Music video analysis

This is the opening scene of my music video. I created a picture on photoshop of the iPhone lock screen when music was playing, on photoshop I put the cover of the album I previously created and replaced the text with the name of the song playing, the album and the artist. Much like the original plan, I kept the person grabbing the phone anoymous. 

I kept the original idea of having a range of different shots of the girl doing her makeup. My favourite shots were ones from behind the girl but having the camera looking into the mirror so the only way the audience can fully see what she is doing is by seeing her reflection. 

I used a few shots of the girl walking and driving around in the dark, like I had originally planned but I found that the scene was a bit too dark, I tried to brighten the scene on iMovie but think that it may have taken away some of the clarity of the image and feel it may have compromised the quality of the scene. 

  

This sequence is something that I'm really pleased with. This is the part of the video where the girl is coming back to the house, the camera focuses on her hand on the door handle and the door open slightly. This shot is taken from behind the girl as if she was being followed in, the next scene cuts to the camera being inside and watching the door open the rest of the way and have the girl walking in. It took a while to get the timing right and make the transition smooth but feel it works really well. 

The next part of the video follows on from where the girl has returned to the house, she proceeds to go back to the bathroom she was once in and starts to take off the makeup she had previously put on. I found this part of the video quite challenging as I had to keep stopping filming and paint the skeleton on her face. The wipe she was using also started to smudge the paint slightly and feel that the face paint might have been too messy. 

After looking at her new appearance and a few shots of her putting on her hat ect, the final scene of the video is the girl walking out. Much like the previous shot and transaction of the door (when arriving at the house) I decided to do that again with the bathroom door. After that transition the girl walks towards the camera and then walks past it, the girl is then followed all the way out of the house and is then out of sight. 

Overall I'm really pleased with how this video has turned out. I found it challenging getting the balance of different shots and techniques in the video and making sure that all transitions and movements were smooth, but feel that I have managed to recreate certain techniques and do them professionally in my own video. 

Music Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn-be6E6rTc

^^ This is the link to the music video I created.

Preferred reading

The general theme of the video I have been making is isolation, and the feeling of having to blend in and hide your personality. I extend this meaning by having the main character having to hide and cover up her true identity, a skeleton. This is a metaphor for hiding personality traits and is obviously hyperreality as people can't actually wipe away their skin. 

I wanted to show and present these themes in extreme ways as it would make the message clear to the audience and will hopefully appeal and inspire the audience. 

Story board

For the opening of my music video I thought it would be a good idea to include some product placement, this included the iPhone 5c, on the phone I decided to have the song the video is made for playing on the phone, this also shows the cover of the album, letting the audience know what the album looks like. The holder of the phone is anoymous and this scene then lades to the actual video. 

The following scene is a range of different shots of a girl getting ready, the girl is in a bathroom doing her makeup. The audience isn't given any context of where the girl is going or who she is. I will use a range of shots such as close ups, mid shots ect.

The following scenes will be the girl walking around, and driving at night. The destination will be unknown and won't show the girl actually going into anywhere. This is to give the appearance of her travelling around aimlessly, as if she isn't aware where she wants to be. 

The final part of the music video is when the girl arrives back from being out at night, just like previous scenes she is back in the bathroom, instead of a montage of shots of her taking off her makeup, instead she is taking it off. When taking off her makeup she reveals her true identity and shows that she has the face of a skeleton. After taking off her makeup the girl then leaves the house for a final time and with that, ends the video.

To understand what people liked to see in music videos and how much people actually watched music videos I made an online survey. I posted the survey online and these are some of the results. 

In this question I asked if people liked to see actual performance shots in the video. 45.45% of the people asked said that they liked to see performance shots, 18.18% said that they didn't like to see them featured in videos and 36.36% said that it didn't bother them if it had performance shots or not. 

