Planning - Ancillary Products - Ideas 2

As I passed the train station, I saw Ed Sheeran's advertisement for his new album. It's a very simple advert however it is very effective because of the visual links it shows. When we think of Ed Sheeran we think of the colour orange simply because of his ginger hair. This is almost like a signature theme that is used throughout his work. Alongside the use of orange as the predominant colour on the advertisement, black and white is also used which is a classic colour scheme for many digipacks and advertisements.

Progress Review Blog

Planning - Ancillary Products - Ideas

Planning - Ancillary Products - Photos I have chosen to use

These are the images I have chosen to use for my digipak and for my advertisement. I have chosen to use the side shots of James (one light and one dark) to capture the transition from light to dark which is present in our music video.

Also, I have chosen to use the low angle shot of James looking away as the front cover of the digipak as I think the emotions he expresses in that image connects to the other images. I think all of these images portray a sense of thought and self reflection and this is why I have chosen these images.

Planning Ancillary - Shortlist of Photos

There is a short list of the images I want to use for the digipak and advertisement products. I think these images are suitable for the genre of music and I really like the lighting and background of them. I think it'll be good to see what I can do to them in photoshop.

Ancillary Products - Research - Analysis of 3 Digipak

 As we progressed we realised that Dot Rotten's song 'Overload' also falls under the genre of 'grime' as it has an urban and gritty edge to it. However, the heavy and fast paced beats portray the dubstep genre. I've chosen some examples of digipak album covers from artists such as Devlin, Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Scuba and Example. The four grime covers all have a similar feature of having a long shot of the artist instead of having a close up to promote the artist. However, with the dubstep digipak covers, the artists are shown in a mid shot which promotes the artist more.From looking at digipak covers, it has given me inspiration as to how to layout my digipak with the use of colours and font and also the shot type. I will be using a close up of our artist to promote him as he is a new artist.

Wretch 32 is a grime artist and this digipak cover relates to my genre as it contains urban elements with the background used. The graphic design shows urban estates in the background and also the album name has dripping paint on it which looks like graffiti.
Also, the reoccurring theme of black on white and white on black is shown here which is effectively in showing the album name and the artist name. This relates the to teenage and young adult audience as it shows a modern design and wretch's clothing can relate to them too.






Dizzee Rascal, who is also a grime artist, again expresses the urban theme with the modern and edgy font. Also, Dizzee Rascal is wearing trainers and tracksuit which would be more relatable to a younger target audience such as teenagers from 13 - 19.









Even though Example is a dubstep artist, his digipak cover is similar to Wretch's and Dizzee Rascal's. Example and Dizzee Rascal both use the same colour scheme of black, white and yellow which is effective as it is bold and catches the audience's attention.

Example's digipak cover would appeal to a more older audience of 17 - 30 even as the cover is simple and classic.

Planning Ancillary Products- Do's and Dont's

In class we discussed many "Do's and Dont's" for our digipak and advertisement.

Do's

• Use clear font and be careful where its placed
• The use of appropriate sizes - image and font
• Use clear photos that are in focus
• Photos have to be an appropriate shape for the page
• Use a layout that follows the rule of thirds for composition
• Use an appropriate type face (font) that follows genre conventions and a house style
• Follow genre conventions and be clear from a distance
• Follow the conventions of the 3 colour rule and use colour that is appropriate for - images, font and background
• Think carefully about how you use and integrate the font, text and language and image
• Use appropriate industry logos and conventions, properly positioned

Dont's

• Stretch images as it will make them out of focus
• use layer styles
• Use unnecessary effects. Any effects used must suit the genre
• Place text across artist face or on top of any other image
• Use a font simply because you 'like it'
• Feel you need a separate photo on very panel- be creative

Planning Ancillary products- Mock up of Advertisement

In my mock up advertisement i have decided to use a full background image of the artist, again because its to promote him. I including all the conventions and the digipak. In my advertisement i am aiming to promote my artist on a wide approach as i including the artists Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, also the record label and where it would be sold. instead of writing a release date my group and i decided to put in 'Out now' and as we all discussed our album name would be 'Overload', and the official track we made a music video for will be the song that is meant to promote the artist.

Also I including a website for the official artist where fans can view the artist on a more deeper scale.

