Final Promotional Package

In this blog is my group's complete media products; including music video, digipak, and social media page. 

Music Video

Here is the link incase the youtube video has been taken down : 

Digipak

Front cover

Inside

Back Cover

Social Media

Here is a link to our live social media account: https://www.instagram.com/nadavanyaa/ 

Here is the link to our website : vanyaviani.carrd.co

Interaction with fans (1) on this post.

Interaction with fans (2) on this post.

Final Critical Reflection

 This is my critical self reflection for component 3

Here is the link of the document incase the embeded file is not working: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vS9A2xDJnjcvAaoKRp3VEeZClMzB12oGO3Bg7xwKdkvrAzEw7DyyOSbHsVVYNq4DwOJ-3ucQwt70u-Y/pub

Screen Test: Audience Feedback

 This is a blog on the feedback form my group made as well as the responses we got. This was written as a group

Self Reflection: this task was one of the most impactful and enlighting task my team and I had done. It was highly practical as it provided me with detailed feedback that identified what was missing in our videos, such as the unnoticable representation of lower income class, so my team and I can reevaluate the issues and resolve them. I think this had pushed me to think twice on the message and storytelling in the music video to make sure every scene had a purpose to add on to our narrative. I had used this task as a guide for my social media as I took into account their suggestions on what our target audiences are interested in seeing from our artist. 

Problems : Although I appreciated receiving 6 detailed responses as the feedback can be more specific, I did dread the amount of time I will be spending to read through them all

Solution: To ensure I wouldn't get distracted or lose attention, I gave myself about 5 minutes after reading a response to digest and make notes on what to be improved about our media products in the document.

Post-Production: Editing

 This blog was made by Regine who was our group’s editor. Here Regine discussed her process of learning and executing the editing.

Plan and Outline (as a to do list):

1. Selection & Compilation + Grouping of Footage  

2. Software

3. Combining Clips with the song = Rough Draft

4. Feedback (Audience and Teacher)

5. Execute Revisions

6. Feedback part 2 (Teacher)

7. Execute Revisions

8. Colour grading

9. Added Effects

Selection & Compilation + Grouping of Footage 

Since my group and I had done multiple takes, I had to do the time-consuming job of watching nearly all the footage to find the correct one. This was especially important in the multicam shots where I had to find the single take we took through different angles to ensure the movement remained the same. Although we were warned to use a clapboard to know which footage was which, we found the technique to be difficult in some cases where the writing was not clear to the camera no matter what we tried or that it didn’t work for multicam shots where each of us were in different positions and we did not have an extra hand to hold a diy clapboard. In the end, we decided to leave it out. Instead we would review our footage together, delete failed ones (unless still salvageable) and then upload them to our shared drive. This way, it narrowed down the amount of footage there was for me which reduced the amount of time I spent going through them. Although the process seemed a lot, I truthfully found it easy. Often, I looked for the latest or second latest uploaded footage of a scene as it's likely the best shots and why we choose to stop filming a scene. While the rest of the scenes, I had chosen carefully by process of elimination- evaluating acting, lighting, camera angle/movement to eliminate any footage with noticeable mistakes.

Because of my team’s file organisation on google drive, I was able to compile all the scenes swiftly. I simply had to download it into the correct folder in my laptop. The file organisation on my laptop was similar to the organisation I had with my team where a single folder was dedicated to the entire project and within it, was more folders that included the footage and which scene they belonged to, the music itself, and the project file. This allowed my importing/searching of footage to be easier because the segmentation prevented me from having to comb out each footage if I was looking for one. 

Software

To edit the music videos, I chose to use Adobe Premiere Pro 2025, a timeline-based, non-linear video editing software application by Adobe. Although I had no prior knowledge on Adobe Premiere Pro, I had chosen it as my editing software because a friend had recommended it to me for its available features that didn’t require a secondary app like high quality exporting, colour grading, effects, etc.

I had used this tutorial to grasp the basics of the software. I have some familiarity with editing apps in general like Adobe After Effects and Capcut so I got comfortable with Premiere quickly and didn’t need much time to adapt. After that, I imported my scenes, added the music, and began to combine all the clips into a rough draft.

Combining Clips with the song & making the Rough Draft

Markers

I had used markers to pinpoint where certain beats were. This was important in helping me make sure the clips were cut/followed along with the beat which made the video more rhythmic and satisfying to watch and listen to. Using the markers allowed me to snap my clip duration to the markers rather than guessing where to stop, which made the jumpcut scene much easier to execute.

