Ancillary: Editing (2)

1) Cut the artist out and placed him on black background, then altered the size.

My original idea consisted of my artist facing away from each other, and looked good in the mock-up and how I had imagined it. However, when I created this, it did not look right in my eyes. Therefore, I changed my idea to have him facing himself. I then showed both ideas to other students for feedback on which will look better - a unanimous decision was made to use the second idea. 

The second idea works better as it shows the artist's 'old' and 'new' side looking directly at each other and seems like a battle between his personalities. Furthermore, it looks better with the font which I have chosen as the 'V' acts as a divider.

Ancillary Planning: Short list of pictures

Ancillary: Editing (1)

Independent Research: An example of fan getting the best out of their favourite celebrity

Ancillary: Changes to ideas

When reviewing the images I took, an idea was sparked, and I am now changing my idea slightly! Originally, I had planned to have one image of the artist standing still; however, now I will have my artist being shown as 'fading away' on the left and emerging as a changed person on the right.

The video below better illustrates my idea visually. 

Ancillary: Shortlist of Photos to use

I had taken 138 picture in total for my ancillary work with my artist - no such thing as too many pictures! Just to be on the safe side, I took several images of the same pose, which has proven to be handy as some images were out of focus, or did not have the correct facial expression.

I have gone through the album and short listed some of the pictures which I will be using for my ancillary products, which can be viewed in the video below. 

Copy of Shortlist of pictures

Ancillary Planning: The Pitch

My pitch did not go as I planned as my teacher made me realised that it was impossible to recreate an example which inspired me even thought it was a very good one. I based my Idea on the Excuse My French Album thus was impossible to recreate most of the luxury background of the desert.

I then had to change my idea to something more realistic as we have a very short deadline. I decided to have two picture of the artist of him in the suit looking back at himself in the hoodie, as this shows a very simple connection to our music video forgiveness. I will have the location somewhere either on the road or a park where there is a long road and clear as I will need to make sure the artist is clearly visible. I used the advertisement from the successful movie called My Brother the Devil as a clear inspiration. 

For the back on the album, I will have a black background followed with my songs title (about 8-9 songs.)

For the inside I will have a background of the similar place as the front cover of the ancillary. For the cd panel I will include a picture of Jesus Piece on the CD as it is something new and creative in the present hip-hop industry.  

I will use a black background for my advertisement followed with a picture of the artist in a suit and linking the same connotations between the album and the advert. 

Ancillary Planning: Sketch of Digipak

This is a sketch of what my Final Ancillary will look like and as you can see I have taken a lot of Ideas from the album 'Excuse my French. My presentation below will show you the similarities.

Ancillary: Location

The location of the photos will not be the same as it is in the music video. Instead, I had chosen to take my pictures in Regents Park where there is a long clear path. This was an ideal place as it has a 'vanishing point' which would depict my artist's old personality/self disappearing, and better one appearing.
The use of bare trees also appealed to me as it represents death but growth at the same time.
 

Ancillary: Costume

When carrying out research into hip-hop artists, we found that most artists wore casual and/or sophisticated clothes in their music video, depending on what related to their songs.Artists which are most similar to my artist are Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah & of course Wretch 32, who all dress similarly in their music videos and CD covers/adverts.

As I have decided to represent change and a new path in my ancillary work, I will have my artist depicted in two costumesHe will be wearing a casual outfit and formal outfit - both of which are outfits from the music video so a link is established.

Ancillary: Fonts

I will be using the second and fourth fonts for my ancillary work, but will still be searching or fonts which may look better.

Before choosing my font, I had done some research into the types of fonts used for hip-hop albums and found that they often consist of bold, sharp fonts – especially for male artists. Album covers for female artists are similar, but have a curvy touch as it makes it look more feminine. The second font used usually looks like street art/graffiti or hand written.  

Every album I looked at had a different font, as all artists have a font which is individual to them. The fonts used match the genre and style of music.

Therefore, when deciding what font to use, I ensured I looked for sharp, bold fonts which would be unique to my artist.

Below is a short list of fonts which I have selected from dafont.com

I really like the first font as it looks like fragmented pieces has been mended after being broken apart. It would be reflective of our music video. However, I feel that it looks a bit too comical for a hip-hop music video.  I also like the look and feel of the third font, but it seems to me that the font would better suit ancillary work for a techno music video.

When creating the digital mock-up, I had used the fourth font; but I have realised that it look like the Ferrari font therefore I will not be using it for the final ancillary products. It is also quite round which reduces the strength and masculinity.

Ancillary: 3 minute Pitch!

In 5 words describe the overall theme/style of the ancillary product

Urban

Masculine

Contemporary

Reflective

Contrast (black and white)

Outline how many panels your digipak will have

4 panels

State where your magazine advertisement will be placed

Vibe

XXL

State where you got your ideas from

Wretch 32 - simplicity and colours

Lil Wayne (Lil Carter) - past & present idea

Nas - colours

The idea for the front of the digipak was derived from the poster for My Brother The Devil

Ancillary Planning: Do`s and Don't`s

EVALUATION - question 4

Initial Audience response

• The above video suggests that the audience loves a woman in skin tight clothing moving her hips from left to right (excuse me for the cheesy joke), but not only the males, but also the females, leading me to believe that the audience does the opposite to Mulvey's theory. Not only that but the audience quite liked the transition between casual and formal outfit which is a major morale booster. The audiences initial reaction also suggests that the audience (or seeing as we allowed one of the actual audience members to record the video) or individuals were really excited due to the shaky camera movement amd screaming, jheeze and brap.

