Photoshop Editing Response

Jazz: I like the posterised and photocopy version of Tom although on the photocopy I would change the colour, the dry brush style doesn't look like you have edited it unless you look closely, the stand out bottom one is something you really are not good at, avoid and go for something different.

Mike: I like the second one, it looks modern and pop culture which is something that most rock bands are, you are breaking conventions with this style.

Lee: The first one looks unedited, the second and third ones looks excellent, I have to admit that the second one would obviously look awesome on a poster.

Leanne: Change the colour on the third one, and then use that one, it shows all the important detail, and importantly the eyes which are a key detail.

Photoshop Editing

I have been editing an old photo on photo-shop to experiment with styles that I might be able to incorporate in to my product:

This is a photo of Tom in the dry brush technique style, I like how it makes makes the image more neat and tidier however it does have a big problem in that, it shows the light far more than normal and on the darkest setting Tom cannot be seen at all, which kinda defeats the object of having an image, it also to the untrained eye looks unedited.

This effect is called posters edge, I very much like this effect. It darkens and shows off Tom's eyes, It would make a good effect if I based the whole of my album front and back with a style like this. I would love to do a piece of work using a style like this.

Other than this showing massive resemblance to Aha's "Take On Me" video I very much like the style of the outline similar to the poster one above, I would however have to change the colour from Orange to a better more suitable colour, although I have to admit the orange does look very good on its own.

Clearly I would need a bit more practise and maybe several more lessons from my more photoshop savvy friends, but using this effect would make the picture look very similar to the Billy Idol album from the research, this might work with a specific album title but from my research rock and metal albums tend not to follow this unless it fits their style.

What I have been doing

I have been currently testing and trying to make some images from my last media project look more dynamic similar to my research. I have tried using Macromedia fireworks but it appears to be useless so I am going to try photo shop and experiment I will post my results on the blog.

Notice

I am now at the point where I have done lots of research and am ready to start filming my product, I have aranged with my actors to meet next Saturday to begin the shoot for the video, therefore before that I must draw a story board style thing to plan what my actors are going to do.

Target Market

For my video it is apparent that I will obviously be looking at targeting the type of people who are into metal and rock, but who are these people? That's a very good question and I'm now going to explore them in detail.



This guy here is what one would consider a normal rock and metal fan, similar to myself and my peers, minus the biker gloves, this guy would walking down the street be considered a normal person. Notice his clothing is predominantly black, nearly all rock and metal fans wear black a considerable amount (I am while I am writing this actually). He is probably a university or sixth form student of high intelligence and enjoys expanding his music taste.  He will probably want to be either a high earning job and enjoy going to out with his mates regularly. This is roughly 1/6 of my target audience.

This girl (?) is an indication of what females who like Rock and Metal look like, Girls generally don't tend to like rock and metal music unless they choose to be very very different like this girl here, with her creative horns, mini dreadlocks, sharp pointed nails, vulgar spiro-graph style tattoos, neck brace/choker, Iron Maiden vest top and demonic expression make her the perfect example of a person I wouldn't want to be at a party with. She is probably been brought up in a family that has molded her into this form, usually types of people like her are found working in shops like Game Station, HMV and independent records shops, they might have to try and clean her up a bit first though. girls like her would also make up 1/6 of my target market.

This strange fellow here will make up the rest of my target market, he is the type of person that doesn't regularly wash and will attend as many music gigs as possible and enjoy getting beaten around in most pits, he will probably also be a massive fan of the band he's going to see and know most of the words to their songs. He also will like black and probably wear it religiously and will enjoy experimentation with new material, which suits my music choice thoroughly because The Beastie Boys are a rather different style of music that don't suit even the most hardcore metal taste.

Actors

I have consulted my peers and two have volunteered to be in my music video, Tom, Lee & Michael have agreed to be in my video films. I will meet up with them during the week to discuss what they will be doing in the video.

