Report

Report

For my pre-production task I chose to produce two CD covers then, using the textual analysis I did before hand, created a double page spread about one of the artists I created. I also read over and looked at the layout of many double page spreads in music magazines. By doing this I found little parts of double page spreads  in the text and layout that I liked and added them in to my own. I wanted to make two completely different covers to challenge myself, so I decided to make one darker indie/rock album and one pop album.

Textual Analysis/Images/Layout:

       The first CD cover that I analysed was Coldplay's 'Parachute'. I liked the simplicity and layout of the cover so I decided that one of the covers that I would be making would be very simple. 'Parachute' was a white background with a black border and text, as I didn't want to copy this example completely, I decided to have a picture as the background. By looking at the back covers, you can see that a lot of CD covers have their covers matching one of their songs, so I decided to have a picture of an empty field. Because I took the picture during the day there was quite a bit of colour in the photo, so as I wanted the cover to be dark and quite sad I made the picture black and white, which created a feeling of despair. The placement of the text was the next part of this cover. For me, this was the easiest part of this cover as I wanted it to slightly resemble  the layout of 'Parachute' so I placed it in the middle. For the back cover I decided to have the same picture in the background to recreate the sense of despair. I made the box the text was in, slightly transparent so it wasn't too bright, as if it was it would loose the darkness of the cover. 
       For my second cover, I wanted to have a lighter hearted cover to contrast the other cover. As I did for the first cover I came up with the songs first and get inspiration from them. With this one it was 'Escape with me' that inspired me to draw a route on a map to escape, which is what music helps you do. So I got a map and drew a line to an airport but on the way had notes, such as 'look for hotel' and 'Spend day in'. As I had the text central on the other cover I put the title of the album in the top left corner, in the bottom left of the slightly transparent blue box. The band name is in the bottom right of the cover in an identical blue box. Because there was a very large amount of empty space in the top right corner I placed a can there to fill the space. The back cover of this CD case was kept as simple as possible, without a picture as the other cover had it on the front and back. Instead I had it the sam blue as the boxes from the front cover. To make the song names stand out I had made them white so they contrasted with the background.

Font/Language:

       For the first cover (Empty Fields) I was looking for a font that would show that this album would be serious and quite dark so I looked through the fonts and found Trajan Pro which looked quite gothic. I made the text on this cover a dark red so it kept the dark feeling of the cover and didn't stand out much. For the title the font was much bigger than the band name, which shows that the name of the album is more important. I used the same  font and colour on the back cover to make it consistent. For the legal information at the bottom, the font was Perpetua Tilting MT as it looks less formal but still quite gothic. The text on the back (song names) are all the same size which also supports that this is an album of serious songs. The name of the album supports the the dark theme as empty fields mean either; its winter, which is cold and dark or there is no harvest for the field. 
       For the second CD cover (Escape With Me) I used a less formal font, Perpetua Tilting MT, as it creates a friendly feeling as it is slim and sharp. As I wanted this album cover to be bright, to contrast the other, so I had the text in white. As the background of the map is white as well it was hard to see, so I added two blue boxes to put the in so they would stand out from the rest of the cover. The size of the text is the same as it shows consistency throughout the front cover. The text on the back cover of the CD case is in bold which draws your eye towards them. As on the front, the text is white on a blue background. The song names are all the same size but have been separated to show that this cover is slightly less formal. The first four songs are in the top left corner and the other four are in the bottom right. The legal information in the same font to show the informality of the cover.

Conventions:

       The first CD cover was meant to be dark so I had the text red, which connotes danger, passion, blood, lust, etc. This shows that it is dark but still has elements of love in it. By doing this it creates a different type of atmosphere than what was originally wanted. Also it leaves the songs up for a different type of understanding. In the picture on the front of the CD cover there are trees without any leaves which could represent the feeling of the album. For the text on the first cover I put it in a white box over a black box which creates a border for the text, this is present on the front and back cover. On the sides of the case are the name of the band and the album. 
       To add to the authenticity of both covers I had the barcode and legal information at the bottom on the back cover. I had to change some parts of the copyright information because there where names of another band on it, so I typed it up so it would be easier to changer the two covers. I also looked for a basic record logo so it wouldn't stand out, this is so peoples eyes won't be drawn towards it.
       The second CD cover was made to contrast the first, so it has brighter colours to make it seem lighter hearted than the other. The picture on the front cover is of a map which has a planned route on, this was to show the meaning of the album, 'Escape With Me'. The picture on the front cover is complex but not over complicated. I edited the picture so some of the bright colours weren't as prominent, this is so the two boxes can stand out more than the map. I did this because the boxes are the most important part of the front cover. As on the first cover, I had the band and album name on the side covers.

Production:

       My production was a double page spread from a music magazine about on of the bands/albums that you made for pre-production. I chose to do 'Escape With Me'. The double page spread that inspired me with the layout of my own double page spread was the interview of Davey Havok. The parts on the layout of this interview that I used were; three columns of text, using only one page for the text and the other for a picture, a small box at the bottom of the left page containing text. To do some more textual and visual analysis I went on issuu to look at other music magazines to find parts of their double page spreads that look good. That is where I got the idea for the artists name and what they do (e.g. lead vocalist) and something they said they where going to be or wanted to be (e.g. super villain).
       I tried using different colours for the background but none of the colours seemed appropriate for the text so I decided to keep the background white. To make the text stand out on the white background, I made the text black. For the questions, I had the Q blue so it was easier to see where the questions where. For the answers, I had the A red for the same reason. For the box at the bottom of the left page, I made that black with white text, this is so it stands out to the reader. 
       In the black box, I had a competition. This is very popular in music magazines where they say to go to the website to win tickets to concerts. I did this to show that magazine companies rely on their website greatly with sales as people aren't likely to pick up a magazine, they would rather read in on their phones/computers. at the bottom of the text I had a closing paragraph where it tells the reader who they are interviewing next and that they can send in questions for the interviewer to ask the artist. This makes the reader feel more involved in the magazine and more likely to buy it again. In the bottom left of page 16 I put all the information for all the social media for the magazine, this supports the point of companies rely on the Internet copies. In the top left and the top right of the double page spread I had the magazine name, this is so when people are reading it they know what they are reading. In the bottom corners I had the page numbers starting with an odd number as the first page of the majority of magazines are an advert.
       The first part of the text is an introduction of the artist, this is for people who may not know who they are can learn before reading the interview. This gives them context. The rest of the text is an interview with the artist. About half way through the interview, I had it so the next set of questions where from the readers, this makes it seem like they are involved.