Completed CD Wrap

This is the completed CD wrap...

There's not much I had left to do with the CD wrap apart from add a couple of things to it.

Firstly, I added the text 'Disk 1' as there was going to be two disks within my DVD product so I had to clearly state which CD was which. I created a new layer and named it 'Disk 1' so I knew what it was. I then created the text by clicking on the 'T' symbol on the at the left hand side of the window. I used the same thought that I had been using throughout, 'Perpetua' and kept the text white to keep with the colour scheme that I had been using. I decided to put the text just under the band logo and the title of the DVD as it was easily noticeable and would be the first place the audience would look for the text. I thought it would look slightly 'random' just plonking it at the bottom of the wrap. 

Also, I decided to ass some copyright text, which I had gotten off another CD. This was quite fiddly to do and took quite a while for me to get it how I wanted it and in the right place. 

I started out by created a new layer and drawing a new circle by using the 'ellipse tool'. Once I drew the circle, it wasn't the right size so I went to the 'Transform' and 'Scale' option at the menu at the top and adjusting the circle and moving it so it fitted just within the original CD circle. As soon as I had got the circle to the right side, I clicked in the 'T' on the menu at the left, so that I could add some text, and clicking the outer rim of the circle I had just created. I copied the text from my blog, where I had added the copyright information previously. I then pasted the text and  it went round the inner circle. 

I wasn't happy with some of the text as it didn't fit perfectly round the circle how I had envisioned. So, I went to the 'Transform' option at the menu at the top again and clicked the 'Warp' option. This allowed me to move the text slightly by dragging out the boxes it had created around the text, making the text go round the CD in a more even manner. Also, I went to "Transform' again and then selected 'Rotate' as the text wasn't positioned in the right place around the CD. I used this tool to the the text so that where the text line finished and ended at either side of the CD, were at the same point and even, and that the text was more centred. 

I used the same style font, 'Perpetua', that I had used throughout my work and chose the colour white like before, so that it went with the colour scheme I was using. I kept the text reasonably small, as the text I had seen other CD's was considerably small in comparison, as it wasn't suppose to stand out, just be there for legal purposes. 

Finished DVD Cover

This is the completed DVD cover...

I decided to move the blurb slightly to the right hand side of the page, and changed the image of Cristina to the left hand side. I chose to do this because I felt the text looked to crowded directly above the 'Disk 1' text, so I swamped it to the other side as the 'Disk 2' text was much further down the page. The Cristina image therefore, breaks up the text so it doesn't look as squashed. 

I have also changed the placements slightly of both the 'Disk' texts and the images between them. I wanted to make the 2 images showing some footage form the DVD, so that they were directly in the middle of the page as they looked much better this way and stood out more on the cover. As a result of this, I moved the two 'Disk' columns so that they were more in centre of either side. 

I was tempted to put more images above and below the 'Disk 2' text, I did try this but I decided that it made the back cover look too crowded with images and just didn't work.

Furthermore, I have now got rid of the white background that was on the barcode and it now looks much better on the cover and matches the other symbols I have added too. I deleted the white background by going to the menu at the side where it shows the layers and selecting 'Multiply' from the list. 

I added the rest of the symbols to the back cover too, such as the DVD logo and the Century Media Record label logo too. I used the images that I found using Google Images earlier and imported the files into Photoshop and put them on different layers. Like the barcode, they had white backgrounds, which I got rid of by using the same technique, selecting the "Multiply' option in the menu to the right hand side. 

Additionally, for the 'Exempt from Classification' Logo, I had to use the 'magic wand tool' to select the logo and used the 'fill' tool so that I could change it from it's original colour, that was green, to black so that it matched the colour scheme used. I used the 'Multiply' technique again here to get rid of the background. I also created a new layer to add text to the logo. Next to the 'E' symbol,  I added 'Exempt from the bbfc classification' just to make it clearer to the audience what it meant. I made the text quite small so that it fitted with the logo, and used the font 'Perpetua' again, which I had used for all of the text on my DVD cover. Once I had added the text, I selected both of the layers and merged them together. 

For the copyright information at the bottom, I added in the 'C' logo, which I had to change the size of as it was way too big to start off with. I did this by going to the menu at the top and going to 'Transform' and then 'Scale', whilst holding down the shift key, I adjusted it to a more suitable size. I then added the text using the 'Perpetua' style font, and added some copyright text which I had got off another music DVD. 

I decided to add the DVD logo to the front cover as well as I noticed that some music DVD's have the symbol either on the front cover, or the spine too. I thought I would put it on the front to make it clear that it was a music DVD to the audience. I chose to place it in the bottom right hand corner as there was some empty space at the bottom and I felt that it was the ideal place to put it, instead of at the top where there was already some text. 

