Conventions of a CD case

In order to create a good album case, we felt it necessary to look into the specififc conventions of CD cases...

Front Cover; We noted that front covers usually have the artists name visible within the frame, making it obvious who the artist is which will attract their fans straight away. Most text fonts used are unique fonts, making it distinctive and so more recogniseable for the public. Front covers also tend to have the artist name in the top third of the cover to make it clear to see. Another aspect that we noticed is that the album title is often in a different font style to the artist name, distinguishing the difference between the two and their importance. Lastly, we felt that the genre of the music is generally hinted at by the cover art.

Back Cover; The back cover on the other hand, tends to feature more specific information such as Label's name, catalog number, barcode, website URL, social media sites, production credits and producers name. In addition it obviously has the track titles on it too - this font typically links to the front cover in order to create that clear link, showing a strong sense of continuity.

Disc; The disk is most probably one of the most important features of the entire album. The artists name is normally on the disc alongside the album title however, artwork is optional - many artists leave their disk blank to be 'artistic'.

Inside; The inserts in a CD case are normally thank you letters, lyrics or pictures of the artist - this needs to show a clear link to the rest of the album's artwork on both the front and the back covers for it to be continuous.

Spine; The spine typically includes both the artists and album name, alongside the label's logo.

All of the above are the basic elements of a CD case and we are going to think carefully about what we have found out within this research when we are designing our digi-pack.

Pitch

Please click on the link below in order to look at our pitch prezi!

https://prezi.com/o_roqgzjcsuy/pitch/#


After creating our pitch we decided to present it to one of our teachers in order to outline our ideas and also to enable us to receive some feedback on things that he felt worked and what he felt didn't - this way we can solve these minor issues before it's too late.

The first thing our teacher said was that he feels we have a very clear understanding of how the music industry works and how artists are formed and promoted. He felt that we have successfully incorporated this knowledge into our pitch, giving him an impressive initial impression.

He felt that we have a range of creative and interesting ideas and he is looking forward to seeing how it all looks when everything comes together. He mentioned that he thinks we have a clear vision as to what we want our video to look like. He can tell that we are aiming to produce an artistic video and express our artist Nova as the indie artist she is.

In terms of constructive criticism, he said whilst talking about different shots and mise en scene that we need to be more specific. We need to ensure that we are linking all parts of our Digi pack together, this way it is evident to onlookers that we are creating a brand. He said similar things about our locations and the styling of our artist also, it is important for us to create a successful artist image. In response to this we highlighted the fact that we had actually already posted certain blog posts regarding our location and styling, such as Location Research and The Process of Creating A Character.

As a final pointer for us, our teacher informed us that we should be aiming to achieve an A grade and so it is important that we consider a few important factors such as; ensuring our editing is suitable for our song choice, include professional looking lip syncing, making sure that our overall package has obvious continuity and lastly, obviously make sure to include a wide variety of shots.

In conclusion this pitch exercise has given us a greater insight on what we need to include in order to produce the best standard of work possible.

What Is The Purpose Of Pop Videos In The Digital Age?

The primary, main purpose of a music video is of course to promote the artist and their latest single. We are progressing further into the digital age which is having an impact upon what people expect to see within music videos. Narratives are becoming significantly more important, not only in the respect of making your target audience want to watch the video but also making audiences outside of your target audience want to watch it. Artists are always trying to think of new ideas to help them gain attention for both themselves and also their music videos - in order to gain the publics attention they need to come up with new, exciting ideas that make them stand out amongst all of the other artists around.

One artist that is noted for her strange and extravagant videos is Lady Gaga. Her music videos are a mixture of weird and provocative and they are known for creating attention within the public eye. An example of this is when she released the 'Born This Way' video. The video features Lady Gaga

The video contains many strange parts such as Lady Gaga herself appearing as a giant moth and many animalistic movements yet it also features aspects such her dressed in very little clothing and performing provocative dance routines. The video is extremely different from what you may expect to see from other artists - obviously allowing for Lady Gaga to make herself known, whether this be through good or bad publicity, as they say 'any publicity is good publicity'. The only issue with Lady Gaga's videos is that the narratives are often very hard to follow due to the fact that they are indeed so strange. This makes it difficult for the viewers to relate the lyrics to the visuals which can be quite confusing.

Another main purpose of music videos is to entertain the target audience. A majority of the time, you will watch the video multiple times. More so if the story line is interesting or difficult to grasp at first viewing. The benefit of the target audience viewing the video multiple times is that it can influence upon single sales. In addition, when watching videos on YouTube, it often gives you a 'suggestion' for other videos related to the one you are watching. Usually these suggested videos are ones made by the same artist that created the one you are currently watching, thus further promoting the artist and the sale of their whole album.

