Idea One (Back)

Here is the first design for the back panel of the digipak. I opted to use this image as it is a shot from the video, thus enhancing our house style from video to the digipak. I began by using the font 'mistral' for the song titles, and added a small stroke to the text so it stands out from the background. Using this font would therefore connote the same style of the front panel which helps the target audience notice the digipak is for Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. After researching many digipaks from home and the internet I thought adding a barcode would be a necessity to make it look more professional, as every hard copy of a music album has one. I then proceeded to add the record company 'Sour Mash' to the bottom right of the panel, as this shows the record label to which the music belongs. I chose a font called 'Boingo' for the text of the record company, as it similar to the real font used by Sour Mash, yet it is still slightly different which adds to our own style for the digipak. I then changed the stroke colour to white for this font, so that it is easily read as the style may be difficult for some to read if it was plain black. 

Changing The Vibrance 

Once the text and barcode was in place, I wanted to change the vibrance of the photo. This was done by selecting 'image', then 'saturation/vibrance', I then moved the vibrance up to +23. This makes the colour deeper and crisper, which I believe makes the overall image look more professional. The deeper colours also make it easier to notice and read the text for the song titles etc. 

Here is what I thought was the finished design for a possible back panel for the digipak. Overall at this stage I was pleased with the general style and look of the panel. However Jay then noticed that many of the albums he has shows some form of legal content, which includes who owns the copyright of the song and album artwork. As a group we then decided that adding a small paragraph of legal content would complete the professional style of the digipak.

Idea Three (Front)

The third idea is very similar to the second idea for the front panel of the digipak. However instead of using the turquoise and orange gradient, I edited theContrastBrightnessVibranceof the image. I chose not to use the gradient for this idea because the gradient dominates the whole image, and would therefore need to be used on all of the panels to follow the house style we want to illustrate in the digipak. 

I made the image slightly brighter, so that it would overall look a lot cleaner and recognizable. The brighter image is strongly noticeable compared to the original photo, as the walkway and sky is lighter, making the text bolder and easily readable. I then increased the contrast, so that the green from the building on the left would give the image stronger colour, as it is fairly plain without it. The vibrance change worked well with the edited contrast, as both together work so that the photo has deeper colour which is needed for this particular image as without the change it would look rather bland. 

Finished Music Video

Filming With Glenn 3

During the half term break we had to re-film and find some new locations for our video for the final cut. With it being half term Glenn was available for a limited time, due to his numerous employment and band commitments. We therefore had to priotitize and plan a day around him so that everyone could go to London to film.

We agreed a date amongst ourselves and Glenn and prepared what we needed for the day, this was mainly the camera, tripod, signs for Glenn to hold and our plan of action so we didn't waste any time whilst in the city.

Southbank Filming

Myself, Matt and Jay traveled up to London early so that we could have the whole day filming, we wanted to film more locations to show the vast range of life and culture in London, so went to locations such as Trafalgar Square, Southbank, Tower Bridge and various streets and underpasses. We were also lucky with the weather on this particular day as there were clear skies and therefore the best day-light was available, which improved the standard of our footage as most of the previous was in slightly darker conditions.

Matt Setting Up The Tripod And Camera

Glenn joined us in the afternoon as he had to work during the morning, once he arrived we walked to the tunnel which would be used for our opening shots. Once we arrived and began filming the footage again looked a great deal clearer as we still had day-light. We re-filmed the opening pans and shots of Glenn singing so that we could replace the old, dark shots from previous filming. The location of this tunnel must be a popular filming location as it is similar to the Coldplay music video to 'Fix You', and whilst we were filming there seemed to be a photoshoot taking place on the other side of the tunnel.

Whilst we had Glenn with us I began to take some photos of him and his guitar for possible Digipak covers. Due to the title of the song being 'What A Life' it was difficult to think of a single image which could portray or connote the title of the song. I did however, remember some of Noel's other artwork on his singles, and some of them had Noel facing the other way looking into the distance. Taking this into consideration I took some photos from behind Glenn when we was walking along the Southbank near Tower Bridge. I believe photos such as this can promote the song title as Glenn is watching different lives around him, and at the same time a sense of voyeurism is created as the audience are essentially watching Glenn too.




