Ideas for our CD cover

Jon has discovered a couple of sites which show how Adobe Photoshop can be used to create stunning images for the CD cover. He thinks that one of the best is an image of the words as a "meteor shower" as this is dramatic and stands out from many other CD covers due to its 3D effect. The trailing shower of sparks give the impression of words entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up there. Our text would use the words "Ash Shark" in reverse order with the word "Ash" burning up first and disintegrating into dust. Above is the image from: http://psdtuts.com/text-effects-tutorials/create-a-spectacular-flaming-meteor-effect-on-text/ showing the final version, created using Adobe Illustrator to create the text and Adobe Photoshop to create the effects.

Roughcut Editing

Jon's thoughts about editing our roughcut:

1. we had problems uploading the track into final cut express. as a result we had trouble editing in time to the music

2. we had a temporary "work around" which was to play the music on iTunes at the same time as we did the editing

3. we managed to synchronise the narrative footage to the music using a variety of transitions e.g. by using fade ins/fade outs and slowing or speeding up certain clips of film

4. because we had to allow gaps in the video where performance-based clips will be inserted, the rough cut at certain points appears to be disjointed.

Digipack

Whilst researching for designs I (Jon) came across this site (http://psdlearning.com/2008/07/cd-cover-design/) which describes in detail how to use Photoshop to design a CD cover.

As they say on the site:

Some useful methods of enhancing workflow and efficiency are shown like using smart objects. The image we are creating will be in the style of some of the Ministry of Sound CD’s. We will explore a creative use of the displace filter in order to distort some of the image.

This is an interesting site which asks some ppl to "visualise" music in colours and shapes. These may produce interesting graphics for the CD cover:

http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/05/10/how-to-design-a-cd-cover-by-listening-to-music/

It also linked to this site which used Photoshop again for design:

http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/05/10/how-to-design-a-cd-cover-by-listening-to-music/


Some of these tutorials are very interesting and we could make use of their suggestions to improve our graphical design for the digipack.

Digipak

A ROUGH SKETCH BY JON OF THE A4 ADVERTISEMENT




Digipak is a trade name. Digipack is a better use. What is a digipack?

Digipacks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipacks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipack that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background.

Digipacks were first created by MeadWestvaco, and their product, called Digi-Pak, is trademarked. However, as the format became more popular and began to be used by more manufacturers, the generic "digipack" came to be used to describe all soft CD packaging.

Digipacks have pros and cons:

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They look nice, and many bands and labels like to use them for aesthetic reasons. The three section digipack sleeves opens up more design options because there is more room. However, they're more expensive than traditional liner notes and jewel cases.

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Digipacks don't crack like jewel cases do, but they will rip and eventually the paper begins to peel apart and separate.

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The trays in digipacks break much more often then in jewel cases. There's not as much protection since the outer portion of made of paper, so the teeth that hold the CD in place crack and fall out easily.

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When the teeth of the tray does break in a digipack, the CD falls out of the bottom of the digipack, because unlike jewel cases, there is nothing to hold it in.

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Digipacks can be more environmentally friendly than jewel cases because they can be made of recycled paper - however, they aren't always in fact made in this way.

From:http://musicians.about.com/od/ah/g/digipacksleeve.htm


So, the design will be important to attract our target audience. We also need to think about the A4 advertisement.

Jon recalls Ed Lovelace's visit to Long Road and two of his videos that show that budget does matter.

For example, with a budget of £100, you get:




But with a budget of £40,000 you can have:



So, we must be realistic about what we can achieve.

Video of "Arcade Fire"

Jon thinks it would be a good idea to follow something along the lines of the Youtube videos "Wake Up" by The Arcade Fire:










These videos have features we might want to include:

1. part of our video will be a live performance, so the Glastonbury video may be relevant

2. we could be influenced by these videos in our style of filming, such as using different camera angles (perhaps using more than one camera, or editing to give that impression). I think we could use pan and zoom features of the camera to give us material to link together such as wide angle and close-up shots

3. the transitions also need to be obvious as they are in these videos where band members change instruments e.g. the front drummer/tambourine switching to the accordion.

Rough Cut Analysis

Sadly we didn't get filming finished in one day, so we shall make a start on the editing process. Because some of the shots were badly executed eg. in one the camera bag is visible, we may have to rerun some of the shots. The editing may take some time, especially if we want to include some stills and CCTV footage. We will need to investigate if we can use CCTV footage due to (a) privacy laws and (b) copyright.