Existing Cover Artwork - Minimum Colour Used (B&W)

Apart from the ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Felon’ cover (last one), all of these covers are black and white (or have minimum colour). This suits the alternative rock genre because most of the songs in this genre address issues of social concern, which could be why black and white is used (for more grim purposes or to show that the issues are as clear to the bands as black and white).


(Indie Rock/Post-Punk Revival)


(Alternative Rock)


(Alternative Rock)


(Alternative Rock)


(Alternative Rock)

The last cover, by ‘Lostprophets’, has a blue colour running through it in order to contrast to the black background and allows the white text to stand out more. The effect of having streaks of colour could be quite a useful technique for my album cover.

Edited Photos of 'Whistle Way' - Possible Digipak/Advert Artwork

 These are just some images that I took while at ‘Whistle Way’and thought that I would be a good idea to try out some editing effects using Photoshop Elements. As an overview, I think that the black and white and more subtle colours work well and that the pure black and white (top one) maybe is too strong for the mood from the song. A subtle blue could work also for the Digipak design.

Edited Photos of 'Scare Farm' - Photoshop Elements Effects

Using one of the images from the ‘Scare Farm’ location shoot, I edited it using Photoshop Elements to see which effects might work well with the image and which do not. The one that I think suits the genre of music the most is the middle one. I think that the effect softens the picture and lightens the overall colours, making it more suitable for the song.

Analysis of Artistic Techniques/Editing - 'Breathe Me' (Sia Furler) - 2007

Although this music is from the ‘Power Ballad’ genre, I really like the way that the editing and cinematography has been used in order to produce the Still Motion technique. It is a similar technique to the one of Stop Motion and I really think that it adds narrative to the video. At first, I looked at the music video without the music and thought that the song must be quite fast in speed (as I have never heard of it before) because of the pace of the cuts between the shots. However, the fast cutting rate/rhythm of the shots I now think suits the tempo of the song and I might actually try do this technique because it could suit the speed of the ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ song that I intend to use. It also could be used to create a narrative (such as a person looking back at relationships/memories by using a photo album).

Analysis of Artistic Techniques - 'Shoot the Runner' (Kasabian) - 2006

This music video is from another different genre of bands (indie rock) and I really like the use of colour that has been enhanced by rotoscoping. The purples, reds and blues enable the audience to pick up the mood of the song and a narrative is created just by the use of colour. I really like this technique because I could use it using my Premiere Elements software that I have (like the sort of technique used in the pitch on the photos).

Analysis of Artistic Techniques - 'Drive' (Incubus) - 2000

This music video uses the rotoscoping effect in order to generate an intertextuality link to a piece of artwork. In this case, the rotoscoping links to the piece called Drawing Hands (by M.C. Escher) and really enables the narrative to be clear; even though the majority of the video could be seen as a performance video only. The narrative aspect would be that the lyrics link with the drawing – in the sense that he is able to control what he is doing by drawing it (he is driving his actions by being able to freely draw them).

Furthermore, there is a good transition technique that I am considering to look at and experiment with and that is simply placing one shot faded over another in order to create a visual metaphor. It would likely be similar to the shot in this music video where the audience can see the band member’s face faded slightly against the background.

Analysis of Artistic Techniques - 'Take On Me' (A-ha) - 1985

(Click on the Above Image to go to the YouTube Video)

This music video combines live action with the animation technique rotoscoping. I think that the technique is really effective because the narrative suits the style – the woman is reading the drawn-styled comic that then includes her in it during the video. It enhances the narrative and also adds an artistic twist to it in order to make it more of a performance video and increases repeatability. The use of close up shots uses the male gaze because the audience is seeing what the woman is seeing as she reads the comic (notion of looking).



I like the way that the rotoscoping has been used and I may be able to produce a simpler version of this using the ‘line drawing’ effect with the lip-syncing footage that I have used previously. It will not be as detailed in terms of the sketching and shading in this music video but I will try it and post it on a later post.