Final Digipak // Sachin Mistry

Draft Evaliuation Question 2 // Sachin mistry

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? 

I feel like the combination of my ancillary text and the music video product are effective as they all tie into one, and are all relevant to the to each other so they are not all individual products.

When creating my digipak and magazine advert based the theme on the music genre which we had selected when choosing the song.  I feel that my digipak and advert fit well with the indie/rock genre which we wanted to base our band off of. This is because we had chosen song which has a lot of emotionally lyrics which we could present in the digipak. This is because the digipak is where the music will be stored and this will be the direct link which the audience will make. I similarly believe that my ancillary texts are simple which makes it easier to familiarise yourself with the band as there is not a lot of text or pictures surrounding the artists or the band name which helps with recognition of the band more easily. For example of my advert was on the side of the bus shelter in the city centre, I think that it would stand out because of the bright grey background which makes the members of the band stand out more. Also the contrast of the white lettering on the grey background also stands out amongst the crowd.  By doing this I wanted to create an image for the band that they are clean and simple and this would also translate into their music foreshadowing that they also have clean and simple music.

For my digipak I took inspiration form ‘Placebo’ and ‘Dirty Projectors’ this is because I liked the two shots they had because it looked very minimalist as they also had blank facial expressions. The inspiration from ‘Placebo’ came from one of their photos where they had all the band member faces over the top of each other almost like a fan. Even though it was a close up and majority of their faces was covered up you can still see their facial expressions which I thought was quite unique and ended up using this technique on the inside of my digipak. With my advert I used the same images found on my digipak but arranged then as in a different manner where they are bleeding over the border. This is because the majority of the ones that I found online feature the album cover and then some information at the bottom.  Didn’t feel as this would fit my theme and as I said previously f they features somewhere on display they would stand out due to the minimalism and people walking by could read the text quickly as the information I provided was quick and to the point.

With band branding I made sure that I used the band’s name on all three of the product, on the digipak I placed the band name ¾ of the way up the album cover around the eye line so that when the audience see the album cover they will make the direct eye contact and then they will see the band name. On the advert I placed the bane name at the top of the advert using the same font (Orator Std Medium) so that it is recognisable and clear to read. Likewise o the music video I placed the band name at the starting of the video so that if the video was accidentally clicked on as the least audience will know who the band right from the very start. If I were to do this again I would also make sure that the band’s logo is also loud and clear on all of my products as well to main continuity. For example I have the band logo on the spine and the back of the digipak, middle of the advert under the title so that the can familiarise the name with the logo and the band with the brand. But on the video I did not include this, so I would have a completely black screen with the band logo presented and then show the band name like normal. Or I could present it at the end o the video wither the credits. The name of the album is ‘Hard light’ and the lighting in the video was dark, quite bright at times and harsh. This reflects the name of the album and emphasises the link between the products. Also the pictures that were used as the exclusive pictures of the band members I took use the hard light effect as it represents the album name and it maintains continuity.

I think that the continuity of my digipak and advert links to the continuity of the music video showing that all of my work I planned thoroughly thought out before it was created. Each part of the digipak and advert have a meaning as to why I chose this deign language which reflects on the music video as each scene was planned out from the outfits to the mise en scene and the props in the background. The continuity of the video is that it’s always leading back to the lead singer and his memories going from good times with friends to bad times on his own. I believe that there is a direct link between all my products and that the band has been portrayed well which in my opinion is the most important when it comes to selling their products. 

Draft Evaluation Question 1 // Sachin Mistry

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Whilst creating my music video, digipak and advert, we first started my research booking for inspiration from other music videos, digipak and advert which other students have made and also professional media product. This was an essential part of the research process as it gave me an idea of what style we wanted to go for and how we wanted our media products to look. 

Digipak - For my digipak, whilst looking for inspiration I discovered some specific conventions which I tried to emulate as I thought would work really well as a concept in my digipak design. For my front cover there was a lot of going back and forth from design which I had seen on the internet and testing them out on my band members. But the album cover I kept going back to the 'Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca.' 

This particular front cover caught my eye because of its simplicity and the ability to intrigue the audience as it did with me. I wanted my front cover to have the same effect on the audience and so decided to use a number of the conventions which feature on this particular cover. As on the background of the Dirty Projectors album, it features a simple grey background which I adopted and also used a grey background for the cover of my album cover as well. Also with this front cover the symmetry which has been used in this album cover caught my eye because the artists faces and their bodies lined up perfectly, which I like because it represented a sense of being too perfect with an album cover which I really liked the thought of doing. So when it came to creating my work, I used guidelines on Photoshop which helped me to achieve these perfectionate line on my digipak cover. When I positioned the text on my digipak cover I also used the guidelines for my media product so that the text was lined up perfectly.  

With my original cover, I used the original photo which hadn't been edited, as it I was simple and replicated the two shot of the Dirty Projectors albums. But when I made my draft magazine advert I noticed, as I used the same images, that because George (one of the band members) was standing slightly behind Max (the other member of the band) so what I did was cut them out in Photoshop and then also used the guidelines to enlarge George slightly so that the heads are the same size, along with their nose, eyes and chin level with each other. So I then used this technique on the front cover which made the cover pop more and it made everything even and in-line with each other.  

