CD Cover Designs

As a group we discussed ideas on how we wanted our CD cover to appear. We thought about the concept of our chosen song but also kept in mind that the whole album isn't going to follow the same story line as that. However we gathered that a theme of anger and destruction would be present throughout the album therefore our images are going to portray quite a violent, dark look. We decided to call the album 'Bonded By Blood', this relates to the aggressive, destructive theme we are following. We may possibly include a blood like substance as a prop in our photo shoot so we are then linking the appearance of the album to the concept. We discussed how it would be presented and thought that we should involve the blood with the girl that could link to a majority of the songs in the album because our chosen song 'Breathless' involves the idea of a girl tormenting and consuming the mind of one of the band members.

This is a photo I took previously in my photography work. As a group we decided that we should use this cold, deteriorating cracked surface on our subjects when in the editing process. I think it looks effective because it is very dark and enforces this destructive theme because in our music video we are including objects breaking, we are reflecting this idea through the album cover by making the skin break.  We are also debating on editing the skin to possibly open up and reveal something in the underneath layer.

Another idea we had was a photo shoot of eerie looking, cold moonlit shots in the woods which relates to the potential setting of our music video with our band surrounded by trees and in our narrative part of the video, the main character walking through the trees trying to clear his mind from this girl. The set for this shoot would be quite haunting and dark. It is important that we include dark tones because it is one of the main conventions in our chosen genre. This photo shoot would focus more on the bands image and be mostly about them.

For our band name, we thought of a few possible titles after finally coming to a conclusion of naming the band 'Aftermath of Ignorance'. We came up with this by searching song names that we already knew and making a list of possible choices. This seemed like the best option and the most likely to be a band name therefore we went with that.

This is an album cover that we all liked the look of, it is gory and violent which sticks to the conventions of the expected appearances in the rock genre. It doesn't give a way much but depicts the destructive and agressive theme we want to portray as we are interpretating the song we are looking at as quite angry and full of fustration as the main motive is about someone struggling to find themself and not being happy with who they are therefore they are hurting the person who they may love which causes him to feel fustrated and worked up. As if he is screaming, we want this kind of mentally unstable issue, that we have interpretated, to be an accuring theme in the album. I feel this album cover is depicting the sense of anger and fustration and portraying it in a violent, gruesome manner. The use of blood also relates to our idea for the images in the inside of the album. I know I would try my best to try and recreate something like this on photoshop as I am slightly experienced in using the programme although it would be a bit of a challenge. However this is not a definate decision, it is just an idea.


This is a video of us working on our sketches for the appearance of the album. We put all of our ideas together so we could see what would work best and if we could link certain elements.

Visual Ideas.

When listening to this song I got a few visual ideas. Because the the narrative is based around this one girl which he doesn't want to hurt, I thought we should portray what is going on in his mind through quick shots and flashes. We could show memories of his time spent with her, to help us understand their relationship and what she looks like. Different short lengthed shots can be shown now and again throughout the video to support the meaning of the lyrics.
I tried to find a music video which interpretates the idea I am trying to explain. I remembered the music video for 'Breakeven' by 'The Script' done something exactly like I'm picturing for this video. Even though the genre of music is alot different and calmer, it can still be used in ours for quick cut aways. Here is a sample from the Breakeven video, you can see shots of the girl comes up various times:

This would depict what is going on in his head, we could also include short length and fast paced shots which create a manic busy feel that relates to the mood of the song, being quite angry and agressive. Having alot of built up fustration because he is trying to find himself and by having her in the picture, it is aggravating him. There could be a particular part in the song which is building up and suited to fast paced shots on a faster beat.

I cropped the part of the song that I thought was most suited to a build up of shots. Previously, when analysing one of Asking Alexandrias songs 'To The Stage', I really liked this fast sequance of shots near the end and from then I really wanted to use it for the video I would be making. Now that we have chosen the song I felt that this type of shot sequance suits the narrative as well as the sound.

Both of these videos that I have used as examples depict two diffferent narratives, in the 'Breakeven' video it shows shot of the women looking innocent and natural where as aa's video, 'To The Stage', it shows quite a dirty, sinful character. I think it would be quite good to put both of these extremely opposite personalities together in our video to represent this one girl. The cut away shots of the girl could start off quite innocent and beautiful, but then as the song goes on the personality could switch - suggesting that the longer she is around, the more trouble he will cause her, turning her into a different person, being evil and dominating. Or if we followed the different interpretation of the narrative, it could depict her driving him mad, constantly being in his mind and taking over. Appearing as if she is teasing the camera and acting manipulative, sneering and laughing at the camera as if she is laughing at the fact that she is causing this insanity to him.

