Generating New Ideas

Instead of having a picture of the microphone stand at the back of my CD Digipak, I have decided to have an image of my artist, as I think this will look better. On the inside, I plan to have the text "when a heart breaks no it don't break even.." so it relates to the song, on the side with the image of my artist. I will do this so it relates to my chosen song, but not the whole lyrics of my particular song, as my digipak is designed for the album rather than just the single track. This will also add more to my design so it doesn't look plain, but so it looks simple and effective. I'm going to have the image of the park behind the CD, but i'm going to experiment with keeping in in colour, but also having it in black and white when I do the real thing, so I can see what goes better with my final design and the changes that I have made.

Digipak Photographs

In my free period today I took some pictures of a microphone from different angles, as well as the microphone's stand, to go out the outside cover of my digipak. I also took some pictures of Liam to go on the inside cover, for my artist The Script. I tried to get shadows in my pictures so it's easier to re-create my first design, so I took the pictures in a spot with good lighting. I also tried to ensure that there is not too much in the background of the pictures so it's easier for me to edit in Photoshop. Now that I have these pictures I can begin to create my final digipak using the images that I have taken. I also have some separate photographs of locations that I have posted before which will go in the inside cover of my digipak. Below are the pictures I took:

Coursework Deadlines

Term 3 ( By January 4th 2012)

Research and Planning Completed and evidenced on your blog for main task and ancillary tasks- assessment and feedback 

Filming MOSTLY completed

Track downloaded and imported to FCE

Editing of main task begins using FCE or FCP

Editing of ancillary tasks begins using Photoshop Elements

Term 4 (By February 16th 2012)

Editing completed during this term if not before

Term 5 (By 16th April 2012)
Main task and ancillary tasks completed by April 16th 2012

Media Studies Coursework Screening takes place - audience feedback received
Evaluation completed and presented

Exam preparation for Section A : Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Planning Digipak Photographs

I'm planning to take some photographs in my free periods today or monday that I will use on my CD Digipak. I am planning to base my digipak on the rough design I have planned below. I plan to get a wide range of shots of the microphone, some from a mid shot, some close up like my design and some from below and above. I will also get a range of different angles that I can play around with when it comes to using them on my final digipak cover. I also plan to shine a light onto one of the pictures, so I can also have different effects on the image so I have a number of different ones to choose from, based on which one I think looks more effective. I will also have one of the microphone with part of the wire trailing behind, rather than on the stand, and have a separate one of the stand.
I have also played around with the idea that I will get a long shot of the image with a trailing wire, so the wire can run through the front of the digipak and run through the back. I liked this idea because I think that it will look effective, but it will depend if I can get a long enough shot of them both. If not I could take a separate shot of the microphone's wire and edit it to look like one photograph in Photoshop elements.
I need to have enough space on the table to get shots like long shots, and without too much in the background so it's easier to edit. 

Practice Digipak Designs

Design One

This is the first rough idea for the inside of my digipak. I used a picture of the artist, and on the opposite side I used an image of a location that I plan to use in my video. I used this particular picture because I think this fits into my music video. I would also be able to use this picture in my real digipak because I took the picture myself rather than getting it off the internet. I will experiment with different colours for my digipak but also with the aspect of black and white, and I will then use the one that I think is more effective. I like this idea most as I think that this one is more effective and looks more proffessional as well as looking more interesting.

Design Two

I have been experimenting different designs that I could maybe use for my final design for my digipak. As my chosen artists fall under the genre of Indie (pop-rock) I didn't want  to design anything that is to over-the-top. As the artists don't use an image of themselves on their album covers, I won't be using an image of the artist but will instead use an image that relates to the artist, but I might be using an image of the image on the inside cover. I used a microphone as The Script are about their music, so I used this to promote their simplicity but also the value of their music for them. I also thought that The Script is about lyrics, so I used a microphone to symbolize them being spoken.

I edited the microphone image using filter on my second design and texture to make it stand out more compared to the background. I then used bold yellow and orange for the title and name of the album to stand out next to the grey, and also because they are associated as being Indie colours.

I then used my created barcode on the back next to the production label to attempt to make it look more convincing, with a picture of a microphone stand next to the track listings, which relates to the front cover.

I edited the second picture by rubbing out the rough edge of the image and then edited the shadow and part of the microphone in purple to give it an edge, and also changed the shape and style of the writing to match. Then I added a stand on the background, and on my real one I will take pictures of the microphones stand for this part.

Creating A Barcode

In todays lesson we learnt how we could create a personalized barcode. I included my name and my candidate number on my barcode, and I will use it on my digipak to make it look more proffessional.

I generated this barcode on this website: http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php

Photoshop Practice

Before: This is the portrait that I started with, and I got this picture from google images. 

After : This is my finished result, after I had finished editing it in photoshop. 

When I had chosen this picture, I opened it up in photoshop using Bridge. I first used the lasso tool to draw an outline around my artists so I could delete the background and just have the image of them, and then copied it onto my page in photoshop. I then used the eraser tool to go around the edges, to soften it and get rid of any rough and jagged edges. I used the magnifier so I could zoom into the different areas of the image to make it more neat. 

Once I was happy with this I slightly enlarged my picture, so it would fill up more of my page. I then manipulated the colour of the image by changing the saturation, making them darker with a slight shade of red. I then went back onto google images and found an abstract image to fit the background of the image. I changed the layers by putting the background as the first layer so it would fit behind the image of the band. I was pleased that I had decided to change the scripts colour as it stands out more compared to the bright background. I also slightly changed the background colours slightly, by making them brighter by editing the colours in the tools menu, and also made the saturation lighter to make it contrast against my chosen artist more.