CD digipak

Production Schedule

The production schedule is a very important element of time keeping in my production piece. This is divided into days that we used to complete both the production piece and the poster and CD DIGIPAK designs.

On the first week of our task, we first had to choose a song on one of the websites that stream free music of amateur artists.The website we used was "jumendo", we found a eligible song by "Brad Sucks" , we then began to brainstorm ideas, for both the CD, poster and video. We mainly prioritised the video, which would be the most difficult to complete.

The following weeks we used for even more ideas, this time however it was more specific focusing on characters and meanings, representations etc we also started the long process of storyboarding.

At this point in time we are researching other materials , other videos , Cd's etc this helps us to have more ideas on conventions of these products that are already on the market.

After researching we began to film some parts of the production, this was relying heavily on storyboards and the props list. We carried on with filming, and at the same time i was creating mock up drawings of CD digipak design and poster ideas.

Over the following weeks we carried on creating the CD designs and posters. Jordan Blackwell and Thomas Bee carried on creating storyboards and editing recent video camera scenes meanwhile i carried on creating various ideas. One idea we all agreed on was taking images of the main character of our video , Robert Ndabananiye (Box head) or taking images of all his boxes representing his emotions within the music video.

After making finishing touches on the CD digipak designs and the poster we began to print off the designs.This mainly included the poster design. for a short period of time we placed it on a wall in a busy area to collect feedback from our peers. After this we needed the poster for a prop in the music video, unfortunately this required the poster being damaged. therefore we would need another poster to be printed off. however this time w agreed that the poster would need to be more durable , because it already had been damaged before the scene that we shot , therefore we needed to print off the poster off onto card therefore making the product more durable.

once the design had been complete we concentrated on the editing stages as we had just completed all of the filming, by this stage we only had thirty or so seconds left.we were looking for the closing stages of the narrative, we followed the storyboards to a degree, but while editing certain shots changed and some were scrapped all together. eventually we completed editing the production. All we had left to complete was printing of the final product of the digipak and poster.

Artist information and idea

Artist : Brad Sucks
Song : Making Me Nervous

idea our idea for the song is one main character, known as box head going through life as a average person, torn between emotions caused by societies faults ultimately leading him to be bullied by his peers, causing him to express his emotions. Using this as a starter we decided to express these emotions phycially through the use of boxes each labelled with an emotion on the box . As he continues through the days the Box head wears different boxes depending on how he feels, this ultimately leads to an Epiphany in which the plot changes for the charcater.

At this stage

At this stage in our production we are continuing with our editing and finishing with various scenes of filming, we have also completed the poster designs and CD digipak, however we still maintain feedback from our peers on areas to improve in both these product, this is why either product can be changed if needed.This has already happened with the poster design and are in process of printing a new version. The editing is still continuing and is a long process , which we have prepared for.

Photograph ideas

This is one of our best ideas. We used the blue sky and the idea from our previous Digipak idea the boxes and created this image. The blue sky was important ,setting the theme throughout all of the products. we attempted to try this before however we required a low angle shot so the blue sky was in shot.

Photograph ideas

This is a technique image also taken with the digital camera. We had a good idea of creating a silhouette character by using the sun. If the character is a certain distance from the path of the sun then it will create a silhouette much like this one. we also wanted a blue sky, obviously for the silhouette idea but also for the pathetic fallacy.

Photograph ideas

This was one of the images taken using a digital camera. Quickly using specific editing tools on Corel Photopaint i was able to cut the image down. taking away the background . This was one of the ideas for the Digipak. however we scrapped it because it looks to unprofessional when it was combined with a coloured background.

The Storyboards

these are the storyboards we created during the filming, these could be in the process of being changed . this could be because a better ideas is put forward

Initial Design

This was one of the original designs we had for the CD Digipak. For the main designs on both the left and right pages i used "shape tools", this was then blended using the "interactive blend tool" enabling the two colours to blend consistently. After this process is used the "Contour tool" which created layering and finally the "distortion tool" that changed the shape into what ever you wanted. The boxes were used creating simple shape tools and copy and pasting techniques, this was finally "grouped" to hold the design together. The font that was used is the font researched before hand, the "freestyle" font. We decided to make this in white to create a positive contrast with the other colours and images. However we didn't feel this was the right direction with our product, looking back at research, other products used photography in the designs, so we thought we should follow conventions.

Screen Grabs

These are some of the screen shots taken from our current work on production of the music video.

1. In the first screen shot the main character of our video "Box head" is being bullied. Within the narrative of the video , this is a low point , emotionally for the character. However to portray the negative mood the character is facing we decided to use multiple shots of him getting hit by paper. The props we used in this scene included the characters clothing, specially picked for the scene , the box (with a sad face ), paper and tables
2. In this second screen shot is our most impresive scene. As we edited me managed to create a duel clip of the same of character, overlapping into once scene. In the scene both characters play in sync with the music. however this was easier said than done, at first it was difficult to sync the charcter with the music and match the visual effects .Because the filming for this scene was recorded on seperate days we needed to make sure the actor had the same props within this scene, this included, most importantly his costume.
3. In the third screen shot is the opening scene comprised of introduction title"making me nervous" and the background of the "Box head" prop. The text for this scene was created on the editing software
   
   
   
   

This is another poster that we designed in relation to the brad sucks advertisment campaign. The poster will also be shown in a public area of the school on order to recieve feedback and positive and negative aspects of the poster, in which later we will be able to change the design according to our findings.


