First digital drafts of digipak and advert

I completed a first draft of the ancillary work today and got feedback. These are the first drafts of the front cover, inside panels and the poster...

Although there was mostly positive feedback from Louisa, there are a few small details I need to alternate.
I was advised to change some of the colours of the text as it is difficult to read the white writing on the poster, remove the black strip on the inside panel as it is unnecessary, make sure that I use the same fonts and colour for the artist's name and album in EVERY product it appears on, use the same effects on all the texts of the names and make the barcode and Island Records logo on the back cover smaller so I can bring the Facebook and Twitter logos lower on the page and align them all together.











 

Progress update on digipak

I've continued working on my digipak and have been experimenting with many ideas of filter, effects, fonts, colours, sizes etc. As a first time Photoshop user, this has all been a new challenge for me but I think I'm finally starting to understand this. Another new skill I picked up on this adventurous journey was placing an image of Marcus Green onto an outline of the CD so that it has a better appearance.

The photos in the Photobucket link above show my steady progress with the digipaks and poster. I've had to look at examples of other real ancillary products to help me guide me with Marcus Green's promotion. Looking at similar artists such as Plan B and Professor Green has helped me significantly and I now feel much more confidence as the deadline approaches. 

Things that i need to get done

Alex Clare vs. Marcus Green

The comparison 

Alex Clare 

Marcus Green 

The song that my group has chosen is called “Too close” by Alex Clare. This song already like most songs has an original video that complemented the singing of Alex Clare, clearly because this song already had a video, we had to come up with something different, something better than the original music video itself. Alex Clare is a very sophisticated artist in the music industry due to the various styles of smart attire that he employs when performing on stage and on set for his music video. The name of our made up artist is called “Marcus Green” , we wanted to make a similarity in terms of taste and swagger, as a result we wanted Marcus green to only be seen in clothing that seems smart and sophisticated to some extent ( chinos and a cardigan) this new artist will capture the audience attention because of his unique hair style( Jerry curled Mohawk) because our target audience is quite young we tend to associate the young as having a variety of looks in terms of hair style and clothing.

 Alex Clare begins his music video sitting down on a chair in some derelict apartment with a range of close- ups zooming in onto different part of his face, our music video will start off with the artist walking on a dark street (so it’s at night time) with the camera showing his back then following his feet (close-up/ pan) whilst walking along the street before the first verse hits. Even the ending of our music video shows the artist opening a door and leaving his house with a suitcase. Alex Clare’s ending shows him as the artist singing “so ill be on my way” whilst the camera pans away from him eventually leading to an establishing shot. The main difference of both videos is that our main base track is set in a dark street whilst the original is set in a room filled with unwanted items and broken cupboards. 

The effectiveness that my digipak should contain.

I want my digipak to contain a range of elements that will contribute to creating an effective digipak/advertisement piece, my digipak will be influenced by many artists that have used close-ups for their album cover, artists like

Usher

50 cent 

Although these front album covers above do not link with the front cover that I will do in terms of genre they are just an example of a really effective digipak in the sense that it’s able to capture the audience’s attention and we are able to see the artist’s face and their emotions as well.  

I feel that it is really important(crucial) to employ close-ups for the front album cover, because it’s a new artist, no one knows who the hell Marcus green is and by having a front cover that does not consist of a close-up is a tragic. The use of close-ups is shown throughout our music video and will be used in the ancillary product as well, it is very important that I do this properly as I want to show a clear visual link as most of the shots are close-ups and medium shots one of them will be on the front cover of my digipak as well as advertisement.

Hopefully if done right the digipak and advertisement should complement each other in an effective way as they share similar shots, our music video’s main base track consist with a dark background (street at night) as a result of this my front cover should consist of a background that is dark as well as a result emphasizing the clear visual link between the ancillary products and music video. 

New Years targets (2013)

London 2013 new years fireworks display

OK, so its new years day (1^st of Jan) and there are still quite a number of targets that I would like to set for myself this year in terms of the digipak and magazine ad, towards the ending of last year I was just not in the mood to do any work (a bit frustrating) maybe because it was the almost holiday season (truth be told I am not good at using quark nor Photoshop). This year I am hoping to achieve a number of things especially because this month is the most significant in terms of blogging, once January is over we can’t blog anymore so I am setting 4 targets they are 

               1.    I should attend media workshops in order to get digipak and magazine ad done

                    2.   Use all lunch times wisely(not just hang about)

                   3. Stay positive(cant think when am annoyed)

               4.   Have a minimum of 130 posts (or more)