Digipak Planning

Through researching the layout of cd packaging by similar artists i decided that i definitely wan't to use a cardboard digipak as opposed to the jewel case style packaging because i feel it reflects the earthy feel of the genre better, and i also think they are much more original than the jewel case and i personally find them more appealing.

I have decided upon the three panel style digipak mainly because of the idea i have for the inside panels. This idea is described below, and i feel it wouldn't work so well with a two panel digipak. Therefore for the front cover i decided to use a similar approach to the front cover of albums by artists such as Beth Orton, Tristan Prettyman and Colbie Calliat (these covers can be found in the collage on previous post). The front cover will be a naturalistic image of the artist in natural surroundings, this will promote the artists image, and in this style it will promote it positively avoiding objectification. Also in the style of Tristan Prettyman's cover for her album 'Hello...x' I have placed the artist name and title beside her face as it will appear as though she is speaking her album title. The artist name may end up in another placing on the front cover if there is a lack of space and the two titles look cramped together, but the album title will stay in the planned area. The artist name will be written in a clear, printed yet delicate font to keep it easy to read but that will reflect the delicate feel of the artist and her music. The album title on the other hand will be in a font that appears hand written, once again adding to that personal feel, and will be decorated with a small hand drawn flower flourish, this will become a type of signifier throughout the digipak that will be found on most panels and would be something that would be used on future albums, adverts merchandise etc. to create an identity for the artist.

This image will follow on onto the second panel so that when opened up the two panels create one elongated image. On the second panel will not be any part of the artist but it will just be a landscape image, personalised once again with the hand drawn flourishes. Hopefully due to the natural, earthy feel in combination with the genre convention it will be able to stand alone successfully as a single image taking up a whole panel. On the final panel will be the track listing, this will be kept simple with no photography to add variance to the view and texture of the digipak. But to avoid the panel being too simple the flower flourishes will be once again added to create a personal and naturalistic element.

For the inside of the digipak i decided to create a personal connection between the artist and the audience through the use of hand drawn cartoons, scribbles, phrases etc. including images that relate to the song 'Sail Away'. These will be presented as the artists own and as if they are snippets of her own personal thoughts., this makes the audience feel as though they have an insight into the artists personal life, ultimately giving them the impession that they feel a stronger personal connection to the artist. This idea i took from the Jason Mraz album 'We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.' To further emphasise the impression that these drawings are the artists own thoughts I decided to use photo images of the artist at both the left and right, framing the drawings, these images will be one half of her head each on each side, therefore it will appear as though these 'thoughts' are streaming directly out from her head. This is the reason for the requirement of 3 panels, as they wouldn't fit well on a two panel digipak without the 'thought' section being separated by a fold crease. The CD will slip in a pocket inside the centre panel of the digipak. This way it won't corrupt any of the album art. On the CD there will be hand drawn flower flourishes like what will be found throughout the digipak, it will also contain scribbles much like those found on the inside of the digipak alongside the artist name and album title.

Upon revising my original pan for my digipak above i realised there were some mistakes in the layout that needed reworking, being the order of the panels on the outside cover of the digipak. As they were the front cover would be found on the back of the digipak and the extended image would be seen as the front cover, also the track listing would be the inside panel, this would be an unconventional way of presenting the digipak and wasn't what i had planned as i want to follow the layout conventions to avoid confuzing the audience and putting them off purchasing the album. I also scrapped the idea of the extended image for fear it wouldn't stand strong enough alone, also it wouldn't work with the conventional layout as with the track listings in the centre panel the two panels containing the image would be separated. So on the third panel i decided to have a photo of the artist 'behind the scenes' in the drama studio setting of the actual music video. This gives a greater variance and once again adds to the personalised feel that the audience will appreciate. Therefore below is the revised layout plan.


Upon revision i also decided to move where the actual CD will be placed in the digipak, it will now be placed in the centre panel of the inside of the digipak. As the CD has quite similar images to that on the centre panel of the digipak i have decided to keep the image exactly the same on the CD as it would be found on the centre panel, this way with the CD placed in the centre it will still show the same image as will be found when it is taken out of the case.

