Digi Pack Progress

As I have now got the front and back images decided I can start adding fonts and text. I will create three or four version of my digi pack with different fonts and text sizes to see which I prefer and also which my audience prefers.

Feedback

I have received feedback from my target audience about which images out of the three they think work best with each other for the digi pack. Five out of six said that they felt the second slide had a sense of continuity and brand identity to it. Therefor this is my final decision to use these two images. I am going to use the image of the arist as my front cover and the image of the water and food colouring as one of the images inside my digi pack. I am hoping to create another similar image but with a different colour.

Images Together

Images together

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These are the images put together the green image would be for one of the inside omages and the artist for the front cover. I have emailed this presentation to six members of my target audience to ask their opinion on which they feel work well together.

Digi Pack Continuity

After putting the two images (that the audience decided I should use) together I felt that there was a lack of continuity to my digi pack. The front cover is washed out and dream like whereas the back image is bright and vibrant. I feel that these images don't match up very well and don't create a brand identity. The vast majority of digi packs I have looked at have this sense of continuity I am looking for. For instance, Coldplay - Viva La Diva, Duffy - Rockerferry and Damien Rice - O. So I have put the various images together to show the contrast or continuity between the different edits. I will upload the images and email them to a bunch of my target audience to ask their opinion.

Digi Pack - Next Step

I am now going to experiment with layouts and fonts for the front and back of my digi pack. I will upload my progress.

Second Email

I sent out the second email a few days ago asking my audience which image out of the two should be on the front of my digi pack. I received the replys today and five out of 7 said that they think the image of the artist should be on the front of the digi pack. I think this will work well as the front cover is usually what catches the audiences eye and the artist is easily recognisable. It will also back up Goodwins theory making that connection between artist and audience.

Replys

I have received messages back from my first email about the image preferences. The majority vote was for the pictures below to be used.

Video Progress

I have now found a way to get my footage onto adobe premier pro, although it is rather time consuming and a nuisance I'll have to stick at it. I have done 30 seconds of my video so far which I am satisfied with.

Emails

I have now sent the first email asking my audience which images they think I should use, When I get a reply to this email I will blog the results and proceed to send out the second email asking about which image is best for the front cover of my digi pack.

Email Drafts

I have created two draft emails, the reason they are only drafts is that I am having trouble attaching images on my home PC so I will attach them tomorrow on the school computers.
The first email is to gain my audiences opinion on the images and the effects I have experimented with. I have asked them to let me know which one they prefer that will fit into my brand identity. This will help me decided on an image for both the front and back of my digi pack.

The second email is to ask the audiences opinion on which image they think should go at the front and which should go at the back. I already have my personal opinion of this but I would like to see if my audience agree and if they don't I will go for their choice, after all it is aimed to appeal to them.

Time Consuming Problems

As I previously blogged I am still currently having problems with the video editing technology. I chose to film my video on my home camera which is HD whereas the school camera is mini DV and this appears to be the problem in making the two different formats of shot work on the same programme. I am in the process of copying the footage onto a different computer to see if the problem is infact the HD footage or the programme. This process is extremely frustrating as I feel I can not make any progress in this lesson and my organisation of getting my video filmed early and quickly hasn't paid off at all. I can also see other class mates getting on with their work when I am making no video progress. Although I am concentrating on my digi pack which is making progress.

Photos

I have just created a very quick draft of the back of my digi pack as shown below but I now am thinking maybe the photo of stacy should be the front cover and the bnowl should be the back cover. As I am undecided about this I am going to send out some rough drafts of both to my target audience.

Edited Photos

Some effects I have played around with;

Successful Shoot

The photo shoot was successful tonight and I got some really good shots that  I am hoping will work well on the back of my digi pack. I will begin to edit them tomorrow.

Adobe Premiere Pro

I am having, yet again, more problems with Adobe Preiere Pro which is holding me up when it comes to editing my video.

Change of Photoshoot

Due to work commitments I have changed the date of the photoshoot from friday to saturday afternoon. This has been arranged with Stacey and is fine with her.

Song

I have brought the track in on my memory stick and I am hoping to transfer it to my video editing file later today.

Music Video

I have decided to try and get my digi pack work completed when at home as the images work and get my video done whilst at school as I don't have the video editing programme at home.

New Track Listing

Disc 1
1. Blinding
2. Cloud Walking
3. All I Need
4. Heavy Feet
5. Tree House
6. Hiding from the Dark
7. Slowly but Surely
8. Four Poster Bed
9. Crumbling
10. Kick in the Teeth


Disc 2
1. Landslide (Demo)
2. Blinding (Acoustic)
3. Heartfelt Lies
4. Crumbling (Acoustic)
5. Cloud Walking (Live)
6. Shivers

Results

I have received replies to the email I sent out earlier and 2 out of the five replied saying that they think the title 'Four Poster Bed' is the weakest title and should be changed. Therefor this has now been changed to Aquaphobia.

Audience Research

I have decided that as my digi pack is going to be called Aquaphobia I really should have a song on my album based around water so that it links in nicely. This is why I have emailed five people asking their opinions on my track listings. I have asked them to pick the weakest one so I can change it to 'Aquaphobia'. This is the email I sent;

 

I am emailing you for your opinion on my Track Listings as I need to change one of them to 'Aquaphopbia' so it links in with my digi pack title. I would like you to reply to this message with the track name you think is least effective and meaningful please. Below are the tracks;

Disc 1
1. Blinding
2. Cloud Walking
3. All I Need
4. Heavy Feet
5. Tree House
6. Hiding from the Dark
7. Slowly but Surely
8. Four Poster Bed
9. Crumbling
10. Kick in the Teeth

 

 

Thank you

 

Megan West

Photoshoot and Film Date

I have arranged a date to film one shot I think would look effective in my video. I am going to get Stacey to get into the bath and shoot from her shoulders upwards and show her lifting her head out of the water with no make up and again with running make up. I am hoping I will be able to put one of these shots into my music video maybe right at the end. I am also going to get an image of Stacey underwater with her eyes open for the back of my digi pack as I think this will link into the Aquaphobia title, song and the video.

