Analysis of Album Covers: The Black Keys - "Attack and Release"

Digipak Planning/Concepts rough cut

My first priority when setting about creating my digipak was the main image of my album cover; should it be an icon? A picture of the artist? A vague picture of an object that relates to my artist? Regardless, at first, I knew that I needed something striking. I needed an image that would allow my album cover to stand out, if it were to sit on a store shelf. 

As the real Accidental Hero doesn't have a brand icon, I set about at imagining an image that would suit  my album's genre and intention. I sifted through my music video footage, looking for a moment that would make for an excellent screen shot. I came across this;

This is a screen shot of footage taken from the finalized version of my rough cut music video. I decided to keep the orange filter as the color grabs my attention. The foreground-background placement of the main artist and the strange devil character, respectively, indicates the importance of the artist at the while suggesting that the devil walks in his footsteps; a fitting notion, considering that the album's name will be "Thank God I Don't Believe In God" - a statement that some might argue is heretical and thereby ungodly in nature.

I began work on the first iterations of my album cover. At first, I thought about having black text with font similar to the original Accidental hero album cover:

I liked the placement of the artist name and title above the two actors, but I found my self wanting in terms of colour variety; I needed something to break the monotony.

The black boarders were only temporary at the time; I was aware that a CD case is relatively small - having a black boarder around the CD case would mean that my image would have to be even smaller, with its detail nearly indistinguishable at a glance (and that 'glance' is all my CD has to work on, if it were in a CD 

store).

The iteration above was created in power point. Of course, this is not the most elite of software for this kind image editing; I used it because the powerpoint software was quick at hand and easy to use, and I was still in the rough cut process, creating concepts and not actual digipak designs.

I started afresh with the same background image, this time with the intension of removing the black boarders on the top and bottom of my digipak cover, and with the thought of adding some offsetting colour:

Utilizing some of the editing tools available in photoshop, I created this image - a design that I thought was very close to my ideal finalized digipak front cover. When experimenting with filter options, I discovered a way of adding filter overlays in the form of 'graphics' that I could manipulate into defined shapes and various opacities; For one of my graphics, I created a small, purple rectangular block. I adjusted its opacity and changed the way it interacts with the background image. The result was a pinkish overlay that formed a kind of blue when over the dark clothing of the actor at the front, providing an ideal contrast in colour.

I used a similar method when adding the grey division behind the character at the front. The grey provided yet another break in colour, while also implying something deeper; the divide in colour originating from the guitarist suggests that there is a conflict in his character and that the orange, (one can argue it's his devil side) is winning over his personality as it takes over the majority of the image.

The text's font and its colour was amended under the concern for artist identity and image clarity; again, I needed to make sure that my artist's name and album title stood out from the vivid background.

With my final image coming together, I now started to consider the technicalities of creating a CD cover. The most pressing issue was size; all of the images above are too wide to fit in the dimensions of CD cover - my issue was the background image was too wide, and I had placed my title in a fashion that had made use of this room in width. I started again, saving and using the graphics and filters I had used before, to create a digipak front cover that was suited to the dimensions of standard CD casing:

Filming Locations

Props/Dress

Here's a list of some of the props and clothing I'll be using in my music video:

The Priestly Suit-Jacket

A standard item of clothing for men of the clergy when conducting the usual business of the church.

A Priestly Shirt

Long sleeve - It gets cold in the church sometimes.
















Priestly Trousers

One must cloth the lower half of their body, after all, be he a man of God or just a man.













Worn, Priestly Shoes

These worn, black shoes are typical of a priest that gets around; Spreading the word never meant sitting down all day.








The Priestly Collar

A must for a man of God. Without it, the above would not be labeled with the preceding adjective, "Priestly".

A Crucifix

Something for the background, this cross will serve as a means of giving each stage scene a more religious mise en scene.

A Lectern

Priests often conduct masses from behind a lectern. It's both imposing and quite handy as a bible stand.

Various Religious Decor

Did I mention I was going for a religious theme?

Camera Shots/Angles

The following are example images of some of the camera shots I'll be using in my music video. These also include some props. 

Music Video Planning + Camera Shots + Locations

Music Video Ideas

Pitching my Music Video

The Music

The song I have selected has been made by an unsigned artist - Accidental Hero. His music is indie, folk, and acoustic in sound, comprised primarily of his own voice and acoustic guitar. The song is called "Thank God I don't believe in God". The song title itself is not without a sense of irony, so I'm immediately inclined to creating a music video that is ironic in its visual content.

The Idea

Irony being one of the main themes at the forefront of my ideas, I thought I might interpret the song and the irony on a literal level; who better to sing a song about not believing in God, than a priest?

I was Immediately set on the priest being centre stage, therefore, in my music video; As the story goes, the priest is having a crisis of faith. He addresses his fellow church-goers in his priestly attire, and under the guise of someone who is secure in his religion - obviously, he's a priest - but secretly, to the eyes of the viewer only, he's clearly not happy and lacking conviction in the practicing of his faith. His actions are - to the people he's addressing beneath the alter - nothing of surprise and completely normal. His voice however, and his words, are Accidental Hero's lyrics "Thank God I Don't Believe In God"; the priest wants to break free from what he's currently doing/who he currently is. His mind is elsewhere and perhaps he sees it as a blessing that he does not believe in God, as those before him do.

