Ancillary Task - Digipak (AUDIT)

Ancillary Task - Digipak AUDIT

Below is the marking criteria of the digipak ancillary task, next to each criteria I have outlined what I have done in order to make the final product at a high standard.

1. Awareness of conventions of layout and page design.

When designing my digipak I was very careful about the layout and the design. It took weeks of planning and I wanted my design to be consistent throughout. I started off with very basic designs and thought processes, I then created some rough sketches of how I wanted my digipak to look. Eventually I went on to computer to design these sketches; for example according to Ian Haughton (Handsome designs) you must not jump onto the computer straight away, but instead you should think about how you can communicate your ideas first. Therefore the conventions of layout and the page design were carefully considered by myself. 

2. Use of a variety of fonts and text size.

After analysing the conventions of different digipaks, I realised that the majority of digipaks have 2-3 different fonts. Therefore I used a total of 3 fonts in my final design. The reason why I chose 3 fonts and not more is because I did not want to overcomplicate my design. I also had one main font which is the bands logo, the font I used here was called 'Rakoon' this was consistently used throughout all of my media products, so the poster has the same font too because it is part of my bands branding.

3. Accurate use of language.

The language that I have used in my digipak is appropriate this is because there was no spelling or grammar issues, digipak's tend to have very few writing on them and even though mine has limited amount of writing on it all the grammar and writing is correct. I used appropriate language for my digipak meaning that my target audience will understand the grammar that has been used; Ian Haughton also said that be wary of the type of grammar you use because with different audiences you may need to use different choice of grammar. I personally think the choice of grammar I have used was done well. 

4. Appropriate use of ICT.

The software I used in order to create my digipak is Photoshop CS6, this software is quite complex but offers brilliant tools which has made my digipak look aesthetically pleasing. I also used Photoshop CS6 to colour correct the images (individual photos of the band), I did this by first adjusting the hue and saturation of the images and adjusted the brightness accordingly. Secondly I changed the contrast of skin colours, as my skin is dark I had to add different levels of contrast as opposed to the other members of the band.

5. Appropriate integration of illustration and text.

I personally believe that I have integrated the text well within the digipak for example I have not overloaded the digipak with too many texts and I have made sure that the design was consistent. I have also illustrated some of my own images in the digipak for example the logo 'Bangladesh Bangers' was created by myself on PhotoShop (CS6). 

6. Framing a shot, using a variety of shot distances if appropriate.

In terms of framing a shot I used a variety of shot sizes in the sense that various images from different angles were used in the digipak design, this meant that the digipak wasn't overloaded with similar images but instead had a wide range of different images. I think this made my digipak more interesting, because a variety of shots allows the audience to see unique images of the band that may have not ever been seen before but specifically exclusive to the digipak.  

7. Shooting material appropriate to task set, selecting mise-en-scene, colour, figure and lighting.

Whilst shooting the images for the digipak the mise-en-scene, lighting and colour were all carefully thought about before actually producing my digipak. Firstly our band had a specific outfit description that we followed in preparation for our music shoot; this was to wear suits to show we are a sleek band; so in the photo-shoot we all wore suits. We also had professional lighting (three point lighting to eradicate shadows) and white backgrounds whilst taking our photo-shoot so lighting was essential.

8. Manipulating photographs as appropriate, including cropping and resizing.

When I was manipulating the photographs on photoshop I ensured that I was resizing and cropping the images well. Sometimes, when images are resized they can either be disproportionately resized meaning that the person in the photo could look 'squeezed' because the photo is either widened too much or heightened too much. I however, made sure that the photos were proportionately resized so the photos wouldn't look abnormal/artificial. Furthermore, when cropping the images I made sure that too much wasn't cropped; this was very important because in the pictures there are four members and cropping too much could mean that one of the band members could have been cropped.

In the digipak, I also used a custom barcode where I used a special font from 'DaFont.com' this made my digipak more unique as the barcode matched the letters 'Bangladesh' whereby we could associate it with our band.  