There re stilla few changes to be made to this advertisement ad as my ideas may change

Planning Ancillary - Do's and Dont's of Design Work

Digipak Covers/ Magazine Adverts 

Dos 

1. To use a clear font
2. To use an appropriate, clear size for images and fonts 
3. To use appropriate photos 
4. To use/consider the rule of thirds for the layout
5. To use an appropriate font that follows the genre convents and the chosen house style
6. To carefully choose where images are placed as it must follow the genre conventions and be clear to look at from a distance
7. To follow the convention of the 3 colour rule and make sure the colours are suitable for the images, fonts and background 
8. To think carefully about how we use the fons, text and language and image
9. To use appropriate suitable industry logos and conventions including a barcode, date, copyright, titles and artist name

Don't's

1. Do not stretch images, it will become pixelated
2. Do not use layer styles
3. Do not use unnecessary effects
4. Do not place texts across the artist's face
5. Do not use a font because you like it
6. Do not think you have to have a different image for every panel 

Planning - Ancillary Products - Mock up of Advert + Digipak

The Pitch - Advertisement:

Im going to use contrasting colours of black and white on my advert in accordance with my light and dark images. Also, 'Overload' will be coloured in half white and half black too. James.H, 'OUT NOW!', 'featuring no1 single overload' will be coloured in neon green. Then, links and other information will be in black or white.

The Pitch - Digipak:

I have decided to change the digipak front cover image as I thought my initial images doesn't link to my other images that I'm using in my digipak. Also, I have used an additional image on the left back panel of my digipak. The middle back panel will contain my tracklist.

Overall, I know how I will layout my digipak and my advertisement however there are some things that I need to consider before I can start my final ancillary work.

- I need to decide how I'm going to manipulate my images
- I need to decide how I'm going to keep to my colour scheme with the track listing
- Also, I need to decide how I'm going to show my album name and artist name with the use of the font and the colours.

Planning Ancillary - Advertisement Mock Up

This is my mock up for the advertisement. The three images will be seamlessly placed on the left side of the page and the concrete background on the image will be the background of the whole page. I am aiming for a seamless concrete background for the whole advertisement. The artists name will be written large, more on the right side of the page. Underneath that I will have "OVERLOAD OUT NOW" including small texts saying "featuring no.1 single OVERLOAD"

I will have the official website, twitter, youtube, facebook links, record label and HMV where the album can be purchased. 

Planning ancillary products- Mock up of Digipak

This is the front and back view of my ancillary product - digipak. I have realised  the picture i've used for the front page does not promote the artist as half of his face is covered up by his hood. Therefor i am in process of changing that to something more suitable and unclose.

 I decided to use 6 panels to promote the artist, as i feel pictures speak a lot when a an opens up a digipak and sees the artist everywhere as it is about them only.

Do's And Don'ts'

Do's

• Use clear font
• Use appropriate sizes for image and font 
• Use clear photos that are in focus
• Use a layout that follows the rule of thirds for composition
• Use type face that follows genre conventions and be clear from a distance for fans to see
• Follow the conventions of the 3 color rule and use color that is appropriate for images, font and background
• Think carefully about how i use and integrate fonts,text & language  and image together
• use appropriate industry logo's and conventions properly positioned  such as Bar code, release date, copyright, titles and artist name

Don'ts' 

• Stretch the images to try and fit because this will make them out of focus
• Use layer styles
• Use Unnecessary effects. Any effects use must fit the genre
• place text across artist face
• use unappropriate font styles
• Feel that i need a separate photo on each panel

Planning Ancillary - Mock Up of Digipak

•  Here is a mock up of my digipak. I have chosen to have three panels as I prefer how it looks and it allows me to provide more images and information for the fans. 

• Here is a close up of the front cover. I have just realised that the album name is a lot bigger than the artists name, which I will be changing as the artist's name is the most important as the aim is to promote them. I will have the artists name larger and on top of the album name to make sure it stands out amongst the page and promotes the artist. 

• Here is the track list on the back of the digipak along with the record label, barcode, paragraph from label and copyright. This is very important as it is part of the conventions of a digipak.
  
• Lastly is the pictures used on each panel. Inside of each panel will have an image of the performer and the album name on the right and left panel or the middle panel will have a CD slot with the album name reoccurring. 

Researching Ancillary Products- three magazines

Plan B meets the criteria for the conventions. The use of black background and contrasting colours goes very well with his colour theme. his urban but sophisticated look again changes up this sort of advertisements

Chase and status are a dubstep duo. they meet carious convention ideas, i like the use of the brave and bold colours (yellow) they keep their ideas simple and continue the theme from their idea of a pug into a logo as a continuous theme.