For the second question I asked if people thought that music videos should follow a story line or if it should be more of a montage of clips.  Most of the responses said that they liked to see a video follow a story and actually have a meaning behind it. Although there was some responses that said that depending on the song tone and theme, there were some videos that should be fun and just showing the members of the band and the artist having fun. 

I thought it would be good to see just how much people actually watched music videos to see what sort of coverage my video would get. The answers were very varied and ranged from people saying that they only watched music videos occasionally to others saying that they watched them everyday. Certain audiences would give a better coverage and view rating of my video, than others.

Humorous parody videos have becoming increasingly popular and is a style that in being used more and more everyday. I wanted to know if the increasing popularity of the humorous videos was something my audience liked or not. Most the responses said that it really depended on the song that the video was for and that they liked both humorous and serious music videos. 

I wanted to see if the music video could actually affect a persons view on the song, and could actually lead someone to not liking the song. People didn't seem to think a video would actually affect their liking of the video but they did say if the video was awful and badly made, they would be tempted to not watch it again and could possibly be turned off!

I thought it would be good to see how often people watched music video channels on TV. It seems with the rise of online platforms such a YouTube people haven't been watching music channels, as a lot of the responses said that they used to in the past watch the channels daily but now it can be weeks before they watch them on TV. This mean my video would benefit from being put online  and not just leaving it to get shown on TV as a wider audience would be able to access it online.

I wanted to get a more definitive answer as to what people really liked to see in videos, so i thought it would be a good idea to have people leave comments on some of their favourite things to see. The answers were very mixed and I think it would be a good idea to try and include lots of the suggestions without making it look over done and too cluttered.

Lastly, I thought it would be good to see if people actually thought a video could create a bands or singles success and to see if people really felt that videos were important. The most common aster was Yes as 63.64% thought videos were very important and that they do help a singles success. 

The second music video I analysed with a female vocalist is Everybody's Fool from the band Evanescence. Much like the other videos I have analysed, this video has dystopian elements and a general theme of isolation and being outcasted.

The video starts of with and has clips of the main character in some of her modelling and acting jobs, each one she needs to take one a new persona and adapt to the role. We see the character being glamourised and sexualised in order to sell a product or a role. 

The video later shows us the characters real life away from the cameras and the makeup. The character has a dark and lonely life and is fed up with having to pretend to be someone else and feels as if she is being haunted from her personas. 

The video is very dark when its based in the characters reality. When looking at her personas the colours are very enhanced as if to give a false and hyperreality tone which the audience later find out is the case.  The general tone I got from watching the video is that the character is only loved when pretending to be other people, her personas are famous whereas herself as a person is still being tormented and hated (as we see when being laughed at in the lift). The theme of isolation is shown from the character being trapped in her apartment out of fear of going outside and dealing with people who are using her for fame. 

I have been looking at other music videos within the same genre of my artist and narrowed the investigation to female artists, as I am using a female artist. One band I decided to look at was Paramore, a rock band with a female lead vocalist. The style of the music and lyrics are very similar to ones my artist writes and performs.  The first video I analysed was Brick By Boring Brick by Paramore. 

One of the main elements in the video is the super natural and hyperreality. One of the main characters is a little girl with butterfly wings, exploring a new world she has found. Although it seems exciting at first the character soon realises just how scary and lonely it is and she then she's the dark and corrupted parts of the world.

In this video there isn't any band performance shots which I found was uncommon in videos in the genre. The vocalist is shown throughout the video and looks like she is the older version of the little girl who got lost in the new world. The audience get that impression throughout the majority of the video but later realises that she's not when they cross paths. The video has a very mysterious tone to the video as it only reveals secrets in the video towards the end. 

The colours in the video have been very over enhanced, giving it an artificial look. The audience and tell the world has been created and the over enchanted colours show that maybe everything is not as it seems and adds a slight dystopian tone to the video.

Song/video analysis

The song I am creating a video for is a cover of the song 'Radioactive' from the American Rock group, Imagine Dragons. I investigated what themes were used throughout both the lyrics and the bands official music video. 

