Using Photoshop Elements

These are the outside covers of A digipak which I have created. This product was very simple as I chose good quality images to begin with so I didn't need many effects on these images. Producing the outside of this digipak has really given me a good idea of what images are suitable for the digipak based on my particular artist and the genre of them.

I used the rubber tool and also the texture tool when creating this digipak. I used the rubber tool on the sony music label logo and text after I had used the lasso tool to cut these out. I used the rubber to smooth out the edges of the image and then also give the image a faded effect by changing the opacity of the rubber to 40%. The texture tool I used for the back cover image just to make the image more interesting and attractive.

Once I had input the track listing on the back cover I felt that his was not easy to read. To overcome this I altered the colour levels of the background such as the saturation of the image and also made this image lighter. I also changed the text colour to black which made this a lot clearer. However I felt the back cover of the digipak was very dull so I decided to change the text back to yellow and alter the colour levels of the image. I made the image lighter so the text stood out a bit more to the audience.

Creating this digipak has helped me a lot as I now know the kinds of images which are suitable for my production, such as tall buildings, housing estates and busy streets which I will be able to take pictures of for my final digipak.

Filming Lip Syncing

This afternoon I was schedueled to film along with my artist for my music video. We began to film however It then became clear to me that my artist still hadn't fully grasped the lyrics and the speed it which these come. He struggled with the line
"Gonna stay with friends in London and thats all I get to know" which is from verse one.

My artist has now gone away with the track and lyrics to practise and I will rescheduele to film with my artist when he feels he has a better understanding of these.

Creating A Unique Barcode

In todays lesson I Created a unique barcode from the following site www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php . I created this by inputting my name and then my candidate number to give me a totally unique barcode design. I did this because I need to include a barcode in my ancillary tasks as it is one of the main features on the back of the CD Digipak. This will allow me to use a barcode without having to consider the aspects of copyright if I was to use a barcode just from the internet.

Filming

Today I filmed a lot of point of view shots of me walking around a modern housing estate. I wanted to get the effect of a shaky camera to give the audience the impression of somebodys head and seeing the music video through that persons perspective. I also filmed so establishing shots and also some close up, mid shots and high angled shots of my female character.

I then filmed the opening scene to my music video which was again my female character. I ensured she was wearing suitable clothing which was appropriate for the genre of the artist and music and also the audience who listen to this music. My female performer put eye liner and black eye shadow on and around her eyes and then applied water to this area which gave the impression she had been crying as the make up ran down her face. I chose to do this as the lyrics "I can feel the colour running
As it's fading from my face"
could be seen to connote this.

Whilst walking through the estate I had an idea which I seen from another video on a music channel recently. The idea was to film my shadow as I was walking underneath a street light. This idea was from the Gym Class Heroes track "Stereo Hearts".

Learning To Use Adobe Photoshop Elements

In todays lesson Mrs Craddock came into to assist us in using photoshop elements. We concentrated on portrait pictures of our chosen artist and then edited them. We did this by using a selection of cutting tools such as magic wizard tool, lasso tool and the magnetic lasso tool. I then added a background image to the page to create a setting/atmosphere. I made the image look realistic along with the background by blurring the portrait and also by enhancing colour and light light levels. The portrait looked very clear with no rough edges as I used the eraser tool to smooth these out.

Original Image Altered Image

Lip Syncing With My Artist

I have arranged with my artist that I will lip sync next tuesday. I have gave my artist the track to listen to and also I have printed of the parts of the lyrics I would like him to lip sync too. I have done this so he is well prepared for when I want to come and film the lip syncing and also so he has a better idea of the genre of the song and artist.

Editing Some Footage

Today I filmed the lyrics of my music video being written down. I used my female character to write the lyrics because she has neat hand writing. I have included a short clip of this footage above which I have increased the speed of to run in-line with the song. I found this very challenging as a lot of the time I had to set a different speed for each lyric just to keep up with the audio track. I feel this was very good practice for me, however for my music video my editing skills should have improved and the final product will look much better.

Filming: Writing The Lyrics

Today I filmed my female character writing out parts of the lyrics for "Talk You Down". I used verse 3. I will also use text on cards for the chorus and also the line "Coz if you go I go". I will use the footage I filmed at different parts throughout the music video as the song is very repetitive. I chose to have the female writing in the video because I was unsure what to use at this particular point as the lyrics are difficult to represent.

