Location research

Woods setting

We decided that for one of our main settings we would use a woods. We thought this would be a good idea since the woods was nearby and easy to travel to when we needed to film, but also it was a more natural setting and it allowed us to get a variety of shots because the woods we used was quite large. Since it was outside we had access to natural lighting as well, when filming this was an advantage because it was sunny so the quality of the shots were very good, especially with the camera quality as well.




Powder paint setting

Our powder paint setting is very simple, we will feature the group in front of a plain black background while we throw powder paint at them, this setting is a small setting but it important in our video as we used this idea to create drama and contrast, with the bright coloured powder paints contrasting the black background.





Black and white background setting

This setting was also very simple to film. We used a black background for one singer, and then a white background for the other. The singer will wear contrasting colours to the background that they will stand in front, for example Becca will use the white background so she will wear an all black costume.







Stage setting

This setting is another one of our main settings, and we were thinking or using this at both the beginning and end of our video, so the two actors will walk out onto the stage at the beginning and then walk off at the end. The singers will be wearing smart dresses, flower crowns and heels as they will be standing in the middle of the stage when lip syncing, in front of them they will hopefully have a mic stand and mic to make it look like they're performing to an audience.

Promotional poster advertising our artist/group

For our promotional poster we decided that the whole background would look best if we used our album front cover for the main image, this way its a whole advertisement for the album without any additional images. Since the album name and artist name was already present on our album cover we then just had to add the additional information about the album onto the poster. We used a font from DaFont to advertise where the audience can find the group and then we added a logo for each website (Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook). For the release date we decided on another font from DaFont and then chose that we should have the album release at the beginning of July, in the summer, because a lot of popular artists release their new music in the summer and it can create a lot of summer memories for an audience.

We then used a simple font from Photoshop to type out what songs the album would feature, so we stated that Louder (the song we're using for our video) will be the new single and a previous single that we all agreed on, Not My Style,  would also feature. We decided to have the song names in brighter colours so they stand out against the main background image, and this will catch an auidiences eye as it will give them a sneak peak into the track list.  Finally we then used another basic font to type out where the album will be available to purchase, and we chose the popular UK websites/stores such as iTunes, Amazon and HMV. The font for this was plain white as it stands out against the brighter background, again, which will catch an audiences eye.

Promotional product in the real world

We decided that it would be an interesting idea if we Photo shopped our  album digipak onto well known items, so firstly we photo shopped it onto an iPhone music player. To do this we used an image of a song that we already had in our library, then print screened it to then add our album cover, artist name and album name onto the image. It was very simple and all we had to do was lighten the album cover image and then place it onto where we needed to put it.

We also then photo shopped our album cover onto the iTunes store home page. We first placed our album cover under the new music category, and then, again, added the artist name and album title. We also placed a wider image of our album cover onto one of the top banners on the page, because artists would use this opportunity for extra advertisement for their new music. This was also a very simple process and it allows us to see what our product would look like if it was released in the real world.

With our promotional poster we did the same thing, but we photo shopped the image onto places where artists posters would usually feature. For this idea we decided to use a bus stop as the advertising panel is quite large and buses are a popular use of public transport so it will be on show to a wider audience. This was also very simple to do, we found an image on a bus stop and then placed the image of our promotional poster onto the advertising panel.

Final image of album digipak

Album digipak

After creating both covers on Photoshop we saved them onto the student drive, into our group folder so we are all able to easily access them.

Front Cover

For the front cover we decided not to use any images including the group members, so we chose to use two images of the powder paint across the floor and then merge them together to make the final image look bolder and more effective. When we had merged both image together we decided to play around with the colours and filters to make it bolder, and after doing this we decided that blue/green and purple combination was best as we feel it represents the group as a whole and will appeal to the target audience (young teenagers). The paint splatters at the bottom we downloaded from the internet to use as a stamp/brush on Photoshop. Before placing the stamp onto our main image we would choose what colour paint splatters we wanted so that it would coordinate with the colours on our main image, we chose to add 3 stamps of the paint splatter in blue, pink and pastel purple which we all felt fitted well with the main image.

When thinking about the font, we decided for the front cover that we would use our first font choice that we chose in our final two. We were able to gain access to this font through the website DaFont and it was under the 'Retro' category which we feel linked in with the name of our group Vintage Strobe. We typed out what titles and names we needed, which were originally a black font, and then print screened them and saved them as images to then open in Photoshop. To change the fonts to white we lightened them, and for the name of the group we made it transparent so there was no background colour, and for the title of the album we made the font transparent so it shows up inside the white background where we print screened it.


Back Cover

Our album back cover was a lot more simple to make. For our main image we simply played around with the brightness and saturation to make the powder paint as bright as possible but still making it look like powder and not entirely edited. We then had to add all the necessary extra images that an album back cover has, so the record label, barcode and copyright message. The barcode was simple to find and add to main image, but when it came to the logo we had to see which one showed up best against the background. We first wanted to have the red and black Sony Music logo, but the black writing did not show up well so we decided to use the all white one as it shows up very clear on our main image. For the copyright message we looked at what would be featured within the message by searching on Google, when we found what the message was we typed it out onto a PowerPoint slide and then print screened, and saved as an image to again open in Photoshop.

For our track list we decided to use our second font choice out of our final two as we feel it went well with the neon effect of the paint in the main image. We found this font by searching for Demi Lovato's Neon Lights font in Google, and we found a website where we were able to create our own text with this font. We print screened each album track in this font and saved them as individual images to the open in Photoshop. The font was originally black and had a white background around it from where we print screened, and we were going to keep the track list like that but we then had the idea to lighten the font to white and get rid of the background, and it looked much more professional and we were still album to clearly see the entire track list.

We now have to merge both covers together to make our final digipak, and we feel by doing this it will make the entire thing look a lot more professional.

First image idea for front cover

For our first idea for our album front cover we thought that it may be a good idea if we tried to merge the two images of each individual girl together on Photoshop. We added the two images on top of each other then faded them out so they looked like one whole image, we then erased the top image on one half of the face to show the two girls different faces. When we had completely merged the images together we decided that we were not keen on the image as a whole, and it wouldn't look good with our back cover or the groups target image. So we scrapped the idea of using the group in our main photo all together and decided that we would still focus on powder paint as an image, but not with the group featuring in it.

Final font choices

From the first six font choices that we chose, we have narrowed it down to two which we will then decide on which will be used for our album digipak.

First Choice

This font is our first choice for our CD cover. We feel that this would fit in well with the chosen genre of our artist, but also that it looks quite vintage which obviously fits with the name of our group. Depending on what image we use for our CD cover, we will play around with the colour of the text, and we will most likely use the same font that we choose for the track listing on the back cover as well.

Second Choice

We decided this font would be another one of our top choices for our album digipak, and we were inspired to use this font when we saw Demi Lovato's Neon Light's single cover. We found the font on the internet and thought that the name of our group looks good as the font looks like it has been made up from glow sticks or a neon sign, which fits in with the actual name of our group in general. When we start creating our album digipak we will then see which font looks best with the final mage that we choose, and we will decide from there.