Ancillary Task - Digipak (FINAL)

Ancillary Task - Digipak (Final Design)

Below is the final design for my digipak, my bands album (Midnight In Dhaka) consists of 10 songs so it will be separated into two CD's. 

Here is my final digipak designs fitted within the template (click to enlarge)

Digipak Draft and Feedback (Progression)

Digipak Draft and Feedback (Progression)

Below are my digipak designs outlined as drafts. I have individual feedbacks based on them which I hope to alter in order for me to gain maximum marks in my ancillary task. The designs below are my first draft and I am fairly happy with the outcome but i know that there is always room for improvements.

In terms of feedback, the audience really like the faded effect of the images used at the front side of the digipak as it was easy to focus on the members. However, some of the sides were too simplistic for example side 5 was far too simplistic and it seems like "a waste of slide" because it only shows an image of a group I could perhaps add a bio of each band member accompanied with that slide to make it more interesting for the audience. 

Feedback suggested that I could maybe add more colours to the first slide and the last slide because as they are black and white they do not compliment each other as it does not fit in with the colour scheme. I responded with "Do you think I should add 2-3 more colour", to which he responded with "yeah I think it would look cool", so this piece of feedback suggests that my choice of colours are really basic and they do not compliment with each other; I can eradicate this issue by adding more range of colours but not overcomplicating it.

Furthermore, he said that "the thank you message is cool but don't give it a whole page maybe change it so it is quite small and it is part of a page. My teacher (teacher feedback) verbally told me that the 'Thank You' message makes the band seem cheap and minuscule so she told me to change it so that I doesn't display this message but something else instead. I could possibly change it so that the message shows something else perhaps a bio about how the band established or maybe a lyrics page. 

Additional feedback suggested that 'Bangladesh Bangers' on the first side and the fifth side of the digipak can be hard to see. For example on the first side the 'Bangladesh Bangers' text is white but so is the background which makes it hard to see even if there is a black banner going across the text; again on the fifth slide it is also hard to see because the logo hasn't been embossed it just looks plain and simple. I could possibly rectify this by embossing the text or maybe adding a black outline which would mean that the text is easier to read.

One final comment made towards my digipak design was that the 2 disc sides (side 2 and 3) were far too identical and it "seems like the two disc sides were copied and pasted, so maybe try changing them", this particular feedback is interesting because he says that two of the sides (side 2 and 3) are too similar to each other meaning that they clash and may lose interest in the audience. I could potentially change the colour scheme and add a range of colours to make the sides different.

Overall, the feedback has given me a great idea as to what people think of my digipak design; overall the design is effective however it lacks some basic use of colours and it doesn't look as aesthetically pleasing as it could be. I hope to make the design more interesting and colourful which will hopefully make the audience seem more interested. 

Digipak Sketch

                                                     Digipak Sketch 

Below are my digipak sketches of my design which is also annotated, I decided to draw my design first before I went on the computer because Ian Haughton (branding designer) emphasised the fact that you should always plan you ideas and think them through your head before actually creating them; drawing them was a good idea because it has enabled me to get a clear vision and idea of what I hope my final design will look like. 

Conventions of digipaks

Conventions of a Digipak

Below is a moodboard which I have created on Photoshop CS6 annotating some of the clear conventions within digipaks. 

(click to enlarge)

Analysis of Magazine Poster and Digipak

Analysis of Magazine Poster and Digipak

Below is an embedded Scribd. document showing the mark scheme for the ancillary tasks, in order to obtain a level 4 I must ensure that I am aware of the conventions of a digipak and a magazine poster, use accurate language, use a variety of fonts and make sure that the photos are taken well and that they are cropped and resized accordingly. I hope to get a level 4 and looking at the mark scheme has helped because I know exactly what to do to get that grade. 