The video starts off with a tracking shot of a hooded girl carrying a covered cage, the video is a mini story of her travels to find the exclusive club and her victory. I really like the idea of having a mysterious person and have the video following them and their story.

The video is shot in avery run down shed, people place bets on competitors and they fight to the death much like gladiators. This gives the video a very dystopian tone. Instruments are in the underground holding place where the competitors are held, suggesting that the band may have once been held here.

The video does have a dystopian element to it but also introduces humour to it by making the competitors puppets, instead of actual people. This makes the video more of a parody than a pastiche to gladiator fighting and fight clubs. 

Later in the video the under dog puppet (one that the girl at the start of the video was carrying in the covered cage) beats the champion and then attacks the bad guys when they try to catch him. The bear actually kills the guys and we see their skeletons when they are being attacked. This adds to the dystopian element that has been used throughout the whole video.

I really liked the idea of the video, I thought having the a video tell a short story and actually follow a character and her journey was a really good idea as the girl creates mystery at the beginning by being hooded. I think when I make my version of the video I will include the mysterious and dystopian themes but present them differently. I think I will have my video telling a story just like the original video does. The video doesn't have full performance shots of the band but it does have the singer singing in some parts. Im not sure if I will add the performance shots to my video as I feel it will distract the audience and take attention away from the story. 

Where would my advertisement be placed?

I've been thinking about where my advertisement would be shown, I decided to research music magazines and look into their audience and see whether the magazines audience are the appropriate audience for my artist. I decided to see what bands are signed with Rise Records, the label that I thought my artist would be suitable for and the label they would be singed with. Rise Records has signed bands such as A Day To Remember, Hands Like Houses, Memphis May Fire and Issues. As the label is based in America, most of the singed artists are American, but the label do sign British artists as well. I investigated what magazines these bands from Rise Records had been featured in and magazines such as Kerrang!, Rock Sound and NME. 

         

• When looking deeper into the content of the magazines I realised that not only did the magazines show album advertisements but also included interviews with new up and coming artists, album reviews, performance reviews, cover opportunities, posters and much more to promote bands and albums. The amount of coverage my artist would get from being in these magazines would be a good move for the promotion and selling of the new album. 
• Using popular magazines such as Kerrang!, Rock Sound and NME means my artist would be shown to a much wider audience than if I decided to place them in local magazines such as Crack, a free music magazine available in Bristol. 
• By selecting more than one magazine that would be suitable, I have exposed my artist to a enormous audience, and can get maximum coverage. The brand Kerrang! not only have a magazine that is sold every week but also have a website, music channel and a radio station, meaning that not only will my advert be shown in the actual magazine but also online, and would possibly get mentioned on the radio and on the tv. 
• The only disadvantage of advertising my album in paid magazines is that I'm only targeting the majority of the target audience that can afford to buy these magazines weekly, where as free magazines are available to any one in the target audience. 
• But by signing with companys such as Kerrang! my album has the potential to be put online, on tv and radio meaning that it could also be exposed to the part of the audience who can't afford to buy the actual magazine. 

Advertisement

• This is the magazine advertisement I made for my digipak. I decided to use a similar theme as I used in the actual digipak, on the advertisement so it would the audience would be able to make the connection when looking in a magazine or in a shop for the album. I used the same background which I used throughout the digipak and changed the colour variation. 
• All font on the advertisement were used in the digipak. I decided to include some names of the songs on the album that would have all ready been released and ones that already have created a 'buzz' about the album and the artist. 
• I included the label that the artist has been signed to, so when people look at the advertisement they will be able to see what sort of genre the artist is, purely by seeing the label and linking them to previous artists they have heard signed on the same label. 
• I put where the album would be available online, such as iTunes, and MyMusic. I included star ratings on the advertisement as well as quotes from magazines that cater to the audience of the rock genre, where I feel my artist would be placed. 
• Instead of using the same picture as the one on the digipak and have it as part of the background, like a lot of other advertisements I have seen do, instead I decided to place the actual album cover on the advert and put a black border around it so it lifted of from the background and was more visible as both have leopard print backgrounds. 
• I'm really pleased with how this advert has turned out, it has a very similar design to the whole of the digipak, but think it has enough differences to ensure that it doesn't look like a copy of one another.
•  I didn't use the same techniques I have seen on a lot of advertisements such as having the actual picture used on the cover or one very similar and blending it in to look as if its part of the background and instead decided to to have it completely separate as I feel it puts more focus on the actual cover and makes it more recognisable when in a shop or online. 

