Individual digipak

I created an individual digipak to help sell the artist to an audience and help her become wider renounced and therefore more likely to be successful and not a flop, by advertising her it allows for more publicity and therefore draws in more fans.

I tended to use darker colours/dull colours within my photos to show that the music isn't all about the happiness of love and also shows a deeper, darker side to it, helping her audience realise that love isn't all like fairy tales say (as she says in the song 'panic cord'), however there are bits of brightness within the digipak to show that the songs are not all doom and gloom and that there are good tines in loving relationships as well, helping show the audience she has a lighter side as well. Giving off the right impression of what the artists music is about helps the audience get the jist of what her music is about and draws in fans that would be interested in this particular side of music, and not the wrong set of fans as this could cause her to flop if the correct set of fans are not drawn to her music.

I have conformed to the indie genre conventions, I tried to use lots of conventions to draw in an indie audience so that they would be drawn to her music and therefore draw in the correct audience and make it more likely for her to be more successful as an artist within the indie genre and therefore more likely to bean overall more successful artist. I used lots of natural settings for the backgrounds of the pictures to help show how down to earth and innocent she is, this is a convention of the indie genre and will help the audience understand the artists personality, I also used the convention of dull colouring to show the darker side of the artists music and that it isn't all happiness, this allows the audience to see there is a 'realer' side to her music and she isn't selling a fake dream to her audience.

I used images to show the artist is natural and innocent, I done this by using natural backgrounds such as trees, fields, etc, also in the front cover I have used a glow around the artist, almost making her look god like and showing her purity to the audience, the fact it is a white glow can also back up the idea of the artist being innocent, using white colours contrasting against a darker/duller background, making the artist stand out makes the audience feel like she is always happy, even throughout the rough times, making her seem more likeable and more of a role model, also the use of colours make the audience feel she is more down to earth and approachable if they saw her on the streets, making her become a favourite within the music industry.

The layout has the artist in the centre to emphasise how important she is and that she should be the main focus, and therefore helps the audience remember her face and therefore makes it more likely for her to be successful as she is recognisable to a wider audience, therefore it means her albums are more likely to sell as the public recognise her name, selling her music to the audience, also the colours used are darker, duller colours used to show the sadness and reality of her music, showing she is real and showing the darker side of love, this helps the audience prepare for what they are listening to and not be shocked by the lyrics being sadder rather than happy lyrics, it also allows the artist to draw in the correct audience that would listen to her music and therefore gives her more chance of succeeding as an artist.

The typography used is mostly squiggly hand writing, this links with childhood and childish hand writing and therefore is linked back to memories, which is the name of the album (memory lane) and the song is focused on memories between the artist and her ex boyfriend and she is looking over memories fondly, similar to how people remember their childhood fondly, wishing they could go back to the simpler times, similar to the artist wanting to go back to old times when she was still with her ex boyfriend, using this allows the audience to see a clear connection between the typography and music and therefore understand the song better and emphasise with the artist more, also happy memories of the audience may arise when memories are mentioned, helping sell the album to the audience as they associate the happiness with the album.

Finally language such as

A weakness I found whilst using Photoshop was the blur tool, I found this very time consuming and difficult to really use to a good effect, this caused me to spend a lot of time doing it and eventually have to find an alternative, I needed to help blend in the artist to the background I placed her on, so instead if blurring her in, I placed a glow around her which stopped the contrast and allowed her to fit into the picture more.

I found cutting out images and placing them into the layers, this allowed me to create a much wider variety of effects and images due to this and worked out how to do it straight away and therefore could create a much more impressive digipak, helping the artist stand out to her target audience and therefore increasing the chances of being successful within the indie genre.

My digipak conforms to the indie genre as in the background of all the digipak slides there are natural settings as backgrounds, linking to the down to earth and loving feel about the indie genre, by using natural backgrounds the artist is shown as down to earth and real/approachable and the audience don't feel like the artist feels they are better than the people that follow them, by using settings that are recognisable to everyday people then the audience don't feel far away from the artist, therefore I have conformed to genre conventions for the indie genre, I done this because by following conventions of certain genres then the particular audience you want will be drawn in, therefore making the artist more likely to become successful.

My digipak appeals to my artists target audience as I follow many indie conventions, this helps draw in the audience that will enjoy our artists music and therefore allows the artist to have more chance of being successful in the indie genre, darker colours allow the audience to see that the music is real and not just the happy side of love, this allows the target audience to be drawn in as they know what type of music/lyrics the artist will have on their album.

