DIGIPACK

A digipack consists of a series of carefully designed covers (front and back) and two inlays from within an album package. There is a correspondence between the construction of the digipack and it’s features (eg. text, images, graphics etc.) with the intended image of the band as a product. We created the digipack using Adobe Photoshop, and as a group decided some of the key features that should appear on the finished product.

The digipack is what will be seen when a potential buyer crosses the album, whether its in a music store, online or on itunes, as they obviously cant see the actual product, the music, so it is essential that the album cover (front and back) is well designed; stands out against other musicians ‘products’ and reflects the band in a positive light and how we want them to be received. We deduced early on in the process that ‘The Toy Hearts’ image was; fun, playful, eccentric and something different to the stereotypical musicians currently plaguing the charts. We decided that we should use a rustic styled background to reflect their heritage as an ‘organic’ band with experience and performing history. We also chose to include images of American ‘retro’ stickers, to reflect the bands American musical influence as well the quirkiness and fun feel to the band. We would use the images and background to create synergism across all Toy Hearts products, so that the ‘Toy Hearts’ image or brand, will be known by sight.


The front cover of the digipack features the ordained back ground and the ‘sticker’ images in the bottom left corner, that will be featured across all Toy Hearts products. The band logo featuring their name is included, with a ‘wacky’ typeface reflecting the eccentricity of the band, to; hopefully be recognized by Toy Hearts fans. The album name is too featured, as this tells the buyer exactly what they are buying. The main property of the front cover is the image of the whole band printed onto scrunched paper to create an unpolished appearance, reflecting a slightly carefree nature.

The first inlay incorporates the trait background. The main aspect of this inlay is the close up images of each band members instrument, as we want the audience or buyer to know that each band member plays their own instrument, and the instruments are not stereotypical; electric guitar, bass and drums, but are in fact instruments many of the audience will not of seen bands playing before, we felt this is a unique selling point of the band.

The second inlay, features the lyrics to the song for ‘This Little Kitty’, we put these in to imitate existing products on the market today as this is often done by bands, it is done with the intention of creating a feeling of interaction and involvement with the audience, instead of an us and them mentality. This inlay also features a logo for the single ‘This Little Kitty’ as this would be the first single released off the album, so would hopefully be recognized by fans, this logo was created by imitating the iconic ‘Jack Daniel’s Whiskey’ bottle sticker, which is a recognizable white font on a rectangle black background with line graphics exclusive to the Jack Daniel’s label. We chose to imitate the label, because the music the Toy Hearts make, ‘Bluegrass country’ music, has it’s routes in the USA state of Tennessee and Tennessee’s other most famous export is Jack Daniels. The bands actual logo is also featured, which will be instantly recognizable by fans.

The back album cover features the same background. This features the track listing for the album, which conforms with the conventions of other existing products, it tells the audience exactly what they are buying, and may feature songs which they didn’t realize were on the album which may encourage them to buy. This cover also features a black and white image of the double bass player in the ‘Toy Hearts’, it is a nice shot conforming to the rule of thirds and showcases the ‘freshness’ of the band. To conform with existing products on the market we incorporated the record label logo, copyright icon and barcode to make it look as realistic as possible.

TASK 1 - IN WHAT WAYS DO YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

The first step taken in the production of our music video, was to research and analyse the major conventions of a pop video. We looked at a number of pop videos including Michael Jackson's Thriller, various Imelda May videos and Mumford and Sons' Sigh no More. From this we could see that pop videos use three major elements - the perfromance, a narrative or images that may or may not relate to the song. More specifically, popular music theorist, Keith Negus identified 13 major conventions of a pop video, 11 of which are listed;
• The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption

• The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)

• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement

• Repetition of reoccuring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)

• A possible narrative structure

• A possible performance element

• The flexibility to disregard Realism!

• Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track

• Use of special effects (lighting, animation, CGIs, in-camera effects)

• A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track

• High impact instantly! (Don’t forget that competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense)

Whilst developing our music video we looked to either IMITATE or SUBVERT these conventions, which as film theorist Barthes states gives the audience ‘pleasure’ in two different ways. The first of which, plaisir, describes the act of imitating conventions to give the audience pleasure through the expected. In contrast to this, jouissance, is how Barthes describes the act of subverting a convention in order to give pleasure through something ‘new or unexpected’.

The message of the song ‘This Little Kitty’, is portrayed through both the lyrics and also the apt music, the message is one that depicts; a ‘crazy’ girl, who’s only concerned with having fun, and cannot be tied down by anyone, and particularly any man. It is pro-women, and portrays woman in a strong, passionate and dominant manner. In regards to the band, the image or ‘brand’ that we tried to convey was; they are committed to music, they are strongly influenced by American country music but are British, they are quirky, eccentric and something slightly ‘different’ to the current typical music taste in England.

Through the use of constant 360 degree panning when filming, combined with the use of edge wipe transitions in the post-production stage, it was possible to imitate the Negus convention of a pop video 'the flexibility to disregard realism' and give the appearance of the same girl appearing with in the frame twice. This helps to portray the bands 'quirky' image. This similar technique was used in an existing media product, the music video for Charlotte Church's 'Back to Scratch', which to features a woman multiple times within the same frame at once.

This shot, featuring the two females performing directly to the camera is an example of how the convention identified by Negus, that there is ' the explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist's "image"' is IMITATED. We are using the image of the females, to 'sell the product' and the direct gaze to camera suggests a sense of intimacy between audience and the band. This shot also upholds the 'Rule of Thirds' convention, as the singers faces are positioned on the hotspots in the top left and right corners, respectively.

We chose to SUBVERT the convention of there usually being a 'NARRATIVE' element within the music video as we chose to shoot ours with purely a performance aspect (upholding the existing convention of there being a performance element). We chose to do this because we felt the image of the band, could be best portrayed through the band playing the song, with out the distractions of an inter-cut narrative element.

This close up shot of the bass player conforms to the rule of thirds, and imitates professional shots used in existing media products. We imitated Negus' convention of High ratio filming, as we took many shots, over 100, and used much less in the final cut, this is common in existing videos, as directors will take many shots in a day of shooting because shoot days are not cheap to organise, often record companies are spending tens of thousands of pounds to fund a shoot, so it is important that sufficient shots are taken as it will not be possible to get a shot after.

The digipack, or album sleves and inserts, is too of paramount importance when it comes to how the band is portrayed, and also IMITATES and SUBVERTS conventions of real media products. Our digipack features an Image of 'The Toy Hearts', accompanied by the bands name, with selected 'mise en scène' appropriate to the image of the band. This is a common theme across the thousands of album covers and digipacks in existence.

The magazine advert is of prime importance in a musicians marketing campaign as it can increase awareness of the band and reach a broader target audience. The magazine advert is made with synergy between the digipack which is imitating existing products as this is a common trait