Reflecting back on the AS year... digipack research!

In class we went through a few Codes and Conventions of the Digipack. We discussed the type of things that you’d expect to see on the front cover; the name of the artist (has to be the biggest), the name of the album,  the genre is usually predicted by the style of the front cover for instance if the artist is a pop singer it is likely that their face will be on the front cover, if it’s a rock band or other often can even be a picture of something random, take for instance ‘The XX’ who only have an ‘XX’ on the cover and nothing else at all. They often have a promotional tour sticker also.

We looked at the conventional information included on the back cover; track list, barcode, small print production introduction, parental guidance if necessary, etc. A lot of images normally take up more than one panel. On the inside of the panel, we often notice the thank yous and/ or lyrics. The text used is normally a variation between 2 fonts and 3 different colours are used at a maximum, keeping it simple and avoiding curly fonts are usually most beneficial. Digipacks often have a spine, and the spine of the cover contains the name of the artist, album and usually a record label.
I have taken all this research into consideration and created my own digipack for the video that I produced earlier.

I created this is Adobe Photoshop. We had a tutorial for using Photoshop, this was lucky for me because I haven't used Photoshop before, so it was nice to learn using different programmes, the only problem was that computers and I don't get on. I'm sad to admit that I am the cause of my problems. My tutorial guide - Marisa taught us how to cut around images, insert fonts, play with the colours to make it more appealing and exciting. We were given a template to fill in with image and put the knowledge that we learnt earlier into practice. 

It was hard for me at first to work with all the different tools as Adobe has a lot to offer my favourites were probably colour contrasting. 

Here is an image from the original shoot, I have put this up to show the difference that adobe can make to a 'photograph'. This is rather blunt, but with adobe I exaggerated the light and effects of the definition of the photo. I have also added a circle that represents where the CD would be placed within the digipack. 

Developing skills on adobe isn't easy especially with all the possibilities. I can't say I've mastered the skill just yet. It was complicated having to choose the images that went onto my digipack because to some extent I felt that there needed to be a harmony between them however that's difficult to capture especially when adding effects to the images. The image I find most interesting is the one that I used for the front cover. The reason is that as all pop covers it has a close-up of the artists face but with this being a 'band' there is a reflection of each member in the glasses. I just think it's a nicely captured image, it definitely has the creative factor which makes me appreciate it even more. 

The tool that I have experimented with most in is class is probably the magic wand tool. I like it mainly because it's purpose is to cut around a specific part of the image, and the you can edit it in a way that can give the picture a different atmosphere. As an example here is a flower, the sunflower had a background that was in the original image, however using the crop tool, the flower is now on a simple white background. This is also useful for colliding images and experimenting with visual arts. 

The type tool; is great for adding text to images, for instance how I had to put text on my front and back covers, it comes in handy particularly in advertising and is less based on the appearance as much as it is based on being able to provide written information through a project for example a poster. This is beneficial because you don't require any additional programmes to add in the text. 

The crop tool; it was useful because it made it easier to work with the shots, if for instance the shot had too much available space it is useful to 'crop' it out so that the viewers attention isn't focused on anything but the main subject. Here is a quick example, a comparison between a cropped picture and one that isn't...

I am happy with the finished piece, but now looking at it a while later I would change quite a few things, for instance think more about the location - instead of filming it on chairs maybe using a plain wall behind and standing so that there would be more movement to make the video more engaging. Also thinking more about the mise en scene as you can see in the above picture there is a tripod on the scene, something I hope to not have in the final video (unless it's intentional). Maybe in the acting and lip syncing annunciate a bit more and try to keep up with the rhythm. All of these I would change in order to create a more professional and effort-full looking video.