Music Video Audience feedback

Music Video Audience feedback

Ancillary - Front Cover Feedback

Ancillary - Inside Feedback

Ancilary - Advert Feedback

Rough cut feedback

Analysis of 3 Digipaks and Advertisements

Ancillary Planning: Fonts, Colours, Layouts and Design Ideas

Ancillary Research: Three TV commercials

DJ khaled Suffering from success TV commercials

What I have seen from these three advertisement is that all the video shows or play the hit singles from the album. They also use the same colours from the digipaks as this shows continuity through their projects. From the first example to the last they all kept the same synergies as the album cover. They also showed where the album is available to buy or download on the last shot with the album cover for them to see.

Ancillary Research: Apps Help

I have just downloaded the app on the Apple store called PS Tutorial. I am finding this app very useful as I have lack of experience on using photoshop. I am able to watch the video clips while I am on my way to college or during my free time and still learn.

I have also used youtube to get extra help. Below I have a video.

Ancillary: Digipak mock-up

Before I started creating my real digipak, I had created a nock-up of it to illustrate to my teachers and peers what I want to create. Most people created their mock-up by hand, however I decided to create a digital mock up. The reason for this was, not only because I lack artistic skills, but by creating a digital copy I would be able to develop some PhotoShop skills in the process. 

The images I used were screenshots form the music video we created. 

The link below shows what I intend my final digipak to look like. I ensured I followed most the conventions of digipaks.

Ancillary: Student Ancillary Analysis

Ancillary Research: Analyse 3 Digipaks

Ancillary: Design Activity

This is a practice Digipak which I done during my lesson. Although it's just a practice I feel that I should have done better.  The reason I felt my ability was limited was because I was a bit stuck with ideas in how to create it. And I also lacked practice using photoshop and this was the main reason I lacked creativity.

Ancillary Research: Analyse 3 Advertisements

Ancillary research: What Is A Digipak?

Audience Feedback - Music Video

Ancillary Research: As Digipak Reflection

This is a picture of my As summer Digipak. From my experiences, I now know what I did wrong and where I should have done better. I would give myself a very low grade from the mistakes I made. I think that if I knew more informations I would have done a better ancillary product.

Pros:
Stuck to three colours as maximum which were black, purple and red.
I remembered to include barcode,
Cons:
I stretched the imaged to make it fit the panel where I should have just pick another one.
I placed text onto the artist's face where this breaks the number one rules.
Used fonts because I like them. Also I feel that the colour I chose were not read-able.
Felt that I need photos on every panel.

Ancillary: Research: Analysis of 3 Advertisements

Ancillary: Research: Analysis of 3 Digipaks

I have analysed three digipaks which relate to my artist and genre of music.

Ancillary: Design activity

In todays lesson, we had the opportunity to create a digipak of our choice using images which were provided to us. They were not the greatest images, but this gave me the chance to work with what I have and make the most of it.

When creating the digipak, I decided to go for a very feminine look and feel. I was inspired by Rihanna's album 'LOUD' in which the rose and the colour of her lips matched. For my digipak, I chose to have a pink/cream colour scheme with visuals of a rose to link it to the artist's name. The shade of the rose used also matched the colour of the artist's lips which I had edited.

 

Considering we only had about half an hour to complete this activity, I am proud of the digipak which I produced as I had followed all the conventions of a digipak. If I had more time, I would change the font colour and edit the filters so both sides merge well and look good.  

Summer Digipak

The above photo is a photo of my digipak that i made last year.



Strenghs;

• Consistent background
• Put together quite quickly
• Consistent font
• Matches the set criteria set for what should be on the product

Weaknesses;

• picture looks out of place (photo of artist)
• phoro clearly cut out from another background.
• copied and pasted background
• font not reflective of genre (hiphop)
• put together quickly

Ancillary Work Design Activity

Practice Ancillary work

Today, my teacher set a task which was to create a mock up of the ancillary product. i wasnt happy with the images/templates we were given because they were of bad quality so i asked if i was allowed to find images on google and was given permission. This was my final product at the end of the lesson.

Research: Ancillary: The Do's and Don't's!

Ancillary: Research: Colour Schemes & Graphics

The colour schemes and graphics of digipaks and adverts are always carefully planned so it does not look fake or 'too much for our eyes to handle.'

They often consist of three/four colours and no more than two font styles are used.

The simple images of the artist and/or graphics on the digipak create some sort of visual link with the music video and advertisement.

Ancillary: Research: What is a digipak?

Ancillary: AS Digipak

At the end of AS, we recreated a music video of our choice along with a digipak to promote the song. I really enjoyed creating the digipak, although I found it slightly challenging having to create without the teacher's input as I was absent and did this at home. Nevertheless, I managed to create a digipak which followed most of the conventions.
The digipak I created linked well with the music video and demonstrated a clear connection between the two products.

The image below looks at the strengths and weaknesses of my digipak.