Final Digipak

From looking at the front panel, and asking for peer feedback my group decided to change the image on the front panel. The initial image on the front cover looked too happy and lighthearted not reflecting the album name 'Uneducated' well. It's conventional of pop digipaks to have an album name and an image related to the albums name and it's theme. So my group chose another picture to use on our cover, which connoted our artist looking more rebellious and playful, reflecting our digipak name better.

Below is a screenshot of the edited final digipak, with the new cover image. I've also embedded a video I created with QuickTime on the computer of me editing and changing the album cover image on the digipak.

 

                                          

Rejected footage

When initially filming my group wanted to use the green screen as it's conventional in pop videos and Jessie J videos for green screen to be used in small parts of the video.

For example in Jessie J's Price Tag she uses pastel coloured green screens,  and we drew inspiration from these when choosing green screen backgrounds.

We chose to use these two background for our green screen that were found from Google images.

Below, I've uploaded a video of the footage where my group has experimented editing with a green screen in Final Cut. 

                                       

From looking at the footage my group noticed that the green screen didn't necessarily look realistic and theres a faint outline around Beth, we didn't want to use this green screen footage because we felt it would bring down the quality of our final video. Also the green screen glitches and goes faint in certain parts of Beth's figure which also looks bad quality. Even after altering and editing the green screen using the tools in Final Cut (screen shots of tools below).....
The footage had issues and didn't blend in with the background. For example Beths hands looked webbed against the background. So,  all thought it is conventional for pop music videos to feature green screens, as a group we decided it wasn't worth the risk of including bad quality footage that could bring down the equality of the overall video. Instead of using green screen we have decided to use a white screen in our video to replicate a  studio space as well as including a purple lit section for the bridge.

Creating the digipak

Here is the initial design sketch for my groups digipak I've drawn them onto templates for a four panel digipak. It's important to create a rough outline of  the digipak before going into Photoshop and working on it because it allowed me to come up with various ideas. Also the rough sketches could be shown to my group members and I could work on some feedback for the final product. The rough design drawing also gave me a template to follow for my final digipak.

Above is my groups draft digipak that I have created on Photoshop,with the front and back cover as well as the inner panel. My group chose to keep our digipak uniform as it's a conventional feature of the pop genre, and so we have chosen a pink and white colour scheme with black as an accenting colour. I downloaded the font 'Davy Francis' for the digipak from a free online font website, as my group felt it was is more effective than the fonts available on Photoshop.

Digipak promotional adverts research

Below I've embedded a FlipSnack online flip book ,that I have created, in the style of a magazine to present the three digipak promotional adverts that will be analysed to help me get ideas for my groups digipak. Presenting the images in a flip book allows you to see the advertisements how they would be denoted on a magazine page. I've chosen to look at the similarities and differences between Rihanna, Jessie J and Ellie Goulding's promotional adverts as all three women are leading pop artists who follow the conventions of the genre.

From looking at all three adverts there are some key features:

• they include an image of the album cover or digipak, that takes up most of the magazine page - making it clear to readers who's music is being advertised and which album they need to buy to listen to it all
• most of the time close ups of the artist are used - again reinforcing who's music is being sold
• artists names and album names are written on a magazine promotional advert - making it easy for target audiences to easily find and buy music 
• tag lines related to singles from the album are commonly used and mentioned - target audience may be attracted to the advert due to the singles listed and readers in general may consider buying the album because they like one of the singles
• website links or links to where you can buy or pre-order the album are also sometimes included - letting customers know where they can buy the album
• a release date is included most of the time - telling buyers when they can buy the digipak
• ratings of the album from newspapers and critics are also included - letting possible buyers know how the album is perceived by the public 

Looking at all these example digipak magazine promotions are important because they are examples of what my group should be aiming to create in our final digipak and magazine advert. More so, researching digipak promotional adverts allows my group to become inspired when creating out promotional advert, helping us come up with ideas for our own designs. It also shows us what conventional digipak promotional adverts look like, somewhat providing us with guidelines on how to create our own.
So,all in all a variety of the features listed above should be used in my groups final digipak promotional advert. My group should aim to use the majority of the features to make sure that our design looks realistic and conventional to the genre, making our advertisement look realistic and effectively promoting our digipak and music video.

Analysis of digipaks created by other pop artists

During lesson time today my class focused on digipaks within the music industry; why they are used, what their purpose is and how they are presented. I learnt that a digipak is the packaging included with an album, consisting of usually 4 or 6 panels. Digipaks feature an album cover, a track list, close ups of artists and usually have one overall theme, relating to the musician's album and body of work on their CD.

