Digipak and Magazine Advert planning

I have decided to question a group of friends on what they like to see on a Digipak or magazine advert before I commence my planning. I asked 4 girls and 2 boys what they would appreciate on an independent artists album cover and how they would think they should be represented.

Here are some quotes from the answers on the questionnaire:

In response to "Do you think an album cover for an independent artist should be focused on the artist or something different/irrelevant/abstract?"

Female: "I think the artist should be the focal point because from the image of them you can judge what kind of artist they might be, it's their music so they should be promoting it"
Male: "Sometimes something abstract looks really good but I think with a female independent artist it's a bit different because they rely a lot on their image, although they shouldn't being independent, I don't really think its a bad thing and I think it looks better"

In response to: "Do you have a particular preference for colour schemes of independent artists?"
Female: "I think they should stay away from the really bright pinks and neon colours seen on a lot of mainstream artists albums, they are trying to stay away from this and can often get confused for a mainstream artist if they use them conventions"
Male: "I don't think theres a particular type, it depends what fits with the image, I do quite like independent artists covers in black and white because they look aged, or in sepia to look rustic"

In response to : "What kind of poses or how should the artist be presented on the album cover and in the insert?"
Female: "I think they should look quite relaxed, mainstream artists tend to be really posey and look quite manufactured"
Male: "Probably just natural, if its all about the music as an independent artist they should just want to compliment it not take over with a brand image"

From this feedback I have been looking at images on the internet of both mainstream and independent artists to gain inspiration, I have decided that I want my front cover to be like a collage with the artist pulling lots of different faces, the more serious ones will be around the centre and the silly faces around the edge to show she is serious about the music but is a relaxed character. I want the front cover pictures to be in black and white in a collage with white spacing around each individual image with a red rose, in colour, adorning some corners of the image, the artist will also wear red lipstick and this will be exaggerated. The album insert will be the artist with a red rose doing various poses but keeping the rose as the focal point, I have some pictures further down as examples of poses. The back of the album cover will show the artist walking away as if she is leaving the listener with her music.

Here are some examples of inspiration.

Collage

Mirrored Shot

Collage

Sultry posed over the shoulder shot 

Collage

Laid back/ fun pose

Sultry over the shoulder shot similar to Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey Digipak Analysis

 

 

The front cover of Lana Del Rey's album Born To Die shows a low angle shot of the artist in fairly plain, yet quite formal, clothing looking directly at the camera. The white shirt and blue sky with white clouds and green trees make the album cover aesthetically pleasing and makes the artist look quite innocent and untouched. The pale make up with auburn hair and coral lipstick also adds to this effect as she seems young and fresh faced, on closer inspection we can see a red bra under the shirt of the artist which usually connotes danger, this would link to the album title which contrasts with such an innocent representation. The bold font is all in capitals and is contrasted in blue against the white shirt and in white against the blue sky, the text doesn't domminate the cover but is a prominent feature and it is easily recognisable whose album it is. The artists eyes exude various emotions, her dark eyes against the light picture suggest she may be troubled and makes her seem mysterious, there is an eery edge to the picture as it seems to be marking the stark contrast between what the album is about regarding its name, Born To Die and the songs and lyrics included.

The back of the album continues the bold font in capitals and again contrasts in colours. The usually innocent and angellic white colour text contrasts with the red background usually linked to danger. This contrasts against the innocent looking front cover and probably links better to the songs and lyrics on this album. This could mean the technique and convention this artist is using is to imply that all is not as it seems, someone who may pick up this album expecting a young girl singing about everyday issues may be surprised by the deep and dark content of Lana Del Rey's songs. The artwork after inspection seems to be giving off the message that there is more to Lana Del Rey than meets the eye and they are mocking what is expected of her as the back cover and insert express more what her music is about - real deep issues.

This is another picture from her album artwork, here we see Lana again in a white shirt with coral lipstick but posing more. Her hand gesture makes her look more confident than in the album cover where she looks quite uncomfortable in her stance, her face looks quite inquisitive as she pouts with her famous plumped lips. The squint she is pulling towards the camera makes her look like she is looking directly at the audience and engages with them. The image at face value is still aesthetically pleasing.

 

The album insert has lyrics on in a dark, bold and black font which looks almost like it has been written on a type writer possibly linking to the independent artist side who would write their own music. The page is of a white/cream colour and is dominated by bright red blood splattered all over, this links to the name of the album Born To Die but has a stark contrast with the albums angellic front cover. The lyrics seem in place with the blood splatters as some talk about violence whereas others do not fit as they, on the surface, discuss another person but when analysing the lyrics there is a lot more meaning and message behind them which brings relevance to the blood stains.

