Journal - Fourth Draft of Album Cover

Though I like the purple palm tree background and am confident that I will use is throughout my digipak, I experimented with a galaxy wallpaper as the background. I want to use purple as the colour throughout my digipak so that it all links together, however this also means that my photos look very feminine.

Though my target audience are primarily female, it is important that it is not completely gender biased.

After applying this galaxy background, I have decided to keep using the palm tree background. I plan to manipulate the background more, as opposed to just the lens flare effect, by playing around with the contrast and saturation to see if I can make it less feminine.

Journal - Third Draft of Album Cover

After a one to one with my teacher, we decided it was too girly and didn't reflect the indie element of our genre as much as it did the pop genre. I tried to resolve this by limiting the purple on there to just the background and the costume, instead using white for additional colour. I also added in a frame on photoshop and changed the font to the one below, as my feedback stated my current font (Art Brewery) was too difficult to read. After experimenting with a different style font, I have reached the conclusion that I still want to use a calligraphy/hand-written font because it gives it a personal feel.

However, I do not like how this looks as I think it looks too boring and it left no space for the album title. I used a different photo on this album cover also and like how that looks in the middle of the cover, but still think that this album cover looks too pop and not alternative enough.

Blog Feedback

My feedback for my digipak was mostly positive; the constructive criticism that I was given were points that I agreed with.

We surmised that this panel needs to have a different background because the outside location gives it an urban feel that doesn't fit in with my digipak. Another re-occuring point is that my digipak is very feminine and, whilst females are my primary audience, it can not completely exclude my secondary audience of males. To resolve this, I plan to experiment with colours: for example, using a darker purple as opposed to the feminine, lilac colour I have been using.

As our artist is of the indie-pop genre, it is important that our digipak reflects both of these sub-genres. My main feedback was to ensure that this is presented as currently it is more pop-oriented than indie. I have several photos of long exposure and of Isla with a Diana F camera that  I can bring in to make my digipak look more indie, or experiment more with polaroid stencils.

Journal - Digipak Fonts

Following feedback that my current font (Art Brewery) was too difficult to read, I went back on to dafont to look at some more calligraphy fonts.

I thought that this font was clearer and had a calligraphic element to it, but ultimately felt the tattoo connotations wouldn't fit in with my indie-pop genre.

I thought this was quite a girly font and again liked the handwritten element to it because it provides a personal feel, however I think it could also be difficult to read if used for the entire tracklisting.

Harbell is the font that I decided to use. The boldness of it means that it is clear to read, whilst still keeping the calligraphic element that I wanted.

Here is my tracklisting with my new font -- I also adjusted the positioning of it against Isla's hair and made it thicker. I used the gradient tool effect on my text so that it changes colour as it goes down.

Journal - Presenting Our Digipak

I presented the first draft of my digipak to my class. In general, they responded to my ideas positively and agreed with the points I wanted to improve on. They felt that my use of the colour purple communicated my genre and ensured that my images related due to the colour scheme. Each feedback sheet suggested that I use a different font on my tracklisting as it is difficult to read whilst my teacher suggested that my fourth panel may need more editing or a completely new background as it stands out from the rest of my panels. Overall, I am happy with my feedback.

Journal - Second Draft of Album Cover

After seeing this fanmade album cover on the internet, I decided to experiment with my photos to recreate something similar. I had already included a palm tree background in my previous design, but decided to use a different photo and a brighter colour scheme. I also didn't want to cover up my artist's eyes or face, as it is the main selling point for a female artist -- especially for the album cover.

I added an inner glow of the photo of Isla to giving it a more artistic effect and instead made her name in the newspaper text, and the album title secondary. I like how this looks, but am undecided on whether the use of the newspaper style font reflects my genre. I think the inner glow effect on the photo looks good and may experiment with this effect on the rest of my photos.

Journal - Music Video Shoot Planning

Plans for production for our music video are currently still being developed, though we have decided that we will shoot it during December. We have split our music video shoot over two days (at least), meaning we will film all the shots located in London in one shoot and the shots that take place inside Isla's bedroom on a separate day. We have acknowledged that weather implications or time constraints may affect elements of out shoot in London and so have decided to construct a production plan closer to the time.

