Digipack

Here are the final Album covers, magazine advert and poster. (Click for full size)

Poster Idea

Here is our idea for a poster for the digipack. We wanted to convey what the music and the video represented which is aggression and rebelliousness. It is quite a shocking idea but hopefully it will grab our audiences attention!

Logo ideas

Here I was just playing around with some ideas for the logo and a short promo idea.

This is just an idea for a background for something.

Here is a short promo video I made using the background and one of the logo ideas.

Original Album cover ideas

Here are some original ideas for the album cover.

Album Covers

Here is an idea of the sort of look and style we are going for with the Album cover.

Album Covers

Digipack Research

The idea of a digipack is to showcase the artist by adding in lots of bonus features to the original album. It is very popular for Digipacks to include some DVD content of possibly live shows or a music video. They also sometimes contain a poster or some sort of artwork or maybe even a competition.

Here is an example of a digipack, as you can see it is quite large compared to a normal album.

Here is another version of a digipack. This one has lots of

DVD content so is shaped like a DVD.

Francais Pour Une Nuit is an electrifying full length live DVD. The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse -that is, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo- ride into Nimes and make their entrance into the Coliseum, through the gladiator's tunnel, before performing an explosive set of Metallica music. Fans can also look forward to some exclusive backstage footage.

Including 2 hours of the show, 37 minute interview of the band, 5 videos from the audience/16 page booklet, Francais Pour Une Nuit i sthe ultimate Metallica live experience!

This is another digipack, this time with less digipack content.

Bonus DVD content:

Bleed Music Video

The Making Of Bleed

Micha Guitar Tour

Tomas Drum Tour

Live tracks on DVD

Editing Sessions

It's finished!!!

We finally finished editing the video after a lot of hours, a lot of concentration and a lot of effects!

We're both really pleased with the outcome though and it was definitely worth the hard work!

Editing Sessions

The editing is coming along really well, we've only got about 30 seconds left to go but it's taking quite a few hours sitting in the editing suite. I think at one point we have something like 20 shots in the space of 2 seconds! There's lots of cutting up bits of clip and speeding them up to ridiculous speeds but it looks good though. Hopefully we can get it finished in the next week or so!

Youtube Rough cut Feedback

It's been a week and here are the comments we have recieved from our youtube roughcut video.

It's very pleasing, hopefully we can make the rest of the video as good!

Peer Feedback

We showed the rough cut to some people in our class. Their responses were:

"I think it looks really good so far. I love how it's so fast and in your face, you just need to make sure you keep that up for the rest of the video. Also maybe try to make more of a contrast between the narrative shots and the performance shots, it will emphasise them a lot more."

This is very useful feedback and we will definitely take on board what they have said.

Roughcut Export

We've exported a rough cut of what we have so far and posted it onto youtube, asking people to comment on it. This will be useful as audience research and hopefully we will get some positive and constructive comments.

Editing Sessions

We've done about a minute worth of editing now, it's going quite well but it just takes so long. Because the song is so faced paced and lively we've got just ridiculous amounts of shots in very short periods of time. We found some cool effects that we can use though like earthquake and image mask. The image mask effect makes all the studio shots go darker and just look awesome!

Capture and Log sheets

We've just spent a few hours in the editing suite just capturing and logging all our shots into Final Cut Pro. It was a very long and boring process but at least we can start putting together the video now!

Narrative Shoot

We've just finished shooting the narrative parts of the video. It went fairly well although the natural light dropped quite quickly and as we were shooting in a park we had no way of plugging in any lights. We managed to pick locations that were fairly well lit by street lamps though so hopefully we managed to record some usable footage.

Images From Shootings

Emam and Stephen working with Leigh (Lead Singer)














Emam with Leigh and Charles setting up kit (A friend who helped out)

The Panasonic Camera on the Manfrotto tripod, all set up and good to go

Stephen and Charles getting ready to rock out!