Here is a short slideshow of some locations we visited whilst in London. They included areas such as Southbank, Trafalgar Square, Westminster and Buckingham Palace.

Idea Two (Front)

Here is a second possible album cover, we wanted to keep the fonts the same through-out our digipak so adding the font to this image was simple. I also used the same gradient which was used for the previous design, however before adding it I changed the opacity to 28%, this made the gradient more visible but still subtle. I then repeated this process by adding a second gradient over the current, so that the orange was more noticeable. Jay also suggested to change the type of gradient from 'normal' to 'colour burn', this gives the gradient a deeper look and makes the green and orange stand out.

I then wanted to try a different effect on the title font, as before we used a drop shadow only. In this design I added a stroke and contour to the font, which made it slightly bolder which the group and I think needs to be done as it is above a light background.

The idea behind the photo used is to hopefully connote part of our video, as in it our character (Glenn) is traveling around numerous parts of London, so when taking this photo I wanted to portray how he is actually moving over the city through the notion of walking.

Idea One (Front)

I began to use Photoshop to create some potential digipak front covers. I started by choosing a simple photo which was of the guitar Glenn used whilst filming in the tunnel. I then added the gradient which Jay had created before-hand; this was a turquoise colour fading into orange. Before applying the gradient to the photo I changed the opacity of the gradient to around 20%, this was so it wasn't too bold and was still subtle.

The next stage was to add the text of the band "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds" and the song title "AKA...What A Life" to the cover. The group and I agreed to use the fonts Coaster and Mistral for the text on the page, as both looked similar to what is used for Noel's artwork yet still looked unique for our work. We also wanted to follow Noel's style by having a smaller sized "o" with an underline beneath it. To achieve this we highlighted the "o", then chose the "superscript" option below the font options on the right hand side of the screen.

Below is a potential idea for our digipak, we wanted to keep a simple style through-out with the cover as we feel it is difficult to represent the song title "What A Life" with a single image. For this design we opted to have the guitar used for the song, as it promotes the instruments used by Noel to create the song. I also changed the rotation of the "AKA...What A Life" slightly as many of the other fonts on Noel's singles have slightly slanted font as it is handwriting, which is scrawly. I then decided that adding a stroke to both texts would make them stand out more from the wall in the background.

Whole Album Layout

In order to make the creation process of the digipak as fast as possible, the group and I sketched a plan of what we wanted the album to look like once the favourite photos were picked.

We decided to plan this so that it gives us a visual idea of what the digipak may look like before it is made, thus allowing us to decide where the text will go and what the actual text will say on each panel. This therefore enables us to plan the digipak so that when it is finished it will look as professional and exciting as possible for our target audience. The plan created will also save the group large amounts of time whilst on Photoshop making it, as we will already know what images are being used, as well as what text will be used. This leaves us to considor colours, fonts and image effects which will stilll be a lengthy process, however a process which is easier to complete due to the planning of the album.

Sketching A Plan



Before creating the magazine advert for our digipak we had to have a clear idea of what we wanted it to look like. Planning the advert was more complex than the digipak, as digipaks tend to be relatively plain so text positioning and style was not a hard obstacle to overcome. The advert however, needs much more text and thought of where this text will be placed on the advert, this is because the advert needs particular information to entice the target audience to buy the album.

Due to the group deciding to use the same photo for both digipak and advert, the image we use may not fit an A4 magazine page, therefore we may have a darker area towards the bottom of the page so that text can be placed over it, and so the area is not just plain white as this may looking boring or unfinished.

We have also researched common conventions of digipak adverts, these include having pull quotes from well known companies giving their opinion on the album, and using the same font for the main text which in our case is the title 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds'. We will also add the record company 'Sour Mash' to the advert, as this gives it a more professional image as well as it lets the audience know who the album belongs to other than the artist.

We must also remember to not over-crowed the advert, as we do not want to give away too much information on the album, and we do not want to over-whelm the target audience with too much text. Therefore having a few of the tracks on the album evident and positive feedback evident it should be enough to interest the target audience, and to hopefully make them want to buy the album.

Plan

Sketching The Cover

Here is a rough sketch of what the digipak could look like, we have chosen the image we will use so it is now a case of cropping the photo, adding text and positioning the text.



Original Photo Chosen

We have not accessed colour schemes as of yet, so that needs to be decided but we all agree that the layout shown below looks effective, as it is not over-crowded and not bland either. With the original photo being rather solid or plain in colour, we may need to have the text in a bold colour with numerous effects so that the whole cover will stand out to the target audience. We may also add a gradient of colour across the whole image, as during research on Noel Gallagher's own digipaks he uses a turquoise and orange gradient across the front cover. This could turn out to be a convention of Noel's digipaks we follow or challenge, however as a group we have not confirmed this choice. 

 

plan

Although this is a plan for the front cover of the digipak, we may or may not follow this layout as it could look totally different on Photoshop. However if the image can cropped effectively we shall keep this layout, and use appropriate fonts for the text, which will be found using dafont.com.

Choosing The Photo For The Advert And Digipak

During a journey to London with Matt and Jay I took some photos which we could possibly use for the digipak and magazine advertisement. We have decided that the image we use for both will be similar if not the same photo, therefore whilst taking the photos I considored camera angle and distance from Glenn as the image has to suit the album cover and an A4 advert.

We chose to use a similar or the same image for both to create a link between the two, this will hopefully make it easier for our target audience to see that the advert promotes the album from Noel Gallagher. We also chose to use this convention as a number of well known artists have done the same, with musicians such as Jessie J, Kasabian and Kings of Leon adopting this method of promotion.

Below are some possible images that the group and I feel may work well for this.

Noel's Colour Schemes

Whilst looking at the CD covers for the singles 'What A Life', 'If I Had A Gun' and 'The Death Of You And Me' we noticed how the same colour theme is used through-out. The text of which shows the bands name and the song title are both white, and the actual image has a gradient of colours. The gradient used makes the left side of the cover orange, and this fades to a turquoise/green on the right. As a group we decided that we should too use this style for our digipak, as it will follow Noel's house style and we believe that the effect in general is an artistic touch which works well. 

We also noticed how the photograph used for the single cover for 'What A Life' is a shot from the video itself. However the other covers such as 'If I Had A Gun' and 'The Death Of You And Me' had images were not evident in the music videos, this poses a question for the group on whether to use a shot from the music video or not for our digipak.

Jay then had a go at creating a similar styled gradient on Photoshop to see if it would be possible to make one easily for the digipak.

Gradient Tool

He began selecting an image of Noel Gallagher; as this was only a practice run. The gradient is then added by selecting the image, and then the 'gradient tool' which is located on the side bar to the left of the Photoshop layout.

Gradient Options

Once the 'gradient tool' had been selected this options box appears, it allows the user to choose what colours they wish to make into a gradient and how transparent it will be. Jay then chose the colours of turquoise and orange for the gradient. Once this was done the gradient covered the whole image, and Noel was no where to be seen.

To fix this problem the 'Quick Selection Tool' was needed so that the gradient could be re-done but only to the background. This enabled us to see Noel clearly and the gradient. The outcome was positive and therefore we can use this effect for our digipak, which will hopefully connote a similar theme to what Noel uses for his digipak. 

 

Finished Gradient

The image on the right is the finished gradient added to the image of Noel Gallagher compared to the original image. The group and I are pleased with the outcome as it relates to the other singles he has produced, and therefore will aid our digipak into following a similar idea to what Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds use for their album and single artwork.

Relating The Advert To The Digipak

Many artists tend to use similar if not the same image on their digipak as well as their album advertisement, this is so a clear link is created between the two promotional platforms. Having the same image on both print media forms in our case is certainly a possibility, if not a necessity as we want the target audience or alternative rock genre to be able to tell that the advert promotes the digipak and vice versa, this will essentially help promotion of our music video too. 

The examples below portray how other musicians use the same image in both their album artwork and magazine advertisement of the album itself. I tried to find if this trend or convention is only for the alternative rock genre (Kasabian and Kings of Leon), however it seems to be a more general one as mainstream artists such as Jessie J use this method too.

 After viewing these digipaks and advertisements, I believe the group and I will follow this convention and use the same photo both ancillary tasks. This is so the maximum amount of promotion can be created for Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds which will follow with more sales and higher profits for both band and record company (Sour Mash).

