Album Cover Attempt 2

Below is an example I have made of another album cover. The use of a white background and gold writing is from the influence of Mariah Carey's album "Memoirs of an imperfect angel". I found this album very effective and attractive. Its simple design productively succeeds in grabbing the attention of the audience. Therefore, I have chosen to design this album cover with these two colours to create an effeciant look. I have chosen to add butterflies to represent the love songs in the album, and also reflecting on the lyrics we have made up of the character as she has to move on, symbolising a butterfly spreading their wings and flying away. The butterflies can also represent a change in life as the character in our music video has to change things for herself.

Results From Questionnaire

After giving out my questionnaire to several people and posting it on "Blogger" and "Facebook", I have finally collected the results and successfully graphed them. Overall 20 people answered my questionnaire.Evidently from the graph above most people beleive the front of an album cover is very important. This shows when producing my own album cover I have to make sure the front of the album cover is reflective and stands out as 11 out of 20 people have noted it is the key feature of the album.

From my collected data, I have found "A colourful and detailed album cover" appeals to most people rather than "A black and white album cover". Therefore, I have decided to produce my album cover in colour and not just black and white as this will evidently appeal to a wider range of audiences.

The results from "Which camera shot do you beleive is more attractive?" has influenced me to use a full body shot for the production of my very own album cover. "A full body shot" appealed to 12 out of 20 people whilst a "Extreme close-up shot" only appealed to one person. This maybe because a full body shot is more attractive and allows the audience to familiarise with the artist.

To gain a clear idea on the number of panels which would appeal to most people I included this question. 13 out of 20 people preffered a four panel digipak as it is a light weighted album. As a result I will be giving my digipak four panels.

Many digipaks today include booklets based on the album. I wanted to find out if people found these booklets useful or not in order to know whether or not to include it in my slbum production. Clearly, from the graph above 15 out of 20 people find the bookleys "very useful". Only three found the booklets "useful" and one "not useful". I have decided to include a booklet as the results from my questionnaire have shown they are constructive.

The font of an album cover is a key feature as it is one of the main characteristics which grabs the audience is attention. Above my results shows the writing font "italic" is mostly preferred to a "bold font". An italic font will also reflect on the female artist, following the conventions of a female album cover. As stated above, "background information on the artist" is the most appealing trait of an album cover. This is obvious as it allows the audiences knowledge of the artist to widen.

Album Cover Attempt

Having researched a range of album covers from the genre 'RnB', I have commenced on to creating my own versions of possible album covers. Below is an album cover I have made on the software Paint. The picture of the artist has not yet been placed onto the album cover as we still need to take a few snapshots of her against a white or black background. I have chosen a gold and black theme as it gives the album a simplistic look and also fits in with the conventions of the 'RnB' genre. The choice of italic writing has been used in order to reflect the female artisit and fit into the 'RnB' conventions. While researching other album covers, I found a typical convention used at the back of album covers was the artist is website. Therefore, I have included a website at the bottom of the back of the album cover to follow this convention.

Beginning Ideas For Digipak

In order to begin my ancillary task, I have began to design possible album covers. I have not yet designed these on a software yet, however after several designs on paper along with a few notes, I intend to produce these designs. Here a few pictures of my designs so far :

Design Number 1 :

Design Number 2 :

Editing

Having had a free day off school me and my peer decided to work on our editing, as our deadline is approaching. We worked on specific adjustments that needed fixing, trimming out unnecessary bits of filming, speeding some bits and adding in a few transitions along with pictures.

Above we agreed on adding in the "circle open" transition. This transition has enabled our music video to speed things up, permiting two clips to work together at the same time. As our video was too long, using the "circle open" successfully allowed some time to be reduced

Here we have used a meduim close-up, this gives a clear perspective of the scene and lets the audience have a clear understanding on who the main character is in the video. Evidently we see Sarah puting on mascara, this supports the conventions on an 'RnB'video as many show the female character getting ready usually in her bedroom.

An over the shoulder shot has been used here to place the audience in the characters position we see from behind. This medium long shot allows all three characters to be seen in one scene creating a tense atmosphere as the audience are aware the person who has caused the argument is watching.

In order to allow the audience to understand the text message from the characters perspective, we decided the best shot to use would be a point of view shot. Those who will watch our music video will be able to clearly read the text message, understanding whats going on and also will be able to feel as though they are in the characters place.

Once again, as our video was beginning to get too long we had to add a transition in in order to speed the clip. This allowed the clip to go at a faster pace. This is a conveniant transition to use as the audience may get bored watching the same character walking, having used the wipe transition this stops the audience from loosing their attention from the video

After loading and playing our clips we realised our filming was too fast and did not fit the speed conventions of a music video. Therefore, we had to select the clips and slow them down choosing a specific number, as seen in the pictures above.

We added in pictures to create a mood like effect. We had to split our clips to place the pictures inbetween them. Our pictures are in black and white as it is meant to reflect back into the past. To reflect this we slowed down the speed of the clips as this makes the mood we are trying to portray more realistic.

Female Artists - Album Covers

The following album covers have inspired me with several different ideas for the design of our own album cover. Researching different female artist album covers has given me a clear understanding on the typical conventions used in female artist albums. I have found that italic writing is a typical characteristic used along with full body shots or medium shots. Evidently, this reflects the feminine character. Some of the album covers include a close-up shot of the artist, depicting them as the main focus of the album. The audience feel as though the artist is looking directly at them and therefore this allows the album to feel more personal.

Questionnaire on 'RnB' Digipaks

1. Name: _____________

2. Gender:

• Male ( )
• Female ( )

3. Age:

• Under 16 ( )
• 16-18 ( )
• 19-21 ( )
• 22-25 ( )
• 26- 35 ( )
• 36-45 ( )
• 45+ ( )

4. Please state your occupational status: ____________________________

5. How important do you think the front cover of an album should be?

• Very important ( )
• Important ( )
• Not that important ( )

6. Which do you think is more appealing?

• A colourful and detailed album cover ( )
• A black and white album cover ( )
• Other, please state: _______________________________

7. Which camera shot do you believe is more attractive and effective to an audience?

• A full body shot ( )
• Medium close-up shot ( )
• Extreme close-up shot ( )

8. How many panels do you prefer your digipak to have?

• 4 ( )
• 6 ( )
• 8 ( )

9. How useful do you find booklets which may be enclosed in your digipak?

• Very Useful ( )
• Useful ( )
• Not useful ( )

10. What type of writing style would you prefer on a female artist's album?

• Bold ( )
• Italic ( )
• Skin Deep ( Close to Italic) ( )
• Other, please state: _____________________

11. In an album, from the following which do you find more appealing?

• Competitions
• Background information on the artist
• Chances to win free tickets to see the artist perform live on stage
• Other, please state: ______________________