As this song is aggresive and brings out a sense of fustration, I think it would be relevent to include some distructive kind of shots in the video. We could possibly show the guy being worked up and letting out his anger around him. This impact of violance and anger could be portrayed in a shot of breaking object. If we was to capture something like glass smashing on the ground, making sure every piece was captured, it would look really dramatic. If we were to do this I also think it would emphasise and show off the shot more by adding a slow motion effect. Here is an example of this type of shot in one of Asking Alexandrias previous music videos for 'The Final Episode', although the object would be purposly broken rather than accidently like in this video:

Asking Alexandria - Breathless.

Lyrics | Breathless lyrics

When looking into the lyrics, we thought that the narrative of the song was about him being caught up on a girl, however he is not in the right mind state to be with someone. He is saying that she is 'better off to walk away' because all he is capable of doing is causing trouble and making mistakes. He refers to himself as 'corruption' and a 'sin'. He is saying that he has no consience, therefore he always does wrong and his head never tells him otherwise. He comes across as very problematic and struggling to find himself, however he seems to have no regret of his actions, coming across as very cold hearted and stubborn. He is telling the girl not to fall for him, and to save herself while she can for someone who will not cause her heartbreak and suffering. It is like the song is warning her to leave, before anything gets worse.

However the lyrics could be seen in a different way. It may be the fact that he simply can't be with anyone because he himself gets so caught up on her, to the point where it drives him crazy. Because he gets so attached and obsessed, he causes problems. Because he states that he struggles to find himself, it may imply that he is so worked up on her, that everything is revolved around her; he has lost himself in the process. It could be that all this has caused him to become out of his mind, with such a strong attachment and feelings towards her that he knows nothing else, causing him to feel angry and over think everything about her. He could be pleading for her to walk away, to save her but also himself at the same time - so he can find himself again without her always playing on his mind.

Here is a short review I found on someones perception of the meaning in the lyrics:

This relates to my first oppinion of the lyrics. The fact that it has 5 stars shows that alot of people agree with this perception and it is more likely to be the real meaning behind the narrative rather than my second suggestion, however it would be useful to explore the different alternative so that the concept is not to obvious and predictable when following the lyrics. We will have to decide what perception of the narrative we want to take as a group out of the two.

Our chosen song: Asking Alexandria - Breathless.

We chose this song because we are all fond of the band, it fits in with our genre (rock) and has a regular rhythmic beat which suits the editing style we want to create.

Assessment 10/10/11 TME

Check the Written Assessment Feedback sheet which was given to you.

Jing video - how to edit the green screen.

Photoshop Tutorial.

For our photoshop tutorial we chose Daniel as our focus point. We portrayed him as the main artist because of his stereoypical appearance suited to the rock genre. This is because he has long hair and also because of the style of clothes he was wearing which contained a skull, a relevent symbol which relates to our chosen genre. The composition of the photo allows us to draw all our attention to him because he is filling the frame. There is also a sense symmetry through him. I feel that it is important to think about the composition of the album cover, it in a way alters the importance of the subject, depending where you put it in the frame. The fact that he is holding drumsticks tells us that he is a drummer and that he is involved with the drumming on the tracks of the cd, he also has more importance because of the fact that he is the only one in the front cover, it is what the viewers see first and this image is what people are likely to refer to when hearing the songs in this album.

We named our practice album 'Death or Dishonour' simply because it was printed on his top. We chose a dark red color because it is visible against the colours in which it is over laying. Also because red tones are a common convention of our genre, relating to blood and gore. The placement of our title is at the bottom of the frame because if it was placed anywhere else, it would be covering the areas of importance -his face, drumsticks and print on his top. Also, by putting it here it balances out the photo and compliments the symmetrical aspect to the composition. Whilst editing we added a dark vertical grainy effect through the filters, which gives the photo a drained feel.

For the back cover we chose a photo where the subject was composed in the left side of the frame, therefore allowing enough space to fit in the tracks in the album. We used the same colour for the title of our song names, also both covers contain a black background which is the main conventional colour of our rock genre. For our song titles, we simply just looked through random song names from relevant artists.