Arctic Monkeys advert analysis

This is another album advert I saw which has a similar style and look that I wanted to do for my own advert. This is for the band Arctic Monkeys. What attracted me to this advert was that it was mainly black, even though it is just a solid black colour it is still able to attract its audience, the white text on the black background heavily contrasts and makes it very striking. This advert shows two star ratings from two popular music magazines. I think they have put the ratings from big magazines on the advert so it shows that it will be a big a popular album and has big names talking about it. Even though there is star ratings, there isn't any reviews that show us what people had to say about, I think that it would have been good to include this. The advert doesn't say the albums name, it just simply states 'New Album' the only way the audience know the name of the album would be by looking at the picture of the cover and finding it on there. Because the album would have already been released when this advert was shown, it just says OUT NOW in big text, telling people that they should go and look for it. I really like the idea of having a picture of the album cover instead of just using the same picture, or one like it. I think out of the two covers I have annotated I will base my advertisement on a similar design to this one. 

You me at six, advert analysis

I thought I would look at album adverts from bands that have a similar style to the artist i'm using that are shown in magazines. Most album adverts (from the same genre of my artist) will only be shown in music magazines such as Kerrang! or RockSound. This is one I saw that was in Kerrang! it is for the album 'Hold Me Down' from the band 'You Me At Six'. This advert has used the same picture that is used on the album cover, instead of just putting a picture of the album on the advert. One thing I thought was strange about this advert was that it didn't show any reviews or star ratings, this is something that I have seen on most of other album adverts even for ones in other genres. In the bottom right hand corner it shows the label that the band were signed to when recording the album and where it was recorded. Centred at the bottom is the website that the album can be downloaded online. The colour of the advert is quite dark and fades into black towards the edges of the pages, there is colour splashes of bright colour, this is from the text and the splashes that are used in the album artwork. This advert doesn't have much on it but because the album art work is very bold and creative, it doesn't need to add much more to it to attract attention and I think that if it did, it would look over done and far too busy. 

Advert mood board

This is a mood board I have created, I wanted to see what things are usually put on a album advertisement that is put in a magazine. A lot of the adverts have a picture of the artist on them, this will usually cover most of the page. When looking at the pictures I realised that the pictures were the cover of the album. They usually show reviews and the date of the release. I think for my advertisement I think I will include a photo of the album so people will know what it looks like and will know what to look for when shopping. The adverts will often list some of the singles that have already been released to show that popular songs feature. All of these adverts have the same colour scheme as they album does, this is to show that they do actually go together and give a hint of what the album will look like. I think for my advertisement I will use a similar background to the one that I have used throughout the digipak, but maybe play around with the colour levels again so it doesn't look identical to the digipak. I think I will include a picture of the album instead of just using a similar picture. I will use the same fonts that have been featured in the digipak on the advert and will include star ratings and reviews. 

