Poster

The making of my poster included the same process that I done during the making of my Digipak. Poster's promoting albums can either be the same photograph as the album cover, or a separate photograph with a photo of the album with in the poster. Because of the simplicity of the digipak i felt the poster should continue the theme throughout distribution. 

Digipak

Here is my finalised Digipak from the material I have created through photography:

The digipak's low-key lighting in contrast to the vibrant colours is essentially a representation of a night out in a club (where SPCTRM performs). Other connotations such as SPCTRM in a variety of colour to present the theme and emotion of SPCTRM as an artist. The red lighting of the girl who is inexplicit to the audience - linking to the girl in the music video, creates a chiaroscuro technique as she is illuminating from the darkness and could connote danger or love, as these are both symbolic to SPCTRM's youth culture. These act as 360 degree experience of the girl as there is the front 'head and shoulders' shot which is the first photo the audience can see as they open the digipak, which is then followed by the left sleeve which is the left POV shot of the girl and open the sleeve again to reveal the vinyl and the right POV shot of the girl. The back cover of the track listing is an overlap of different colours to emphasis the variety of colour, and generally because I found this technique works because of the simplicity of the digipak. This also includes the barcode for purchase, website, copyright and the record labels logo for legitimacy.

10 Things That Could Potentially Ruin My Music Video

 1. Camera battery running out - If the battery runs out during filming it would completely disrupt my intention of filming since it wouldn't run without a charged battery - Make sure I bring out two fully charged batteries.

2. Weather - The weather is diverse, so if it rains for example on the day of filming it would make shooting difficult and change the atmosphere of the footage - Check the weather a week in advance to make sure there is no chance of rain, then double check a day before the day, if its raining have a back up re-scheduled day.

3. SD Card Runs Out Of Memory - The memory of the SD card could either be too small for a lot of footage or already have footage on, meaning filming would be delayed and disrupted - Bring out several SD cards that are a big GB and make sure they are empty.

4. Performer may cancel - If there's no performer than there will no point shooting - Make sure I have planned which days the performer is available and have a back up performer.

5..Broken Equipment - If the equipment is faulty on the day such as the tripod, it would mean the footage wouldn't reach my expectations and I'd have to re-shoot since it would be handheld. - Double check the equipment and keep it in the case to keep safe.

6. Lip-syncing mess up -

Experimentation

 Experimenting in photoshop:

• Changing the amount of noise to create a gritty feel
• Colour, pattern and positioning of font

distribution - format

The type of record/format is important to sell and distribute to our audience; the audience's demographics include the likes of a variety of music including classic indie music of which would have been published on vinyl. Therefore they audience would have an interest in collecting vinyls as this is quite an iconic features, and are popular in shops such as Urban Outfitters where our audience like to shop. 

Following the theme of the 1980s, vinyl format were still common as digital media came out late 80s. 

I considered other formats for the digipak, but a record i personally think would appeal to the audience more, as well as fitting the nature of a digipak, which are quite small and compact so the 7" vinyl will be suitable. 

Here are some examples of the presentations of vinyls:

M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.

The use of two colours representing the two tone of blue and pink lighting in the album cover, featuring the two models who are in the music video to the song in the album "Stella McQueen"

The Beatles Meet the Beatles

A simple cover indicating the name of the band. A classic gramophone record which is black, but to make it unique they have used the rainbow colours for the inside where the name of the title will be in.

Experimenting - Digipak

I opened up the font screenshot onto the image: 

Changing the colour of the font, I had to change the gradient overlay to a multicolour which was an option, to create a spectrum of colour throughout the text.

Success!

I then played around with composition, where the font would look best inconsideration of the image in the background. I discovered the title looked best at the top of the image as it illuminated from the dark space, and was lined up perfectly to fit the middle, it also gives the audience space to view the image itself.

Final outcome:

Experimenting - Digipak

From influence of The Japanese house, a self titled album, I created a box in which the name could sit in, but because of the nature of lighting and framing it really didn't work.

