Monopolising

The term to 'monopolise' means to have control fully and exclusively.

With this term in mind, we utilised it's definition to create an ironic nature around the idea of the money theme. By using 'Monopoly' money, we referenced the term 'monopolisation'. It is then ironic in the sense that the characters within our video who are supposed to be representing fans of the ska genre, both of the present time and also potentially the time when ska music was at it's peak, such as the skinhead ska/punk characters from This is England '86, who considering their current economic situation were far from 'in control' of the situation. The economic depression under that government of Margaret Thatcher had caused mass unemployment and so the working class people of the time, including the ska/punk fans such as the characters from This is England, would not have been able to have a direct impact. Because of this, our use of monopoly money ironically highlights their lack of control, considering the term 'monopolising' itself means the direct opposite.

As well as this ironic underlaying meaning to our use of the money, there is also a more direct meaning. The fact that the money is from a board game, monopoly, can also be directly related to our female protagonist. It is heavily implied within the video that she is literally 'playing a game' in order to gain money for herself, as well as being a metaphor for the economic climate and money-grabbing banker situation. Being the strong female character she is, she is in complete control of the game she is playing, which of course is again linked to the term monopolisation so rather than there being an ironic meaning, the use of monopoly money is also presenting the fact that the female protagonist is in complete control of the supposed male characters that she is taking financial gain from.

Development of reverse digipak panel - newsboard

My initial idea was to use an enlarged image of a slanted news board for the reverse cover of my digipak, as shown in a previous post. I have since experimented with various pictures I have taken outside local shops, and have found a different, yet very similar idea to be more effective.

Rather than using an entire news board for the reverse side, I will most likely use one of the images I have taken of a 2-dimensional news board against a brick wall. This idea has proved to be far more practical as using a 3-dimensional board posed the issue of getting the correct angle and size to fit the entire image so that you can still read the writing on the news board, whilst still having enough room to fit the track titles, being the initial idea. One shot I have taken is shown below. It was particularly difficult to achieve a good angle to fit the whole of the board on the screen of the camera.

Minimal amount of news board visible, and not enough room in which to place track titles.

Instead, these are a few I have taken on the board against the brick wall. One bonus of this progression of ideas is that the bricks can connote the urban atmosphere in which the majority of the music video itself was shot, and is fitting to the ska genre and youthful, urban target audience I am trying to appeal to. I can now also use the individual bricks as a method of showing the track names of the E.P. I can use Adobe Photoshop to insert text onto the bricks to make them look as though graffiti writing has been painted on them, as shown below. Development on this graffiti idea is shown in the previous post when analysing the 'Does it offend you, yeah?' album artwork.

Original shot of a news board against brick wall, greater space for track names to be shown, and bricks connote urban culture.

Photoshop can be used to remove original headline writing from image, using 'clone stamp' tool.

Photoshop can be utilised further to remove all writing, add effects to brick work, posterize news board to give bold, comic-like effect that is fitting of the genre, and text inserted on bricks to show track names as if graffiti.

This image is close to what i propose to be the final design for the reverse of my digipak.

'Does it offend you, yeah?' and 'Sam's town' digipak ideas

This album cover from the band ‘Does it offend you, yeah?’ is a good example of a similar effect to the one I shall be trying to achieve with my own design. With this artwork it is mainly the graffiti effect of the writing that I am focussing on. The use of a graffiti styled font presents an urban theme and connotes youth culture within the genre. As the target audience of my own digipak will be an urban, youth culture, I see this to be a good example of the style of writing I will be using on my own digipak.

The style of this graffiti does not so much connote the ska genre of my own productions, and instead works very effectively with bright, bold colours and a scruffy font against a dark background to present the electro/alternative genre of the band them self, as they too much like my own band have a youthful, urban target audience. For this reason, a graffiti style font (though likely to be a much bolder, clear font typical of the ska genre) is what I want to use for my own digipak.

I will be using this graffiti design on both the front and back of my digipak. On the back to present the track titles of the E.P., and on the front to use for the E.P’s name (Moneygrabber) up against an urban background, written on the wall of the background much like the style used on the next album cover...

... ‘Sam’s Town’ is an album by the alternative rock band ‘The Killers’. As you can see from the album artwork, there is a person in the foreground, with the name of the band and album appearing as if it has been painted on the wall of the urban background. It is a combination of these two album covers that I want to use for my own work. Like Sam’s town, I want to have the actors (as band members) in the foreground of the shot, with an urban graffiti wall as the background. Then I want the name of my E.P. to appear on the wall in the background as if it has been painted on like graffiti. As explained previously in this post, the graffiti and urban mise-en-scene is a typical convention of the ska genre and connotes the youthful target audience of which I am aiming it at.

Initial digipak design sketches

Front (right) and back (left) cover

This is the initial sketch idea for the outside covers of my digipak. The front cover, shown on the right hand side, will most likely feature a shot of the band and Jack (who was initially in the band, though over the shooting period has taken up more of a 'friend of the band' role). It will work well as being a generic image to represent the genre, and also instantly establish the band (actors in this instance) and genre. I will use large, bold lettering that is iconic of ska, to present the name of the band in the bottom corner. The track name will also featuer on the front cover being formed by monopoly money to spell out the word 'moneygrabber', which is strongly referencing our video as we used monopoly money in this way in the form of stop motion, and establishes the theme of the song as being about a money-grabbing woman. I am likely to include a chequered black and white border which is also iconic of the two-tone sub genre. I will also experiment with different image effects, such as adjusting the saturation, to improve the appeal of the image.

