Editing Development and Issues

For the Editing process we used a programme called Final Cut Pro. This is a programme that is unique to Macs and it is relatively easy to use. Wikipedia describes the programme as: “….a professional non-linear editing software application developed by Apple Inc.”.

(Click here for more information on Final Cut Pro)

To use the programme is quite simple. To upload the clips we had filmed onto the computer we first had to transfer them across from the camera itself. This was done via a USB cable. The clips were then recognized by the computer and opened in iMovie. This is a very basic form of editing software that allows people to string clips of amateur video together, though you can use sound on iMovie it is not as sophisticated as Final Cut Pro.

(Click here for more information on iMovie)

These clips once here were then saved onto an external hard drive that our teacher had given us. This hard drive could easily hold all of our files and clips as well as the actual song that we would have to add to the video. By putting the videos on the hard drive this allowed them to be available to import into Final Cut Pro. After copying the film clips into Final Cut Pro the editing can begin. To place a clip into the program you simply drag it from the panel on the left hand side of the screen into the timeline at the bottom of the screen. This automatically adds the clip into a sequence for you. From here more clips can be added and arranged.

(Click Here for a picture of what Final Cut Pro looks like on screen)

Issues:

The main problems with making a music video are keeping everything in time and sequenced. For example clips have to appear on the beat and if there is lip syncing then it has to be perfect otherwise the video’s quality will be compromised. Luckily for our video we were not going to have an actor singing along to the lyrics. This is partly because we didn’t think that someone singing along would suit the music video and also some of the lyrics in the song are hard to hear or understand.

We did however have to tackle the problem of making clips match the sound on the beat. This was a painstaking process but was however ultimately rewarding as we feel our music video has come out well because of it. The clips matching on the beat makes the music video flow well and makes it seem very professional.

Another problem we faced was getting enough clips to form a music video from. Our song “DVNO” is 3:56 long, and though that doesn’t seem a lot, since in our music videos we needed a new clip every 2-3 seconds we needed to film a lot. We did manage to film the clips we needed for long enough though which helped immensely and allowed us to experiment to see what worked well and what didn’t.

The final problem we faced was the differing in quality of cameras. As we had two HD cameras and one worse quality camera to share between 4 groups there was always going to be competition between us for the best cameras. One of our scenes (the dance class scene), we filmed with the worse camera. The quality vaired so much that we had to reshoot which lost us valuable time as the deadline loomed. However we managed toi get the clips that we wanted and with the better quality camera.

Booklet Development

Halfway through the process of the CD-Cover Development we decided to make a little booklet with it as well, because something like that is very easy to make and it does not take that much time.

So therefore we wanted a two-side booklet with three sections. On one side of the booklet we thought it was a good idea to put pictures of the main character, the thin man; Paris Mudan. On the other side we could use different photo's of hand, all posterised but in different colours.

All of these images are made by the selection tool, posterise function and gradient map function. First you select the whole image, than change the gradient map into the colour you desire, after this you posterise the picture or image as much as you want.

Outside Booklet

To make the CD cover and booklet link together, we used the flare tool in Illustrator to make some flares, this is noticable in the cover as well. So besides the fact both the cover and the booklet show hands, also the effects and the techniques used are similar and therefore connect.

These photo's were taken very easily. The first one is taken with a normal camera, but we print screened the other two from the footage we took during filming.

Inside booklet

CD-Cover Development

For the CD-Cover we looked on the internet and several books to see what kind of netts we had to use or design. We thought that having a CD-cover that you could fold open was the best one. In the inside was a gap that is 'holding' the CD. Later on in the process we decided to make a booklet as well, so instead of having one 'holder' just for the CD we made two so that both the CD and the booklet would fit in the cover. This is called a Double CD wallet:

So for the development we started off with taking pictures of Alicia's hand. During the development of the cover we bumped into several problems. The first problem was one of the main images: We took a photo of Alicia's hand, and when we printed out the cover we found out that the back and front of the CD didn't connect as there was a hand shown on the front but nothing on the back.

Original Photo (we deleted the background and then turned the rest of the image into black and white, after this we posterized the image, so you could see the difference in colour better (white, light grey, grey, dark grey, black etc. We did this all using Photoshop)

(We started off with a single holder, later on in the process we changed it to a double one, the one that is shown here is a single one)

We thought black and white would be good colours in combination with Justice. Their original album is black with gold, two very strong colours. However, just a black background is according to us a bit boring. So we made the gradient map change, that is why the inside of the album goes from black to white. Using flares we pimped the inside up a bit.

