Making the front of my digipak

Making the cover for my digipak

Just as I did for my poster, I decided that for my digipak I would also relate it to my musical genre. I have used bright colours and the background is an image of a nightclub. The reason that I added a chain to my panda is so that the image is different and it adds an element of humour to the front cover. I only had to use 5 layers for the front cover, because it doesn't have too many elements in it. I had to use the magic wand tool to remove the background from the chain and the panda. I sharpened the image of the panda as the quality of the image wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. 

This is the final cover for my digipak, the bright colours and bold clear writing make it stand out and would hopefully mean that there would be more purchases of the digipak.

Poster for Digipak

Making my poster for my digipak

As preparation for creating my poster, I had to find images that would match my music genre. Because the music is house, and would be played in the club, I decided to use bright colours, giving it the feeling of being in a club. The obvious reason of using a Panda on the poster is because the artist is called Pandaman. I used the smudge tool to make the Panda larger and to make it more unique, rather than being an image I clearly did not take myself. I chose to put sunglasses and add a tongue to the panda to make it more human-like, as the artist does have 'man' in his title. In order to make the poster an advertisement, I added the images of the digipak, the record company 'Virgin Records', and the release date. 

I used three fonts for my poster, so that it adds originality, and because I wanted certain words and sentences to stand out more than others. For the head title 'PANDAMAN' I used Chalkduster, and for 'EMBRACE THIS DAY' I used the plain font News Gothic MT, I used both of these fonts throughout the making of the digipak aswell. For all the other writing on the poster I used Superclarendon.

I also added quotes from Radio 1, and 5 stars to show the quality of the music and to get more buyers of the digipak. The bold title at the top of the poster makes it clear who the artist is and what album you are purchasing. As you can see from the image below, I had to create many layers onto my poster to allow me to move items around without moving too many items at once. I used 14 layers in total. 

This is my final poster, I am really pleased with the results, and I feel like it looks professional, and I know that personally I would be attracted to this bright poster.

Digipak Research

Digipak Research

" 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.
Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. Such packaging is less resistant to abrasion than jewel cases, so it tends to show signs of wear relatively quickly. Licensed digipak manufacturers such as domestic U.S. printer and disc replicator Oasis Disc Manufacturing recommend coating the raw printed paper with a protective UV coating, thus ensuring greater longevity.
Although less vulnerable to cracking than a jewel case, the disc tray inside the package (particularly the "teeth" of the hub which secure the disc in place) remains rather brittleand is prone to cracking if the package is crushed. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s. " Source - Wikipedia

Different artists sell themselves in different ways. I analysed 3 artists, Chase and Status, and Disclosure, which are of the same genre as my song, and Beyonce, who is nothing like my music genre.

Magazine Poster Research

Magazine Poster Research

I Googled 'House music Magazines' and many came up, these would be the main magazines that I would be aiming to advertise my artist in. These magazines specialise in the music genre of my artist, and would be the most appropriate for my artist. 
- House 
- till
- MixMag
- VIBE

I would also try to advertise my artist in other magazines such as the ones I listed on my target audience. This would create a larger group who would buy my products, and be better advertising for my artist.

Practising Using Photoshop

For my final piece of A2 coursework, I had to use photoshop to create a poster for my artist and a digipak. In order to use photoshop I needed to practise using it so that I could create my digipak. My teacher taught me the basics of using photoshop, as shown below;

Firstly, I had to choose an image of a setting that would be the background of my practise piece, I chose the beach as it is simple, and the images that were on Google were better quality than other settings. I imported the image to photoshop using an A4 size paper, and placing it onto 'Layer 1', and removing the layer called 'Background'.

Then I had to find a person/ object that would be the focus of my practise piece. I chose J Cole, a

famous rapper, and decided to choose an image with a plain background as this makes it easier to remove the background. I imported this image to photoshop onto 'Layer 2', to ensure that J Cole was onto of the beach rather than hidden behind it. Using the 'Magic Wand Tool', I removed the white background very easily. I then used the 'Eraser Tool' to remove the logo 'GQ'. After this, I was left with an image of J Cole with no background behind him.

After adding font on 'Layer 3', I then finished my basic practise piece.

My Final Music Video

This is my final music video, I hope you enjoy.

Editing My Production

Editing my Production with Final Cut Express

For the editing of my production, I used Final Cut Express, below is a list of what I done.

• I uploaded all my footage from the camera memory card into 'iMovie' as a new event.
• I then opened Final Cut Express and imported all the files that I needed for my footage.
• I dragged all my pieces of filming onto separate levels and moved them around accordingly.
• Using the lock tool, I aligned the music to the footage to ensure all the miming footage matches the music.
• Then, following the beat, I cut the random clips to the beat of the song.
• After watching my rough cut I decided film some extra shots, so I then had to go to the local park and film the panda having fun!
• After then repeating the process of adding the shots onto final cut express, I had to find places where to add them.
• I then thought my piece was done, so I asked classmates to watch my piece and tell me how i can improve.
• The feedback I got was to make sure all of the shots were cut to the beat, so after doing this I ensured my piece was done by watching it over and over again to make sure everything was fine and it all looked good.