Possible Fonts For Band Name

Possible Fonts

We have now chose a list of possible fonts to use for the title on the digipak. We wanted to try and find a similar styled font so that our digipak would follow the iconography of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

I went onto the dafont.com website to see if I could find any fonts, I went onto the 'Groovy' option and began searching. The font names are as follows:

1. Bell Bottom Laser
2. KingKong
3. Coaster
4. Gill Sans Ultra Bold
5. Mama 
6. Tomipop
7. Fine O Mite 

The third font, 'Coaster' is my personal favourite as it is similar to the style of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.  It is also easily read and still looks effective in capital letters; where as some fonts look totally different when they are in lower-case to capitals.

The style of the font used on Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds was certainly a tough one to find, as it is so unique with the small dash beneath the 'O'. The font we decide to use for our digipak will certainly have to connote Noel's style, however we also want to add some of our own ideas to it so that the work is original and to out tastes.

Possible Fonts For Song Name

Possible Fonts

On the right we have chose a range of fonts which are similar to the style of the text used on Noel's digipaks. We searched the website dafont.com and trawled through the 'handwritten' option to find similar fonts and others which we thought generally looked unique. The font names from top to bottom are as follows:

1. Handwriting - Dakota
2. Mistral
3. Luna Bar
4. Talking To The Moon
5. Jellyka - Nathaniel A Mystery 
6. Alphamack AOE
7. Nothing You Could Do
8. Covered By Your Grace
9. Karine
10. Juliet

Personally, I like the second font chosen, Mistral, as it is similar to the one on Noel's artwork, yet still has its own unique style. It is also easy to read and effects such as drop shadow and strokes do not harm the style of the font too dramatically.

We also had to take into consideration how the word 'LIFE!' will look in capital letters, as to follow the convention of Noel's digipak we need to have the last word of the single in capitals too. Some of the fonts such as 'Talking To The Moon' (4th down) in my opinion do not look right for our digipak, as the capital letters together do not flow and look too far apart which may affect the continuity of the cover.

Plan Of Action

Improvements

Above is a photo of an action plan we intend to fulfill so that our video will be overall improved and hopefully look more professional. We decided to make adjustments on the following: 

• Remove the under-cranked shots of the London Eye and busy road near Westminster.
• Include more narrative shots of London, there is too much of Glenn singing the song.
• We need to film in more locations, to show the range of life in London.
• We also want to change his clothing, as the dark jacket looks dull.
• To make the lighting more effective we will need to film in daylight, because some of our shots were filmed in the dark.
• Regarding the locations we need to try and travel to different social classed areas, for example higher classed areas such as Chelsea which can contrast to lower class areas such as Bermondsey, South London.  
• Have Glenn learn how to play some of the song on the guitar, this will add more realism to the video, as in the rough cut he pretended to. 

We now need to re-group and find out dates for when Glenn is available to film during the coming weeks. This may pose problems as he has work loyalties so finding free time to film with us may prove difficult.

Filming With Glenn 2

On Tuesday the 25th of January myself, Jay and Glenn travelled to London to continue with filming. Matt couldn't join us this time due to work commitments, however previous filming sessions meant that either Jay or I were comfortable with using the camera so it was not a major problem. Due to Glenn's work commitments also, we had a limited time up in the city due to the early darkening evenings of Winter, we did however film an effective amount of footage which will be used for the video.

Here is one of many shots we got of Glenn holding the signs which spell out 'What A Life?'. We filmed him holding each sign for a few seconds each in various locations, this is so that in the video we can show him holding all of them in a continous flow and it will hopefully portray a question to the audience of what they believe life is. This particular shot is Glenn infront of a traditional phonebox, we passed it on the off chance and thought having well-known structures of London in the video will aid in setting the scene of the music video.

Here is a shot of a slow pan of a train pulling out of Waterloo East and into Charing Cross. We did not plan to specifically film this but at the time we thought it could play a vital part in showing the different regions of London, as the Houses of Parliament in the background are a famous monument. The only problem we had with this shot is that the day was coming to an end, and the overcast weather caused the shot to be rather dark, however if we need to we can re-film this at a later date.  