On the spine of the DVD, I chose to add the Century Media Record label logo again as I had noticed that on some music DVD's, they had placed the record label logo there.  I chose to put it at the bottom of the spine as I already had the grenade symbol at the top and felt that it would look more balanced if I added something to the bottom. 

Additionally, after much deliberation, I eventually chose to keep to the old Lacuna Coil band logo I had designed originally for the front cover. I felt that the new updated one, which had the small grenade symbol over the letter 'o' in 'Coil', didn't work so well on the spine as it was smaller and I didn't think it looked as good as the original. This worked out fine anyway, as I had stuck to the original logo on the CD wrap as I didn't think it would work having the new logo with the grenade in over the background of the CD, which had an enlarged grenade on it already, it would've looked too much. 

Also, throughout the later stages of my editing in Photoshop, I decided to group layers together as it became difficult finding the layers I wanted as I had so many. 

I put the layers in three different groups: 'Front Cover', 'Spine' and 'Back Cover'. This made it much easier to find the layers I wanted. I also had some groups within the already grouped layers, such as 'Images' and 'Symbols' within the 'Back Cover' group, to make it even easier to find my layers. 

Finished Video

This is the finished Lacuna Coil Promotional Video...

I have changed several things from the rough edit...

Firstly, after much fiddly re-editing I managed to get the video down to 1 minute and 2 seconds, which is  a more acceptable time. I did this by cutting down a large amount of the music video section. I decided that I needed to cut them dramatically as my original aim was to only show different clips of all the videos over a few seconds, and some of the clips went on for far too long. 

I also cut a very small section of the behind the scenes footage, when it shows the making of the video, 'Spellbound', and bought forward the second live video slightly.

Additionally, I had to alter the second song, "swamped' Slightly as it obviously went on for too long after I had re-edited the clips. However, I still wanted it to end in the same place as it felt like it came to the end, so I was able to fade it out and it worked without seeming to end abruptly. Therefore, I decided to miss out the second half of the chorus as it only repeated the first part anyway. This way it didn't seem like it skipped any part of the song and still ended in the exact same place which matched the videos. 

Furthermore, I adjusted the size of some of the clips so that they were all the same size and filled the screen. This way it didn't look like the clips were all taken from different videos so much, as they were all the same size on the screen. 

Rough Video

This is the rough video...

There are still some issues with this video that need to be addressed. 

Firstly, the video runs over by roughly 20 seconds, when the promotional video should only last 1 minute. Therefore, I need to somehow re-edit the video to make it shorter and cut the song as it currently finishes and fades out in just the right place. 

Also, not all the videos are the same size either. This because not all the videos were the same size when I downloaded them off YouTube and therefore, I will need to adjust the sizing in Premiere so there is not a noticeable size difference between the different clips. 

Some of the footage varies in quality, but unfortunately i cannot help this as I wasn't always able to find such high quality videos on YouTube. For example, I would prefer the live videos to be of better quality as they are slightly pixelated in places, however, these were the best live videos I could find on YouTube. 

Copyrights/ Regions/ Ratings

CD

All rights of the owner and the producer of the reproduced work reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance, radio or television broadcasting of this DVD prohibited. 

DVD

The copyright on these sound recordings is owned by Century Media Records. 

Image found at: http://www.copyrightauthority.com/copyright-symbol/

Region 2 Symbol
Image found at: http://adrianwarren.com/faq/ontheroad.shtml

Exempt from classification symbol, as it is a music DVD
Image found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_certificate


In Photoshop, I will edit this logo so that it is green and not black to match the colour scheme used.

DVD Cover - Rough

This is a rough copy of the DVD. 

I have now added a 'blurb' describing what the DVD is about and what the audience can expect from the DVD. I have placed it towards the top of the page as it should be the first thing the audience reads when looking at the cover. 

I have kept the font style as "Perpetua' to match the rest of the text on the cover. I have also kept with the colour scheme, and kept the text white as I think it works well against the black part of the background, and can easily be read. 

The same applies to the 'Disk 1' and 'Disk 2' text, I have kept the same font and colour for the same reasons. However, I have made the 'Disk 1' & '2' text bold as it separates it from the tracklisting info underneath it. 

I have also added some images to the back of the cover to make it more interesting and so it appeals to the audience more and gives them more insight as to what they can expect to see on the DVD. I have put a main image of Cristina (the singer) next to the blurb, however I am unsure of the positioning of this so it could change. I have also added some images (interview, backstage, music video) which shows footage from the DVD, in the centre of the cover to break up the two Disk listings. 

A barcode has been added too, which is a necessary so people can buy the DVD only I have to make the background white so it works better with the background.

I still have to add the rest of the symbols and logos, such as regions and age ratings. 

