we took inspiration from Kodaline - All I Want Part 2 where the protagonist left his bag at the end of the video. We looked at this video and realised that it would fit into ours as well. With my story, we wanted her to basically run as a free person, getting away from her problems and starting almost fresh.

The real reason: we filmed our running shots without it and then realised that I ran with my bag in early shots at other locations so we needed to show that I dropped my bag somewhere.

Here is the music video of Kodaline Part 2

Album Track List with Font

Here is my Album Title with the font I will use as the tracklist. the Album title itself "leave my body " will busing the same font I used with the band name. I realised that on my blog that the font is hard too see, however, on my digipak it will be over a black and white picture.

Tracklist:

Tulip Touch 

forest lake

canada water

on air

king of evil

wash

st George

sweeter than heaven

a lily in a rose garden

bonus tracks

how to dance alone

running rings around wild

new york nocturnal

As there are some Bonus Tracks these are just there as a just in case. I may decide to put them in I haven't decided yet but that will come as to how my digipak will look like. 

With research it is quite common that many Indie artist have bonus tracks or a "B Side" to their single. So maybe on my magazine page I could put these tracks with my Wash single and promote them as a B side track and not as bonus tracks as this will allow more people to listen that certain band as the audience knows that those songs won't be on the final album. the 1975, George Ezra, Lana Del Rey and the XX are just some of the indie artist that have used this technique whilst promoting just their single. 

Our Final Music Video

Horrahhhhh!

Wash by Mac 3

Media Showcase

Last Monday we had our final media showcase. This allowed us to get audience first hand reaction and feedback to help us with one of our questions for our evaluation.
Here is what Ruby said before we presented our music video:

"Hi, we're Mac 3. This is our indie music video set to Wash by Bon Iver. We paid close attention to rural and urban contrasts in order to make the separate narratives of the two main characters clear. We'd like to thank Mr and Mrs Goulding for helping us out on this project and hope you all enjoy!"

Band Name Font

Here are the possible fonts for my album. I will most likely use the same font as i have for the Band Name for the Album Name (Leave My Body) and then use that font I have the album name on now as my track list for the back of the album. 

The font style for the front cover (the PURA one) is a 100% definite that I will use for the CD as well as the magazine 

Starting My CD Panel

I've downloaded a template of a 4 - Panel to start on. Because my shots that I want for the final CD case have not been taken yet, I'm going to use screenshots from the music video to start off with and see where it goes from there.

Character Profile: Nadia (Megan)

This is Nadia. She is playing my mum in the music video and is more of a stay at home mum because there wouldn't be anyone to look after my character if they were both working as hard as my father character.

 Because she's more of a stay at home mum, we asked her what kind style she thought that would be. Knowing Nadia this is what she came up with and it was great! looking casual and subtle.

Here they are both together 

Character Profile: Cem (Megan)

Here is Cem, he played my father in my music video and why I am running away because he couldn't agree with my mum and they were constantly arguing.

We wanted him to look like he is a business man hence why they argue a lot because he's working a lot and doesn't have time for his family. He also had a tie which you will see in the video.

A Change of Plan

After going on many websites to find digipak templates to start editing etc, I was unable to find a 3 CD panel one so I will have to go back to the original ideas of a 4 disc panel. This may mean I would have someone on my album but it may not necessarily be on the front cover.

Album Fonts

Using the same website as I did for the Band name I decided on using Leave My Body as my album name and here I found a variety of fonts that were quite similar to my album name but I didn't want them to be too similar just yet until I see whats going to be on my CD case.

Font Ideas For Band Name

Finishing up on the shooting I decided I wanted to start looking at different fonts for my band name. I wasn't really sure what I wanted so I used a site to help me.

http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=504&text=PURA&af=on

Here are some ideas for fonts that I have seen on this website that I may consider for the title of my band on the album and magazine. 

Parental Advisory

In our last lesson we talked about what music videos would need the Parental Advisory sign on the album and poster.

Seeing as out video doesn't have anything narrated in a rude manor and the fact that the lyrics of the song is not rude we wouldn't need to have the sign and I don't wish to have my album with it as many Indie Artists don't in fact have them: Arctic Monkeys, Passenger, Florence, The xx and many more.

Arctic Monkeys - 3 CD Panel Digipak

Whilst I was researching 3 CD panels I came across Arctic Monkeys "Favourite Worst Nightmare" album. This album is simple and more technological as it doesn't show any people and the song titles positioning and font is simple and being on top of a black background it's more striking and appealing and they actually conform to the conventions of Indie Genre album covers with the monochrome style.

 The Front Cover: Here the Band Name and the Title are together and in one place against the rest of the picture and more of a focus on the window pictures. This will help me as many Indie Genres tend to keep the Album Name and Artist together in one place (Lana Del Rey) instead of one on the top and one on the bottom.

 The Back Cover: quite simple but it also doesn't have the number of tracks on there which is quite helpful as that is also what many artists are starting to do and instead just either putting  full stop in the way or just putting one after the other if it was in the top left corner. I think I would go more towards what this album is stating and the fact that they're all going in order and there isn't any numbers.

Inside

Using this Album as my core research I want to use 3 CD panel which means I will need to be more decisive and what goes on the album cover (and CD itself) and the font of my band to the song titles and where everything fits best. That way, I hope it will further help me to start picking magazine posters as well, the final part of my digipak. 

3 CD Digipak Research

Now that I'm starting to go towards the 3 CD panel idea, I wanted to do more research and whether it fits the conventions of the Indie Genre. During this, I found a website that helped me find what fits the indie genre and how that can help during the digipak stages. This power-point really helped!

https://www.emaze.com/@AFZRFFWZ/Codes-and-Conventions-in-DigiPaks 

Here is Gorilliaz Album which is a bit different to what I would do, but it would fold into 3 panels. However, I would see this as a bad example in the indie genre because it's quite simple and somewhat goes against the conventions of indie albums. 