Jumpcut scene

The jumpcut shot we took was taken without a tripod and by using different takes than one singular take. This was an unintentional mistake by our team since neither of us had a tripod at hand and tried to improvise by just keeping in position and staying as still as possible. However, I still have the job to make sure the composition of each frame is as close as possible. I did this by marking a single stationary point (such as the piano and table) and adjusted my footage based on that point. This process took quite a while since I wanted it to be as seamless as possible, however I think the result was worth the time put into it.

Aspect Ratio Change

A characteristic of old cameras was their 5:4 aspect ratio instead of our now common ratio of 16:9. I wanted to implement this into our childhood footages scene to really sell the realism of old cameras being used in the music video. To do this, I simply took two rectangles (graphics layer) and added them to each vertical ends for the videos within the childhood montage.

Multicam Syncing 

My team and I used the multi-cam technique on 2 occasions; on both stage and beach performances. Since a clapboard was not available for us to use, we used an alternative by clapping in hopes of causing a spike in the audio that's identifiable. Unfortunately when I was in the post-production stage, I saw that the soundwaves of the videos were not loud enough to be able to catch the clap. This was likely due to the distance between each camera was different to the the clapper, on top of the fact that the room was extremely echoey. This was also the case for the beach performance as the atmospheric sounds (like wind, people, the ocean, etc) drowned out the noise of the clap.

 

Since there was no other way to combat this issue because we already finished filming, I decided to power through it and synced it manually. Although it took much more time than using a clapboard, it wasn’t too difficult to watch for visual indicators which was often body movement as well as listening closely to the song playing in the background of the videos and sync it with the actual soundtrack. There were generally no issues to me during this process other than a minor instance of not being able to make out the words being sung, which confused me on whether or not it was synced to the music.

Feedback (Audience and Teacher)

I made the first ever draft to send to my teacher to get his feedback. You can watch the draft through this link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13zxYsOspH_jBtg38i4zicwVlhZIFl3-V/view

During the time we were supposed to have a feedback session, I fell ill so I didn't receive the feedback directly but instead, my teammates collected the feedback. Here are the problems my teacher found:

1. The first clip (0:00-0:11) does not connect with the following scenes, since it does not show her going to her house. It's better to remove it completely or replace it with another scene. Our teacher suggested a scene of the flowers floating in the water might be a good fit as it would connect the start of the music video to the end.

2. There are some errors (00:52) with the ratios of the childhood videos

3. Decide on whether to leave or include the original sound of the childhood videos since there was only one video that included its original audio.

4. The colour and quality of the camera changes between two scenes (from 01:31 to 01.33). My teacher suggested to colour grade them so they have the same colour and tones 

5. There seemed to be a mistake in the audio and video syncing in one of the stage performances

6. The transition from the hand that was lifted in the stage to the beach needs a few changes:

• My teacher suggested rather than transitioning a tilt camera movement to a static shot of the beach, shoot a scene with similar camera movement 

• My teacher specifically suggested tilting downwards to the sand and then tilting upwards to show a long shot of vina walking on the beach. He provided my friends with a drawing to explain this.

• He also suggested we shoot her from different POVs like from the back, the side, and the front.

7. My teammates have been discussing the use of voice note conversations to add as background noise to the music video. Cheryl had made phrases and sentences and borrowed the voice of her moms’ friend. After receiving the voiceovers, I edited them into the music video. 

Execute Revisions

1. I approached my team to think about a solution to the introduction being unfit. We originally discussed a scene of our artist taking the bus however since the bus in Bali stopped running on January 1st of 2025, we discussed alternatives such as walking home. We decided to take time to shoot this scene afterschool. However I did not end up liking the walking home scene because it felt too plain and didn’t bring more to the story we were trying to tell so I tried my teacher’s other suggestion on the floating flowers. 

Insert video

I think the flowers worked well in connecting the whole music video together by foreshadowing the end at the beginning. It also acts as a hermeneutic code as viewers might be curious as to why there were flowers and what they symbolise. 

2. The errors were fixed and I had added and changed the arrangement of the video to look more chronological and show the artist growing up

3. Our teacher and my teammates said it would be better to leave out the audio of the childhood footages so the focus would be on the videos. On Top of that, a lot of the footage was of playing piano so the music playing would clash with the soundtrack. With those comments, I decided to leave the audio out.

4. I attempted to match the colours and quality between the videos but ultimately found it too difficult since the beach performance that Aurel had filmed with her camera was extremely overexposed. I watched this video as a fix.

   
   

Although I was able to bring down the exposure, there was a second problem with the oversaturated yellow that did not match the other scenes. I tried to cancel out the yellows by playing with the temperature and colour wheels to add more blue that would cancel out the yellow. However, I could not strike a balance between the colours and the actress would just end up too blue or too yellow. So I made the choice to leave out the videos she recorded and replaced it with a b-roll footage.

