Digipak &Magazine BY LUKE BARNES

One Album that I have been looking at the conjure up ideas that would relate back to my own music video would be the album “The Joshua Tree” by ‘U2’. The impression that is perceived upon first glance is very bleak. Using the effect of a black and white overlay and upon changing the contrast of the image the effect given off connotes visuals of a bleak and depressive state. This, I have looked at with my own music video, keeping the sad and depressive state black and white. Upon creating the album and magazine cover I included this effect to bring more emotion towards a passive audience, that way the audience can relate back to my music video. There are two sides to this album cover. The first side is a shot of the band, This is a very commend convention, for bands to feature on their covers. For my album cover I have incorporated this idea by Including myself in a secluded field with myself holding a guitar. This would help to relate back to my own genre of music that features both indie and folk collaborating together. The use of a secluded landscape would help to support this idea of loneliness just like the band has done. Also from including the field it would relate back to the conventions of the folk genre. Upon hold a guitar this would relate not only back to the music and visuals of the song but also indicate a sense of the indie genre with an acoustic guitar in hand.

The Other image that features within the album and has been featured as a magazine image to get readers engaged more would be the tree that is mentioned within the title “Joshua Tree”. This image has used the rule of thirds to create a powerful image that represents isolation from all other surrounding. It portrays the loneliness and the bleakness of , possibly, the album. This idea, myself and Ben looked into with the use of series of remote landscapes that are isolated from the world with ,again, a black and white overlay to create a depressive state. The audience can now look at this album and my own and connect this idea of a black and desolated effect and relate back to the music that is featured.

Upon creating my digipak I had to think about the structure that was to be used and what would feature in each specific part. Upon searching and looking through a lot of digipak’s I found one that gave off some really good and inventive ideas. One digipak I came across was the album “9” by ‘Damien Rice’. The idea that I got from this album was to place the lyrics behind where he CD would be situated. That way when the audience were to take the CD then they would stumble upon the lyrics. This idea I thought was brilliant and decided to incorporate this idea within my own digipak. Myself and Ben looked at a series of images to help place the lyrics with the visuals. We Decided to go with an image that Ben had taken and the turn this image, again, to black and white to help link the lyrics with the visuals. It would also help to imply this idea of a secluded and lonely place. The audience , upon listening to the song would be able to see how these series of images are related and at the same time can look at the lyrics to become deeply involved in the emotion of the song and the meaning for all of this. Also, this digipak features links between each section of the digipak that are in the forms of writing and also imagery. Some sections of either band quotes are placed in certain sections of the digipak. This would help the audience become engaged within the band and make them feel closer. Also the use of imagery being based on the same style and focus has brought this idea of relating the imagery to my attention. For my music video I have incorporated the idea of using a series of images to feature throughout my digipak that relate back to the song. With a series of isolated areas such as fields and also the use of black and white imagery helps to portray emotions of death, bleakness , and desolation.

With my music video Portraying the bleak and depressive state of a characters emotion towards his brother dying, the emotion is shown through a black and white overlay that is featured in the music video, Our digipak and also the magazine cover. Our idea that it was based from would be the ‘Oasis’ album and magazine cover “Don’t Believe The Truth”. This image, from both the magazine and album cover has portrayed a miserable emotion. From the top image, This is seen on the album cover but also featured in many magazine covers. At the first sight you look upon the dark and grey colours that represent a miserable state of mind. The use of location that is featured also helps to relate back to this idea of a depressed state with, what looks to be, garages with the title “Don’t Believe The Truth”. Having the effect of a fish lens also relates back to subjective camera work where you can only see this specific section instead of the area surrounding the image. This is used to isolate the image and therefore relate back to my own album and magazine cover by our use of an secluded location.

The second image portrays the band but again in the effect of black and white. The ideology that is perceived to the audience connotes the state of gloom. The use of the band relates to the conventions of music albums and magazines where the band are featured. From the expression that is portrayed and the characteristics that are shown, this implies a look of despair. This is backed up again from the use of a black and white filter. This then relates back to my magazine and digipak by featuring myself in a field with a black and white overlay in an desolated area. Upon looking into this album an magazine cover it help to relate back to the genre of my music because the folk collaborates with the indie genre and helps to connect the indie side of music with ‘Oasis’, an indie band. By using some of their ideas it then strengthens my digipak and magazine with using characteristics and conventions of an indie band.

Looking at the ideology of emptiness and loneliness with my digipak I came across one digipak that represented this idea of gloom and desolation called “The happiest Days of My Life” by ‘David Galas’. This image that is featured through the digipak connotes misery and despair through the use of a deserted building in the foreground. Using this location has helped to build a representation of bleakness from the use of a rotting and decomposing house that conjure up ideology of death and forgotteness. incorporating this idea into my music video with the imagery of decomposing shrubbery has lead to the audience making a connection between the lyrics and visuals of the digipak. Again, looking at this idea of using a black and white overlay has supported the representation that in conjured up by the passive audience. The reason for this is because the colours of black, white and grey all link back to the ideology of despair and connote to the audience a miserable state.

To get a feel of a well structured magazine cover I looked at the folk band ‘Mumford and Sons’ with the review of their new album “Sigh No More”. Upon looking at this image I found that the bands name was featured in a white, formal font that positively worked off the black background. The use of the white effect makes the text look very vintage, looking nostalgic From the use of having an old fashioned and vintage text it portrays conventions that relate back to folk genre. Because of the music that is portrayed and the clothing that is worn the, old fashioned and vintage look is a key element towards the folk genre. This idea, Ben and I, looked upon with the font and colour. Even the imagery that is on the magazine cover looks to have a washed out effect to make the image look old and used. This effect again portrays ideology of a nostalgic look towards it. Using this idea helps to recognise the band. This idea I have incorporated into my own creation of a magazine cover and used a free hand written font to make the connection of a personal story to get the audience engage within the music video and magazine. Following from the title you spectate the 4 members of the band that are portrayed in a very folk way using mise en scene. The clothing that is won by the members are conventions of the folk genre with waistcoat being worn and chequered shirts. Also the instruments that are being held by that band all relate back to their own music and the music of the folk genre. The mise en scene of location has the ideology of folk with the landscape being a field. This idea, Myself and Ben, have chosen to incorporate within our digipak and magazine cover because it would help relate back to the genre conventions of folk. Also by allowing ourselves to include a black and white overlay the contrast brings a gloomy effect of despair which would then relate back to the song in hand. Down the bottom of the magazine cover there is a quote from the magazine ‘NME’. This I though would be a good thing to include so that the audience can see we have been given good reviews, thus creating an emerging audience for our video. The reviews, we thought would be from formal newspapers such as ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Times’ because of the formal audience that would discover the music. Being that folk is a very educated type of music compared to rap.