Feedback

After handing in my draft digipak and advert I have received positive feedback. Overall my digipak and advert looks quite professional and the position of the text works well on each page. However I could improve the digipak and advert by using different images styling my artist in a different way. Maybe dressing her in something plainer such as a simple black top or jumper would go with the black and white contrast theme a lot better and will make her stand out more. Furthermore, my pictures will come across more expert if I edit them with the tools provided on photoshop; I could airbrush, smooth down her hair and remove the shine from her face. On the advert I need to consider adding a record company logo and a website. I could also add ratings from music magazines to help with attracting her audience.  

Draft Advert

Draft Digipak

Magazine Advert Analysis

This album advertisement of Lily Allen stood out to me from the rest due to the black and white effect. As both of these colours contrast each other it makes every detail stand out, especially her name. This black and white style has particularly inspired me for my own advertisement as I think it will work well with my artist as she has a similar look to Lily Allen. The music genre is also the same and wouldn’t cause confusion to the audience. This advert could also work with simplistic and limited text as the image of the artist is strong by itself due to the black and white editing. Furthermore, this advert doesn’t follow the usual style of music advertisements as most are edited to portrait. Due to this powerful image of Lily Allen being landscape I don’t think it would have worked as well on a portrait advert. I would like to use this style for my advert because of the similar image I have taken of my artist and because it is different from other adverts.  

Researching particular album magazine adverts has given me a lot of inspiration. This advert of Mumford & Sons has a simplistic style and is straight to the point as shown by the limited text. This is the type of look I would like to go for as it conveys that the album is a must buy as nothing else on the page needs to persuade the audience to buy the album. This particular album has gone for a different approach of promoting the album by simply calling it ‘The album’. This comes across as it’s the only album out in the market and that it must be brought.  Even though this is a very interesting approach I think I will go down the ordinary route by displaying the album name. The image on this advert portrays the bands genre ‘indie/alternative’ as the image isn’t of what you’d normally see walking past a shop window; it is very interesting and appealing. The band and their instruments and shown in the image which connotes that the band write and play their own music.

This magazine advert of Laura Marling has followed the usual conventions of alternative music magazine adverts as an abstract image has been used. This is disjunctive as the image doesn't seem to have anything to do with the album name 'Cross your fingers/crawled out of the sea' unless here is reference to other songs on the album. This makes this advert look interesting as the audience will want to know more about the image itself. This image is a drawing of natural forms as leaves and tree figures are shown and in the centre there is a colour flower which could be symbolic to the album. I think that the neutral colour scheme works well with the genre and also compliments the image colours and the orange text by contrasting against them. This makes the information stand out (name of the artist and name of the album). I like how the font style and orange colour work well with the image as it is quite feminine and shows that it is a female artist clearly. When looking through the magazine adverts this one stood out to me as the basic layout makes the advert more aesthetically pleasing due to the image and text being centralised. I would like to used this type of symplicity in my magazine advert as I think more people will want to look and read it. Having a powerful image on the advert will make it more visual and more eye catching.