I also forgot to mention the overall theme/ colour scheme of the image although it is mentioned in the hand drawn plan. There will be an overall colour scheme, of sepia/warm sandy colours and pastel blues to link once again to the earthy naturalistic convention of the genre, it is also the colours of summer and the sea which once again ties the digipak artwork to the song. There will be a sandy texture on the digipak panels aswell to give further variance and generally a nice look to the digipak. This also prevents the panel with track listings from being too plain.

Digipak Reviews and Planning

Using the internet I have found a selection of CD and digipak covers from similar folk/alternative artists that link to my artist and her style of music. I did this instead of looking around for interesting digipak formats so that I could understand what style of cover art and what form of packaging is often used to represent the genre. Here are the covers I found.

Without looking at the format in which the albums come in and focussing entirely on the cover art and putting them all in a collage like this I can clearly see a pattern emerge in the styles. The majority of the images have a very warm, earthy colour palette or the images represent nature and the earth for instance the moth on the Ani DeFranco album ‘Evolve’ which is pictured third down on the left. Another example is Poi Dog Ponderings self titled album (two across from the Ani DeFranco album) which pictures an abstract cartoon image of a tree with skeletons representing the roots and trunk of the tree, also on the image there is a drawing of an eye, other flowers, a bird and a human silhouette.
16/27 of this selection of cover art contains the artist on the cover, showing that the majority use this to promote the image of the artist as opposed to art reflecting their music. This may be something to consider when planning my digipak, although from looking at these images I personally find the covers not focussing on the artist are much more interesting and aesthetically pleasing, this is also something to consider.

For my artist I am aiming towards creating a form of digipak as opposed to the bog-standard jewel case because I feel a digipak is much more exciting with the potential to be a great keepsake and something that can be much more personal to the artist making the consumer feel as though from purchasing this they have purchased a special part of the artists mind, and it is just generally far more artistic. This digipak for Imogen Heaps album ‘Speak for Yourself’ I think has a combination of good and bad points that I can learn from. For instance, I don’t like how heavily the album promotes the artist with every cover consisting of an image of her. But what I do like about the digipak is the colour scheme and how it reflects her music. The front cover is mainly white but it contains lots of colourful pink, yellow and blue spots surrounding the cartoon image of her, and this is similar on the CD but with horizontal lines as well as spots. This keeps the picture crisp and clean yet upbeat, this reflects the fresh feel-good and optimistic feel of her music. Then the back cover contains a red/pink/yellow colour palette and gives a very warm feel, it reminds me of a sunset, in a way this also reflects her music as it is soothing much like a sunset. All so a sunset represents the end which I like as the back cover is literally the end of the digipak. The one thing I like most about this digipak though is the way the booklet is held. The front cover of the booklet is a picture of Heap riding a bike, once again the colour scheme is very warm, but I like the way it is slotted into the cover and together they make a bigger image revealing more of the bike.

This is another digipak, for the album ‘We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things’ by Jason Mraz. This digipak is quite different from the previous. Firstly the colour scheme is entirely black and white, there is no photography included at all. All images are hand drawings created by the artist himself. This puts a personal spin on the album that I think the consumers would appreciate as it makes them feel they have a personal insight into the artist’s life and mind. There is also a limited edition version of the album containing a bonus CD and DVD containing 10 of the albums songs unrefined when they were originally recorded for an EP including other songs that didn’t make the album, the DVD contains his full live concert, and these extras give the consumer an even deeper personal touch. The hand drawn cartoons and sketchy writing I think reflects Mraz’s music perfectly, it’s very quirky, cheeky and raw as is his music. The front cover is extremely simple which not many artists could pull off, but it works solely for the fact that his music has enough personality that the album doesn’t need a complex design to make up for any lack of. What this digipak tells me is that in order to make it successful it needs to show the artists personal style as closely as possible.