Back of digipak

• I didn't make a flatplan for the back of the digipak as I felt they usually have the same designs. I put the barcode in the bottom left corner, so it would be out of the way and wouldn't cover any of the design that was on the background. I included the logo of Rise Records, the studio that would have signed my artist, and the logo of Air Studios which is where the album would have been recorded. 
• I placed these on the bottom right hand corner, so just like the barcode, it wouldn't cover any of the design on the back. I decided to place them track listing in the middle of the page, I did this because when finding a place for it to go, it didn't look right having it off to one side if there wasn't a big picture such as a picture of the artist on the other side balancing it out. 
• Underneath the track listing I put copy right and licensing, I thought it would be a good idea to put this on the back of the album because its something that is put on every album and without it, it would look unprofessional. 
• I'm really happy with how this has turned out and think I have achieved the professional and unique style that I set out to achieve. I think keeping the same background throughout with slight colour variations was a good idea because it all looked like it belonged together but the slight variations  make sure the background doesn't get boring and stops the pages looking like the same. 
• I added little bits of art work on parts of the digipak and think it creates a unique look and style to the album, at first glance I think it has a sort of scrap book look to it. I like how I have managed to combine art and photographs and have managed to do it succesfully. Although the digipak has a lot of information and art in it, I don't think it looks over crowded or messy. 

Digipak

• This is the inside of the digipak I am making. I followed the design of the second flat plan I made and think it has worked really well. I made a template of a CD slot and made it almost transparent so it would blend into the background but would also show where it would be placed and how it would look. 
• I used the same background I used for the cover but decided to play around with the colour levels and use colour variations throughout the digipak, so every page wouldn't look the same. I placed the track listing in the left section. For the header I used the same font I used on the cover and really liked the look of a blocked text. 
• I woudn't have been able to of used the same font for the song names as the letters wouldnt be visible. I didn't think the text would have been visible if it was put straight on to the leopard print background and decided to place it on top of a text box, I lowered the opacity levels so you can see the background through it, i had it fading from back to purple. I made the fade go from black (outer part) to purple (inner part). 
• I reversed the colours but thought it didn't look right having the fade go from light to dark, as I originally put the text box in place so the font would be visible but also having it fade to a colour similar to the background would help the box blend in and not look to blocked. I thought I should include the record the artist would have been signed to and the studio that the album would have been recorded in. 
• Because I put the track listing in the left section, I thought it would be a good idea to put the names of the people who worked on the album in the right hand section and have a brief 'Thank You' from the artist herself.

Flat plans of digipak

These are some flat plans for the inside of my digipak I will be making. I decided to create a digipak like the 'Myth' album I previously looked at, this means that the digipak won't be made out of plastic but will instead fold open and won't have a booklet of lyrics inside.

This is the first design I made, I thought I would see what it would be like if the CD slot was in the left section, I thought it would look good if there was text in the middle section , such as a track listing, the names of the people who worked on the album and maybe the artists 'Thank You's'. On the right section I would put a picture of the artist and place similar drawings that are used on the cover in the background. I don't think that having the CD in the left section is something that I will use for my digipak, as I think because it is the main focus it should be placed centered. I like the idea of having a track listing and other bits of information included in the digipak, because I think if it was placed all on the back, it would be too cluttered and the digipak would look bare and boring. I'm not set on the idea of having a picture of the artist in the digipak aswell as having one on the cover, I think having a similar background to the cover, having drawings and text would make it look too busy.

This is the second design for the digipak i'm making. I placed the CD slot in the middle section and think it looks alot better placed here, making and showing that it is the main feature of the digipak. I thought it would be good to split the text into two different boxes as I thought it would be difficult to place it all in one box. I placed both text boxes on the outer halves of the left and right sections. I would put similar drawings that are on the cover in the remainder parts of the left and right sections, leaving the middle section plain for the CD slot. I think the symmetrical layout of this digipak design works really well and think it woud transfer well. I would be able to have a similar- if not the same background inside and it wouldn't look too cluttered. I decided to leave out a picture of the artist inside because I think it would take up too much space and would make it look too busy and messy.