5. I rewatched the performance scene and made sure to pay attention so that the singing and music is synced.

6. The static shot of the beach was changed and followed with a matching movement that would transition the artist from the stage to the beach.

7. I thought the use of multiple voiceovers was excessive so I suggested to my team to keep one. We took quick vote and ended up keeping the last voiceover but lowered the volume. During this, I had also added reverb to the audio to make it more echoey.

   
   

Feedback part 2 (Teacher)

After a few changes, I went back to ask my teacher for more feedback. Here are all the suggestions he mentioned:

1. My teacher mentioned beginning with a black screen and adding a fade in to the beginning shot

2. The light switch scene should have the lights turn on when the soundtrack says “Hey [..]” as it is a crucial moment where the song begins (or where the lyrics start) while the lightswitch was a moment where the story begins.

   
   

3. Minor fixes to the duration of clips to ensure they cut to the beat for the beginning scenes with all the childhood photos

4. Changes need to be made on the phone screen scene because it is currently unreadable, which would make the scene pointless as the audience won't be able to catch on to the information in that scene and thus miss a big part of the story. My teacher suggested a single message rather than a conversation that pops up as a notification. He also added that we could have the background of the phone that receives the notification to be a wallpaper of the artist and her mom. 

5. My teacher suggested changing the order of the note scene where it begins with the artist looking at a note and then going in to reveal what the note says rather than vice versa. 

6. Ensuring continuity at the end where the artist walking into the water must end with her stopping as the following scene was of the artist standing still. This also applies to the floating flower scene at the end. My teacher suggested letting the flowers float more after being released from the hand before moving to the next scene.

Execute Revisions

1. A fade in and out was easily added with the help of a feature called “Apply Default Transition.” When hovering over the start/end of a sequence/shot, right-clicking would access this tab. Then I simply adjusted the duration of the cross dissolve transition to my liking.

2. Fixes regarding the timing, duration to match the beat of the music or sequence of a shot/scene was done quick and easily without little to no hassle.

3. The phone screen scene was roughly 4 seconds long so I didn’t require my whole team to be involved for this. I reshot the scene at home using my phone as the receiver and my mom’s phone as the camera. I had asked Cheryl to temporarily remove her profile picture as well as renaming her contact to Mama with a heart. I prepared a message for her to send and gave her instructions to send it within the next 5 seconds so I could have time to prepare the camera. This process was short and took roughly less than 10 minutes to do. 

Colour grading

Before diving into colour grading, I did believe it was important for me to understand colour theory so I watched a simple and short video to explain it.

This video gave me the foundational knowledge colour theory which could help in balancing the colours in scenes.

I then went to watch a more specific video on how to colour grade on my software. I used this video.

When colour grading, I wanted to really consider how the colour of the current scene is going to affect the audience's emotions. So I opted to a more desaturated, grey look at the beginning of the story to emphasize the boringness and blandness of this stage of the artist's life. After discovering the box’s content and reigniting her passion to start up music again, I would increase the warmth and saturation of the scenes to build a sense of rediscovery of self and interests in a hopeful and inspiring manner. By the end, I intended for audiences to truly feel the energetic and lively atmosphere that's almost reminiscent of the feeling of freedom so I choose to push the blues in the end scenes and increase the saturation to bring out the vibrancy of the blues.

Added Effects

Getting that vintage, retro effect for the recreation of childhood videos was extremely important to be right inorder to be believable when mixed with actual childhood videos. When I had looked up examples of old digital camera examples on Pinterest, I found the common traits of these pictures were bloom and noise.

Bloom refers to an effect when light extends past the borders of bright area in an image which causes a bright light dispersion that gives the photograph a dreamy look and nostalgic feeling. While noise is said to be the undesired fluctuations of color or luminance that often disrupts and hides the detail of an image. 

 

To copy this look on my footages, I looked into 2 tutorials which were fairly easy to replicate and gave me the results I was looking for.

By using a feature that blurs a certain colour channel, I could make my childhood videos seem glowy. i followed the steps by adding in an adjustment layer to place the effect on.

By adding grain, my footages looked more authentic as if it was really taken from the past.

Other edits I made were to increase the sharpness of the scenes (commonly found in VHS tapes which I considered following but crossed it out when I figured camcorders were too old for the artist’s generation), added a faded film effect that lightened the footage to look older/worn out and a touch of vibrancy.

Self-reflection: I found the initial editing process to be dreadful as there was a lot of things to be fixed constantly and it almost felt like a relentless task however, past the feedback stages of the editing, I began finding it exciting as I was watching the our whole storyboard, planning process finally coming into reality. I felt like I had learnt a lot from this editing project since I had to learn different skills in editing such as colourgrading, effects and compositioning to ensure the music video would turn out well and do as its intended by evoking a bittersweet feeling in the audience. Overall, I am quite proud of my work. 