The Lana Del Rey logo looks a lot like something that would be found in the 50's or 60's as a shop logo or a bar, this links to Lana Del Rey's videos and clothes which have a lot of influence from this era. The text is fancy compared to her usual bold and plain text that is used on albums. The logo all fits together well and again uses capitals showing consistency between her artwork. This logo makes her seem very indepent and a single artist.

 

 

This picture is for the Paradise Edition of Lana Del Rey's album, this particular picture has inspired me for my own work as it has the contrasting red against black and white and her lipstick contrasts too. I like how the picture looks aged but still innocent where the red text and lips add an edge and sense of danger as things aren't as they seem.

 

As Lana Del Rey progressed quite quickly from an independent artist to a mainstream artist I decided to also look at examples of a more independent artist to judge more clearly the conventions. I chose Nina Nesbitt who has come to fame after being spotted on YouTube and touring with Ed Sheeran, she remains close to her roots although visiting fashion shows with celebrities and her music videos often include her friends.

 

Although probably really made up, Nina Nesbitt's album cover doesn't look overly professional as her hair is still messy and the colours are a bit mismatched. Her lipstick stands out a bit similair to Lana Del Rey's  artwork and this is probably because bold lipstick is quite a trend at the moment. It is obvious that Nina is more of an independent artist as the picture looks like it could have been taken randomly and it doesn't look staged, the more natural picture represents her as a song writer as she sings with her guitar and writes her own songs. Like Lana Del Rey, Nina Nesbitt is the focal point of the album cover and so is the name of the album both artists are in a reasonably close up shot just giving different messages.

 

 

 

 

Summary of Shots (in first draft)

The title of our song is 'Time' we decided as soon as we chose the song that we were going to include shots of clocks consistently. We manipulated the speed of the clock and included this shot as much as possible when 'time' was mentioned throughout the video. This shows a theme and link between song title and video.

We included shots of 'things' rather than people consistently in our first draft, some of these became more obscure throughout the filming process due to us wanting so much stuff. It was commented on some of this lacked any relevance what so ever and just distracted the attention from the content. This shot however worked well, the rose we used was originally in it's full form and we went on to pick the petals and film the whole process this created a montage showing the transformation of a beautiful flower into a mess, representing the narrative of the video. To put these shots together we simply slowed the footage down by right click > properties > rate and changed this to 0.5 and split the footage up amongst other shots. 

We used time lapse to film the clouds moving in the sky and edited this footage together speeding it up, similar to the previous slowing down process making it 3, to show how quickly things move and change which is the message of our narrative. These shots worked well as a lot of our video is very natural and this was consistent with this and is very aesthetically pleasing, it was commented on that this was a brilliant shot by our peers. 

We used cross fade in a lot of shots to show the links between artist and props or artist and actor. The use of cross fade made basic shots more 'pretty' and made the video more interesting to the audience hopefully keeping them more engaged as they try to understand why these shots are together and their relevance. 

There is varying pace in the song we chose, there are two parts at which the music goes from slow to fast, we wanted to exaggerate these parts and so added a montage of a crossfaded sped up shot of the couple over a very natural shot linking the artist with the location, which we exaggerated. This meant the piece of footage was very fast pace and set the tempo for the rest of the section. 

We included a lot of natural shots of the couple acting very relaxed and not staged. They embraced the location and used it well in how they acted for example walking down steps, looking at the view from the bench and playing on the top of the hill. The relaxed atmosphere makes the narrative more believable and takes the typical cheesy and cringey romantic video to make it more realistic. 

We added shots of ballerina shoes moving to exaggerate the gentle and vulnerable nature of the girl. Some of these shots don't work and we are going to have to re shoot to substitute some of these simply because the movement doesn't fit with the song/there is too much of it. We sped up this footage as specified before to ensure the footage fit with the fast pace and cutting speed. 

We used reverse with shots like this to exaggerate what was happening in the shot. I think this shot is very pleasing on the eye as our actress is very photogenic and the natural environment combine to make a very nice looking shot. I wish we had shot more things like this.

We filmed walking down a corridor and then sped it up and cut it down into parts. It looked like the person was moving very quickly down the corridor this is a technique we had seen and really liked in an Ellie Goulding video. This shot is quite edgy and fits in with the raw and random shots we used. 

Here is an example of a random shot with a link, the nettles are natural but they will sting so its like bittersweet this is the overall message of our video. I particularly liked shots like this as we had a natural theme throughout our video and there is an obvious link between this shot and the narrative.