More Use of Red on Alternative Album Artwork

Extra Photographs from First Day of Filming

Use of Black & White with Colour on Album Covers

After looking at the album artwork in my iTunes and Spotify libraries I noticed an on going trend in alternative/rock/indie bands album covers. Many albums follow the same colour scheme as The Strokes' 'Is This It' album cover; a black and white photograph/illustration/design with red writing. Some differ slightly but most covers are very similar. I like this colour theme as I think it makes a busy picture look simple as there is no colour as well as bringing attention to the bands name as it is in red. Here are some examples I found;

The Killers - Sam's Town;
I really like the composition of this photograph as both the subjects of the woman and the goat are fully in the shot however they are not centred meaning that there is plenty of room for The Killers band logo as well as the album title written in caligraphy type writing. I think the caligraphy type writing has been used to give the album a personal effect, as though someone has actually written on the album cover. This handwritten writing works well against The Killers modern computer made logo as it contrasts, just like the red against the black and white. I like the american theme of the album cover and I think it links well to the real content of the album. The photograph could be seen as an actual still taken in 'Sam's Town'.

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night;
Here Kings of Leon have also used the BW&R (black, white and red) theme. But instead of red font they have opted for including red in the design along with red on a white background. I like this album cover, it reminds me of ink blots. There is also use of reflection as the image has been flipped and reversed colour. If I wanted to create a similar album cover I would be able to with use of computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop.

The Kooks - Inside In / Inside Out;
Similar to The Killers album, here The Kooks have taken a photograph with clever compositioning. Unlike The Killers the photograph does not seem to consider the band and album name as much. The photograph has a grainy effect, so it may be taken on black and white film. I really like the composition in this photograph through the use of the drummer in the photograph. I would quite like to attempt a photograph like this in my digipak as it has more to look at than just a band playing.

Echo & The Bunnymen - Don't Let It Get You Down;
This cover is not quite black and white but it still uses red font, in capitals, similar to The Kooks and Kings of Leon. I like the photograph here also as it is a little unfocused which makes the audience read the title before looking at the photograph. The photograph also looks like it was taken on a film camera.

The Smiths -The Queen Is Dead;
Again, The Smiths have taken a photograph and inserted their band and album name in bold red. The photograph looks like black and white film again. However I believe it may have been edited to give a dated, vintage look.

The Doors - Greatest Hits
In this album cover red has been added into the portrait of Jim Morrision to bring all attention towards him. The album cover aligns the title to the red line well to give the album cover structure. To create an image like this the portrait photograph would be put into black and white on a photo editing program and red would then be added on top. The 'Greatest Hits' follows a pattern by being all in plain capitals and the band includes their recognisable logo.

The Courteeners - St. Jude;
This album cover uses illustration instead of a photograph and have taken the composition into consideration with it. I think I prefer photographs to the illustration as I like realism. This is also only 3 block colours unlike photographs which include some grey.

Night Air - Jamie Woon & Limit to your Love - James Blake

I really like both of these videos. In particular the uses of focusing and lighting in both videos. Hopefully when we begin editing on Final Cut Pro 7 we can sharpen and soften our footage to create effects like these videos.

The Night Air video appears to have used a macro lense when shooting to focus the water droplets so well. I think the macro shots are what makes the video so great;

Digipak Analysis

Generic Conventions of a Digipak;

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This is the front and back of The Strokes' 'Is This It' album.

I have chose to analyse this album cover as it is the same genre as our music video. The lettering of the album is block capitals and in a round font, it is very straight forward and to the point. The writing is all in black or red against white backgrounds. I have seen this colour scheme several times on alternative rock album covers such as on Sam's Town by The Killers. I think the colour scheme is used because the red catches the eyes attention and the black and white then simplifies all images on the cover to relate to the often laid back genre.

The image on the album of the cover is a naked woman's bottom and hip with a leather glove placed in a suggestive manner. The photographer said "We did about 10 shots. There was no real inspiration, I was just trying to take a sexy picture".

TO BE FINISHED

Stop Motion for Final Film

Yesterday during filming we thought we would attempt a stop motion clip to represent the "she stole my karma" line in the song. We are using the bass guitar to show the obsession of the main character. We covered it in kisses to show that the character cherishes it. The shot is only 2 seconds long but all shots in the video will be very short. Our original plan was to have our video in black and white with the lipstick edited to red on Final Cut Pro 7 but I think I like the colours in this shot too much to convert them to black and white. I also think the pink works well on top of the very dark blue. The use of colour here can also represent the difference between the genders. Here is our edit of stop motion;

We also used stop motion with the newspaper and magazine cuttings of different men. I really like that we added the illustration of a monster. It was originally for comical reasons but I think it looks a bit scary now;

First Day of Filming

Today we completed the first part of our filming. The morning ran smoothly and we managed to improvise some new shot ideas when filming which we think will look better than our original ideas with finished editing. This part of filming was inspired by the Paramore video for The Only Exception where the lead singer is laying on a collection of love letters and cards to represent the videos theme of love. Our video has similar shots, however I have been filmed from the waist up as we not have dolly's for a smooth pan like in the video. Unlike the video we filmed from high and low angles as well as different distances.
To show our theme of obsession we decided to not cover the floor with love letters but with photographs of people, newspaper and magazine cuttings and illustrations from magazines. I really liked the illustrations being included in the shot because it may seem that my character is obsessed enough to have drawn them herself.

We opted for dark eye makeup and pale skin with blusher. This makeup looks very bold in colour but as we are planning on editing our video into black and white it will not be as

bold but will still be visible. I also wore a bodycon dress to look

feminine. We also filmed me putting on my make-up in front of the camera to look as though the camera is in the same place as a mirror. A lot of music videos include shots of girls putting on make-up so we plan to only feature it a few times and edit the timing so it is only brief and not repetitive. But the shots looked really effective once I had started the smokey eyes and was staring into the camera. The lighting made these shots look particularly clear as I was sat in front of a wide window at midday.

Digipak Research

Digipak's are CD or DVD packaging. Digipaks are usually made up of a book-style paperboard with one or more plastic trays able to hold a CD or DVD attached inside. Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies.
Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums.

Digipak's have been manufactured since early 2000.

They can have 4, 6 or 8 sides and can feature booklets, photographs and DVD's from the band.