Planning Digipak - Miss Miller

Digipaks are different from jewel CD cases fro several reasons, one of these noticeable differences is that Digipak's often include more content than a jewel CD case, digipaks have 6 sides of content for the audience to look at and read so there is a lot more artwork for the album than just buying or purchasing the normal jewel CD case. Digipak's are very important to an artists image as it shows their audiences they are appreciative of all this support they have been given, it also shows that they have a lot of content to give audiences because of the digipak. Digipaks also include extra songs as well as better picture quality than CD's, this encourages loyal fans to buy this digipak for this extra content they're getting from their favourite artist. For this task i will be creating my own digipak for me and my group's artist "John Spencer" but before this digipak i will plan the pictures that i want for me my groups digipak, the reason why i am planning it is because it will give me and my group a good idea of what pictures we should take while filming.

In my digipak, i have tried to use colours effectively within my digipak whilst trying to keep them to a minimum. Within all the 6 photos the audience can see colour, green, blue, brown and red as well as some colours like white, grey or black. The colours are also quite faded, meaning the audience can just about see the colours. These colours are designed like this so that the digipak is more appealing to the audience as they add more life to the digipak and so that it grabs the audiences attention when they start looking at it, however the other colours i mentioned are quite dull and lifeless which is a direct contrast to what i just mentioned about the colours, this contrast in colours could connote that the artist is comparing his old life to his new life in terms of fame and that he made it into the industry and talks about the hard times in the digipak. The colours therefore appeal to the audience because they will understand this hidden connotation and will start to think of all the troubles our artists went through in order to become famous as the dull colours used convey a sort of realistic perspective of the digipak and the audience are able to relate to it more.

Typography in my digipak has been created to follow the conventions of the indie music genre so that indie audiences find the digipak more appealing. The tyopgraphy in the digipak is simple but hand written as well, however, there is one use of typography that contrasts to this writing, this is where the album title "Rock Bottom" is. The typography is supposed to be hand written for a purpose or connotation that the audience should understand, the reason it's hand written is because it conveys that the artist actually wrote all of this, showing that he cares for his audiences and that the digipak is very personal to himself, meaning that the album may include songs that talk about the artists past. This promotes our artist as fans will appreciate that this is personal to him and the efforts he has gone through to make sure his audience know that the digipak means a lot to him. This would differ from a jewel CD case because there wouldn't be as much writing on the case as there are on the digipak meaning that the digipak has more content from the artists themselves and the fact it looks hand written by the artist was done purposely so that the audience can build up a relationship with the artist.

Language is used quite differently throughout the digipak for several reasons, some aspects are kept simple yet some a bit more complicated. Most of the language used in the digipak is kept short giving basic details to the audience about the artists name, the digipak title as well as the songs name, however the language becomes a bit more colloquial/informal where the artist has written a message to his target audience explaining how thankful he is for their purchase and continued support of his music where it says "from the bottom of my heart, thank you" clearly showing that this is the artists opinion. This appeals to our target audience as they will feel flattered that he has actually addressed them and has appreciated their support over the years. In a jewel CD case, you wouldn't find this sort of message, meaning this little note acts as a reward for the purchase, the artist thanks the audience member for being a respected and loyal fan for the artist. This again just how personal the digipak is for the artist as he thanks the target audience for the purchase. The colloquial language is implying that the artist doesn't consider them users and consumers that buy into an artists lifestyle for the sake of it, but he is instead thanking the audience for their support which is what makes audiences feel flattered.

I would say that my digipak follows the conventions of an indie as I tried to create it this way and it does follow standard conventions of the genre very well. Firstly most of the sides of the digipak use the typical convention of showing a guitar to emphasise that it's an indie music digipak for the indie target audience that our artist is trying to appeal towards, another use of an indie convention is the artists clothes, they're supposed to be the same clothes he wears in the music video showing the artists particular style that the audience will be able to associate with later when hearing one of his songs. This appeals to our indie target audience as they will respect the artists for applying himself to these conventions and to show audiences this is the type of music our artists produces. The digipak promotes our artist as the fact that he is an indie artist will generate hype and buzz surrounding that particular fan base. The use of conventions is to build up a relationship between the artist and the audiences of the indie genre as they will normally be the first to listen to the music to see if the artist is any good.

