Aim

The aim of this coursework is to create a production pack. This includes the creation of a digipak, advert and music video.

Artist Profile

Artist name - Robert Ryner
Album name - A Journey Taken Alone
Genre - Indie/rock
Style - Casual clothes; Jeans/t-shirt/converse

Artist info -

• Band originally.
• Writes all of his own songs.
• Having a hit with the song 'you don't know me' in 2009 which kick started his solo career.
• Reached top 3 with the song 'oncoming traffic' leading to the release of his first album 'A Journey Taken Alone'.

It is important to establish a artist profile first so that you can choose a target audience for which to aim the product.

Audience

The target audience is affected by the genre of the music, or the advertising market but it can also be affected by the way in which we access the music. This would cause a potential difference in the way that the product is advertised. Music is becoming more accessible through technology such as the internet. So you would assume that the marketing should apply to all mediums that are in consistent use of the targeted consumers.

Magazine's such as Kerrang! appeal to a particular audience. To advertise using this magazine would mean that you would have to look at the possible targeted audience's media consumption and what they are most likely to purchase. Kerrang! and other magazines now provide access online which improves the products appeal.

Looking at comments from the KERRANG! website, a reader left 'I don't have access to the mag, where can I read the articles....? This shows that by broading the way that the products are advertised more of the target audience may see it.

Target audience:
Female - 16 - 26
Male - 16 - 24

Aimed at those who would be the most likely to by the product, chosen through the typical audience that would be seen to listen to the chosen genre and who are most likely to be exposed to the marketing either in a online format or paper.

Planning in retrospective!

From everyday research from looking at magazines/digipak and what they try to promote I could already notice and state most of the conventions of adverts. The advert should try to reflect the target audience by giving them what they expect, from where it is placed to the product it is trying to advertise.

Youtube is a well known website and is used by alot of people to listen to music. By listening to the music and watching the videos, prior research to starting the project was carried out. This told you about the music videos which seemed to target their audeince as you may be part of it.

What is a digipak?

• Created by Mead Westvaco.


• It is a type of CD packaging made out of cardboard.


• It is cheaper to produce than a normal plastic CD case and more environmentally friendly.

Digipak

The design choices of the digipak reflected the title of the digipak. 'A Journey Taken Alone'.

This is the final design layout for the digipak;

The images used such as the single footprints help to reinforce the meaning of the title. The writing going across the bottom of the back was used to seperate the sections, web links/copyright info at the bottom and the song titles at the top. Green was chosen as it is used to contrast with the background colour on the front and is used on the back to do the same thing. The colours are seen as being independent of each other which reflects the indie genre of the product.

Research was taken from digipak such as;

This gave insight into the similar conventions that are present in most digipak such as the positioning of the bar code; the placement of the title and most show the artists name under the album title.

When planning the digipak, this was used as a basic design layout.

Brainstorming and storyboarding helped me to organise and to build on my ideas. The decision of the album title was made first and was based on the story of the music video, this helped to consolidate the link between my products. I created a list to arrange the choices and to pick the appropriate. A tree and a single set of footprints reflect ' a journey taken alone', which was the song title I settled on.

I created the front of the digipak using this image;



And

Including a 'limited edition' sticker which was seen as a convention of researched digipak.

The was pre-made and placed on the front of the digipak.


I chose to use a standard font and not block letters as it worked well as a representation of the indie/rock genre as it is not linked with a know genre.

i.e. this type of front can be linked with rap!

This was my inital design of the back shown below;

This was constructed using Microsoft Word to give a realistic representation of the final product.

The design changed to this;

It was changed because of problems such as...

1. stretching the image made the image distorted
2. the second contained more of the conventions and raised audience awareness of the product type.
   

This is the inside of the digipak;



Aknowledgments and thanks are typical conventions of digipak. From research I found that most would normally find it in a booklet. This inside was kept simple as most digipaks hold an image and non or little text, suggested here

Advert

Choosing to keep the same colours as the main features of the digipak creates a link between the advertisment and the product.


Most adverts show an image of the actual product but my advert used the images and colours that are represented on the digipak.






Codes and conventions of adverts;

• Release date
• Tour dates
• Artist/album name
• Price
• Website address/downloads
• Reviews
• Songs

For more adverts click here

My first idea was to take a picture of a crossed signpost to put on the advert to show a 'journey' being taken. This idea was transferred onto the advert but I couldn't find one so I decided to draw one.

Arrow
I used this image as a guide for the top half of the sign. As well as using the paint tool to add the effect of grass.



The 'house style' of all three products is kept consistent as the colours used are only green, black and white. This being a convention of adverts is seen as some advert advertise the product on the actual advert showing the similarities such as colour in comparision. I chose to do this to keep the audience aware of the product being sold without the product being shown. Similarities which were kept such as the word colours of the title and the some images (footprints) were repeated. This could be seen as a subverted convention which could be used to show a hint as it reflects the 'independent' image related to this type of indie/rock genre being represented.

Other identified conventions were kept i.e. songs which appear on the sticker are placed on the digipak are listed again as the audience may identify the songs without knowing the artist.

Analysis and planning of the music video

Codes and conventions that can be seen from the analysis of music videos include;
(click here for an example of one of the researched videos)

• Lyrics influence the song (image on screen is used to reflect what the lyrics are saying

This convention will be used in my music video, and can be seen with the image of the book alongside the line 'studying all your books'.

• Artists are shown performing the song on screen

When planning the video I planned to subvert this convention as the video would be filmed using actors.

• The pace of the editing reflects the pace of the music

This convention would be kept when planning the story to the music. i.e. As the song ends the shot fades.

• Props are used alot to emphasis the importance of the object and to hint to the audience the storyline to the song or to show the setting

Daughtry - no surprise
The opening of this music video, shown in the screen shot above, indicates a construction site which would lead to the idea of a job and with the lyrics it gives a clue of the story that is being presented.

Tracks
After listening to a number of tracks, I was able to get my first impressions based on the music only, prompting ideas for the final music video. Choosing to use track three and working from inital ideas I choose to use a 'break-up' themed storyline.
After taking this picture below, I decided to use this in the music video. This can be seen as a convention of music videos as it shows a relationship..


This image was ripped up to be used in the music video.



Taylor Swift - You belong with me
This music video also uses props to show the characters emotions.



Story board

This provided a starter point, which as I started to film, extra shots were added.

I emailed the actor the days that I could shoot to see if they were able aswell and also what I wanted them to wear to corrospond to the chosen genre.

I also preplanned my shot list which helped to sort out and make plans for where the shots needed to be taken.