Digi Pack Name

I have decided that I like the name aquaphobia for my digi pack. Aquaphobia means the fear of water which I also interpret as the fear of going under or loosing control. This is why I have based my image on water and I am also planning on taking some more photos of Stacey with her head under water for the back of my digi pack.

Images

I have been playing around with effects on the images I'd like to use for my digi pack. Below are some of the effects I used.

Draft 2

I have added to my drafts by adding some text, the track listings and logos. I now need to create a logo for "Summer Thor" that I can use on the digi pack.

Digi Pack Draft

This is a rough draft for my digi pack and what the layout may look like. When I get the images uploaded the layout may changed according to how the image is set up but for the time being this is my rough guide.

Problems

As I am having problems with my video footage I have chosen to focus on my digi pack and hopefully get it finished and then move on to editing my video. The problems with my footage will hopefully be solved within a week so this is my rough deadline that I have given myself to finish my digi pack. I am now going to start drafting.

Digi Pack Photos

This is the green food colouring and the straw I used to create the desired effect.

These are the first few attempts which went well although the background needed changing.

If the photo wasn't taken quick enough the ink sank and wasn't as bold. 

This is with the white background which looked better although I am going to edit out the lines with photoshop.

 I tried to incorprate the ring that I used in my video into the shot although I don't think it's as effective as without.

Digi Pack Photos

I have just had a succesful photo shoot for the front cover photo for my digi pack. I chose to drop green food colouring into a glass bowl of water and some of the photos turned out really well. I did have to attempt the photos more than a few times and re-fill the bowl with fresh water if the colouring was too much. I tried to use blackcurrant as i deep red colouring as I couldn't acces any red food colouring but the blackcurrent wasn't thick enough and flow in the water as well. I also tried tomato ketchup which just sank, and coffee which made the water look dirty. So overall the green food colouring worked the best. Photos will be uploaded asap.

Digipack Evaluation

Artist & Album - MGMT
Genre - Indie pop

The exterior of MGMTs digi pack is colourful, tribal and exotic. It shows them on a beach most probably an exotic one. Their clothes and make up are focused around tribes, reflecting that they have an animalistic, fun, risky, tribal side.

The vibrant front cover is very contrasting when put next to the interior cover as it is set in black and white. The image shows MGMT topless with scratches on them, burning money. This enhances the views and opinions made from the front cover; that they are risky, rebellious, and fun.

Digipack Evaluation

Artist & Album - Damien Rice, O
Genre - Soft folk/easy listening

Looking at the front and back of the "O" digi pack the simplicity really stands our for me. The (what looks like) children's drawings stand out as raw and simple yet striking. Almost like its not just reflecting the simplicity and beauty of Damiens music but also the simplicity of a childs mind. I think the size of the drawings show how we are all just little fish in a huge pond.

The interior of the digi pack creates more of an impact than the front and back in my opinion. It just looks so raw, bare and stripped back, again showing the rawness of Damiens music.

After looking at the simplicity of this digi pack I feel as though the simplicity really is beautiful and striking. So I am going to take note of how the simplicity has an effect for when I create my digi pack.

Things to Do

Research how things are put across through images and text in digi packs

Same as above but my genre of music

Track Listings

Summer Thor
2 CD Deluxe Edition

Disc 1
1. Blinding
2. Cloud Walking
3. All I Need
4. Heavy Feet
5. Tree House
6. Hiding from the Dark
7. Slowly but Surely
8. Four Poster Bed
9. Crumbling
10. Kick in the Teeth


Disc 2
1. Landslide (Demo)
2. Blinding (Acoustic)
3. Heartfelt Lies
4. Crumbling (Acoustic)
5. Cloud Walking (Live)
6. Shivers

Researching Track Names

I have been looking at similar artists to 'Summer Thor' which I have based on Florence Welch and noticed that the majority of their track names are pretty self explanatory. Before researching I imagined kooky artists to have very random song titles. Although they may sound random they are linked with the song if not an actual lyrics from the song. For instance; Florence and the Machine - Lungs album there is a track named 'Hurricane Drunk' which to someone who hasn't heard the song may sound random and you may wonder, what could that song be about? But to someone that has heard the song you know that throughout the song she is talking about being whisked up into a hurricane of emotions and drinking herself into a state of carelessness.
So when creating my song titles I am going to try and make them seem relevant to the brand identity.

Uploading Video Footage

On mondays lesson I planned to upload my video footage but one of my cameras battery had died so I was unable to upload the footage. Although the camera with a few minutes of footage on was working so I uploaded this onto the computer and looked at what I'd filmed. Initially I was very disappointed with what I saw although it was only a very small snippet of what I had filmed in the day. I felt the camera shots weren't steady, the lighting wasn't very good and the overall shots didn't look as good as I imagined. I am hoping that when I watch the rest of my footage back from the other camera I wont be so disappointed.
I am currently leaving the camera to charge and looking at digi packs and how I might create mine.