Meetings and discussions

Meeting with my group regularly allows us to discuss our ideas and discuss when we will be meeting for filming, etc. It allowed us to stay organised and we could communicate any concerns or improvements we thought we could add to our video, this allowed us to create as good a video as we could between us, the ideas are then developed as a group and we decide whether to put them into the final cut of the actual video, by working as a group we can decide as a majority and not leave it to one person. We used our meetings schedule to decide n times that everyone could do, by having it written down everyone knew that they needed to keep certain dates/times open and could therefore always make it, leaving no reason for the whole group not to be there, this lead to much more efficient and organised filming.

Our group did work well together as we were able to discuss ideas as a group and decide fairly what we wanted as a majority, by doing this the group had a much better chance of making a successful video and it was done fairly, also the use of the meeting schedule allowed us to discuss ideas and problems we had for filming as a group and everyone was available to hear the ideas/concerns. We kept records of what was discussed in the meetings so that we could refer back to the ideas on later dates if needed, this prevented us from forgetting any ideas brought up in previous meetings and therefore we could add them in at a later date without forgetting, this allowed us to be efficient and not waste time on adding parts of the video in/filming new ideas.

Photoshoot

The pictures will be used on the digipak and therefore are extremely important, these will be sold to the audience as part of the CD and need to portray the indie genre to the audience so that indie fans buy the digipak and therefore it is more likely to be more successful as the targeted audience will be buying into it and therefore enjoying it as it is accustomed to their taste. Multiple pictures needed to be taken as it allows us to have a choice of photos for the digipak and therefore use the best possible photos we can, if we have no choice we will not be able to make a really professional digipak as the photos may not suit well.

The first image is our artist on a swing, this shows her innocence and purity and that she has a vibrant personality and stands out from the rest of the music buisness, this will be used within the digipak, this is conventional as it uses a natural setting of a field, this allows the audience to see that the artist is down to earth and that she doesn't need an expensive/flashy background like a party to draw in an audience and can become famous purely through her talent. I personally like how well the natural setting works with the artist and how the tree and clouds match with the theme of nature on the rest of the digipak, allowing the audience to see how it all fits in and suits therefore creating a relationship with the artist as they can see she cares about her work and the audience who listen to it and that she wants to make it as good as possible for them.

The second image is the artist on top of a fence sitting down, she has a natural setting behind her, this is showing the same as the last image, a innocent and caring person, as she is caring toward the environment and cares about nature, this will also be used in the digipak, this is conventional as it uses a natural setting of a field, this allows the audience to see that the artist is down to earth, this lets the audience see that she isn't a show off and that she is an everyday person that can use normal settings to advertise herself and doesn't need thousands of pounds to do it. It allows the audience to see how relaxed the artist is in front of the camera, showing her screen presence and helping the audience see she is a natural, this will help the audience see she is truly a talent and the audience will build a relationship with her as they will see that she truly is good and they will want her to do well as she is a naturally talented artist.

The third image is our artist against a wall, this is used to show how she uses normal, everyday settings, this makes the audience relate to her much easier as they feel that she is an everyday person like them and that she doesn't believe she is better than her audience, making her more likeable, this will be used in my magazine advert and the background will be changed to a more natural setting with clouds and a tree in the background, showing again how down to earth she is. It is conventional as it uses natural and everyday environments to help the audience feel like they are just like the artist and therefore they will the artist to do well as they believe if the artist can do well, and she is similar to them, then they could make it as well. I believe the way the artist is acting natural in front of the camera for this shot allows the audience to see how comfortable she is infront of camera and therefore believe she is destined to be a star in the music industry, this helps the audience relate to her as the everyday setting allows them to see that she isn't a massive star and that she is just a normal person trying to be successful as a music artist, this makes the want her to do well as she is such an underdog and they try to do everything they can to help her succeed.

The fourth image is our artist against a tree sitting down against it, this shows how close she is with nature and that she is a caring and down to earth person who uses natural and shows the audience she can make the most of her talents with little money and she is battling big companies/labels. This will be used in the digipak. It is conventional as it is in a field setting with trees, this allows the audience to see she is a natural and down to earth person. I feel this is good as it gets our artist involved with nature as much as possible and shows the audience that she really does care for nature and is a loving person, this allows the audience to relate to the artist as the field is a common place for normal people and they can relate to it, also, the fact that she is battling big artists with lots of money, the audience root for the underdog and want her to succeed against the odds, this helps her do well as she has lots of people behind her willing her to do well.

We used the setting well as there were numerous shots/ settings within our photoshoot so we didn't stick to one, this gives us a number of choices so that our digipak is boring and repetitive, however we found getting different places fairly difficult as we only could find some places suitable to our genre and wanted a good quality picture so took a while finding the best places.