I like the style of this CD and the fact that there is colour; a common theme more of Indie Artists are starting to do and break ways from the monochrome aspect in the album covers.

However, much of the CD case is simple and it shows the titles on the far left which is all placed in the top left corner, another common position many artists use not just the indie genre.

Finally, this album is actually similar throughout all three panels. which means I could consider that but with the ideas I have for the pictures, I wouldn't want to have the same colours on all three and have a theme (elements) and have one of each on each panel. 

Bon Iver Digipak Analysis

This week we started to have a better understanding on our digipaks. With that, we had to research the type of CD size many indie artists would conform to the conventions.

After being more appealed to the 3 panel CD case, I wanted to research in more depth how many artists have done this. As this has only started to be more popular as the rise in Vinyl purchase and the width of that is why more people are going for the 3 panel CD case.

With that, our song artist (Bon Iver) have done it themselves and the album it where Wash has come from.

I really like the fact that this is simple and the font of the song titles is more "homely" as it looks like handwriting. With that it's simple because the front and inside cover are simple and more artsy and doesn't show anyone which is sort of what I want to go for and not have any band member or a visible vision of a person there.

This album has really helped me start off my research into 3 CD panels and I'm more confident in choosing this style of digipak cover to fit the conventions of the indie genre.

Finally Finished!

Over the time I was away, my group didn't have much to finish besides colour creations and matching to the beat. But now, we have finally finished and will be ready to upload very very soon!

Editing Day 5 footage

What's the Name of the Game...

Band Name:

PURA

drawing inspiration from my travels to Costa Rica and no matter where you was either on the streets or being greeted at the hostels, they always said PURA VIDA. With that, it might sound creepy but I found a tattoo of pura and the font is really edgy and may consider that kind of style for my album. 

Album Name: 

LEAVE MY BODY 

I'm not really sure where I got this from. Maybe because my band is called pure, and it is more of a new beginning. 

Song Title names:

1. Tulip Touch

2. Forest Lake

3. Canada Water

4. On Air

5. Blunt

6. King of Evil

7. St George

8. Sweeter Than Heaven

9. A Lily in a Rose Garden

10. How to Dance Alone

11. Running Rings Around Wild

12. Travel with a Vengeance 

13. New York Nocturnal 

These aren't 100% yet but asking my group whether they like them I have received positive feedback but I still want more feedback so I shall be asking my friends and the rest of my class whether they like them. I also may not use all 13 as it needs to fits around my album ideas.

Vlog - Filming Day 5

On Monday we all hopped on a train to Alexandra Palace to shoot our scenes for the final bit of the music video. We kept to the storyboard a bit but because we finished those shots in time, we was able to have some fun and find more creative ways to share our stories and add in last minute issues (I forgot to run with my bag at the start of the day so we shot myself throwing my bag on the floor).

Shooting that day went really well and I was really pleased with how the shots turned out even trying to find of way of us meeting was a fun experience but it did go really well!!

Shooting Schedule - The End is Near

HOORAY we are coming to the end of our shooting. We have had to quickly shoot all of my scenes that involve running due to my personal issues and we didn't want to panic last minute and possibly change the character. So, as the deadline is getting closer and closer we needed to make a schedule so we knew exactly what we needed to do before I go.

30th January - Ruby's & Megan's Story - Final Scenes: both meeting each other
9th February - Megan's Story - Reshoots: Bedroom scenes and walking into my room (journey)

Match Up Editing

On Monday, we put together our shots from Ruby's story making sure the shots were synchronised to the beat of the song, getting the specific lyrics to the shot we done. For example the lyrics Come we finally cry, we linked this up to my character who starts to cry in front of the trees screaming away her problems!

Before

After 

Filming Day 4 - Editing

On Saturday 14th Jan, the group had decided to start shooting Ruby's Story which involved our AMAZING head of year and her husband. We would like to thank them for taking their time out of their weekend to be Ruby's parents and acting extremely well telling them how they have to react right before we started!

It's all coming together now really well and now all we need to do is the final scenes of Alexandra Palace where my character and Ruby's meet for the first time.

Evaluation Questions

Here is our questions that we need to start considering when I start on my digipak and coming towards the end of our music video ideas etc.

Digipak: Examples

Here i've found some indie artists albums in their digipak to help me start on what I hope to achieve in my own.  

Here's is Lana Del Rey's. I like the simplicity of this album and the font itself is really basic. My favourite is the CD with the roses. All of this is simple and if I was to use a protagonist on my album cover, I have this idea of the band name being behind them with the album name going elsewhere. 

the XX. The most simple out of everything. Yet their holographic X reflects their music and it gives me a good start into branching further and possibly not using a protagonist / group of artists. 

AM. One of their first albums and even though this may be a bit too explicit for an educational project, I like how it's black and white and that the song titles at the back are in one confined area at the top, a common theme in most albums.

Of course, Bon Iver. Of which our song we're using "Wash" is from. The font is really different than any other, more looking like handwriting, creating a more real effect. However, the pictures of such are a bit too hard to illustrate as I am no artist (storyboard speaks for itself). Again, i like how it doesn't have a protagonist nor does it have the band. 

Finally, F+TM. Her debut album is one of my favourites on this post.  Using the title name over the special effect on the front cover, really focusing on that. furthermore, the back of the album is more interesting than anything else. using an illustrated lung, labelling all the different parts to the song titles. also, splitting the titles into how the mechanics of lungs work (In and Out). With this album, I like how the name of the band is on the top, like Lana's and Arctic Monkeys.