It works for the concept for The Japanese House because of the subtlety of colours, photography work and framing but with mine I am portraying a different image. Here is my experimentation:

 I really dislike the colours of the font and the font itself, It's too game-like and bold, and doesn't work with the white box either because of the photograph used which is very elegant in the background.

Editing photos

I chose this image as the Digipak cover as I feel the composition, colouration and lighting is just a create formation for our image. We used the projector in a dark room for this image in our previous photoshoot and used this image from google to project:

To make this: 

Photoshop

I want to make a grainy kind of feel to add to the 80s Television, as well as the grittiness of youth at the time of the 1980s and quality of analogue photography. 

Changing the quality:

Digipak - Font

On a font website DaFont, you can access a range of different typology; under the category Techno I came across some fonts which represent electronic/1980s pretty well: 

I took screenshots, of which I could then open them up in photoshop and put them onto my chosen image, changing colouration etc.

1980s icon

Digipak research

Iconic 1980's albums 

 

There tends to have this colour on black contrast to create this upbeat kind of atmosphere, like the album is jumping at you. This could be a feature of our USP, despite not being entirely unique, but also has these meanings behind for example to girl illuminated from the darkness and bright bold typology accommodating it; an entire 80s theme of electronic (darkness = club, colours = lighting in club) etc.

I will play around with the 3-D elements that give a revolutionary feel to the photo (DEUTSCHE) and play around with colouration, contrast and levels etc in photoshop.

Editing

My partner edited some of the successful images from our second test shoot using photoshop, here are some screenshots of his practice:

Second Test Shot

For experimentation, we went back to the whole projection process but took a different approach, to create quite distorted photographs for our Digipak, and perhaps footage for our music video if they were successful. We went to a drama room again as it is dark and we are able to access good lighting if need be through the studio lights. 

On google I typed in "80s TV distortion" of which I came across this gif. Despite not using the GIF for its entire purpose, we used the still image of it to project onto my body. To add to the distorted TV effect, the camera was set to a longer shutter speed to allow movement in, and I shook my head left to right continuously until we got some successful shots. The idea behind unrevealing her face and distorting it through camera technique is to emphasis the fact the Girl, who will be featured in the music video, is the symbolism of SPCTRM's youth experience, since his image with in the music industry is well abstract and unidentified.

 We then used another photograph of which I typed into Google 'Rainbow light' and came across this photograph of candle flames. I really like this look projected onto myself, as it illuminated the colours form the dark space to create an abstract image upon my dress, still uncovering my identity.


Here are some shots from the production:

Equipment used:

• Camera 
• SD Card 
• Macbook
• Projector
• Tripod

http://prezi.com/dwnetdjwa-n6/present/?auth_key=cu113lc&follow=xv7pi-bbf1-n

Digipak - test shots

After sketching up ideas of the digipak, we set up our gear in the drama studio space, most suitable because of the variation of light; darkness, ambient and artificial lighting too. We used various material to create the rainbow affect, first off using acetate which was unsuccessful because of the opacity. We then used a CD to reflect the light onto the wall which successfully worked. As these were test shots we were just playing around with how it looks on camera, such as getting the aperture and shutter speed right, as this affects the chiaroscuro feel. 

We then used the colour spot lights to highlight the back of myself. This created the M83 'Steve Mcqueen' feel of the backlight, creating quite a powerful look. I really liked this look as well as the rainbow, and we could use both the rainbow and the backlit look as there are 3 separate photographs that we will be using for our digipak.

Digipak

SPCTRM's USP would be this idea of the identity of the teenage Girl. As digipaks must some how sell to the target audience, they must having a unique selling point, seeing as digipaks can be full of artwork, bonus tracks, CD, DVD etc. For our artist, we have decided that the digipak's USP will be based on the Girl; the front cover will be of the back of her, as she reaches her hand out and a rainbow is reflected onto it, this acts as a metaphor as she is reaching out to a spectrum of light. Once you open up the digipak, both sides next to the CD in the middle will be side profiles of the girl, revealing who she is (in a way). We don't want to focus on SPCTRM image in a way, but his music, keeping it minimal and still have his theme of 80s, colour, and emotion in it.