Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

According to Andrew Goodwin:

• Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and the music
• Genres have their own iconography and style
• Close ups are essential
• Music videos create and enhance star iconography
• Voyeurism is a common theme

According to John Stewart

• Lighting is used to highlight the star's face
• Visual references derive from a range of sources such as art and fashion
• Video allows more access to a performer than a stage performance

So it is clear that to create a good music video:

• The lyrics do not necessarily need to be coherent with the lyrics, but should have some relation to the lyrics
• The lighting should highlight the stars face, but at the same time attempt to reflect their mood, and the editing pace. Indie rock videos are usually dimly lit
• Voyeurism would be useful in helping to portray the lack of being in control for our video
• There should be some lip syncing or close-ups to create and enhance star iconography
• The editing should be Innovative and accurate to reflect the music.
• There should be Camera movements that enhance the music.

Artists are promoted in magazines, on television, in posters, in flyers ect. The most common method however, seems to be within music magazines. While we had a bit of spare time we decided to use it constructively and begin research on the magazine adverts. It was Megan's job to research for the digipack, and I was incharge of researching the magazine adverts.
We have to produce a magazine advertisement for the digipack. So before we can even begin to think up ideas and designs we need to understand the conventions of a magazine advert and how they are targeted at their audiences. This required intensive research on the topic.

Magazine adverts promoting artists are quite simplistic, and often the same image used on the digipack, is the image used for the magazine advert. This enhances awareness of the advert and allows the advert, and digipack to be coherent. The artists name or the digipack name is usually the largest font used for the advertisement. This is in attempt to capture their audience. There is usually very little information/text somewhere on the advert explaining things such as; release date, album name, possibly singles featured, critics opinions and possibly tour dates.

Below are examples of two promotional magazine adverts for digipacks from 'Chase and Status' and 'The Killers'

Both advertisements are for digipacks, yet they differ in many ways. The 'Chase and Status' advert is very simple and only includes the colours red, blue, black and white. The image used, is the same image used for the actual album cover. So the text colours correlate with the image. There are only two text types used, and the only information displayed on this advert is the name of the band, the name of the album, the download date, and the bands website. The 'Killers' advert is also very simple and only includes the colours pink, black, white and grey. The main image has not been taken from the album but it is a simple image of the band in a desaturated form. The touches of pink in the belt, and some of the text displays clear house style. Apart from the text used for the HMV logo, there is only one font used, and a majority of it is white. The only information displayed on the advert is the name of the band, one critic review, where it is sold, when it is sold and the HMV website.

During our spare time/free periods, we decided to use the time constructively and begin research on the digipack. It was Megan’s job to research the digipack, while I had to find out about the magazine adverts. So before we can even begin to think up ideas and designs we need to understand the conventions of a digipack and how they are targeted at their audiences. This required intensive research on the topic.

So what is a digipack? A form of jewel case, for holding one or more CDs or DVDs, in which the outer cover is of card rather than plastic. Digipacks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Digipacks are not only used for CD covers but as mentioned also DVD's. However it is important that in order for our case to look professional we must use the correct sizing which is used normally. We found this information out from a website called www.4bmartinvest.co.uk which distributes the "Flexi trays" used in digipacks. The information we found out was that the typical size of a CD tray is 135mm x 125 mm. Now that we know the correct size of the tray this enables us to make correct sizing of our images on Photoshop etc.

The word digipack is really just a fancy way of saying what we would call a CD case. In modern society with an increasing competitive market in the music industry and the competition from downloading online, the digipack has become increasingly more important to the success of the single/album being sold. The CD cover is the thing which makes a CD stand out on the rack, it is the thing that makes you remember it on a TV advert or you simply see your favourite artist featured and you go out and buy it. This puts a huge importance on the design and layout of the digipack. However this also varies according to the market you are trying to appeal to. Here is an example of Rihanna's digipack and the Killers digipack.