Creating The Track List

When it comes to creating my track list for my artists digi-pack, I do have the option just the copy all of the songs that appear on the album which I got the song I used for my music video and in my case it would mean that I would use all of the tracks off of the album called 'Goodbye Lullaby' by Avril Lavigne as this is the album that 'Not Enough' was taken from. However, I have decided that I would rather choose tracks from different artists to put onto my artists digi-pack and this just enables me to be more creative, but also enables me to keep a continuous theme going across the album and music video as I am able to choose the songs that I want to appear on the album. For example, if I had a music video that was really happy and cheerful, then it is more likely to have various happy and cheerful songs on the album with the exception of some sadder songs. Nonetheless, I now have the ability to choose which songs I would like to appear on the digi-pack and the audience will be able to get a feel for the album just by seeing what the names of the songs are to understand what they may be about.

All of the songs I have decided to use are from Pop Punk/Rock artists which I think ties in nicely with my artists genre. As I have chosen tracks from this genre it means that I own them all myself on my iTunes as this is the generally the genre of music I listen to myself. So below you are able to see the songs I have decided to use on my artists digi-pack, but you are also able to see who the original artist of each of the tracks are (the track I have decided to use is the one that has been selected in each image):

When researching about Pop Punk digi-pack, I noticed that the track listing generally ranges from 11 tracks to 16 tracks and can occasionally go to 20 tracks, but this is quite rare. Overall, I have decided to include 11 different tracks on my artists digi-pack, I have only presented 10 images of different tracks above because the other track I will be including on the album will be the actual song that I have used in my music video which again is called 'Not Enough' by 'Avril Lavigne'. When deciding which tracks to include on my artists digi-pack, all I wanted to do was create a theme of love and heartbreak because obviously the 'Not Enough' music video is about not getting enough in the relationship, so I wanted all of the songs I selected to be part of this theme, but also this is a popular theme in music and is appealing towards audiences, so hopefully it will entice more individuals who may possibly begin to like listening to my artist and will become a fan of her. The images I have presented above have just been demonstrated in a chronological order, but the order I would like to have my track listing in is:

1. Always

2. The First One

3. Not Enough

4. See Me Smiling

5. Alone Together

6. A Daydream Away

7. Everybody Hurts

8. Back To Me

9. Fall To Pieces

10. The Hurt Is Gone

11. Happy Endings

By looking at the order I have put this track list in, you can actually see that there is a meaning to it as at the beginning of the track list the songs are essentially about heartbreak and wanting to get someone back - however, as the track listing gets closer to the end, you are able to see that the songs are more about how the pain of the relationship has gone and how the person is now over it which I think is a meaningful feature and enables the audience to understand who my artist is as a person a bit before they actually even listen to her songs. Overall, I think that all of the songs I have chosen will help represent my artist in the way I want them to be represented and will hopefully entice audiences to my artist where they will want to know more about her. 

Choosing The Record Label

As I am about to begin creating my digi-pack for my artist, I know that I will have to think about the record label she will be signed to. I have the opportunity to create my own record label which my artist could possibly be signed to - however, I have decided not to create my own as I do not have enough time to be creating new features for a new record label as I still have to spend a lot of time editing my music video and also creating the digi-pack and poster. Due to this, I have decided to sign my artist to an already existing record label and at this time I am unsure on whether that record label will be a major label or an independent label - nonetheless, I have done some research on record labels and have found five different labels which my artist could possibly be signed to and have gone into more detail about them below.

Here are the five record labels I have considered my artist being signed to:

I decided to look at all of these record labels because they are all similar in the sense that they all have artists that are signed to them that are from the Pop Punk genre or even just the Punk genre and because of this, I thought that it would be a good idea to sign my artist to one of these record labels. When thinking about which label I could sign my artist to, I firstly decided to do some brief research on each record label and underneath you are able to see that I have created a slideshow and in this you are able to see that I have taken a print screen of the Wikipedia page for each of these record labels, but also I have taken a print screen of the existing artists that are signed to these labels which I think will hopefully help me decide which record label I would like to sign my artist to. 

