Analyzing CD Covers – 2: Pink Floyd - The Wall (Album)

Pink Floyd is the band we chose to do a music video for, with their song ‘Brain Damage’. This isn’t the same album that our song is from, but the album artwork for this particular Pink Floyd album is very interesting.

Front Cover

The front cover of this album is fitting with the title, it is basic and decisive and this is what makes it good. It is unique in its own way, yet still conventional with how album covers are portrayed. The band and the album title are scribed into a black and white background that is the pattern of a wall, making it parallel to the album title. This is a conventional method, yet effective because the idea behind the album and its title are made clear to the buyer, however it is important to use this theme at a constant method all the way through the album artwork. The style of font that the writing is displayed in represents one of a scribble, relating it to a signature of some sort, maybe of the band, giving it a more authentic feel.

  Inside Artwork 1

The first inside artwork of this album is very basic. It continues the theme of the black and white brick wall, which is important because this theme is an effective selling point. It makes the album clear and conventional, using the title as an advantage. There is a good sense of authenticity with the small logos found on this part of the album cover, including a small message form the band about why they made this album, along with a barcode and a copyright message, leading to a good sense of ownership.

Inside Artwork 2

The second inside artwork of this album is the CD and the picture of the CD found behind it. The CD once more continues the theme of the wall and its conventional style, which is effective. In the same scribbled font there is a track list on the CD.  This is a good selling point because when the CD is left in a player, without the album cover, people can still see what songs are playing even if they do not have the CD case with them. For a CD, the face of the disc seems quite busy, and informative, without being overloaded with information. It is well organized and the space on the disc is used well, but the fact it has a lot of information on it makes it unconventional and it is common for CD faces to just have a picture on instead. There is also the title of the album, which is to be expected for the CD face, and a small message again scribbled around one half of the disc, explaining copyright details of not copying the disc ect, again important for sponsorship and ownership.

 

Back Cover

The back cover of this album is also very busy looking, with several features. The main feature is the track list; of two separate CD’s written in the middle of the page, in the same scribbled font against a black and white wall background, a theme that is seen throughout this album cover. There is a small message from the company ‘Columbia’ which can only be presumed as some kind of producer of the CD highlighting copyright issues and warnings, which is important for the band and the respect of their work. Dividing the two tack lists is an image of a creature, small yet very effective, as it is the only color on the whole album cover. The colors red and yellow are used in small amounts to connote danger and a sense of warning about what can only be described as some sort of parasite. It dangles down from the top of page, coming about a quarter of the way down, and its unexplained presence is one that makes this back cover an unconventional one. As apposed to other areas of this album cover, the title of the album is only scribed in a small font on the back cover. The last feature, is another image, this one seems to be a cartoon of an old man, with a disgruntled expression on his face. Again, the presence of this image is unexplained but it does give the album cover a unique, and unconventional style. Drained colors are used for this image to make it blend in with the black and white theme used throughout the album artwork.

Billy Greenall.

Music Video Genre Research

The genre that we have chosen for our music video is rock, on the basis that in most rock music videos there is a mixture of interesting lively performance and a unique narrative.

Since the song that was chosen, ‘Brain Damage’ by Pink Floyd was primarily rock with many themes of psychedelic that was very popular in the 1960s era that this song is from, the conventions and themes would make a music video very unique. Psychedelic rock was created, to replicate and enhance a drug experience, which was common in that time. Style came from a fusion of traditional Indian cultured music and blues.  Bands like Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac used this new rock style in their music and saw it increase in popularity immensely. The images that were common in this genre were bright coloured squiggled lines moving out of a primary image. An example of this is the picture below

Artist using pyschadelic rock were usually influenced by drugs like LSD and marijuana and saw it becoming more and more popular in that era. 

Raph Jims.

Analyzing CD Covers – 1: Foster The People – Torches (Album)

Analyzing CD Covers – 1: Foster The People – Torches (Album)

  The indie rock genre that the band ‘Foster The People’ occupies is one that is similar to Pink Floyds’ rock genre. The album ‘Torches’ by Foster The People has interesting art and CD cover.

Front Cover

  

The front cover on this album shows a sketched drawing of different creatures in a deranged and psychedelic manor. The pictures are in black and white giving the album a very basic look, looking quite dull and drained. The only color on the cover is the various splashes of gold, covering flame shaped objects held by the deranged people in the image. The gold represents a torch for each of the creatures, referring to the title of the album, and this is made more evident with the title of the album also being in gold, making good reference to the objects the creatures are holding. Because the name of the band is ‘Foster The People’ it could be said the creatures on the front cover are the fostered, the conventional imagery suggests the creatures have something missing from their lives, and in this case, it could be their parents. The fact that black and white are the main colors being used suggests the designer of the album cover wanted to bring the band and the album across as quite simple, with a hidden extravagance featured in the small doses of gold. This is a good way of drawing people in to buy the album. They will know there is more than first meets the eye with this band.

