Times of Grace 'The Hymn of a Broken Man' Digipak Analysis

 

 

 

 

 

Thirty Seconds To Mars - 'This Is War' Promotional Poster Analysis

On this promotional poster for Thirty Seconds To Mars’ song, ‘This Is War’, the view of the band is from the perspective of a military-issue telescopic lens of some kind. The entire image has an overlaying image which has lots of very fine, faded black lines -- this is to make the lens’ perspective look more authentic. This is an effect that I more-than-likely will use on my poster, as mine will be military-themed as well.

As well as this, the poster has a solid-coloured bar across it. I have seen a lot of posters with these bars on them. The bar fills out the poster, and draws attention to the title of the song that the poster is promoting. I was already planning to put a bar across my poster.

The GazettE - 'DIM' Album Cover Analysis

On this album cover, the focal point is in the middle of the image, as the background isn’t quite as important. Thus, the vast majority of one’s attention is drawn to the focal point.

This cover shows a dark, cloudy sky, which I am thinking of doing on my album’s digipak. I am also considering having my album cover’s focal point in the centre of the cover.

ViViD - 'Across the Border' Analysis

At the beginning of this music video, there are close-ups of each instrument as they are introduced to the song. The introduction to my track has a similar kind of introduction, in which the instruments are slowly introduced. I could have close-ups of the instruments in my video, as each one is introduced.

Also, during the guitar solo, there is heavy camera-shake -- this is used to imply that the radical sound and power of the solo is causing the Earth to shake. It would be interesting to use this technique in my video, during the “heavier” parts of the song.

Aside from the camera techniques, this video also uses a sandy location, like mine. When the focus is on the instruments, the background is faded out with darkness -- this is a nice effect. I would consider using this effect; however, I plan on filming the band performance part of my video in front of a dark background, thus eliminating the need to fade the background out.

The GazettE - 'Cassis' Analysis

This music video begins with the rhythm and acoustic guitarist, Aoi, playing his acoustic guitar, with an old-looking stone wall behind him. After the acoustic intro, we see the band standing together on a field. They then turn from each other and walk off in different directions -- this could be a visual metaphor for a man’s heart “breaking” due to his separation from the woman whom he loves. After separating, each band member goes to a different place in and around what we assume to be a mansion, but not together. Thus, they are still separated. The old-looking mansion in the video could represent the man’s love for the woman; he’s loved her for a long time. However, later in the video, the band are performing together in a different room -- with this room being the performance room, the implication could be that they are together in spirit. Finally, the video ends with all of the band members standing together on the field, again; the heart was pieced back together. However, the band then begins to walk toward the camera, and, consequentially, away from the mansion. Them walking away from the mansion could imply that the heart has “moved on”, and is no longer longing to be “reunited” with the heart of the woman, or something of the like.

Some of the lyrics in ‘Cassis’ are, ‘I will walk together’; this further implies that each band member represents a piece of the man’s heart, as the lyrics do not mean “I will walk together with you”, but they mean “I will walk with my heart fully pieced together”. The lexical choice of ‘together’ is implying “whole”, not “with companions”.

In conclusion, the music video is very well “thought out”, and is a complex extended metaphor to the point at which each of the band members represent something.

Skillet - 'Awake' Cover Analysis

This album cover is both relevant, and effective. The album is called, ‘Awake’, and so, the image on the cover is that of a person, whom we assume to be male, whose head is wrapped up as though he has just had surgery performed on his head, or as though he has been wrapped up as an Egyptian Mummy would be -- this interpretation in itself is relevant as one of the songs on this album is called, ‘Monster’, and an Egyptian Mummy is often portrayed as being a monster in horror genres of media. The man’s entire head is wrapped up, except his left eye, which has purposefully been left unwrapped so that one can see his eye as it is wide open, thus referring to the album title, ‘Awake’.

Overall, it is perhaps implied that the man was thought to be dead, and has made somewhat of a miraculous recovery.

SCANDAL - 'Shunkan Sentimental' Visual Effects Analysis

In my music video, I want to include some interesting visual effects. One of the main ideas that I had was to add sparks coming off of the strings of the guitar(s) as it is being played. I then noticed that the effect that I wanted to use had been used rather nicely in SCANDAL’s music video for their song, ‘Shunkan Sentimental’. Similarly to this effect, there is a pulsating energy wave effect which protrudes from the drums as the drummer hits a significant beat.

As well as this, the way in which the lighting is used in this video, and the exaggeration of said ‘lighting’, is very “eye-pleasing” and looks very professional. I will definitely consider using lighting effects such as the ones used in this video, in my music video.

Another interesting effect that I have been considering using in my video is the light trail following the hand(s) of the guitarist(s). This effect was also used in ‘Shunkan Sentimental’, and is used in a way that somewhat resembles a katana slash implication effect, often used in anime, cartoons, and films.


Also, once again we see the dirty-looking room with tall windows as the setting. This could be to visually portray the distortion of the guitars, as a lot of guitarists refer to nice distortion sounds as “dirty”.

In conclusion, I will certainly be referring to this music video for visual effects inspiration, although I will not be replicating all of the visual effects used in this video.

Red - 'End of Silence' Cover Analysis

This album cover is rather interesting. As with a lot of album covers, this one matches the title of the album itself. Being titled, ‘End of Silence’, the cover shows a man - actually the lead singer of the band, Michael Barnes - with his mouth wide open, implying that he’s screaming. The cover does not show the upper-half of his head, but instead leaving the focus on his open mouth to emphasise the implication that he’s screaming. On top of that, there is an overlaying texture on the cover, which adds somewhat of a cracked glass effect; this effect gives the impression that the man’s screaming is breaking the glass, which in itself implies that he is trapped and is breaking free. Furthermore, there is a strong red ‘colour correction’ and tint on the cover. The colour, red, is often associated with danger, which adds the implication that this trapped man may be dangerous.

The band, Red, are a Christian ‘Rock’ band, and generally have religious-orientated lyrics, however left to one’s own interpretation. With the added knowledge of the band’s religious standing, one may then begin to wonder if the implication of the trapped man being dangerous is actually an implication that he is only dangerous to evil.

Aside from the implication of danger, the predominant red colour scheme of the cover also refers to the band’s name, Red.