The importance of music videos are becoming more crucial in the modern society in terms of marketing and promoting an artist, people are able to again access to media on many different platforms - suggestive of the idea that the target audience are becoming more interested in the visual side of music.

 

 

Institutional Research

Different record labels are used to represent different artists. Some artists are part of an independent label whereas others are part of a major record label.

 

A vast majority of artists start their career under independent labels and then progress with popularity to work with major labels. Domino is a good example of a successful independent label. Artists signed under Domino include the Arctic Monkeys and Blood Orange. Independent labels tend to have less backing in terms of finances to help their artists progress. The implication of this is that the artists do not always have the same perks that larger companies would be able to provide to their artists. Having a low budget is likely to have an impact upon the number and quality of music videos artists are able to produce, which may in turn, make it more difficult  for the said artists to become well known and reach the charts. However, a positive factor of  Independent labels is that they do tend to be more willing to allow their acts to find themselves and create their own image and content, making the artist more real and raw.

 

 

On the other end of the spectrum there are major record labels. These labels often dominate the charts with their artists due to their access to financial resources. They ensure that their acts are successful by allowing  them access to professional studios, personal make-up artists and shoppers and the most up to date software, enabling them to produce technical music videos. The most well known major record labels around are The Universal Music Group, Columbia Records and Warner Music Group. A few of the artists under their label consist of Beyoncé, Sam Smith and Little Mix. These artists are frequently in the charts. Again, this is because of the financial backing they receive and the labels ability to promote them to a global audience for example, they appear on TV shows like The VMAs.

 

As for our own artist 'Nova', it is important that we decide on the type of record label we want her to be represented by and how we want our own label 'Opal Records' to be presented. We feel it is important to stay true to yourself and so we don't particularly want our label to appear as one that controls their artists and restricts them from being themselves. In this sense, we feel that an independent label would be a good option. In addition, seeing as Nova is a new artist it would make sense for her to start out under an independent label. However, as later on Nova's career we may want chart success, a major label would be a smart move. It will give her financial security whereas an independent label cannot always promise this.

 

As a group we have concluded that Opal Records will be an independent record label. This is because Nova is a new act and we want her to be able to create her own image and find herself whilst also being able to build a strong fan base.

 

 

Final Logo's

After much discussion and consideration we finally came to a conclusion as to which texts and designs we would like to use as our logo's...

Artist Logo:

 

After much consideration we settled on 'Arenq' as the design for our logo for 'Nova'. The reasoning behind selecting this text is due to the fact that it looks professional and that it is versatile, it still has room for improvement. When it comes to placing the font on our album cover, we will most probably play around with thickness levels in order to make sure the text is as prominent as possible. I feel that this text will be very effective and successful in terms of representing Nova as it is dynamic, modern and simple.

Record Label Logo:

As for our record label logo, we selected 'Sandre' as our final font. Whilst in the process of making  this decision, we decided that it needed a little bit of improvement in order for it to look realistic and professional and so decided to have a thinner, spread out font at the bottom displaying the word 'Records'. We decided that this new addition makes the logo look just that little bit more formal and business like. In regards to the newly added text, we decided to use the text font named 'Sandre'  as it looks current as well as giving us a link to the music industry due to the lines looking like piano keys or guitar strings. We want our logo to be all black to give it that sleek look that you want in a business logo.

Creating our logo

After researching into already existing artist and record labels and gathering some inspiration we decided to start designing our own.

 

Artist Logo:

 

We began with our artist logo. Rather than designing one by hand we went onto DA Fonts which is a website offering a mass variety of texts to choose from as we felt this would offer a more sleek, professional finish. I have attached a few images below of a few of the texts that we particularly liked and are considering.

 

 

 

The first text style was looked at was named 'Kersse'. We liked this text as it has an almost hand - drawn sort of look, which is the perfect balance between actually drawing one ourselves and using an already existing text. We liked this as it offers a more personal feel, if it were to be placed on our album, fans may assume that our star, 'Nova' has designed it herself and so will feel more of a connection to her - something a lot of fans crave for. The only downfall to this text style is that it is quite faint and dainty meaning that it would not stand out on our album cover or wherever it is used, therefore will fail to gain Nova much attention. Similarly, because it is quite a dainty text people may get the impression that this is a suggestion as to what Nova is like. Although Nova does have a sense of fragility about her, I don't feel we would say that this is her overall image therefore we do not want to promote her in this way.