Emam struggling with the camera =P

Garden Shoot

We've finished another batch of filming, this time in Emam's friends garden. It was a really good location, very dark and lots of tree's and bushes. It looked really creepy. It was harder this time as we couldn't make much noise and it was outside. This meant lighting and the weather all had to be considered. We managed to light the garden up enough to see everyone clearly though so it wasn't too bad. We also hired a strobe light which was insane. We only managed to do two full takes of the song though as the band were getting quite sick after 10 minutes of playing with a 1000w strobe light flashing at them! The takes looked really good though and will definitely be used in the final video.

First Shoot

We've just finished our first film shoot, we filmed the band playing in the studio for about 4 hours and managed to recorded just over an hour of footage. It was all very exciting seeing the band play and getting some cool shots, even if we were having our ears battered by the P.A. system. We filmed three whole takes of the band together, three of each band member and two hand held takes. We really liked the hand held ones as there are some really interesting bits in them. After a long day in a hot, loud and cramped room it's good to see some real progress towards our music video.

Storyboard

Final Script

After discussing some more and thinking realistically about our capabilities and the practicalities of various things we have a revised final script.
Script Final

Original Script

Having read the lyrics and discussing various ideas for our music video we have come up with a first draft script.

Original Script

Original Ideas

Here are some original ideas after a discussion we had.

Link To Band's Music

www.myspace.com/forsakensouls

Forsaken Souls MP3 (Free Streaming Music)

Contains the songs 'The Darkest Love' and 'Before You Know It', live photographic images of the band and many other band-related stuff =P

http://www.facebook.com/forsakensouls#/pages/Forsaken-Souls/91562714377

A not yet launched, unofficial facbook site of the band. Contains events information and a few pictures

Lyrics and Structure

The Darkest Love - Forsaken Souls

Verse 1

Nothing will ever change the way
The way I'll always hate you
You tricked my heart with your sickened mind
I was there for you
You tricked my heart
But never again will I let you win

Verse 2
Nothing will ever change what you are
Or what you will become of
The darkest love
It shadows your whole life
The darkest love
Your tears are all but the poision
You tricked my heart with your sickened mind
I was there for you
You tricked my heart
But never again will I let you win

Chorus 1
From your heart
Comes the darkest love
The love that always
Leaves you feeling hate
The love that always
Leaves you feeling (Haaaaaaaate!)

Bridge
(Oh!)

Chorus 2
From your heart
Comes the darkest love
The love that always
Leaves you feeling hate
The love that always
Leaves you feeling (Haaaaaaaate!)

Interviews and Analysis

Here are our interviews and analysis.

Interview 1 - Emam
Interview 2 - Emam
Interview 3 - Stephen
Interview 4 - Stephen
Interview Analysis

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire Results

Music Video Questionnaire

Here is the music video questionnaire we asked people to complete.
Music Video Questionnaire

Artist Research

Mika, born Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr, is a British pop singer. He released his first studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, in 2007 and has since released another album and won a Brit award. Since coming to fame in 2006 he has had various radio performances, played at several festivals and toured the United States.


Whilst Mika has only released two studio albums he still has a logo which is consistent on all of his merchandise. This logo is very simple and just his name written in a specific font. The styling of his album covers are extremely similar. They almost look identical. They are both cartoon style with things seeming to burst out of the picture, this style is also present on a t-shirt with his name on. This ensures that any time someone see's it they immediately recognise that it is Mika.

Artist Research

Here are two album covers by Alice Russell and Ladyhawke.

Artist Research

Here is an analysis of an Album cover by Terry Callier.

