A2 - Digipak Research CD and Magazine

Digipak Research

A Digipak is essentially the cover of a CD however it offers much more than just a simple diagram, it is typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs.

The front of the digipack often shows an image of the artist accompanied by their name and names of the album/ single being released plus other credits such as record labels. If the content is explicit which the one above happens to be then the cover will be marked with a logo signifying 'explicit content', which is usually positioned to the bottom left of a CD digipak.

Here is a typical example of the net and layout of a digipak. The back cover features the soundtrack of the album from first to last (often in chronological order).

This is a prime example of a promotional poster for the release of an album.
It features the artist (Plan B) to the bottom right of the page, accompanied by the album name and tour dates beneath it in smaller text.








Magazine Adverts

Similar to CD covers magazine covers feature texts and an image.

This recent edition of XXL (right)  features a cover artist (Kendrick Lamar) amongst texts around him including his name in bold branded most centrally to the magazine cover.

Next to him on the right hand side lies a collection of names of other artists and topics to be mentioned inside the magazine such as Rick Ross, Ty Dolla Sign and Bryson Tiller.

To the right is another issue of XXL this time featuring cover artist Jay-Z regarding his album , 'The Blueprint 3' which officially dropped on the 8th September 2009.

The cover is effective as it has the subject central and he can be seen towering above New York City amongst other sky scrapers.

Similarly both covers are peppered with Red and stick to neutral colours, white, black and grey.

Technical Skills - Camera Dolly

Technical Skills - Camera Dolly 


Becoming more familiar with the equipment we were introduced to the camera dolly. Personally i was eager to get a chance to work with it as i knew it was effective at giving us a collection of professional shots, something that would come in handy in any future production. From previous tasks i could appreciate that a steady camera will increase the quality of production and will mean that you wont have to spend considerable time in post-production correcting errors.

Our camera dolly ran on a basic straight  track compiled by plastic poles, typically bigger productions have longer and more luxurious equipment however the principle is the same, the dolly enabled us to get...

Tilting shots - where we could capture footage that allows us to tilt upwards or down a character or subject, the dolly will stabilise the shot being performed and create a smoother effect

Panning Shots - that enables us to pan across rooms and people in a steady and professional fashion from a still or moving position, something that would be difficult if one was trying to use a handheld. It would also result in us having more flexibility with cuts and scene length, productions like 'Birdman' ( 2014, Inarritu ) appear to be all one scene however clever camera pans make it seem this way.

Tracking shots - these let us follow a subject from several angles, its effective as it throws the audience into the action of the shot, this effect is demonstrated below.