The images i created for the digipak were also used effectively in terms of the genre conventions. As stated earlier, i used the guitar to evoke the meaning that the artist is a indie artist which gains him credibility among that particular audience, the images also include the artist in 4 different locations, a blank page and a picture of some rocks. The rocks first of all work in tandem with the digipak title "Rock Bottom" as the rocks in the picture are at the bottom of the picture, this means the songs on the album will talk about his bad times in the past as the phrase rock bottom always has a negative connotation. The 4 pictures of the artist also connote that the digipak will be personal for the artist and it has many different high quality pictures of himself inside, however the fact that the locations are all different connotes that the artist had to leave his old neighborhood in order to become successful and sometimes when he did this, it didn't always work his way. This therefore appeals to the indie target audience because it shows he follows the conventions of the genre, the audience will pick up on this and associate him with the genre. This differs from a jewel CD case because the CD case won't be able to include as many pictures that the digipak offers therefore making it less meaningful for the audience and a lot less personal.

The layout and design of the digipak was also very important to get right because if it wasn't done to a presentable standard then it would mean that our artist wouldn't be successful in the industry. The front cover of the digipak is the first image in the table and the last image is the back cover of the digipak with a list of songs, the other very important image was the 3rd one as this image is where the disk will be located in the digipak. The layout of the front and back of the digipak is important because this means that people will assume that the songs on the back are well known songs from the artist that are available to listen to on this digipak. Some audiences may see the song names and think that they haven't heard a particular song before and will purchase the digipak for this reason. The other pictures are all personal pictures of the artist as well as a personal note that he left for the audience member that purchased the digipak, the digipak illustrates that the images inside the covers are all to suggest the personal tone of the songs towards the audience. It promotes our artist effectively as the audience will respect the fact that he's talking about his past and all the troubles he faced in order to accomplish his dreams of becoming successful in the music industry, this therefore makes the audience feel as if they have been thanked for their continued support and encourages them to spread the fact that the artists music is very personal to them which builds up more of a relationship between the artist and audiences which in turn encourages them to buy into his lifestyle.

Risk Assessment - Miss Georgiou

A risk assessment is a piece of documentation that outlines all the risks the creators of a piece of media could face when making a film of some sort. The documentation doesn't just talk about risks, it also helps understanding how serious an issue could be when filming, and the steps the creators could take to avoid anything bad happening whilst filming, the creators also create a backup plan just in case one solution doesn't work out as well. A risk assessment is important to consider before filming because if people went out and filmed but it started to rain, then they wouldn't know what to do, they wouldn't have a way to manage the risk and they wouldn't be able to film. Planning ahead helps because it ensures the crew are able to overcome the risk so that nothing is in danger whatsoever and that nothing is broken while filming. Below is the risk assessment i made for when we start filming our music video:

An additional risk we encountered while filming was when a rather drunk individual approached us and offered us an alcoholic beverage, me and my group refused the offer as they could have been spiked and in general it's just a rather odd question, as said before, we politely refused his offer. The man then walked off so me and my group carried on our filming efforts in Liverpool street. Another risk we encountered was the weather when filming, on particular days the forecast was wrong and the weather was bad for filming, this was also a continuity issue as some shots showed it was a clear day but if we filmed when the weather and it showed rain it couldn't make much sense. I have learnt that the role of a risk assessment is to prepare a group for the worst circumstances that could happen when filming, they also show a group that there is a way around most problems as long as there is a plan for it.

Filming schedule - Miss Georgiou

A filming schedule is very important to have when planning the shots for your media product because it gives you a very good guideline to follow when it comes to filming. For example, for each frame of the storyboard we had to make a description of what would happen in the frame, the camera technique used and how long it will be used for, the iconography we will bring to filming, the time and date the group are able to film and etc. The whole schedule was very helpful as Me and my group were communicating a lot to clear up when we could film and what time we were all available.