Record Label Research

Considering the genre of the song we recorded, our research began with record labels which associate with Hard Rock/Heavy Metal music and we came across three main companies.The first was ‘Century Media’, which is an independent record label with offices in over 7 different countries across the globe. However this particular label specializes in Goth, Black and Death Metal which are in fact ‘metal’ genres but in a way are completely different from the music we featured in our video. Also, because it is independent and originates in Germany it would be more liable to find a US/UK based label.The second we came across was ‘Metal Blade’ records, apparently the world’s most prominent independent heavy metal record label, so in a way is a 20 year old beast of a label. With over 90 different signed bands it seems the perfect label. However, when researching all the bands involved such as Trigger the Bloodshed and Cannibal Corpse, we came to realise that these bands were once again Death/Grindcore Metal bands and totally different from our style of this genre.We then finally came across ‘RoadRunner Records’, which coincidently came up with a UK based website and is known as the premiere label for heavy metal and rock bands. When looking at the bands that are signed we linked them to our influences and the match was like no other. ‘Killswitch Engage’, ‘Lamb of God’, ‘Machine Head’ and ‘Slipknot’ were few of many that were signed to this label. This was clearly the most appropriate record label.Although it is a subsidiary company from ‘Warner Bros’ and is therefore not independent and is ‘American’, many bands from the UK are signed and even credited for their work within the metal genre. Dragon Force and Iron Maiden are prime examples of this.Starting in the early 1980’s, Roadrunner (or previously known as ‘Roadracer’) records handled such releases from ‘‘Metallica’s’’ early releases, arguable metal’s most influential and talked about band. And still after 20 years in the year 2000 this company managed to help both ‘Slipknot’ and ‘Nickelback’, two very well known bands, to go platinum and sell even multi-platinum singles and albums.They also run a facebook and myspace site with their own all star band made of different artists already signed to the company so it’s easy to access from audience point of view and get exclusive previews of our song etc.

Artist Research

Artist Research

All artists have some sort of branding that they have on all their products which lets them be easily identified and recognised. This is a very important part of the bands marketing and aids in the selling of their merchandise.

Heavy Metal Band “Lamb of God” from Virginia, was formed in 1994 and consists of Randy Blythe, Willie Adler, John Campbell and Chris Adler. The Band was originally an instrumental band called "Burn The Priest" but they added vocals when Randy Blythe joined the group. The instrumental band played mainly thrash and death metal but since the band added vocals they have considered themselves to be a leader of New Wave, American Heavy Metal. Since their coming together they have released 6 studio albums, played at download and sonisphere festival and toured with Slayer and Metallica. Forsaken Souls, the band we have chosen to make a music video for, sound very similar to this band and would consider them to be one of their influences. This makes them a very useful band to look at and get inspiration from.


The band has a logo of their name which enables them to be recognised and identified easily. This logo is on all of their albums and other merchandise.

All the merchandise, as well as having the same logo on them, have similar styling too. It is all cartoon like and quite dark. This fits the persona of a metal band and represents the bands personality and music. This is very important with branding. It needs to be immediately recognisable and representative of the band’s style of music and character. I particularly like the hard lighting in the purple album cover and the poster as it creates very contrasting shadows and is often a feature seen in many heavy metal music videos.

Lamb of God Cd’s are available in most large music stores in the metal section which makes them easily accessible. They also advertise their music in magazines such as “Rock Sound” and Kerrang. This ensures their products are publicized to their target audience, therefore creating more sales.

"Killswitch Engage" are a band from Massachusetts and were formed in 1999. The band consists of Howard Jones, Mike, D'Antonio, Joe Stroetzel, Adam Dutkiewicz and Justin Foley. Since forming they have released five studio albums and played at numerous festivals. They got their name from an episode of 'The X-Files' called "Killswitch". The band consider themselves to be a Metalcore band which is a mixture of extreme metal and hardcore, incorporating both sung and screaming vocals in their music. The band try to write lyrics that are considered to be positive, singing about unity, positivity and love. This is fairly unusual as most metal bands tend to sing about darker things. Again Forsaken Souls would consider Killswitch Engage to be one of their influences, making them another useful band to study.


“Killswitch Engage” also have a logo which is placed on all of their merchandise. There are some slight variations on it but ultimately it is always the same font and styling.  

Although there are some slight variations, for example the twisted lines around it on the album with the smashed glass, it is still recognisable as the Killswitch Engage logo. This helps them get noticed, and anytime anyone see’s the logo they will know instantly that it is Killswitch Engage. Again all the merchandise has a similar, cartoon like styling. The subject of all the album covers and posters all seem to be quite dark, twisted and sinister. The aggression shown by the smashed glass, cutting blade and growling leopard is a characteristic shown not only in the branding of the band but also in the genre of music they play and the way they perform it. This seems to be a resonating feature with all metal bands. I really like the poster with the rose and the nails. Rose’s usually have connotations of love and beauty, however Killswitch Engage have used the rose with the nails around it in a more bitter and cruel way. It symbolizes more crushed dreams and lost hopes similar to the lyrics of the Lamb of God Song; Laid to Rest.

