Using Photoshop to edit our photos

When we tried to capture our main photos for our poster and digipak, we came across a few complications, including a conflict with brihgtness and sun exposure. To help conflict these problems, we decided to start using photoshop. I have had some experience with photoshop in the past, but nothing past creating simple images using basic tools. To improve our photos, we needed to remove shadow effects, as well as make the photo seem natural.

We first started by using the eyedropper tool to mimic the colour of the background, and try to blur the shadows into a similar colour to the background, however, the eyedropper tool was not advanced enough to mimic the texture of the wall, therefore only mimicking the colour slightly, and creating too much of a smudge effect, making it look like someone had drawn on it. This was undesirable, as the picture looked extrememly unprofessional.

We then decided to use the rectangular marquee tool to section a piece of the background off and try to fade it onto the shadow, making it look

Album Cover Photoshoot

Today we took a variety of  shots for our album cover, in uniform, to see how they looked. We were quie impressed with the results.

However, the sunlight was a big problem in the photos, as the shine distorted the colour, and made it look unprofessional. To combat this, we plan to change the pictures into black and white on photoshop.

Here are the pictures...

Ancillary poster designs- Test shots

After our research, we decided to take a few test shots, mimmicking the previous work of bands of our genre, in order to establish what worked for us and what didn't.

In this picture we are mimmicking one of Panic at the Disco!'s latest posters. We both decided that the picture was really effective, and worked really well combined with the background.

A close up of the picture

We also took some imitation photos, such as the one below, to establish if mimicking the band worked or not

Digipak StoryBoard

Now that we have finished our music video, we can start work on the ancillary tasks. We have jotted down some ideas for the digipak.

Finished Music video

Pilgrim Records Going Viral

Today, me and Niall created our facebook profile, in preparation for our music video release. As our only source of advertising and publishing is the internet, we believed that joining a social network would rapidly enhance our audience feedback, as our target audience are the people most likely to use facebook. From this page, fans can see our news, our music video and give us feedback about our work. This would be extremely beneficial for future work and direction, especially when including samples such as test shots, where fans would be able to judge for themselves whether they like the new work or not.

The facebook group was created to coincide with our music video launched. A screenshot is shown below

Ancillary Tasks - Reviewing previous work

For our Ancillary Tasks, we have to make a Digipak CD and Poster to advertise and promote the music video. The Digipak must include a CD, CD case and a leaflet contatining details such as song lyrics, or just pictures of the band.

Before we start creating our own versions of these reference materials, we decided to look at and review the bands versions of the digipak

 The Ballad of Mona Lisa Single DigiPak

Panic at the Disco! released The Ballad of Mona Lisa as a single, and as such, released a Digipak specifically for the song. The CD only had the one feature track present on it, which is unusal, as bands generally upload a few other, older tracks to the CD, or remixes of the single, in order to promote the single and allow fans to get more for their money.

The Cover art consists of simply the Bands Logo and the track name, on a navy blue background. The top right corner is ripped, and the logo and background give a Steampunky vibe, continuing the style of the badn and their latest album 'Vices and Virtues'

The official album with the track on was released later on, under the name 'Vices and Virtues'. It is the bands third studio album. The Album had 10 tracks present, with The Ballad of Mona Lisa being the first. The Artwork continues the Steampunk Theme, with Band member Brendon Urie and Spencer surrounded by strange equipment, as well as wierd actors. The bands logo is present in the top right of the album cover.

The posters released specifically for the album were few and far between, instead the band relying on third party posters and posters relating to the band in generally instead of its latest creation. The only poster directly reffering to the vices and virtues album consists of the CD artwork expanded to fit a bigger size format, and looks more like a movie advertising poster that one would find in a shop, than one for decorative purposes in someones house, though it could still be used for that purpose. Other posters include images of other albums, and pictures of the band together, such as below, though the example appears to have been released in a music magazine, possibly after abn inteview with said publishers.

There is also posters which involve only Brendon and Spencer, since the other members decided to resign from the band.

From the research provided, I believe the duo style poster would benefit our group fantastically, as there are only two of us in the group, as well as only one performer in the music video, meaning that there would be no need to have a whole band shot, since there is no band in our rendition.

For the digipak, we could provide either a similar style to the poster we make, or similar to the bands album cover.