Ancillary Task

By Francesca Carter

POSTER This is our poster for the band which we have decided to use

for the final outcome. Posters are used as a marketing strategy to promote the band and gain a wider audience. We created this poster on Photoshop, along with our digi pack. As our music video belongs to the alternative genre we believe dull, simple colours worked best as we are portraying a sinister mood in the narrative side of our pop promo. Its also conventional for a music poster to have a general code of colour throughout the poster. Having a simple background is powerful as it allows the text and image to stand out more. So we therefore made sure it was essential that we used the same colours so that they all linked together and worked well. The main singer is central to the poster and group photograph in the digi pak so it makes him the main subject point and viewers can identify that he is the main leader and the most dominant one. The band name is also central to the poster so its clearly stated who the band are. We took images whilst we was filming the music video so we could get the band in action. The musical instruments present that its an alternative band so the audience can easily identify the genre. We included tour locations to make the poster appear professional, we also gave the album a rating as this is a convention that would be found on a music poster, the star rating also promotes the band. We created a barcode to include in our poster which can be scanned with a phone which will direct them to the bands website, this is a convention which is found on music posters.

Ancillary task – Idea 1When it came to making our digi pack, our first idea came from the artist Silvia Pelissero. We planned to interpret an artistic feel to the image. Also because our band was alternative we felt this would work really well and be recognised in relation to fans of the band. We decided to take individual images of each band member, print the image out on water colour paper and paint over the image the same way Pelissero does.

We took the images with a plain white back drop and made each band member central to the image this is so its clear the band member is the main subject point of the image. The plain background also took away any distraction so the band member has the audiences full attention. When I captured these images I used artificial lighting, the image also has a deep depth of field which is clear as the entire image is in focus. Once I had taken the images I opened them up in Photoshop to manipulate them. We increased the brightness and contrast on the image. As we planned to paint on the mouth we used the easer tool to slightly erase the mouth so it was easier to paint over.

Once the images were manipulated to how we wanted. We printed the images on to watercolour paper, this is paper that we can add the water colour paint too. We decided to start the paint in blue and slowly fade it out to purple. We created the dripping effect like Pelissero does in her work. We then used the scanner to scan the image back on to the computer so we could carry on further manipulation on Photoshop.

We asked for feedback from people, they said our work appeared as an art piece rather than a digi pack. They also said the image seemed grainy. We took this feedback in to consideration and changed the images in to black and white to see it decreased the grainy appearance.

We wasn't happy with the way the image looked so decided to try and create this look on Photoshop, even though the grainy appearance was gone we felt the image looked fake and unprofessional. It also didn't give us the effect we wanted, like Pellissero’s work. We decided that this idea is not going to work as images for our digi pack so we decided to start a new idea for our digi pack images.

Digipacks are a form of CD covering, that can be opened out like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the centre portion. As the first ancillary task went wrong we decided to just stick to the idea of manipulating individual images on to Photoshop. We used the same images that we used when interpreting the work of Silvia Pelissero. On Photoshop we edited the images by layering them together in to one photograph. The contrast and brightness was also increased to create a dark mood, portraying the sinister mood. The colour of the image was de-saurated as we felt that because we was using dark dull colours it would appear a lot better and compliment the colours if the images were de-saurtaed. This is the cover of the digi pack, which will be the first page the viewer sees. Therefore we decided to include each band member with the band name central. This is due to the fact that's its a convention to find the name and photos of the band throughout the faces on the DIGIPAK, as well as a list of songs that are in the album which normally go at the back.

Ancillary task – Final Idea

As our band belongs to the alternative genre we also included instruments and a microphone stand so the genre can be identified by the audience.

We also had to take in to consideration the font we used, as its alternative we believed a plain easy to read font would work best. Which is a convention of an alternative digi pack.

Conventional to have the bands name central to the image so they are clearly identified. Its also conventional to have the text bold and darker than the background colour so that it stands out. We made sure we used the same colours so that it all matched.

Mise en scene-We had to manipulate clothes on to the two band members on Photoshop. This is due to the fact when I took the images we didn't take the mise en scene in to consideration and it was also hard to find clothes that both people had in order to be matching. There when it came to editing clothes on to them we decided on a jumper and shirt as its smart yet casual which is a convention for an alternative band. We left the main band member in his clothes as we felt he already appeared smart / casual. It was also good to have him stand out to present his dominance of the band and that he is the main singer.

Usually a Digipak would contain from 4-8 panels, depending on how much content the artist would wish to include within their Digipak.

Its conventional for the back of the cd cover to include, the track names how many tracks there are so the audience know the order of the songs, an image, and a logo of the band and production details.

The font is in block capitals and is all the same size. This portrays the alternative genre as its free spirit.

This is a record label we got of google, we thought this one suited our digi pack the most as it appears to belong to the punk/alternative genre.

We have kept to a certain amount of colours so that the bands image was maintained throughout. We used dark, dull colours as our narrative is dark and sinister. The colours reflect the mood created.

The low opacity image of the instruments suggest the band is alternative. This is due the fact that alternative bands use instruments.

Its conventional in a back cover to have the small print at the bottom of the page. This is all information that the audience is not interested in as its just about production details. This includes legal information on copyright, record labels ect.

Final Digi Pack