Album Lyrics

DON’T BE SHY DON’T BE SHY JUST LET YOUR FEELINGS ROLL ON BY/DON’T WEAR FEAR OR NOBODY WILL KNOW YOUR THERE/ JUST LIFT YOUR HEAD AND LET YOUR FEELINGS OUT INSTEAD AND DON’T BE SHY JUST LET YOUR FEELINGS ROLL ON BY/ YOU KNOW LOVE IT BETTER THAN A SONG/ LOVE IS WHERE ALL OF US BELONG/ SO DON’T BE DHY JUST LET YOUR FEELING ROLL ON BY/ DON’T WEAR FEAR OR NOBODY WILL KNOE YOUR THERE ALFIE OOH DEARY ME/ MY LITTLE BROTHER'S IN HIS BEDROOM SMOKING WEED/ I TELL HIM HE SHOULD GET UP ‘CAUSE IT'S NEARLY HALF PAST THREE/ HE CAN'T BE BOTHERED ‘CAUSE HE'S HIGH ON THC/ I ASK HIM VERY NICELY IF HE'D LIKE A CUP OF TEA/ I CAN'T EVEN SEE HIM ‘CAUSE HIS ROOM IS SO SMOKY/ DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW ONE CAN WATCH SO MUCH TV/ MY BABY BROTHER ALFIE HOW I WISH THAT YOU COULD SEE/ I ONLY SAY IT ‘CAUSE I CARE/ SO PLEASE CAN YOU STOP PULLING MY HAIR?/ NOW THERE'S NO NEED TO SWEAR/ PLEASE DON’T DESPAIR MY DEAR MON FRERE LITTLE THINGS THE LITTLE THINGS YOU DO TO MEARE TAKING ME OVER/ I WANNA SHOW YA/ EVERYTHING INSIDE OF ME LIKE A NERVOUS HEART THAT IS CRAZY BEATING/MY FEAT ARE STUCK HERE AGAINST THE PAVEMENT/I WANNA BREAK FREE/ I WANNA MAKE IT CLOSER TO YOUR EYES/ GET YOUR ATTENTION BEFORE YOU PASS ME BY WAKE UP DARLING SOMETHING FILLED UP MY HEART WITH NOTHING/SOMEONE TOLD ME NOT TO CRY/BUT NOW THAT IM OLDER MY HEARTS COLDER AND I CAN THAT IT’S A LIE/ CHILDREN WAY UP/HOLD YOUR MISTAKE UP/BEFORE THEY TURN THE SUMMER INTO DUST/ IF THE CHILDREN DON’T GROW UP OUR BODIES GET BIGGER BUT OUT HEARTS GET TORN UP/ WE’RE JUST A MILLIOON LITTLE GODS CAUSING RAIN STORMS TURNING EVERY THING TO RUST/I GUESS WE’LL JUST HAVE TO AJUST ON MY OWN IM ALWAYS UP LATE THINGING MAYBE/COULD THIS BE A BIG MISTAKE/HAVE I MADE THE WRONG DECISION/ IS THIS THE RIGHT ROAD TO TAKE/ I COULD HAVE HAD A 9-5 OR FINISH SCHOOL JUST LIKE MY PARENTS WANTED  BUT NOW IM FEELING SO ALIVE I FOUND THE SUNSHINE IM NO LONGER WANTIN/ AND I FEEL THE FIRE BURNING DEEP WITHIN MY SOUL STRUGGLING FOR PERFECTION/ WHEN I REACH IT LET ME KNOW/ AND I FEEL I NEED SOME GUIDANCE BUT MY PRIDE WONT LET IT SHOW AND ALTHOUGH THE ROAD IS FRIGHTENING IM GONNA MAKE IT ON MY OWN SECRET DOOR FOOLS ON PARADE CAVOT AND CARRY ON FOR WAITING EYES/ THAT YOU WOULD RATHER BE BESIDE THAT INFRONT OF/THE SECRET DOOR SWINGS BEHIND US/ SAYING NOTHING JUST GIGGLING ALONG/ EVEN IF THEY WERE TO FIND US I WOULDN’T NOTICE/ IM COMPLETELY OCCUPIED EVERYTHING  YOU’RE NOT YOUR DAKNESS WAS MY WEAKNESS BUT IT TURNS OUT THAT IT ONLY WENT SO DEEP/ A MEANINGLESS DIVERSION/ THAT IS ALL THAT YOU EVER MEANT TO ME/ AND I AM DONE WITH YOUR TWISTED SYMPHONY/ THE WORDS THAT HAD ME SOUND LIKE STOLEN POETRY/ I TORE THE PAGES AND I CAN FINALLY BREATHE/ NEVER WANT TO FEEL LIKE THIS AGAIN SACRIFICE COLD COLD HEART/ HARD DONE BY YOU/SOMETHINGS LOOK BETTER BABY JUST PASSING THROUGH AND ITS NO SACRIFICE JUST A SIMPLE WORD/ ITS TWO HEARTS LIVING IN TWO SEPARATE WORLDS BUT ITS NO SACRIFICE/ NO SACRIFICE/ITS NO SACRIFICE AT ALL/MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING AFTER THE FACT SENSITIVITY BUILDS A PRISON IN THE FINAL ACT/WE LOSE DIRECTION/NO STONE UNTURNED NO TEARS TO DAMN YOU WHEN JEALOUSY BURNS

Record Label

 Sony Music Entertainment is the second largest music corporation in the world and was founded in 1929 as the American Record Corporation through the merger if several smaller record companies. It is owned and controlled  by Sony Corporation of America. I have chosen for Milly Evans to be signed by this company because the artists that they have signed fit in with the same genre as Milly Evans. The artists that Sony has signed are Alicia Keys, Rebecca Ferguson, Rita Ora, Labrinth, Ke$ha and Paloma Faith. Another reason why I have chosen this company is because Sony is a well established and internationally known which will widen the target audience for Milly Evans. 