Problems : I quite disliked the proces of writing this blog since I didn't like having to cut off my established workflow to update my progress. There were several instances of me forgetting to screenshot or note down a change and so would forget it as time passes.   

Solution : Luckily for the feedback sessions, I had the comments written down so I would refer back to it while writing this blog and recalled how I had changed the music video after receiving the feedback. However, for the documentation process, I had to recreate some scenes of my changes in order to show how its changed from before to now.

Production: Behind-The-Scenes

 

Self Reflection: I had been the one to make the template we used to evaluate the problems, solutions and the lessons learnt but I found myself to actually dislike doing this blog post because the task felt more burdensome to go through all the problems between roughly 7 filming days. Doing this blog after we filmed also meant we had to revisit and remember each problem, and attempt to recall our solution. The weight of doing 7 of these was overwhelming and draining however my teammates had given me an immense amount of help to be able to complete, which I am grateful for. Truthfully, I am unsure of the benefits of the behind-the-scenes to me as I felt like it more so benefits my examiner to prove that the scenes we captured were truly with the intention of being used by the project.

Production: File Organisation

 This blog will detail our file organisation strategies. This blog is written by Aurel

Application (Google Drive) 

For our file organisation, Cheryl created a Google Drive folder to upload our files in.  

Advantages:

- Can be accessed by any team member anywhere

- Has a folder feature

- Good for keeping track as we know the dates the files were uploaded

- Any team member can upload the files on their own

Disadvantages:

- Needs internet connection to be accessed 

- Files may take long to upload/download

- If any files get accidentally deleted, team members cannot access them anymore

- We still need to transfer files from the camera which takes more time

Organisation System

As for our organisation system, we decided to use folders to compile and categorise our files

Additionally, we created more folders inside our behind the scenes and filming vids folders to be able to further categorise our work into specific dates or scenes

Advantages:

- Creates easy access since it lets us find all the files we may need for a specific task

- Easy navigation

Disadvantages:

- Risky since if a folder gets accidentally deleted, all the files in it get deleted too 

- Does not help us know which shot/clip is the specific one we are looking for

Benefits of file organisation:

- For me, file organisation has allowed me to easily locate the files I need

- It is a lot more convenient than having each member send the files individually each time our shots/clips are needed

- Since any team member can access it at any time, it will allow others to check if our shots/clips are good quality

Self-reflection:

I think this file organisation method with google drive was the best move for our group. Everyone was familiar with the way google drive worked so there was zero confusion on how to use it/our organisaton system. It was efficient and worked. Personally, this file organisation was extremely helpful to when I was editing as the group of files based on their scenes made it easier for me to look for a certain shot if it were missing. 

Problems : I found it difficult to navigate through the files since they were unnamed and shot through different phones so their file name format would differ and not be in order. 

Solution : Since there were a lot of clips to go through, I combed through the footages and download a selection of the best footages as to not overwhelm myself with an endless amount of videos. Although this took time initially, I think it reduced my overal time wasted if I had downloaded the entirety of our film footage files

Digipak : Research & Development

 This blog is made by Aurel who researched and developed the digipak 

Research

Indie Pop Digipak Conventions

1. This Is How Tomorrow Moves by Beabadoobee 

Camera

• Close up: This puts focus on the star's slightly fierce facial expression. Beabadoobee describes this album as being about "becoming a woman" and "accepting that there's an inevitably of my fault in there too" regarding her past. Perhaps this connects with the fierce expression, as though she is defending herself.
• Eye level: This makes the shot feel more personal and brings the viewer into her level, making them feel connected. This suits her album as the album presents themes that are personal to her.

Mise-en-scene

• Bright blue background: Blue is often associated with sadness, however perhaps the vibrancy of the colour could symbolise the peace she's made with her faults (how her life has grown 'brighter'), aligning with the album's themes. Additionally, the vibrant colour conforms to the conventions of the pop genre which allows fans of the genre interested in her content through similarity.
• Expensive clothing (fur coat): Fur coats are typically associated with luxury as they are often an expensive piece of clothing. This could highlight her success as an artist; a physical representation of her growth.

How does this reflect the artist's persona?

• Beabadoobee often depicts herself as a strong woman yet sweet. She is shown making a fierce expression with elements that show her growth (coat, vibrant blue) being included. This reflects her persona as it shows her as a strong woman thriving to be a better person

Does the artist have a logo? Is it consistent with their other media?

• Beabadoobee does not have a logo however she keeps her content recognisable by including her name (or the letter B). Even if they're often in different fonts, her unique artist name becomes a branding opportunity as it stands out from other artist's names. In this digipak in particular, she includes her signature which makes her digipak feel more homemade and personal

How has the album cover influenced you?

