New MovieScore Media CD: KNIFE EDGE (Guy Farley)

I saved my pennies from any House of Cards purchase for more preferable releases such as this Mikael.

Another excellent release (from the clips at least).

Sounds like an excellent score! It's a shame it has abysmal artwork since, judging by the clips, this is an album that deserves to stand out and say "Hey, this is a good score!" (Exactly the opposite of what the artwork would lead you to believe.)

What is this with everyone complaining about MovieScore Media's artwork all of a sudden?

The artwork on this CD is based on the official DVD artwork for the film...

Anyway, I'm actually thinking about biting the grass and start packaging our CDs in jewel cases. I get too many emails from people who claim that they won't buy my CDs as long as they're in digipaks...

mc

Yeah, I know. I love my digipaks but with the sometimes very tiny sales figures we live with, I can't afford to loose any number of customers because of our packaging...

I figure no one would refuse to buy them because they are in jewel cases, but unfortunately it's the other way around.

mc

Hmmmm... didn't we discuss that already?

mc

It's the first time I've ever mentioned anything about the artwork. Just being honest, I'm not making a personal attack against you or your company, Mikael.

Anyway, isn't this kind of feedback indicative to the fact that the album (as a whole package) would benefit from having better artwork?

Have you given any thought to letting some of our "amateur" designers here come up with their own design (Luis, Erik etc.)? Perhaps they could come up with something that doesn't violate any rights and that would still look better than the TOXIC case?

No. You know, again it's also matter of taste. Actually, a number of people have complimented on this specific cover (Toxic) and like the "hard" graphic look of it. Obviously, I like it myself. I think it works - especially given the conditions under which it was created. It reflects the yellow/black dirty look of the other designs for the film that has been floating around that we couldn't get access to.

So, you don't like it. I will have to live with that. You think that some "amateur" designers (your choice of words) would do better than I did. Well, maybe. Sure, have a go, lads. You will have to start with nothing, because nothing is what I had.

I guess I should just learn that you can't always please everyone. I need to grow up and stop taking things personally!!!



mc

In what way is your criticism constructive?

Thor, so your "constructive" criticism simply boils down to suggesting that someone else possibly could do my job better? LOL. Is that the kind of "constructive" criticism you give your students as well?

Anyway, let me try to explain how I work. I think that you've noticed that most of the scores that come out on MovieScore Media are from small, independent films - quite often I bet you never heard of them before we announced our CDs? The truth is that even if the music itself is exquisite, the commercial "properties" of the projects are quite restricted. Two reasons: no one heard of the film, and no one heard of the composer! This is of course not always the case, but not an unusual scenario. So I am releasing these albums because I love the music, and I believe in its qualities and hope to find listeners who are interested in discovering new, exciting music in addition to collect and enjoy all of the "usual suspects". All of my CDs are the result of a very passionate and serious interest in making really good and exciting music available despite the fact that they are from films no one ever heard of. No other label does that.

Giving the fact that the market for my CDs is very limited (mind you, of the 500 editions we have done very few have sold out - you do the math!), the truth of the matter is that the budget on all of my CD projects is very restricted and there is basically no room to hire additional professional designers. I have nearly 20 years of professional graphic design experience myself (mostly newspaper design work), so doing artwork myself is part of the equation. Essentially, MovieScore Media is a one-man band. Basically none of the MovieScore Media releases would have seen the light of day if the costs weren't kept to a minimum.

As you know, the music comes first in my book so the money we spend goes to our mastering engineer, and of course to the licencing film company, publishers and the composers.

I hope that this gives you some insight into the process and perhaps a better understanding in some certain areas.

Cheers,

mc

Thor, you're not providing constructive criticism, you're just ranting.

Mikael has very clearly explained why the artwork as it is, yet you seem completely closed minded at accepting his reasoning.

If you want to see nice artwork and nice artwork only, just stay in the custom cover thread.

In that case you've made your point but you seem to want to continue debating it with Mikael. Where is this discussion going?

For what it's worth, I really like your digipaks (though, at the moment, I'm tending to buy your stuff as a download). They look and feel great. Obviously, with this format there's not much room for expanded notes on the music (cue-by-cue comments, etc) and that's a bit disappointing sometimes.

The digipaks, in a way, differentiates your releases from all the others. But if your losing business by not providing jewel cases then you need to cater for the business. Maybe you could source some tinted jewel cases? RYKO's green-tinted cases were quite appealing!!

That's actually another reason why I'm going to switch to jewel cases. With the standard digipaks, there is only room for one page with notes. If we're doing jewel cases with 4-page "booklet", there is three pages. I am thinking about including a mini interview with the composer (5-10 questions) in all future albums.

Cheers,

mc