Final Front Cover

As previously, I was contemplating on whether there should be a border on the front cover or not, I decided to edit the file and subtract the border. I then asked a range of people which cover they preferred, and pointed out that one of the covers had a border and the other did not, this was because some people did not realise the difference, as the changes were so little. However, as part of a six-sided digipak this difference would not be as subtle.

After asking a large group of people of all ages and genders the results revealed that a majority of people preferred the front cover without the border, therefore the final front cover will look like this...

Front Cover Third Draft & Analysis

As I feel that I am nearing the end of the creation of my album cover, I have analysed the cover to show the relevance between the different aspects of the cover and the characteristics of the Pop Rock group 'The Rockweilers'.

(Click image to enlarge)

Decisions
I am now beginning to contemplate whether I should have a border on the front cover or not. This has become an issue, as I have decided not to have a border on the other pages of the digipak, therefore the front cover may not flow well if there is a border.

Front Cover Third Draft

After asking my friends, family and teachers about how I could improve the album cover, I received very constructive feedback. I also realised that I was ignoring the results from my previous questionnaire about the design of the album colour. Nonetheless, A majority of the reviewers said that the cover did not stand out if it was placed next to other Pop Rock artists such as Pink or Avril Lavigne. However, other reviewers said that "the cover lacked colour", which I agree with since I have unintentionally ignored the pink colour scheme that the audience voted for in the questionnaires, therefore, in my next drafting stage I will work on introducing colour into the Digipak.

I have searched for a number of pink backgrounds that I could use, these examples are shown below...

After trying a number of Pink backgrounds, from backgrounds using block pink colours, to backgrounds of pink stripes and stars, I concluded that I wanted to use a photograph rather than a block coloured background. It is for this reason that I chose to use the second image of a pink, blue and orange sky. Firstly, I feel that this photograph contrasts against the graphic pen images, which gives the digipak a surreal feel. This idea also helps to create an imaginary environment where the band and their audience can do whatever they like, which in this case is to rebel!

Nevertheless, other reviewers said that the album cover "...needed a catch line..." to draw their audience in, therefore I created a direct link between the music video production and album cover by stating that the album 'Features Hit New Single SUPERMAN'.
(My third draft is shown below.)

Experimenting Album Covers

Although I have already decided on the design of the digipak, I began experimenting with colours and images in my spare time. This was the design that I produced, however I do not think it is appropriate for my digipak, as there is a lack of colour and therefore appears to be more 'Punk' centered. Furthermore, I think that the image of the punk is also appropriate for a 'Punk' genre, but too harsh for a digipak that is targeted at a predominantly female audience between the ages of 16-21.

Front Cover First and Second Draft

To create the cover for 'The Rockweilers' debut album, I decided to use 'Adobe FireWorks photoshop', as I was very familiar with the programme, additionally I felt comfortable with it as I had previously used it for my A2 Textiles project. Furthermore, I understood the advantages of the programme, since it allowed me to change the style, colour of photographs. Moreover, I was also able to add effects to images such as a glow effects and many more. However, after having the programme for a long period of time, I have discovered that I am most comfortable using the techniques provided on this programme.
When beginning to work from the sketches I searched the internet for a number of images that I could use, and tried out different layouts and styles. My first attempt of the cover is shown below.

As a first draft, I believe that this was successful, as the layout of the cover is exactly how I expected it to be when drawing sketches. However, choosing the correct images was a long process as I had to apply the 'Graphic Pen' technique to a range of images, then choose which image looked best. An example of an unsuccessful image is shown by the photograph taken from the internet of the 'Big Ben'. Although the graphic pen image appears decent, the graphic lines were too thick and would make the album cover appear Gothic. Additionally, the angle of the image looked daunting and scary, which did not conform to my genre.

Secondly, I experimented with a range of photographs of Rottweiler dogs in order to choose an image that appeared fierce and courageous (to reflect the band), this would be shown through the body language of the dog. (Below are example of the Rottweiler images that I chosen from.) Finally, I chose to use the second image, as its body language appeared alert, moreover, i thought that the dog also looked as if it was going to jump, which could be related to the jumping at a rock concert.

However, after creating this first draft I still felt that the album cover appeared dull, so I chose to ask a few people for their feedback. Eventually, after hearing feedback I realised that the cover lacked the idea of rebellion so I began developing the cover.

