Technical Tutorials

For our technical tutorial we learnt the basics within Photoshop as this will then allow our groups to create professional looking digi packs that correspond well without song, genre and artist.

Basics...

. When photos are imported remember to delete them from the camera after, otherwise there becomes a build up of images and can become confusing when determining what images have already been tried and tested to be best suited for an Indie Rock genre.

. Put all images into our named student folders so we spend more time creating our digi packs rather than trying to find our images.

When in Photoshop go...

. File - New - type Name (add title)

. Change size to 12cm X 12cm - this then creates a square like shape, however create one with 1 or 2 centimetres in order for the album cover to bend easily with a spacious spine.

. Present: custom: Width - 27cm

Height - 12cm

Resolution - 300cm

Background Contents - Transparent

When importing an image into Photoshop...

. File - Open -*find photo* - open

. Click the image and drag to then copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) into the blank canvas

. Once inserted then re-size the image to fit in any blank spaces (CTRL+T hold down SHIFT to keep the image even)

When learning about Photoshop within media studies I found most of the skills to be the same when using Photoshop in other lessons, however to use Photoshop when creating a digi pack (which is required for any professional look music artist/band) it needs to be catered to the chosen genre's conventions. Even when learning how to use a programme like Photoshop, I learnt, that it is always easier to practise creating covers that not only relate to your genre but also creating a cover that follows the conventions of that genre, so that the more practise that is being held now, reflects later on within the music video/digi pack task as they have developed and look more mainstream professional.

Green Screen...

When it comes to using the green screen you have to make sure that everything is set up according to your needs, in order to make everything much more easier when editing in pre-production for either a music video or film. Before even getting started you will need to make sure that you have the essentials:

• Green Screen
• Spot Lights
• Cameras
• And Green Screen Stands

It is important to have lights whenever working with a Green Screen as this then allows any shadows to become invisible as that then means, when it comes to editing another image or moving image on to the Green area there will be more of an area that has the same colour of green, which is much more helpful as you no longer then have to worry about trying to change all the tiny areas of the Green Screen another image; they'll all be the same colour so less time is wasted.

Personally, for our groups genre of Indie Rock, I would prefer our group to not use a Green Screen as all the places required for my group to film in our in an respectable distance and so it would not take up much filming time or cost unnecessary amount of money. However if we had chosen a different genre with a more exotic, up-beat song then we would have been more interested to use a Green Screen as it would then save my group money trying to get around to all these expensive locations. I also believe that if our genre deemed it fit to need a Green Screen, and if we were able to pull it off, then it would like professional, but  genre does not need a Green screen, nor does our concept then it would seem very unprofessional.