Final Music Video

Thought process for digipak

1. My artist 'Bills' needs to be incorporated into each aspect of my digipak design. 
I want it to include a subtle reference to how clumsy she is, as well as other factors of her life, some of which can be found here.

2. An album cover that I admire and has stuck with me through my thought process is 'It's Blitz!' by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The simple yet striking image on a plain white background is very eye-catching, typical of designs of this genre. 

3. I began researching similar covers of a single image on a white background. The XX's cover is very straightforward, but still attractive. The large X is bold, and to stop the design from falling flat, the X has an unusual image inside of it. I like the amount of white space used, but I deemed the whole design as being too tame for me to attempt to replicate it; it would not fit the artist's style.  

4. These previous findings lead me to decide the image would have to be more interesting to reflect the style I want to create, but should still use a plain background. I began to look at different coloured backgrounds, such as this one by The Fresh & Onlys. The yellow flower contrasts well with the duck egg blue background. 

5. While the image on the last cover was more agreeable than The XX's, it was still quite plain and it would not take a lot to forget about it. I think the image on The Temper Trap's album is more memorable, but I have seen many other artists use an image like this one in their own work, so I decided I would have to keep searching for an image that will stand out and be exclusively associated with my artist. The text on the cover of this album adds information, but does nothing positive for it visually.

6. Sleigh Bells' Reign of Terror artwork conforms more with what I aim to produce. The picture of the shoes on a plain background differs slightly from other covers of this genre; the blood splatter adds mystery to the image so it is no longer just a photo of a pair of shoes. This cover also confirmed previous thoughts that I did not want any text littering the cover of my digipak. 

7. Research into the use of coloured backgrounds helped me to decide against using a coloured background in my own design. The next album cover I wanted to consider in my planning was 'I'm With You' by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I like most of the aspects of this design; the off-centre image of the fly on the capsule is an accurate portrayal of the kind of curious picture I would like to incorporate into my design. The white background is effective in highlighting the image further. There is a small amount of text present, which I will not include in my own design to give it a cleaner look and so the focus is not taken away from the picture.

8. I imagined a design for my digipak as soon as the task was set. The main inspiration was the album cover by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but I knew I wanted a squashed banana on the front and its remains after being dragged away on the back. Now I knew what I did and did not want on my cover, I stared to investigate other fruit and banana based covers. On The Charlatans design, the image is a photograph of a bunch of bananas. I found this look to be a significant influence in what I wanted my design to include. 

9. This cover by The Velvet Underground and Nico included many features I was keen on including in my own design. Particular features were the angle of the banana image and the colour scheme. As much as I admire Andy Warhol's work, I believe a photograph of a banana will look more effective than any other medium. 

10. I had a clear idea of what I wanted my cover to include at this point, but I wanted to continue research into existing album covers to ensure my design would conform to the genre conventions these previous designs had created. While I want my digipak to be somewhat unconventional so it is not easily forgotten, I need it to be recognisable as an indie/alternative album.This position of the avocado on this cover is the position I want to use for my own- off-centre, to the right. 

11. I needed to research what other parts of digipaks looked like to ensure my idea was appropriate. I wanted the back panel to have the banana missing, with just the mush left behind, and a happy accident caused me to find the back panel of the previous album, which also had something missing from the original cover image on it's back panel. The stone missing from the avocado is similar to the design I had in mind, so I it became clear that I could go forward with the design, knowing it was something that would feature on a real album. It is also conventional for the song names on the back of a cover to be aligned to the left, which I would be unable to do if I did not have the image of the banana on the right.

12. This cover is also an image of fruit that has been tampered with to look peculiar, again, reinforcing that my proposed design rings true to designs of real existing albums. The bright, warm colours stand out nicely against the white background. 

13. I decided on the colour pallet I was going to use; white, yellow and black, three bold colours that will capture attention. 

14. I took photos of the banana in various forms and positions, then selected the best ones to edit them before arranging how to display them within the digipak.  

15. This image shows the completed cover for my digipak. Other than the fact it looks curious and satisfies our natural neophilia, I decided to use a squashed banana to embody how my artist is very clumsy and accident-prone, hence the name of the album, 'Whoops'. I created a back-story for this idea, involving how 'Bills' accidentally creates song after song, then puts them on an album and releases it. Another story was that Bills, on her way to record songs for the album, fell off her bike and broke her arm, which was influenced by a true story.

Song Choice

Song: Sing Sung Saing

             

Artist: Peggy Honeywell

Lyrics: 

Do you remember them all in awhile ago,

when you walked through the birds singing so slow

Free and slow
Free and slow

Don't remember anything

Other than it was perfect

That bird was there to meet me

Sing song sung

Sing song sung

When I was out at sea,

in danger and stuff

There was a sea lion protecting  

me

I'd say it was you all along, 

with your half long wool half long

You’re half medicine, half love

Sing sang sung.

Reason for choice:

Plan of Action for video

I will choose a different song which sounds more like a single and fits my artist’s style. The video for this new video will take a different approach to my previous one. The previous video was based on the lyrics of the song, whereas my next video will resemble existing videos of people outdoors. 
I will make sure to consider mise en scene in my final video, as well as ensuring that my artist is familiar with the song and all of the lyrics before filming.

Risk Assessment

Poster/advert final version

Digipak Final Version