For my GCSE production work, the task I was set to do was to design and produce my own Disney video cover. The overall design and content of my video cover could be based on either a sequel to another Disney film or a brand new storyline with one of the less major characters from an already existing Disney film, to use as the main character. For instance, take Grumpy out of ‘Snow White and the seven Dwarfs’ and create a video based on him as the main character, for example ‘Grumpy and the evil Magician’.
Video covers are important because the bright, vivid colours and memorable characters attract children’s attention, leading them to purchase the video. Disney’s child-friendly, video covers fit into the whole Disney Empire as they reinforce familiarity with other Disney characters and also fit into the typical Disney video conventions; helping children and parents to identify other Disney merchandise (e. g. toys).
The typical conventions of Disney video covers consist of presentational devices such as, layout, fonts, images and blurb etc; almost every Disney video cover has the same similarity in content as any other Disney video cover. On the front of the cover, there is always the Walt Disney trademark logo at the very top, with the title of the film written in big, bold font just beneath it (or sometimes at the bottom). In most Disney video covers there are always images of the ‘goodies’ and the ‘baddies’ on the front.
The good character is usually the main character in a Disney film, so is therefore the largest and main image on the cover. The bad character is usually a smaller image and is situated at the bottom or the top of the cover; less major characters in the film are usually smaller images on the front of the cover too. On the spine and on the back of the cover, there is usually the Walt Disney logo and title of film just like the front, but on the spine there is usually just a small image of the main character’s upper half (head).
Whereas on the back of the cover there are several different images of scenes from the film and also a short text, which tells you what the film about; this is called a blurb. The video cover I decided to design and produce was a sequel to the academy award winning film, Aladdin; I have called it ‘Jasmine and the return of Jafar’. I think that producing a sequel to an already existing Disney film is a good idea, because children are reunited with their favourite characters for another entertaining and memorable experience.
I started to produce my video cover on Microsoft Publisher; by using the Internet I could browse different websites in order to see what other Disney video covers consist of. One of the main websites that I used quite regularly was http://www. disney. com/, I found this website really useful because it helped me to develop my ideas on how to go about designing my own Disney video cover. Once I had my background, I found it quite easy to build up the rest of my video cover, as it was just a matter of copying and pasting images and clipart of characters and logos etc.
My video cover is divided up into three different sections – front, spine and back. By following the conventions of typical Disney video covers, the layout of my video cover is very much the same as any other Disney video cover. On the front I have my background, which is an image of an Arabian palace set on the sands and so the main colours are blue and yellow to represent the sky and the sand. I have chosen this image because it relates to the Arabian theme of my film, which is set in the made-up city of Agrabah.
Over the background, I have placed images of my characters giving them specific places and sizes in order to fit in with the conventions of typical Disney video covers. In the centre of the cover, I have put a large image of Jasmine as it portrays to the audience that she is the dominant character. On left hand side, I have positioned a group of good characters; firstly, I have placed a smaller image of Aladdin who is not the main character but is a reasonably strong character in the film. Beside Aladdin, are Abu and Carpet who are Aladdin’s friends and again these are smaller images, as they are the less major characters in the film.
On the right hand side, I have positioned the bad characters; firstly I have positioned Jafar who is another strong character in the film near the top of the cover behind the Palace sneering down at everybody from the backgrounds whilst his faithful companion Lago, who is perched on the end of the word ‘Jasmine’ is also sneering at the other characters. I think that my particular choosing and positioning of images is effective because all the good characters are at the front with cheerful expressions and the bad characters are lurking at the sides with evil expressions.
At the top of the cover, I have put the trademark logo to show that the film is an actual Walt Disney production and usually the title lies just beneath but I decided to make a slight change to the that typical Disney convention because I wanted children to be drawn to the characters first rather than the title. Instead, the title of the film is situated at the bottom of the cover in two different sized fonts; the word ‘Jasmine’ is a large font whilst the words ‘ and the return of Jafar’ are in a much smaller font.
I have done this for a specific reason. If u notice, Jasmine was a character from the original film ‘Aladdin’, however she was not the main character because Aladdin was (hence the title of the film); so by emphasizing the word ‘Jasmine’ I will be showing that the film is hers which will therefore attract attention because children will realise that ‘Jasmine and the return of Jafar’ is not just a sequel to the film ‘Aladdin’ but a brand new film.
The spine consists of four things, the title (which is in the same font and colour as the title on the front), the Disney hologram, the universal logo (to show that the film is suitable for all ages) and an upper half image of the character Jasmine. On the back of my video cover I have used an image of Jasmine for the background, which I have specifically chosen because she is the main character.
I have typed over this background to produce a blurb, which tells you what the film is about, and just above the blurb I have put another image of the trademark Disney logo. I think that my blurb will encourage purchase because it is a persuasive text; it appeals to all the family as it uses phrases like ‘Journey back to the enchanting city of Agrabah’ and ‘ the evil Jafar escapes from the magic lamp’ which make the film sound exciting and action packed.
Underneath the blurb, there are several images of different scenes from the film that will give the audience an idea (along with the blurb) of what the film is about. Again, I have used the universal logo to show that the film is suitable for all ages and the bottom I have put the small print and a bar code, which is needed on all video covers to show that the film is an authorised copy.
Overall, I am pleased with this piece of coursework, as I have followed most of the typical Disney conventions, which consist of certain presentational devices in order to produce an effective and professional looking Disney video cover. It’s bright colours, memorable images and large fonts appeal to my target audience, which are children and will therefore encourage parents to buy it. I definitely do not think that there is room for any improvement.