Then again, the hand didn't fit on the cover perfectly so we had to think about something else; taking pictures of the whole arm and hand together. So we did:

Changing this photo into black and white was a lot more difficult than the previous photo. Mainly because this photo was bigger and you couldn't see that much detail anymore, but also because this photo was taken a couple of days later and Alicia had painted her nails red. This meant that you could not see the nails that easily, which made the picture less interesting. Therefore we had to find another solution, either the arm had to stay colourfull, or the background. The big question that arised was the fact that the background looked quite dull, so how could we have turned that into colours? Plus, we had to think about the fact that the arm could have easily taken away the the attention from the rest, as we wanted to have the word Justice hovering above the hand. This meant that making the arm and hand black and white was the best solution and just go for the colourful background.

With the quick selection tool in Photoshop we selected the whole arm and hand, made it black and white and then posterised it. After this we deselected the arm and used the quick selection tool again to select the background. With the paint tool we gave the background a different colour, slightly purple/pink. Still having the background selected we made a yellow boll above the hand, which represents some light, as if something is lighting up. This is the place where the word Justice should be hovering. Again, we selected the whole background, including the yellow boll and posterised it. Personally we thought the effect and the result was amazing. Even though the colour did not really suit Justice. The effect of the posterisation was amazing.

The next step was to think of the typefaces and fonts, (see the blog Typography). We thought Bauhaus 93 would be the best typeface for Justice. We had put it in the illustration etc.

We filled the inside and the outside (this is the outside) up with this typeface. However, when it came to printing it out it printed it out in a totally different font. All of a sudden the computer did not recognise this typeface anymore and we could not download it either anymore. We first thought of keeping a simple typeface as we did not want to go through the effort of finding another one and to find out that one was not working either. Matt however, went to fontspace. com and quickly found a typeface that was even better than Bauhaus 93 and suited Justice even better. 'As if it was meant to be'. The typeface looks special, but it looks even better when it is used in the word Justice. See for yourself; It is as of there is a line going accross the S, T and the I, holding these letters together.

After including the name Justice and having the image on the CD it was time to look at the other things a CD includes, examples of this are the bar code and the tracks.

Of course the size will be reduced on the album. We found a typeface for the tracks that combined perfectly with Bauhaus 93; Copperplate, therefore we put the rest of the information in this typeface. Luckily when we found out we could not use Bauhaus 93 and therefore instead were going to use Final Frontier old style, we also found out that Final Frontier old style went perfectly together with Copperplate.
We got the original Justice Album (Cross) an copied as much information as possible onto our own CD-Cover. We also copied the Ed Banger Records logo onto our Album.

When we were finally finished, the teacher told us he did not like the colour of the album. In a way he was right; it looked good but it did not suit Justice. That was when we decided to make the album look darker. Not just because the original album was black, but darker colours suite Justice better. We also cut out the word Justice in both the inside and outside. We left the inside blanc so that when you open it you can see the CD but on the outside we stuck gold shiny paper onto the inside so it looked as if the album is more in depth.

Outside Front

Outside Back

The inside contains more information, but then about the songs. It tells exactly which songs are sung by a choir or not etc. It also shows photo's of the booklet, they are like little thumbnail.

Magazine Advert Development

After having looked at several examples of magazine advert (Mika and BWO) we got a good idea of what such an advert should look like. Taking ideas from both we came up with a good layout for the advert. However this then led to us discussing issues such as the images that we would use to compliment the artists and their genre. This then led to the overall layout of the advert; positioning of the text, type of font that we would use, what kind of typefaces suit the advert and the artist, and of course; what kind of images do we use.

The advert and the CD-cover should be connected so that the products have consistancy so that a viewer can see that they are related. This can be by using the same images, or the same font and typefaces. That means that after seeing the advert you should be able to recognise the CD and the artist. If you are not able to recognise it after seeing the advert there is no point in advertising a product.

First we took several pictures of Alicia's hand, after doing this we picked the best photo and we used Photoshop to create the desired image.

'Print Screen of image'

At the same time we started developing the CD-Cover, unfortunately after a while we found out that if you folded the CD-cover together the whole outside of the CD did not connect as there was a hand on one side and nothing on the other side. This forced us to take new pictures but this time of the whole arm+hand.