With regards to setting, I began to think of places that I could film - a place that would not compromise the veiled production value of my music video, while at the same time being realistic as a potential location(s) to film.
I realised that the best and most usual place that one would find a priest would be in a church, perhaps leading a mass. Singing a song about not believing in God in a church however is a difficulty - I'd need permission to film there, even if they would allow media students to reserve the area for filming (Let alone that film being a particularly atheist song!). Naturally, I considered that asking them for permission would be foolish, on my part. My school/sixth form has a hall with an elevated stage, surrounded by seats; I thought this would be an ideal place to film, as it fits in with the priest's current predicament; perhaps he's going through the motions - leading a mass in a school where few appreciate him or even listen. My school has religious items that could be used as props; we're a catholic school, so there are crosses and bibles to hand, as well as an alter.

An excellent example of the mise en scene I'm thinking of creating is depicted in The Black Keys' "Fever" music video:

Choosing My Artist

As I've said before, one of the main concerns when choosing an artist/band is how you fit their image - by image, I mean their genre, sound and the more obvious factors such as male/female vocal singers and the requirement of X number of band members etc... Picking a boy-band for instance would entail the recruitment of X number of male step-in actors, most of whom would have to look like boy-band members (unfortunately, not all of us have this opportunity). This brings us to the issues one can face when considering the feasibility of artist/band choice with regards to the actors that we'd have to hand. There's also the issue of organising filming sessions, where I'd be relying on people who are not being payed to give up their spare time and help me film. (As you can imagine, they're not likely to be the most enthusiastic bunch).

After deciding on the kind of music genre I'd like to select from (See Explaining Music Choice Post), I toyed with the idea of picking a solo artist; a solo artist would be ideal as I could use myself as the main actor, only needing a camera man to work behind the scenes. I decided to act on this idea when searching through unsigned artists on unsigned.com, finding indie artists whose style centred primarily around acoustic, solo performances that were well in my ability to reproduce as a music video.

I chose Accidental Hero as my artist as his songs are pleasant to the ear and realistically achievable as something that could be produced as a zero-budget music video. I selected the song Thank God I Don't Believe In God as its humor appealed to me and I thought that if I attempted to reflect this humor in my music video, I would be creating a music video that would be unique in its style through its unorthodox nature.

Moodboard

Communication With My Music Artist

Target Audience Mood Board

Explaining Song Choice

Regarding The Fantastical And The Cost Effective

One of the most obvious issues with creating a music video at A-level is the lack of budget we have - that is, nothing. No budget. Of course, this means we must be realistic in the ideas and ambitions we create for ourselves and resourceful in how we go about filming and editing. Genres that are usually of high production value in appearance are usually off of the table, therefore. Music genres like R&B, Rock, Pop - these usually entail a good number of extra actors, high-quality filming locations, costumes, special effects and so on…. None of which most of us have the ability to provide. As a result, Indie, Rap, Club/dance tracks are usually quite popular - essentially, anything that we can get away with without drawing attention to our lack of budget and any mise en scene that we can readily provide and have access to.

My Decision

Out of the handful of music genres I had in mind, Indie seemed the most feasible; I'm a teenager. I have a group of friends frequently referred to as "the lads". We all look like we could be in an indie music video. We all fit the look commonly associated with the genre. Immediately, this seemed the most realistic avenue of approach by which I could create a music video where myself and the actors, even locations, in it would not seem odd and out of place. Indie music videos are often made from limited budgets, or designed to appear as such - these factors have all fallen into place perfectly. The genre suits my situation as an A-level student. That's why I have chosen to create an Indie music video.

Which kind of 'Indie'?

Of course, one needs to be more specific when talking about 'Indie' music. Again, I thought about the locations that I have to hand, the actors I have to hand and the props; at first, Indie-Rock seemed the most interesting; I have the friends to form the would-be band, and filming locations would be easily obtainable, depending on the song. Having sifted through the http://www.unsigned.com website however, I found an Indie artist who's style and songs I became particularly fond of. Accidental Hero (Found here:  http://www.unsigned.com/accidentalhero), creates music that is considered 'Indie-accoustic-folk' music, with a slight twang of an american country influence present throughout. A song that I found to be very intriguing was his "Thank God I Don't Believe In God" track; The song is obviously some form of comment on religion (I've not the knowledge concerning his actual personal beliefs, however). The song is different, controversial. It's an unusual song choice, one that requires a little ambition and a lot of imagination to be able to deliver as a music video, and that's why I'm drawn to it. The Ideas I have in mind for the visual content of the music video are obtainable, therefore I consider the song a realistic song choice for my A-level music video.

Animatic: "Tighten Up"- The Black Keys

Working in a group of three, we decided to select The Black Keys' "Tighten Up" as the music video had an entertaining reflection of the two band members through the actions of two children. The video's narrative was comical, clear and light-hearted. We thought this would be an ideal music video that could be drawn and animated by us, who are not exactly the most skilled of artists...

Lip Syncing test

The clip above is my lip syncing test video. I chose the song "Somebody that I used to know" by Gotye as the lyrics are relatively simple to sing along to. (Not to mention the song is incredibly catchy! I couldn't help but nod my head at one point!)