Ancillary products

For our ancillary products we chose to produce a band website and a CD cover.

Whilst creating them as a group, we discovered that we a difference in opinion for how each of them should look. Therefore, we decided to create two lots of each product, and to then decide which one we preferred.

Black and white;

One of the ideas we had was to have a black and white theme. Therefore, all the photos are in black and white as well as the background and text for the website and CD cover.
This set of products focusses on the band, with the photos being entirely of them, as well as having the CD cover using a full length photo of the band. We thought that this theme would fit in with the Indie rock aspect of the Kooks.

 

Colourful;

The other idea was to use melancholic colours, and a vintage looking feel. These focus on the female character within our music video, as well as using a lot of nature pictures. The website is much more colourful. However, the majority of the CD cover is black and white. We thought that this theme would fit in well with the Indi pop aspect of the Kooks, which is what genre the song is.

 

Writing for our CD cover.

Today we have been trying to find a suitable font for the writing on our CD cover.
These are our options,

Filming pictures.

Here are some pictures we took during our two shoots

Narrative section. 

Performance section 

Audience research

Following the audience research that we conducted for the music video, we decided that the information that we received was invaluable. Therefore, we decided to do the same for out website.
Again, we asked a group of our peers to give us feedback.

This is what they said;

Success;

• Clearly communicates with the reader,
• Links well to the main music video,
• Relevant information for a homepage,
• Good understanding of industry conventions (SoundCloud links, Twitter links etc.)

Improvements;

• When the music video has been finished, embed a link to YouTube- We had already planned to do this.
• Ensure there is a clear relationship between the tone of the photos and the 'feel' of the video,
• The Kooks font/logo could be worked on.

The rough cut and audience feedback.

This week we finalised a rough cut of the performance aspect of our music video. We then showed it to a group of peers and asked for their feedback; what they thought we had done well, and what they thought we could improve on.

This is what they have to say;

Success;

• Footage well edited and suited the song,
• Believable performances from the band,
• Good use of camera and a range of shots,
• Framing has been well thought about,
• Good knowing humour used throughout.

Improvements;

• Improve the first few seconds as it is slightly jumpy,
• Consider lighting and how we can use post production to improve it,
• Consider making some of it black and white,
• Use extra "behind the scenes footage" for the ending.

CD cover ideas.

• Use a photo of the band, but have a mainly white background.
• Use the female character in the photo, with a natural background (the sky, trees, water etc.)
• Have a plain background, with only the writing on.
• A picture of nature on its own, featuring mainly the sky.
• Edit two photos together, keeping the nature aspect of the video involved.

Cd covers

 The Kooks' CD covers vary dramatically. They have sometimes shown the band members (which is a feature of pop bands) and other times they have used iconography or obscure images (which is a feature of indie bands).

From looking at these examples, it is clear that they follow the melancholic feel of many Indie bands/artists, and the artists are never the main focus, as if they are in the photo there is always a large open space.

This has helped us to come up with a few ideas for what we can do for out digipak.