Premiere

To make my promo video, I used Premiere. I set up a new project and then imported all my videos into the program, which then appeared on the left hand side of the screen. I doubled clicked on the videos so that they came up in the first editing window, where I then watched the video and placed markers at points of the video that I wanted, and then dragged them onto the timeline. 

For the first part of the video, I mainly wanted just the audio from the video. So I adjusted the level of opacity of the video so that it didn't appear on the screen but I could still hear the music. 

I made sure to edit all the videos to the beat of the music. I mostly used just the audio from the music video of the song 'Spellbound', for the first part of the video, and turned all the other audio from the other clips off. Some clips were slightly too long and didn't go with the song, so I adjusted the length of them by simply dragging them back and fourth to adjust the length. 

About half way through the video, I decided to fade out the music track and have some audio of a couple of the band members talking, to give the audience an insight to other aspects of the DVD they can expect to see. Whilst the members were talking, I overlapped another video, changing the opacity so that it began to fade in once the members had stopped speaking, but keeping the music present and gradually getting louder throughout the interview footage. It then cut into a live video of one of their classic songs 'Swamped', which featured the singer, Cristina, talking to the crowd at the beginning. As soon as she's about to sing, I cut to the official music video for the song and used the audio form the music video too, to try and build suspense and make the viewer want to buy the DVD. 

At this point, I then decided to show all the bands music videos, as the DVD is going to have the band's entire music video collection. I took each of their music videos and edited them in the editing window. I again used markers for this as I didn't want to drag the entire music video onto the timeline as it was unnecessary. I wanted to try and keep all the music video footage on a single track. 

Once I had got all the clips from each of the music videos and placed them on the timeline next to each other, I watched them back with the 'Swamped' music track, making sure all other audio was turned off. Some of the clips went on for a bit too long, so I simply dragged them until they were the right length and matched to the beat of the audio track. Also, I cut some of the clips up, using the cutting tool, as I didn't always want the clips to run exactly the way they did in the music videos, so I cut some shots out as I was on a time limit. 

I also made some title screens throughout the video to introduce the video and show what the DVD consists of.

The first title screen is of the band's logo. In Photoshop, I made a new file and copied and pasted the Lacuna Coil logo from the DVD document. I then saved the new file and imported it into Premiere. Once it had loaded into the program, I dragged the file onto the timeline. The logo was far too big at first, to the extent that you couldn't see much of it at all on the screen. So I shrunk it down my clicking on the corner of the text and dragging it inwards until it was the right size. I then moved it about so that it was in the middle of the screen. I adjusted it's opacity too, my setting different points on the clip, so that it would fade in and fade out.

I created all the other title screens myself, without the use of Photoshop. They were simple title screens, such as 'Behind the Scenes Footage', 'Music Videos' etc, just to show different aspects of the DVD. I created a new title screen by going to the 'Title' menu at the top of the program and selecting 'New Title Screen', 'Default Still'. It then displayed a new window like the one above. I clicked on the Text Box icon and then drew a box for me to type the text I wanted. 

Once I had typed the text, I then changed the font to "Perpetua', which was the same as the font I had used for the DVD and CD artwork. I also made sure that it was in Bold and was in the centre of the screen. I decided to keep all the text in capitals as the logo was in capitals only, and I thought the text generally worked better and looked more professional. I chose to keep all the text in each title screen white as well to keep with the colour schemes I had already used for the DVD and CD artwork. For the DVD I had kept the text white against a black/grey background. Therefore, I kept the backgrounds black too to get an effective contrast between the white text and the black background. 

For some title screens the text was in the complete centre of the screen, but for others it was sometimes slightly to the top. I changed the placement for some of the title screens because I made them fade in and out too, and depending on the videos before them it worked better having them at the top so you could see more of the footage before the fade in. 

Additionally, at the beginning of the video I decided to have the 'Shallow Life: The Tour' text on the same screen as the live video instead of on it's own black background like the other title screens. I did this because I wanted the name of the DVD, to come up on the screen as soon as the music started to come in properly. However, I also wanted to show the live footage at the same time, because it wouldn't work to just have a title screen once the music starts to kick in, I felt it needed more action. So I created the title screen anyway, then changed the opacity of the background and had it so the text displayed on beat, at the top of the screen so you could still see the band fully as well. 

Furthermore, I created several title screens towards the end of the promo vid when I decided to show all of the bands music videos. I created a title screen each time a new video was shown, displaying the title of the video. For these ones I did not make the text bold because I didn't want them to be as abrupt and take too much attention away from the video. I moved them around a bit too, so they were displayed in the corners rather then directly in the centre. I did this because I wanted them to be more subtle and to make sure that the main focus of the screen was on the music video and not the text. I tried to put the text in the darkest point available on the screen because I had used white text, which obviously working better against a most contrasting darker colour.