Grading for Your Ancillary Tasks

Second draft of music video and feedback

Second draft of music video and feedback

Second draft of music video:

In order to get feedback on my music video I ran a Q&A/focus group session whereby i conducted an interview and asked several questions to the participants, posted above is the second draft of our music video and posted below is the focus group video. I think conducting this focus group further helped me understand what was wrong with the music video in terms of editing and what was good. In my opinion constructive criticism is key in any piece of work and that there is always room to improve.

In terms of overall opinion, the first participant said "It was a good storyline as it is a narrative based music video, some of the shots were very clever as well for example when the camera goes into Jeremy (main actor) and then goes out the other way" - this suggests that the concept behind the video is good and that we used some clever shots in the music video which kept the audience interested. 

However, the first participant went on to say "some of the shots were maybe a bit too long and too keep other peoples interests you might want to cut more bits up, because the song is fast paced with the drums but the clips don't match it" to which the others agreed - this suggests that some of the shots that we used in our media product our a bit too long and we need to rectify this when submitting our final construction. 

The second participant "I really like the storyline, it's almost cliche in a way but it actually works very well... the opening scenes aren't too dark and the lighting was very good the whole way through" - this again suggests that our synopsis behind the music video is good and the video itself is well lit and constructed well. However, he went on to say "some of the cuts do last too long so maybe change the location and add more cuts" - therefore we need to change our location and again cut more clips which is becoming a common feedback so we know where we have made an error. 

The third participant said 'I really like the effects that were used, for example when Jeremy (main actor) was seen walking in the village with his girlfriend but then you see her disappear and you see Jeremy on his own... it sorts of makes you feel sympathetic for him" this suggests that again our editing techniques are used well. However, she said "at the beginning extend the duration of the title of the song so it is easier to read" - so this is a simple but effective piece of feedback, I am going to extend the duration of the song name so that the audience can read the song title in enough time. 

The fourth and final participant said that "I really like the variety of shots that were used and also the location you used worked very well...however I agree with the rest in the sense that some of the shots were too long especially when Jeremy was seen wearing his coat; you can maybe cut that down" - so from this specific feedback I know exactly what to cut down such as the beginning narrative where Jeremy puts his coat on; this relates back to our skype interview with Ryan Mackfall he said "you can cut out the uninteresting bits... for example you don't need to see someone walk out of a door unless it's necessary" therefore we can reduce the duration of certain clips that were used in this process. 

To finish the interview off, I asked one other question that was on my mind; i asked "When Jeremy receives a text from his girlfriend do you have enough time to read it" in which the participants responded with "Yes" so the timing of the text message was not an issue which I thought it would be. They also suggested that "you could maybe have a reply from the text, to engage more with the audience". In conclusion, the feedback that was given in the second draft stage was essential and I hope to make alterations according to this feedback.


The questions that I asked in the video were:

what did you like about our music video

what did you not like about our music video

what was your opinion on the narrative piece at the beginning

what the storyline behind the narrative clear to you and well constructed?

do you have any additional feedback on the music video?

Skype Call with Ian Haughton

Skype Call with Ian Haughton

In order to help us with our digipak designs we spoke to Ian Haughton (a branding designer - Handsome designs) via Skype. Ian gave us very helpful tips about our digipak designs which helped me to construct my digipak idea.

One thing Ian mentioned during the Skype interview is that branding is ''what someone says about you when you leave the room, its how you act, behave, say and your personality... you're building an emotional attachment to something".

In terms of the importance of typography, Ian said that it was very important because "the typeface is like your personality, selecting the right typeface is really important, if you choose the wrong one it may not sell as well as a product as it doesn't look aesthetically pleasing". This suggests that the typeface is one of the most important factor in terms of branding as it acts like a personality therefore try making your digipak or make a custom font to help distinguish it from others. It is also important that you use consistent typeface because if you don't it sends the audience mixed messages.

In terms of designing our digipaks, Ian said "Think first; don't just start designing by drawing, think about what you want to communicate and how you're going to communicate your design and write youre ideas down beforehand and sketch it out; don't just jump onto a computer", this suggests that before designing you should think about the message and the visuals; designing is time consuming and to be successful you should take a lot of time planning. Ian went on and said that if you plan it first it gives you a sense of where you want to take your final design.

