PRODUCTION: Audience Feedback for Back of Album Cover/Posters

Above are some images that I have taken for my digipak poster and the back of the album cover. I really like how these images have turned out as I think that the sunset really compliments the vibes of the music video. The red coat also contrasts against the pastel background and stands out. I asked my peers which photographs they liked in particular. The response was that the favourites were mainly the last two images. My peers liked the contrast and opacity of the image as you could still see the artist's face and the colours still remained visually pleasing and still stand out. I agree with these comments as I think that the third from last image is too saturated and the colours look a bit false. I think that this would be a quite distracting image if it was the poster or album image. I also feel like the images with the grass bank in are quite busy and packed in with objects, therefore I think that this would distract the viewer from the important detail on the album or poster.

PRODUCTION: Update On Album Cover and Audience Feedback

I decided to experiment with the album cover as I wasn't particularly sure if I completely liked the font on my first few drafts as I thought it looked a bit childish. Therefore, I have decided to make an array of completely opposite album covers. I decided to completely strip the complexity of the album cover back and make it much more raw, which reflects the song. I still really like the portraiture image as it is of the artist in my music video. I also experimented with adding lyrics to some of the album covers. After gathering audience feedback, I made multiple versions of the more successful albums, experimenting with what image I should use.

This album cover is simply black and white with the title stretching across the image. The artist's name is located at the bottom, however I feel like this sort of blends into the black and white effect used. I asked a select group of people within my target audience their thoughts on this particular album cover and some of the main responses were 'it's a bit too plain', 'nothing's really going on', 'doesn't reflect the song very well due to the song being quite lively, this is more serious toned'. In conclusion, I have decided that I won't be using this album cover.

The next album cover was more successful out of the bunch. A member of my target audience described this particular cover as 'simple, yet effective'. I was also complimented on the use of lyrics at the bottom as members of my target audience said that the quote was 'inspirational'.

Again, this is one of the more successful covers. This cover was described as 'quite raw, but aesthetically pleasing'. The imagery seems like a success, due to most of the colours being quite cool toned. However, the use of the added rainbow makes me question if the rawness is taken away. Therefore, I will highly consider leaving the rainbow out of the imagery. The font also reflects the type of font used in the music video.

This cover was not as successful as my target audience explained that there are 'too many different fonts'. A consistent font would probably be a bit easier to read from afar.

My target audience liked this album cover as well, due to the aesthetic it brings. The typewrite font adds more of a personal feel to it. When asked whether they prefer the album cover with or without lyrics, members of my targets audience said with.

These are now my shortlisted front album covers, I also intend to recreate the back of the album as well before making a final decision.

PRODUCTION: Drafts/Design of Album Cover and Explanation

These are some initial image designs for the front of the album cover. I decided to keep the first initial design quite simple. The colours are pastel colours which are reflected throughout the music video. The image is a portraiture image of the artist/the girl in the video. I liked how the lighting came across as the viewer can only see the face, the background is in complete darkness. Shadows are also overcasted on the subject's face, highlighting one of the key binary oppositions - light vs dark. The light being her mother and the dark being the immature youth that she seems to constantly be trapped in. The light and shadows possibly reflect the narrative that is depicted within the lyrics. I also included a rainbow overlay on the portrait as the rainbow colours are renown as being as symbol for freedom and diversity. I wanted this to be included as within the lyrics there is this problem of the girl having either too much freedom or not enough.

I used all mobile apps to edit the first initial idea images. To begin with, I used Afterlight to adjust the contrast, brightness and shadows of the plain image. This made the foundation image stand out slightly better. I then went into an app called Superimpose and found an image of a rainbow overlay on Google, adjusting the opacity and transparency as I overlayed it onto the foundation image. The next stage was adding some more detail to the images. I wanted it to be more than just a single image. So, I went back onto the Afterlight app and started to explore how different shapes impacted the image. I decided to settle with a simple '+' sign. This overlayed on top of the image, giving it a third layer. I edited the colour to a pastel blue, so that it fitted in with the vibe of the music video. I then kept editing the colour, so that there was a variety of pastel colours to use. I went back into Superimpose and started to overlay the different pastel colours on top of each other, creating a variety of different designs.

The next stages are to add text, such as the artist's name and the album name to the front of the cover. I also need to look at designed the back cover to the album and explore what detail needs to be placed on there.

After this, I used the app Phonto to start adding text to the designs. I added the artist's name, Dodie Clark, as well as the album title. I decided that the album title should be the song that I am doing the music video to as the album cover and visuals in the music video are similar.

The next stages were designing the back of the album cover. I selected the pink and blue version of the front of the album cover as I thought that it looked the best out of the three. I wanted the same similar pink and blue design on the back of the album, however I wanted to add some 'doodles' to the back to reflect the song, instead of having an image from the music video. I based the back cover from one of the lyrics in Party Tattoos - 'Black lipstick will never be a sin' as I thought that it would add another dimension to the cover. From this, I overlaid relating images such as black lips and black angel wings to the cover. I also began adding items such as stars and eyes as I thought that it reflected some of the visuals displayed in the music video.

 After experimenting a bit with what images could go on the back of the cover, I decided to add the relevant information, such as the barcode and the copyright information. This is when it started to look like a proper CD cover. I decided to primarily keep the text in the colour white, however this did prove a bit hard to read, therefore I outlined the text slightly with a pastel colour so it was a bit more easier to read. Again, I decided to do several designs for this, so that I could select the best one.

