Digipak Preperation - The making process

Preparation for the making of my final digipak.

I have decided to go with IDEA 1 This is because I really like the idea of the London background blended in with fairy lights. With the use of fairy lights blended in this will give of all the iconic girly colours associated with pop genre, however giving a twist to the protagonist making her seem not as venerable as the typical 'love stricken' songs most pop artist talk about such as Pixie Lott, Broken arrow. I will also be challenging the conventional pop album by not having the protagonist on the front which conforms to the male gaze to get both genders locked in the image, this also relates to the inter textual concepts of the feminist approach within our music video.


So after designing and picking which idea to go with for my digipak I went out and took some pictures of fairy lights which I will use in my sketch. Firstly I went to Maplin; an electrical store to take a video on the HD flip camera of the lights in Maplin

Above is an example of a front cover attempt. After I edited this on Picasa which is a photo editing software I edited the picture and added a Focal black and white effect on top which allowed me to focus on the colour yet leaving the rest of the picture in black and white scale. After this I added an intense of focus around the edges of the lights then around the whole picture to give a soft yet girly look with the glimmers of light appearing. However I really didn't like the way it turned out out it didn't give of a fairy light appeal as it was a disco ball.


After this failed attempts I then went down to B&Q and took a picture of some pretty bedroom bulb lights which were on a black background which I thought was perfect! which were on show and turned on! After learning from my previous mistake of only taking one photo I decided to get out my Christmas tree lights and turned them on just in case I didn't like the picture from B&Q.
I decided to use the picture I took in B&Q as the layout against the black background looked professional and I could use the multi-exposure effect when blended with the London picture.


London pictures for the front cover:

As stated earlier I am planning on using a picture from London as I want the artist to resemble a London background, similar to that of Lilly Allen, also one of the track lists is called 'London Town' Here are a few examples of pictures I have edited, I took when I went on the London eye last year. Taking pictures from the London eye gave an amazing view as you could see the whole city.

Picture one:


I have to admit this is my favourite picture of all! I love how my hand looks like it holding big Ben. I think this could be a very powerful shot and show the protagonist in charge as London is such a big city yet she has it in the palm of her hand. This also draws the audience in as when we see this we want to look closer to see what it is. I have added a black and white focal point with the picture of big Ben shining through. I think this makes this even more powerful as it draws attention to the middle of the image which yet again represent power that she is in control.


Picture 2:

I also really like this picture of the London eye. It's a very clear picture which shows iconic representation of London to reflect the artists background, however as my idea is to blend in fairy lights I don't think this picture would be as clear.

Picture 3:


I really like this picture. I especially like the vintage look to the picture, it looks as it's an old picture due to the colour. I love how you can see the whole of London which reflects the artist and gives power as it's over looking the city.

In my idea I have chosen to have screen shots of the artist shoes walking down the path with iconic representation on top. I think this will look good for the CD as it shows power that she won't be messed about with yet shows the girly side with the iconic representation.
Below is the screenshot of the feet I want to use:



Tomorrow I'm going to start the making process. With all my ideas planned and pictures chosen I will start the blended pictures together and the editing =]

Just a little note - Pink

This is just a little post to say how I found this song very powerful and inspiring. Pink who is a very powerful song writer talks about world issues addressing them to power and I think she is a very brave character. Most pop songs these days don't have meaning to the lyrics, this is why I love pink.

Making my Digipak

In this post I will talk about the procedure involved in making my digipak. I mainly used Picasa which is a photo editing software, I also used publisher and paint to make for example the heart on the back cover.

Copy of Digipack Ideas on Prezi

Digipak Preperation

Here I have made an interactive prezi of my initial ideas for my digipack

Digipack Ideas on Prezi

Editing progress

Today in my free lesson I went up to the media room to edit the video again. This time I started by muting all the clips as I could still here a few background noises. I then editing the pictures by adding effects such as sepia, black and white and romantic. Also editing the brightness, contrast and saturation to make the images more appealing and make the quality of the film look better as the grainy look was quite obvious. If I were to film again I would most definitely use the HD flip camera.Furthermore I added on more clips, it took a long time to find the right bits as to get the lip syncing in time. So far 2 minutes 17 of the video has been editing so not long left now, then more fine tuning will be added with the split screens and the four screens, Below is a video of the video so far:

Editing Progress

Today after lesson I stayed behind after school with Oyinda and Trisha to edit the film. However we realised we mucked up the timing so had to re-edit the video, to prevent this in future we have to avoid highlighting the music area! we spent the whole lesson just fixing it!

Editing

So today Oyinda and I stayed after school to tweek our video. we made some adjustments to the lighting, added effects to various shots and played about with creating a still shot which took along time. we had to get 0.1 seconds of the shots and multiply about 40times so it was still. However after that we decided to scrap it as it didn't look right.

Album title.

In our discussion the other day we were thinking of what we should call the album! The group came up with a really good name which is catchy and represents the singer.

I think this is a really effective name as we are trying to portray in our video that we women can stand up for themselves and don't need male attention to survive. This is shown by rejecting the so called attempts to get the girls attention.

Analysis of Pop digipak

Katy Perry - Teenage dream

Within this digipak there are clear forms and conventions to pop. This digipak conforms to the conventions of the most common digipaks as shown in my previous research.





The front of the digipak

The front of digipaks are usually filled with the artist. This is to promote the star to sell the record and for the audience to feel connected with the song and the star. Katy Perry's digipak conforms to this common convention. Allot of the time the artists on the front of digipaks are presented provocatively and revealing to grab the audience's eye. In Katy Perry's front cover this conforms to this with the minimal to none clothing surrounded by a pink cloud. Her facial expression also grabs the audience, this is known as the male gaze and is targeting a wider audience. The use of primary colours such as pink and baby blue in this digipak give us the feel that this is definitely a pop genre style of music. This mainly targets young teens and also children with the use of a candy theme. Younger children would see the artist floating on candy floss which gives a young appeal. The overall pictures and theme of the digipak are photographs with a bit of design in the clouds. I would expect to see a very pink a girls cover in a pop digipak which is what katy's digipak conforms to.

Back of the digipak.


Usually in most digipaks they consist of the album tracks and bar code which has the digipak theme running through. Katy's digipak conforms to this. She uses the candy theme running through the back cover with candy like font writing which is pink and candy floss backdrop. The lettering of the tracks fits in with the pop genre as its very cute, girly and, pink.

Side of the digipak

The side picture of the digipak just presents a closeup picture of Katy on candy floss again representing the male gaze. This is to draw the attention of the eyes to her face and we are more like;y to buy the album as we feel connected to her. The side cover also conforms to the candy floss theme which is targeting the target audience.

Cd compartment

The CD compartment also continues the candy theme with the use of Katy making a cake. The black back drop is really effective here as it brings out the bright and girly colours of the cakes. The use of Katy making a cake here make her seem very sweet, Innocent and young which is representing her target audience. This cover will behind the CD holder, the CD holder is common in digipaks as it keeps the Cd secure, and yet is still lightweight. The CD's themselves also carry the candy theme with bright colours representing doughnuts. This again portrays the young sweet target audience.


I like this digipak. The theme of candy makes me feel young and that the genre is more to my taste. I also feel connected with the artist by the pictures on the front which make me feel I could connect with the lyrics of the song. This shows how the digipak is an important aspect for the sales of albums.