Ancillary ProductionAmirah Yasar

The following slides will show my production and making of the digi pak and magazine advert for the album along with the image selection process.

This is the template I’ll be working from and will help me when it comes to positing my images in the right place. The CD will be placed on a plain tray along will the images on the other panels. I have chosen to do a 6 panel digi pak cover as my research shows that this is the most popular style. Using this style can also lead to mass audience appeal.

For the main album cover, I have decided to include two teenage Muslim girls dressed in black and white costume so that they can contrast each other as white and black can interpret many different things to different people. The shots have been the same which are full body/long shots so we can see the characters in full. In all of the photos they are covering their face with hand gestures which are typical hand signs rappers tend to do. It also gives the idea of being anonymous which is what some of the artists I have researched on have included in their digi paks and videos. I have also chosen the location is be simple as the main focus is the two Muslim girls in the middle. After taking a couple of different shots at different angels, I have decided to work with the middle photo as it sits well in the center and the pose is correct for the type of editing I will do when it comes to creating my main cover.

I have used Adobe illustrator to cut out the background and create a contrasting effect to match the main image. Along with the background I have created a set of wings which also contrast each other. For example, angel and devil, good and evil etc. On top of the Muslims girls heads I have created a halo for one and a crown for another. This shows the audience that they do have value even though they are seen negative in the media today. The colour pallet I have created here is gold, black and white which is what I have gained from looking at the conventions of other artist digi paks in my research.

This is the final album cover I have created from editing. It contains the parental advisory logo which makes the audience aware that explicit content is included in the album.

I have created various contrasts with the black and white including clothing, outlines on clothing, background and the wings which all of this portrays a message to the audience and they can interpret in any way because there is no right or wrong. It creates a personal message to the audience which is what I tried to achieve when it came to the making of my album cover and also the same goal when it comes to my music video

For one of the insides of the digi pak, I continued to experiment with taking photographs in different lighting and of different girls holding up the poster. The poster says “free Syria” and the Muslim girls are dressed in traditional modest clothing with the Palestine flag wrapped around them. This image adds more flavor to the main album cover as it gives the audience more of an insight of what to expect from this album.

From the previous selection I have decided to go for the last image as the pose looked quite symmetrical. To slightly match the colour scheme I have added the use of gold lines which again represents higher status and worth. I have used Adobe Photoshop to bring this photo to life by adding a purple/pink overlay to stylize this image to make it stand out more

Along the bottom I have included a message which is mean to be a personal message. From my research on artists digi paks, they tend to include a personal message thanking their family. My message contains a quote from Malcolm X and I have dedicated it to all Muslims who have been portrayed or labeled as negative by the media

Another range of photos include a range of props that I have used in the making in the music video all in one shopping trolley. These include things such as dollar notes (which was bing used a lot in the music videos I had researched) Palestine flag, free Syria posted, newspaper articles, mask, and the trolley itself. This is to give the audience an overview of the elements that were included in our video. Such as the mask which represents being anonymous and the newspapers which makes the audience aware of what is really happening in the media which makes them more ‘woke’.

For my final image I decided to use the image which was on the right hand side of the previous page. I decided to use this image as you can clearly see all of the props. To match the other inside I have created a pink/purple overlay on the image which fades out using Adobe Photoshop.

Towards the bottom on the right side we have included credits for the producer, artist and artist featured in the song as from my research, artists have given credits to people who have contributed in the production of the song/album. The same way I have given credits and decided to include it on this page in white text to make it clear and visible

For the last inside of my digi pak, I decided to go for a more powerful image. These shots include a mid shot of a teenage Muslim girl with labels on her which consist of negative content. These are labels which society and the media have given her so to make it more clear I decided to play around with lighting to make the image look more stylized. The image alone without editing contains a minimal colour scheme which is what I am trying to achieve in my digi pak.

I decide to choose the first image as her face is looking down making it look as if she is disappointed or upset.

I have emphasized this by drawing a golden tear drop on her cheek. Along with this I created a triangular geometric pattern on both sides so they both reflect each other. This unintentionally matches with the labels. The colour of the lighting on her face also matches with the labels. To make the image seem like it is more part of my digi paks, I have created a light over lay of pink in the background towards the top. The gold tear drop shows again that Muslim women do have value. Towards the bottom I have included credits for the producers, editors and writers of the music video and used the same text and font to maintain the conventions.

These shots contain a tug of war style between the east (Palestine) and the west (United kingdom). We wish to have used an American flag but since there was not any available we decided to use the British flag. This tug of war represents an actual war that is happening between two sides and normally the oppressed ones (Palestine) are portrayed as the terrorist in the media. So we aimed to change this and flip the stereotype of terrorist only being from the middle east into American terrorism.

I decided to go for the second mid shot image as my track listing. This is so that the text can sit on top of each other perfectly. When I used Adobe Photoshop to edit I wanted the font to be different from the inside. I wanted it to be more of a graffiti style to bring out the hip hop genre. Along with this I have added an overlay to match the previous images I have edited in the digi pak. Along the bottom I have included logos of the distribution record labels in which this album will be released from along with the music video. From my research I had seen that all artists have their record label and distributor on the back of their digi pak where the track listing goes.

I had gained the names of the rest of the track list by taking inspiration from real rap songs and being inspired by Malcom X who was also featured at the beginning of the video.

Finally for my magazine advert I had included all the color schemes that I have used for my digipak. This is so that the whole cover can compliment itself along with the digipaks. From my research I have seen that artists use their main album cover in the poster but tend to position it in the center to catch the audiences attention. I have followed this convention along with displaying the typography at the bottom. I have made the album title the largest which is towards the bottom and the the next largest font is the release date. I have also included the logos of the distributors which are Sony and Interscope records. All of these conventions is what I have gathered from my research on magazine posters and have applied these to my own poster. The simplicity in the poster is another thing I have picked up especially looking the Kanye west one. I had used Adobe Photoshop to construct the triangles in the background along with layering the main image on top.