One change that we made was the filming location of new playing location, we specified that the new location would still be in Liverpool Street, however due to the very small window of a filming opportunity with a couple of our other mates, we had to instead film in Loughton High Road so that the other people could get there quicker and so that we could start filming as soon as we found a good location in the High Road. Another change we made during filming was the use of equipment, we always brought the camera and tripod, however we never utilised the tripod to the best of our ability, this was due to short time periods of when our group could film and getting the tripod set up took a bit of time and me and my group couldn't afford to not utilise all the time that we had. A change that me and my group made when filming was an additional scene we created where the mugger steals the artists money, there is a very short reaction shot of the artist looking where the mugger is running, we created this to show further variation of camera techniques utilised in our music video. A filming schedule is very important to the role of producing a media product as it allows a group to follow these guidelines in order to create their product and it also clears up a lot of confusion when filming as it allows the group to look back at the filming schedule to see what shot is next.

Planning magazine advert - Miss Miller

Magazine adverts are very important in terms of advertising an artists new album for several reasons, one it lets the artists' audience know that they're planning to release a new album for their audience so it gets hype and buzz as well as word of mouth started among the artists fans. The advert advertises the artist so the audiences know that this is his style of music, the advert will present the genre the artist is trying to appeal to so that audiences of that genre will be interested in a new artist for the genre that they're fans of, making our artist appeal to those audiences. One more additional reason magazine adverts are effective is because they act as constant reminders of an artists new album towards the audience, as they probably have seen posters and TV adverts about their new album for a while, the magazine advert further emphasises to the audience the artists new album being released, this makes sure that audiences won't forget about their new album and will buy it to see why there has been so many different advertisements of this new artist. Me and my group will be creating our own magazine advert for our own artist, to do this we had to take on board existing magazine adverts of the same genre so we could take inspirations when we created our own magazine advert, this genre was the indie rock genre. Me and my group had to create individual adverts but to try and make sure they kept within the boundaries of the indie genre conventions so that they would actually look as if we had a famous artist for the advert and to make it look as professional as possible.

I will now analyse my magazine advert that I have done to illustrate the different meanings and conventions i was going for. I'll start with the colour of the magazine advert and why I chose very basic black and white for the magazine ad. Black and white has often been a conventional colour combination of the indie genre for years now, this idea came from one Jake Bugg's first albums magazine advert which was also black and white, the reason behind my choice of black and white was because it would make the magazine advert look very conventional and professional for our artist. The magazine advert will attract our target audience towards our artists new album because it's conventional to other magazine adverts, as discussed before the colour makes this conventional to the indie rock genre, this means that our target audience will relate to this as it's their favourite genre of music and will be open to new additions to the genre. This will give our artist a good representation in the indie genre because indie audiences will begin to like him more so as he appeals to indie audiences, the advert also demonstrates the hidden connotation that the album might be very dark about his life before being famous.

The magazine advert I have created can clearly be associated with indie rock conventions for several reasons. Firstly the artist is playing a guitar on the magazine advert, this is conventional to the indie genre because most indie solo artists sing, write and play their own songs so that their audiences respect them more for their talent in the music industry, another convention followed in the poster is the artist wearing similar clothing that is associated with the artists particular image in most forms of media like interviews, videos, posters, magazines articles etc. as he will be wearing the same clothes that he does in the video, one last convention followed in the advert I have created is the black and white colours that were discussed before hand. The guitar the artist is holding will attract an audience because they will appreciate the lengths he'll go to in order to satisfy his audience, they will also respect the artists talent as it shows he can perform, sing and write all his own music. The artist wearing similar clothing is a convention in the music industry as builds up an artists image, wearing certain clothing allows the audience to associate some styles of clothing with the artist at hand, making them build up more of a relationship with the audience.

The next element i'll discuss for the creation of my magazine advert are the images that i have used, there is only one but it's the content i will look at. The image shows the artist resting on a wall playing the guitar, he is wearing all black and has scruffy hair, these two traits will be commonly associated with the artist that me and my group have created for the music video, the image also shows the artist playing in an urban area as he is rested on a brick wall. The images in the advert convey that the artist is dark and gloomy as portrayed through the use of his clothes, showing that the artist is a dark character with dark emotions that he evokes through his music, the urban area the artist is in shows that this is how he grew up or this is where he lived before getting famous, his darker past that not many of his fans would know until the release of his new album.

