Planning Ancillary products: First go at Photoshop

This screenshot is my from my first attempt at using Photoshop, just familiarizing myself with the features of Photoshop since this is my first time using it seriously and this version ( Photoshop Elements 11). So far I am finding it quite difficult to use because of a lack of experience, but I will improve over time. In this picture I added a range of effects just too see what they look like.

Planning Ancillary products: The small details

There are small details on the front and back panels of a digipak which need to be included for the customer's welfare.

Planning Ancillary products: Mock-up of Digipak

Planning Ancillary products: Photos I plan to use

These are the photo's that I plan to use so far, all of them in general are clear, in focus and posses good lighting. They're close ups which show in detail the features of the artist which is important especially for the front cover in order to catch the attention of the target audience when they walk past it in the store. Also, These kind of images make the album much more presentable and professional than an image with the artist's back showing towards the customer, for example. The digipak promotes the artist so it is important that it reveals aspects of the artist's personality that are conveyed in relation to the genre, and I feel these images do that well.

This is the image I plan to use for my advertisement so far.  A clear well lit image which shows the artist's body this time as it will be in an A4 format.

Idea for inside panels

The inside panels require creativity, instead of having a standard image, a collage could be a good idea to test out.

Planning Ancillary Products: Ideas shortlist

Shortlist of fonts, colours, layout and design ideas:

Fonts:

Layout:

(2 Panel CD template)

Design ideas:

(Front and Back panels)

(Inside panels)

Planning Ancillary products: 'Do's' and 'Dont's'

Slide 1: 

Slide 2:

Slide 3:

Researching Ancillary products: Class discussion

Why are digipaks/Artwork still used?

- To make the product more presentable and appealing

- Appeal to niche's in the market who will buy the physical copy to support the artist. An example studied last year was Soul Jazz Records, their customer's are music purists/historians who will purchase the physical copy of an album for sentimental value, rather than illegally downloading it.

- Artwork is still need for digital downloads anyway so the presentability factor is still present here. Even illegally downloaded albums include digital artwork.

How important are the ancillary products to the artist + industry?

- They are very important as they're need for both physical an digital copies.

- Gives the artist a sense of accomplishment to see their work in that light.

- Promotes the image of the artist and his/her music.

- Its a way for the artist to connect with their fans.

- It makes money 

- It also sells the label name, bringing in money for the label too.

What is a digipak?

- A modern approach of CD packaging

- Includes more information about the artist, many artists like to include a personal message usually thanking people, employee's, friends and family etc.

A digipak should...

- Add value for the customer, otherwise there is no point of them purchasing the album. 

- Have the artist's name in the biggest font

- Have simple font

- Colour

- Album name 

- A sticker promoting special features/special edition if it applies.

- Production information

- Track-listing at the back, all in the same font

- A cover which relates to the genre of the music.

- Continue the same graphic style throughout all panels, whether it be 4 or 6 panels.

- Album reviews

 

Editing a Music Video; Whats needed?

To edit a music video effectively, you'll need a lot of expensive hardware, here's the list:

An Apple Macintosh computer, very powerful and is the most popular desktop computer to edit on, (editing software- Final Cut Pro)

We used the dual-screen set up, making the editing process easier as it separates tasks and easy for everyone to keep up with the editing process as we were in groups. 

Speakers allow for audio to be played aloud. Important when trying to listen in for smaller details in regards to the instrumental or artists's voice. Alliteratively, headphones can be plugged into the headphone jack in the speakers.

A mouse used to navigate around the project, important for selecting, dragging and dropping clips etc.

A keyboard here is used to easily extend, cut or delete clips, add markers etc. The colorful keys show editing shortcuts, very useful.

The video drive is where all clips filmed are stored. By plugging this into the computer we were able to bring our clips into the editing process, vital for everything. 

Testing out photoshop for my ancillary work

The above screenshot shows how I started to test out photoshop for my ancillary work for the first time. I used the digipack template to test out what my ancillary work would look like on screen. At first I found it hard to use photoshop as I found using the effects on the image hard to use and get the hang off. I uploaded two images onto photoshop to use.

I have started to use the effects to test out which effects look better on screen for my digipack, I immediately went for the black and white contrast on both images as I feel that it suits to theme of my music video.

Rsearch Ancillary Products: Fonts

Selection of fonts I am considering to use on my ancillary products. I tried to apporach a more modern selection as some fonts look like computer system fonts. I chose these specific fonts becuase it relates to the genre (Dubstep), additionally Katy B uses quite a futuristic font.

Final Chosen Fonts

 

Font 1: Quartz MS

 

Font 2: Eras Light ITC

 

Research Ancillary Products: Advertisements

Planning Ancillary Products: Photobucket: Pixlr

Planning Ancillary Products: Mock Up

Planning Ancillary Products: Testing Editing Effects

These effects were used from Photobucket. Each one is a type of 'Leak' effect  that gives the photo a coloured streak. There are a various amount of colours to chose from, here I just tested out each colour, pattern and angle to see which goes best. The framing of the picture is how I would want my advertisement to look like: A4, portrait, black and white with coloured leaks. 

Ideas?