 

 

The second text style we looked at, 'Arenq', was most probably our favourite out of all 4 apparent on this blog post. I feel that this particular text has the most professional look too it and although it is a little bit plain, it has a lot of room for improvement. We could use Photoshop to make it look bolder and more prominent and even add colour too it if we wanted. It is a very versatile text and definitely a strong contender.

 

'Hackers' is the most alternative looking text style out of the 4, which is good in the fact that it makes it look unique and will not look similar to any other artist logo's out there. It is also very bold and the fact that it is so unique means that it will stand out immediately on our album cover or any other media platform. Despite all of this, I do not feel we will select this text as I feel it may look a little bit tacky - especially when placed on colour or certain patterns, both of which we hope to incorporate into our album cover.

'Caribbean Tool' is the last text style we looked at. This text style is my least favourite out of them all. I personally feel that it looks almost like the sort of writing you may get for a tattoo and this is not the sort of look we are going for. The good element to this text is that it has a nice feminine feel towards it which is how we hope to present Nova. In addition, it is just the right balance between thin and bold, which would look effective on our album cover. If it wasn't for the leaves on it I feel we would certainly be considering it.

 

 

Record Label Logo:

 

Similarly to the artist logos we used text from DA Fonts rather than hand drawing a design, for the same reasons I listed above.

 

The first text we considered was named 'Sandre' and immediately upon seeing it, it stood out to us. I feel it looks extremely professional and the little lines look vaguely similar to piano keys, clearly a link towards the music industry itself. I personally think the mixture of bold and thin lines offers a nice variety and will appeal to everyone's tastes. It is a distinctive text style and easily recognisable. The only issue with this text is that I think it would be difficult to incorporate colour into it. However, as a group we were not overly concerned with the use of colour for our record label logo as we want it to look as business like as possible as record labels are obviously very important within the music industry and the careers of artists.

 

 

'Boredom' was also a particular favourite of mine. It is extremely bold and makes an impression straight away, in a sense it is also intimidating and expresses that Opal Records are the best record label around. The design is also effective, with the 'O' symbolizing a record, showing a strong link to the music industry and what it represents. The only issue I have with this text is that I feel it is a little bit plain and not as unique as it really needs to be for it to be a label that holds alternative artists.




Lastly we have 'Dark Elf' this text was my least favourite out of all 3. It does have a unique, alternative look and certainly stands out from the others in that aspect. H0wever, it does not literally stand out, the text is very thin and when placed amongst certain backgrounds may become difficult to see. Alongside all of this, I don't think this text looks very professional, it is not the type of text I would expect to see on a record label logo and for this reason I doubt we will use it.

Logo Research

As part of our research before starting to design our own artist and record labels, we looked into already existing ones and analysed them in terms of what we thought worked and what didn't. This enabled us to get a feel for the sort of thing we should be designing ourselves.


Artist Logo's:

This is the artist logo for Birdy. Although it is simple and dainty we felt it was appropriate for the artist herself as a vast majority of her songs are slow and heartfelt and we feel the text used in her logo is representative of her image. With this being said it is still clear to see that a lot of thought has gone into this logo, the design of certain letters such as the 'B' connote the idea that Birdy wanted a unique and personal logo to represent her. I feel we will most probably stick to quite plain text ourselves as we don't want the text to take away from other elements of the album cover. However, we will most certainly try and find a text style that in some way is representative of our artist.

Florence and the machine are indie artists and we feel that their artist logo portrays this. The text used is different to other artists out there and is easily recognisable, it almost looks handwritten. The layout of the words also help to make this logo interesting. In general, this logo is very pleasing on the eye due to the fact that it is unique. However, Although we want a logo that is going to be recognised, I do not feel we would use text similar to that of Florence and the machine as it is very girly and we want our artist to appeal to both boys and girls. 

Out of all of the artist logo's we looked at, Lana Del Rey's was our favourite. Immediately upon viewing it is prominent and makes a point. She is the star and this is her album. We feel that the bold writing gives her a sense of importance and makes it clear she is serious about her music. Using bold writing in capital letters is most    certainly something we will strongly consider.

Record Label Logo's:

This is the record label logo for Q'prime. I think the design is intriguing as it almost looks like a record on a record player - obviously a clear link to the music industry. I think as a group we will consider a similar sort of idea as it connotes the importance of record labels within the production of music. Another element of this record label that I find effective is the use of the lime green, it is not a colour that is frequently used therefore it makes for a nice change.

Out of all the record label logos on this post I feel this one looks the most professional. Although it may not stand out the most, it certainly looks sharp and expresses the fact the label are serious about their business. Obviously Universal is also closely linked to films therefore their logo needs to be something flexible that related to all types of media. Even though this not not apply to us, I still feel this is a very successful record label and we may take inspiration from it.