The next element i'll discuss within my magazine advert is the use of the layout and design to create different meanings. One example i'll discuss first is the design choice, there is writing all over the artist detailing who he is, the release of his new album, the artists name, the album name as well as some songs he has made that audiences may have heard of. Anyway, it's pretty clear he's covered by writing in the advert, the writing is supposed to connote the information surrounding him and what all these people say about him, however, when you look through all of this, the audience finds that artist's core, his truest form almost, this connotes that the artist doesn't necessarily care for these labels but wants the audience to learn something about his past before becoming famous so they understand the hardships he has had to overcome and for the audience to relate to him as they understand the troubles he has gone through in order to accomplish their dreams.

The next element i'll discuss is the typography of the poster and why it is used. The typography or font is quite noticeably basic and is hand written, however there is reason for this, this is because the artist doesn't want to focus on appealing to other audiences who like golden coloured as well as shiny fonts, the artist instead wants to stay true to his target audience and wants to show them that he is indie rock so that they buy the album out of support for the artist. The connotation I tried to achieve as discussed before is that the reason it's basic is because the artist doesn't necessarily want to appeal to other audiences and would much rather to true to his current audiences as they have followed his music for longer and want the best out of his music. The next element i'll look at is the language of the magazine advert. The writing of the advert is kept to a minimum therefore the audience aren't overwhelmed with a barrage of information, however it contains all the information the audience need and i kept short and formal. This is to make sure the audience relate to the language used as they don't expect to see paragraphs of information nor do they want to, this connotes that the artist just wants the artist to like the music and not just the writing that advertises, this is because the artist feels he has more of a voice in the music industry.

The final element that i'll be talking about in terms of my magazine advert is the connotations or secret meaning behind the advert. The connotation i was aiming for was conventional to the indie genre, i purposely made it black and white to show the darker tone to the artists music, to further imply this the artist is wearing mostly black clothes, the urban area suggests this is the sort of area the artist grew up and finally the name of the album also suggests the songs come from very dark places in his life as it is called "Rock Bottom" a term associated with someone being at their lowest point emotionally. The connotation of the album is essentially that it contains songs that are true to artist as he struggled his way into the music industry as well as some songs that convey a darker side to the artist that audiences weren't aware of beforehand.

Storyboards - Miss Georgiou

Storyboards are essential to the creation of visual forms of media as it's the easiest to understand and look back at when creating the actual film or video as it contains all the necessary information needed to capture the shot you want for the audience, it even contains what the producers want to see in the form of the images as that's how they've seen the scene being visualized in their heads. They're helpful as they allow producers to note down exactly what they want when the scene is being made for the video or the film, basically contains all the information for the directors to try and implement.

The primary research was very helpful when planning the music video and was very helpful, after the results me and my group got from our audiences via questionnaires and vox pops, we understood that audiences liked a set of conventions within the indie genre music videos. Some of these conventions we've planned to implement into our work include strong messages some people don't want to think, in our video me and my group have tried to get across the difficulty one faces when achieving their dreams of becoming successful in whatever industry, me and my group also conveyed that you can't do it alone as our artist won't be successful by the end of the video. The secondary research we carried out through the use of our research posts was also very effective, me and my group took several different inspirations form these posts, one was to have our artist performing throughout the video to the audience as it would feel a lot more like a personal song that the audience was watching.

Me and my group did our storyboards quite fairly, at first all 3 of us were writing the content of each scene which included cinematography, iconography, editing and the narrative description which basically means what happens in the shot. As said before, we all took part in this until another task needed to be done, I focused on this task while my other group members focused on getting as many frames done as possible for our music video. After lesson we still had more to do so 2 of us met up and noted as many frames as we could, thinking of as much as we could for different techniques to make it look good for the audience. Afterwards I was given the sheets and i had to do as many different frames I could before giving the sheets to another group member to do at home. As me and my group only had a few frames left we spent one last lesson on the storyboards and finished perfectly in time with the music videos duration. After the content of boxes was done, we each took home several sheets to draw the frames for, I offered to do an additional storyboard page as I felt the other two had done quite a lot already while I worked on another task so I thought it was fair this way.

We shared the responsibility of completing the drawings of the frames by assessing who had done a lot of writing of the storyboards and who hadn't done as much, I felt that I hadn't done as much as the other two so i felt that it was my responsibility to do more of the drawings of the frames at home whenever i had some free time.

