Wednesday, 19 December 2012

DS: Print Development

Stage 1




Here is my first attempt at drafting a possible digipak. When drawing it, I tried to consider as much as possible how I could include imagery that represented our production as accurately as possible. I also wanted to include visual motifs, to allow the audience to recognise the artist just from the one symbol.

The visual motif I have chosen and which will be apparent throughout or printwork is the symbol including 3 birds. I have positioned this motif on the front cover and within the eye on the right hand inside sleeve. I feel this motif connotes freedom and escape, which is what our dream state stands for.

I have tried to include a contrast between the two worlds in our video, into the digipak. The front cover represents this which the divide of the page, with what I hope will be a contrasting filters on either side, combined with the subsisdary imagery and eye colouring.

The back cover will be where the majority of information can be found. mostly the track names and any others that supplement it. The inside sleeves are simple yet affective. Text is not required on these sections and therefore I have tried to make the imagery contain meaning of the concept and be influential on anyone viewing it.

Stage 2

Here is the finished front cover of the digipak. As you can see, it is very much similar to the original drawn out plan, which I feel shows how well the original image worked as it needed little editing. The alteration of hue and saturation on either side enabled us to create a contrast between the opposing sides and also colour in the left hand side eye a more lighter colour to connote the dream state, and a seeminly lifeless colour in the right eye. I also chose to include the visual motif in the top left corner, on the side that connotes the dream state.

Stage 3


I have no finished the back cover. Again, the finished product is very much similar to the original plan in the respect that the emphasis was on the text and the information it included. I also set about making it more authentic with the inclusion of the barcode and the record label logo in the bottom left. Lastly, I felt the cloud background was too similar to the front cover and showed a lack of diversity in imagery and ideas, therefore I took a shot from the video and used it as the background as I feel this is a powerful shot in the video, as it represents it well.

Final Product





HL: Candidate 6210 Navigation

Music Video

Evaluation Q1,2 & 4

Evaluation Q3

Storyboard Animatic

Print Development

Media Essay

Technical Analysis

Auteur Research

AS: Links to Questions

Candidate Number : 6269

My Individual Evaluation Questions :
Evaluation Questions 1, 2 and 4

Group Links:

Music Video

Evaluation Question 3

Group 6 Pitch

Audience Profile

Thursday, 13 December 2012

HL: Print Development (Advert)

Stage One


Here this hand drawn image is the beginnings of my Clams Casino advert; here I have decided to use a mysterious styled image to take centre stage, whilst the text and information work is around the centre piece.
The choice of font is very robust and full, which can relate to the music produced by the artist,  the title also includes aspects of wind, fire and water, linking to the song title ‘I’m God’.
The use of symmetry is also very important as you can see each review reflects each stage, I feel that the use of two star ratings and one quote gives an all-round review, meaning potential buyers get a feeling of the music without initially listening to it first.

The use of triangles also introduce a sense of trend, as the triangular shape is usually related to the trend ‘hipster’, that of whom pride themselves of self-exploration and uniqueness, meaning chill-step is a favorite of theirs.



Stage Two



The second stage of my advert development was done on Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create an appropriate and realistic music advert.

The idea of a central image is still in use; however the idea has been changed. I went for more of a distorted and colourful image that which captures the audiences’ view causing a point of interest; this image is somewhat poly-semic, due to its individuality and beauty.

Other visual motifs have been introduces, more specifically the text/style and the logo (the birds), this is going to be used in all the art work as we feel it relates well to the artist ‘Clams Casino’.


Stage Three



Here the original ideas were still be used, however I used a few elements in Photoshop which would allow me to manipulate the central image of the advert. 

The introduction of text has also filled out the bottom section, as the use of a quote/star rating is symmetrically placed making the poster more ascetically pleasing for the consumer.

The font has stayed relatively the same, with only minor changes being on the placement off the three heading items (artist name, track and logo) and also the size of each of these.



Final Product



Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Group: Storyboard Animatic Evaluation


How did you improve your performance at A2?

Our A2 animatic is a lot better when looking back at last years one, this time we decided to cut the storyboarding to the actual track we are creating a music video for, thus giving us an idea of the final product would eventually look like. The quality of the drawings are also to a much better standard meaning that the ideas put across are alot more clear, giving us a better understanding of what shots we will use to fill our narrative.


Evaluate the outcome of your animatic, what did you learn?

When evaluating our animatic it is clear that many of the shots chosen are more likely associated with a film rather then a music video, to resolve this issue the use of the low angled shots and close ups will be over exagerated giving the idea that the character is 'high'. Another aspect of our animatic was the points of information written about it, we made sure that this information was good and descriptive, meaning our ideas were clear.

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

AS: Advert - Final


  1. In what ways does your print product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of other similar products?
One of the ways in which my print uses conventions of music advertisements is through the reviews towards the bottom of the print. These are from two newspapers and a music magazine respectively, therefore it is a realistic feature and something which you would expect to find on a music advertisement. As well as this, the image is a suitable one for the genre, because it connotes peacefulness and calm, something strongly associated with products of the chillstep genre. The image is also a tranquil scene, coinciding with the ethereal feel of the track, meaning that the advertisement uses and develops the genre.

2. How does your product link to the other print products your group has constructed? 

The other music advertisement in my group has used the same mauve colour on the background as I have on my skyline. This colour gives a relaxed and chilled feel, reflecting the conventions of the genre. Furthermore, the black set of birds at the top of the print has also been used on the other advertisement  These act as a visual motif and help the audience to identify the print productions as being the same artist. The print is illustrative of the genre, because there are direct links between the scenic picture and nature of the advertisement and the equally chilled and relaxed nature of the track. This is also true of the other print work in my group because it too has a fairly plain but effective background.

3. What other techniques have you used in the software not already mentioned?

One of the main techniques that I utilised in Photoshop was the Hue/Saturation tool. This allowed me to enrich the colours I wanted to stand out - on the skyline, and darken the ones which I wanted to be more low key - the bushes and plants surrounding the pond. I also changed the lightness on the blue of the sky and the pond, so that it turned a more mauve colour that matched the other advertisement in my group. As well as paying close attention to the blue in the picture, I felt that it was important to also emphasise the green in the photograph and in particular the green areas with trees and grass. Therefore, i decided to enrich the green in the picture so that it stood out from the skyline and the pond. By doing this, i have managed to create a visible contrast between land and the water and sky. Paying close attention to these shows how I acknowledged that the scenery of the advertisement was crucial.