Final digipak design and magazine advert

PANEL 1 - FRONT COVER

PANEL 2, PANEL 3, PANEL 4.







PANEL 5

                                            

Magazine advert

Digipak planning - photographs for final design and magazine advert

PANEL 1

This is a practice shot for the front cover of my digipak. In
order to achieve the theatre curtains look I will make my own mini
curtains out of a rich red material and enlarge them when on Photoshop
so they will look similar to those shown above. The photograph
of the bunny peeping round the wall will be used on one half of the
cover and will look as though the bunny is peeping around the curtain.
On the other side, I will take a photograph of the girl from the music
video peeping round the same wall in the red gingham style dress, and
she will be looking round the other side of the curtain.  Furthermore,
to reference to the silent movie style of the music video the background
behind the curtains will be of a circular shape which references to how
silent movies would begin, and to how our own music video began.

Finished front cover of digipak.

PANEL 2 AND 3

For the 2 panels on the far right and far left of the digipak when it has been opened, I have decided to include a picture of the girl from the beginning of the music video walking down the steps of the 'wonderland' on the right side. Therefore, on the left there will be a picture of the contemporary girl she has transformed into walking down the steps of the modern world she is now in. This relates to the ideas of Claude Levis Strauss' theory of binary opposites, this is due to the fact that the brightly coloured costume and the nature surrounding the protagonist in the first picture contrasts with the dull looking grey steps and the dark colours of her costume in the second picture. Thus indicating that the panel's are reflecting her good and bad personalities, the first being her good personality as she is surrounded by a beautiful environment, the second picture showing the harsh realities of modern day life which she is not used to.

PANEL 4

The plan for this one is to have a birds eye view shot of the red clothed table which is featured in the beginning and ending of the music video. It will include the box that the protagonist opens up which reveals the infamous bunny rabbit, also the 'drink me' bottle as well as the playing cards. This photograph will be featured where the CD will be placed and will be centered between the girl in the wonderland and the adventure in the modern day world. This therefore suggests that the root of the transformation is the events that occurred whilst she was sitting around the table, the drinking of the unknown liquid as well as opening up the little brown box.

PANEL 5

 The original idea for this panel which will include the track list was to have a close up picture of the 'drink me' bottle which is shown on the table and have the song titles next to it. However, a better idea was suggested in order to achieve a more effective and eye catching back panel, which is to have the track lists actually on the bottle of drink. This will mean that a closer shot of the bottle will be needed in order to fit the song titles on. However, due to the narrow size of the bottle it was difficult to include the whole bottle in the shot and have enough space for the tracks to go on the bottle. So, therefore I decided to have a photo of the bottle similar to the above and include the tracks on the side.

OR..

Magazine advert photos.

This is the photograph I have chosen for the magazine advert, in reference to our music video this shot was taken  during our filming process and is when the girl is leaving the wonderland she was previously in and entering the modern society. I have decided to change the effects of the photo and make it black and white with a hint of colour particularly on the dress. The reason behind the bleakness of this image is the fact that it is representing the grim world she is entering into contrasting to the bright colours featured on the Digipak which show the 'wonderland'.

Here is an updated version of the magazine advert, first
of all I decided to add a little more colour to the advert
to make it more aesthetically pleasing and for it to show
up more in a magazine. Furthermore, I decided to include
the album cover in the bottom right hand corner as the aim
of the advert is to promote the album so it is important to
show the actual album cover. In reference to the text on the
advert I haven't as of yet decided what quotes to have on
it but the source of the quote will be from the film magazine
called 'Sight and Sound'. This is because our music video
is to some extent aimed at film lovers due to its intertextual
references to texts such as 'Alice in Wonderland'.

Final idea for digipak

Photographs from shoot for potential Digipak panels

This is a photograph from the shoot of the city section of our music video, the idea was to have the graffiti on the back panel of the music video where the tracks our. However this idea will not be used as there would be too much writing covering the panel and it isn't as effective as another idea I have chosen. This other idea I will use is to have a close up of the 'drink me' bottle and the tracks shown on the bottle.

This particular photograph was a possible idea for the panel where the CD will be placed. This was thought of because the table scenes in the music video are what connects the two different worlds the girl enters. However, instead of this shot I have decided to take a birds eye view of the table meaning that it will be the shape of the CD. This is appealing as it will look more effective and works well in the centre of the digipak.

As I have decided to create a six panel digipak an initial idea was to have the girl from the modern society on one side and her 'vintage' self on the other side both looking at each other. This will show the contrasts of the different worlds she has entered into. However, an issue of using a close up of both of there faces looking at each other is the fact that there isn't any significant factors suggesting whether she is in the modern world or not. Therefore, instead I will include a full length picture of the girl in both costumes in order to notice the different worlds she is in. 

Similar Artists album cover's

Digipak initial ideas

 This is the initial idea for my digipak, firstly I decided to stick to a CD size for our digipak this is due to the fact that we decided that it would be more suitable for our artist's music and the design works well with a CD size. This will be the single of the song 'Antiques' which is played in our music video. Furthermore, my first idea was to have a photograph of the protagonist of our music video laying down on the grass in the plantation gardens fast asleep. This idea references to the painting of Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais as shown below.




This is also referenced in the video by Florence and the Machine 'Rabbit Heart' where Florence is shown at the end of the video laying on the table in the water. However, the issue with using this idea on our front cover is the fact it is a passive representation of gender,and the fact that the female on the cover is not being heavily shown.

