DVD Cover Construction

The following slides shows the development of the secondary task of creating a DVD Cover:

The second task of producing a DVD Cover was easier then creating the music video as guessed but in some aspects it was harder as more cutting of actual photos were needed. For the background I had to chose a specific colour to work with and to add photos too. This was hard as it had to link in with the theme of ‘dreams’ and ambitions. The colours I thought of were Yellow, white with a tint and a light blue or green. To add a colour to the background it had to reset the template and I had to start again from fresh.

When looking through the variety of photos I had from skating there was this one picture in which stood out for me. The position and the fact that it was already sharp was a great start not to mention how everything in the background was blurry. This was a great effect and I thought I could contribute it towards my DVD Cover. So happens it worked and I created this 2 layered effect which worked extremely well and I thought it added to this different effect in which no other professional magazine had before. I thought this effect would add to the attraction of the DVD Cover and would draw the audience in more as it is different. Instead of adding each layer exactly on top of each other I decided to leave a gap in order to get some white through which appeared to stand out.

After using the effect of the two layers on the main image I decided to use the same idea but differ it so it looked somewhat different. I achieved this and got a darker and transparent look. I actually did like this look but the only dilemma was if it looked and suited the main photo on the front cover. This was the hardest part of producing the DVD Cover as everything had to suit and match up with each other and if not it didn’t look right at all. This was the case with this transparent look and I had to try it around 4 times in order to test different layered effects out. Below left is what I eventually got which appeared to suit the best but for some reason I still did not like it. I tried different effects with the exact same picture and got some photos I could have used but they didn’t appear to suit well with the main photo at all and what I got was this contrast with light and dark but on different pages. Despite this I did rather like the colours which were coming out from the edited photo but unfortunately the stood out too much and made the main photo not stand out enough which was a shame really as a result of this I tried adding more layers on top of it but it appeared too dark especially around the face and the clothing and because of this I decided to use a different photo. The majority of the other photos also appeared the same with the darkened face and mainly skates but after some searching on my camera and my USB I eventually found at least four or five photos in which I thought could work nicely in perfect harmony with the front cover.

After looking and searching though a whole different range of my Photos I came up with one I knew would defiantly work mainly because it was a location and setting Photo. For this I added 3 different layers I order for it to really stand out but yet not clash with the main photo in which I wanted people to see more then others. Due to the same location as the main photo this photo added to the blue background and location and made it look more professional but yet still different fro other DVD’s. I found this interesting as after I got feedback off both Peers and Family their comments were positive and so I continued to use the same effect for all of the pictures as it appeared to suit as a whole.

In comparison to the picture above the photo added this time was another picture showing both the location and setting but also linked to the theme of skating and therefore dreams and ambitions. After adding and including the layered effect to the photo I had to also use the sharpen tool which made it stand out on the white background. The red strip at the top was added right at the very beginning as I felt no matter what style DVD cover I was going to produce I wanted that to be included within it as I Felt it gave it that extra touch + with it being red made it stand out completely from everything else

When coming to the back cover of the DVD I had to find the correct and suiting images which would look and match the front cover. To do this I experimented on Photoshop with a wide range of photos in order to get that ‘right’ image/s. When doing this I found two possible main back cover images which could have worked. (shown left on the back is one of them). In order for the photos to get the same effect as that on the front cover, I had to remember each and every step taken before hand such as follows:

Select Colour Range Sample colours Okay

The other photo which I discovered was this shown left. I thought this really suited the DVD front cover and I had to include it somewhere within my tasks. Once again I had to give it the same effect as the main image in order for it to relate and suit as a whole. For this I did 3 layers as I thought it looked best this way but in order for this to work I had to sharpen various layers and photos to make it stand out that little bit extra. To sharpen it I did the following:

Filter Sharpen Sharpen edges

After this arranged the layers as I wanted them. Due to the fact I wanted this tint of white coming through the layers i left a gap in-between each so the white background came through.

When at least a single photo was definitely going to be used I had to decide on the other photo/s in which was going to follow. For this I found a variety of photos that may have been used within the back strip of the DVD but I felt that these did not work as I could not find any possible way of making them look respectable or suit in my opinion at all. As a result at this stage of the production of the secondary task in creating the DVD cover, I decided to have a ‘mess around’ with the pictures in which I had taken in preparation for the task in order to discover a method or photos that worked. As you can see in the picture shown left, I tried a range of different effects and photos trying to get the right match.

When finally deciding on the final photos I narrowed it down to at least two photos in which I was sure suited each other but the only problem I had was whether or not it matched and linked with the front strip of the DVD. Luckily the two photos did look and match the front and due to the different but yet similar effects it made this comparison against bright (back) and dark (front).I liked this effect it gave across to the audience and I thought it looked good this way. Due to the photos originally being dark much so like the front cover I had to attempt to find an effect in which it occurred brighter in most areas especially a the bottom as this was where the black writing was going to be placed and this meant it had to be readable.