Booking equipment (re-film)

Carmen and I have asked to borrow equipment to re-film some parts and get some extra footage to fill in the gaps of our music video.

Photoshop Tutorial Skills For Digipak

The design is made up of layers so I could easily place my background on it as a base for editing once unlocking it. I then had to re-size the image of my artist by clicking 'edit' and 'free transform'. Once my image was where I wanted it to be placed, using the quick selection tool I cut out the background and smoothed out the edges with the eraser tool. To add a text I help the 'T' button and 'FX' to add effects to my layers.
Overall, Adobe Photoshop was very easy to use and very effective when editing my images for my digipak as the four sections for my CD were very accessible.    

Photoshop Tutorial

During our lesson, we were shown the various tools used to photoshop a famous artist onto a background of our choice. We began by selecting the background and fitting it into the A4 portrait sqaure, then we had to add another layer to place our chosen artist. Once we had completed this we clicked onto the picture of our artist and held it over the tab with the background and placed it on top of that photo. After this we used the magic wand tool to cut carefully around our artist so they fit onto the background well. 
If we made a mistake by cropping past the outline of our artist, then we could click the minus button to undo the mistake. Once the artist is cut out, we added a title to make the picture look like the front cover of a real album.
The picture below is the progress I have made so far. 

Digipak Moodboard

I decided to use the italic font on the right because it demonstrates femininity and heightens the sense of the pop genre.


Big voluminous hair depicts the cheeky and sassy confidence which is what Carmen and I chose for our artist within the music video. Alongside this, the aspect of curly hair shows our artist is wild and free.






The cheeky pose and grin below illustrates the power women have over men, this idea is incorporated in our narrative as our artist shows she can be independent without her man and uses cheeky facial expressions to come across as flirtatious and engaging with the audience.

The sun hat adds to the cheeky and flamboyant element of our artist as she poses with the hat, bringing life and youth hitting our target audience. 



The three outfits I found are ideas I will consider for my digipak as they are bright and colourful, representing the girly aspect as well as representing the typical tight teenage clothing.





The park on a sunny day would be a nice location to photograph our artist as the natural lighting will make the image look more younger and fresh which sells her brand image. If it's slightly windy, it could help to provide more volume to our artist's hair, creating a confident aura.   

Front and back of digipak (original ideas)

Here is the back of my digipak where I decided to choose a garden for the background as it is symbolic of freedom and independence. My artist is wearing the hat, showing off her brand image. Alongside this, her pink jumper and complementary colourful scarf adds to the feminine pop theme I'm trying to advertise. The font of the tracklist has a glowing effect and a black outline making it easier for the targeted audience (13-18 year old teenagers) to read. Due to the colourful background, I believe the mostly females would be drawn to buy the album.

The front of my digipak consists of the artist posing with the hat and giving a cheeky grin to illustrate a playful element. I chose colourful balloons as the background as a symbol of the heart shaped balloon in the music video. I selected an italic font to captivate the audience and to heighten the pop aspect. I chose the colour pink, as it fits with the pink theme of her jumper and the balloons.  

Digipak sketch

These are the four faces I roughly envision my digipak to look like as they represent a fun and girly element from my music video. I decided to incorporate bubbles to bring in the pop genre and symbolise the gun.

Target Profile- A2

My music video is aimed at young teenagers from ages 13-18 years old, mostly females as the theme is heartache. All of my target audience will be in secondary school or college, enjoying pop genres. The fashion influences are similar to high street fashion such as: Topshop, River Island, New Look etc.   

Name: Vanessa Walker 
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Job: Part time job in New Look
Hobbies: Cinema, ice skating, street dance and gymnastic 
Ambition: Actress
Music: All genres
Fashion Style: Girly, cute and vibrant

Digipak Research

Christina Aguilera's album 'Lotus' is symbolic of independent woman everywhere. The fact that she's naked builds a confident image where she feels comfortable with her body. Alongside this, the lotus is a natural beauty entity of nature as we were born nude by God so the album cover represents life in it's truest form as well as human in one with nature. 
The artist appears welcoming to the target audience as she has her arms wide open and makes direct eye contact which engages us.
The colour depicts a feminine vibe as the various hues of pink portrays a radiant and fresh theme. The sparkly effect creates a powerful and magical image where women have dominance over men. 

The typography of the title 'Lotus' is tall and thin creating an element of dominance and robust which ties the whole album together. The fact that she is positioned in the centre shows clearly that she is the main artist.

This album relates to mine and Carmen's music video as the artist sings about a heartbreak but overcomes it by getting revenge on the guy and showing the target audience that she is an independent woman. The girly brand image is an element where we want to advertise to the audience so they can relate. Christina's confidence is a part we want to incorporate in our artist's image and style so people will be intrigued to listen to the music.

5-10 album/ single covers

All of these albums consist of bright bold, eye-popping colours to attract the audience. The girly colours suggest that they all share a pop genre. The album cover focuses on the female artists, which shows that they are the centre of attraction. All the artists represent 'girl power' and the independence of women everywhere. The fact that none of the artists smile, depicts a serious connection with their music.

A difference is that some of the albums such as; Charli xcx and Ellie Goulding present a more electronic theme compared to the upbeat girly styles shown by the other album covers. 

The colours in which all the albums share are: pink, blue, green and purple tones which relate to the feminine theme of power and unity.

Annotating Beyonce's album cover- digipak research

Beyonce's album cover has inspired me to embed that element of independence and strength of a women, especially when she undergoes heartbreak. Despite the colours being mundane, the image imbues a powerful statement of radiating beauty and confidence. For my own digipak I would like to add lots of bold and eye-popping accessories to heighten the sense of the synth-pop genre.

Conventions of the Digipak form

1) What is a Digiak and how is it similar/ different to an album cover?
 A type of packaging for CDs and DVDs, typically made from cardboard.

2) What does a digipak net look like and how many faces are usual?
A digipak consists of 4-8 net panels that can be folded.










3) What do we usually find on the various faces of a digipak?
Usually you will find a list of tracks on the back, the name of artist on the front and a picture of the artist at the front to show the theme and brand image.


4) Does there need to be a connection between the faces on the digipak?
There is a connection between faces and is important to emphasise a brand or theme so the target audience will be able to see if they can relate to the songs.

World Cloud

These are words I chose to describe my artist, advertising her personality which fits with pop genre.

Music video feedback

In class, everyone went around and looked at each other's music videos and we gave feedback on different aspects of their videos, giving them opinions on what worked well and what elements could be improved upon. From doing this activity it helped us realise things we may have missed, whether it was any errors or things that we needed to include.
For the music video, students in my class have suggested that Carmen and I reduce the amount of kaleidoscopes. However, they have enjoyed the dancing and the energetic nature of the video. 

Check list

Here is a check list of all the tasks I have completed so far.