A Very Special Mix CD

Initial drawing for CD cover

Finished front cover in full colour

Back cover with track listing

My boyfriend moved to London this week for a job and I made him a few things to take with him, one of which was a mix CD. I think I had more fun designing and making the cover than putting together the track listing although the whole project was very fun! 

I've designed a CD cover before for a friend who records his own music and I really enjoyed it so it was good to remind myself of that. The previous one was in a similar style with a fairly intricate pen line drawing painted over with watercolour (but unfortunately I never got the original back so I can't post it here).

I loved the look of this artwork when it was just a matt finish but one spilt cup of tea and it would be ruined so I covered it with sticky-back plastic too.

Hopefully this won't be the last CD design to make it onto this blog. They make very good presents so I may well be tempted to design more...

Gig Photography

As a general rule, I don't enjoy function photography. I feel quite intrusive, taking photos of people I don't know and someone always seems to have their eyes shut or their mouth open (or both). The lighting can also be bad and it's tricky using flash whilst still wanting to be subtle! I don't like the pressure of trying to get that perfect photo for someone- I'd rather take it unofficially and then be able to show them it.

Flight Brigade 19th Feb

However when it comes to gig photography, it's an entirely different matter. I started taking photos at Vane Tempest Sessions last term and have done it pretty much every week so far this year. 

Flight Brigade 19th Feb

As I run the Sessions, I don't have the pressure of trying to impress anyone because I only have to meet my own standards, although we do use the photos on Facebook to promote events. There's also not the problem of being intrusive- bands fully expect to have their photos taken at gigs and sometimes they will even ask to have images put on a CD for their own use. So I can take as many photos as I want, whilst obviously being aware of people's enjoyment of the music (it's not great to be listening to a really quiet track and have someone clicking away incessantly behind you). And although the rooms are dark, the lighting is great on the artists and I love playing around with strong light contrasts.

Samuel Brookes 22nd Jan

These a few of my favourite pictures so far. They're not necessarily the biggest bands we've had to play but I like what the images capture of the night.

John Oliver 22nd Jan - Durham favourite beat-boxer

John is the only support act that we've had back three times- he is very talented and always goes down well. For this set, the lighting just seemed to be perfect. Of course having only one person to light rather than a whole band makes things a lot easier too.

Joseph and David 5th March

I find that there are some shots I've got in the habit of taking every week and this is one of them. I think it captures the ambiance of Vane Tempest Sessions in some way.

Emily (and the Woods) 5th March

Because of the strong dark/light contrasts, the temptation is to have my camera permanently stuck on the monochrome mode because black and white photographs look better much more easily. But I have learnt the benefit of flicking back into colour which gives a less stark finish.

Richard Walters 19th Feb

Richard is one of those people who is really expressive when he plays- not just with his face but his whole body. Ideal subject matter for a photographer!

My First Video!

A friend of mine works for Durham University and asked me to make a video about looking after your Mental Wealth. I've been on quite a few filming shoots before and worked as a production assistant but this is the first time I was in charge of a project from start to finish. Having told my friend that I've never really done this before he said not to worry- just be creative! I had pretty much a free rein, although the video had to show that mental welfare is something we all need to be aware of.

The quality is very reduced here- I wouldn't recommend enlarging it! But a higher quality version should be on Durham University's welfare website shortly...

If I was being fussy, there are loads of things I'd want to adjust- not least the sound quality of some of the vox-pops! Unfortunately we didn't have a directional microphone when we were filming so we picked up a lot of background noise and the very cheap software I was editing with wasn't advanced enough to do much about this. I could also go on editing, adjusting little details that annoy me, but I have already made the 'absolutely final version' about ten times already and had to call it a day at some point.

However, as a learning experience it has been fantastic and I'm quite proud of the finished product. I like the flickering shadows and the home-made feel and I've always wanted to use Scrabble letters for a creative project. I've also learnt lots about filming and editing and although there are many things that I'll do differently next time, this hasn't put me off making videos and I would definitely try it again.