For the back cover of the CD case, i will be using a large image of a news bulletin board (more zoomed than in the illustration, shown by the arrows!) where on the board there will be a news headline referencing a contemporary money-related political issue such as the education cuts or banking disaster. This would again be relevant to the theme of the song (money-grabbing!) as the bankers of recent times have been publicised as being overly greedy with the administering of bonuses, causing drastic negative effects on the economy. This lack of money and jobs within society is also a large issue raised in This is England, which would be a good intertextual reference. On the reverse of the news board, which will be presented at an angle to the page to connote the quirky, fun nature of The Skanx and ska genre, will be the track listings and any other information necessary to the EP. I again adjust effects to make it more appealing.

Middle inserts

For the CD insert i am contemplating the idea of using close-up shots of the actors' faces, dressed in ska costume, facing the camera whilst looking at each other across a quartered page in an almost pop art style, not dissimilar to that of the Blur album cover 'Best of Blur' analysed in a previous post. this would establish the band members themselves, as well as presenting them in an interesting, quirky way that is fitting of the genre. i will most likely be using diagonally relative black and white colouring for the boxes in which the faces will be, as it is a simple iconographic of the two-tone genre.

Finally, for the face on which the CD itself will sit, i will be using a simple image of scattered monopoly money, which will be the sole focus of the page. This will again be referencing the stop motion sections of our video, as well as the song title itself. I feel that this will work effectively as it will be a bold design, typical of the genre, that will grasp the audience's attention upon opening the case. The bright primary colours of the money will represent the fun nature of all of the ska genre, it's carefree target audience, and the song itself. The connotations of freeness that this bright colour brings are in a sense ironic, as the audience of the song living amongst contemporary political issues are anything but free.

Reverse of album cover - news board

For the reverse cover of my digipak, one idea that I am highly considering is the use of the image of a news board, such like one you would find outside a local corner shop. It would feature a close-up image of the front of the board, highlighting a contemporary political issue such as the recession or banking disaster of moderm times (to be focussed on further on a future blog post).

The image will be zoomed in at a slight angle to fill the entirety of the panel, which means the reverse side of the news board image will be able to be seen. I will take advantage of this by potentially using it as an area on which to write the track listings. I’ve used an image off of google to roughly present this idea rather than trying to make sense of my poor description! Pictured below.

This is a relevant idea that is fitting of the genre as it references a shot from our own video where there is a short shot of a graffiti man on a wall holding a news board. The writing on the front of the board when finished will also be strongly referencing an economic related, contemporary issue such as the recession, which is very much reminiscent of the issues raised in This is England, a typical ska text. It will be relating to the issues undergone by both the youth of the modern day and youth in the prime of the ska/punk era, highlighting financial struggle and political controversy. For this reason it is an appropriate image idea for an EP album cover of this genre.

Album cover - The Best of Blur

For the front cover of my digipak, one idea I was considering is a style very similar to the one shown here on Blur’s album ‘The Best of Blur’.

It features the four band members’ faces on a very minimalist, basic design in each coloured quarter of the face of the front panel. This basic design is one that I find to be, eye-catching, quirky and bold, much like the genre of ska itself. For my own digipak cover, I was toying with the idea of having a similar format to this, using the faces of our own actors as the band members.

The bold, block colours used create a sense of fun and playfulness, which I think is the kind of image a band like Blur are trying to put across about themselves. The colours play an effective role in bringing about a vibrant contrast across the image as opposed to more faded shades that would give a hazy effect, not at all what Blur’s Britpop/rock genre is trying to present. It’s very similar to some forms of pop art, such as this one pictured below, which also is heavily based around very block colours and ease of expression through bold lines and colour whilst focussing on contemporary themes. For my own design I have contemplated using block colours such as these ones as they are in-fitting with the quirky youth side of the ska genre and bring about connotations of fun and enjoyment such to metaphorically present the carefree nature of teenage ska fans. However, if I am to follow this idea for my digipak, I would most likely go down the root of a more two-tone ska black and white chequered colour effect that is so iconic of the genre, seeing as our band are most in-fitting with the two-tone sub genre.

The faces on the album cover are illustrated as opposed to photographs. This too is something I would consider when producing my own. Although I would be initially starting with photographs of the actors’ faces, I will be editing them a considerable amount with various effects to transform the photos into a cartoon-esque image such as the ones on this Blur album. Rather than the bland image effect using just photographs in this case would give, the use of cartoon illustrations also adds a quirky, fun element to the images that is in-keeping with the genre. This is something I shall consider with my own production.

Steve Bell

One of the main influences towards my inclusion of the theme of the economy and current disastrous financial situation caused by the current 'greedy' bankers and the errors of the government both in contemporary times and the era of Margaret Thatcher when ska music was near it's peak popularity, is the cartoonist for the Guardian newspaper, Steve Bell.

He is renowned for his particularly left-wing views regarding politics and his very distinctive caricatures often featuring politicians. It was upon researching into his cartoons that i realised he could be a good inspiration towards the economic theme of our video as well as being a perfect reference in terms of my digipak, as on the fourth panel i have used a picture of a news board reading 'MONEY GRABBING BANKERS' which can be a direct reference to Steve Bell and his works in the guardian, such as this cartoon below which is playing on the idea that Barrack Obama was needed as a 'shovel' to dig Gordon Brown out of Labor's situation.

This can be used as a direct link to the shot in our own video, where we have used a close-up of some urban graffiti making a reference to the errors being made by the government, whilst also using some word play on the phrase 'War on Terror'.

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