Ancillary Task (Album Front Cover) Research

Whilst filming, I knew it was essential to think of our ancillary task, which would to be to create a Digipack for our music video.

Firstly, I decided to do some research into existing media. This meant I did research into CD covers which had already been created. They are shown below:

The first artist I researched was Kelly Clarkson. I knew her covers would reflect the type of style we wanted to adapt as her songs are rather similar to PINK's (quite rock and roll with a theme of depression).

The cover shown abpve is probably my favourite of all of hers. I believe the use of her hands conveys her stress and despair. This is an idea we might adopt in our digi-pack as we have Alice putting her head in her hands in our film.

The three shown above are also successful for the type of music we are promoting. The wild hair in all three examples is something that captured my notice. The volume of hair reflects the characters large and 'wild' personality. It also conveys a rather 'rock-indie chick' look which is also something we want to incooperate into our task to mirror the music.

Shown above is an album cover that I believe links well to Kelly Clarksons. The models hand is on her head conveying distress and maybe inner torment.

From here, I wanted to become more spefic.

I therefore, decided to ONLY research artists who I knew write rather depressing and pessimistic songs (like many of PINK's tend to be).

The next selection of Albums, I believe, are very successful in conveying the same themes that we want.

The cover above covers a rather depressing and hopeless feel to it. This is something we hope to somewhat covey as Alice feels very hopeless throughout our video, dealing with unrequited love as well as her own sexuality.

Although the  cover below is somewhat similar to the one above, we do not quite get the same sense of hopelessness and depression. This is why we will not use this cover any further. Not many of Cheryl Cole's songs appear depressing or sad. As a pop artist, she does not quite convey the image we want.

As you can notice, my research has moved on to become focused around Black and White imagery. After my research, I have realised that many of the artists who are similar to P!NK use black and white on their front covers.

I believe the use of Black and White allows a models features to stand out more. Effects of lighting and texture will be more obvious. As well as this, I believe the use of black and white allows the camera to capture emotion more effectively. It adds a sense of mystery as well as showing simple emotion through expression of the models.

Shown below are similar Black and White covers with a little bit of colour. We wanted to explore this feature to wonder whether or not to add it to our own Digipack

Although I believe both covers above appear rather effective (especially through the use of the red), both models seem quite eccentric and full of life. We want to convey a more depressing photograph and I believe keeping the photo as completely black and white will keep our task simple and effective. Through no colour, we do not give any other emotions away. Alice will be able to convey the emotion that we are deprete to capture.

The two covers shown below are part of my final research.

Above, is the album cover for Adele (an artist who many people associate with sad songs). I knew looking at her album would be helpful as the facial expression reflects the emotion behind her songs. 

Above is another favourite of mine. This is one of Rihanna's album covers (an extremely famous music artist). Similar to Adeles, he emotion is shown through the facial expressions.

Both of these covers, I believe are very effective. They are rather similar to the first Kelly Clarkson one due to the use of the models hands on their heads. This conveys distress and extra emotion. Something we hope to capture in our own DigiPack.

I will use these three examples to further expand my research.