To the question "How do you target your audience through your branding decisions" Ian responded with "You try to understand the kind of things they like and might buy and the kind of things they may have in their pockets if you turn them out and the kind of music they would buy". This ultimately suggests that understanding your audience is vital, if someone listens to heavy metal then ideally you don't want your digipak to consist of bright colours, instead you may want to associate it with dark colours. Ian further said "all these ideas can help you inform the way that you communicate", for a certain age group for example your language may differ because you may select different choice of words.

 During the interview I asked Ian for feedback on the idea of my digipak. I asked him "my digipak idea consists of 4-5 colours, do you think you can almost overload a digipak with too many colours or do you think too many colours is a good thing?" Ian responded with "It depends on the concept of your idea, if there is a purpose for it and a reason for it why not choose multi-colours (a wide range of colours), it's how you want the brand to stand out". 

Receiving this feedback (on my idea) reduced a lot of weight off my shoulders as it gave me a clear idea on my digipak; furthermore receiving feedback from a branding designer such as Ian who have worked with clients before and had years of skills and experience with designing meant that the feedback given was crucial indeed. 

The influence of music videos created and synergy

The influence of music videos and synergy created

Note: Please enter fullscreen to avoid the watermark covering the presentation

This was uploaded via PowToon slides beta, a new beta featuring their slideshow feature (alternative to powerpoint), usually PowToon specialise in video animated presentations however they have now introduced their new 'slides' beta.

First draft of music video and feedback

First draft of music video and feedback

Below is the first draft of my music video, in order for me to understand what was good about the first draft and what was bad about it I asked my target audience what they thought of my music video after watching it back. I have posted the first draft video and feedback below.

First Draft:



Feedback on First Draft:

So, in terms of the idea of the music video, feedback from Alex suggests that the idea behind it is good and has so much potential. However, Alex preferred me (lead singer) being "a performer" rather than a narrator who is singing. This is because our idea is that I am the narrator and that I sing in some parts of the video (but not as the primary subject, so in less obvious shots and not centred), however it was clearly evident that Alex did not like this and it would make sense if I was actually performing in front of a crowd. 

In terms of feedback from Layole, he agreed that he liked the video, however, he felt that the shorts were far too long and that they "should be snappy and cut along with the beat"; this suggests that some of our shots were far too long and they need to be decreased in terms of length, this means that we may need to film some more bits because decreasing the length of the video will mean that we may not cover the whole song. 

Layole also said "the other thing I didn't like were the car shots, they were not really relevant and they didn't have the correct style, the look just felt wrong", judging from this feedback and Alex's feedback me singing within the narrative hasn't worked as effectively as we thought it would. I think I am going to change the style of the music video and maybe take myself out of the narrative completely and re-film the existing shots without me in it. To finish off, Layole also said "some shots need to be colour corrected and brightened up as they were dark" which means that when it comes to further post production I need to ensure that the video is colour corrected and brightened accordingly. 

Photographs of filming and editing

Photographs of filming and editing

Below are photographs of filming and editing, I have posted each image below and have talked about each individual image; these images are part of the production and post production stages of our final construction.

Filming:

The images above are images of the first day of filming, this exact shot is where the main actor (Jeremy) walks out of the door and puts his earphone on - I recorded this exact shot and I recorded two alternate shots; one shot was recorded on a tripod whereby i centred the camera between the door and the two wall, the second shot is a handheld camera where I was following Jeremy as he is walking out - you will see this shot in the final music video. All of our shots were recorded on the Canon 700D DSLR camera.

The images above are images that were shot in the village. This is the shot where Jeremy stops and receives the text from his girlfriend. As you can see on the right I am filming this shot, the shot was filmed on the tripod and I had to tell Jeremy exactly where he had to stop in order to look at his phone (this is where I edited the text message bubble). It was important for me to tell Jeremy where to stop because if I didn't he could of been out of the shot and his head would of been cut. I also told him to move to the left a little because I didn't want him being at the centre of the shot because the text message would have to be displayed on the right hand side. 