Here is a rough draft of our production plan:

Knowing that we will need polaroids photos for our music video, we began to make our own. We used from both our digipak shoot and our own personal photos. These photos will be featured in the video consistently, i.e scattered across the bed or being thrown in the air by Isla. The presence of polaroids in our music video helps connote the artistic, indie genre of our artist.

Journal - Animatic

Our animatic recieved positive feedback. Our class and teacher acknowledged the evidence of Goodwin's analysis as there was a relationship between the music/lyrics and the visuals, several close-ups, genre charateristics and also reference to the notion of looking. They agreed that it would appeal to our target audience, but our constructive criticism referred to the lack of intertextual references. This is something that we can work on before shooting our music video.

Another point was the practiciality of our shots with the arcade, though they did suggest that (especially with Christmas coming up), Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park would be an interesting fair ground location to shoot as opposed to the inside arcade we were going to use.

Journal - Making the Animatic

We are currently in the process of constructing our animatic. Making an animatic has been really helpful in deciding if our storyboard works as you can see before you've started if the length of the shot works for the song. In our case, we've had to add in some cuts and new shots because some of our previous shots lingered on the screen for too long and became boring. The pace of our song is quite fast and so it is important that our shots reflect this.

Another problem we have faced is the quality of our drawings. Whilst we know what the shots are and a written description is in the box next to the storyboard, only the photo will be on screen and we're worried that our sample group won't understand what the drawings are. However, this can be resolved by a brief explanation of certain shots before the presentation.

However, in general, I feel like the planning for our music video is coming together.

Journal - Digipak Design (First Draft)

I made a presentation for when we have to pitch the first draft of our digipak design to the class. I put the photos that I edited and the ones I plan to edit together in the template to communicate a brief idea of my final product. I am happy with how it looks because I think it links together however am concerned that the photo outside stands out, but I plan to re-edit this so it fits in with the purple theme.

I added a lens flare to all of my photos so that they link together.

My album cover needs to be improved as the edges aren't neat but I like how the photos go with the background; my final product will definitely resemble this draft.

The photo I want to use for tracklisting and the photos for behind the individual CD's are currently unedited however I will give them more of a purple hue and merge my long exposure photos together. My tracklisting will be quite simple, with a photo of Isla positioned on the right and the tracklisting going down the left.

The second panel for my digipak is the one I edited most, because of the double effect. I like how it turned out, but I think it stands out from the rest of my photos. In an attempt to rectify this, I added the same lens flare effect that the rest of the photos have but I think it's the location of the shoot that is making it stand out. Hopefully I can edit the photo to fit in with the colour scheme as this photo demonstrates the elements of fashion in Isla's image.

I wanted my digipak to have a personal element and I think my 3rd digipak panel does this with the polaroid stencil. It also gives a artistic, vintage feel because of the flower crown and Diana F camera.

Journal - Storyboards

The main locations for our music video will be inside Isla's bedroom, with frequent cuts to to London and an arcade/fun-fair enviroment.

Shot 16 will be a continious shot of Isla and her friends singing, followed by a sped up shot of her and her friends running through a tunnel.

We have included three shots of Isla singing in the mirror as a link to Goodwin's analysis (reference to the notion of looking).

Shot 20 is a shot of Isla's hands flicking polaroids towards the camera, which will be played in reverse for shot 22.

Shot 28 and 29 are long shots of Isla and her friends walking around London, whilst shot 30 is them on an escalator.

Shot 32 is a shot of a drum, to link in with the beat.

Shot 40 to 49 are different angles of Isla and her friends on bumper cars.

Shot 51 to 56 are quick cuts of Isla and her friends in a photbooth.

Shot 60 will be video footage of this photo.

Shot 63 and the other shots with the same background are a wall of street, graffiti art.

Shot 78 is Isla on her bed with polaroids around here, whilst shot 79 is back at the bridge.