Digipak cover

• This is the cover the digipak I made. I decided to use the design from the first flatplan I made. For this I used a photo of the artist Lauren Figurski, I thought the idea of her drinking tea would contrast against the name of the album 'Wild' making the cover some what humorous. 
• I decided to put a leopard background as it went well with the title. For the flowers that I have put on the backgroud, I painted them in a tattoo style and then scanned the painting into my computer. I wanted to have them fading as they went down the page, so the ones on the top of the cover are at full opacity and the ones at the bottom are barely visable. 
• I really liked the stamped font I have used on the cover, but the letters were originally transparent meaning theat what ever the colour the background would be, the letters would also be. To prevent the letters being leopard print like the background and not very visable, I put a white rectangle shape and placed the text on top of it, I think it works best in white as it contrasts against the black surrounding and doesn't get lost in the colour of the background, like a colour such as pink would. 
• I put a  'Parental Advisory' sticker in the bottom left hand corner as some of the lyrics included would be explicit. I put it in the corner because it would be out of the way, wouldn't cover any of the design and would still be visiable. I think the stye of the roses, the colour and style of the text and the 'Parental Advisory' sticker all contribute to give the cover a pop-punk style that fits with the style music within the album. 
• I'm really pleased with how the cover has turned out and think that I will use a similar background and drawing/painting style in the rest of the digipak.

Digipak flat plans

 I have been designing some flat plans for the cover of my digipak. These are 2 of the designs, the ones I think will look best on a cover.

This is the first one I made, I decided to place the artist in the center of the page and have a close up shot. I placed the parental advisory sticker in the bottom left corner so it would be out of the way and wouldn't cover any of the design on the cover. I put the name of the artist and the name of the album at the top of the cover. On the background I thought it would be a good idea to do some drawings and paintings and photoshop them into the background and have them fading as they go down the page.

This is the second plan I made, I thought I would see what it would look like to only show half of the artists face. I thought it would be good to use a plain but bright background with just the name of the artist and of the album and keep it fairly plain. I kept the parental advisory sticker in the bottom left hand corner like I did on the other plan, as I feel it is the best and most convenient place to have it. I'm not too pleased with how this one looks and don't like the way the half face picture looks. 

For my cover I think I will use the first plan, I think the placement of the artist, and the name of the artist and album work best when placed in the center (picture of the artist) and along the top of the page (name of artist and of the album). I think the idea of having drawings and paintings fading down the page will be a good design and will give the album a sort of scrap book and vintage feel to it. 

Myth digipak analysis

• When looking at the design of digipaks I found out that there are variations of the layout. This is one I found that doesn't follow the usual design that are used for digipaks. 
• The first thing I noticed was that there wasn't a little booklet used in these ones, all of the text, and information was neatly placed within this or sometimes even put on the back, the only thing that is missing that would have been placed within the booklet is the songs lyrics. 
• I liked that they hadn't used lyrics in this one, as I feel they aren't always needed and honestly seem to just be page fillers. I feel that having the lyrics in a booklet is an old convention and it something that does seem to be dying out. 
• Usually the CD slot in these type of digipaks are placed in the middle section, unless there is two in that case they are placed in the left and right sections, but this one has only one discbut it is still placed in the left section, to me this seems like a strange placement. 
• This digipak has a very dark and dull colour scheme which consists of black, and brown but has colour splashes of a dull orange colour. The colour scheme and the background used in the photos give the impression of the enviroment, character and maybe even music are all grunge and dark. Like the Evanescence digipak, this one does follow the convention of using the same style photos within the digipak and these are usually from the same photoshoot.
• Less materials would be used to create this style digipak meaning it would be cheaper to make, giving the artist and the company more of a profit. Althought it would be cheaper and uses less materials, I don't think it cheapens the look of the digipak and actually makes it looks smarter and professional.

