Digipak brainstorm 7-1-11

Today during our media lesson me, Charlotte and Sophie began brainstorming ideas for one of our ancillary tasks - the digipak. We all had similar ideas to each other so it was easy to come to a decision of what we wanted to do. We want our digipak to look as professional as possible and be typical of a girl band so we have decided that we want either a full or mid length shot of the 4 of us standing together doing a typical 'girl band pose'.

The first idea we had was to use a black background and have each

girl posing next to each other wearing a different brightly coloured dress. The colours we want to use are red, blue, green and yellow - although I don't think this will be possible as we may not be able to find these colour dresses. We think this will stand out well and draw attention to the digipak because of the bright colours. As of yet we haven't thought about any fonts or colours for the text but are focusing on getting the right image. We are trying to find some-one with good photography skills to take some pictures for us preferably using a studio and a high quality camera. We intend on using photo shop to create the black background if we are not able to us one.

Our second idea which is a plan B I suppose is to use a white

background and have us all in black dresses with either black heels or different coloured heels. We really like the picture on the right of girls aloud although I don't think we would be able to create an image like this as easy and it will be hard to make look professional. We are planning on having glamorous hair and make-up to make us look like a real girl group as much as possible. We have an initial idea for what our production companies logo will look like although we have not yet thought of names. We want the logo to be in the shape of a high heels with the name of the record company slanting down the heel.

For the inside of the digipak we have come up with the idea to split the bit opposite where the CD will be into 4 box sections. In each box will be an individual image of each girl (taken at the same time as the front cover so it says in the theme) and a sort of fact file on each girl. With things like 'what their favourite food is' and personal information included underneath each picture. This is all we have brainstormed so far and is not a definite as we still need to speak to our other team member Laura who missed today's lesson as she was ill.

Peer to peer analysis - feedback for blog

My feedback for my blog was given to me by Amy Horseley on Friday 7th January 2010.

Strong aspects

• Detailed research into bands record company
• Good details of what went well and what didn't on final cut including names and quotes.
• Commentory behind final shot is good
• Good details about what makes a digipak
• Good analysis of album covers

Weak aspects

• Final cut missing - possibly due to a technical error

Intertexuality within our ancillary tasks

What is intertexuality?

'Intertextuality is the complex interrelationship between a text and other texts taken as basic to the creation or interpretation of the text.'

Notable examples of intertextuality include animated programmes like The Simpson's, Futurama and Family Guy which are heavily dependant upon intertextual references as a source of humor.

An example of intertexuality is where in the OC, Seth is stuck on the roof wearing a spiderman mask and his girlfriend Summer is looking for him. She finds him outside in the rain and replicates the famous upside down in the rain spiderman kiss from the film 'Spiderman'. This is a direct reference to the film and is immediately recognisable.

Here is the real version taken from the film 'Spiderman':

Here is the OC's version:

Intertextuality within our ancillary tasks

So far the only intertextuality we have used in our production is our version of the 'Citizen Kane' table sequence. I thought the ancillary tasks would be a good way of incorporating ideas and elements from other media types such as films, TV shows and iconic people.

My first example is taken from the film 'Mean Girls' and the idea is to recreate the means girls famous poses. Here are pictures from the films photo shoot which most girls will be familiar with. If we were to recreate these photos I think that most teenage girls would understand the intertexuality but some people obviously do not know what means girls is and would therefore not really understand them. Also the bitchiness and powerfulness of the poses and characters do not represent the song 'Missing You' which is actually about love therefore the mean girls idea may be a bit inappropriate.

My next example is inspired by iconic people and the idea is to recreate the famous spice girls outfits they wore when performing at the Brit awards. Geri's union jack dress has become an iconic dress and would be easily recognisable to most people over 16. Although doing this shows no originality and wont make us look unique. It will also look (to people that wont recognise the outfit) like we are just wearing fancy dress and the costumes have no reference to the song or its lyrics.

My final example is from a television programme is to follow what The OC have done and not have an group picture with all three of us, but separate us and put us in little individual boxes. Although there are only 4 of us and 8 of them so the outcome would look a lot different. This idea will also make us look like less of a group and like individuals which we would like although we would want people to immediately know we were a girl group. The OC have used this box separation idea for most of the 4 seasons and is recognisable to fans of the OC but people that don't know what the OC is wouldn't notice the intertextuality.

Examples of others artists digi-paks

I wanted to look at some examples of my favourite digipaks that have either been inspirational or I just love the look of them. I have chosen a digipak each of 4 different genres which are: Girls groups, indie, rap, pop and rock.

My favourite digipak created by a girl band is The Pussycat Dolls album - Doll Domination:

I like the way the front cover really represents the girl group and their songs. The title 'Doll domination' is represented by the girls posing on motor bikes looking powerful and strong.