• Our artist's album will be exploring similar themes so it is good for me to consider how these themes can be represented. I like the inclusion of items that can act as a symbol for growth and change so I want to include similar things in our digipak
• Additionally, this album cover has also made me consider the facial expressions our star could make on an album cover and what her expression would say about her including how she's grown from her past

2. Tell Me That It's Over by Wallows

 

Camera:

• Low angle: The low angle approach makes the band appear more confident. This makes the overall image appear cooler, which is typical of boy bands.
• Long shot: The long shot leans into the cool image of the band by giving the viewer a full view of the members in confident poses. The long shot also makes the album cover feel more spacious therefore more casual and relaxed.

Mise-en-scene

• Outdoor setting: An outdoor setting offers a natural and familiar vibe to the viewer. Posing them in a low-budget outdoorsy setting, rather than in a more luxurious one, allows audiences to feel more connected with the band
• Casual clothing: The band states that the common theme across the songs is generally relationships, perhaps the choice of casual clothing highlights how relationships are a common thing that happens to everyday people rather than something that happens only to specific kinds of people which makes the band more relatable to a general audience.

How does this reflect the artist's persona?

• Wallows often depict themselves by conforming to indie pop stereotypes. They use low budget productions and warm filters which remains consistent in this digipak thus helping them build a reputable brand identity 

Does the artist have a logo? Is it consistent with their other media?

• Wallows does not have a logo, however they make each album recognisable while remaining unique by using different fonts (on the title and band name) for each album. This way, whenever the band releases content that relates to a certain album, fans can recognise which album it relates to by rcognising what style the album follows therefore maintaining consistent brand reputation 

How has the album cover influenced you?

• I feel like the usage of fonts can help make an album cover appear more recognisable. I want to consider how different fonts can be used to convey meaning.
• I like the use of a border. I think it isolates the image and gives it more focus which may be able to create a more lasting impact on the audience. Additionally, different coloured borders could be used to emphasize different meanings. For example the Wallows album cover contains a pastel yellow border which could be correlating to their usually more energetic songs

3. Sling by Clairo

Camera

• Close-up: A close up effectively brings a viewer emotionally closer into a subject by providing with a perspective that highlights the expression of a subject. Here, it makes the shot feel more intimate as we see Clairo looking fondly at her dog, Joanie, who was a huge inspiration for this album.
• Slightly unfocused: Clairo states that this album is about domesticity. The slightly blurred shot makes the shot feel more candid and therefore more domestic

Mise-en-scene

• Warm colour palette: The warm colour palette makes the scene appear more comforting as warmer tones are associated with emotional warmth which suits the album as it includes comforting themes.
• Natural scenery: The scenery depicts a natural winter. Paired with the warm colour palette, it creates a contrast of physical coldness and emotional warmth that may symbolise finding comfort despite hardships. Winter is also often a comforting time for a lot of people as it is associated with familial events such as Christmas and New Year's therefore making the shot feel nostalgic and cozy.

How does this reflect the artist's persona?

• Clairo heavily conforms to the indie pop genre. Most of her content uses a soft warm filter and slightly blurry camera lenses which give her content a homemade feel. This follows the theory of stardom as she presents herself as relatable to her audience which is consistent in this digipak. She also presents herself as soft and quiet which is apparent in how she often has album covers that appear more candid, such as in this one.

Does the artist have a logo? Is it consistent with their other media?

• Clairo does not have a logo, however she maintains consistent reconisability by using images of herself in her album covers (+ other content). Rather than just making her brand recognisable, this makes the star herself recognisable to fans too which is beneficial as it makes content including her more valuable to fans. 

How has the album cover influenced you?

• I like how nostalgic and homey the cover feels. I feel like this would apply well to our star as her album focuses on her past. This makes me consider how we can use technical elements (such as camera and mise-en-scene) to effectively evoke a nostalgic feeling in our audience
• Clairo also includes a literal representation of the inspiration of her album (her dog) and depicts them in an intimate moment. This makes me consider how we could create an intimate album for our star and how we could depict her inspiration in the album cover if we decide to do so.

4. The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess by Chappell Roan

Camera

• Eye level angle: The shot establishes a direct mode of address by using an eye level shot that brings the audience into the star's perspective and by having the subject directly stare into the camera. This makes her feel more serious and confident.
• Medium shot: The medium shot adds to the direct mode of address as it stimulates the distance people have when interacting with each other. This makes it more immersive for the audience. 