This is the digipak for the album ‘Hello…x’ by Tristan Prettyman. This artist I find most similar to my artist with a very similar voice and music style. The digipak for this album is very simple and straightforward, there are no quirky personal aspects like there is in the Mraz album, but nonetheless it works. I like how simple and neat the back cover is, a plain blue background with a very plain font used for the song titles which are placed neatly in the left third of the cover with a margin – much like a list as it would be seen typed out on a word processor. The front cover, even though it uses a cool blue for its background and black and blue fonts, it doesn’t give off a ‘cold’ feel as I would expect with this colour scheme. The warmth is given to the cover through the placement and expression of the artists face, a simple trick. She appears entirely at ease and natural which warms the cover. I like the way different colours are used for the artist name and album title while they are of the same font and size on the same line, it adds to the crisp, simple and uncomplicated feel of the digipak. I also like the way it is placed next to her mouth, as if she is literally saying ‘Hello’. Once again there is a margin on the left the same width as with the back reverse cover, this simply emphasises the neat organised theme. Again the simplicity is shown through the actual CD, pure black with ‘Hello…x’ written on it in the same font, size and colour as it is on the front cover. On the cover where the CD is pulled out from there is an image of the artist once again, her head is almost completely cut off, but her arm reaches up from the bottom right towards the top left corner of the cover, in this position it looks like her arm is reaching for the ‘Hello…x’ on the CD which is tucked behind but slightly visible where the CD peeks out of it’s slot. This once again attaches her person to the words being said, like with the front cover. I like the idea of the visual attachment between the artist and the words.

Music Video Analysis - Florence and The Machine - Kiss with a Fist - Use of Minimalism and Surrealism

The entirety of Florence and the Machines video, Kiss with a Fist is filmed in an empty white room with few props. Of the props used there is a heart shaped wreath of summer flowers, a bed made to look like its on fire a white box and different coloured hanging decorations. Other than these, the video focuses almost entirely on Florence Welch in colourful child-like clothing as she plays up to the camera.
The use of shooting the video in this way is that it guides the audiences focus to the main character and to listen more carefully to the lyrics without being distracted by any background features or locations. This way the audience clearly understands that the video is a linear narrative reflecting the action in the song, this is made even cleared due to the emphasis created by the symbolized bed on fire alongside the lyric ‘I set fire to our bed’.
The video opens with an extreme close up of Welch’s eyes surrounded by a soft black border, this is the only extreme close up in the entire video which is unusual since a common convention in music videos is the general use of extreme close ups. Her ‘bedroom’ eyes are used to stun the audience and draw in especially the male audience; it’s a way of capturing the audience’s attention and hooking them. It quickly cuts to a medium close up of her head surrounded by the heart shaped wreath, this fills up the entire frame with appealing summer colours which also attracts the viewers eye. It suddenly cuts to a medium shot of her in the centre third of the frame with nothing else except the white background. She contrasts strongly against the background reflecting her as a colourful character. Over the next 6 shots she dances playfully and child-like, never taking her intense eyes off the camera. Through this technique the audience are pulled in to the narrative being treated as the person she is describing in the song, ultimately becoming personally involved in the story.
The following medium long shot introduces the bed with the wreath hanging above it alongside the lyric ‘I set fire to your bed’, here Welch is laying on the bed and at this point it is not ‘on fire’ but it cuts quickly to a medium shot of her holding the wreath again and quickly cuts back to her hopping off the bed as it begins to catch fire. This technique is used to create ellipsis so only the vital action is shown; the audience can fill in the gap without any form of violence being shown. This technique is used again straight after as it cuts away from and back to the bed where it is suddenly completely on fire. The fire is symbolised using clear coloured plastic sheets blown up by a wind machine. This represents the death of love that she is talking about in the song, especially as the heart shaped wreath is at the top of the bed which would eventually be destroyed, on the other hand this could also represent the passion in the relationship and the fire in the violent fight she is describing.
Another way in which the violence has been symbolised is through Welch aggressively attacking these hanging ornaments with a stick, the ornaments of which are also red further connoting fire and passion. Later on in the video she attacks the same ornaments but they are blue, this could represent the male character as blue is linked with a boy when a baby is born; also the male character in the video is wearing a blue t-shirt so it could link to him, futhermore the stick she is using has a baby pink bow tied around it which reflects the female element.
There are some strong references to Alice in Wonderland in this video through the use of costume (her striped knee length socks), the use of low angle shots (making Welch appear as though she is shrinking(1.40)), the use of quick zoom (to make it look as though she is shrinking(0:43)), canted angles to create confusion (much like a dream or nightmare(1:20)), and the surreal shot of her in a long shot on the left third of the shot a close up of her legs running away in the right third of the shot(1:45). The reference to Alice in Wonderland is most probably the inspiration for the surrealist video as the story itself is very surrealist.