Killswitch Engage also advertise their products in Rock magazines such as Kerrang. This again ensures their music reaches their target audience and potential new fans.

Band Photo’s also all seem to be very dark and sinister looking. Also often the band is not shown playing their instruments or performing, merely standing around looking menacing. This again fits the whole personality that stereotypically goes with heavy metal music. The band photos are often used as extras in the Cd’s or digipacks.

Music Video Analysis

Laid To Rest – Lamb of God

The music video for the song ‘Laid To Rest’ by ‘Lamb of God’ is very fast paced and stereotypically a heavy metal music video. The video features mainly performance shots of the band in a car park and a small narrative of one man chasing another. The two parts come together near the end when the two men run into the car park behind the band.

The lyrics to this song are quite dark and heartless. It is all about crushing your dreams and being better off alone. This is conveyed in the visuals with the man being chased all alone with no-one to help him. Even when he runs past the band near the end none of the band members pay them any attention and don’t try to help in anyway. All they really do is tell him to give up. The location chosen for the performance shots relates to the lyrics as it is a fairly dark multi-story car park, with the occasional flash of lights coming through the windows. The narrative shots seem to take place in very open and quiet, even abandoned areas. This also emphasises the aloneness and isolation suggested by the lyrics.

The visuals and the editing are very fast paced like the music. They make good use of handheld shots, especially during the narrative shots, to keep everything moving and energetic. The video cuts to the beat and emphasise certain parts of the music. For example when the guitarists play a little riff that stands out; we are shown a shot of the guitarists playing it. They also use slow motion shots to highlight the aggressive nature of the bands performance, for example their head banging. Near the beginning there are also quite a few white flashes in between shots. These again keep the visuals fast paced and lively, whilst keeping the audience on the edge of their seats with shock and anticipation. Throughout the whole video there is movement, in the acting, the performing and the camerawork. This means the audience is never bored and the action is continuous right the way through the video. This is very typical of heavy metal music video, very vigorous and dynamic. The visuals also develop with the music. For example nearer the end when there is a section with lots of heavy and fast paced drumming the editing and the camerawork does the same.

There are several close-ups of the various band members when they are playing. These are the star shots that show the audience that it’s ‘Lamb of God’ playing. The band is represented as a classic metal band, with very aggressive and lively music and performance. The video adds to this with the constant movement and fast paced editing.

The video is mainly performance based, as is the case with many metal music videos. The band is playing in a multi-story car park with lots of aggression and liveliness in the way they play. There is a small narrative with two men chasing each other. There is a part near the end where the two come together and the men run past the band in the car park. This is a nice effect and gives the band a real setting rather than just playing in a random location for no apparent reason.

In conclusion, this is a very effective, fast paced, energetic music video. The visuals relate to the music and the lyrics very well. The camerawork and the good use of handheld shots keeps the video moving with the music all the time which keeps the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats.

Music Video Analysis

Psychosocial – Slipknot

‘Psychosocial’ is a song by heavy metal band ‘Slipknot’. It was filmed in Iowa and directed by Paul Brown. The video is very fast paced and mainly performance based with a few cutaways of various different locations. The video is mainly set in a field at night with the whole band playing their instruments. The band is surrounded by fire and burning masks.

The visuals compliment the music in this video. The music is very fast paced and in your face and so are the visuals. There are some bits of extremely fast editing with several shots shown in less than half a second. This works really well as it disorientates and confuses the audience, a little like the music does. They also mix these fast paced bits up with some slow motion shots which are maybe a second or so long. This gives a visually stunning effect. The pace of the editing reacts to the music too, for example when the breakdown comes and the drums are left by themselves the speed of the visuals ease up a bit, but not too much so there is still an energetic and lively feeling. The music is very aggressive and in your face which is represented very well by the locations and the camerawork. The band is in a field at night with burning masks and fire surrounding them. The fire provides very hard lighting and often half of the lead singers face is completely in shadow. The costumes the band is wearing also add to the aggressiveness of the visuals. They are all wearing masks, some with spikes sticking out, crowns of thorns and demonic faces. What happens in the music is also represented on screen. When there is a guitar solo, the shots are mainly focused on the guitarist and one band member is hitting a giant beer keg at one point in the music which is shown on screen too. The lead singer looks very tensed and agitated whilst singing which aids the overall feel of the video.

