Media Evaluation

Media Evaluation

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Final components for the digipack

Photos for the new designs

New concept for the digipack design

Inspired partly by my recent reading of the Bloody Chamber in English Literature AS, I decided that a subtle theme of necromancy within the album imagery could reflect the dark themes of the album and not feel overtly twisted, if handled with a sense of subtelty. The following designs depict the rough designs for the three images needed for the digipack design.


The above image will be in the digipack sleeve, behind the album disc. It depicts two dead arms reaching for one another. I hope to achieve this look of deathliness and eeriness through adjusting the colours of a normal arm and simply replicating and reflecting the image so that it depicts two equally decrepit arms reaching out for one another, from either side of the album case.

The above image depicts my new idea for the album cover (without the artist or album name evident). The clothes depicted will see the model in a large fur coat and her underwear. The entire image will be black and white with the exception of the model's lips will be be bright red. Over each eye will be a large cross, which is the typical convention of death.

The above image is the mock-up for the back cover of the CD. It shows a pair of still lifeless legs coming from out of the top of the album cover with the album tracks (Still in the disjointed, unarranged manner of the previous design) seemingly coming from in between the legs.

Changes to my original digipack

After a "show and tell" with a number of classmates, who fit the demographic and have a similar understanding of codes and conventions, a number of possible changes were suggested to my original digipack design. The first suggestion was that the cover photo bore a strong resembelance to the old Roxy music covers, in which an anonymous female would lie seductively across the album cover. Although this was intended initially as an homage, it was cited that similarities were too strong with the below image and that as a result something would need to be changed in order to make the cover more original.

To solve this problem I decided that rather than have the model naked and ragmenting and distortion covering the explicit parts of her body, having a female in a similarly provocative pose but in clothes, could be equally in keeping with the album themes. It was noted, also, that the clothes worn on the cover should be reflective of the sexual content of the songs within the album and their titles.

The second change suggested was again fuelled by over bearing similarities. The image of the lips which would provide the backdrop for the CD's disk case was directly copied from the iconic Rocky Horror imagery and although I intended to take my own photos of this , it would be too similar for the image to reflect any sort of individualism or creativity. This left me with the prospect of an almost complete overhaul of my original digi-pack design

Research into outdoor editing

Although my previous research into negativizing effects in a Christina Aguilera video and a Beck video were useful in displaying the effect such edits can have in reflecting a song's tone and atmosphere, my audience feedback suggested that specific research into outdoor editing and the extremeties of such edits would be essential in comprehending my own limits with the process of applying colourisation and negativising (especially in relation to an outdoor scenario). It was suggested that 'Eurythmics' video for 'Sweet Dreams perfectly exemplified such edits.

As seen above, the editing is not overly distracting from Annie Lennox or the other figures within the outdoors shots (e.g. the cows) yet gives the video and implied sense of abnormality within the video, which whilst not patently obvious to the reader creates an undeniable sense of unease throughout. This is the sort of atmosphere I wish to create in my own music video.