My CD Cover- Planning, Production and Evaluation

Above is the finished DVD cover for the music video 'Lost at Sea' by Benjamin John. I have continued with the black and white theme, and the same setting as in my music video. I did this to show references between the two, and so the cover for the single reveals something about the video. Although in two of the CD covers I analysed you don't actually see the artist, you can see Ben in the image, walking away from the camera towards the sea. This image carries on from the end of the video, where he loses the girl he's following for good, and looks out towards the sea. After viewing the video, you could assume he has then gone on to leave his shoes and guitar on the groyne to walk into the sea. It leaves something to the imagination for the audience.
   The mise-en-scene of the front cover shows Ben walking towards the sea, after having left his guitar and shoes on the groyne. When I first started editing the image it was in vibrant colours, as it was quite a bright day when I did the shooting. I decided to add a black and white tint to stay with the theme in the music video, but when I looked at it, it seemed a bit dull and 'samey', so I began again, this time using the 'lasso' cutting tool in Serif PhotoShop to cut out the main items in the image; the guitar and the shoes. I then added the black and white tint, altered the brightness and contrast slightly, and pasted in the guitar and shoes to make a contrast. The eye is then immediatly drawn to the two, which make an interesting focus for the front cover. I altered the CMYK colour balance so the cyan, blue and greens of the original colours are bolder than the yellows of the sand fro example
   The name of the artist, Benjamin John, is in the same font as is used in the music video and the website, which adds intertextuality. This font was downloaded off a font website, which makes it more unusual and unique. . The colour was cloned from the darker purple of the shoes, then altered to 64% transparency to soften the colours, as if they've been worn into the wood of the groyne. The name of the song, Lost at Sea, is positioned underneath the artist's name, in the same font that it's written in in the music video. The colour is clones from the lighter red colour from the shoes, and then made transparent to 55%. I used different fonts for the artist's name and the title of the song, to make the difference between them distinguishable, and for those who havent heard the song before, to know which is which.

This is the back of the DVD cover for the music video. Again I have continued with the black and white theme, while adding a splash of colour in the text. The image was taken when I was shooting the footage for the video, so I'm linking the two together again. In the image you can see the groyne leading into the sea parallel to a stream running through the sand. It is the same groyne as is on the front of the cover, which makes it seem as though this angle is from Ben's point of view as he contemplates walking into the sea. On top of this image. I then added the song list, in the same font as the artist's name is written on the front, in the same dark red as the front. I then faded it to 75%, but then felt it wasnt clearly readable enough. I then added a rounded rectangle in black and faded it to 34%, so you can still see the image behind it. I added this so that the song list could be seen more easily. It is a very simple back cover, with the song list being the main focus, but it serves its purpose which is to inform the buyer of the names and order of the songs on the CD. At the bottom right corner I added a barcode, to make it seem more professional, and some plain white text reading "Written and perfomed by Benjamin Mitchell", "Produced by Vikki Evans" and "Copyright 2011" to add authenticity as this is what you would normally find on most CDs produced nowadays.


Feedback:
"The image is so cool! the editing looks great, yeah it would stand out at HMV." George Thomas, from my target age group

"I love how the guitar and shoes are in colour, really eye-catching" Lucy Connah, also from my target audience

"The softness of the water on the back cover blends really well with the faded words, it looks dead mellow!" Craig Smith, my 21 year old cousin who is in an Indie band himself

I was really pleased with this feedback, as the people asked were all in my target audience, and all gave very positive answers. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the outcome of the CD cover, as it looks quite professional. I think the colours blend well together and the references to the website and the music video are subtle yet recognisable. the difference between the black and white and the bright guitar and shoes make a bold, eye-catching contrast that would make the cover stand out on the shelf.