Magazine advert analysis - Miss Miller

There are many reasons why artists have an album advertisement inside a popular magazine of the same genre, for one it advertises the album for the artist so if anyone who reads the magazine is a fan of the artist sees the new album then they will start to generate hype and buzz around the albums release date which creates a wider target audience as people are talking about the new album that's been advertised. The magazine advertisement also ties in with other forms of advertisements like posters and tv advertisements, all these different forms of advertising act as a constant reminder for the audience so that they will buy the album the moment it becomes available, this is because they've seen it in various forms of advertisements so they are inclined to believe that it's going to be good because of all the advertising. First I will be analysing the shangri la album magazine advert for Jake Bugg.

Before I begin to analyse this magazine advert I will be talking about the name of the album itself, shangri la is a functional location in a book, it's described as harmonious and peaceful, symbolising paradise in the real world, it could be that Bugg was trying convey this about his music for his audience so that they'd research the words shangri la and find the hidden connotation within the advert, listening to Bugg's music is almost like a paradise is probably what Bugg was attempting to achieve.

The magazine advertisement represents Bugg as a typical and conventional indie artist, this is evident to audiences as he is playing a guitar, it conveys that he writes his own music so it comes across more personally from the artist to the audience. This is effective for Jake Bugg because it means indie audiences that see this advertisement will see the artist is appealing to the indie genre and will become inclined to see if the artists previous album was any good, gaining Bugg more sales from his previous album and getting audiences ready for this album. The other representation that can be noted is that he is alone, this emphasised by the fact you clearly see only his shadow as another entity in the advertisement, this could show hoe personal his new album will be and how he is making this specially for his fans.

The connotation of this advert is that Bugg will be reflecting past actions throughout the songs involved with this new album. This connotation is clearly evoked in the advertisement as the audience can see a perfect reflection of Jake Bugg through the use of shadows in the shot. The shadows represent the past that Bugg has tried to keep secret in his songs, the stuff he has kept behind himself, in the shot, the shadow is clearly behind Bugg so the audience recognise the connotation the advertisement of the new album and associate new songs with this idea when listening to his new album, this further entices the audience to buy the album as they want to know what he'll talk about in the album.

The advertisement cleverly uses the colours to associate the album name "Shangri la" with the colours presented in the magazine advert. The most prominent colour in the advert is gold, gold is normally associated with a high life style, very rich and respected artists in their respective fields. Bugg isn't attempting to come across in such a way. Bugg is wearing all black as this is his style of clothing in most of his videos, his songs sometimes have darker meanings so the colour of the clothes is appropriate, however Bugg trying to present his music and himself as popular but remains wearing black. This is to show his core audience he isn't changing and will attempt to keep up his style of music that came before this album. This is effective for Bugg because it shows he is still willing to stick to his roots, to could connotes he will try new areas but still remain fairly close to his material when it comes to writing his music.

The layout of the advert is also done effectively as it further connotes previous suspicions about what the album will be about. Bugg is standing to the left of the writing while still staying centered in the shot, his shadow connects with writing displaying the necessary information of the albums release date, the artist, the name of the album and a song that will feature in the album. This confirms to the audience that it will be about past actions as the shadow of the artist with the guitar reaching to the advert clearly demonstrates that it will be about Bugg's past as all of the information is behind him but his shadow, caused by himself, is reaching for these memories to create an album that is truly something that he wanted to create. This is conventional to the indie genre because it shows the music is based on serious subject matters involving the artist in some way.

The choices of image clearly portray the conventions of the indie genre that Bugg is trying to achieve. One example of this is key where the audience see where Bugg is positioned in the shot, he is standing away from the writing, away from the important details, the audience also see Bugg holding his preferred instrument when performing. The convention of the indie genre followed here is that Bugg is a loner, he prefers to be away from all the detail and instead wants to just get by doing what he wants to do which is demonstrated in this advert, the guitar is also conventional to the image because most indie artists perform with an instrument as they come across to audiences as more talented.