Mise-en-scene

• Highkey lighting: Highkey lighting puts focus on the artist. It makes the shot feel more theatrical. Chappell Roan describes this album as being about awakening so the the highkey lighting may connote how moments of realisation can feel like having a spotlight on you
• High budget: The star is shown using an fancy outfit in a luxurious set. This further emphasizes the theatrical feel while also maintaining audience attention on her through the shot's high quality

How does this reflect the artist's persona?

• Chappell Roan is an alternate persona created by the artist which means that she is deliberately acting as a different person as part of her stardom. This persona is unique as rather than being a reflection of the star herself, it is a character she is playing. The character is meant to represent the struggles the star experienced as a queer woman. Her persona is often portrayed as extravagant, authentic and vulnerable. The album cover reflects this through its high budget shot and highkey lighting which makes the star seem vulnerable yet maintain an air of confidence and style

Does the artist have a logo? Is it consistent with their other media?

• Chappell Roan has no logo but she keeps her content consistent using similar makeup styles and similarly theatrical outfits. This could be her unique selling point as her style makes her stand out from other artists. Not only does this make it easier for fans to recognise her and her content, but keeps them engaged. 

How has the album cover influenced you?

• I like the more theatrical feel of this album cover which aligns more with the conventions of the pop genre (high budget) than the indie genre (low budget). Since our star is in the indie pop genre, it will be hard to balance both conventions. Chappell leaning more into the pop side allows me to consider whether this is realistic for us to do as students, which, in my opinion, is unrealistic as we have a very limited budget. However, we could keep a balance by keeping other conventions of the pop genre such as vibrant colours and highkey lighting which is more achievable.
• This is not really related to the album cover but I noticed the digipak contains a picture of the star with a signature. I feel like this would be interesting to add in out digipak as I think it would be a good way of including added value to our product as this would give fans another item included in the digipak, encouraging them to purchase it. The signature and exclusive picture adds a sense of personalisation that could fulfill the social relationships aspect of uses & gratification.

5. Underdressed at the Symphony by Faye Webster

Camera

• Cowboy shot: The cowboy shot shows the audience her actions, body language and expression. Through this we see the star holding up a dress, as if trying to fit, and she does not display any strong emotions. This makes the shot feel domestic and somewhat intimate which also fits the album's theme of the mundane.
• Eye level angle: The eye level angle makes it appear as though the viewer is seeing the scene for themself; as if we are looking in on a mundane moment.

Mise-en-scene

• Predominantly blue colour palette: The album explores feelings of heartbreak and inadequacy so perhaps the blue is meant to reflect this as blue is often associated with sadness. Additionally, blue is often associated with gentleness which matches the album's theme of domesticity.
• Dresses: The star is shown as if trying to fit a blue dress to herself, in contrast to the currently white shirt she is wearing. Faye Webster describes that the album is inspired by her feelings of inadequacy when facing things that feel 'too good' for her. Combined with the idea that blue is associated with melancholy, perhaps this implies that she applies this melancholy herself and that (through the entire closet being made up of blue hues) it is the only thing she feels she can do.

How does this reflect the artist's persona?

• Faye Webster often portrays herself as relatable yet formal on her social media accounts. For the most part she posts in a professional manner, using formal typing and usually posting about her work but she occasionally creates passionate posts of her interests in fictional characters (such as minions, Hatsune Miku and Pokémon) which allows younger fans to relate to her. In this digipak, her more formal side is takes prominence. She also often portrays herself as gentle through retro filters that give her posts a 'soft' feel which is seen in this cover

Does the artist have a logo? Is it consistent with their other media?

• There is no logo but Faye Webster keeps this digipak consistent with her branding by including using filters that make her shots appear more 'retro' (vignette, warm overlay etc). She also makes this album stand out and gives it its own 'identity' by using the colour blue as a theme that reflects back to the album in posts where she promotes/discusses it. 

How has the album cover influenced you?

• It taught me how using a prominent singular colour could be used to communicate the strength/abundance of a certain meaning. It allowed me to broaden my considerations for how I could use mise-en-scene to allow audiences to understand our product's preferred reading.

6. plum blossom (revisited) by mxmtoon

Camera

• Eye level angle: An eye level angle stimulates a sense of stillness fits the album's theme of loneliness as the lack of exaggeration makes the shot appear more boring or uninteresting.

Mise-en-scene

• Predominantly pink colour palette: Pink is most often associated with love and romance which aligns with the album's theme of romance. The abundance of this colour could also imply an abundance of romantic feelings or just love in general.
• Plum blossoms: Blooming flowers could symbolise blooming romances which further strengthen the romantic themes. Additionally, this album is a remaster. In the original cover, the plum blossoms are depicted as a stylised artwork but here, they are depicted as a realistic image instead. The change in style could symbolise an increase of quality in the reworked version.
• No animate objects: Unlike most covers, the star is not present at all in this cover. This gives the cover a sort of solemn and disassociated feeling as the lack of human presence makes the cover feel absent and empty (which again aligns with the album's theme of loneliness)

How does this reflect the artist's persona?