In the second draft I incorporated a range of images with rebellious connotations. Firstly, this is shown by the skateboarders skating down the 'London eye', this also shows the adrenalin of the band's music. Secondly, I changed the font of the text to 'Chiller', which revealed an informal setting and revolutionary approach. Nevertheless, I still felt that the album cover needed more developing, to make it appeal to the audience in the best way possible. Therefore, I have decided to ask a range of people for constructive criticism.

Editing 6

Today, Laura and I worked together to finish the production of our music video. Although we faced simple problems, our target of piecing together our final piece was met. This was partly because we were able to follow the storyboards, this is shown through the images below.

Effects
Cartoon-

Once again, we made use of the cartoon effect, to reinforce the idea of a narrative from a comic book. However, we chose to apply this effect to a minority of clips where the 'Superman' character was filmed using unusual camera movements. For example, the screen shot above shows the 'Superman' character spinning rapidly, which is related to the idea of superpowers in Marvel comics.

Speed-

Throughout the music video, we altered the speed settings, so that the certain clip were played at a quicker pace, this created an effect which was again similar to the techniques used to express powers in marvel comics and cartoons. In addition, this technique was utilised here, as we wanted to show the clip as a whole, however as it was around 19 seconds, it did not conform to the conventions of a pop rock music video, since the pace was too slow, therefore this technique was most appropriate.

Fade to Black-

To end the video we made use of the 'Fade to black' effect, which continued to play as the music ended. This was used as it demonstrates that the characters' relationship is on going, even after the song finishes. Furthermore, this is also an effect that I have witnessed in a number of pop rock music videos, such as Avril Lavigne's 'Sk8r Boi' Video.

Problems- During our editing session, Laura and I faced a minor problem that affected the music video as a whole. To begin we found that the chorus of our song and music video did not flow, as the protagonist female's vocals were not synchronised with the song. In an attempt to manage this issue, we tried to change the speed of the clip so that it was slower, however this did not help as it altered the timings of the following clips. We have therefore decided to wait until our next session as we could gain the help and positive criticism from fellow peers.

Album Cover Sketches and Initial Ideas

After analysing a number of digipaks from a range of Pop Rock artists, I have started to create a sketches for the Front Cover of my six paneled digipak. These ideas have also been influenced by a range of sources, such as the genre of music which the band, 'The RockWeilers' play. Additionally, external influences such as other Pop Rock music artists have played a role in the design of my sketches.

My initial sketches have been shown below with annotations...

This sketch has been influenced by Avril Lavigne's album 'The best damn thing'. This is shown by the medium shot of the lead singer, which is similar to the cover of many of Lavigne's albums, However, I have developed this idea by adding graphic images into the background, which has been influenced by the Ed Hardy signature designs. Moreover, I have decided to superimpose the illustrations of piercings and dog colors to show that this accessories are part of her image, but beneath these accessories the lead singer is an average girl. This is a technique which would allow the lead singer to create a common ground for her predominantly female audience. Nevertheless, I believe that this cover will not emphasise the band name 'The Rockweilers', which is an important aspect in releasing a debut album, as the audience are likely to forget the name. Therefore, I feel that it is necessary to incorporate the idea of dogs into the sketch to prompt the audience in recognising the band name.

Unlike the previous sketch, this idea has been influenced by Lily Allens's album 'Alright, Still'. This is because she makes use of a graphic designs in the background, furthermore her album illustrates Allen's surroundings and environment, which influence her music. This is the reason for the use of buildings, and urban landscapes, as 'The Rockweilers' are a urban influenced band. Furthermore, the image of the hybrid, half rottweiler, half human emphasises the band name and also holds connotations of a rough, rebellious attitude. This is because the Rottweiler and (dogs in general) have vicious, wild traits, which I would like 'The Rockweilers' to embrace. Furthermore, The use of contrasting black and white images and bright backgrounds have been inspired by a number of pop rock album covers such as the 'Plain White T's' and 'Paramore'. This technique guarantees that the audience catches attention of the most important aspects of the cover. It is for this reason, that I believe that this album cover is most appropriate, however I will need to develop my ideas and use of colour and images in favour of the audience and their needs, therefore making the audience an 'active group'.

Band Names

Previously, the production team and I were trying to generate a list of names that could be possibilities for our band. We took our band's punk rock, pop, characteristics into consideration when producing the names and finally concluded with a few possibilities. However, as the production of the Digipak is an individual task, each group member has taken their own stance in their album cover, hence the variations in names and digipak style.

After generating a number of ideas within the group, I decided to create a 'Spider Diagram' to aid my decisions about the band name, my ideas and influences are shown in the image below.

In order to choose the name which is most appealing from the audience's perspective, I have decided to create a mini pole by asking my friends and family on the social networking site 'Facebook'.

