Setting the Scene

This blogs main purpose is to document the creation process of a DVD cover, DVD Label and a DVD trailer for a fictional film or video game. In the coming weeks I will be using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere to help complete this task. Using this blog, I will be able to showcase the construction process, justifications for any decisions, and professional standards used. I will also be discussing some of the ethics that occur in this field, and how they could effect my choices or work.

Before starting to work on any of the elements, I need to decide the overall theme for the assignment. The choice is between a video game and a fictional film. Video game cases can be very diverse from simple portrait pictures to very complicated backgrounds and action scenes. Film covers tend to have very common standards within their own genre limiting freedom, but it will be much easier to maintain continuity when it comes to making the trailer. I feel continuity is really important, as that’s what will ultimately make each part of this assignment feel more realistic. In the end I think going with a film makes the trailer and the DVD label a lot more easier to develop, and the amount of easy to find resources should cut my development time down slightly over using a video game theme.

There are lots of different film genre's, each with their own common themes and colours. In the mind map below I have quickly jotted some down.

When deciding the genre of what my film will be there were two main factors that I considered. What would be fun, and what would be easy. I immediately focused on a marital arts film as the cover offers some creative freedom, allowing me to scale how much effort I want to put in. The trailer can mostly be action focused which means that a narrative doesn't really need to be fully represented. As I enjoy martial arts films, it was quite easy to come up with some cheesy story line and pick actors to play in the film. The story will be set in Shanghai and will revolve around two triad gangs, and the area they are vying over. Its an easy story line to design the assignment around as its fairly generic and leaves it open enough that if I want to add something in particular, it can easily be re-written to justify it.

To get started on the assignment properly, I need to decide where the best place to start it. I think the DVD cover is the best place to start, as the direction of the cover will better shape the idea's and theme behind the film. This will make it easier to design the trailer and label.

I decided to take a look at some of the covers of martial arts films that I enjoy to see if there is some common points or design choices. The first thing that I noticed was that they all displayed the main character in the center of the design. Most of the covers used the design to make the main actor stand out, either through lighting or other effects. Some covers only display the main character, using the background as film context. There is some more stylistic designs, with Enter the Dragon and Ninja Assassin. Ninja Assassin is quite interesting in that it has a pure white background.

I really like the design of Legend, and I think I will use some of its concepts into my own design. The centralized title that separates the actor from the flavor/context works really well, and the background seems more interesting then Fist of Legend or The One. I can't completely copy the cover as it would be against copyright, but its not ethically wrong to borrow some idea's. 'Work that expresses an idea may be protected, but not the idea behind it. ' (UKCS, 2009) is mainly applied here.

References 

[Enter the Dragon DVD cover] n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/covers/enter-the-dragon-dvd-cover-87.jpg> [12/02/2014].

[Ninja Assassin DVD cover] n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/covers/ninja-assassin-dvd-cover-20.jpg> [12/02/2014].

[Jet Li - The One DVD cover] n.d. [image online] Available at: < https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkdeGCzjQUPsccuHOoReE5SshZPr_jfZIKgjyrv_UFqgU_qE_CEWlGC95YKAUi88cEW-ALnzkvDfwikOo9PsbobIWg5b0Hk0329ce6_4fV4Sooe-9JwXj5TxpnSjX1KDHYkwk_CHyCz58C/s1600/Jet+Li+The+One+movie+cover.jpg> [12/02/2014].

[Ip Man DVD cover] n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://moviesonfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IP-MAN-BRRIP.jpg> [12/02/2014].

[Fist of Legend DVD cover] n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://www.alt-uk.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/fist-of-legend-dvd-cover.jpg> [12/02/2014]. 

[Kung Fu Hustle cover] n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://ecover.to/?Module=ViewEntry&ID=654434> [12/02/2014].

[UK Copyright Service], Last Amended 2009. Fact sheet from the UK Copyright Service. [website]  Available at: https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law [29/04/2014].