Here is the slideshow I created:

After looking at these five record labels in some detail, I eventually decided which record label I would to sign my artist to. The record label I have decided to sign my artist to is 'Hopeless Records'. There are a range of different reasons to why I chose this record label over the other ones I had looked at, but the main reason was due to the fact that I personally already know what this record label is like and what they are able to do for an artist. From the images I have presented below you are able to see that 'Hopeless Records' is an independent record label that was founded in 1993 by Louis Posen and is situated in California. Making my artist part of an independent record label could possibly mean that my artist doesn't gain as large of an audience than they could if they were with a major label - however, this record label is specific to the genres; Punk Rock, Pop Punk, Alternative Rock and occasionally Heavy Metal - this means that people who are fans of this these genres will most likely know about this record label, so when someone in the audience may look at something in relation to Hopeless Records, they may see something about my artist and then begin to become a fan of her. This means that my artist will gain a larger mass audience in relation to people who like the Pop Punk genre, rather than individuals who may only sometimes listen to it. Nonetheless, this does not mean to say that other audiences will not notice my artist because she is signed to an independent label because they hopefully will and will also enjoy her music and help her gain a larger mass audience. 

In the image I have presented above, you are able to see that 'Hopeless Records' has its own subsidiary label which is known as 'Sub City Records' and both of these labels combined have produced an annual tour called 'Take Action Tour' which includes all of the artists that are signed to the record label, but also once this tour is over, the record labels then release a CD which includes all of the artists that played on the tour during a certain year, so this means that even when my artist is just beginning her career, she will be able to go straight on tour and get noticed. This is another beneficial feature for my artist as it means she will be able to become more well known by touring as people will see her play live and will hopefully enjoy what she does, but also once the CD is released, more people will hear her songs, even people who may not particularly like the genre and hopefully this will help her gain a larger mass audience and become more well known and popular. Nowadays the Pop Punk genre is not always that popular and people are more into Pop music than anything, so the best thing is to be able to get my artist seen as much as I can to get people to notice her, but also it is more strategic to persuade people that already like the Pop Punk genre to listen to her rather than someone who may not really like the genre or may only listen to it from time to time.

          

In the image I have shown above you are able to see the current artists that are still signed to 'Hopeless Records' at this time. Personally I know the majority of these artists due to the fact that I listen to the genre of music that this record label usually signs. Nonetheless, all of these artists are well known in relation to the genres they are part of and if you ever saw someone that liked this genre of music then they would most likely know the majority of the artists that have been listed as they are well known. On top of that, there is a general style for the record labels logo - however, sometimes it varies when presented to the audience, so when it comes to me adding the record label to my artists digi-pack I will need to think about which logo is best to use. Above you are able to see that I have presented two of the different types of logos that this record label use which could be used on my artists digi-pack. 

Photography Shoot - Thursday 26th January 2017

Aims

             

When it came to planning the best time to film all the shots I needed for my music video you are able to see on a post called 'Production Plan' that I had communicated with Laura to see when we would be able to film for the video and this was the exact same thing I did when wanting to do this photography shoot. In the images below you are able to see the texts me and Laura sent to each other to see when we would be able to do this photography day and because of the fact that we have a lot of the same frees together, I knew what days would probably suit us both the best. The messages I have presented below were sent on Tuesday 23rd January and this means that two days later was the actual day we decided to do this photography shoot. Below are the screenshots from my conversation with my actor, which you can look at in more detail:

Equipment 

As I had already been out to this location quite a few times before to get all of the shots I needed for my music video, I essentially already knew what equipment I would need to take with me as I had been through this process plenty of times before. In the image below you are able to see that the only equipment I needed for this photography shoot included; a Canon EOS 1300D camera and an 8 Gigabyte sand disk (SD) card. This is all I needed when taking photos in this location because like I said, all I would be doing is taking images so I wouldn't need a tripod to keep the camera steady as I would be holding it to take them, so all I needed was a camera and an SD card to save it all onto. I was originally going to take the drawn drafts I had created for the digi-pack and the album cover - however, there were only 7 different images on the draft, so I could easily remember what I wanted to take, but if I did forget then luckily I had taken an image of the drafts on my phone, so I would have always been able to look at the images if I needed to. Nonetheless, I wasn't planning on taking only 7 photos and wanted to take more so when it comes to creating my products I would be able to choose from a wide range of different images and decide which ones would be the best to use in my products. When taking these images I did turn off the camera between every shot again due to the fact that the first time I tried to film for my music video, I kept the camera turned on for the whole time and it ran out of charge quite quickly - so I needed to ensure that I would save charge and would be able to get all of the shots I needed. Overall, I had all of the equipment I needed to ensure I got the outcome I wanted. 

On The Day 

As I would be taking these images outside, I again needed to ensure that I knew what the weather was going to be like to make sure that I actually would be able to take the images I need. When taking the images on this day, both me and Laura actually left college at the beginning of lunch (12:40pm) which meant that we actually starting taking photographs at around 1:15pm and managed to finished by 2:20pm which gave us just about an hour to get all of the photographs we needed. In the image I have presented below on the left hand side, you are able to see that I screenshotted this on the morning of this day and I did this as I wanted to see what the weather was going to be like throughout the day and how it would be when we eventually went out to take the photographs. In this image you are able to see that it was quite cloudy at the time, but then a bit later on the sun was partially going to come out. However, I think the cloudy sky would be beneficial for my photo shoot as my music video itself is supposed to be quite dark, so having a dark digi-pack and album poster will create continuity and make the products look more appealing. Once we had actually got to the Country Park and we were 15 minutes into taking photographs I decided to take another screen shot of the weather and in the image I have presented below on the right hand side, you are able to see that the weather had actually stayed the say as when I had taken the screen shot in the morning and again I think this was a beneficial thing as this gloomy and cloudy weather will make my product look quite dark which is basically what I want in a way. The only problem with the weather was how cold it was and this meant that we were going to have to stay as warm as we could when taking the photographs, but especially Laura as she would only be wearing a small and thin amount of clothing for the photo shoot.

Once we had finished with this photo shoot, we then went back to college to go to our last lesson and after this I then went home and once I got there I went straight onto my computer and saved all of the photographs I took on this day onto it to ensure that they would be in a safe place and that I wouldn't lose them when I need them to begin creating my digi-pack and album poster. In the image below you are able to see that I put all of the photographs I had taken in a folder called 'Photoshoot' which contained 198 items and this was to ensure that when I actually would need to use these images from this day I would know exactly where they are and won't have to spend a long time going through my computer to find them. 

Underneath you will be able to see that I have created a presentation to demonstrate all of the different images that I took while shooting in this location. When taking these images I did take a lot of random ones and this was due to the fact that I wanted to try out different things and I may end up using some of the images in my final product that were originally just random. Nonetheless, here are all of the images I took while taking photographs on this day:

In this presentation you are able to see a wide variety of different images have been taken and more importantly they have all been taken in the forest which again is the main location that the music video is set in, so continuity has been created already. In some of these images you are able to see that Laura is wearing her white coat and this was due to the fact that I wanted to take some practice images before I actually took the real ones and I said to Laura that she would be able to keep her coat on and stay warm while I just do some practice shots. On top of that, you are able to see that Laura is wearing different clothes to what was worn in the music video and this is due to the fact that I do not want to digi-pack cover to relate just to the music video as this song just appears on the album and it is not as if this digi-pack is a single because if it was then it would be more understandable as to why Laura would be wearing the same clothes as in the music video. Nonetheless, the clothes that she is wearing is still conventional of the Pop Punk genre, but also helps present her style and identity to the audience. Overall, I am happy with all of the photographs I managed to get on this day and I am now ready to start creating my digi-pack and album poster.

Here are some of my favourite photographs that I took on this day:

Drawn Drafts For Ancillary Text

Before actually going out and taking photographs for my digi-pack and album poster, I decided to create some drawn drafts to give me some ideas in relation to what I would like my ancillary text to look like, but also it will be easier for me as I will be able to know what type of images I want to take when actually going out to take the images. In these drawn drafts I have essentially drawn what I would like to occur in the images, but I have also briefly annotated them to present to you what I would like to be happening in these images. As I previously said, the images I have drawn on these drafts are essentially just guidelines, so when it actually comes to doing this photo shoot I may take images that look different to what has been presented on the drafts - however, I basically know what I want my ancillary texts to look like as they will include photos that have been taken at the Humber Bridge Country Park as by taking them in this location it will help create continuity between my texts as this is the location that the majority of my music video has been filmed in.

Here are the drawn drafts I have created for my ancillary text: 

Digi-Pack

Album Poster