Digipak

A promotional pack is all the promotional material for the artist and the song, this will include advertisements, posters, CD's and the digipak. The digipak is a DVD sized cardboard or plastic package and includes different aspects depending on the band/artist. Commonly it includes all songs from the album and possibly a couple of videos from these songs or even all videos. It does vary a lot depending on the artist and the genre. It is becoming more common for digipaks to be released by artists as there is a demand from the public as it is a physical product which gives more than just the songs. I will look at two digipaks that relate to my artist in different ways and see what their digipaks look like before creating flat plans for my own.

Katy Perry: Teenage Dreams (2009)

This is the first digipak that I am going to look at, by Katy Perry. As you can see this is not the DVD sized digipak that I am going to be doing but this gives some indication of another popular chart artist and the way that the digipak is displayed.
Within this digipak there are clear conventions of a pop artist, the images inside this digipak are medium shot and medium close ups with a clear black background so the audiences eye is solely drawn to the artist and their make-up and clothing, this is something that I feel is done quite a lot within the Pop genre. Most of the pictures are looking into the camera so the mode of address is to the viewer and will make them feel like they have a connection with the artist.

The costume inside this digipak is her usual unique style with quite outrageous outfits which is something that her fans will be expecting when they buy this. I will take these aspects into my own work and use clothing and make-up that would be seen on Ellie Goulding normally through her other videos and general photographs. The front cover for this digipack has been sexualised which is primarily for the male audience, relating to Laura Mulvey’s idea of the male gaze. This will widen her target audience to males as well as females. Females will aspire to be like her because of her slim figure and lack of imperfections. This is something that I will not use within my own digipak as I feel that Ellie Goulding is quite an innocent artist and doesn’t go with the lyrics or videos that she has previously had, therefore sticking to the usual conventions of her CD covers in the past.


Mika: The Boy Who Knew Too Much (2009)




When trying to look for another digipak I started to find myself being very limited, even though they are becoming more popular they are still not too well known so it was quite hard for me to find recent, popular artists with digipaks. Here is a digipak from Mika which is clearly very vibrant and draws the audiences eye straight away.






The difference between this cover and the Katy Perry one is that he only has a small, black and white photograph of himself on the cover - this is restricted code towards a specific audience who already know who Mika is. I don't feel that this would be something to do with my digipak because I would like a nice clear image of the artist so people recognise her. Mika is known for being quite different and quirky and this is why I think this style of digipak has been used. The bright colours will still draw peoples attention and attract the right sort of target audience as the cover is artistic and a little 'outside the box'. I feel that the text 'Mika' is nice and bold and isn't swallowed up by all the colour on the page, making the font white has had a big impact on this. When considering the images that I will use for my digipak I might take into consideration the use of using a white font to make it stand out more.






The back of the digipak is fairly standard, we can see the songs that will be on the disc and a barcode. The style on the front cover has been taken onto the back which is something that makes the digipak flow when looking at it. The barcode isn't too big which means the viewers eye will not be distracted from everything else on the page, this is an area that I will explore when making my own digipak as I want to find the best place for it so it acts as though it is invisible to the viewers who look at this digipak. Unfortunately we cannot see the inside of this digipak but we can see the disc, this gives me some sort of idea of what we would be able to see inside - still following on from this artist feel the inside would most probably quite similar to the outside. When taking into account this for my own digipak I need to think about the colours and the images that I use to make sure that all of it flows together nicely.








Designing my own Digipak - 3 Different flat plans.

Number One -

Here is the outside and the inside of my first flat plan. The theme I went for for this digipak is a woods location, this involves colours such as browns, greens and blues mainly. I did not want too many colours throughout this as I wasn't the main focus to be on Ellie Goulding herself and the writing. I felt that a close up of her face would be the best way to see her on the front cover as people would see it straight away and know it was her. Another image of her in the inside which is a medium shot is something that I captured when looking at Katy Perry's digipak. The quotes from different medias inside the digipak give the audience who buy this magazine more information about her that they may not know. This will make them feel closer with the artist.

Number Two -

Here is my second digipak, this is a lot more beach and sun orientated both inside and out, this again is trying to make the digipak flow through each side. I like the idea of having an angled shot where she is not necessarily looking into the camera but then felt that this is something not so common of popular artists so it would be pushing the boundaries a little. I really like the summery feel to this digipak and the way that the blonde hair is shown on the front and then that colour is then used as sun on the back. The way that the guitar is sitting in the grass adds to the more indie feel in her music that we sometimes hear as well as showing an instrument that she plays which will be featuring in the video we make. I also feel that the cliffs are a strong background which is something else that we shoot in the video so it is representing the bonus video that will be featured on this digipak.

Number Three -

This is quite a plain digipak as I wanted all the focus to be on her in the front cover, the background being one plain colour behind her so all the focus - even though it is not as close up - is still on the face. The background is like what we would see on the back of her CD covers with the text centered to the middle. The fields are an aspect generated through out video which leads on to the inside which I feel is quite different. We can only see half her body with a guitar, this shows her playing the instrument but could also be sexualising her body as it is just her legs showing. However, I felt that this creates quite a lot of blank space so would look quite dull and plain.