Another text that has inspired my initial idea for the front cover is the opening to the first film made of Alice in Wonderland in 1903. Alice is shown lying on the grass in this shot with the title shown above her. Although this may show a passive representation of gender, it fits with the style of the video as the whole idea of the story is the fact that she wakes up to a wonderland, a dream like place.

For the second page of the digipack I had the idea of having a shot of the protagonist of our music video standing next to the graffiti on the wall which is featured in our music video. However, it will differ from the shot in our music video as the girl will be holding the rabbits mask. The reason that the digipak will open up to this shot is to create a time shift effect to the digipak. As the front cover will be a photo of the protagonist of our music video in the gingham dress featured in the first part of the video. The second panel will be her changing into the modern day costume showing the transformation of two different eras, the 'wonderland' to the modern day society.

The third panal of the digipak could be a telescopic picture of the artist 'Billy Lubach' who created the music for our music video. The reasons behind the telescopic effect is the fact that it works well with the Alice in Wonderland theme, for instance it is similar to the idea of  seeing 'through the looking glass'.

Here is a screen shot from the edit of our music video and this telescopic effect of the character in our video is the effect I would like to achieve for the photo on the CD.

For the back of the CD the tracks will be on the bright red table featured in the music video as well as some of the objects from the table such as the 'drink me' bottle. The bunny rabbit will be peeping into the cover similar to how it is subtly shown throughout the music video. 

The second idea of mine is to have the front cover of the digipak similar to the beginning of the music video where it opens to a shot of a young girl sitting behind a table with various objects featured on the table. The font for the song title 'Antiques' and the artist's name 'Billy Lubach' will be shown in a vintage style font similar to the font 'Octin Vintage' which i found on 'dafont.com'.

For Panal 2 + 3 the idea was to have one world facing another, for instance the world that the young girl is trapped in in the beginning of the music video, the 'wonderland' will be facing the modern world that she travels to where she is facing the contemporary society. Therefore, this will be representing Claude Lévi-Strauss's theory of binary opposites as the costumes, mise-en-scene and overall look/colours of both the panels would be contrasted. The dark colours of black and purple in the costume from the modern world contrast with the white and light red gingham style dress. 



There will be buildings shown in the background on panal 3 representing the industrialized society which contrasts to the simplicity and tranquil feeling of the mise-en-scene in panal 2.

Extra ideas 

Another idea for our digipak was to have six panals in total instead of 4, therefore for the 2 panals that open to reveal the CD I will use a photograph of the girl from the vintage era on the left one and her in the modern world on the right both facing each other. Furthermore, the back of the CD where the track list will be could feature a close up photograph of the 'drink me' bottle from the music video and the song titles could be written on there. 

Target audience/ Narcissism research

When searching for our target audience for our music video looking for the artists inspirations is the first step. The reason for this is due to the fact that artists as well as directors in some cases tend to be narcissistic when creating their music/ music videos or films.Narcissism originated from the myth of Narcissus who was a man who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, rejecting those around him and becoming deeply selfish he drowned when falling into the water unable to look away from himself.



Furthermore, Narcissism is frequently made evident in music videos due to the many close ups of the singer which are shown throughout the music video. This leaves the audience feeling connected to the audience as they may aspire to be that singer and feel that they have an inspiration to follow. Moreover, music videos, films and literature are all work of an artists/authors/directors imagination, therefore each our narcissistic due to the author creating what they would want to see/read. This references to Goodwin's theory due to the fact that one point from his theory which he believes is shown in music videos is "There  is frequent reference to notion of looking and particularly  voyeuristic treatment of the female body" - This basically shows that a music video presents a narcissistic view of the artists due to some presenting many shots of the artists looking into the camera lens or looking into a mirror at themselves. For instance in Coldplay's video 'Violet Hill' the artist's facial features are the main focus as their is a magnifying glass which is used to zoom up to the singer's mouth. This first of all helps to sell the artist's image as well as focusing on the main point of the music video - the music. 

It is therefore plausible to suggest that in order to find an artist's target audience it is important to find out about the artist themselves (their inspirations, image and genre). After contacting the artist of our music video 'Billy Lubach' who created 'Antiques' I found various inspirations of his as well as picturing an idea of the target audience to his music and our music video. We interviewed him in order to find out various artists that have inspired his own music. Some being, 'The Beach Boys' an American surf rock/rock band who were formed in the 60s, 'Beirut' another American band combining folk rock with world music which includes various styles of music from the world. An independent singer-songwriter who also came under the list of influential artists to our artist to our music video is 'Kenny Anderson' primarily known by his stage name 'King Creosote' who focuses on alternative rock which ranges to folk music as well. Last of all is the indie folk-pop duo 'Kings of Convenience' - "the musical group is known for their delicate tunes, calming voices, and intricate and subtle guitar melodies" (source: Wikipedia) 

 When considering the idea of Narcissism in music videos it is plausible to suggest that our music video shows aspects of our own preoccupations and what we as an audience would like to see in a music video. For instance, when deciding to create an Alice in Wonderland style to our music video the idea was instantly appealing due to enjoying watching them myself and the nostalgia I've always felt when watching or being reminded of the classic fairy tales. It can therefore be argued that I have developed an idea for our music video based on what I would find appealing, for example fantasy stories have always been an interest of mine so watching a music video with that particular theme would enable me to connect with the artist as it would lead me to believe that I share the same interests as them.  

Furthermore, due to many artists basing their work on themselves and us demonstrating this in our music video, our target market would be those of the same age group as us from the 16 - 20 age bracket. They would more than likely enjoy reading stories by Lewis Carroll as well as other fairy tales.