Skepta another grime artist who uses a few dubstep beats and themes. this advertisement is in black and white both muted and bold colours contrasting each other, again meeting the convention ideas.

La Roux uses soft but bold colours to convey her theme as she uses similar colours in her music videos and her actual album. Hunt The Noise also use similar colours and the use of a brick wall of an urban theme adds again another urban feel, although the genre is mainly a dubstep feel also despite the fact that these are female artist.




All artist has audiences that often are between the ages of 13-35. This fits in to our chosen artists audience as it ranges from 15-25.

Production Of My Advert

Production Of My Digipak

Editing Ideas

During our editing process, my group and I have been adding new ideas to our editing. As of what we discussed before we feel that having more editing techniques will make our music video look 'professional'. Adding a shaky screen and mirror effects adds to our video to give it a urban modern look. as of teenager attraction  this will be a very good idea to use.

Ancillary Products- Research - Analysis of 3 Magazine Advertisements

This Wretch 32 advertisement is very effective as it clearly shows visual links between the digipak and the advert itself. The picture used on the digipak is used on the advert too and the digipak cover is shown on the bottom left of the advert. The name of the artist is printed in a legible font using a bold colour. Also, the album name is shown on the center of the page and it is the second biggest tittle there which shows the significance along the artist's name and this allows people to remember the name of it as well. The release date is shown clearly in bold along with places in which the target audience can buy his music.

This advert is similar to Wretch's advert in a sense that the album name and artist name are both the largest visible writing on the page. However, as Eminem is known on an international scale his name doesn't need to be as bold as the other information because people already know who he is. Therefore, with his album name printed in white it would be more recognisable for the target audience. Despite the fact that the picture of the album itself isn't shown on the advert, the image used on the front cover of the digipak is used as the background picture here.

This advertisement is similar to both of the above however the layout of it relates more to Eminem's advert as the cover photo for the album is used as the whole background of the advert. However, because Dizzee Rascal wasn't as well known as Eminem an image of him was shown on the advert to promote him even more alongside his album.








Overall, all of these adverts are similar as they follow the conventions of designing advertisements. This has made me realise what are the most significant things that should be included on the advert and also how a visual link can be created between the advert and the digipak. I will have to include a picture of James to promote him as a new artist as he is like Dizzee Rascal when he was promoting his first album. Also, I need to ensure that the font size of the artist name and the album name needs to be the biggest and most visible on the advert. Lastly, I will include a picture of the front of the digipak so that it clearly shows how the two ancillary products are closely linked.

Progress Review

Planning Ancillary - Font and Colours

We chose to have both these fonts for our digipak and our magazine advertisements. We felt that the choice of font for our album title is really suitable to our genre and the artist. I really like that it is all in upper case, it is quite simple but the bits around the font makes it look very gritty and urban which is very suitable for our album. We chose a contrasting font for the rest of the writing on the page, one that is very legible and simple as the other font is quite detailed. 

Planning Ancillary - Short List of Layout and Design

This is the short list of my potential layout and design of the digipak. I particularly like the idea of the 3rd layout before of the ideas I have for the images and what I will do with them in photoshop but at the moment I am still undecided. I think 'Futura' will be our 2nd font for the digipak and advertisement, I think its not too bold and not too thin. Its clear enough for people to read and it's quite simple. I like the rounded edge of each letter and although it's quite plain it looks a lot different to other simple fonts. The main aim is to produce a clear and effective design overall, so I think these potential choices are great.

Planning ancillary products - Short list

A short list of ideas of fonts, colours, layouts and design ideas we came up with all were very useful when it comes to deciding what we want to do in our work individually. We chose individually to talk about our design ideas as it is an individual topic, but made a separate group blog on our font , colour and song list scheme.

For my layout Iv'e decided to use 6 panels to promote the artist. This will be done by the use of original pictures, both medium shots and close ups also followed up by logo's of record labels which one of them will be Island records other logos of copy right and HMV logo for the advertisement product. All these will be significant in my ancillary work. Other ideas like having muted colours like black and grey, and even white will also have significance as this is how we decided to promote our artist as this will be his first album digipak. I had an idea to use and electric blue pulse rate run through the whole of the digipak as an ongoing theme. I think this will add urban but a dubstep feel to the digipak.