Once again the results to the questionnaire was successful as ten candidates between the ages of 16- 21 answered the questions with their preferred pop rock band name. The results showed that a majority of the votes were in favour of the name 'The Rockweilers', this was shown by 7 out of 10 candidates voting for it. On the other hand, only three candidates voted for the name 'Eskimo Disco' and sadly no results were registered for the name 'Mayhem'. The majority of candidates also stated that the name ' The Rockweilers' was "...a clever name..." and that it "...appealed to a large audience..." and "conformed to the genre of Pop Rock...".

David Bowie- Diamond Dogs

David Bowie
David Bowie is known as one of Britain's most successful musicians worldwide, this is maybe due to his music achievements through five decades of Pop Music, and his ability to reinvent his music and image for his extensive target audience. The most common genres associated with Bowie are Rock, Pop Rock, Psychedelic Rock and ProtoPunk, these genres are usually related to his out of the ordinary appearances and image throughout his music career.

When beginning to think about drafting my album cover, a number of ideas that were influenced by other artists emerged. Although, I researched a variety of artists, such as Pink, Avril Lavigne and Lilly Allen, I was most intrigued by my latest research on David Bowie's Diamond Dog album cover.

This cover art for 'Diamond Dogs' features David Bowie as half man, half dog, painted by a German artist 'Guy Peellaert. This particular cover art was Bowie's most controversial cover, as the painting clearly revealed the creature's genitalia. Due to this negative media very few copies of the original art was sold on the album's release. However, soon the cover was edited and the genitalia was airbrushed, which increased the album's sales (Shown in the above image).

In conclusion, I have become very fond of using the idea of half human, half dog as it feeds into some band name ideas that I have been thinking of recently. However, if incorporating this idea I must consider my target audience, since to some people this image may appear very threatening or offensive. Therefore, I will have to think about the different ways of using this idea, whether I use it as a subtle influence, or whether it plays a central role in the design of my album cover.

DigiPak Questionnaire Result

After collecting the results from the questionnaires that were posted on 'Facebook', the final outcome was of high standard as 18 candidates between the ages of 16 and 21 were able to complete them. Overall, I counted that the questionnaires were answered by 11 females, and 7 males. However, as the number of female and male are not the same, I have found that when comparing the genders and their answers, the results will not be 'fair'. It is for this reason that in some examples, I will interpret the data into graph form, however, I will not take the aspect of gender into full consideration and instead look at the data as a whole.

Chosen Fonts

From the collected data, it is obvious that Fonts 2 and 3 appeared appropriate for the 'Pop Rock' genre, from my target audience's perspective. This is shown as both fonts gained the votes of 7 candidates, whereas only 4 out of 18 candidates chose Font 1. I believe that these fonts were chosen, as Font 2 appears scribbled and rebellious, which relates to the typical appearance of any 'Pop Rock' band. On the other hand, I think that Font 3 was preferred as it is bold and also resembles the font of stencils, which is a common feature in graffiti art. A candidate also stated that they chose Font 3 because "it is similar to the font of Linkin Park's logo", which is a prestigious Rock band.

Artist Cover Art

When questioning the candidates about their preferred 'Artist Cover Art', I found that the three most popular covers were 'Plain White T's' and 'Paramore' and 'Avril Lavigne', as they were both voted 5 times out of 18. Moreover, a number of candidates said that they preferred the 'Plain White T's' as they "liked that the ripped effect showed a rebellious nature..." This is similar to my chosen fonts, as Font 2 also appears rough and unconventional. Similarly, 'Paramore's' RIOT album was chosen for a similar reason, since a candidate stated that they '..like this Paramore cover because it shows the characteristics of the band, especially because of the contrast in colour this makes the name 'RIOT' the centre of the album". I have noticed that this is also similar to the 'Plain White T's' album as the black and white effect on the photograph appears bold against the areas of bright colour, hence revealing the band's boldness.

Type of Art

Looking at the results from this question it is evident that the most popular form of imagery is the use of 'Graffiti'. Nevertheless, as the results are balanced with differences of only 1 candidate, it is difficult to distinguish the best form of art to use. Therefore, I have decided that I will make use with a variety of techniques including graffiti art, abstract art, personal photography, and computer generated (or manipulated) images.

Colour Scheme

The results reveal that the most popular colour scheme for the album cover is the 'Dark Pink' shade. Although the difference in male and female candidates may have affected this result, the fact that our target audience is predominantly female proves that the 'Dark Pink' scheme is appropriate. However, I believe that depending on the ways in which the colour scheme is applied will influence the number of sales between both the male and female audience. Therefore, when creating my digipak, I will use the colours wisely and take the audience's perspective into consideration.

