DigiPak Analysis : 30 Seconds To Mars A Beautiful Lie

 This Digipak is for the band 30 Seconds To Mars' Album A Beautiful Lie, it is a alternative rock/ post-hardcore album, it is a CD - DVD pack with MTV live and unplugged sessions.

 the colour scheme of the album follows the bands colour scheme or red, black and white, and the albums artwork is very unique and follows the theme of a alternative rock band, with dark provoking images.

 the booklet found within the digipak gives information on the songs and the band and features pictures of the band. all wearing black with a red and white backdrop.

 the pictures within the booklet are in colour but the blacks, whites and reds have all been emphasized, with the contrast turned up quiet high.

the digipak opens up in a cross shape revealing the cd and dvd and booklet with the lyrics to all the songs written on the backgroung, in a small text and repeating with mars army written above








this is a good digipak for the style of music the band plays, it stick well to the bands theme, and represents the music they play very well.

DigiPak Analysis : Guns N Roses Greatest Hits

 This is the Guns N Roses, Greatest Hits digipak, its a two cd set of the guns n roses best selling singles, on the front cover it has the guns n roses symbol, which is synonymous with the guns n roses, the backgroung colour is a simple gun metal grey, so the focus is on the symbol and the guns n roses name.

 the back has a picture of the band, with the song titles above them, the picture was taken during the eighties when the band was still together, even though the digipak came out in 2004, so the rest of the digipak follows this theme, so all the text and images are all similar styles to ones found in the eighties.

the inside has more pictures from the eighties, and the two cds have the same symbol as found on the front this time in colour from the way the band is dressed and the styling of the digipak its easy to see that this is a hard rock band.





This DigiPak is Very impressive the front gives an idea of class and importance by being simple and unassuming, whereas when opened its easy to see the music style and the genre of music within.

DigiPak Analysis : Hugh Laurie Let Them Talk Special Edition

 This Digipak is the special edition version Hugh Lauries album let them talk, it is an extended version of the album and comes with a dvd included, of live recordings and the making of the album

 also included in the digipak is a small booklet about the artist who he covers, information on the band and each song and who recorded what part of the song.

 this album is in the style of new orleans blues, so the digipak is in black a white, as when most of the music covered in the album was originally played at a time when there was only black and white pictures and television, and the album is mostly acoustic music, so the digipak is style to be very soft and ambient.

 also to follow the style of music which he plays the digipak is very minimilist, in the scence that there isn't an abundance of pictures, showing pictures of new orleans, not only the birthplace of the style of music but also the place where the album was recorded.

 within the booklet there is a greater variety of colours but even then they are either soft pastel colours, like light green. orange and blue, and some of the pictures have a sepia effect to them.

overall the digipak is a great representation of the album within, from the outside its easy to see that it will be easy listening music, not overbearing or garish

Tour Poster Analysis : Them Crooked Vultures

This Tour poster is closer to a "standard" tour poster, with the artists name at the top followed by a picture relating to the artist, then tour dates and information about the tickets, the tour poster style is distressed or vintage which is currently a popular design type of the crungy blues music that they play.

the picture os of 3 men in suits with vultures, this works well witht he bands image as it is a three piece band, and the man in a suit with a vultures head is similar to the album cover art.

Tour Poster Analysis : Foo Fighters

This tour poster is pretty unique in the scence that most tour poster have tour dates on whereas this one doesn't have any tour dates, it has the bands name, then a picture that is slightly degregated which is similar to most of the foo fighters album art and poster art, the vintage distressed look, the artists name is clearly shown at the top of the poster.

as a poster its not very effective as it gives no dates, no venues or no information on buying tickets or even websites or phone numbers to get the tickets, this gives the impression that further research is necessary for purchasing the tickets.

Tour Poster Analysis : Joanne Shaw Taylor

This Poster is different to most other posters, most posters have the artists name at the top, which this one does, but usually underneath the artists name is a picture of the artist or and image synonymous with the artist, where as in this one underneath the artists name is all the tour night they are doing, then underneath that is the artist picture,

the image itself is not of the album cover art but a picture of the artist performing, taken from the last tour, usually album cover work or the band posing would be on the poster but in this case it is of the artist performing.

Final Draft of DigiPak

After much consideration on how I would closen the connections between my final digipak and music poster, I came up with sticking to the theme of peace and war. In doing so, I took a picture of a bullet and decided to use that as part of our digipak. Next I went into photo shop and duplicated the bullet a number of times, I then created one half of the peace sign using the bullets. I took another picture of the bullet, but facing the other way and duplicated it a number of times and created a circle (the other half of the peace sign), now the bullets look like they're going to collide. The first half by going through the second half, suggesting that at a certain point in time the bullets will come together and create the peace sign.

I also drew the peace sign (see below) and scanned it into the computer, then I split it up in half and put it on seperate pages, this allows for the peace sign (which was coloured in the same colour as an axolotl) to be full when the digipak is put together, it also suggests that we do not have world peace, as of yet, and that certain places need to be fixed to get world peace. These pictures replaced the images on my first draft of the sun and the moon.