 Below I've chosen to analyse specific digipaks of pop artists relevant to my groups chosen pop song 'Domino' by Jessie J. Looking at different pop digipaks can help my group gain ideas for our digipak design and also help us understand what is conventional of pop digipaks. So, this research plays an important role in creating our final digipak.

Below I've embedded a Photoshop image I've created, where I've analysed the pop-indie artist Marina and The Diamonds digipak. I chose to look at her digipak because she is a young pop-indie artist whose target audience is ,the same as my groups, teenagers.

I also chose to analyse one of Britney Spears digipaks, as she is another successful pop artist. Additionally, I chose to look at one of her digipaks because she is a young woman, and so her digipak could be conventional of women in the pop genre. Below, I've embedded a Photoshop document where I've analysed and compared her digipak to the digipak above.

I also came across Rihanna's digipak for her album 'Loud'. What I liked about this digipak is how the three inner panels have been used to create one overall image. From looking at the embedded image below Rihanna is denoted lying in a bed of roses with her fiery red hair. I think using the three inner panels to create one composition is interesting and something different. My group could try to experiment with using photography in the inner panels of the digipak to create a composition.

Pop genre research

The final piece of additional research was looking into the pop genre and it's history, my group member Beth looked into this topic. Below is her findings on the genre of music and she's chosen to present her findings in a time line created on Dipity.

For the last part of additional research, I carried out some investigation into the coming of pop music through the decades. All the way form the 1950's to modern day pop music, I decided to use Dipity to make a timeline that portrays the highs and memorable moments in the rise of pop music.

The coming of Pop Music on Dipity.

This activity was particularly useful, because it has given my group and I a greater understanding of why conventions are important to use, what kind of fans we are aiming our music video at, and how to create a music video relevant to the time period in which the song was made. This will impact our final music video, as it has allowed us to understand the importance of creating a music video that has all aspects of a pop music video that will please our target audience.

References
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pop_music
en.wikipedia.org.wiki/1970s_in_music
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/billboard_hot_100
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_in_music
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_music
officialcharts.com/music_charts/

Jessie J Artist Biography

Jessie J Biography

Below is an artist biography on pop artist Jessie J created by my group member Amy.

Jessie J, real name Jessica Cornish, is originally from Seven Kings, Essex. Her first musical performance was at the age of 3 in a holiday camp where she forgot her words to 'Twinkle Twinkle'. She attended dance classes at the Wenn Stage school at the same age, where she started singing (the video below is of her playing Blousey Brown in Bugsy Malone) At age 11, she was cast in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End musical of 'Whistle Down the Wind' where she played the part of Brat for two years.

After going through high school, and keeping her talent quite secretive, she attended the BRIT school at age 16. She studied musical theatre, exceeding in music, dance and drama, as well as doing the subject Art. While at BRIT school she joined a girl group as a campaign 'Mothers against guns.' They released a single called 'Why' which is about mothers speaking out for their children that have been shot. The video below is of the group, Soul Deep, singing their campaign song. 

After being in the girl group for two years, and recovering from a stroke when she was 18, Jessie was back singing again, and managed to get signed by Gut records, an independent record label. While she was with them she did support tours with stars such as Cyndi Lauper, Chris Brown and Girls Aloud. She was ready to release her first single 'Sexy Silk' and had an album ready. Unfortunately, the  record label went bankrupt before she managed to release anything. During the time she was there, she put up youtube videos of her singing to build her fan base. 

After Gut went bankrupt, Jessie had to run around and try and get herself signed before she lost all her music. After not being able to get signed in the UK, she went to the US and managed to get signed to Sony ATV as a songwriter. After writing hits such as 'Party in USA' for Miley Cyrus and 'I need this' for Chris Brown, she got signed to Island Records. Following the release of her first single, 'Do it like a dude' in 2010, she topped the BBC Sound of 2011 list and won the BRIT Critics' Choice award.

Her first number 1 was 'Price Tag' which was released in February 2011. Her debut album 'Who you are' was released shortly after Price tag and sold 105,000 copies in the first week, reaching number 2 on the iTunes album charts. Below is the album 'Who You Are'. 

Jessie's career has blown up following the release of another 5 singles: "Nobody's perfect, Who's laughing now, Who you are, Domino and Laserlight, all of which reached the top 10. This made Jessie the first British female solo artist to get 6 or more singles from one album in the top ten on the charts. 

Jessie became an ambassador for Comic Relief and shaved her hair off for charity on Red Nose Day. She helped raised 100,331,808.

In 2013, Jessie released her second studio album, called 'Alive.' Her first single, 'WILD' debuted at number 5 on the iTunes single chart. Jessie is currently working on a new version of the album Alive, which is the American version.

References: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_You_Are_(Jessie_J_album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_J

http://www.rednoseday.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alive_(Jessie_J_album)

http://youtube.com