• Mxmtoon often depicts herself as relatable and funny through her social media pages (Twitter, Instagram) by using lowercase and posting jokes. Although the album cover does not represent her as funny, it does imply her relatability to the audience through themes such as loneliness and romance which are reinforced through the cover's camera (eye level angle) and mise-en-scene (pink palette, plum blossoms)

Does the artist have a logo? Is it consistent with their other media?

• It does not have any logo but, since this is a rework of a previous album, this album keeps itself recognisable to audiences by referencing back to the original cover of the album while keeping itself fresh to long-term audiences by switching to a realistic photograph of plum blossoms instead of a stylised artwork which makes it feel like the quality got 'upgraded'

How has the album cover influenced you?

• It made me consider how inanimate objects can make a strong form of indirect storytelling simply just through the associations it has. It makes me consider using inanimate objects in my digipak as a way to relate back to our narrative.

This section will contain Aurel's typography research

After doing digipak research, I concluded that it would be beneficial to do a brief research into typography as I've noticed that it has an important role in communicating meanings

Font Types

Here are the basic font types and some key points about them that I have gathered from my research

Serif Fonts

• Associated with formality
• Easy to read 

Sans Serif Fonts

• Associated with modernity
• High readability

Display Fonts

• Usually used to make designs stand out
• Not meant to be used in full sentences or paragraph 
• Attracts the audience’s attention

Handwriting Fonts

• Associated with simplicity and youth
• Creates a handmade feel
• Usually not meant to be used in full sentences or paragraphs

Calligraphy Fonts

•  Associated with formality and luxury
• Elicits a handmade feel while maintaining an air of luxury
• Not meant to be used in full sentences or paragraphs

Hierarchy

In typography, hierarchy is a sort of eye magnet (design elements that attract viewer's attention) that involves putting different emphasis in the fonts in a design to direct the viewer's eye movement so that they will be able to understand the producer's preferred reading better.

Example from Medium

White Space

White spaces refers to the empty space in a design which guides the viewer's attention towards certain elements in a design. This can be used to create a cohesive and pleasing design. Additionally, white space can be used to enhance meaning. For example, an abundance of white space creates a feeling of emptiness or solitude whereas a lack of whitespace could create a crowded or suffocated feeling.

Example from Medium

Contrast

Contrast in typography can be used to communicate emphasised ideas to the viewer and create an interesting design. Contrast can be created by using varying fonts, sizes, boldness, colour etc.

Example from Medium

Sources

• Beginning Graphic Design: Typography - GCF Global
  
• Typography Elements Everyone Needs to Understand - Medium

This blog will contain Aurel's digipak development.

Development

After I conducted research, I finally felt comfortable enough to start our own digipak.

Front Cover

The front cover is the most important part of a digipak as it is the audience's first impression of the product and the artist which why is why it felt important to put most of my effort into this.

I started by brainstorming some possible ideas for the front cover on paper. 

My initial ideas

Then I created a digitised version of the sketch to use as a draft. Here is a video showing a sped-up version of my process.

 

I then included this in the screen test audience feedback form so that I can understand which made the best impression on the audience. 

Audience Feedback Form Results

According to the results, it seems as though the idea with our star holding flowers was most popular. Through this cover, I could imply that the star won the competition from the music video's narrative which expands our storyline. However, upon attempting to do this I realised that it might not be possible to do. This is because flower bouquets can be expensive which means that we will not be able to have this crucial part as our prop. I discussed this with my team and we decided to go with the second most popular idea, the one that used childhood drawings.

To do this, I created doodles with my left hand to simulate child-like artworks. I also linked the drawings to things children may draw (such as nature) and family. The family theme was especially important as it was the core theme of our music video. I also kept 2 of the drawings similar as it is common for children to draw repetitive art.

However, I realised that I was missing the music sheets for the photoshoot and couldn't print any as my printer is broken so I asked my friend to bring me a copy of their old piano sheets to school. After receiving it in school, I immediately took the pictures I needed during our project lesson in media with my teammate, Cheryl. In the photo taking session, Cheryl helped me by being a second opinion for the angles and composition of our work which ensured that our product was in good quality. During this, Regine also requested us to take a 'behind the scenes' image that can be used as a teaser for the star's social media page. After that we showed them to Regine to confirm that the pictures fit everyone in our group's expectations.

Me taking pictures for the front cover

Then, I used Canva to create a layout of the front cover.