Lastly we have the Virgin Records label. Again, I feel the design is very neat and sharp and most certainly distinctive, you know the brand instantly upon looking at it. Although I find the choice of red colouring captures your attention I don't feel it is a colour we would use ourselves as, if not used correctly, could look tacky.

Choosing our artist / Lip-syncing

As a group we came to the conclusion that we would like to use a member of our group as our artist to star in the video. This way we have guaranteed reliability and it makes it easier to meet up and also allows us to be brutally honest with one another. As a way of 'auditioning' Millie and Evie both sat infant of the camera and lip synced to a song of their choice. We then edited the videos, putting the track behind the video and lining the video up with the song. After the videos were done we sat as a group and analysed who we thought was most suitable for the video. 

Evie

Evidently, Evie's lip syncing was very well done. You can clearly see what she is singing and  she did not get a single word wrong. However, we felt that she may have 'over sang' some of the lyrics which can often come across as looking fake or unrealistic therefore, it is a downfall to her audition. 

Evie has a strong indie/alternative look - this fits with our genre very well, this then makes her a possible winner for the part.

Millie

Similarly, Millie's lip syncing was fairly well done. You can clearly see what she is signing and it looks believable, as if she is actually singing it herself. The only flaw we found with Millie's lip-syncing is that her facial expressions do not always make it look like she is enjoying herself or really feeling the music. However, with this being said Millie took this constructive criticism on board and said that she would work on these particular factors.

Just like Evie, Millie has an indie/alternative look. In addition, her fashion is very versatile therefore she can also pull of bohemian looks, making her a strong contender.

Final Decision

In conclusion, we decided to have Millie as our artist. This is mainly due to  her versatile look and strong lip syncing skills. Millie also has a little bit of acting and dancing experience therefore she is more likely to pull off a more believable act. On the basis of us selecting Millie  she has said she is going to work on her facial expressions whilst lip syncing this is so that  she will be able to convey a variety of emotions in our video just by using her face.

Digi-Pack Research (Album Covers)

As a group we began to look into other artists album covers in the hope of attaining some inspiration for ours. As our artist is in indie/alternative artist we looked at covers that came under the same genre. Obviously we spent a while assessing covers from Lana Del Rey as she is our overall inspiration however we also looked at artists such as Kate Nash and Eliza Doolittle as they were both contenders for our chosen artist therefore are still very applicable to us.

Lana Del Rey : Born to die

This is the album cover to Lana Del Reys 'Born to die' album. Initially on the eye I thought this cover was quite simple. The text is very plain and despite the bold text, the colour choices for the text do not allow for it to stand out. Similarly,there is not much going on visually - just a low angle shot of Lana and a minimalistic background. Although the album cover is fairly plain I felt that Lana made it this way as a way of showing how serious she is about her music and that she is professional - she doesn't need an over the top cover in order to gain attention, her fans are drawn in by her voice and so in this sense, the album cover is very successful.

The cover appears to have a colour scheme of red, white and blue which tie in well with the idea of Lana staying close to her roots. The theme is highlighted further by song titles such as 'National Anthem' and 'American'.

The positioning of the photo of Lana is effective in the fact that it immediately draws our attention to her emphasising her importance, this is her self created album and she worked extremely hard on it. Her outfit choice appears at first very smart and innocent but the fact that the shirt is sheer, revealing her red bra suggests she has a more devious side that she wants to share with her fans. Similarly, she is wearing red lipstick. The colour red holds connotations of love and danger therefore the use of the colour on the album cover may be a hint towards the overall theme of the album and the songs on it.

Personally, I really like this album cover. Although it may be slightly plain, I feel it works for Lana and the type of music she produces. As we are taking inspiration from Lana I feel this sort of design is something that would work for us too. If I were to change anything it would be the background as I do not feel it adds anything too it, instead I would maybe have a pattered background in order to make the cover stand out that little bit more.

           

This is the back of the Born To Die album. As you can see the colour scheme apparent on the front has run through to the back, I think this is very successful as it shows continuity and this is something that fans will find very pleasing. The font has also stayed the same, again I feel this is effective as a change in text may have been a little off putting and would have looked strange. The track names are the main focus of the back with the legal information at the very bottom in small font - this is effective as it ensures that all of the viewers attention is focused on the most important part of the album. The only thing I feel lets this cover down is the fact that there is no particular structure to the tracks and so this is something I feel we would avoid from happening on our own album cover. 

Kate Nash: Made of bricks

The album cover for 'Made of bricks' is the most creative album cover featured on this blog. The main feature of the cover is a house and a little person made out of Lego. The use of Lego is very effective as it creates a strong link between the album name and the visuals on the album. The cover is quite childish but I feel that this works for Kate as she herself can come across a little immature.

