Ancillary Tasks: research :)

Ancillary Tasks: digipacks
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Ancillary Test Shots

A2 Media Studies.: Test Anciliary Shots.

Here is a link to a blog post by my partner Dora Lynn, it displays our ancillary test shots that we took to get a feel for the album cover and poster and to give us inspiration for the main ancillary tasks- we thought they were very conventional of Kate Nash.

Ancillary Drafts

Here are the drafts of our ancillary tasks- we took the photos at the 'Studio' shoot yesterday where we decided that we would select the options of a digipak for a CD and a poster. Dora's main role within the group is to be in control of editing and cinematography- and mine is to create the ancillary tasks, act in the video and try and lead the group in terms of research, therefore it was up to me to draft the ancillary tasks.

For the poster I played with a range of colours before I settled on a colour scheme of pink and red- I felt that the contrast between baby pink and bright red added a retro feel to the poster and also complimented the belgian bun motif that would be a consistent theme throughout our video. I paticularly liked the use of red because it matched the make up we used in the video and the cherry on the bun- making it have a pop art feel, which gave the ancillary task and the video a feeling of continuity. Also- I liked the idea of cutting out a picture of a belgian bun and having it dotted around the poster. Kate Nash herself rarely includes herself on the poster- favouring illustrations and cartoons, but we can managed to find a poster where she incorperated herself (LINK) into her poster along with shapes superimposed onto her in different colours- so I thought this was a very good idea as we could keep to her indie pop conventions yet add our own element to it.


Again, I tried to keep to the same theme when creating the front cover of the digipack- I haven't done the inside of the booklet yet as I merely wanted to get a feel about what I'm going to do as I'm going to start doing the final drafts of the ancillary tasks in a few days. I used a photo from the same photoshoot as the video and poster so this 'look' can be associated with Kira Kitson's era of music- creating a brand. In the poster I used a google image picture of a belgian bun and cut it out on Photoshop, however for the digipak I used a real belgian bun to make it look it more aethentic and pleasing. I also think it will be best to repeat this design and use a close up because it played to the typical conventions of the female solo artist- we looked at this genre here---> LINK. I felt that this was quite important as consumers like repetition, so this more traditional CD cover would be more appealing the consumer on the shelf of HMV. I followed suit in terms of the poster by using increasing the saturation to make the red brighter.


I think I have made a very good start- and the final ancillary task will be up soon.

Plans for the digipack

This is a brief plan for the positioning of texts and images on my cd cover/digipack. I thought this was quite important to plan because good planning will ensure that my digipack will be the best that it can be

plansss

Creating a brand

Although Kanye West, a male rap artist isn't in our genre- he knows how important it is to create a brand. His teddy bear logo has been featured on every single one of his albums to date, on merchandise and even on limited edition Bape trainers. This means that we can immediately associate the teddy bear with Kanye West- increasing his popularity and making his presence felt in all aspects of life. In our questionnaire from last week, we found out that our target audience believed that a cake should be our 'Kanye West teddy bear' and although this seemed a little odd- we took on the challenge and sought to find a cake to represent the KIRA KITSON brand!

Luckily it didn't take us long, and whilst popping to the shops before a Media lesson- we managed to pick up this beauty!



It was perfect! A traditional Belgian bun- it had something very retro about it, which is a common convention of both the female solo artist genre and indie music. White and red was a colour scheme that we would like to follow. Immediately we could see that with a little bit of editing, we could easily incorporate this bun into the ancillary tasks and music video to make a consistent link throughout the entire project. The cherry on top also led to us deciding that red was going to be Kira's colour, and her name would always be written in red font on album covers and the colour of her lipstick in the music video- red was also found to be the popular colour with our target audience. We've also decided that a very pristine, Stepford Wives feel for an album cover would really tie with the genre and appeal to our audience!

Just finding our logo, the Belgian bun- sparked off many other ideas in regards to giving Kira more of an identity, and now we have a lot more to work with within the creative process.

EDIT: Also, Katy Perry wears a set of them in her video for 'California Gurls'!
My analysis can be found here :)

Ancillary Task research: Digipaks

Jessie J- Who You Are (2011)

Jessie's album cover for 'Who You Are' uses a close up as the main image. This shot is almost aggressive- but it intrigues the consumer instead of scaring them off. Jessie is portrayed to be a modern image of a female solo artist- instead of appearing as a feminine sex object, she is feisty and cool, which is reflected in the monochrome colour scheme. The only exception is 'Jessie J' written in gold, which gives the female solo artist cover a hip hop edge which toughens up Jessie's image even more but the gold colour represents her as 'expensive'. This is a very unique CD cover and to be honest- I haven't seen anything else like it on the high street, it would certainly get my attention on the shelfs of HMV so I will try and bring an element of individuality to my own ancillary task.

Ellie Goulding- Bright Lights (2010)

Ellie Goulding's digipack for Bright Lights has a fantasy element that comes with her music, and this expresses a branding concept throughout her work. The majority of her videos feature a bokeh effect, and the video for her single Lights uses the exact same effect. This shows me that it is important to keep a degree on continuity with each piece and make sure that everything fits in perfectly. Again, like Jessie J's album- a close up is used which shows that a close up is the convention of a CD cover for a female solo artist. The colours used aren't overly feminine- but this fits Goulding's style of music- which is dreamlike indie pop, so the golds, creams and sea blues tie in with this.

Katy Perry- One of the Boys (2008)

Out of the three digipak covers that I have looked at, Katy Perry's album cover for One of the Boys is the most sexually charged. She is showing her full body- a contrast to the other female solo artists and is using traditional feminine colours of bright pink and aqua. However- I think that it is my favourite album cover of the three because the retro styling of the album is just what we have been researching, and the kitsch colours and props are very quirky- just like Kate Nash, the artist who we are creating a music video for. I believe that the long shot used in this album cover is really effect as it gives the consumer a chance to see Katy in her surroundings- which turns the cover into a piece of art. I will definitely consider the use of props in my ancillary task because I love the effect that it gives.

Ellie Goulding: Webpage Design research

ellieg

Conventions of Ellie Goulding's website:
Muted colours, lots of pictures of Ellie Goulding, seems to have the perfect balance between commercial and alternative when compared to Kate Nash's and Katy Perry's websites.

Ellie Goulding's website

Katy Perry: Webpage Design research

katyp

Katy Perry's website

Perfect example of branding- continuous theme throughout the music video for 'California Gurls', posters, every website and CD covers, bright feminine colours.