 

 

Inside Artwork

The inside artwork of this album is quite basic, just a picture of the CD, it is a gold color like the small dose of color seen on the front cover. A clever idea is the track list written around the edge of the circular shape, giving it a more interesting look, despite making it difficult to read. There are various logos on the CD, which can only be presumed as copyright companies or images associated with the band, these are important as they give a sense of ownership and belonging.

Back Cover

The back cover of this album is pretty conventional to most album back covers, giving a basic track list of the CD. The copyright images and barcode are also featured making the album protected and genuine, these are important. The list of tracks is located in the centre of the page, evenly spaced in an attempt to stop the album from looking bare. The interesting thing about the back cover is the fact that the tracks are not numbered; this is an unconventional feature leaving the owner of the album presuming the album is in the order the songs are listed. Coinciding with the pattern of the album covers, the list is written in gold on a black and white background, giving it a drained feeling, yet still interesting as the album does not come across as ‘in your face’ and its simple image is quite satisfying.

Billy Greenall.

Filming Day Three.

Filming day three occurred on Tuesday 1^st November, although it was more of a camera and location shot day.

In all honesty, we had forgotten the location shots and so we decided we would get a good quality camera and do these on this day.

We got shots of the old mill/warehouse that was our key location and so this was important.

We also got photographs in Manor Park of the forest and open spaces which we used, but it was the factory which was important as this showed the extent we went to to get a good location, as it took Matthew and Caitlin and Rapheal nearly 2 hours to get to Glossop.

Billy Greenall.

Filming Day Two.

Friday 28^th October was our second day of filming.

The whole trend of filming on a Friday was due to the fact we were all able to attend, and also, the girl we used as our lunatic was free on a Friday, her name was Caitlin (man thanks). We had Media on a Friday afternoon so filming on this day made sense as opposed to missing other lessons.

We were back in Glossop on this day to amend the two shots we messed up just one week before, and we aimed to get as much of our filming done as possible before the half term holidays, leaving us plenty of editing time.

Once we had visited the warehouse and re-shot the scenes, we still had a full half day left, and felt this was a good time to get the shots we needed for the start of the video where the lunatic ‘is on the grass’, so went to Manor Park, Glossop, a perfect location for what we wanted to achieve.

The park had a secluded forest where could achieve shots of the lunatic in the leaves rolling around, presetting her as psychotic and mentally ill. We also got some good shots of her running to and from the camera in large, open, grassy spaces that again highlighted her isolation form normality and the rest of the world.

We managed to get a variety of shots; both close and far, high and low to add a more original look to our final piece, hopefully. It was important we got a lot of close-ups on Caitlin as she had a lot of frightening make up, again showing her individualism and distance from society.

After a full day of successful filming we had got nearly all of the footage we needed, and decided that we would make our third and final visit at a later date to get location shots, with a proper camera as opposed to a phone camera.

Billy Greenall.

Filming Day One.

Friday 21^st October was our first day of filming.

We went to Volcrepe Warehouse in Glossop, Derbyshire. Here, we got lots of the shots of the lunatic and the person whose head she is in, and had a successful day.

The warehouse was abandoned and seemed old, fragile and quite dangerous, but it was not cordoned off and there were no signs that said no entry.

We managed to get shots on all four floors of the warehouse and used several areas of it to our advantage. There was an old toilet room suggesting it was used as a mill or factory when it was open. The wear and tear of the building added to our location targets, as there were holes in the floor and collapsed walls, which we loved.

We needed a place that would give the impression that the lunatic was deserted, isolated, and this factory definitely succeeded in this.

We managed to get shots of the lunatic sat in the window frame looking out on the Derbyshire hills which was effective in showing how lost and wandered her mind really was. Another effective shot we liked were the ones on the stairs as we had the lunatic, hanging her head, and looking depleted, alone and desperate.

We arrived at the location at about 9.30am, and spent the morning filming, we then went into Glossop for dinner and proceeded to film up to around 4.00pm, it was a fulfilling and successful full day of filming.

A few days later we got the shots onto he computer and noticed 2 faulty shots of our 51 that we collected in total. Unfortunately, these shots were vital, meaning we had to go back to Volcrepe the week a few to re shoot just a few scenes. One shot had to camera stand in the background, a basic error which needed amending. The other shot had a person in the background, who was not meant to be in the shot, again a basic and frustrating error, which has now been amended.

Billy Greenall.