The colour scheme of blue and white is successful due to the fact that the two colours contrast against each other well, making the text very easy to read. The font itself links in with the theme of the album and this idea of it looking 'childish' as the font looks similar to that of a child's handwriting.

The image itself overall is nice as it sets the scene of a happy, family home, this could be a hint towards the theme of the album and that maybe it focuses on aspects of everyday life or families, as both of these things are something you may assosiate a home with.

Although I like this album cover and feel it works well for Kate herself, I personally would not feature toys on our album cover as it wouldnt link to our theme at all.

Similarly to Lana Del Reys cover, the colour scheme from the front of 'Made of bricks' is carried through onto the back. I feel that this is successful in the fact that it all links and looks professional however I think the blue colour is quite dull and doesnt really stand out. however, the simplicity of the back cover may please some people as it enables them to clearly see what each track is called; these elements are something I think my group should think about when it comes to creating our digi-pack.

Eliza: In your hands

Lastly, this is the album cover to Eliza Doolittle's 'In your hands'. Again, similarly to Lana Del Reys album cover, this one is also quite simple. There is only one main image on it and only one very basic font. From analysing these existing covers I have noticed that a simple cover seems to be what artists tend to go for therefore myself and my group need to decide wether this is something we want for our album cover or if we want to break out of the mould and do something slightly more in depth. 

The image of Eliza is in classic black and white, possibly in order to allow the bright pink font to stand out. I like the use of pink for the text as it is quite a bold move, it runs the risk of looking unprofessional however I feel Eliza has made it look very tasteful and the colour represents her femininity. Eliza has selected two different fonts to feature on her album cover, one being her logo and the other being a handwriting font. The use of the handwriting font makes the album appear more personal - this is effective as it creates a connection between her and her fans.

The thing I found most effective on this cover is the fact that the image of her overlaps the text. This makes the album name stand out as well as the artists face; it draws attention to both elements at once. Eliza is featured wearing a low cut dress whilst posing in a provocative manner, creating a sense of sex appeal, suggestibly to draw in male buyers. I really like this album cover as it looks very mature and professional, I definitely feel this is a cover we will take inspiration from. The only thing I would change is the album name font as it is a little bit tricky to read.

The back cover is just as successful as the front. The colour scheme is carried through to the back, with the text switching to white but the pink still being involved on the side panes - making for a nice change but still matching. Eliza has chosen to have the track names to the left hand side, allowing for them to be easily read as well as leaving a  sufficient amount of room for a second image of her to be placed in the same frame. All legal information is below the track names, meaning it is still visible, just not a main feature of the back cover. Similarly to the front cover, sex appeal is evident in the image of Eliza. Still wearing the same low cut dress but this time the strap on her top is down and the outline of her knickers are evident - suggestive of the idea that the album is more grown up than her previous albums where she is known as 'Eliza Doolittle.' 

I feel that this is a very effective back cover as the colours link to the front and it is clear to see that she is more mature than she used to be - I would like to consider having an image of our chosen artist on the back as it isn't something regularly done but I feel that it really works and allows for a more personal feel towards the album. 

Naming our record label

The prezi I have attached below discusses all of the names we considering our reasoning for selecting them and our final decision as to which name we chose...

http://prezi.com/nqbkhodub-bt/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Lip Sycing Research

 

 

 

As a group we decided to research a little bit more into lip syncing so that we could get more of a feel for it. We went onto YouTube and found The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon which is a late-night talk show which often features a lip sync battle between the host, Jimmy Fallon himself, and the guest celebrity appearing that week. Both Jimmy and the star select two songs each, as you can see in the above video with Tom Cruise. From watching the video we gathered just how successful lip syncing can be if attention is paid to the more minute details. We took particular note of these key characteristics whilst watching the two celebrities perform. Watching these videos gave us a good insight as to what makes for successful lip syncing.

The main things we learnt about lip syncing from our research is that timing is essential. Even if you are only a second out, It can begin to make the video look very unrealistic. In the video attached above it is clear to see that both Jimmy and Tom had clearly practiced as they were exactly in time, this highlighted the fact that practice is key.

In addition, the importance of facial expressions became evident too us. In more powerful areas of the song that almost sound like the artist is shouting, the person lip syncing must ensure they look like they are singing these parts with much stronger/exaggerated facial expressions. Including the matching facial expression will make sure that the individual looks as though it is actually them singing.

All of the above points are things we need to consider when creating our own video. As a result of this research we have decided to carry out lip syncing auditions in order to gather an idea as to which person we could use as our artist.