There are several close-ups of the lead singer which are like the star shots. This shows us that it is Corey Taylor singing with his trademark potato sack mask. It also shows us that it is a real band playing real instruments which is very stereotypical to this genre of music videos. The band is being represented very well as a metal band; the camerawork and the acting of the band portrays them as being very, loud, distorted and violent which are all characteristics of a heavy metal band.

The video is mainly performance based with no conventional narratives being shown. However there are various cutaways of different locations. A dead rodent is shown several times at the beginning and a dark, eerie shack is shown with its windows being smashed at another point. This adds to the confusion and the viciousness of the band and the music.

In conclusion the band has been represented extremely well as a heavy metal band. The camerawork, mis-en-scene and fast paced editing all come together to make a truly technically and visually stunning music video.

Music Video Analysis

Holy Diver – Killswitch Engage

This song was originally by ‘Dio’ but ‘Killswitch Engage’ covered it in 2007. The Dio music video featured the lead singer acting as a barbarian, going round turning people into rats with his sword. The Killswitch Engage video is very similar to it, set in a medieval time with a knight in shining armour attempting to awake a fair maiden from her sleep. There are also some performance shots of the band in a castle courtyard with some flames behind them and aggressive playing. This is a very typical feature of a heavy metal music video.

There are no obvious links between the lyrics and the visuals in this video. There are a few references to “Shiny diamonds” and a blacksmith hands the knight a shiny sword and other references to steel which would fit the medieval genre. Apart from this there are no other obvious links.

The pace of this video is relatively slow compared to some other metal videos but it still cuts to the beat well and develops with the music. During the break down of the song the editing speed up slightly and there are some shots interlinked with a few very fast white flashes. This also happens several times with a chord change or a drum fill throughout the song. The visuals emphasise solo instrument parts when they come along in the song. For example near the beginner the guitarist slides his pick along the strings which is shown during one of the performance shots. Also during the guitar solo the guitarist are shown in between narrative shots. I quite liked this as a guitar solo can really be effective with narrative shots. In this video an evil wizard is shown getting angry with a crystal ball, the guitar solo really emphasises the energy and aggression of these shots.

The video has slightly more narrative shots than performance shots; it is usually the other way around with rock and metal music videos. There are a variety of camera shots used during the performance sections which keeps the audience engaged and adds energy to the video. The band is seen playing outside in a castle courtyard with flaming lanterns around them. The editing is relatively fast paced which helps convey energy and liveliness. The way the band is playing also helps give the video an aggressive feel. This is very typical of a metal band. There are a few shots with the guitarist throwing his guitar away from himself while the strap is still attached so it swings around, and lots of head banging. This too adds to the violent and in your face feel. Several close-ups are used of the lead singer; this shows us that it is the real band playing real instruments which again is a conventional feature of heavy metal music videos.

There are some aspects of voyeurism in this video, for example when the knight bursts into the castle at the beginning. The king is surrounded by four girls feeding him and wearing small dresses. This is often something you see in music videos as it grabs the audience’s attention and makes the video more sexual and enticing. However this conventional representation of females is smashed to pieces at the end when the “girl” the knight is trying to awaken from her sleep is about a foot taller than him, has big sideburns, a hairy chest and hairy hands. This is definitely not conventional thing to do, more something you would expect to see in an Aphex Twin video and he is not someone known for his conformity.

In conclusion there are lots of conventional features of a music video in this one, such as the aggressive nature of the playing and the performance shots and the beautiful girls surrounding the king. However there are several very unconventional features like the slightly heavier weighting of narrative shots to performance shots and the tall, hairy sleeping beauty.