CD digipak & Music Advertisement Photoshoot

Photoshoot for CD Digipak & Music Advertisment

Tomorrow I am planning to do a photoshoot for my CD digipak and my music advertisement. This will involve my artist in different shots in different locations that I can use for both my cd digipak and my music advertisement. I will explain to my artist what she will need to bring with her such as props (guitar,umbrella) and I will also tell her what she will need to wear. For this occasion I would like her to dress quite girly, something like leggings and a tunic. As well as taking photographs of my artist I am also going to take some other photos, such as sceneary. For my cd digipak I will use photos of the artists hands in the shape of a love heart (like on my practice one) for the front cover. I will then also use a scenic photo for the back cover. For the inside cover I will then take two or three different photos of my artist outside with he guitar and inside in her bedroom lying down showing the contrast of the two. These will then be used on the inside cover (similar to my pratice one). For my music advertisement I will also take photographs of my artist outside with an umbrella smiling without it raining. This will make my artist seem summery and happy.

Practicing my CD digipak

As I now have a template for my CD digipak, I have now started to practice what I want my digipak to look like. I have chosen photographs from google as I need to begin doing my own photography. The photos I have chosen are both different for the front cover and the back cover. For the back cover I have chosen a scenic picture of a pathway of trees. The front cover is of two hands together showing a loveheart shape, I really like the concept of this picture as it represents the album as love songs. I have then added text to both front and back cover and the spine. The back cover had my track listing, and my front cover and spine had the album name and artist. I experimented with many different font types and colors to see which one looked more effective. I then also used different effects on my digipak as a whole, such a dark brush and diffuse glow. I then went on to experiment with black and white effects. To finish of my digipak I added my own barcode that I created onto the back cover and the record label logo for 'Big Machine Records'.

From practicing what I would like the outside of my CD digipak to look like I have now began to practice what I would like the inside to look like. On the inside I will have images of my artist considering I havent already shown her on the front or back cover. For my practice I have used images from google of the actual artist but for my final idea I will use my own photography of the character playing my artist. I will create four more inside designs as I have already created four outside designs.

From this I will then get some feedback from an audience to see which idea they like best and what colour schemes I should use for my final idea. I will then go on to taking my own photography of my artist and a scenery picture for my digipak.

Creating a barcode for CD digipak

For my CD digipak I will need to include a barcode on the back tray. I have now generated my own unique barcode image on barcodesinc.com which includes my own code. This includes my candidate name and candidate number. I think this now looks very professional and I will use it on my digipak instead of having to find another one. This one will go better for my task and will then also make my cd digipak stand out and look like a real digipak.

Photoshop Elements Practice

In todays lesson we had another lesson on how to use photoshop elements. Following the skills we already gained from our last session we focussed on editing portraits. I choose a portrait photograph of myself to use with a clear background. I choose this so I would be able to cut out the background quite easily.

To do this; I used the lasso tool and the magic wand tool to cut around just the portrait. I found this easy as the shape of my portrait was easy to cut around. After this i then used the inverse tool which selected just the portrait image. I then copied this image onto a separate blank canvas. I then also used the feather tool to make the edges of the image fade into the canvas.

Before

After my image was feathered, i then found a background image from google to add into my portrait. The image is of a landscape, I then pasted this onto the canvas and changed the layout of my layers so the portrait was over the top of the background image. I then changed the opacity of each image so they feather into each other. I then also added a text layer which included my name. This is my final image below.

After

Photography- 15th November

Today I am going to take some photographs of my two main characters in my music video. These will be photos of both of them together as a couple, showing them as being happy. This will then make my video look more realistic and so it comes across as them being a couple. These photos will then be used in my music video, with my artist looking through them as memories but then also ripping them up at the end of the video showing the break up.

Filming- 14th November 2011

Today after school I filmed some more shots of my artist. This time I used a different location, this was an inside location of a typical teenagers bedroom. I filmed many different shots while in this location, these shots were of my artist upset lying in her bed while looking at photographs on her laptop of her ex boyfriend and her. I filmed these from different angles such as high and low angles to show a different view of the artist. I also then got my artist to write down the main lyric of the song 'and thats the way I loved you'. I then filmed this at different angles to use as part of my chorus and to use and the end of the song. I think these shots looked very effective. I will then be able to speed up the this clip or slow it down to fit the speed of the music.

Learning to use Photoshop Elements

Photoshop elements will be used to create both my CD Digipak and My Music Advertisement for my chosen artist, so in todays lesson we learnt how to use basic skills on the software. We created a practice piece of a music advertisement, using different layers and adding a different number of images. I then edited the different images changing the opacity of them to make it look like on main image. I feel this lesson was really beneficial to me and I can now go on to create a professional looking Digipak and Music Advertisement.

CD Digipak Research

The history of CD Digipaks

A CD Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd, an Atlas Holdings company.
Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.

Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray.