MP TECHNICAL SKILLS

Digipak Mockup

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This is my mock-up of my digipack. This includes a hand drawn version of both the front and back pane, some AI generated examples, colour pallet inspiration and typography inspiration. I created this collage on canva.

 

Beginning to design my digipack has been fairly easy to do because I have carried out lots of research and know what is conventional or not conventional of Indie CD designs. My goal is to get a preferred reading (Hall) from the audience as they interpret everything how I intended it to be represented; I will do this by encoding (Hall) meaning through media language. Colour pallet, for example, can help encode meaning through showing the feel and vibe of the CD which gives the audience an idea of what genre it is. Black is commonly associated with rock, violence and death. Pink is associated more with femininity, pop and happiness. I want my artist wearing either a red jacket or dress. This will help her stand out from the green grass background and suggest passion and intense emotion, which fits in with her Indie genre. An outdoor setting (having her laying in grass) will help infer freedom and individuality which the audience should be able decode. The outdoors is a conventional backdrop for indie music which helps us be more representative of the genre. (Altman’s) Repertoire of elements demonstrates how there are reoccurring features that define and differentiative media genres. We need to include some typical conventions of Indie in order to maintain our stars image (Dyer) and brand of being an indie artist. This will help her have a coherent and cohesive brand image when it comes to creating the social media page.

Creating this collage of ideas aids in helping me begin to plan a shoot for the photos and have an idea of what I intend the final product to look like. Changes may be made as is typical of all projects, but it still helps establish something we can add to and build from. Researching and finding our typography will help us layout the track list in order for it to be visually appealing. We want the typography to feel personal, so we went with a more scruffy, handwritten font that is still legible from a distance which helps with attracting an audience for example in a shop when they see it on a shelf. Our artists star image (Dyer) is all about individuality and maintaining a personal connection and bond with her audience. We want to present her as ordinary and relatable which can be done with the handwritten style fonts and typography.

Digipak Conventions Analysis

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I researched typical conventions of a CD case and then analysed a professional CD which is by an artist who is doing my chosen genre (Indie).

Please click on the two slides below to see my analysis of both the front and back of the CD case.

Researching the conventions of a CD cover has given me valuable insight into how I will design my own. Some common conventions on every CD case are a barcode, artist name, album name, copyright and the track list. All CD covers will have these things but may use them/ display them in different ways in order to be the ‘same but different‘ and stand out from the competition. I had to consider colour pallet, layout, typeface, meanings and artwork when analysing the CD cover as there are so many ways meaning can be encoded within those things. Different colours and typefaces suggest different genres. For example, a bold harsh sans serif font may be used for rock and punk CD covers. Whereas a playful and light serif font may be used for Indie and classical music CDs. Black and grey colour pallets may be used for heavy metal and hip hop. Pink and blues will be more commonly used for upbeat pop CD cases. These are things I need to start thinking about for design aspects of my own CD. I will likely use more toned-down calm colours as, through my research, that is what I have found is conventional for Indie CD covers.

Beginning to brainstorm ideas for my CD has been made much easier through researching conventions of the Indie genre as that is my chosen genre. I know what is typical and what should be included, but I also know I should make it stand out and be the ‘same but different‘. I need to ensure my artists star image (Dyer) is encoded properly and it fits in with her brand in order to make the CD more recognizable and engaging for her already established fanbase (Jenkins). Encoding (Hall) meaning and representations throughout my CD design choices is definitely something I need to put more time and research efforts into as I need to make sure I’m representing my artists star image as confident and friendly rather than uninviting and intimidating.

 

Test Shoot – Narrative

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This is the unedited ‘boring’ version of our narrative test shoot.

 

 

This is our edited version with a much wider variety of shots and angles.

WWW:

  • Interesting variety of shots
  • Variety of angles
  • Experimented with a POV shot which ended up working really well
  • Good low angles of her stepping over camera
  • Engaging and entertaining to watch

What didn’t go well:

  • Better focus on continuity of shots as some don’t line up
  • Could’ve used more of the first shot as it is visually engaging and entertaining to view
  • Try to edit to the beat more
  • Match on action doesn’t line up
  • Track shot looks like someone’s following her – we don’t want that

Filming this test shoot gave us an insight into how many different angles and shots go into one action in order to make it interesting and satisfy the audiences need for entertainment (Blumler & Katz).  For each action we film we need to make sure we use a variety of angles and shots to cover all sides and views of the action. The POV shot made it feel quite personal and helps to represent our star’s image (Dyer) as ordinary.  We tried out best to do match on action but found it was quite tricky and needed a little more planning which we will keep in mind for our narrative shoot. The movement through the frame provides something fun to look at that the audiences can follow along, it also helps to move the scene along and build a link to the next shot (where she is walking to) – this all helps to build the narrative.  We used a tracking shot however upon reflection it looks a little like someone is following our model – which isn’t what we want to portray/ suggest is happening.  It isn’t very conventional of the alt/ indie genre so we won’t be using it for our narrative.

The ‘boring’ version feels really empty and plain, it’s missing everything it needs to be attention grabbing and entertaining to view. Our edited version feels much more thought through, professional and engaging for the audience. We will make sure to keep this in mind and take a wide variety of shots and angles for every action in our narrative.