Advertising Magazine Poster - As I started to design the advertising poster for my band, I analysed a variety of existing poster which stretched from a wide range of genres. I did this instead of just looking at indie rock posters because I wanted to get a field of what some of the others look like and although they do not fit my theme I could incorporate some of the design elements which they might have used to create theirs. When looking at my other professional posters and ones that students made, I inspiration isn't that clear but what I did was mess around with the different layouts when I was making it on Photoshop. I knew I wanted to use my album cover on but I didn't know how to implement it. I knew that I was going to have a white border and then I decided to cut out the band members because one of them looked out of place and small due him stand behind the other during the photoshoot. I then lined them up and positioned them behind each other as I tried to make it look as natural as the original photo, and then similarly like the draft album cover which I made I made the text centralised on the poster. I also included the band logo as well on the poster so that when audiences look at the cover they will instantly recognise the band or next time they see the logo they will recognise that it is Alcazar, because the band logo represents them as a brand as well as a band.  

Music Video - We watched videos from various different genres to make sure we were certain on our decision on the genre we wanted our song to be. We then looked at videos from Imagine dragons, Amber Run, The 1975 and the Milky Chance etc.. This helped us discover the type of video that we wanted to produce. At the start of the research for the making of the music video we knew that we kind of wanted to make a narrative/ illustrative video because we had a storyline in mind which we felt was really strong and wanted to convey this through the way we filmed, and the shots we used in the video.  

For our preliminary video we made a performance video of the 'Arctic Monkeys - I bet you look good on the dance floor,' I really liked the filming and editing process of this particular video but I wanted to make something more complex which had more meaning and can actually reach out the audience like a narrative video which makes sense and has a story line. We have quite a few fire scenes in our video which represents the 'Spark' or the 'light' in our video. I see the lights and the fire as a metaphor like a person, the person which is represented by the light is trying to help the boy who is feeling depressed, but they are also a reminder of the happiness which he used to enjoy and thrive in the moments with his friends.  

I feel like the music video which we made is not original but unique in the aspect that the scenes which we used to put this music video together really emphasis the meaning of the song and the lyrics. In addition to this, our video is different to the original as it is about a person who is so tired up in himself that he cannot share his feelings with anyone as he is full of anger, and it gets to the point where the robot is another part of him and actually hurts him in the end which represents him self harming.   

Digipak inspiration // Sachin Mistry

For my digipak I took some inspiration from ‘Years and Years’, this is a band which I like to listen to but also their style of music videos and also photography in terms of photoshoots and interviews suits our band well. So for example the middle picture is of the band ‘Years and Years’, this is a picture of a photoshoot they did for ‘COUPdeMAIN’ is a New Zealand based music/lifestyle magazine, and they present the bands members/artists through a polaroid which I think look good and goes well with our theme. Also the bottom two images are of the ‘Ghajini’ Digipak which is a digipak of the songs from the Indian movie. It had a similar theme where on the left hand side it had a cut out of the border which is produced when you take pictures on an instant camera. I liked this effect an implemented it into my digipak design. I did this by creating an envelope which you can access on the left hand side of the digipak which just like the one in the ‘Ghajini’ digipak. But unlike the other digipak where it had a booklet I printed out individual photos of the band members doing different poses. This is just like ‘Years and Years’ photos for the magazine as they are also pulling random faces. I was going to writing on the bottom of the photos like the ‘Years and Years’ photos but then when I slotted then into the sleeve, the simplicity of then and the clean looks of the printed photos looked better in my opinion.

With the actual photos I wanted a similar theme which ‘Years and Years’ did, where they were against a neutral coloured background, and their expressions and body language would be emphasised by the flash when taking pictures. I achieved this look by setting the focus on my camera to automatic, this is because I switched the lights of in the room so it was completely dark. Then when the flash is triggered it would auto focus on the subject which are the band members pulling faces. Before I turned the light off I made sure that I had them in frame posing in the correct manner which I directing to do. Although we had professional lighting in the room, by switching the lights off and taking the picture I was able to create the shadow effect which is seen in the ‘Years and Years’ photos as this gave a simple yet effect look as the flash light would be solely on them and not bouncing off the walls. With the professional box lights the aim is to eliminate shadows and to ensure correcting for photoshoots, but I wanted to intentionally have shadows which kind of acts as its owns filter on the photos which I really liked the look of. 

Potential digipak album cover design // Sachin Mistry

This is a variety of edits which I made with Max's face, What I did was I sued the magic selection tool and selected his face. I then deleted the face outline which left me with a faceless body with a transparent part where the hair face and neck used to be. This is where I started to experiment.

I placed different images where the face used to be and then I placed the layer behind the original image which allowed the picture behind to be shown up to the cut outlines. I really like this affect because it gives character to what was a boring portrait. I fell that this could have been an album cover as it foreshadows the mysteriousness of the band and therefore it would lead the audience into researching them to find out about them and what they look like. 

Digipak Design Idea // Sachin Mistry

This is a design idea which I thought would be suitable for my digipak as well as the music genre which we have chosen. I saw picture of a man with a bag on his head and I cam up with this idea. The material on his head could be some sort of rag or cloth which will be old fashioned and could have a flowery/ancient design on it which I though would look good and contrast against the plain white shirt and the dull grey background.

CD cover analysis #1 // Sachin Mistry

CD cover analysis #2 // Sachin Mistry

Why I chose a 6 panel digipak layout // Sachin Mistry

CD cover analysis #3 // Sachin Mistry

Final Digipak Booklet // Sachin Mistry