This shot is an under-cranked shot of the busy streets in Westminster. We thought filming this for a few minutes and speeding the footage up may look effective as the vehicle lights will be passing by showing the amount of people traveling through London. However the time of day was against us again, as the lighting is dark and would not follow the continuity of the song as it is based in day-light. This shot could be used near the end, if we decide to have the end of the song at the end of a day for our character.

Finished Rough Cut and Feedback

Here is our rough cut to our video for 'What A Life'. After watching through the video the audience will certainly recognize some gaps, which is where the footage we filmed just didn't fit with the rest of the video. We also watched the video with the rest of our class and received feedback from our classmates and teacher, this was very useful as the constructive criticism has revealed to us that changes need to be made to improve the music video. 

After viewing and submitting feedback for the rest of the class we received our feedback from our classmates, this has helped us greatly. The points which our class thought needed changing or improving were: 

• Certain shots such as when Glenn is holding the signs is rather repetitive and some too dark to see the sign clearly.
• Some shots are too long, more cuts need to be made to break up some lengthy shots.
• Some of the lip syncing is slightly out, this needs to be perfectly on time with the song.
• Using more locations will show more of London's colourful culture, as we filmed in a small number of areas. 
• There are some areas of the video where it is blank for a second or so, this needs to be filled with appropriate footage.
• Some of shots are rather bland, with little colour which can make the shot look dull.
• More close-ups of Glenn playing the guitar and when he is singing.
• Needs more varied shots, such as POV shots, long shots, tracking shots and also use more angles when filming Glenn. 

Feedback From The Class

 Above is an image of the feedback we received from the class. The bullet points are the most common areas of improvement the class thought we should consider, and the image shows all of the feedback which also has some positives such as many thought the opening and ending shots were appropriate and effectively shot.

What Makes An Effective Digipak

To try and broaden my knowledge of what will make an effective digipak for Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, I searched the question 'what makes good album artwork?' in hope of finding people's opinions and ideas.

I found the question had already been asked on yahoo.com which was helpful, as the person who answered gave a fairly valid opinion, this will therefore aid the group and I whilst creating our own digipak as we can considor these aspects in order to make a product which attracts the target audience.

Noel Gallagher's Digipak Style

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds are a recent band and they only have one official album released, which ironically is called Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. After researching across the internet and various magazines such as Q, I found that Noel had different digipaks for his singles and the actual album. The album cover has Noel blurred and in-front of some white lights, the main colour is a faded green and the font used is relatively simple and placed on the top right of the cover.

The other images are for his singles within the album, these are 'The Death of You and Me', 'AKA...What A Life', 'Dream On' and 'If I Had A Gun'. This therefore gives us more freedom with our digipak as we can follow either of these themes if we need to, the same style font on each digipak also connotes the bands iconography. In order to make our digipak look professional, yet original, we need to use either similar styled fonts or the same if they can be found, and a simple styled photo to be used as the cover. Each cover either has Noel's face turned away from the camera or blurred, so this may influence our cover too.

After researching the font which is used through-out the Noel Gallagher digipaks on dafont.com I have created a short list of possible fonts we can use for our own digipak. I believe the top three fonts are of similar style to that of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds which is why they may work well for our digipak, as hopefully they can connote similar iconography to Noel's album. The fourth font is a different style completely, however the top two covers shown above seem to be set in a Western American location, as the traditional American Muscle car is often seen in states such as Texas and Alabama. Therefore the final font could be considered as it may follow the Western style used in the top two CD covers.

Here is a close up of the fonts used in Noel Gallagher's album and single covers. The font used to show the track title is a scrawly, handwritten style which is used through-out his singles. Therefore we need to find a similar style font to show the name of the song 'What A Life' for our digipak. The font which is used could well be Noel's own handwriting, this may have been done to add exclusivity to the digipaks, as when fans buy the song the fact they have Noel's own handwriting style could entice them to buy more. The last part of each single text is also in capitals, evident by the words 'AND ME', 'GUN' and 'LIFE!'. This one of many styles used by the band on their album and singles artwork. They may have chose to put these words in capitals to show the importance or that they are key lyrics during the song.