The typography or font is conventional to the indie genre for several reasons in this magazine advertisement. One is that the writing is easily readable, it's plain and simple but it's easy to read but gives off an impression that the artist doesn't want to go for any outlandish effects for the writing of an advert, this is a convention of the indie genre as the writing is always just simple to read writing rather writing that conveys something about the artist, the colour also stands out form the background as it's much darker than the gold light. One more point to mention is the actual style of the language for the advert, for example the phrase "me and you" is colloquial language. The style of the font conveys that the artist stands out from the regular indie genre music bands because of the font, it is read because it stands out, this could have an implied meaning that Bugg's music is naturally enjoyable because it stands out from the regular indie music. As for the language of the advert, it's supposed to be informal language as the artist literally means "me and you", this is to further illustrate the meaning that the album is personal from him to his core target audience.

The advert promotes the music genre because it's saying that Bugg will reinvent the industry, this will get indie genre fans excited for the release of the album as they want to know why the release of someones new album will change their preferred industry as they know it. The poster applies to indie fans as it shows the artist is talented with the guitar in the middle of the frame, this also applies to the indie genre convention of having the artists play an instrument best suited to them. The poster promotes the artist through the use of the gold colouring, the light comes from the front of Bugg in the advertisement, which could suggest that Bugg has a prominent career ahead of him that will lead to him becoming very successful in the industry.

The next artist i'll be referring to in terms of magazine adverts is Ed Sheeran's debut album advert, as before the artist has been represented in a certain in a very certain way for the audience to understand. One demonstration of this representation is the fact that the artist's face takes up half the advert picture, this shows that he talks about personal experiences from his past before he became so famous, however the picture is half filled with orange or in this case darkness, this conveys that he will be releasing some songs that may be dark in lyrical content that he went through earlier in his life. This is conventional as artists of the indie genre do tend to talk about experiences that have happened in their lives as it builds up more of a relationship between the artist and the target audience.

Connotations are quite difficult to grasp as there isn't a great amount of detail but there are some connotations. A connotation of this advert is that his music will stand out from the regularity from the indie genre as the artist himself is standing out from the darkness which, as said previously, is orange. This is clearly trying to connote that Ed Sheeran will stand out in the music industry and will change it significantly, the interpretation of this comes from the fact that Ed Sheeran's face is brightly standing out against the darkness in the image, this is trying to suggest that Ed Sheeran is the music industry's hope for new material as well as showing that he will change the music industry, his target audience will understand the hidden meaning and will try to support him on his journey of achieving massive amounts of success.

The colours are very limited but as said previously, there is still plenty to talk about that suggest different meanings involving the artist. The artist is presented in a way that makes his target audience think that he can heal their wounds in emotional terms and that his music will help them through their current turmoil. This is evident through the use of white in the advert, 4 things are deliberately white, this includes Sheeran's face so the audience identify with him, the name "Ed Sheeran" so they draw the connection that the face belongs to this name, a cross which i'll get back to and a buy now advert from whenever you browse certain sites. The use of white is to show connections of all these 4 things, the cross ties in with the idea of healing someones emotional wounds because a cross that is in the poster is mostly used when referring to the red cross medical services, further implying that Ed Sheeran can heal your wounds emotionally and not the literal sense of physically healing you.

The design of the poster is conventional to the indie genre as it's simple. The audience are presented with an image of the artist that has created all this music, firstly the design choice of orange is unconventional but does work as a form of darkness for the artist in the advert, the layout is very simple to follow, the information about purchasing and release is in black while the artist the name and the icon (cross) are in white which creates a particular style for the artist. The design has been chosen to be this vague with some information because it makes audiences feel inclined to buy the album to find out more about the artist and why the design and layout has been the vague, it further connotes that mysterious darker side to himself implied by the advert colours. The target audience understand this deeper meaning behind the design and buy the album due to it's vagueness as well as the fact that the artist is presented in a personal way for the audience.

Though there is only one image it does convey a lot about Ed Sheeran. The colours are used effectively in the image because it connotes that there is darkness but there is light in Ed Sheeran's life, the image also conveys how personal the album is to the artist because the audience only see the artist face but is shows he is serious, his facial expressions seem stern, this conveys that Ed Sheeran really wants to become famous and that he is dedicated to become successful in the music industry. The target audience relate to the artist because they build a relationship with Sheeran due to the fact that they know what he looks like and that he is serious about becoming famous and are willing to support him through this time of his.