'Image that shows that the outside of the CD did not 'connect''

'Picture of Alicia's Arm+Hand'

Unlike the CD-cover, we wanted the advert to be as minimalist as possible. This would mean that a viewers eyes wouldn't be distracted and would be focused on the product, the CD itself. We did decide to use the same techniques that we were going to use for the CD-Cover, but we wanted the advert to mainly have it's own colours as we wanted the CD-cover (with all it's colours) to hover above the hand. Having normal and plain colours for the advert won't draw the attention away to the arm and hand, but to the colourful CD-Cover, which we are selling. So in other words: that combination was perfect.

Besides the techniques that we used in Illustrator and Photoshop to create the desired image (such as Posterisation and Gradient Map, which will be further explained in CD-Cover Development), we also used the same typefaces. Again, this is another link between the advert and CD, which makes it easier for the audience to recognise both the advert and/or CD.

We made the background in this image black and white, and then used the posterize function, this is mainly recognisable in the shadow (different coloured lines). It does not necessarily takes the audiences attention away from the rest, because grey is a dull colour, especially compared with the hand, which has it's normal colours. We posterized the hand as well, but that is less obvious because it has more colours (red nail polish, skin colour, etc).

The information included on the surface is simple, yet effective. It tells you what the band is called, which is very obvious as it is very big and it stands out because it is black on a light grey background. It tells you what it is: an Album, and it tells you what hits it can include. This kind of information is very important. People who like these songs might consider buying the whole album as they don't exactly know what to expect from the whole album but they already know the other songs are good. This in combination with the high rates from the Guardian and AllMusic put pressure on purchasers to buy the album, as it is recommended as a very good CD. The advert also tells you when the album will be available for purchase, so the consumer knows exactly when he/she will be able to buy it.

The next steps were very easy. After finishing the CD-Cover (read about that in the post: CD-Cover Development). We only had to print out the cover, the booklet, put it together, lay it out and take a picture of it. After taking the picture it was necessary to remove the background using Photoshop. After this we only had to put the image into the advert and develop it in a way in which it looked good.

Edited in Photoshop version of the CD-Cover and Booklet

This image of the CD-cover is made using Illustrator. Using Gaussian Blur to the full it has got the effect as if the edges are faded. Unfortunately you can't really see the CD-cover anymore even though the effect is looks very good. The way to solve this problem is to put the CD-Cover on top of this image but without the blur:

'Final Advert Design'

Magazine Advert Analysis

Here are some examples of magazine album adverts that we can draw on to help design our own:





















Each has their own unique properties and each has their own individuality. The first property and this is shown in all of these examples, is the inclusion of the band/artists name and/or a picture of the band or artist. This is to immediately indicate what is being advertised to the viewer, this also helps target a fan of the music directly as they may recognize the band or artist. Usually if a band or artist is very popular the name of said band or artist itself will attract people into buying the album rather than the album name, causing the band or artist’s name to be printed larger than the album title. However it is vice versa with a less popular band or artist, causing the name of the album to be larger than the band or artist name, causing the buyer to focus more on the album which without a big name band or artist performing will help boost sales.

Secondly the adverts include release dates. These are very important as it shows the buyer when the album will be available for purchase. This will allow the prospective buyer time to plan when to go out and get the album, without leaving them to search high and low for the album. Only one of these adverts (BWO) actually has a picture of the album on it however. This is something that we feel we should include in our advert as this is the product we are trying to sell, not the band name. Whilst BWO have a picture of the CD itself on their advert, Mika’s advert is the same as the CD cover, this therefore promoted the album whilst keeping the advert more artistic and colourful, making it eye-catching.

Thirdly the theme of the poster is in keeping with the theme portrayed by either the artist or band or the album that is being shown. The advert for Mika’s CD is very colourful which matches his style of singing voice and music. The use of bright colours is also evident in the BWO advert. The yellow is not only eye-catching but it could be meant to show their national heritage, as they are a Swedish band.

For our advert we will be mainly focusing our attention on the BWO article. This is because it has everything that we intend to use in it. We will have a picture of our own album, along with a selection of some of the songs on it. A colour scheme shall also be used and also following the advert for to Mika’s album advert we shall be putting a release date on. Also like the BWO advert our album is a “Limited Edition” (rather than a collection of singles). This would appeal to a buyer if we were selling the album.