Print work: digipak and advert

A reminder of the mark breakdown for the whole project:

• Research and planning: 20 Marks (assessed individually)

Production:

• Music video: 40 marks (group mark - you'll all get the same mark if you've each made an equal contribution)

• Ancillary Tasks

Digipak: 10 marks (assessed individually
Print Advert: 10 marks (assessed individually)

• Evaluation: 20 marks (assessed individually

The print tasks: Digipak & Print Advert

Along with your video, these will make up a promotions ‘package’, so all your work will need to be similar in visual theme and recognizable as promoting the same artist.

There are two print tasks:

1. Cover for a digipack release of the music video you’ve made and CD track of the song you 

used. 

You will need to create a minimum of four ‘panes’: front of digipack, rear of digipack, inside 

cover front and inside cover rear. (A digipack is a CD release with special features such as a 

video clip – it usually has folded cardboard rather than plastic packaging).  

Each pane should be 12 cm by 12 cm print size, with a spine.

2. A magazine advert for the digipack.
 You need to decide how big the advert is – full page,half page, or quarter. (You may need to consider the position of the artist in the marketplace and the target audience here – would an indie/folk artist be able to afford a full page advert?)
 
Ideally you would not simply re-use the photo from the digipak, but rework the imagery and photography in some way.


  Same kind of approach as the research and planning that you did for the music video:
1. Analysis of existing products
Research 2/3 print adverts and 2/3 digipaks.
  
What is a digipak?

Some more digipaks

You must research digipaks and print adverts that are of your chosen music genre.

What are the significant elements in the digipacks and adverts? Comment on:

• Use of images 
what is connoted by the angle, shot type, mise en scene, lighting etc.? How does this use or challenge the conventions of the genre? How does it contribute to the creation or reinforcement of a star image? Try to be as technical as possible.

• Use of font and layout 
what is being connoted through the use of fonts and the layout? How have they been used to connote the genre and appeal to the target audience? how does this use or challenge the conventions of the genre? How does it contribute to the creation or reinforcement of a star image?

• Use of detail – e.g. copyright, thanks, critics quotes, release date, i-Tunes link .... where are they positioned and why are they place there?

• Size of advert – quarter, half, full or double page? Why?

• Who are the target audience and what elements are likely to appeal to them?


You should also look at:

• Redundancy and entropy – how redundant or entropic is the advert/digipack? Is this appropriate for the genre and target audience?

You could also comment on this question:

• How useful are digipack covers and print adverts when most people download their music and do their reading online? Why is it still important to have appealing and appropriate print work, as well as a music video, as part of a marketing package


Key words: you should be using all these words in your print research

audience 
genre 
star 
redundant 
entropic 
connotation / signifies
polysemic
anchorage 
juxtaopsition
font 
layout 
colour 
costume
make-up
lighting props 
setting 
lighting 
shot type 
framing
angle detail 


Think about how you are going to present your research. Now is this time to try and really boost your marks for this area of research and planning.
From the mark scheme:

• here is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
• There are excellent communication skills. 

Use photobooth / a web cam to make a short video where you analyse 3 digipaks and then do the same for the print adverts.

Please complete all of your research and post it on your blog by next Monday - 9 Dec.

One last thing about Print Work: now is the time to start thinking about your photography for the print work. As you get marked individually each group member needs to use different photos. Taking screen shots / still images from your video is really not a good idea - the quality of the images is always really low.

You need to plan for production just like you did for your music video. This can include blogs posts on:
Locations
Costume
Lighting
Experimentation with shot types
Mock ups / drafts of print work - it's perfectly acceptable to draw these, take a photo of them and then post them on your blog
Experimentation with fonts / colour scheme
Time management posts for planning for print production.

Here's the mark scheme for the print work which gives you a clear outline of the areas that you need to consider when planning for production:

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

           
awareness of conventions of layout and page design

awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size

accurate use of language and register

the appropriate use of ICT for the task set

appropriate integration of illustration and text

framing a shot, using a variety of shot distances as appropriate

shooting material appropriate to the task set; selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting

manipulating photographs as appropriate, including cropping and resizing.

 
 
 

3 weeks to go......

Really pleased to see that you've been updating your blogs regularly! I've added some comments to a few of your blogs. I will do a bit more of a formal blog check with you during our lessons this week.

By the end of this week you need to have:
1. Produce a rough cut of your music video and posted it on your blog's.

2. Gained some audience feedback on your rough cut. The feedback needs to be from people who represent your target audience - if you're not sure who they are refer back to your pitch or post on target audience. 

You need to show them your video and then ask them a few opened ended questions which you can then use to help your develop / improve your idea. Remember you're being assessed on your ability to produce a video which demonstrates an understanding of the generic conventions (e.g. your music video looks like a video and not like an advert for cat food) but also your ability to successfully target your intended audience.

Film your feedback using photobooth.

Two feedback sessions would be ideal. Aim for three - four different people in each group.
 
4. Blogged about what you've learnt from your audience feedback and how your are going to use this to develop your music video. 

3. Analysed 2-3 digipaks - more on this in the post above.

The aim is to have a final cut of your video in 2 weeks time which means that we can then use the final week of term to design digipaks.