Sunday, 19 January 2014
Friday, 3 January 2014
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Final - Album Advert
Here is my final album advert as part of my ancillary tasks. I used urban and Banksy elements to influence my album advert. The advert features the same image as page three of my album advert, which shows the girl reaching out of the 'brick' curtains to reach for the balloon. I wanted the main image on the album advert to symbolise hope and freedom, which is the recurring message in the music video. The image perfectly represents the meaning of the song and how the girl who feels trapped by society is using hope to escape. I played around an manipulated an image on Adobe Photoshop and I managed to create 'brick' curtains using different effects that I had found. I chose to use this image rather than the image of the train tracks, that I previously used in an album advert design. I didn't think that the train tracks had as much relevance to the meaning of the song, as the image of the girl reaching out for the red balloon did. However, for my final album advert, I have used the recognisable Imagine Dragons font for their name and also, a bold, block font for the title of the album and the information about the album. The bold, bright white font stands out against the slightly darker backgrounds and is also eye catching to the target audience of Imagine Dragon's fans. I have included a small snapshot of the actual digipak front cover, so that the target audience would be able to easily associate the album advert with the album case.
Final - Digipak
Here are the final pages of my digipak that I have created for the first part of the ancillary task.
Front Cover (Page 1) - This is the front cover of the digipak, portraying the main meaning behind the music video of the girl finding hope. I have used a similar font as Imagine Dragons use on their own album for their name, as it stands out and is easily recognisable to their target audience. I used a block font for the title of the album and made it bold to stand out. I chose the colour white as it is bright and bold against the dark colour of the wall.
Inside Cover (Page 2) - This page shows the negative connotations of the 'NO PARKING' sign and how the girl is using the balloon to try and escape from the destroyed society. I changed the 'O' to red to show how hope (the balloon) is breaking down the barriers of despair and is introducing a new hope.
Inside Cover (Page 3) - This page shows the girl reaching out of the 'brick' curtains to reach for the balloon, which symbolises hope and freedom. The wall represents her being trapped and a lack of freedom, which she is trying to escape from.
Inside Cover (Page 4) - This page again has negative words painted onto the wall. This is to present the strong force, which is acting against the girl and trying to make her give up. I have placed a slightly translucent grey box over the image, with bold, white writing over the top. The information includes important recognition of the people who were involved in making the album.
Inside Cover (Page 5) - This page features an image of a wall with graffiti on it, which is seen in the music video that I have made for the song, 'Radioactive'. The wall gives an urban feel to the digipak, with the Banksy inspiration evident. Similarly to the previous page, a translucent grey box has been placed over the image, with bold, white writing over the top. The information includes special thanks to major contributors in the making of the album and also all of the copyright information, which is situated at the bottom.
Back Cover (Page 6) - The back cover of the digipak again features the bold, white name of the band and the album. This is instantly eye catching and recognisable to the target audience.The track list of the album is then listed below in chronological order of the songs on the CD. At the bottom of the page, Imagine Dragons's own website address is situated, allowing fans to check out their website. The image of a traffic light again has negative connotations and similarly to page 2, the balloon represents an effort in trying to get away from the destroyed society.
This is the final digipak that I have put together, complete with a customised spine for the digipak case.
Symbolism of Red Balloons
In preparation for my evaluation, I decided to look at the symbolism of red balloons and what they mean in different circumstances and situations. For my music video, I looked at constructing a symbol of hope and freedom for the girl to hold. I
chose a red balloon as my symbol. Through looking at the symbolism of
red balloons and what they mean to society, I found that they tend to represent
childhood innocence. It tends to symbolise freedom and letting go of the bad in return
for letting in a positive atmosphere. Also, the colour red is usually seen in
dream interpretation as either a warning sign, or a representation of passion and
strong feelings. In my case, I interpreted it as a positive symbol of hope and
freedom. This is also represented in other media forms, such as the 34 minute
short film, which follows the adventures of a young boy who one day finds a
sentient, mute, red balloon. The Red Balloon (French: Le Ballon rouge) is a
1956 fantasy featurette directed by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse. In the
short film, the balloon appears to represent an innocent essence of childhood
wonders, which is destroyed because others do not understand the balloon’s significance
to the boy. Fortunately, other red balloons, which could represent other
childhood wonders of fantasy, take the place of the broken one at the end.Photoshop Practice - Brick Curtains
For my ancillary tasks, I used Adobe Photoshop
in order to create interesting and meaningful images. I looked at different
effects that I could add to each of the images, including ‘poster edges’,
‘smudge stick’ and ‘dark strokes’. However, I used ‘poster edges’ as I felt
that it had the most surreal effect and would link in well with the surreal music
video. For one of the inside pages of the digipak and also the album
advertisement, I used Photoshop to create an effect where a brick wall became
some curtains, that the young girl was peering through. I edited this heavily
in order to an effect where it looked as though the young girl was emerging
from nowhere. The black and white curtains contrast well to the brightness of
the red balloon, portraying a bleak society, in which the girl is emerging
from.
Here is a video showing me editing my original image and creating the 'brick' curtains on Adobe Photoshop. It shows the different stages that I went through, in order to create the desired effect, portraying the young girl reaching for the red balloon through the 'brick' curtains.
Ancillary Tasks
As part of my coursework, I had to create a digipak and an album advert for my ancillary tasks. Initially, I created six pages for the digipak. I looked at how to incorporate the message of the song and the music video and convey this across to my target audience. Whilst, I was happy with the first three pages of my digipak and also my album advert, I was still unsure of my last three pages of my digipak. Originally, they looked like this...
However, due to issues with the slightly harsh appearance of the text boxes and also the incorrect placing of text on the pages, I decided to change them slightly to match my expectations of the overall digipak. I changed the placing of the text on page 4 as I had originally put the Imagine Dragons band names below the other names. I therefore corrected this, by placing them in order of importance. I also separated up the text boxes, so that the writing was still visible but the lines of the text boxes didn't look so harsh. On page 5, I wanted more of the actual graffiti wall visible. Therefore, i shifted all of the information down onto the pavement and made the text smaller, so that the main part of the image was clear and eye catching. I also moved the copyright information from page 5 onto the back page and I added in the Interscope Logo. This is more conventional and can be seen across most professional digipaks. I also inserted a bar code at the bottom right hand side of the back page, creating a professional finish. Overall, I am now happier with the appearance of the edited digipak pages.
Also, after a discussion with my teacher about where CD discs are inserted in digipaks, I decided to do some research about whether or not a CD disc can be inserted into the middle column of a cardboard digipak. I found that there are many different digipaks that do have a plastic CD tray for a cardboard digipak case, which fits in well with my preferred and chosen style of digipak. Digipaks typically consist of a gate fold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding. But the examples of digipaks below, prove that gate fold style digipaks can contain one or more plastic trays, capable of holding a CD attached to the inside.
Editing the Music Video
I am now editing my music video and matching all of the shots together, in order to create the final music video. I am using IMovie to edit by placing the shots in the correct order and cutting them down to fit in with the beats of the music. Before I started editing, I created an animatic using images from my storyboard, to determine how long each of the shots should be and where I should place them in relation to the music. I am currently making sure that the shots match the pace of the song and also the meaning and message of the actual song.
Final Day of Filming
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