The typography is kept to a simple degree again and is made to be read simply. The font and the colour of the font male it stand out easily from the orange background of the advert, the language of the text formal, keeping the audience updated on when they are able to purchase the album for themselves as they're probably very good fans of Ed Sheeran by this point, but there isn't much text to go on for discussion for this advert. The font and the colour of the font are supposed to represent Ed Sheeran by making the text stand out for audiences to see, it's vital they see this because the target audience will only take this information in and would already be excited to purchase the album. This is due to the fact the album is kept a mystery from the audiences so that they're more inclined to purchase it, to find out why the album advert was kept so vague.

The advert promotes the indie genre through the use of lighting in the image, the light suggests that Sheeran will have a bright future in the music industry especially in the indie industry as he is supposed to represent in the advert a bright new beginning as the album is titled "debut album" meaning the artists first album, it shows that the genre is welcoming a new artist which attracts more varied audiences as he was very popular by this time. The advert promotes the artist by showing the audience that this is Sheeran's passion, this is what he aims to do, this is implied by the seriousness of his face in the image because it demonstrates his goals of becoming influential in the industry. The advert attracts an audience as he is presented so that people think he is going to a massive influence on music years to come so audiences are going to see what the fuss is about and buy the album to understand the hype that was surrounding the artist at the time.

In conclusion, this research will help when planning my own magazine advert for our artist as the artist we'll be making belongs to the same genre as the two artists discussed above so it would be good to take some influences here and to use them when it comes to creating our one. One idea I plan on implementing when making the magazine advert is presenting very little detail to the audience as this is a magazine poster and should be kept short with not too much information that may overwhelm the audience.

Digipak Analysis - Miss Miller

Digipaks are 6 sided paperboard or cardboard books that have additional information about an artist and are normally packaged for special edition CD albums. Digipaks also contain higher quality images than the normal edition of the CD, this is so that the digipak may appeal to the artists audience as they will see that the quality of the images are better and think that the overall album is probably better as they've changed the look of the album, which achieves the artist profit. Another addition to a digipak is that the CD may contain a bonus track or a secret track on the album that you can't find on the normal edition, this makes an artists fans want the digipak as they want to listen to the song so that they feel more included into the artists work, which in turn makes them buy the digipak so that they can complete an album by listening to this bonus track. I have chosen to analyse the Jack Johnson digipak for the album "In between dreams" because he is associated with the indie genre and has a digipak that our group would like to take inspiration from.

The artist is represented in a way that makes him come across as peaceful on the digipak. On the digipak, the audience see the artist twice, one image of him and a guitar showing he's part of the indie genre and another image of him touching or picking something from a tree which is to establish a connection to other forms of life. This representation makes him seem like a nice person as he seems to like nature and that his music can be listened to as a way of getting in touch with nature implying that the digipak will make the audience peaceful. This means audiences may buy the digipak because he comes across as a nice person, also audiences who are a fan of the artists music will buy this as it seems relaxing and peaceful because of the images of the digipak.

The hidden meaning or connotation behind the artists digipak is that as said before, Jack Johnson supports all forms of life and is one with life. This connotation is displayed because the colours of the tree and the artist are exactly the same, implying that they are one, they're connected as the artist is touching the tree branch and is at peace with nature. The digipak connotes that the artist's songs are peaceful songs and that he wants to try a different route with his music, this is clear because his guitar almost looks like the front of the digipak as well as the disk, showing that he has changed his style so that it feels more peaceful for the audience but also to advertise a new musical direction that he wants to take. This makes the digipak more marketable towards an audience because he comes across as peaceful to his audience and that he wants to change his style for newer audiences.

The colours are very important for this digipak as they help convey the connotations and the representation of the artist as said before, the black and yellow front cover of the digipak that represents the peaceful nature of the artist as conveyed through his guitar as they are the same colour, this also creates a theme throughout the digipak in the sense that that's how the audience will know how it belongs to Jack Johnson. The white further implies this sense of innocence and peace that the artist represents, the bright colours just convey that he stands out from the others, the disc also conveys that the audience will be presented with the peaceful side and nature of Jack Johnson's music which encourages audiences to buy the digipak because he clearly looks like a nice person who just wants to make peaceful music and the audience because of the recognizable colours on the digipak.