Regina Spektor - Better - Video Analysis

Regina Spektor is an artist with similarities to Ruth Bewsey (the artist for my music video) therefore I thought it would be interesting to analyse the representation of a similar artist. This video for better is interesting in the way that it doesn’t objectify her, unlike so many of the conventional videos of today.

The video opens with a very well balanced long shot of Regina standing in the middle of a field. The shot is divided very clearly with they sky in the top half, the horizon line in the centre, the field in the bottom half, and Regina dividing the two in the centre. This clean layout reflects the clarity of the song, the purity of the girl and possibly her naivety in how she pictures the world to be so perfect. This establishing shot is quite a long shot as it lasts for 5 seconds. The following shot heavily contrasts with the previous as it is an extreme close up of Regina’s face; she frames the entire shot where no props or locations can be seen. With a very crisp layout once again her lips are in the dead centre of the shot, the bottom half of the screen is filled with black from her outfit and the top half is her face framed each side by her brown hair. The shot once again being very natural, her clear complexion contrasts beautifully with the black and this makes her red lips even more striking. Once again she is represented as very pure leading to the idea of naivety once again. This shot also lasts around 5 seconds.
The following shots are very surreal. It cuts back to the original layout but instead of being a long shot the camera is slightly closer so it is set as a medium long shot. She is in dead centre once again, standing back to the camera alone. Then a large group of girls appear as they run up the hill breaking the line of the horizon. These girls all seemingly being cloned versions of Regina. This contrasts with the original setting as it was all so natural but the idea of cloning is extremely unnatural, leading to that surreal effect. It cuts to a close up of her leg in the right third of the shot and the girls running up the hill in the distance, but the shot is in shallow focus so only the leg is in proper focus, this distorts the girls faces so the audience still believes these girls are all actual versions of Regina. Using match on action the camera cuts to the ‘original’ Regina’s reaction to these girls, a head and shoulder shot where she breaks into a childish smile. It then cuts to a sideways view of a pair of legs running in a medium close up and cuts back to the shallow focus shot. At this point the camera returns to the shot of her smiling as she is in the centre third of the screen. As the other girls enter the shot in the left and right thirds she breaks into an even bigger smile really revealing her excitement and happiness at her new friends, just like a child.
Through a range of about 10 different angles and shot types including an extreme close up of her lips, close up of her face, medium long shot of her singing in focus while the girls dance playfully in the background out of focus, and other angles of the girls dancing including shots of their legs prancing about. Regina is represented as a character that is experiencing nostalgia, looking back on her childhood days and remembering through these girls the simplicity of being a child once again.
This idea is carried out through the song in different times of the day and different locations including playing under a tree which could connote a family tree or tree of life and youth. Another time/location being mid afternoon as the colour tone is more golden where there are a handful of boxes in the field and all the girls have a red oriental umbrella reflecting the common childhood memory of playing dress up with mum’s clothes or pretending to be a princess with props from the toy box. Another element being a little later in the afternoon when the sun is low and there is a real golden glow reflecting off a piano, this adds a performance element to the original narrative but rather than running parallel it is interweaving so as to maintain a real time element adding to that natural simple feel carried out through the song. During these different scenarios the shots become a lot quicker lasting between 2 and 3 seconds, this maintains a pace to the video to prevent it from dragging on.
Towards the end of the video another character is introduced, the little ‘drummer boy’, he is once again very similar to her with the frizzy brown hair, and they are dressed in the same outfits, but he is used simply to further emphasise the nostalgic idea of childhood by introducing an actual child to the video as opposed to grown up girls with childlike qualities.