I thought that it was important for the album name to be displayed on the back as well. I then began to add a list of songs that would be on the album, including the song for my music video, Party Tattoos.

Whilst designing these, I thoroughly considered my target audience throughout - a young female. I thought that the pink and blue colours blended well and the images are perhaps something a young female would like, but they also heavily relate to the song as well.

Final Designs -
I decided to select these two as my final designs as I really liked the colour combination. I also thought that the composition was well fitting.

PRODUCTION: Creative Journey - Post Eleven - 24/1/18

The editing process of my project is now complete. I have added light leaks and inserted the clips that I filmed the other week. I am happy with how my overall coursework has gone. I think I could have stuck to my schedule a little better, but due to unforeseen circumstances, such as the weather conditions, I was unable to completely stick to it. However, I am glad that I have finished it and now I just have the evaluation questions to complete. I exported my video from Premiere Pro and uploaded it on Youtube for easy access.

PRODUCTION: Creative Journey - Post Ten - 18/1/18

I have finally finished the filming stage of my music video. I have spent the last couple of weeks filming final parts of the music video (such as the guitar playing parts and the projections). I particularly enjoyed filming the projections as it proved to be something a bit different. I chose to project tattoo designs onto the actress' face as it looked quite unique and it was a quite fun concept. I found filming the guitar stage quite challenging as my actress didn't know how to play the guitar, therefore I'm not sure how well the guitar playing matches up with an instrumental section of the song. However, I will add some light leaks to these clips in the editing stage so it distracts the viewer from the actual guitar. Over the next week, I hope to complete the whole of my editing. I just need to cut the clips that I have filmed recently and import them into my project. I also need to add some more light leaks to some of the clips so that the music video has the same sort of vibe throughout it.

PRODUCTION: Creative Journey - Post Nine - 2/12/17

I am coming to an end with creating my album cover. I have finished making all of the Polaroids and finished creating the back of the cover as well. I am going to create a final blog post talking about it in more detail as I would like to evaluate my decisions. I am really happy with how the images turned out, however I had to edit the front of the album cover so that it had more pink/purple tones within it, and therefore matched the back of the album cover more simultaneously. The front of the album cover had more blue cool tones in it, I am more happy with how it looks now. My next step is to create a poster and a spine for the album cover and then hopefully I will have finished my print products and can solely concentrate on the final edit of the music video.

PRODUCTION: Creative Journey - Post Eight - 21/11/17

Yesterday, I filmed more clips with my actress. I think I am going to film a few more clips next week and then I should be finished filming. I have continuously edited the clips in Premiere Pro and the music video is coming nicely together. I will need to round up some extra footage that I need, such as light leaks and bokeh effects, but I will do this when all of the main footage is complete. Over the next few weeks, I need to get a final first draft complete. My plan is to finish filming next week, but I might have to film the projections at a later date as I will have to film it in school, using the school projector.

PRODUCTION: Creative Journey - Post Seven - 16/11/17

Today, filming with subject was postponed as the weather wasn't great and we were limited with time as it gets dark now due to Winter months. I did film some more arty clips by myself. This filled in the visuals for the initial lyrics. I filmed the visuals for the lyrics 'don't give a damn'. I chose to use a close up clip of this as I thought that it was important to clearly see the letters within the clip. I then used this clip within After Effects and used my previous knowledge of editing the clips to add 'doodles' onto the clip. I think that this is effective as it mirrors my aesthetic that I am trying to achieve.


My aim is to film some more clips as soon as possible. I have printed out a fresh copy of the lyrics and annotated the lyrics depending on which visuals I have yet to film.

PRODUCTION: Creative Journey - Post Six - 14/11/17

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on editing all of my clips together. I have been primarily focusing on trimming down each clip and getting it all onto the timeline. After I have appropriately cut all of the footage together, I am going to work on adjusting the brightness of the clips and work on inserting some light leaks to some of the clips. I have already inserted some of the light leaks and I really liked the effect that they gave to the footage.




I am happy with how the music video is turning out so far. Upon reflection, filming the same clips over and over again from different angles proved to be more effective and more aesthetically pleasing to watch. I feel like I need to work with timings more in the music video. So, I am going to write down how long each clip should approximately be for the rest of the filming should be.




Tomorrow, I am planning to film the rest of the clips. I need to look more into depth about specific details of each clip. I thought that I might run into some problems with Premiere Pro as some of my footage was filmed on a GoPro, which exports clips as a different format than my camera does. However, it all seems to be running quite smoothly.

PRODUCTION: Creative Journey - Post Five - 2/11/17

Today I decided to start adding some effects to some of the clips.One of the main effects that I wanted to add was the 'doodles'. I used Adobe After Effects to add these doodles. I followed a tutorial on Youtube to try and accomplish this. However, this proved a lot harder than I thought it would be as one second worth of footage is worth twenty four frames. So, it took quite a while to finish as I had to doodle on twenty four separate frames. I used the brush tool and traced around the objects that I wanted to highlight. I am quite happy with how these clips turned out. I think that I am going to add further doodles to more clips in the future. 

My next step will be to add some light leaks to the video clips as I think this will add a really nice tone to some of the clips.