Colour Scheme Poll

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3

0

9

2





I asked my peers to vote on which colour scheme they would like to see on my work, knowing my project they voted the more upbeat style for rock and grunge. Heres what a couple had to say:

Leanne: I like the light green colour scheme it is more upbeat than all the others and it goes with your song

Charlotte: What were you thinking for the first scheme? I like the red, but I dont know if it will go with whichever is voted the best.

Ryan: I like the green, its bright and stands out, I also like the orange one at the bottom.

Cyan = Number 1, Dark Blue Number 2, Azure Number 4, Lime Number 5 

Font Poll Results

Evanescence: 0

Black Adder: 6

Burton's Nightmare: 8

Cyan = Fairydust
Burgundy = Black Adder
Cream = Burton's Nightmare

Fairydust: 3

With my poll results,  I have found that my peers think that the Burton's Nightmare is the most liked, therefore I will defiantly use that font for the name of my band and other effects, the Black Adder font also scored very highly with my peers so I will also use that in situations where it is appropriate.

Colour Scheme Research

For a rock image which usually has colours similar to this, but I think that it personally looks likes more antiques roadshow than power metal, not for me I don't think.

This red is an excellent mixture of different range of red but it is a little samey but I like the idea, I might try and incorporate some red in my work because I like the however I have learnt NEVER do black on red.

 This grungy colour scheme is excellent since it fits with the theme but I have a feeling it may be too dark and symbolise a more heavier band rather than a more cheerful band that I aim my band to be like.

 This is the above theme but a lot lighter I much prefer this lighter tone than the other one, it resembles that of the orginal theme of Volbeat, Suprisingly for colours that contrast it does go together very well I will consider this.

This is more darker look of the first one, I prefer this one though as it looks more rock than antiques roadshow.

I will now ask my peers to vote on which one they like the best.

Font Poll

I asked my peers, to vote on which font they think would best suit my product, I asked them to vote with the fonts I had conducted research with: 

Font Ideas 2

This font could go very well with my theme, I like how it has a lower case which the previous one I looked at do not have, it means I can be more creative and generally make the album appeal to more intelligent audience who will read lower case rather than big upper case, anyway the font is excellent, it looks like a slightly more light hearted band, rather than a fully serious band, the light hearted nature would appeal to people who are uncertain about the band.

I like this font since it looks elegant but for my media I don't know if it would be right due to metal generally being considered a less elegant art of music. The things I don't like are that it doesn't have a lower case, which is what I really would like for my product.

This font again doesn't have a lower case, I picked it because the serifs are awesome and suit the theme, but again no lower case and it looks a little too simple for my taste and for the taste of my well educated audience.

Font Ideas.

Bleeding Cowboys is a font that could work with my genre of Rock, since it reflects rebellion however the whip effects that come off certain letters annoy me and are rather distracting to the eye. I will try to find something similar since it replicates the theme of the song but it is rather less distracting.

A more rather gothic style of font, which might fit my theme due to rock/metal being a hated genre. It does copy off another bands logo which probably isn't good because I am this time doing a real band rather than a false one like last year, so I will have to find a font that is more orginal. I do admit though that the E is brilliant with the moon thing around it.

If this font wasn't serif this would be a perfect font but as it is, the serif makes it not really usuable since it covers ups bits of the previous letters, therefore I dont think it would work, it looks a little fantasy aswell so wouldn't fit the genre. Actually this font isnt good at all for me.

This font reminds me of the actual Volbeat font, I like this font, but I dont like the points on the letters, too brutal, it also doesn't have a lower case so I wouldn't really be able to write anything in proper english which is something that bugs me.

It seems that I will have to find some other fonts that are better than these

CD Front and Back Analysis Summary

Through looking at CD covers and backs, I have learnt that:
1: All good CD backs have an image that is under or to the side, and don't take over the page so still leave room for the track list to be seen, (Paul Stanley)
2: All good covers have a close up of the lead singer, with major focus on the eyes to give the effect that the person on the cover is staring deeply into the buyers eyes making them seem they are staring at you which would convince people to buy the album.