The images above were another running shot but in a different location - this is because we wanted to diversify the shots and allow the audience to identify a different sense of location to provide a sense of enigma; as audience will speculate and often ask questions such as ''where is he?" and "where is going?". As you can see the image shows that the tripod is positioned on the grass which is uneven, this meant that we had to extend one of the legs of the tripod to make the camera straight and look even. 

The picture above is a shot which was filmed in the canteen (cafe) where Jeremy the main actor is drinking coffee with his girlfriend (flashback). The video is colour correct with an 'aged' look so that the consumers of this music video can clearly identify that it is a scene prior to the argument. As you can see in the image we are using the man (Layole) in the picture as a point of focus to make sure that the shot isn't too blurry nor too dark. For this shot we lowered the tripod so it would match the length of the table we also recorded an alternative shot where the tripod was sitting on the table and you only see the girlfriend in the shot (POV shot).

The picture above is scenes from the performance based segment in the music video; this was recorded in the drama studio with professional lighting as you can see. We also used a tripod in the shot and turn around the LCD screen in some cases so I could see if I was in shot (without directly looking into the camera) because at times I would be jumping around to give emphasis on the performance itself. These images were also uploaded to 'Snapchat' which is a social messaging site; we done this to give our followers a sneak peak for our music video. 

Editing:

The picture above is part of the post production segment, this specific image is where I photoshopped a text message and put text over it to make it look like a text. In order to create this image, I opened a PhotoShop CS6 document and obtained an image of a text bubble; after this I added a text message which appropriate text message language i then exported the image but saving it as a PNG so the image will not have a white background and it can easily be exported onto the Final Cut Pro editing file. 

Lighting and Camera workshop

Lighting and Camera workshop

During an after school session, I attended a lighting and camera workshop run by a photography teacher at our school. This workshop was very beneficial as I had learnt new aspects about lighting and camera work that I hadn't known before; this ultimately expanded my lighting and camera knowledge as a had learnt a couple of new things.

Firstly, we were told about 3 point lighting; this is a particular technique used in most videos and films whereby you will need three types of lights in order to utilize the technique. The three types of lights are; key light, fill light and back light. 

The key light is the main light. It is the strongest and has the most influence of the look of the scene. 

Fill light is the secondary light and is placed on the opposite side of the key light, it is used to fill the shadows which is created by the key light. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key; in order to achieve this I could move the light further away.

The third type of light is the back light, this is placed behind the subject and lights it from the rear, as opposed to providing direct lighting (like the key and fill), its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look. 

I was also informed about the rule of thirds; something which I had learnt in GCSE media. Rule of thirds is where you imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both vertical and horizontal) so that there is 9 sides and whilst taking an image you must carefully consider where the subject of your photo must lie within (usually centred). 

Practical Workshop

After learning about the theoretical side of lighting and camerawork in the workshop; it was time for us to get to use the gear for a photoshoot.The importance of camerawork was emphasised here for example making sure that your subjects are centralised and making sure that you are focusing on the subjects for a crisp image. We were also informed that changing the camera angles in certain shots can change the notion of the image, for example and low angle shot in an image of a band could show importance especially if the main person is standing in the front and how a zoom could be used to only focus on one particular member. 

In this photoshoot we set up professional lighting (we used three types of lighting), and a white backdrop which enhanced our images. Lighting was vital in this case because it emphasised the shots making them look a lot clear and crisp as opposed to having no lighting at all which made it seem dull and boring. The photos that were taken in this workshop will be used for my ancillary task (both poster and digipak).

Working with green screens

A week later I decided to extend my camera knowledge and work with green screens, green screens (chroma keying) is a special effects/post production technique for compositioning (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues. The technique has been used heavily in many fields to remove a background from the subject of a photo or video – particularly the newscasting, motion picture and video game industries as well as music videos in this scenario.

