Evaluation

Shooting Calendar

Inside Cover (Right Panel)

Here is the 2nd inside which will go on the right panel underneath the CD. The reason why there is not much apart from some writing and text is because this is how most artists display these covers. We have looked at a number of other artists inside covers and we decided that we would do something similar to them and put the name of the artist plus song and put the website at the bottom of the cover where it would be displayed underneath the CD.

Inside Cover (CD)

Inside Cover (CD)

Here is the CD for our inside panel and we have kept it simple and effective by carefully choosing our font and the image.
When choosing the background for our CD cover we chose to keep it the same colour as his CD on his album 'Veneer'. We did this to keep the Jose Gonzalez vibe throughout the digipak to keep the target audience happy.
For the image on the CD we decided to keep it simple and have an acoustic guitar with the sound hole cropped out where the hole of the CD is. We have also made the guitar a nice size so there is enough room for text and the base of the guitar curves round at the bottom nicely with the small print.
For the Text we have made 'Jose Gonzalez's' name the biggest text on the CD which is stereotypical of most CD's in the indie/rock genre. We have then put in smaller writing underneath the name of the song. We found this very effective and easy on the eye and we felt that our target audience would like this. We have also put on the right of the guitar 'Includes Bonus Songs Inside' we have included this to make our audience more excited about the tracks on the CD but we haven't made this piece of text large because we didn't want to take any of the attention away from the image plus main text.

Storyboards

1st storyboard set

2nd storyboard set

 Here is our first storyboard set and we have thought about what range of shots we could include to give us maximum marks and keep our target audience interested. We thought about doing a long shot, mid shot and close up of our main character who also sings in the video. In the long shots we will be having him walking through the woods thinking.






Here is the 2nd storyboard set and here we were thinking about more complex shots which required more skill. We thought of having a flower in our video but having the background blurred with writing appearing and disappearing in the background. We also thought is some moving shots which will require a steady hand and may need to be shot more than once.

3rd storyboard set

Here is the 3rd storyboard set and we have decided to inter-cut a storyline into our music video to keep our audience interested also to give it another layer. We have got a relationship scene here where our artist/actor is going to have flashbacks of him and his girlfriend.

Inside Panel Left

Costume, Props, Casting and Location 2

This is costume number 2, he is wearing different clothes because it is a different day. We thought having the actor dressed differently would make sense. This was death happened before the went on the walk in the woods so to show that he is having flashbacks, we changed this part of the video to back and white.
For some parts of this video, we feel that it would be more appropriate if we had an actress to represent the romance part of the song. For our actress we needed someone who could act and suit our actor. We decided to dress the actress similar to the actor so they will look good together. The other locations in this video were the Bracknell Crematorium which featured in the graveyard scene in black and white. This was to show the death of his girlfriend. We used the flowers to make sure it looked like he was going to visit his late girlfriend. We also used the flowers so that it was clear to the audience that his girlfriend is dead. The flowers in this scene relates to the scene in the woods, this is why in our music video, the flower scene in the woods is after this scene. It shows that because he has found the flowers, it reminds him of his girlfriend.
The third and final location was in a park in Sandhurst, we chose this location because it had a stream running through it so we could film some shorts of them in the stream. The shots of the stream weren't use because we thought it was too shaky.

Location Number 2

This is a crematoriam in Bracknell, we chose this as our second location for flash backs because we decided that his girlfriend is going to be dead. This makes sense as to why we filmed here. We encoutered some problems when filming here because it was a busy time of day where people were visiting their relation's grave. We didn't want to upset anybody so we waited till it was quiet enough and there was no one around. We thought if people saw us with our camera kit, they might get upset about what we are doing.

Progress

We have been working together for 2 years now and we feel that we have improved a huge amount both in the practical and the theory side of media. Our team work has also improved which is great because it means we work well together so the project flows smoother. Last year we both got a 'A' grade in our portfolio and this year we are aiming to do the same. We know that A2 is a big step up and we know that we have the skills needed to get the grade we really want. The camera skills and editing is the main thing that has improved most about us. We now try and make every shot interesting and professional and we don't stop till we succeed.

Corrected Version Of Album Cover

This is the correct version with the right spelling of his name.

Problems

After posting the album cover, we realised we spelt his name wrong. This simple mistake will be corrected and we are actually in the process of making it right. We put Jose Gonzales instead of Jose Gozalez. This is a common mistake with his name as it sounds the same which ever way you write it.

Front Cover

This is the front cover of the album, this design is simple but I think it works well. All the colours on this album match as both the artist name and album title colours were both taken from the guitar. The original image had a forest background so we had to crop him out and add a plain white background. We decided to keep it simple because Jose Gonzales's actual album is really simple. This is his style so we dicided to follow in his steps. Below is the original album cover.

Front and Back Panel together

This is both the front and back panel together. We feel that it works well together. And once we add in the side panels, the album will look nice together.

Back of CD Cover Final

This is the final back of album cover; we made changes after the feedback from the class and teachers. We made the small print smaller; we added the music label and also moved the barcode to the bottom left hand side of the case. One thing we didn’t change was the song names; this is because our classmates told us to leave it as it is. We were originally going to add green drop shadows but after comparing both, this one looks a lot better. We feel that the song names go perfect with the direction of the wood path. We wanted to keep the song names between those two lines to make it neat and centred.

Digipak Analysis (The Kooks - Inside in Inside Out)

The Digipak I am analysing is by british indie band called ‘The Kooks’ and the album name is ‘Inside In Inside Out’. This album was released in 2006 and achieved a quadruple platinum status in the United Kingdom, selling 65,000 copies in the first week of release.