CD Front and Back Analysis: Motorhead

 A great album art work, although to conduct something like this I would need to create a peice of orignal art work, something which Motorhead are famous for as are Iron Maiden, to the point that the band themself only appear on their first album cover (Ace of Spade) All the other albums feature a piece of high quality artwork such as this one. I very much like the back on this album, I like the idea that the song list is to etheir side of picture is a good ergonomic idea, however my favourite idea is the individual pictures of the band members, in circles is excellent and is a feature that I will try my best to copy.

CD Font and Back Analysis: Billy Idol

Billy Idol, english new wave/rock musician, while this is his best of album it has some great idea, particulary the cover, which is one of my personal favourates, again the emphasis is on the eyes as if he is looking at the buyer, I personally really like the face split in two with half his face red and half white, with Billy's logo in the bottom right corner to show its his album, the back however is an entirly different matter, one of the most boring album tracklists I have seen, I guess in its favour is that it is very simple and can be easily read, but does nothing to the album.

CD Front and Back Analysis: Paul Stanley

Paul Stanley's album is a fine example of a very stereo typical album, due to him being most known as a member of KISS it is probably a wise decision for him to put his face on the cover of the album, The front is a good idea, but it is the back cover that I prefer the most since the colour scheme goes brilliantly and the image is very dynamic and is very well suited to the back, the position of Paul Stanley as well is brilliant since he is stood just out of the middle making him the main target to look at rather than the track list which is predominant on most. The front is a very dynamic image that stands out, emphasis is on the eyes so that the owner of the album will be stared in the face by Paul Stanley, a great trick used by many a music company.

Band Poster Analysis: Summary

Through my research I have learnt that:
1. All of the best posters have a background that relates to the band in they are advertising, ones without a background can be resized more eaisly basically creating a logo rather than a poster.

2: The posters with the band showing are slightly more better than those without, simply due to the audinece can see the band and it might encourage more people to see the show, this is more needed for newer bands who have a lesser fan base who can afford to not put themselves on the cover due to them having an already established fan base.

Band Poster Analysis: Steel Panther

I really like the look of this poster, it uses one simple dominating image that stands out and immediately tells the reader who the band is that is touring. I also like the image, it has been brightened to look more intense and give more impact. The background as well is all four members cat pattern due the band being based on cats. Therefore I have noticed that the background consistently reflect the band.

Band Poster Analysis: Iron Maiden 2

This other Iron Maiden poster is far better than the other one in my opinion, I like the usage of the screaming fans as clouds, and the picture of the band with their enlarged shadows to make them seem more powerful aand bigger than they actually are. The shadow effect is a good effect that I might consider including if I use a ong shot.

Band Poster Analysis: Iron Maiden

This Iron Maiden poster was for their 2011 Final Frontier tour they produced many different posters in a similar vien to this just changing the back ground country to the country that they were in. Personally I dislike this poster, I think the band name at the top looks tacky and thrown in for good measure although it doesnt really fit in, the Athens-Greese is suppose to be in the same font but as is replicated wrongly. Other than that though it is an excellent poster.

Band Poster Analysis: Volbeat

This poster is albeit an old poster is an excellent example of a band poster for a tour and could easily be changed to be a advertisement for a band. I love the colour scheme idea, its one of my favourite colour schemes of all the bands I listen to, the idea of two colours is simple and very effective I would very consider using a simple colour scheme like this one as it stands out and can be seen from a distance which is what is needed for a poster, the poster also has the support group written on in the relative groups font.

Band Poster Analysis: KISS

For a band with as higher profile as KISS who usually spalsh their high budget on bright colourful posters with dynamic art work reflecting the bands explosive nature. The red theme is dull and boring but I like the idea of using the bands album art, in this "Dynasty" for advertising the tour some could say its good because people will know its the lastest tour for KISS while others would say thats its lazy. I agree for the former statement I like the idea of people knowing its the lastest tour and how it relates to the album.