Working with green screens has been interesting, I will use these for test edits even though I may not use chroma keying in my final production piece, but it was good experience as I have never used green screens before and to learn about green screens.

My Bands Logo and Record Company logo

My Bands Logo and Record Company logo

Band Logo

Here is my band logo, I created this logo on Photoshop CS6. The font that I used for this logo was 'Rakoon', I got this font from 'DaFont.com', this was a custom font which I managed to get the copyright permission for. I created the logo by first importing the text onto a Photoshop document I resized the text accordingly and made the text white. After making the text white I realised that it could be quite hard to see the text if it was to go on my media products (such as the digipak - which could potentially have a white background). Therefore I decided to add a black outline by duplicating the text and dragging it down a bit; this meant that my logo had a black outline which meant that it was easier to read the text.

Furthermore I added two grey lines (via the rectangle tool) to make the logo seem more esthetically pleasing. In terms of colours I used very basic colours in our logo this is because I think having a simplistic logo is key and in my opinion overcomplicating a logo can stray the audience awauy from the final product. I exported the image as a PNG this meant that the picture had no background at all (not even white) which meant that in the future I can easily drag it onto my music video, my digipak and my poster. Below is an image of my logo:

Record Company Logo

My record company is 'Warner Music Group - WMG), the reason why I chose Warner Music Group as my record company is because they have worked with many artists thus have a significant amount of experience, they also have a diverse range of artists meaning that it gives equal opportunities for different artists to strive for the top of the charts.

 In terms of marketing, I believe WMG will do a fantastic job in the sense that the marketing teams are strong relationship builders and specialists within their field; as they interact with many areas of the business; such as production, sales, creative, press, promotions and digital divisions, as well as the artists (in this case my band) and management to create exciting and engaging campaigns. Below is an image of my record logo company.

Pre Production - Location Recee

Pre Production - Location Recee
Created by Jacob Osman 

Alleyway, Archer Close - As located at the end of a cal-der-sack, the location is never really busy - apart from the occasional dog walker, meaning that we could film there any time of day as long as there was sufficient lighting.

Bench & Common - The bench is located very close to three of the areas schools, this means that at before 9am, at lunchtime & at the end of a school day would be difficult times to film as the common would be full of students making their way out at lunch or going home. As we are filming in a particularly cold and wet time of year, we must be prepared for the muddy and slippery conditions in which we most likely would come across.

Langley Hill - These photos of Langley Hill were taken from outside my house, meaning it is a convenient place to film as it's where my house is. Langley Hill is the main road used by Rudolf Steiner School and Kings Langley School's buses, therefore it would be too busy and full of traffic to film at the start or at the end of the school day. 

My House, Langley Hill - My group have chosen my house to film a large majority of our pop promo at because it offers spacious rooms which have sufficient lighting and how it is within walking distance from school and all our other filming locations.

Kings Langley High Street - The high street has very wide pavements on one side of the road, which is very good for filming Jeremy running through as of the space needed, it also contains various cafe's and coffee shops which we might need to use to film a scene outside. The high street is King's Langley's main road which connects Watford to Hemel Hempstead, so is always going to be fairly busy, so at rush hour and the end of school time would be the worse time to film at. It's in a practical location as it joins onto Langley Hill where most of our filming takes place and is only a 10 minute walk from school. If filming outside a shop or business we would need to ask the owners permission first to avoid any unhappy confrontation.

Pre Production - Risk Assessment (C)

Risk Assessment:
Created by Jacob Osman

Below is a risk assessment outlining all the possible risk and hazards that may occur during the day of production. This risks were assessed my Jacob, a member of my media group. 

Risk Assessment - Jacob Osman

Pre Production - Equipment List

Pre Production - Equipment List 

Created by Fateh Khaled

http://issuu.com/fatehkhaled0/docs/finale_7?e=15570856/11496387

Pre Production - Summary of Star

Pre-Production - Summary of star
Created by Fateh Khaled