As for the text, I've kept it the same, however I have added production and copyright information on the back cover, which is found in my research on various digipaks. As for other text, I have added some memorable lyrics: "Can't the whole world love one another. Throw down your weapons fix all the hunger". This is to show what this album means to the artist and gives us something to think about.

As for the final page, I have added the peace sign so that it fits exactly where the CD would fit, this is what "The Axolotls" want, they want Peace, not war, and so this suggests that there should be peace in this world sometime in the future.

Final Draft of Poster

For the final draft of my music poster I had to make sure that it would relate theme wise to the digipak. This was not easy, as I wanted to use the same images I used for the front cover of the digipak, without them being the same. So I decided to make the bullets collide, making the tour "The Peace Tour", suggesting that peace won out over war.

I used the same images from my digipak, however I made sure the bullets were together. This was extremely difficult due to the fact that each bullet is on a different layer so that I could integrate the bullets so they made the shape I wanted them to.

I took off the wave on the tour dates, since they were no longer part of the sea, since I had changed the background. I also changed the cover of the digipak in the bottom right-hand corner, since I had changed the cover of my digipak.

As for the text, I had kept everything pretty much the same, keeping it in Palatino Linotype. I also added the call numbers of the venues so that the people in that area could phone up the venue to buy tickets.

I changed the background with the interest of trying to make the bullets of Peace the centre of attention, the background highlights the image drawing the audience in as it is the first thing they see. I also kept the colour scheme as it relates to the digipak.

1st Draft of Poster

This is the first draft of our music poster, yet again, similarly to the digipak, the theme does not link in with the music video. So that is definitely something that will needed to be changed so that it relates to both of our media products.

I used a number of different techniques to complete this music poster. First off, I used Microsoft Office PowerPoint to construct my music poster. This proved helpful as it allows you to use a background image, and it fits it to the page, wheras with other possible software that allows you to construct a poster, would have kept the background at it's original size, which wouldn't have worked.

I used text from my digipak such as the logo and the font: Palatino Linotype. I also included the front of our digipak, and put it at the bottom of the poster, which is something that is frequently found in my research of music posters. I also used WordArt so that all the text looked similar, and I also used the transform tool, and used "double wave 2", so that the text change into a wave. This is what I used for the text that appears in the ocean below. Furthermore, I used the same colour I used for the logo. To do this I had a look at the colour model and checked how much red, blue and green are used to get the same colour as an axolotl, using that I added the colour to the text.



Background image.

As for the background image, I used an original photo that I took while I was on holiday. It was taken on one of our many boat trips that we used to have during our holidays. It is of the British Coastline (see right), but has no link with the music video and digipak, therefore making it unresourceful. As for my final music poster, I shall change the background image so that it links in more, theme wise, with the music video and digipak.

1st Draft of Digipak

This is the first draft of our digipak. There are a few problems with it, the main one being the theme, as it does not relate to the music video or the music poster. The pictures will be changed so that the theme relates through out.

To create and edit our digipak I used Photoshop, this enabled me to change certain things with the pictures and text I used. As for the text, I have made sure the fonts are the same which is Palatino Linotype. As for the logo I used a picture of an axolotl and used the shape tool to edit the text so that it was in the image of an axolotl. Furthermore I used the colour of the axolotl using the soandso tool, and then filled in the letters so that the logo would have the same colour as an axolotl.


Photo of crowd at a concert

As for the background image I used an original photo that I took of the crowd while at the gig. The original picture (see right) is of a crowd at a concert when the lights are down and the glowsticks are visible, and various other flashing light merchandise. I then used Photoshop to crop the picture and duplicate it 3 times so that it fit perfectly as a background. The image then turned out space-like, so I used pictures I took of the sun and the moon, while taken on holiday, and faded them into the background. The logo that I also faded into the background, is similar to Bullet For My Valentine's digipak "Scream. Aim.Fire." I decided to do this as they are of a similar audience.

As for the barcode and the record company, I used ............. This was a helpful website allowing me choose between different types of barcodes so that I could use the type of barcode that resembles the types of barcodes found on the back of digipaks. Along with this, I created my own record company logo, by using http://www.onlinelogomaker.com/ this enabled me to make the logo to the size I want it, I was also able to include photos and text, this is definitely one of the easiest logo makers that you can use online, because you are able to create a logo the exact way you want it to be.

In my next draft, I shall make sure that it links in more with the music video and the music poster, I will also use different photos that link in with the music video.

Refilming

we have decided to refilm our music video, but with some changes;

The song will stay the same, but we are going to film the music video against a green screen, which we are going to apply pictures against which are going to be generally fast paced but the speed of the pictures will changes so there will be crescendo's and diminuendo's this is so it isnt just a slideshow of pictures the pictures themselves are the narrative, with the ups and downs of conventional narratives.

And whilst that is happening the performance will be occuring with the narrative in the background, we are thinking about the narrative being in black and white with the performance in normal colour, this ensures that the performance and narrative are two seperate entities.

We are also considering having fast pace words appear ontop of the pictures perhaps in red, which have key words concerning war and peace, but with the lyrics within them, and when the lyrics appear they are projecting on the performer but when there are no lyrics the words will be behind the performer.