Credits

On one of the pages of my digipak I am including the credits. I know that some digipaks do not include this but I though it would be effective and proffesional if I did. I have therefore used other credits by different artists as a guide for mine as shown below.

ALL SONGS WRITTEN BY MILLY EVANS EXEPT ‘SACRIFICE’ WRITTEN BY MELANIE WOOD BY RIBBON MUSIC CO.LTD/PRODUCED BY MILLY EVANS AND JASON DEACON/ ENGINEERED BY JASON DEACON AND DAN ROME/ASSISTANT ENGINEER HARRY COOPER ON ‘USA’ AND ‘PRETTY BOY’/RECORDED AT PIZZAZZ STUDIOS BALTIMORE, SILVER SPRING, HOUSE O’MEARA, ANNEX/MIXED BY JASON DEACON AND MILLY EVANS AT MISTLETONE STUDIOS, MELBOURNE/MASTERED BY JAMES HEYWORTH AUDIO MASTERING, UK/ PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA JAMES/DESIGN BY SAMANTHA JAMES

MY SINCEREST THANKS TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND INSPIRATION

Change of Idea

Beforehand my inspiration was Yasmin's album with the coloured paintbrush effect. However I spent a lot of time trying to find a font and realised that none worked well against the pictures I had taken of my artist. I have therefore researched into a similar artist, Jessie Ware, and have found that her style is much more appealing and fits with the same genre as mine. She has used only black and white throughout the digipak which gives off a professional look. I like how the cover is quite simplistic by just stating the name of the artist and the name of the album and the fact that the image of Jessie has been edited to show that there is light up towards her face. The image makes her look very sophisticated, and would even work well standing alone on the cover. The back of the album follows the same theme of simplicity as the track list is listed centrally in a clear bold font with a thick white border around it. This makes her album look well-structured which gives a good impression of her as an artist.

 After searching through the fonts on Microsoft Word I found a similar font to Jessie Ware's called 'Letter Gothic Std' as shown below. I think this works well with the name Milly Evans and could be used as a running theme throughout the digipak.

MILLY EVANS

 
After finding this font I thought it would be appropriate to make a draft album cover to see if the font and the image work well together. It has proved to be successful and I will therefore use this in my digipak.

Black and White

After researching Yamin's album I thought it would be appropriate to edit my photos in black and white so I can get a clear view of how my pictures would turn out. Here I have chosen four photos of my artist Milly Evans that I would work well on the cover of the album and for the other pages of my digipak.

Now my photos have been edited in black and white I have researched more black and white album covers and have decided to use black and white as a my colour theme throughout my digipak and advert. The album covers below show how these pop artists can become more eye catching once the photo is edited in black and white. This is because the colours contrast each other which makes every detail become bolder.

Milly Evans - Photos

Milly Evans, a set on Flickr.

Filming Update

Today we have filmed the majority of our music video. We had filmed everything that was required on our story board along with additional shots just in case certain shots don’t work out when editing due to our limited skills of filming. Despite this I feel that we have progressed and have developed our skills using the equipment and producing the correct shots that were necessary.   However there are a few shots of the puppet dancing that will need shooting ASAP so that we can start editing.  

Plan for Friday

 On Friday our aim is to film the majority of the shots that are required from our story board. As the video is of a single artist is shouldn’t be too difficult to film everything in the same day. But to make sure the filming runs smoothly we need to ensure that everything that we need is sorted and planned in advanced such as costumes, the puppet arriving on time, props and making sure we have all our filming equipment. We know that there’s nothing stopping us to get the majority of our filming done as the filming which means we don’t have to worry about the weather or lighting. We will need to be constantly referring back to our shot list to make sure we do not miss any shots and to make sure we have everything we need to edit our video. It doesn’t matter as such if we don’t get all our shots of the puppet as we can do that another day but as its difficult to plan another day with our artist, Milly Evans, we need to make sure all her shots are filmed.    

Track List

I have chosen the album name to be called 'Wake up Darling' as it follows the same style as similar artists such as Lily Allen, Lenka and Pink.  For the back cover of my digipak it will follow a conventual style displaying the track list, barcode, music label and copyrights. Here I have chosen the track list by researching artist's songs with the same genre and then using similar words as theres.

MILLY EVANS____WAKE UP DARLING

DON’T BE SHY

ALFIE

LITTLE THINGS

WAKE UP DARLING

ON MY OWN

SECRET DOOR

EVERYTHING YOUR NOT

SACRIFICE