A2 Media Studies.

1. +
FEEDBACK &
IMPROVEMENTS
ON DIGI-PACK
By Tayla Powell

2. +
I asked various people, both male
and female – majority female - in
our target audience age range of
15-19 year olds, in order to gather
vital but a wide range of feedback
from individuals we are aiming to
target. These improvements below I
added to the digi-pack in order to
make it as best as possible.

3. + Brooke (15, female):
 Point: I like the colour scheme, background images and the consistent fonts, however
you could make this more defined because in some eras it is difficult
to read, especially the back cover.
 Discussion: I’d never actually noticed this in the first place, however once Brooke said
that I then applied this, by experimenting with different fonts and font effects. Using the
same font I just simply defined the outline of it by enhancing a darker dominant glow on
the rim, making it more defined. This made the text much more professional which I
admired so therefore I then applied it to the rest of the text to fit into the same theme. I
am happy someone noticed this because It makes the digi-pack better quality.
 Point: To Improve, I would brighten the images of Jon so we are able to see him
clearer behind the starry image.
 Discussion: In order to do this, I simply brighten the contrast up to 20 percent for each
image being use, plus enhancing the redness of the photo. You are able to see Jon
much clearer making him more dominant and focal point in the digi-pack.

4. + Abbie (17, female):
 Point: I like the mixture of blues and whites (stuck to a strict colour scheme)
because it creates a cool and relaxing atmosphere.
 Discussion: I am happy with this point because our aim was to create a
cool and calm atmosphere and I am glad that this representation of our artist has been
portrayed positively.
 Point:In particular I like the continuous theme throughout; this makes it seem official
and doesn’t make the composition look busy.
 Discussion: It is interesting that someone has noticed this because it isn’t something
an average audience member would instantly see. Although I am happy with this point
because it was vital for us to stick to a strict colour scheme and make it simple to entice
the audience.
 Point: To improve I would put the album name onto the CD as this is conventional and
feel it needs to be applied because it looks like something is missing.
 Discussion: We added the album name underneath the artist name in a smaller size
because it will keep the audience informed of who it is advertising. This was a good
point which initially I didn’t really consider of doing as I thought it wasn’t necessary,
however now one of my target audience members have noticed this, I therefore knew
this was something crucial to include.

5. + Jon (18, male):
 Point: I like the colour scheme as it gives the character a down-to-earth image.
 Discussion: Once again I am over the moon that Conrad Fisher has been well
portrayed to the target audience; his down to earth and happy go lucky character has
been well represented though the choice of calming colours and location, which was our
vital objective in the process of making this. Now he has been conveyed this way and is
clear to our target audience there is no need to alter this perception.
 Point: I like how the composition isn’t too busy and the theme is clear and the same
throughout.
 Discussion:Another one of our objectives was to keep the composition not looking busy
because this is what a lot of digi-packs fail on and therefore don’t succeed because there
is too for the audience to read, whereas all it needs is a focal point. Therefore we kept it
simple so it entices the audience to buy the CD.
 Point: To improve I would experiment with putting a photo behind the CD image to help it
fit into the theme even more, preferably an image of the location alone, this would also
look good on the back cover rather than the image of Conrad.
 Discussion: I liked this point because like I previously stated in my ‘editing process’
posts, that the CD looks very plain and boring in comparison to the rest of the digi-pack,
therefore using an image of just the location I used this on the CD and back cover. This
makes the digi-pack seem much less crowded and follows the ‘beach’ theme more than it
did.

6. +
Jenny (19, female):
 Point: My favourite part of the digi-pack is the angle of the images used
as these aren’t conventional images but works very well to make it stand out from other
similar digi-packs.
 Discussion: I am very happy with this point because when we were taking the photos;
our aim was to capture a creative, original shot that isn’t typically seen on digi-packs but
also links in with the music video. So therefore I am happy one of our target audience
has noticed this because a lot of effort was put into it.
 Point: To improve I would experiment with putting a photo behind the CD image to help
it fit into the theme even more, preferably a image of the location alone, this would also
look good on the back cover, rather than the image of Conrad.
 Discussion: I liked this point because like I previously stated in my ‘editing process’
post, I said that the CD looks very plain and boring in comparison to the rest of the digi-
pack, therefore using a image of just the location I used this on the CD and back cover.
This makes the digi-pack seem much less crowded and follows the ‘beach’ theme more
than it did. Now two people have stated this, this was a vital aspect missing on the digi-
pack.

7. +
Extra Improvements:
 Once these improvements were added, Nicola, Chloe and I then altered and
changed other improvements that we found individually. These are as follows:
 I added vital information onto the CD, such as the record label logo and
information, copyright, and compact disc logo to make the digi-pack official;
this was placed at the bottom of the CD in the same font but in a much small
size, I also applied the font effect onto this. This was something I noticed was
missing from the digi-pack after conducting further research and decision with
fellow Media Students, so added this in.

8. +
 Initially, we found our background of the starry sky on Google Images (image
below) and have been using this to create the relaxing template over the
photos we have taken. However, our Media Studies teacher advised us to go
out and take our own images of the sky and edit them together.

9. +
 In order to do this, Nicola went out onto our school field and took several
pictures using a Cannon 1000D camera, borrowed from school. Nicola stated
at times it was difficult to capture a good image due to the amount of clouds
that were in the sky; however we made do with what we had because the sun
gave a nice glare in the images similar to various shots in our music video. The pictures
are below.

10. +
 Whilst Nicola was going this, Chloe and I continued to apply the improvements
above. When Nicola was back with the images downloaded onto my desktop,
we experimented with editing this together by changing the opacity,
darkening the blue in order to achieve a turquoise template to work from,
brighten the contrast to create the starry/glittery effect and so on. We then put this
together, although unfortunately this de-saturated Jon, making all the colours looked
wasted out and not very appealing. I was very disappointed with this because I was
excited to make our own template.
 Therefore, we scraped this and created a second draft; we only edited our chosen
image that Nicola had taken slightly to fit into theme, plus edited the Google image
starry effect onto this.
 This worked out extremely well considering the first attempt was a disaster, although
this was initially improved our final background cover which I am pleased out. The
reason why we did this is because we originally were using an image from Google
which wasn’t our own and therefore we had to do something about this.

11. + Stages:
 I began with transferring the image onto Photoshop CS5.1, altering the brightness and
contrast of the image in order to create the illusion of a summers day.
 Using the curve tool in adjustments, I enhanced the redness to make the photo look
warmer as well as the blue in order to make the image a turquoise colour similar to the
image we are trying to create.

12. +
 Using the magic wand, I then cut out the glittery/starry aspects in the images and placed
them onto my edited image, along with the clouds. I then decreased the opacity on the
starry image so my edited photo was more dominant. Following on from this I merged
the layers together in order to transfer onto my digi-pack.
 In the final stages, I simply put the edited image onto my digi-pack. Initially I am happy
with this because it does create that cool and calm atmosphere that was intended, plus
you can clearly see the glittery/starry effect I was worried would disappear during the
editing stages.

13. +
 Overall all these improvements have been extremely beneficial in terms of
meeting out target audiences needs.
 Asking a wide range of both male and female in different age categories
helped me get a larger variety of opinions from different members of our
target audience. These improvements have certainly given me a better
quality digi-pack as it looks more professional after taking the corrections on
board and I am very happy with it.