The major difference between between this and the prvious design is the asthetics (colours) of the design. In this design we decided to use colours in order to capture the audiences eye and draw them in. The colours that we used ,could also have been influenced by the original Brad sucks Album cover. This was a all blue CD cartoon cover. Istill remained with the same structure and positioning. I have also included the other features including song name and critic quotes, the dark blue and light blue contrast well.

Fonts

Fonts

1.Freestyle

2.Pepita MT

3.Arial

4.Highlight LET

5.Broadway BT

6.Forte

These fonts are possible ones that could be introduced into our digipak and poster. The Freestyle font i prefer because if it's smooth lettering and serif style design. Freestyle also looks more casual and at the same time readable, allowing for much smaller text.

Pepita MT is similar to freestyle, how pepita appears more sharper and lacks in the serifs, thirdly Arial is an average font , however it does feel too normal and lacks in character. The highlight font is a possible font that we could have used because overall it looks good, it's simple and it had style, however because it was white based, it didn't contrast well with the background colours. The next font on the list we chosen because of it's link to history, commonly represented as a 1920's Hollywood show font or Broadway, this added the character to the poster that we wanted.the last font on the list resembles that of a bold freestyle and the Pepita font. However in the end we decided to choose the freestyle font, arial, and Broadway. we did this because for smaller text the freestyle was much harder to read, therefore for list of song names we needed a font that was easy to read when in a small font, we decided to use the Arial font.

This is the first mock up poster, created on COREL DRAW. I created a coloured background and then blended the two colours, black and white. creating a unique design. i then created two banners, over lapping each other, with one slightly larger. The black allowed a fantastic contrast with the white font lettering. the font i chosen because it given the theme of history, as this lettering is widely known for it's use in 1920's society. This linked well with the colours of black and white, often relating to olden times.The black and white however can also reflect a darker side to his music and his theme of pessimistic lyrics and also the artists name"brad sucks".The "brad sucks" title i created by copy and slightly moving the lettering to the left. Thereby creating a 3D perspective. The robot characters in this design relate well to both the music video and the digipak and were created to represent the emotionless and faceless persona, of a certain type of person.

The tools used within the creation of the poster include the "Rectangle tool" for the basic shapes, the "Text tool",and also the "Fountain fill" tool for the background blending. What we found difficult to decide on was the colours, we felt that there needed to be a sense of continuation with other design including the digipak.

Brad Sucks target audience

Brad Suck's is a indie artist creating a variety of music that ranges through both genders and many ages, possibly making his music mainly mainstream , however the lack of attention that people pay to his music make him a niche artist reducing the audience size. His music mainly aims at males between 16 and 30. A male target audience due to his male dominated lyrics relating to the male population. The CD design we want to stay true to Brad Suck's theme of individuality.

As a way test the target audience we could do a number of things. The main task is to show some products to see if the the audience like them and why. This feedback will allow use to correct anything and possible change certain aspects of the posters. This can include changing colours , or designs.

The product we will show will be the poster in a public area of our school. This will create maximum coverage and advertising allowing feedback from the audience.

Corel Draw Designs

These Corel Draw designs are some of the more simple, easy designs that can be created on the software. These are unusual yet elegant, and would make perfect design backgrounds or ideas. the use of colours combines well with the overlapping designs. on the oval design i introduced a shadow effect and a reflective design effect to represent a three dimension perspective. i used the interactive distortion tool, the blend tool, the transparency tool and the drop shadow tool.

COREL DRAW SIMPLE DESIGNS

Corel draw

For the production of the CD cover i began to use corel draw. As the only member of the group to use 'Corel Draw' and 'Photopaint' in the past i began to brainstorm ideas. Firstly i began to create the base. using research from other CD i achieved the measurements then i began to create the base the measurements were different for each side. the back design was much larger because it included included the two spines. These spines were 0.6cm each which thereby increased the base by 1.2cm . However the material we were using was regular printer paper and would be less durable compared to usual CD cover materials. We began to import the two images onto the coral draw software. I sized them up in relation to the base then began to do the same to the back. the sides were then coloured white. We then chosen a font and agreed where on the CD cover it will be placed.we then printed the design and fitted it into the CD case.

Corel draw is an easy to use design software, it wasn't long before the entire group began to use the software and created there own designs(below).

CD Design

These are the final four ideas that we are using, we decided to use the box head theme, as it is a major prop used in the music video, it also adds representation, relating mainly to emotions but most of all to average life and possibly depression linking to the name 'Brad Sucks' suggesting a low self esteem and a pessimistic lifestyle, which he uses in his music.

The colours used within the CD design are more optimistic than planned , we felt it was important to introduce colour to our design, to make it more vi sable and recognisably. it was also divided into neither patterns or shaped thereby decreasing empty plain areas of the design.

the designs were created on 'corel draw', a simple ,professional design software which is easily accessible to most students and i have the software on my home computer, increasing my knowledge on the software. However there were problems uploading the design , this was mainly due to the format settings, and required passing the designs through numerous software including 'corel photoshop'.

Thumbnail ideas

these are some of the initial ideas we comprised of as both group and individual effort. these ranged from line up themes to box head ideas. these make the ideas unique in our search for the perfect cd cover