Resubmitting Coursework - DVD Cover

In order to improve my overall grade I have decided to resubmit my coursework

DVD Cover


Before:

After:

The audience feedback that I received concerning the first version of the DVD cover highlighted several issues  with the cover that did not resemble Motown. For example the front cover may feature the three lead singers of the band (very conventional to Motown) yet the rest of the picture presents an unprofessional aspect to the overall look; such as the tripod, school dinner tables and picture frames on the walls. Audience feedback also suggested that although the singers themselves do represent Motown, the background of the front cover portrays an 'amateur and homemade' feel. With this in mind I changed the front cover and used pictures that were taken on the day of filming.
The following images were found to base my new front cover on:

 

The obvious elements taken from the 'Temptations' poster are the swirling white graphics which I incorporated into a sheet music stave and ensured the swirls were more feminine and musically orientated, I downloaded some Photoshop CS5 brushes to help with this and also used clip art images of musical notes etc. Some lines were created by using the paint brush tool and changing the thickness of the brush whilst using the tool. 

The elements I have used from the picture on the right is the band of images, whereas they are all marked with a border, I decided to use the gradient tool within Photoshop to add a blurred effect so the pictures of my band blend with the black background. This creates a more professional behind the scenes look to the band, contrasting to the first submitted DVD cover.

Attempt 1:

To start with I used pink/ red tinges in order to make the cover look more feminine however feedback suggested that the cover was more pink than red and therefore did not signify Motown, with this in mind you can see how I changed the colour scheme prominently to red which I believe works a lot better.

I initially kept the microphone picture blue, but then this again did not look aesthetically pleasing as it constrasted from the red, therefore hindering the Motown influence. The final colour scheme adds a dated, classic look to the cover yet the swirls are more modern and feminine which attributes the band to appeal to a modern audience which is what the band had wanted.

As you can see from the 'attempt 1' picture that there are significantly more swirls and also some artistic dots added, having discussed my DVD cover with someone that is more familiar with the Motown era, he highlighted how advanced use of graphics such as that would not have been easily to accomplish so I significantly simplified the swirls and we agreed that it links very well with the 'Temptations' poster swirls.

I also changed the rating logo as I used the American one instead of the European one.

The colour red was used do to it significantly linking to the music video we created. The three singers wear bright red dresses which would become their iconic image and therefore it makes sense to create the accompanying media with the same colour schemes as the outfits. As the band becomes more known to the public it would create a house style and recognizable image which the audiences can connect with and identify with the band.

Research

Additional research involved using the 'Classic Motown' website in order to find authentic advertising media for Motown bands. I looked more into the conventions of the texts and drew that colour overlays are frequently used. 

Seeing as it is difficult to determine authentic posters from modern representations I decided to look into Motown tribute bands to see if i could gather inspiration and find more conventions.

The following are interesting posters that use the colour overlays and also a wide range of pictures of the band which is why I decided to use pictures of the instrument players as well as the singers in my re-submission.

The above pictures all have a common theme where they have the different images blurred along the lines, this I have decided to replicate within my DVD cover. The third picture has obvious Motown conventions due to the microphone and classic Tamla Motown CD in the background, it was suggested that I should be obvious in my usage of conventions and decided to use a clip art picture of a record and a vector image of microphones.