Locations for Digipak and Magazine Advert...

As it is part of their planning for the photo shoot for the digipak, Arfa and Leon came up with and took pictures of various locations around and nearby school that struck them as being conventional to the indie genre and pleasing on the eye. As group we decided that choosing a location near school would be the best option for the photo shoot, as it would be easy for our band members to get there, so instead of spending time travelling to a location that was far away we could spend our time actually taking the photographs in order to get the best possible image.

After looking around the school, Arfa came up with two locations that she thought were quite indie and that she could envisage being on any of the panels of the digipak and the magazine advertisement.

Location #1:

This location was chosen by Arfa because of the metal railings along the side, as many bands, such as The Kooks, have taken photographs near or beside metal railings, so it has become kind of conventional to the Indie genre to take pictures in ‘urban’ areas. However, as a group we felt that the block of flats, cars and bicycles were distracting and took away from the full effect of the metal railings, so ultimately we decided against this location.

The Kooks walking by a metal railing

Location #2:

Arfa liked this location because of the log in the centre of the image, as she thought that a photograph of the band members sitting on the log playing their instruments would be quite indie based upon her research. However, as this location was on school grounds it would be difficult to make it our location for our photo shoot because there would be lots of children around playing at lunch, before school and sometimes after school. Furthermore, when evaluating all of the locations chosen as a group we thought that the writing on the fence would be distracting and we wanted the band to be the main focus of all of the photographs that we took, so in the end we ruled this location out because of the aforementioned reasons.

Leon, on the other hand, went to take photographs of locations from outside of our school. He went to the park and took some photographs locations within the park that he felt were conventional to the Indie genre.

Location #3:

These photographs were taken in different areas in the park. As a group we decided that, based upon these photographs, it would be a good idea to make this park our location for the photo shoot. This was largely because we felt that these locations highlighted the fact that our band was cool, fun and quirkly, as well as showing that they enjoy hanging out together. By going with the theme 'a day out in the park' it meant that we could invite our target audience into the world of the band, and the sorts of things that they do together when they aren't making music.

When conducting my research into Indie digipaks/album covers I found that some album covers, like The Kook's album artwork for 'Inside In Inside Out' deliberately invite their potential target audience the world of the band, because they took the image of the band from the drummer's perspective. This, then, gave their album a much more personal undertone, which would be appealing to their target audience. Therefore, the theme of our photo shoot and the location would, we believe, be conventional to the Indie genre and appealing to our potential target audience.