Learning About Photoshop Elements

Today I learned how to use all the tools available to me in Adobe Photoshop Elements which may assist me when creating my music magazine advertisement and also my CD Digipak. I practiced by creating a magazine advertisement for the script whcih included the artists name, album name and also relevant images to the genre of the music advertised. I used the blur tool, shape tool and also opacity tool to make my advertisement realistic and contemporary. I found out that this software would be very useful when doing my ancillary tasks.

Research Into The Genre & Style of The Script

The Script is a tightly-knit three-piece – former R&B producers Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan, and one time session musician Glen Power – that has been garnering the sort of ecstatic write-ups in its native Dublin that makes you suspect the reviewers must be family, friends or fully paid-up members of the fan club. This reviewer is none of those things, and can declare that their eponymously titled debut album reveals a band that is fresh, vital and ferociously good.

Album opener and debut single We Cry has already been laying an increasingly gold-paved path for the threesome. O'Donoghue's vocals, falling somewhere between Bono, Morten Harket, Eminem and Justin Timberlake, finds crisply articulate support from Sheehan's pointedly precise guitar commentaries and Power's no less eloquent percussive underpinning.

While reports of them as 'a whole new brand of Celtic Soul', maybe overdoing it, their catholic approach does manage to entail hip-hop, pop melodiousness, state-of-the-art production and anthemic rock.

For evidence of such pluralism, Rusty Halo offers up an intriguingly bizarre amalgam of The Police, Rush and Huey Lewis, Talk You Down has more than a hint of David Gray about it, and album closer I'm Yours is the kind of bedsit ballad destined for moist-eyed lighters-in-the-air status. Break Even is a stadium-filling confessional that will lay waste to vast tracts of America in due course.

Second single, The Man Who Can't Be Moved, wipes the floor with Coldplay, tramples all over Travis and flushes Starsailor down the pan to position The Script as the next big thing in waiting.

BBC Review, Michael Quinn, 1st August 2008

This article describes the unique genre of The Scripts music really well by comparing them as a mix between mutiple artists. The Script have the rock, pop and occasional hip hop elemements to their music, so they are inbetween genres.

Research Into Lip Syncing Styles

I have looked into different styles of lip syncing. I have found this video and I really like the artists lip syncing. I like the angle which the camera is positioned at because it is unusual and unique in comparison to other music videos. The camera shot and camera angle used is an over the shoulder high angle shot which I am familiar with because I used this type of shot during my foundation protfolio when producing my preliminary task. This camera shot and angle could be very useful for me to use if my male character/artist strugglers with certain lyrics when lip syncing or if I have any trouble editing the footage because I can use this shot type to hide any slight miss timings/faults of the lip syncing and/or footage.

Cd Digipak Front Cover Research

I have looked into the kind of images and logos the script have on the front cover of their albums and singles and I have found these images. I have discovered that The Script and Sony Music prefer to use images of objects rather than have themselves on the front cover. These images usually reflect the lyrics or narrative from one of the tracks on the disc. I can also see from the images of the front covers that The Script like to have a background image behind the main front image. This image is nearly always of some kind of very urbanised location/setting, such as city buildings like sky scrapers or large housing apartments.

Ancillary Task-CD Digipak

Traditionally Digipaks are typically made of a book style, paperboard material with plastic trays inside to cold the CD's. Digipaks are often used for special editions/productions of media and are an alternative to jewel cases.

The reason Digipaks are popular is because they are shatter proof, more environmentally friendly and also cheap to produce.

Different forms of Digipaks

8 Panel-4 tray 6 Panel-3 Tray

6 Panel-1 Tray 4 Panel-1 Tray

These are the different styles of CD Digipaks which are available on the high street. The more panels and trays are usually associated with a popular artist who has been produces albums for many years and there is a greatest hits which collaborates all of the artists albums into one Digipak packaging. The 6 Panel-1 Tray Digipak is likely to a insert which contains either the tracks lyrics or a photo gallery of the artist, these are quite popular.

The Conventions of A CD Digipak

• Colour scheme to relate to either the artist, album content or genre of the artist.



• Often made from cardboard and has more text than a jewel case would, more like a book.



• Design/background image most likely remains the same on each page.



• Track listing of the album on one of the pages, usually the back cover.



• May have lyrics from the tracks on the album.



• May have a article about the artist.



• The spine of the digipak will contain artist name, album name and institution logo.



• The front cover will likely have a main image usually the artist logo or album cover.



• Barcode on the back cover.