Digipak

Having decided that we wanted our digpak to centre around images of the wood, we began to construct the four panels. We wanted the front cover to involve a striking image of the 'front man' of the band, and the name 'Carter James' in larger lettering. Having used a particular font on the website, we decided to replicate it on the album so that the two are close to identical. We hope that this would draw a link between the two products and make them recognisable to consumers. As the main thematic element of the digipak centered around the woods, we decided to incorporate this on the back of the digipak and on the CD page as well. To do this, we zoomed in and cut out pieces of the woods from the centre image, thus they all have the same colour palette. This establishes a link between the panels and adds to the bands authenticity, and organic star image.
Here is the images that we hope to use:

This is to be the front image of the digipak. We still need to adjust the text, so that it is more in the centre but apart from that, we are happy with this as a front cover image.

This is to be the back panel of the digipak. We made up some other song names in order to make the digipak look more realistic, and we used the same font and colour scheme as on the front. We still need to add a bar code and the labels image to the back cover, as only then will it look really realistic.

This is to be the image underneath the CD, thus we did not want it to be overly exciting. As a result, we decided to continue the theme of the woods by having a stylistic image of fallen trees. As this image will be partially obscured by the CD, we did not want to add any text to this image, as it would only be lost.
Having decided three of the panels, we began to brainstorm ideas for the inside cover. Some members of the group argued for another image of the 'front man', but I argued against this, as I felt that we needed to incorporate the other band members as well. As a result, we came to the decision that we would take four headshots of the band members and put them in the front cover, thus signalling that it was not just a sole artist work, but a collaboration of people.

Website Elements: Front Picture - Lightbulb

Having completed the majority of the pages on the website, we began to concentrate on the front page, as this would be the most important. We wanted the website to be instantly striking and convey the bands star image, thus we began to research images of interesting light bulb photography. Here is some images that we took for inspiration:

We really liked the sharpness of these images, thus we knew that we wanted a close up of a single bulb as the image of our front cover. Having decided this, we began to brainstorm ideas of incorporating both thematic elements together in one image. Therefore, we decided to play around with an  an image of a light bulb and  a tree, and then photo shop the tree into the light bulb. We hoped that this would provide an enticing image that would immediately drawn in the audience. Here is some of the images we are looking at merging together:

 

This is the final front picture that we got:

 

For the background for the rest of our website, we chose an image of multiple light bulbs and recreated it, so that we had a variety of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. We decided to keep the website in black and white as it made it look more clean and professional, and added to the 'mysterious' star image of the band.

Website Elements: Merchandise

We looked at various real artists merchandise pages as inspiration for our own.

We realised that T-Shirts were the main product that artists used, as there are multiple combinations that can be used to promote the artist. As a result, we decided to create one t-shirt with the name 'Carter James' on and then one with the name and an image. Additionally, we created a hoodie and cap, in black and white, with the name 'Carter James' on. We used the same font for each in order to establish a link between the products. We decided to stick with the colours black and white, as they matched the bands star image and linked with the websites colour scheme.

We used Vistaprint to create the merchandise, and then created a store on the website.
http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/?GP=2%2f7%2f2015+2%3a25%3a31+PM&GPS=3425795771&GNF=1

Here is the merchandise we created:

Website Elements: Social Media

We wanted our website to be accessible to our target demographic (males aged 17-25), thus we wanted to involve other social media websites where we could promote the band. Having done some basic research, we knew that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were the mostly widely used by our target audience, thus we set about creating pages for our band. We created a 'Carter James' Facebook and Twitter page, and then linked them to the website. We used the same images and colour palette, thus ensuring that the 3 websites were connected together. As a result, we combined images of the woods and light-bulbs in order to emphasize these thematic elements. In the bio sections, we used information similar to the details on the ABOUT page, thus we began to build up the bands star image and promotional campaign. We connected the YouTube page to the video, so that when you click on it, the video immediately begins to play. Again this was about building up a promotional campaign for the band. In relation to this, we created a SIGN UP page for the website, so that we could gain 'feedback' or 'fan mail' from potential audiences. To do this we created a Gmail account for the band and added it as a footer to every page of the website. We hoped that this would encourage audiences to become involved with the artist and thus benefit promotion.

Development of the Website and Digi-Pak

Having done our initial brainstorming session, we began to develop our ideas for the website and digi-pak. We knew that we wanted to centre the two products around the images of woods and light-bulbs, thus we began to channel our creativity into incorporating these themes into an actual product.

Firstly, we undertook a photo shoot with the lead singer, as although we had taken a lot of photos on the shoot day, we needed more images for the website. Equally, we wanted these images to focus solely on the lead singer, in order to emphasise the image of him as the front man. We chose to locate the photo shoot in the woods around our school, thus they were easily accessibly but provided a variety of interesting shots. Here are a few that we particularly liked:

Having done the photo shoot, we decided that we wanted to use the images of the lead singer in the woods on the digi-pak, as establishes a mental image in potential consumers minds. We wanted to promote the lead singer on the digi-pak, but the band on the website, therefore we decided to use  the theme of the woods on the digi-pak and the light-bulb theme on the website. This would provide a distinction between the products, but ensure that they were still linked to the video. Yet, we uploaded all the pictures we had onto the GALLERY page of our website, as we wanted the website to look authentic and professional, thus wanted to use a variety of photos. We edited the images carefully before we uploaded them, as we wanted them to be sharp and clear, but of more muted colours, as we decided that our colour palette would involve, blues, greys, blacks and whites. This links with the colour palette of our video, thus we were creating a link between the three products.

Having created the GALLERY paged, we focused on the ABOUT page of the website. We looked at similar artists websites, such as The Script, Elbow and Kodaline for inspiration, as we wanted to know what generic information we should provide. Thus, we centred the ABOUT page around where the band comes from, and introduced the lead singer as the front man and then the rest of the band members. We did not want the text to be too long, as audiences would lose interest, thus we created a concise summary that explained the bands background. We also decided that this would be a good page to portray the video, thus we embedded it into the website so that when someone clicked on the ABOUT page, the video automatically began to play. This is a good way to promote the band, as it forces the audience into watching the video without them being aware of the advertising.

We then focused on the TOUR page of our website, as we needed to create a variety of locations where our band would play. We researched various venues that coincided with the star image of the band and then added them to the website. We linked the website with Ticketmaster, as we decided that they were a suitable site that would sell tickets.

Performance Cut + Feedback

  We have finally finished the rough performance cut of our music video. We are going to have another element in the video, which we have also edited, but it needs more work. So we showed performance cut to our class in order to get some feedback.

And surprisingly, it was rather positive. Our classmates noted that editing, overall, was very good: there is an appropriate build up to the climax of the video, so that although it is only a band playing on a single set, it is exciting to watch and it keeps attention till the end. The atmosphere is well-created as well, mostly due to camera work and especially hand-held shots. And also the concept that we wanted to convey such as that this is a room after a huge fight, is rather clear. It feels like a band performing, not a single artist, although our lead singer, Harry Lawtey, is impeccable! The performance of our drummer, Tom Saville, was appraised as well.

However, obviously, there are some flaws. Some hand-held shots in the beginning of the video seem a little out of place since there is supposed to be a build up to the chorus line, and it is then when we include these shots. Some shots of our guitarists are a little weird, and it is easily noticeable. In some places there is not enough attitude and drive from our guitarists, but overall, they were very good as well.

So the suggestions for our video include a removal of hand-held shots from the first verse and just get on with the second part of the video.

This preview seemed very encouraging to me and, hopefully, our second element will add something new to the video and refine it rather than spoil what we have got so far. I’m looking forward for the final product.