Ancillary Products - Shared House Styles

Here are our shared house styles we have decided on:

- colour scheme: Black, grey + neon green

- font style: futura for text and impact label for the album and artist name

Song lists: 

1. Keep It On a Low

2. Are You Not Entertained?

3. Overload ft TMS

4. Karmageddon

5. Seven Figure Swagger

6. Goodbye To You ft Ed Sheeran

7. Single Tear ft Tyler James

8. Speeding By ft Mz.Bratt

9. Sound And Gimmicks Ft P.Money

10. You Need Me, I Don't Need You (True Tiger Remix) ft Ed Sheeran, Scruffizzer

Name of artist: James H

Name of album: Overload

Date Release: OUT NOW!

Web address: www.jameshofficial.co.uk

Progress Review blog

Wen looking over most of my recent work with the blogging of the music video and editing and production schemes, I feel I have only gone into detail to a certain extent, in which i can develop on even more. most of my blogs are to do with what is on the blog sheet and I tend to adda in a few blogs that are not on the blog sheet if I have any ideas or other than that. So i feel my blogs are successful when checking off what i have done on the blog sheet and what i added as an individual. Im not entirely happy at the fact I didn't blog when i came home when i had discussed something in class, as i still am working on that, in relation to targets i've set myself  i aspire to overcome this problem by attending workshops and seeking help form teachers and even my peers when i feel im not able to do a blog in as much detail as possible. Counting up my blogs i have done 63 blogs myself with out the including ones as a group. Im proud of all my blogs if im quite honest, because each blog contains useful information for me and to look back on. I think the one I could be proud of is when I used Camtasia, as i expressed my skills in that. I wish i put more time and effort in my blogs about editing  as i was caught up in the editing process i do believe i had more to talk about in certain blogs.

Researching Ancillary Products- Genre

Dizzee Rascal: Dizzee is a chosen artist my group and I chose to explore the ideas of grime. His music represents this, especially when he brought out his first album 'Boy In The Corner' Many of his songs have that Grime feel to it, which relates to our artist James.


Other artists like Wiley, Wretch 32 and Skepta also introduce the grime genre, and what it adds to our artists. I believe they are good examples to explore the type of genre our artist is, and what category he would fit in if he had an album.

Chase and Staus are very popular dub-step artist who team up to create on going and outstanding music to those who enjoy this genre. We chose them as they always generate a build up in most of their music to show their dub-step crazy side. in our chosen song there are many build-ups to follow onto the chorus which I believe enhances the enjoyment of the dub-step genre. they intriguing many individuals from the ages roughly 14- 30, they constantly succeed and their production and this is in relation to our chosen audience.

Scuba and example are two other artist who i have recently followed up. Many individuals listen to them and enjoy their music, as Scuba i believe is a more younger artist he gets more younger fans that listen to him, example tends to please any age below 35 which is good for an audience range, his genre also provides the dub-step vibe as scuba creates the dub-step/ grime vibe.

Researching Ancillary products

During my first lesson on the ancillary products to be made, we discussed what should and should not be included in them. We discussed Why CD covers are still used despite the fact CD sales are still dropping; in reply in class we said how it is for visual benefit to the fans sets trends and provides a physical experience for the fans as it is a tradition to sell predominately through a digi-pak. question also came up like,  How important are ancillary products to the artist and the industry? To promote the artist is one thing 'superfans' will be intrigued by as in digi-paks you get more than what a CD has to offer also the face of the artist is familiar with the audience. Furthermore making a deeper connection between the artist and fans is very important however it decreases the importance as the image can be promoted in other ways, also it helps the industry  make more money due to increase of cost they want to hang onto this idea for as long as they can. How significant is the'music video' in todays market? Well again I answered it is for visual benefit and for setting trends, but also  it generates online discussions due to a 'good' music video it becomes important and reaches out to the audience more because the generation today are surrounded by the internet and social networking, in addition it is for promotion, entertainment and bigger connection from the fan to the artist.

We also discussed conventions and what to add in our ancillary work for instance where our artist name should and shouldn't be placed e.g not on the face of the artist, also other minor information like additional information, barcodes, logo's of record labels and promotional sticker to help our Digi-pak look even more real.
I found this lesson very helpful and it helped me with my production of my mock-up ancillary product.

Production- Skills development (music video)

Overall my new editing skills i have learnt this year has been a really good experience and still is such a good experience. I am now using these skills in my everyday life. during the editing process of the music video my confidence I did not have last year is now portrayed in my work. Although i can honestly say the editing was stressful and  to get everything right was tough, after 2-3 days of immense editing my group and I got the hang of it due to what we had learnt last year and our common sense we needed to apply this year, made the work a little less stressful which is a big relief. I think my skills are very transferrable in my later life.