• I really like the layout of this digipak and think it is how I will layout the digipak I create, I think I will place the CD slot in the centre section and have pictures, track listing and other information in the left and right sections. For the cover I haved a leopard print design for the background because it worked and supported the albums name 'Wild' so I think I will continue using the leopard print but maybe try using colour variations to make it look a bit different to the cover. 
• On the cover I also painted a tattoo styled rose and scaned it in to place on the cover, I really liked the mix of having an actual photo, and my art on the cover so think I will maybe try adding some other drawings and paintings in the digipak. I won't be including lyrics in my digipak as I wont be including a booklet and feel that lyrics would be a waste of space and materials as they aren't vital for the digipaks success.

Editing software

This is something I worked on too get familiar with the software I will be using to create my albums digipak. I wanted to play around and learn some new techniques such as the layering techniques and creating vector masks. I really like the look of creating vector masks from parts of images, layering the vector masks and fading them out. I created vector masks from an image of my cousin painted as a skeleton, I also made vector masks from pictures of a clock, my painting of a rose and some flowers I had. For the background image I went to the coast road in Severn Beach/ Piling at night, I had the camera set on to a firework setting, this means that the shutter speed is slowed down, meaning the camera will capture movement as more is being absorbed. The movement in the picture is lights from cars and lorries. Because the lens is open for a longer time and all movement is being captured this leads to the light creating a line that drags across the whole image. I really like the look of the light being dragged across the page and like how I have edited the lights a purple colour that goes with the colours of the flowers. I really enjoyed using these techniques and think i will try some of them on my actual cover and digipak.

Evanescence digipak analysis

I decided to look deeper into the genre of the music I would be promoting in the video and digipak. I looked at other digipaks to see if there was a certain theme or rule that occured in rock/punk album covers.

Because I'm promoting a female artist in this project, I started looking at covers done by bands that had a female vocalist.

• This is the album from Evanescence, called 'Fallen' which was released on the 4th of March 2003. This cover followed many things that I have seen on other albums from other genres, such as having a close up shot female's face on the cover and having the name of the artist and the name of the album centred on the top. 
• With the name of the artist and of the album, I liked how the little design around the text connected them and made them look like they went together instead of having them put on as two seperate pieces of text. 
• I thought the look of the females face was quite intense, and thought that by having only her eyes in focus added to the intensity of her expression. The colour scheme of this album was something that made me interested in looking deeper at it, the only colours are blue, black and white which are all dull colours with sad and dark connotations. 
• The colour levels have been enhanced making the dark colours darker and making the light ones even lighter, making them contrast and giving the skin on the female a sort of glowing skin. I like how they have put a little black design around the cover and changing the opacity levels, making some parts strong and stand out where as other parts sort of faded into the background. 
• I found it strange that they put the design over part of her eyebrow hiding the piercing she had there. I thought they ghostly and intense look of the female along with the dark and dull colour scheme and even the name 'Fallen' sets the tone for the album, showing that the music inside may be dark and instense and may even touch on the subject of death (ghostly look of female). From being a fan of the band I know that they have decided to put Amy Lee on the cover who is the vocalist, instead of having a picture of the whole band, by singling her out I feel that they are trying to suggest that she may be the front man and may lead people to the conclusion that could be the most important member. I really like the look of this cover and even though it does follow conventions of other albums that have a female vocalist, they do it in such a different and dark way that although it is just a picture of the vocalist, it has a lot of emotion and shows the band and the music style.

• This is the centre fold of the digipak, on this page it feautres something that artists often put in digipaks called 'Thank yous' this is where the members take it in turns to list people in their life who they want to thank. For this digipak they have put the text in a black vertical box with white text. The white on black contrasts and makes the text visible. 
• I think it was a good idea to put the text in a black box because otherwise it would be lost in the background. All of the pictures used in the digipak are from the same photoshoot and have had simliar editing. The colour scheme throughout the digipak is blue, black and white and the colours have been over enhanced to make them contrast and give the appearance of them not being human. 
• The band are all wearing black and have a similar facial expression. The clothing they are wearing looks like it could be a somewhat uniform and doesn't allow the band to show their personality throught their clothing. Because this is the centre fold of the digipak the band has been careful and haven't placed any ones face in the middle, because this will have the fold line and crease in it, going through their face, this is something that I should be careful with when designing my centre fold. 
• In the background in this picture is similar to the design that is dotted around on the cover of the album, that went over Amy's face. I like how they have continued to use it in the rest of the cover and changes from being very dark and bold in some places to being very light and almost not visible in other places, just like it did on the cover. 
• Only two of the members are that visible in this picture. Two of the members are in the foreground and are in focus but the other two are just in the background and are blurred. I don't like how they have done this,as it almost looks like the two members in the background arent as important to the ones in the front and gives them the appearance of being distant from the other two. 
• I like how they have used the same photo shoot throughout the digipak and how they have used similar editing techniques and themes throught, showing that even if the pages get seperated that they belong together.

