Digipack

A digipack is a type of CD packaging that is similar to a conventional DVD case. However, it can be the usual CD case shape and made out of a heavier card material. Digipack's can open up and have 3 inside panels if there are multiple CDs, which is common, or just open like a book would do.

The style and graphics of the digipack will always try to represent what the artist is like or what genre of music the record is. I will show this with my analysis of two official digipacks later in the blog. The style of the digipack is vital as it will be the first thing people see on the shelves and it must appeal to the target audience of the band.

The digipack I will analyse is of the rock band, Linkin Park's, "Meteora".






The digipack uses an 'urban' theme and we see this with the image on the front cover of the graffiti artist and the inside of the packaging that features several images showing graffiti on big concrete buildings in an urban theme. The colour schemes throughout are also very mellow and dark which may represent the narratives and moods of the songs featured on the album. Graffiti could also represent rebelling which may be a theme conveyed in the tracks and this is linked by the packaging, the first aspect the audience will connect with. The font in which the band's name is written is the same everywhere it is shown on the digipack which makes it easily identifiable and also adds professionalism with the font, colour scheme and images making it very aesthetically pleasing. The digipack also supplies special content with an inside booklet and also added media content which is listed on the back cover which gives it a unique selling point over the standard album.

The second digipack I will analyse is "The First Days of Spring", by Noah and The Whale.

The band are a very similar style to Mumford in terms of their look and music. The digipack uses a vintage style with the colour scheme of pale colours. The front cover shows the band in an outdoor setting with the sky filling the majority of the cover. From the plants around the characters we can gather they are in a field and the mellow atmosphere this creates compliments the band and their music well. Another aspect that adds to the vintage theme is the font used on the digipack, front and back cover. It is simple and traditional which is why it helps put this style across. The back cover uses another image with the 4 band members again in a countryside setting to continue the style of the front. The picture has been edited to give it a paler tint which again applies to the vintage theme the digipack carries.

Initial Ideas

Narrative:
The band members will be lonely in a dark forest, cold bitter air surrounds them. Then there is a glimpse of beauty, a woman, dressed in white. The band is full of lust and yearning, there fuelled intent in meeting this girl seems to fulfil them, they walk through this dark wood, searching into the depths of it to find her. To fill in the music video, we’ll have to have shots of us ‘playing’ the instruments, whilst cutting through shots, of this ‘desire‘ for this woman, and also playing the instruments. This in total should help lead to quite an ambiguous setting, whilst making it look authentic and real with the introduction of us playing the instruments , when the beat of the music picks up (towards the end of the song) the band members will be starting to run through the forest so they can meet this thing of beaty , when the beat them drops the band are stood around in a group surrouding the woman , the final shot wil then be the four band members walking away into the mist.

Setting:
Countryside locations, fields, dark forest, wintery weather (due to filming in January), added dark effects to contradict woman in white which exagerrates her impact and meaning within the video.

Clothing:
Indie folk attire. loose fitting, very casual.

A similar video to the one we look to create is 'Oympic Airways' by Foals. They used a dark forest and countryside themes with footage of the band playing.

Here is some images that helped us with our ideas:







I also went through a mindmap to explore the possibilities we had with our video:

Pitch

Here is the link to the presentation which we used for our pitch:

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0ByoIaJx-w8iQNjA5MmNkNmItZjhmNy00ZDNmLTkwM2EtNzA5ODkwMGQ3ODVk&hl=en_GB
Within the powerpoint we provided information around the band and gave examples of their work. This would give the audience who dont know Mumford a better idea and show them what the band are like

This is our pitch video:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0ByoIaJx-w8iQOWI4OGI3MGUtNzNlNC00OWE2LWIzMDYtOWJkNmE0MTZiMjZh&hl=en_GB