Front Cover

Front Cover

This album cover is very simple including the image of the band gathered round playing their instruments together. This is typical of the Indie genre to have the whole band featured in the front cover of the album and ‘The Kooks’ here have made a very authentic looking album cover and gives their fans an insight how they like to practice and write songs. What backs up this point is none of the band members are looking at the camera and that reveals to their audience that their main focus is to create music. This also shows that the band is not flashy or arrogant which is common in an indie album covers. Every member of the band has skinny jeans and they have long hair like a mop which lets their target audience relate to them as they would be a similar age to them. This image conveys them to be seen as a teenage garage band which again helps them relate to their target audience as many of them will be trying to start up their own band.

All the fonts as a whole on the digipak is simple which creates an image of the band of not caring about their image but controversially creates a cool image of the band to their target audience which is mainly teenagers. They have cleverly put the album title in red which stands out against the grayscale background. This draws their target audiences attention to the album title but cleverly also draws your attention to the band name.

What you get from this front cover as a whole is that the whole cover is easy on the eye and the grayscale image of them playing their instruments shows that they are an indie band all about their music which all you can take away from that image as they are not wearing flashy clothing or jewellery. 

Back Cover

Back Cover

This back cover is very similar to the front which helps the continuity of the digipak. The track listing are neatly placed in the top left hand corner in bold black writing which is listed 1 to 14. The track names are not ever taking up a third of the space on the back panel which is idiosyncratic of a band to have but however it does stand out on the back panel as the image is blurred.

The Image has the same composition from the front cover but has been taken from the drummer’s point of view as you can tell from the mirror reflecting the drummer’s stance. This image gives their audience a personal insight to the band practicing and how they create their songs. This image gives the target audience an insight and makes you feel one of the band which makes the album much more personal for you.

As all back covers this album cover has a barcode, name of the producer, logo of the record label, a url to the bands website and a copyright notice. The font and colour of this is the same as the song listings but smaller.

To conclude the back cover is very similar to the front and continues the authentic indie feel to the digipak.

Inside Cover

Inside Cover

The inside panels of Cd’s are always not looked at as much as the front and back panels because when people open their CD they want to burn it onto their computer or play it.

The Kooks on their inside panel on the left at the top have put in small white font against a black background have written a second copyright notice but also a thank to their fans for purchasing the album which makes the bond between them and their fans greater as it is an unexpected surprise because not all artists put this on their albums.

 There is another image of the band on the the left panel also underneath the thanks and this time they are looking at the camera which emphaisises the thanks and makes it even more personal as it seems they want to look you in the face when they say thanks.

On the right panel of the inside cover is the CD and they have put the colours ‘Inside Out’ which emphasises the album title subtly to the audience. On the CD they also have the record label again and another copyright notice.

The CD design is cleverly done as one of the ‘o’s’ in the band’s name (The Kooks) is the hole where you pick up the CD.

To conclude, the inside cover has a much more personal insight into the band than the outer panels as it looks simple on the outside but in the inside there is a lot more going on and makes you feel one of the band.

Magazine Advert Research

Here is a typical music magazine cover by Q magazine which has adhered to a lot of conventions in this magazine cover.

First of there is the main heading of the magazine which stands out against the white background and this is stereotypical of any music magazine to have a white background so it lets the foreground jump out at the reader. They have also put there caption underneath the giant ‘Q’ which is ‘The World’s Greatest Music Magazine’. There are about 3 or 4 different fonts on this magazine cover to make it interesting and make it look like there is a lot going on inside the magazine. They have also cleverly put their key stories that would pull in their target audience in big black bold writing to stand out against the white background. They have also got a world exclusive in the top right hand corner even though it is small they have still made it very noticeable by bordering the writing in red and coloured it in yellow. Q magazine here have made the magazine cover very busy by putting a lot of writing around the central image. This magazine cover would be incredibly dull if they didn’t use all the different techniques through colour, different fonts and sizes which entices the walker by to look because with magazines people do judge it by the front cover.

 They have put the foreground image of the lead singer of The Verve over the top of the magazines logo and caption which makes the sitter on the magazine cover jump out at the reader even more which they have done on purpose so it will stick out on the shelf next to all the other magazines. The image of the lead singer of the verve is taken from underneath him to make him look powerful which shows the audience how much of a music icon he is in the brit pop/ alternative rock genre. They are trying to communicate to the audience through this image that he is very powerful and the caption beside him ‘The Verve “Rock ‘n’ Roll is Dangerous Again!’ emphasises this point that he is a powerful man and it also makes the reader want to look inside to see what he has done to make it dangerous which the magazine has done on purpose to sell.

This Advert represents the Alternative rock genre as ‘DANGEROUS’ because Q magazine have quoted it which is most likely to be an interview with The Verve. What make this caption stand out is the chosen font which is faded in random places on the letters which gives off a rough look to the genre. The reason why Q magazine chose this font because it would appeal to the readers and fans of The Verve who would be into similar genres to The Verve such as the rock and indie genres.

What I have learnt from this advert that I could influence me for when I design my own is to first of all have an image that stands out and appeals to your target audience but also adheres to the captions. What have also learnt is that for the smaller stories you can add more colour to them so the reader doesn’t miss them when looking at the magazine cover. What I think could also attract the audience that they haven’t used in this magazine cover is a clever or interesting image which could help boost sales.  What I could also put on my magazine cover which they have also done is put a barcode on the right hand side to help the authenticity of the magazine cover.

Overall I like this magazine cover and it would interest me as I am a fan of The Verve and it would intrigue me what they are up to and if they are releasing any new music.