No. of Panels

Another important aspect to consider is the number of sides that the digipak is made of, this is because digipaks are known to have a range of styles, from a four, six, eight or more sided digipak. It is for this reason that I wanted to identify which size appealed the most to my target audience. Looking at the results, it is clear that the preferred style was the 6 sided digipak because it is "...small, compact but still has space for information..." quotes a candidate.

Editing 5

As the editing deadline was approaching I thought that it was necessary to continue editing in my free time, so that the correct clips were placed in the correct places even if they were not cut or edited. This was because it would then make it easier to select the appropriate scenes from the correct clips. However, I soon began cutting the clips and applying 'effects' and transitions which were on the story board, and created a total of 1 min 59 seconds of the finishing music video.

Effects
Cartoon effect-

The 'Cartoon effect' was applied as it supported the narrative and the song title 'Superman' this is because 'Superman' is usually associated with the renowned Marvel comics. Nevertheless, the 'Cartoon effect' was also beneficial as many of our shots were dimly lit and grainy, however the use of this effect brightened the scenes by changing the contrast settings. Furthermore, the 'Cartoon effect' also reflects a sense of imagination, which in this case is the protagonist female character's imagination. However, some scenes showed an ordinary shot fading into a 'cartoon' shot, therefore it was vital that the scenes showed continuity, this was achieved by cutting the scenes into two clips, then applying the effect and transitions.

Romantic Effect-

Although this scene was not intended to be a romantic scene, I made use of the 'Romantic effect' as it lightened the dully lit scenes, created due to bad lighting. Moreover, this effect also created a distinct difference between the actual date scenes, and the female character's imagination, when the lyrics read "...devil did him a deal...".

Reverse and Speed-

Towards the end of the music video as the narrative shows the female character choosing her 'superman', the 'Hunk' and the 'Punk' is shown walking backwards down the road. This was achieved by making use of the 'reverse effect', and showed that these characters were not essential to the protagonist character's love life. Furthermore, I sped these scenes in order to create a comical, effect usually used in Marvel cartoons.

Transitions
Jump Cut-

Once again I made use of 'Jump Cuts', as it allowed the shots to change on the beats of the songs, which were fast and consistent. Jump cuts also maintain an exciting feel as the shots are quick and sharp, therefore keeping the audience enticed.

Fade-

I made use of 'Fade' transitions mostly because it showed the audience the change in scenes and perspective, as it was usually applied to 'Fade' into scenes of imagination rather than reality, shown (above) by the original clip, and cartoon clip.

DigiPak Questionnaire

In order to create an album cover and digipak that attracts my target audience, and portrays the band in the best way possible, I have created a questionnaire which touches on many aspects of creation. I aim to ask as many candidates as possible by posting this questionnaire on social networking sites such as 'Facebook' and 'Twitter'. From the results I will extract the information, which will hopefully lead to the best album cover possible. I have asked a number of questions that will effect the design of the cover and digipak, such as which fonts look best and which colour scheme appeals to a specific gender or age. Furthermore, I have chosen various album covers from well known artist that could influence my designs. However, as these album covers are taken from a range of bands and solo artists, there is a possibility that my design may take elements from different solo and band album covers, to create a mixture of images, colours and text.

Editing 4

After facing the problem of loosing a majority of our work, I was confident that I could reproduce and improve our music video in today's lesson. As we were scheduled to edit our videos in our last media lesson on the day, I started working on the editing as soon as possible. Following the storyboards made editing uncomplicated, and I was able to edit the first 23 seconds without any difficulty.

Transitions
Wipe-

I applied a wipe transition as a substitute for the three scenes playing at the same time. This is because we learned that editing three scenes together would be too time consuming, moreover, we did not have the correct software. Nevertheless, the Wipe transition worked extremely well as it showed distinctions between the three dates. Furthermore, the wipe also acted as a technique that reinforced the chronology of the dates.

Jump Cut-

To speed up the scenes walking down the road I made use of the Jump Cut technique. This also helped to create a fun upbeat feel and played parallel to the beats of the music. Additionally, the fast action appeals to the comic book influences.

Special Effects
Dream Effect-

I also added a 'Dream' effect to the scenes of the character walking into the dating venue. This followed a sign that signified the event, moreover I also added the 'Dream' effect to the sign as it created a relation between the sign and the characters.