My first drafts of the chosen idea

The main issue that arose from this was that it was hard for us to pick between 4 and 7. We liked 4 it had negative space that made it a good place to include text (making it easier to read) but we also liked 7 as the white border made the association that the viewer was looking back in time through picture frame or a polaroid which fits our themes of childhood and nostalgia.

While developing the inside of my digipak, my teacher suggested that we use the picture we had intended to be for the inside to be for the front cover instead. This was because vibrant colours help it conform better to the pop genre and using our star's face on the front cover is advantageous to new artists as it puts their face out there and allows them to gain recognition in the industry. 

So I used Canva to create these drafts

In the end, I felt like the image on the right was more suitable for the digipak as it was brighter and had more space to include the album name and artist name. After that, I experimented with different colours to see which one would suit best.

All the different colours I experimented with for the front cover

Then, I asked my teammates for their opinion in order to gain a fresh perspective.

From this, I decided to use the blue colour for the album name on the front cover. From here, all I needed to do was input our album name and artist name into the preset. However, due to lack of space had to make minor adjustments to the positioning of the text.

In the end, this was the final product:

Digipak Content 

To be honest, starting the contents of the digipak, I was unsure of what I could do for it. I wanted it to relate back to the music video to strengthen our narrative and brand image but didn't want it to feel repetitive. I thought that maybe I could do an image of the star with her childhood dolls in her room and Regine suggested that I do something similar to these images:

Inspiration Regine sent from Pinterest

After discussion, I started doing some sketches to get my ideas across. However, my lack of inspiration limited the diversity of my sketches. 

After this, we needed to take pictures. However, an issue that arose from this was the issue of scheduling. If possible, we wanted everyone to be present so we can give each other suggestions but this made it hard as we all had our own person events, including Vina. We had to postpone by a week as many of us weren't available at the time. Cheryl was not available at this time either but she kept involved by checking on our progress via WhatsApp chat. Even by the time we had to take the pictures, we had a very limited timeframe as Vina needed to study for her mocks and I had to go somewhere with my family.

During the shoot, we came up with an alternate image where Vina lays on the bed with her dolls, creating a childish feel to the image. Additionally, the image is upside down as it gives our star a unique sense of quirkiness and fun.

Regine & I taking pics of Vina

After that, I made some drafts on Canva. I wanted to add a personal feel to keep fans engaged in our products which is why I included a signature (at the time, our star's name was Vanya Kirana instead of Vanya Viani)

My first drafts

However, I felt unsatisfied with the results so I asked my teacher for feedback. This is where he suggested that I use the pictures I intended for the front cover for the inside. 

Draft based on teacher's suggestion

I thought about this idea and discussed it with my teammates. We decided that it was worth a shot. However, this means that I would need new pictures as the ones on the front cover was not the right size. I tried this at home but the lights in my house are broken, causing them to be dim causing the result to be unsatisfactory. 

First reshoot attempt

As it was late at night I decided to reattempt this at school with Cheryl the next day. However, as the sky was a bit cloudy and it was hard to see what I was taking a picture off with the sun reflecting on my phone, I also found this attempt to be lacking.

Second attempt drafts (left) and behind the scenes (right)

My final attempt was at home while the sun was still out for natural lighting. Instead of using the floor, I chose to use a wooden table this time. This was due to reasons such as the brown of the wood fitting better with the yellow covers, being cleaner than the phone as well as wood being associated with nature which aligns with our star's theme as nature is associated with freedom.

I was satisfied with this result as the lighting and colour palette suited our brand identity better.

Back Cover

By this time, we were already reaching towards the end of the product and I was starting to feel burnt out so I had a hard time gaining inspiration. All I knew was that it was going to be where the tracklist was and I wanted it to have a childish feel, like the rest of the digipak. I came up with these drafts in Canva to try and hopefull gain some inspiration on the way.

While I was doing this, my teacher suggested the idea to use the image we intended to be for the digipak's inside. Following this idea, it meant that the back cover would be the extension of the rest of the image so I created these drafts.

In the end, I decided to use this one as it was more vibrant and the arrangement of dolls allowed for an easier to follow arrangement of tracklists

Self-Reflection:I didn’t contribute much to the digipak since Aurel did most the work, so I can’t comment much on the blog's content. However, I did have a helping hand during the photoshoots by sharing ideas and suggesting poses. Aurel had notified us that she wasn't sure what to do for the inside of the digipak and I looked up references I liked on Pinterest to help Aurel in any way I could. Me and Cheryl also had a say in the final outcome of the digipak by choosing the colours of the text and for which composition Aurel should develop. Although the split of tasks was voluntary, I believe that I could learn from this and In the future, I’ll aim to be more involved in all parts of a project.