Front Cover Progression

For our front cover, we decided to use a woodland image with vibrant colours, influenced by the style of Radiohead's Supercollider/Butcher B-Side Cover, and we thought this image was perfect as it also contained the 'twisted branch' concept which not only was inspired by Radiohead conventions but also the contortions could represent the distorted and quirky feel to the album, and also adheres to the 'You And Whose Army' narrative.

Once we had chosen our front cover image, we then cut the image down into a 12cm by 12cm square, and then adjusted the hue and contrast, as well as adding a 'Warming Filter' of the colour orange. Next, using Adobe Photoshop CS4 we used the 'Filter' option, and then clicked 'Render' and then the 'Stained Glass' effect, which changed our original image into a 'mosaic tile' effect, which was another feature we wanted to include after being inspired by other existing album covers. We made sure that the tile size was rather small in order to retain the original image as otherwise it would be difficult to see what the image originally was. Here it is still clear that the image is of woodland/branches/leaves, which is a theme that will continue throughout the digipak.

We also needed to then add text to the front cover, and effectively display the name of the band. We chose 'Polarize' as it is bold, and again adheres to the whole concept of opposites/distortion, which is a theme that continues throughout our digipak and music video, to symbolise mental 'distortion'. We chose the colour red as it is warm bold colour, as well as the orange lines on either side of the band title to emphasise the represention of polar opposites, as well as drawing attention to the title in the middle of the front cover image. We also used a drop shadow to lift the text off the page, as well as using a lighting effect behind it to draw attention to the centre of the image further. We felt that this overall front cover had a professional feel and finish to it, and we would continue this 'theme' onto the back cover too.



Further Album Cover Research

We were influenced by the 'mosaic' design which has been previously used by other artists for their album covers. For example:

We decided we wanted this effect to be used over our main album cover's image, which would still have a Radiohead-feel. We had the idea to use photos which we had taken in the woods, to link in both with our music video, as well as a specific album cover that Radiohead have released:

Album Art/Digipak research - Radiohead

We looked at some existing Radiohead album art work to draw inspiration for our own work. We like the surreal element of the art which seems to feature frequently. We also like the 'rough', 'sketchy' style of the work in comparison with most albums which show polished/airbrushed images of the artists. We will try to incorporate this feel into our own album artwork.

Video Feedback

We asked some people out of our class to watch our music video and give us their opinion on our production

Finished Video

Editing with Adobe After Effects

This video shows Megan editing clips from our music video in Adobe After Effects.

Screen shots of Premiere Techniques

 This is our opening shot. We took footage of Megan smoking and reversed it by ticking the Reverse Speed box under the Speed/Duration option. As well as this we increased the speed to 150% to fit in with the intake of breath heard at the start of the track. We thought this effect would draw the viewers' attention straight from the beginning.

Next, we took a walking shot and slowed it down to 30%  so that the footstep were in time with the track. We also zoomed in to only show Megan's feet so that the viewer feels suspense by not revealing her full identity yet. We also set the opacity to 80% to make the shot look darker and less colourful to convey the dark mood.

We took a shot of Megan throwing some leaves and cut it into five sections. The first two shots show Megan throwing the leaves and them falling in real time, and the third shot is a copy of the second shot and is reversed so that the leaves rise again. We also slowed this shot down to 80% to emphasis what we had done. The fourth shot is the another copy of the second shot which returns back to forward motion and the fifth shot continues to show the end of the footage.The fourth and fifth shot are still at 80% speed, so the overall shot is fitting to the time of the music.

We took footage of Megan twisting the matieral of her dress and cut it up randomly and rearranged them in no particular order to create a jump cut effect. We also sped this up to 300% to create an erractic effect amongst the slower, calmer shots. We also used this effect on the footage with the black dress to create a visible contrast between the two characters. We used a slow panning shot inbetween which pans from the left side of Megan to the right side to symbolise each character as different side of her personality.

Here, we decided to overlap two shots with low opacity, and used a short Cross Dissolve at the beginning to soften the effect of the overlap. The two shots however were very different; the original shot was sped up to 200% and then reversed so that Megan would be walking backwards, whilst the second shot was a zoomed in shot of Megan's eyes, which was slowed down to 50%. The fact the two shots are complete opposites are effective, and also portrays that the dark version of the girl is watching over the innocent side of the girl who is being drawn in, hence the reversed motion.

Video Screenshots

Final Choice for Location

Although our original plan was to locate our video in Borsdane Woods, on the day of shooting, we changed our plan and instead filmed our shoot in Skitters Woods, for practicality reasons, as Borsdane Woods was too difficult to get to with all the equipment. Therefore, as Skitters Woods were much closer to our homes, we found it easier to access the woods and shoot the video there.
The location was a complete success, and worked extremely well with our plans for the video. Here are some photos of the location: