Magazine Advert & Digipak

This is my final design for the Digipak and Magazine advert promoting the band, the music video and also the sale of the digipak itself. I have deisgned both by keeping in mind that these are here to represent an image of the band. There I have kept all designing simple and clean cut as nessesary. This is because the band's genre is fairly light rock/indie/alternative and therefore isn't in your face rock, which could have been represented by making the designs busier. I also had to think about the target audience of the music, which happens to be just about any age range. This means that a simple design should appeal to a mass audience and therefore include the majority of the target audience.

Empire already have a band logo which made things easier for me in terms of chosing a colour scheme and design. To add extra interest in the magazine advert, I added a grey strip with the main information of the digipak/band which I feel brings in an extra dimension to the design. Sticking to this idea I manipulated the colour of the image to the grey.

I believe that the Digipak and magazine advert are easily linked as they both contain the same design elements. I also believe that these two products represent the band in an accurate and appealing way.

Magazine Advert Research

Moodboard

To start, as the magazine advert is promoting the digipak release, they need to link in with the same design ideas. This is so the audience can clearly relate and recognise the digipak on shelf after viewing the advert.
Therefore i must keepo the same colour scheme of Burgundy and White in a minimalist design.

I can use examples of other magazine adverts and use features of these in mine. A few things are essential in any magazine advert as can be seen in the moodboard above. For instance, the band name and album title need to be included quite obviously. Other features including logo's of the record company, release date and also edited photos of the band/artist are common. i suppose this is to set up star qualities in the band/artist.

Digipak Research

First thoughts

I have found that the most appealing digipaks in my eyes have been minimalistic, whereby most of the cover is used as blank space (without photography of the band). They only show information once the case has been opened through leaflets and text on the inside covers and/or CD itself. This offers a mystery to the viewer and also gives it an exclusive feel which will bode well when on the shelves amongst other digipaks. I like the idea of only using two colours for the design and as Empire already have an official logo, that choice is made easy - White and Red/Burgundy.


Although I plan a minimalistic design, what little is included needs to be thought though. Therefore I am going to research into many different designs of both minimalistic and other styles for inspiration. This will also give me an idea of the content to include e.g. bonus tracks, freebies, booklets etc.


Examples of 2 minimalistic designs

Focusing on the layout

The digipak below is in the standard CD layout. The case only opens in one place, with the CD on one half and text on the other. This would fit in with the minimalistic styling but in would be difficult to add features (such as removable leaflets) due to the limited space.

In contrast this digipak has a very complex layout. This is perfect for jamming in all the bells and whistles to increase appeal to fans, but I don't believe it is aesthetically pleasing. Also, from a business point of view, costs to produce the extra CDs and material will increase costs of packaging and thus the price for customers.

I really like this layout. The extra panel makes it more interesting than the standard layout giving room for content but doesn't use too many confusing panels, as above! Of all the layouts I have seen, this is my favorite and I shall be using this for Empire's digipak.

This is the template I will use, but will transfer the CD position to the middle tile.

What to include

The research gave me an idea of how many possibilities there are in terms of what to include in the digipak. Many of these are to maximize the appeal of the tangible product. There are a few obvious features that all of the digipaks includes, such as bar-code, website of artist, BBFC certification and track listings.

There were also many features that were included to increase appeal to the tangible product. These were things that couldn't be viewed without purchasing the product, for example:

- Information leaflet (biography, message from artists, interviews, lyrics, anecdotes from gigs and tours, plans for future)

- Bonus Tracks

- DVD with live or behind the scenes footage or a 'making of' or music videos

- Remixes track

- Codes for login to private band website for the owner of that digipak (Not as common)

- Posters

- Exclusive artwork

Empire

I am very lucky in terms of choosing a band that will let me use their music and also let me shoot them for the music video, digipak and magazine advert, because I'm a member of one. As a member of this band I know first hand what vibe/feel we are looking for in the video to compliment our sound. This is another reason why I feel that shooting in a TV studio will be better suited than mainly time-lapse shots, as we like to think our music is quite engaging. I have thought about what song I should use for the video and after whittling the 10 or so tracks down to just the 3; 'You and Your Last Word' 'Eyes for Another' and 'Heartbeat' I had to think of what song would fit best with the image that shooting in a white back-dropped TV studio will give off. I finally chose to use 'Heartbeat' as it is one of our more poppy tracks. The track is simple and catchy which I feel fits better than the other more gritty sounding tracks. There's more about us in the presentation below just to give you and idea of what we do. www.facebook.com/EMPIREBANDCOM

Empire

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Music Video Director - Spike Jonze

Spike jonze

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New Wave/ Indie Youth Subculture

The New Wave genre of the 1970's is a subgenre of rock consisting of bands such as Talking Heads, the B-52s, Depeche Mode, Gary Newman, The Smiths etc. The genre features electronic & experimental sounds with the use of synths & post-production effects. Also, new wave music had a new found emphasis on the music and lyrics which set it apart from other rock subgenres such as punk.

Over the years New Wave has evolved into the modern day Indie movement which was most pronounced in the late 2000's. Bands categorised as modern day Indie include; The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Joy Formidable, The Kooks, Editors, The Libertines etc.

A huge part of the Indie subculture (as with many other subcultures) is the Indie fashion. This consists of a smart casual, slim fitting outfit which is often worn by band member in a uniform way. For example, one of the lesser known bands called 'Baddies' all wear identical blue shirts with the top button fastened and black skinny jeans and black shoes (As seen in the mood board above).

A stylistic music video usually consists of a live performance with the band playing in sync to the song with very little narrative. Often the videos will cut to clips of the band walking though and urban environment or back stage at one of their gigs (much like a hybridised pseudo-documentary & live performcance). Indie music videos may also make use of effects in the editing process, but subtly, usually changing the colours either to fit the mood of the song or be in black & white.

Test Footage

Here are 4 different clips/tasters of different techniques used frequently in music videos. These are stop motion, TV studio shoot, animation and time-lapse. I made these clips so that I could see which one I felt I enjoyed doing the most. I feel this is paramount in creating a final piece that reflects my persona rather that choosing the type that is less time consuming, for instance. As it stands, I'm currently more drawn towards the clip we shot in the TV studio as fan made music video(Kabeedies - Jitterbug). I prefer the clean cut look to it, also I like that it gives an 'in the moment' feel which the other clips don't have such as the tilt-shift time lapse clip. I feel it has more of an impact that demands attention.

Music Video Analysis

Music Video Analysis:- Hot Chelle Rae (I Like It Like That)

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Music video analysis lady gaga (telephone)

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Music video analysis ludacris (runaway love)

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Established Music Videos

Summer Project

Here is a VERY rough music video we shot/edited in a couple of hours around college to give us a taster of our A2 music video project that is to come!