Production - Skills development

During the time of planning the music video I  have come to realisation of the development of my skills comparing to my last years work in AS. My confidence in editing, filming and adding in ideas has increased immensely. I definitely think this had been my ultimate achievement as last year I was more quiet and shy to even do contribute as much as i have this year in my group.

Weaknesses of last years work is my lack of skills developing, I feel my confidence let me down last year as i was new to everything, although most other students were too, I tend to keep quiet and stay in my corner, this weakness I have now overcome in the production of  my work this year. This has helped my confidence a lot and i have more confidence in myself. My skills development has definitely increased and I can now use most of the Mac applications to make a short film or music video with no hesitation.

Research Ancillary - Photoshop Tutorial

During our lesson, we were introduced to our ancillary work. We were given a photoshop tutorial and images to create become familiar with the programme. We worked mainly on images, cropping, using the magical tool, playing with filters and generally becoming familiar with each tool and how to make the images look as great as possible.

Interesting Digipak

One Digipak that i really like and find very interesting is the front cover of the album "F.A.M.E" by US artist Chris brown. The reason why i like and find this front cover interesting is because it breaks the rules of the Digipak conventions by using more than 3 main colours. This made the album cover stand out because it is very bright. It catches peoples attention.

Ways Of Promoting An Album

One useful way of promoting your album is by release a snippet of all the tunes on the album to give the audience a little tease and feel of the album. This can help create anticipation. One artist that used this method of promotion with his album was Wretch 32 for his debut album "Black and White" which was released on 21st August 2011. The Album went number 1 on the UK R&B Chart.

Three Types of Magazines

Ancillary Products - Research - Mock up of digipak!

This is a mock up of my digipak. I have chosen to design a three panel digipak because I wanted to use two images on either side of the digipak of James as shown below. This is because it looks more pleasing to the eye and also with James looking in in both photos to portrays a sense or encirclement which is a reoccurring theme in our music video such as the 360 degree shots.

Also, the picture on the left is lighter than the picture on the right and this is deliberately used to reflect the day and night time shots in our music video which allows this digipak to have a visual link with the video.

The picture I chose to use as the front cover of the digipak is a close up of James and this is convention of dubstep digipak covers as shown in my previous blog. Also, this is very effective in promoting a new artist. However, I may consider using a different close up on James instead of this one.

On the back, the last panel will display the tracklist from the album and as a group we have agreed to use neon green as one of our house style colours to show the tracklist as this creates a direct link to James as his jacket stood out in the music video because of the neon green on it.

The album name will be called 'OVERLOAD' and our artist name is 'JAMES H.' We were unable to use 'James' as we are aware that there is already an existing artist under the name of James.

Ancillary Products - Research - Photoshoot

We have taken pictures today to use for our ancillary work and here are some of them:


PHOTOSHOOT PICTURES

We asked our artist - James - to wear the same outfit that he wore in our music video to create a obvious visual link with our ancillary work and the music video as the ultimate aim is to promote the artist. We chose the grey concrete wall, which was in our college, to take some pictures because we felt that this mirrors the urban feel to the music video. Also, we decided to use a photography room to take some pictures where we used a black backdrop with the curtains and different lighting to draw attention to James.

Elisha and I have both decided to use one picture that is the same but we will be manipulating differently with the use of photo shop. I have decided to make a three panel digipak and a mock up of how I would like to present it will be posted in the following blog.

Analysis of three digipaks

This is the debut album of grime artist Dizzee Rascal "Boy in da corner". This Album cover follows certain convention of a digipak. One convention i noticed on it is that it only has 3 main colours which are Yellow, Black and White. These colours seem to represent Dizzee Rascals as an outcast, depression and gritty-ness which is similar to the sound of the album. I think me and my group should consider picking colours which will represent the atmosphere of the album.

This is Devlin's Debut album "Buds, Sweat & Beers". This album cover is more urban and original. It doesnt really have effects on it which i believe brings out the urban and original feel to it. It has a dull atmosphere as the colours are muted. I believe the name of the title "Buds, Sweat & Beers" has a cockney feel to it which represents Devlin because he is cockney. This shows he trying to show he's origins through his digipak.

Example's Album Playing in The Shadow. This album also follows conventions and uses 3 main colours which are black,white and yellow. I like the use of the colour yellow because it makes the title of the artist stand out and clear to the audience.