• This is the back of the digipak for the album 'Fallen' the back of the digipak features the other 3 members of the band who aren't shown on the cover because only Amy is, none of the members are looking at the camera on this picture where as Amy on the front cover is looking into it. 
• The member in the foreground is looking down and is even putting his hand up as if he's trying to cover up the camera. Only one of the members is in focus on this picture (the same one who is in the foreground with Amy on the centre fold) and the other two members are in the background, blurred out so much that you can't even see the expression on their faces.
• The members are all in dark clothing like they have been throughout the digipak. On both the left and right side of the picture there is text going down the page vertically, the text is the bands name, the album name and the label the band are signed with. I can see how it would be good to put this information down one side of the picture but don't see why it has been put down on both. 
• The producers who worked with the band on this album are listed on the bottom of the page but in very small font which isn't very visible. The track listing is something that is put on the back of most albums and usually takes up most of the room, but with this cover the track listing is very small and put on the limited black space there is, the font is in white and would have been lost on the picture so they have tried to place it on whatever black space is available but in return has made it really small, this has happened because they have decided to put a picture of the band on the back which is something that isn't usually done. 
• This album has the barcode on the back of the album, this is usually done because the main, big picture is put on the front of the album and the back is usually left quite plan so by putting the barcode on the back , it isn't covering any of the design on the front, but with this album it also has a picture on the back but have decided to keep the convention of keeping the barcode on the back. 

Second artist survey

I did two sperate surveys, one in town and the other at school. For each of the surveys I asked 30 people, making 60 responses in total. The light purple blocks on the graph are show the responses from town and the dark purple blocks show the responses of school. Because there was mixed views on the online survey I decided to do another survey and see if I could get a better idea of what people liked to see on Digipaks.

For the first question I asked "Do you prefer male or female vocalists?" overall female artists were the favoured gender of vocalist and had a total of 27 out of the 60 responses chose female. Male vocalists only had a total of 11 responses out of the 60, showing that the were the least favoured out of the options. I gave an option of 'doesn't bother me' to see if people were overly bothered about the gender, this response got a total of 22 responses. These results show me that people don't really mind about the gender of the artist but if they had to choose they would go with the female option.

For this question I asked "What do you like to see featured on the cover of a Digipak?" I wanted to see if people preferred to have a picture of the band on the cover or if they liked to see somwething different, such as graphics or pieces of art. 17 of the responses said that they liked to see a photograph of the band/artist on the cover, 19 of the responses said that they liked to see graphics and art on the cover, and the remainding 24 said that they would like to see a mixture of both photos and graphics, making the cover more like a collage. This shows me that most people have moved on from the old style of simply having the band on the cover and would like to see something different and interesting. I think to make my cover appeal to a wide audience I will include both the artist and some art.

For this question I asked "When buying an album, does the design of the cover influence your buy?" 15 of the resonses said that if they saw a cover that interested them that they would be influenced to buy it. 19 of the responses said that the cover didn't influence them, they would only buy an album for the band and the music. 25 of the responses said that they were sometimes tempted to buy an album if it had an interesting cover but the artist would have to be in the same genre of the music they usually listen to and that they would prefer to know a few songs of the artist.