The design of Jack Johnson's digipak is kept rather simple, it conveys exactly what type of artist Jack Johnson is but connoted one of his feelings about the world. The bright yellow is supposed to grab the audiences attention, this makes the audience feel as if this artist stands out from other artists of the same genre because of this bright yellow contrasting against the black of the digipak, the black could represent the colour of the genre the artist Jack Johnson is associated with which is indie. The layout of the digipak is quite effective in terms of the audience he is trying to aim this digipak towards, for example, the artist name and album are kept in the corner of the digipak cover while the connotation of the images stand out the most. This illustrates that Jack Johnson cares more about the idea that he is trying to portray more than the marketing of the digipak, this makes him seem more pure as people would claim he is "selling out" by highlighting the fact that he made this digipak for the audience.

The images of the digipak are important to the representation of the artist as it shows that he, Jack Johnson, is in peace and tranquility, this is emphasized by the image of what the audience assume is Jack Johnson where he is holding a branch of a tree almost as if he is grabbing a hand, this shows that he is affectionate with nature and that he respects them like a fellow person. The other image on the digipak is Jack Johnson sitting down with a guitar in his hand with a plain white background, this image further emphasises that he cares more for the ideas of his music as the white connotes the innocence of the music, the music is portrayed as simple but peaceful to his audiences. This allows audiences to buy into the artists lifestyle because the artist is at peace and cares for trees and other life forms and wants to show his audience this through the digipak because the digipak is special to him.

The typography or the font on the digipak is used for everything, the songs titles, the artist, the name of the album the digipak is for and for the review of the digipak, this creates a regular theme across this digipak as the audience would begin to associate that particular font with Jack Johnson due to the digipak. The typography is extremely simple in a way, the bits of texts that are black stand out, like the name "Jack Johnson" stands out because of the contrast it has with the yellow, however the white is mostly used for "In between dreams" the change of colour is to make sure the audience aren't bored of very limited amounts of colour, however the white blends in with the yellow slightly but stand out from the black, this could all mean the Jack Johnson with this new digipak is trying to create music that is peaceful but still follows the indie genre. Therefore the audience buy into his lifestyle because he has shown how nice and peaceful he is to nature and life and that his music is trying to be different while still maintaining the genre conventions.

The language used on the digipak is very informative for the audience that will buy this, it lets the audience know who the artist of the digipak is as well as the digipaks exclusive content for the audience, for example "Jack Johnson special UK edition album featuring bonus tracks". This language makes the audience want to buy into his lifestyle because he comes across as a very giving to his fans due to the fact he is offering bonus tracks just for his audiences entertainment which can make the audience feel special and further encourage them to buy into the digipak, the language is formal but it conveys useful information about the digipak that the audience may want to know.

This promotes the music genre that Jack Johnson is appealing towards, which is indie, because for one it shows the artist with an acoustic guitar which is a common use of iconography for many indie artists and the look that they want to go for in the music industry. It promotes the artist because it makes him seem out there for indie audiences, the bright shade of yellow used for the digipak makes him stand out, in other words he stands out in the indie genre because of his talent in the music industry, but the digipak conveys Johnson so that he is peaceful and is harmonious with nature through the use of the image with the artist holding a tree branch. As stated before, the digipak attracts an audience because it shows that Johnson is different from what other artist do in the same genre, the colour makes him stand out, the image of the digipak makes him stand out and audiences will respect the fact that he's going for something entirely different form the music genres conventions with this digipak. The digipak is successful of promoting the artist towards his audience because it does convey that he is peaceful but wants to stay at the same genre while also creating a particular theme across his work, this way people are able to recognize anything by the artist due to the colours and the font used in the digipak.

In conclusion, this research into Jack Johnson's digipak will be beneficial when making our own digipak for our artist because we're implementing a digipak belonging to the same genre as this one, this will help because we could take inspiration from this digipak to be used in our own digipak made for our artist, for example, showing the artist with a guitar so that audiences of the indie genre know that it would appeal to them. This was research was beneficial to my planning stage because I was able to take on board many inspirations from this digipak to use in my digipak like the guitar present in the majority of the digipak's slides to show this is a passion and a close up of the artist sitting down with the guitar to show that the music is personal to him and the audience.