Dear Moderator

Dear moderator,

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I hope that you are able to see the progress that I have made throughout my journey in Media Studies and that you enjoy watching my music video as much as I enjoyed creating it!

HeartBeat By Faith Franklin : Final Music Video

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

What did you learn from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 4

 

Digipack Final

This is the final look for our groups digipack,. This would be the CD of our artist; Faith Franklin's, new album Dark Fantasy, which would be released in November. The album reflects the genre of Faith's first released single from the album, Heartbeat: which is the song that myself, Karina (playing the role of the artist) and Frankie (the conceptual actress) have created a video for as a part of our A2 coursework.

The genre of the song would come under the category of electro-pop due to its funky, electric and rocking beat that consists of both upbeat and downbeat tones and moods. This is why the tones of the colours that we have selected for our digipack are also funky and electrifying in order for the overall theme and genre of our artist and her music as a whole can run parallel with each other. We have selected specific colours throughout our project in order to be left with a specific house style: for example we have continuously used the colour of purple, even throughout the design of our website. I feel that purple is a dark and deep colour that reflects our overall genre.

Front

We chose this because we love how we have effectively edited it so that you can see the artists face four times. This relates to how there are many different points of view and thoughts on a situation and also how nothing is ever simple. We also wanted to create the idea that fantasies have no limits: this is why we see the artist's face several times to show how there is no structure to a fantasy. It also impacts the audience and makes our artist more memorable. The facial expression of the artist is very serious and this is relatable to the songs that would be on the album. Although they would vary from happy to sad tones, the majority of the album is negative: this is implied through the use of 'dark' in the title of the album. We have used the rule of thirds in this still image by having the artist's name not in the centre of the cover. It is positioned towards the left of the photograph. The effects on the image give the connotations of fantasies and dreams due to the way that the swirls glide across the image of Faith's face. She appears to be almost star struck from this. The colours are very earthy showing how this is a down to earth album from a very real person. This real personality relates to the edginess of the artist.

Left inside picture

This was actually one of the potential photos we chose for the front cover. We edited it a little more to create a more ragged cracked look. We also altered the colours to make them look slightly more purple to add to the theme that we have used throughout the project. We chose to reuse this picture because we love the fact that the artists eyes are looking directly at the lense, so it looks as if she is looking straight at you. She is engaged in whatever it is in front of her. We overlapped the picture with a quote that we had created used in the behind the scenes promo video 'Keep it real, Keep the Faith' meaning be true to yourself and keep the Faith in whatever you are doing. It could be interpreted in any ways which is why we are so fond of it. It allows everyone to use their imaginations. We wanted to keep it interesting and eye catching so we changed the fonts so that it was not all the same. We incorporated capital letters with under case letters and bold writing to create this effect. We kept the writing aerial black because we found that it stood out the most in front of the deep purple lense colour on the image. The reason why we out it on the right side of the centre instead of at the back is because you will have the digipack open most of the time when getting CD and therefore if will be eye catching. By putting it here we are hoping to give our audience the memory of our artist Faith. Not only for the branding of our star but also for themselves.

Middle

The middle picture is the simplest of the six but it has a deeper underlying meaning. This is the section whereby the CD itself would be stored and therefore it is the least looked at of the six sections due to the CD being in front of it (hiding the background):however, being professional, we wanted to make sure that we paid attention to detail in all sections. In doing so, we did not just place an image of our artist behind the outline of where the CD would be kept: we thought carefully about colours and effects that could imply certain connotations and meanings to the audience. Firstly, the image is upside down.

This is representative of how the album is filled with a variety of emotions: portraying the idea of confusion. It also relates back to the front cover of album and how nothing is ever simple. Secondly, the effect on the image adds to the impact on the audience. The 'cracked glass' look links in with our overall theme and this is why we had selected to use it.

Back

Doing the back cover of the CD seemed to be the most difficult part of the whole process in making the digipack. It was a task trying to find the correct picture to fit into the theme then applying the tracks on to the cover to make it stand out and look appealing while representing the artist. In the end, our group came with this design; to the right. We decided to make the the background of the cover, a plain purple coloured galaxy as we believed that the purple enhanced the genre by reflecting and complimenting the artists style as its dark, yet vibrant. The main focus of the cover is the picture. We chose this one, as it shows the artist posing full with attitude and confidence. Faith is wearing dark coloured clothing against a cream background which emphasises her whole look and body gesture, which brings the back cover to life and adds power. To make the CD stand out from others, we got inspired by Rita Ora's album cover as she also has the same genre as our artist. By using different fonts, and font sizes for the tracks of the album this made it looks, funky and electric. we positioned the tracks to be on the chest of the artist as it was the darkest part of the cover, then changing the colour of the font to white to intensify them. Then lastly adding the bar code and details of the CD and producers, we positioned them at the bottom on the cover as it looked suitable and tidy making it more appealing to the eye.

Left inside

Compared to the left inside page of our digipack, the right inside is more for the fans of Faith who would idolize her for her aesthetic image and her fashion. From research we knew that many popular and new stars within the music industry are very fashionable and are often seen in the latest fashion magazines. This is why we did a photo shoot for our artist, in order to portray her as a fashion icon for many of her fans. In the four scattered photo's, our artist is wearing clothes that relate to the latest trends. We chose to have the pictures scattered in order to portray a sense of trendiness that our artist would have. If the pictures were to be laid out in a sensible manner then the overall image would not be exciting. The distorted layout makes the particular section of the digipack interesting to look at. The pictures are edited with an earthy background colour as this matches the overall house style of the digipack. It also reflects our artists down to earth personality and implies to the audience that she is a real person who is easy to relate to. We are hoping that this would give our artist the 'likable' factor. We used long-shots for our images in order to provide for variety. The majority of the shots for the rest of the digipack are close-ups or mid-shots as they provide for clear emotions to be connotative to the audience. Long-shots also allow for the artists entire body to be within focus of the shot meaning that the audience are exposed to her outfit: this is what we wanted. Again, keeping the house style consistent, the background for this section of the digipack is a purple image of space. The shining stars in the background relate to how our artist is a new and emerging pop-star. We chose to use the colour purple because, again, it is a colour that we feel represents our genre of electro-pop.

Right outside

We chose to do this section of the digipack in black and white in order for the writing to be in focus and not the image itself. This is because featured on this section is a message to our artists fans. This is the one of the only sections of our project where by our artists fans are addressed to directly (barring the behind the scenes video). Therefore, we felt that it was important to dedicate a section of the digipack, a product that they would be buying, to them. We also decided to do this because of our research and that fact that existing digipacks do this also. The writing is again in different sizes, styles and fonts in order to have an overall funky image that keeps in the house style that we have built up over the course of this project.