Planning Ancillary Products: Digipak Template

Here is a digipak template I did in class. This is a rough design of how I would like some aspects of my final digipak to look like. Keeping the colour scheme black and white but maybe add a touch of a modern vibe to it with coloured lights and streaks

Planning Ancillary Products: Possible Photos and Test Shots

Planning Ancillary products: Mock-up digipak

Research Ancillary Products: Ideas, effects and colour scheme

Here is an old photo I took last year in my Photography class. I didn't edit it on Photoshop but Photobucket instead, the idea around the editing is what I wish to use. Almost like a blurred flash of light. The colour scheme is also what I would aspire to use as it relates to the genre of music: debstep, which is quite a futuristic, modern type of genre and I wish to show this through the album cover so the audience will know what kind of music is featured on the album just by looking at the cover. The shot isn't perfect and the framing is wrong for an album, a preferred shot would be a close up or mid shot however I could use this shot for my advertisement

Here is another photo taken in my photography class. The shot, framing, effects and colour scheme is perfect for my digipak, if only it was the actual artist. This is what I aspire to achieve for the front cover of my didgipak. Again the colour scheme and editing relates and reflects the genre of music: modern, futuristic and stylish.

Although I did create these photographs before doing any type of research, my ideas are influenced by Katy B's album and website itself. The blue and purple tinge she has on most of her single covers is definitely something I want to consider using. 

Production of Music Video: Skills Development

Editing Skills I have learnt:

 

1.  Changing the atmosphere of a video, this may be by changing the tint to a vintage effect using the colour corrector or completely getting rid of the colur by desaturating the colour.
2. Green Screen, using the chroma key gets rid of any green on a piece of footage and allows you to put a moving image or a still image behind it. This didn't result to be very successful as it made the video look cheap and tacky so we didn't use it.
3. Markers, placing markers on your footage to the beat of the song will give you the exact points of where you might want to cut during your editing. Especially if you have a fast paced song (which we have) this definitely comes in handy and our video flowed really well becuase of it.
4. Changing brightness, contrast and saturation. Any dark footage we had we made brighter.
5. Image and wireframe. If a shot is out of frame or contains background that we din't want particularly during the green screen we would zoom out 25% and alter the image in the 'image and wireframe' tab so that we could get the shot we wanted.
6. Slow motion with time lapse. Time lapse wasn't on Final Cut Pro but we did manage to find a way of manipulating the same technique using slow motion and layering. Thus creating a slow motion echoeing of movement.
7. Dip to colour dissolve. Although this is a type of video transition we was able to use this effect in a sense that it looked like a flashing light by cuttting up a piece of footage multiple times and placing the effect inbetween.
8.  We was also able to create a flashing light effect without using the dip to colour effect but by just zooming in on our footgae on the timeline to the fullest and cutting up the footage every two jumps to the right with the right arrow key then deleting every other small clip.

Researching Ancillary Products: Analysis of 3 Digipaks

Definition:

A modern appraoch to CD packaging. Allows for inclusion of more information, meant to feel your getting extra for your money - something special.

The simplicity of Chase and Status' album is what is typically found in a successful digipack. A 3-4 colour scheme specifically yellow to keep the album standing out on the shelves. This digipack in particular relates to our genre becuase Chase and Status typically produces dubstep music. As two male artists that produce music that is quite rough and fast paced to the ear I think that's what they've tried to do with the whole design which will appear to their main audience, males. However, the artist for my digipak is female so we may have to approach our design differently.

 I personally like the style of Labirnth's album, very graphical and futuristic with a mysterious atmosphere to it. Something that could be a challenging if I was to take on making my digipak like this. He does somewhat keep a simple colour scheme, predominatly using black, blue and small parts of red. We have a close up of the artist, allowing the audience to recognise this is the artist also making the album stand out from the crowd. I aim to use the same technique as it would be most appropriate and is a typical digipak convention.

Research Ancillary Products: Digipaks

Definition:

A modern appraoch to CD packaging. Allows for inclusion of more information, meant to feel your getting extra for your money - something special.

Conventions

Why are CD/Digipak covers (artwork) still used, gifven the drop in sales?

- So fans have a hard copy of the artists work, something they can keep (for serious fans)
- Enjoy the extra features on a cd, e.g. lyrics, bonus songs, behind the scene footage etc
- Artwork needed for downloads
- Still functions as an advert

How important are the ancillary products to the artist and industry?

- Helps promote the artist and the label
- Sells the artist , earn more money.
- Way of connecting with the fans

Personality of our Music Video/Artist

Our Music Video takes on a personality of its own through the shot types, the artist's personality and different elements of Mise En Scene.

- Here we have our artist as a sort of silhouette figure. The natural lighting at our venue allowed us to do this shot. The fact that we cant see her face and costume in this shot; which is at the beginning of  our Music Video builds a bit of tension from the audience's point of view as thy want to badly know what the artist looks like and the costume of the artist, building excitement levels. It also gives the artist a mysterious personality from the start.

- Here's a shot with part of our artist revealed and other parts not. This shot was to primarily showcase the utterances of artist as well as add to the mysterious personality of the artist, putting questions in the viewer's mind as to what the artist may be feeling at the time. In later shots the artists performance will answer these questions, mainly through her actions and body language.

- A shot towards the end of the Video shows our artist with black clothing and a make up mask painted on her face. A mask is used to conceal one's identity, keeping up the theme of the mysterious profile of our artist through out the Music Video.