Final Edited Digipak.

This is the front and the back of my designed digipak. Firstly, to talk about the front, I went for a close up picture to attract the audiences eye when it is sitting on the shelf I feel that it will stand out from others. In this picture I have made the blue in her eyes brighter and her teeth whiter. These are minor tweaks as I feel that Ellie Goulding is a natural looking girl throughout the photographs and adverts that we see. I chose a picture from the ones that I had taken (on self timer as this is me in the photograph) that was me looking into the camera as I feel this connects the artist with their audience. I decided to put the text at the bottom of the image because there is no need for the neck to be visible, the font is quite similar to the ones that we would see on her CD's which is why I chose it. I decided to use white and blue as the colours as these are the colours that stand out on her facial features - her eyes and teeth. This makes it all flow a lot better and doesn't bring too many colours into it.

For the back of the digipack I chose a woods theme, this is something that we have used quite a lot in our recording so far so I thought it was very fitting to the bonus video that will be inside this digipack. I decided to put the barcode at the top of my digipack as there is white sky so it wont stand out as much. This is something that I took a lot of consideration over as I didnt want to make people's eyes to be drawn away from the text. The polydor sign is also at the top so it stands out more, the black against the white, obviously the record label will want people to see which record company she is with so this is quite important. I have followed on with the white text for the song list, this is because, again, it stands out from the colours in the background, this also makes the front and back join together nicely. Then we have the small print at the bottom of the digipack, I decided to do this in small black text because this is stuff the buyer doesn't want to read, it is there more because it has to be.

Altogether I feel that the outside of the digipack flows nicely together in a way that doesn't look disjointed, this will appeal to the audience. I feel that the pictures that I have taken relate to the music video that my group and I are creating which gives the viewers some indication of what the video will be like. All the colours I feel go together well and there isn't too much going on, it is clear for the audience to understand what this digipack contains.

Here is the inside of the digipack, the right side is where the disc will be going, I decided to leave this plain and let the picture follow through from the left hand side. You cannot see it but the middle of the digipack is what it looks like I am leaning against which I thought looked quite interesting. I increased the colour blue in this image, making it more vibrant against the wood in the background. I then blurred the background to make me stand out more.

The clothing she is wearing is something that Ellie Goulding would be seen wearing, possibly not on a photo shoot but I wanted this image to be something that you would see when she is walking down the street. It is like you are going inside Ellie Goulding's life when you go inside the digipack. This has a spring like feel to this photograph which is the weather that is shown in the music video that we have produced so far so I think will work well with the music video that will be inside this digipack.

I then decided to use text down the side as I had planned in my flat plan number one, I feel that this gives the audience an inside look on Ellie Goulding's acheivements and this will make them feel closer to the artist and also let them learn more about her. I feel that these also use up the empty space to the left of the model and curves around her nicely. I used the same colours that I used on the outside of the digipack so it all blends together nicely, the wood theme has carried on through to the inside with the fence in the background so overall as a theme I think it has worked really well.

Feedback about my digipak on Facebook

After knowing that Ellie Goulding uses Facebook to communicate with her fans I decided to display my final images on Facebook and ask people what they thought. I tagged quite a few of my friends and explained what it was about - the fact it was for media coursework and that I needed their comments on what they thought about it. I added mainly girls and one boy, I thought that this relates with her target audience. Luckily I got quite a few replies!

As you can see when looking at these, some comments helpful towards whether I need to edit my digipack further or not and some comments not so helpful. I don't know whether it was just people being nice but people seem to like it quite a lot. What I did take in to consideration about the front and back of the digipak is -

• Main image isn't central



• Small print maybe too small or colour needs changing



• Not enough green in main image for the front and back to flow
  

When thinking about these, I decided that the fact that the main picture is only slightly off central was on purpose, I like the fact that you can see the hair flowing behind her which makes her look like she is outside. This is something which is important as her video is all about being outside in open spaces. I also feel that because the artist is looking into the camera this takes the eye off her being uncentral as this is what draws the audience in straight away. I thought about changing the size of the small print but then realised that in actual fact, the size of this image isn't the size that they would of seen it on Facebook. My point being, the font size is bigger than it looks when she was looking at it so I do not feel this is a problem to consider. For the final point that I need to take into consideration I feel that I could edit the eyes on the main image for them to look greener, this would give the front and back more flow.

The comments for the inside of the digipak were very complimentary, they liked the idea that I came up with about bluring the fence in the background to make the model stand out more. This is something that I did deliberatly and has had a positive affect by the comments I have recieved. The use of using star ratings alongside the image have also been thought of as a really good idea, for the same reason that I did. It gives the audience a closer insight into Ellie Goulding and represents the radio stations, magazines and awards that you may hear or see her taking part in. Overall I don't think that I have to change anything about the inside of my digipak.