Jack Penate - Be The One video analysis

‘Be the One’ is a video with a performance based narrative that I have decided to focus on so as to better understand what filming techniques work successfully in shooting performance.
The video begins with an out of focus wide angle shot of the church-like location and pans down to reveal a bright light containing distorted black figures in the centre third of the shot, this draws the viewer in by plotting an enigma; for the unfocussed camera work creates a supernatural effect forcing the viewer to ask what or who these silhouettes are and their reason for being. Within no more than two seconds it cuts to an extreme close up of one half of Penate’s face looking down with his hair covering his eyes creating wonder as the viewer cannot place his expression or emotion. After a quick two shot of girls with trumpets, it cuts back to a close up of Penate’s eyes looking directly at the camera. With the light coming from behind him it is not a flattering shot, it reveals the dark circles under his eyes and bags, areas of his face are in darkness and he appears to be in anguish. It then cuts to a close up of his feet with one tapping conservatively but the tight black trousers and scuffed dull shoes seem to be repressing the movement they wish to make. Another quick cut back to the girls with trumpets and it becomes clear that there tears drawn in glitter on their faces, this further emphasises the idea of repression and sadness.The video cuts back to another shot of his eyes. At this point all shots but the establishing shot have been extreme close ups but as the music kicks in the video cuts to a low angle extreme long shot, in this shot the lighting is warmer and less harsh, and the revealed unconfined space gives Penate the freedom to move and to mirror this the camera now moves more freely, it pans up from his feet in a medium close up to capture the movement of his whole body.
Once this new idea of movement and freedom is introduced to the audience this message is further strengthened by the iconic extreme close up of the symbol reverberating with glitter flying off – this incorporates a sense of magic with the positive connotation of hope.
The camera cuts back to a long shot of the band, it then zooms in giving the effect that the audience is being pulled closer towards the band. The lighting is used here to make each member appear angelic as each individual head is framed in light which is ironic as it reflects the window art found in churches of biblical characters such as the Virgin Mary, and the location of the video is also set inside a church. The use of lighting in this way carries on throughout the video.
At this point the song is at the chorus, during which the camera never takes still shots of the action, the camera is always moving whether it be panning, tracking or zooming. This creates a sense of chaos reflecting Penates state of mind; it also adds creates variation throughout the video to help successfully maintain the audiences attention and reflect the speed of the song. But once the chorus ends and verse begins the camera alternates back to a combination of still shots and shots with little movement, the lighting also becomes a lot less bright and more controlled. During the verse a use of close ups are used on Penates face especially his eyes much like the shots at the beginning of the video, there are also long shots of the band but it mainly focuses on the lead singer.
As the chorus kicks in once again a parallel narrative is introduced which consists medium close ups of people dancing in slow motion, all dressed in black in front of big white flood lights, they have little relevance to the song, but they are there to represent freedom of expression and the idea of magic or religion giving you the opportunity to free yourself. These shots interweave between the performance narrative; cutting back and forth between the two narratives every few seconds.
At 2:42 in the song a chaotic mess of clips is used to reflect the chaotic music, this consists of very quick shots of close ups of the glittered symbol being smashed, a medium close up of Penate in the parallel narrative convulsing, very shaky close ups of Penate dancing in the performance narrative with the camera pulling left and right. This further entices the viewer as they try to understand what has just happened, why has this character suddenly just lost control like that?
It then cuts back to a medium shot of Penate and the band looking around and catching their breath, with this the video resumes to its previous state of cutting between the two narratives. Toward the end of the song the second narrative is focussed on more, as it focuses on different dancers but slowly more dancers appear to be in shot until it seems as though it is simply a night club. With that the final shot pans across all these dancers in front of the white lights with Penate left at the end alone beside the crowd out of the light looking like he doesn’t belong. It finishes with a fade to black.