My Favourite digipak in the rap genre is Eminems Relapse album:

Eminems Relapse album is my favourite rap artist digipak cover because it completely relates to his life at that moment in time and all the songs on the album. Relapse was Eminems album which he made after a long time spend away from the music industry doing drugs and drinking. The album is about his life at that time and his recovery. I love how his face has been created out of pills and there is a label like that on a drug prescription.

My favourite album artwork by some-one in the pop genre is Mika with his album Life In Cartoon Motion:




I think the artwork on this album cover is very interesting and is a great representation of pop as it is bright, colourful and wacky. It also is a visual image of the album title - life in cartoon motion. Therefore all the pictures are in cartoon and shows you what life of his life would be like in cartoon. It is also fun and interesting to look at.

My Favourite album digipak by a band in the indie category is The Strokes - Is This It:



This album cover is very interesting because it is very plain and simple using light colours such as white and grey. The black shiny glove stands out very well against the pale colour of the women. Although I don't think the image has much representation of the album it is still a clever album cover and is well known.

My favourite rock album digipak is by Kiss.

Kiss have made themselves stand out using a black background to contrast with the bright white face paint and the redness of their lips and tongue. Kiss have stayed true to themselves in this image as they are donning the face paint which has helped make them famous and iconic. Therefore when someone was to see this album cover the would know straight away that is is by Kiss.

What makes a digi-pak

I wanted to find out exactly what an artist needs in order to have a complete digipak for their album. Digipaks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipack that hold the CD is made of plastic - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background. The digipak contains most vital information which a digipak requires such as: the track listing, website links to the artist, credits of production, recording information and the writer of the tracks themselves.

Front page of the booklet – Includes the main picture, artists name and the title of the album.

Inside page – generally consists of the artists name, record company and title of the song

Inside pages – This can vary a lot! Most contain lyrics to each song on the album followed by who wrote the song, recorded and produced it. Pictures of the artists are normally always featured on 2/3 pages of the booklet which are all of the same theme and taken during the same photo-shoot. Some artists like to have their 'thank-yous' at the end of the booklet where they like to thank people who have helped produce the album and people who inspire them such as their family and fans. The last page normally consists of a final picture of the artist with maybe their autograph on the picture.

Back page of the booklet - This is normally taken up by a picture of the artist.

CD- The CD usually has the name of the artist and the album title on the front. Some have the list of songs but this is not a necessity. Pictures of the artist or of something related to the album can also be featured, although the artist can choose to keep the CD blank with nothing on.

Back of digipak – Includes a bar code, record labels logo, the songs included on the disc and possibly another picture of the artist.

Spine – This also can vary a lot. Almost always though, the spine will have the artists name and album title. Record labels can sometimes have their names printed on this section.

Analysis of Destiny's Child - Destiny Fulfilled

The front cover

This in my opinion is the most important element to a digipak as it is what the viewer see's first and could be what grabs their eye and attracts their attention. The use of the picture on the front helps to identify the artists and thus sells them. The front cover is actually the front cover of the booklet that normally comes with an album. Destiny's Child have decided to feature a large picture of all 3 girls looking natural and simple on the front with the name of their band in a white font which stands out against the black background. The album title is featured in a much smaller font just below the bands name in a orange/brown colour font which blends in with the picture of the band. Destiny's Child I think have decided to keep the cover of the digipak simple because it was their last album they made together and didn't want to have anything too distracting on the cover and wanted to let people know it is just them.

Inside the booklet


The inside of the booklet is not as important as the cover as many people tend not to look and read the booklet. What Destiny's Child have decided to do is have the lyrics to their songs in the booklet accompanied by information about each song such as the record company, who wrote and produced the song, who owns the song and its copyright situation. They have also decided to include an individual picture of each member opposite the lyrics. They have used white and nude fonts which stand out really well against the black background as well as complementing the skin tone of the girls in the band.

Last page of the booklet




The back pages of the booklet varies a lot with different artists and Destiny's Child have decided to have a double page picture of the 3 of them with their autograph at the bottom.

Back page of the booklet



On the back of the booklet they have chosen to have another picture of the girls this time using white colours instead of dark blacks and browns. Artists usually have pictures of them as the back of the booklet as it can be seen when the digipak is opened.

CD itself

The CD can also vary a lot. Destiny's Child have decided to keeps theirs simple with the name of the band and the title of the album underneath which is the same as the title on the cover of the digipak booklet. The list of song is also present on the CD which isn't needed because it should be on the back of the digipak. Artists can design their CD to have artwork, writing, pictures of the band or nothing on the CD.

Back cover of the digipak

Normally the track list is always featured on the back as listeners need to know which number each track is. A bar code and the bands record company are another must have for the back of the digipak along with more information about how the album was produced and who owns the copyright. Destiny's Child's album have put yet another picture of them above the track list which is a picture that matches the one on the front and the individual ones that are shown through-out the booklet.

Spine


As there is not much space on the spine of the digipak it is essential that it contains the band name, album title and their record companies name. There is no room for artwork or band pictures so the design of the spine is normally kept simple. Destiny's Child have once again used a simple font in nude/natural colours to match the rest of the digipak.