Limp Bizkit CD Covers

With Limp Bizkit as my chosen artist, I would like for my digi-pak to follow the conventions present in their CD covers. By making links between their font types, motifs, imagery, colours, layout etc. I'll try and incorporate the most common and representative elements into the design of my own digi-pak. My hope is that my digi-pak will follow the conventions closely enough as to be nearly un-distinguishable from other Limp Bizkit CD's.




Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ - 1997

The cover of this album was created by Limp Bizkit's guitarist Wes Borland, he also created the artwork for all of Limp Bizkits albums except for Results May Vary, which was recorded during the period when Wes had left the band. The colour scheme of the cover is black, red and white, the black being a focus colour, used to emphasise and mask the identity of a solitary character on the left side of the cover. The bands name is placed on the upper right of the cover, emphasised by its red and black outline and pure white fill. The font of both the bands name and CD title is a graffiti like style with the bands name being capitalized and the CD title being in lower case.




Significant Other - 1999

Unlike the previous CD, this cover uses alot of different bright colours, with the only colour related focus point being the bands name, filled with bright orange and outlined with pure white, placed in the lower right of the cover. Just like the previous CD, this cover also has a solitary character as the main focus point located on the left side of the cover. The character is also masked as if to shield their identity just like the previous cover. Also like the previous cover, the font of the bands name is in a graffiti font and is capitalized, although the CD's title is in a more standard text font but still remaining in lower case.



Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water - 2000
Unlike the previous covers, the main focus point is not just one character, it is three and instead of being located on the left side of the cover, is in the centre. Also, the characters are no longer masked, although, you could consider the similar, plain, featureless faces of the characters a form of mask that hides their individuality. The layout of the band name and CD title is also changed, with the band name located at the upper centre and the CD title located at the bottom centre. The font is also now all in standard text and lower case, and is very dull with it's grey fill ontop of the black background of the cover, which ultimately makes the characters seem as if they are being illuminated by a single light in the dark.


Results May Vary - 2003

Unlike the other CD covers, this one was not created by Wes Borland, but still follows some conventions. The bands name and CD title are again located on the right side of the cover, now in the upper right corner, but are now substantially smaller than the previous covers and now also include the bands logo. Again, there is one solitary character on the left/centre of the cover. The use of shadow and green tint also masks the characters face from recognition. The green tint may be a reference to The Incredible Hulk, as to emphasise the angry expression of the character.





Gold Cobra - 2010

This album was recorded when guitarist Wes Borland had rejoined the band, and by doing so was able to again create the album artwork. The positioning of the band name and CD title, much like the Chocolate Starfish album cover, is centred, but unlike the others, is in the middle of the cover. Like the first two albums, the bands name is in capitals and the CD title, unlike any of the other albums, is also in capitals, but like most of the other albums, is still smaller in text size than the band name. Both the band name and CD title are mostly in bold font, with the second part of the band name being in a graffiti like font, similar to the first two albums. The band name and CD title also avry in font colour, with the CD title being yellow and half of the bands name being white and the other hald being yellow. The focus point of the cover is the two characters; a woman and a cobra. The woman is not masked in any way, where the characters in all the other covers are masked in some way. Although the woman isnt masked, she is not the main focus; it is the cobra character that takes up most of the cover and its face is faded and distorted, as if it is fading away like smoke. This makes the characters face unrecognisable, therefore masking him. The main colours of the cover are black and yellow; much like Chocolate Starfish, the black emphasises the main focus point of the cover (the characters) and the yellow used on the characters and the band name emphasises them even more, amplified by the contrast of yellow and black.

Conclusions
After analysing the CD covers of Limp Bizkits entire discography, I have come up with the following conclusions:

• The bands name is almost always above the CD title.
  

• In every CD cover of Limp Bizkits albums, there has near always been one solitary character who's face is masked in some way as the covers main focus point.

• Every cover except for 'Results May Vary' has been made by guitarist Wes Borland.

• The bands name has always either been in bold/lower case graffiti style font or simple lower case font.

• The CD title has nearly always been in simple lower case font.

• The cover background nearly always emphasises the covers character.

• The bands name and CD title are always located in either the middle or right of the cover.

• There is sometimes a contrast of colour between the background and either the character or cover text.

Research On Limp Bizkit

Limp Bizkit is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. The band's lineup consists of Fred Durst (lead vocals), Wes Borland (guitar), Sam Rivers (bass), John Otto (drums) and DJ Lethal (turntables).
Formed in 1995, the band have released 4 albums with a 5th coming out in early 2011.
Although they are generalised as a rock band, they have some times been classified under the nu metal genre and Rap-Rock genre. The mix of Rock instrumentals and Rap lyrics attracted an audience of both genres; resulting in the overwhelming success of Limp Bizkits second album 'Significant Other'. It was the release of this album in the summer of 1999 that allowed the Rap-Rock genre to breakthrough into the mainstream, making it easier for such Rap-Rock bands like Papa Roach and Linkin Park to storm mainstream radio. One of the singles from Significant Other "N 2 Gether Now" has been cited as an example of Fred Durst's attempt to work for unity rather than rivalry between rock and hip-hop, blurring the distinction between the two genres of music.
The combination of Rap and Rock elements in their music, aswell as the angry and angsty themes of their songs, resulted in Limp Bizkits target audience being young and angry rap/rock fans. During the 90's, in an attempt to get more women to come to their concerts, they let women in for free at their current Ladies Night In Cambodia tour. The tour was a huge success, and many more women would appear at their future concerts.
Limp Bizkits style

Music Video Analysis - (Rap)

Music Video Analysis - Cheryl Cole (Pop)

Unlike the majority of most music videos of the rock genre, this video has no real narrative and the performance, instead of being performed to the camera, is carried out during a dance routine. This is a somewhat common convention of pop music videos, where the artist is not performing to the viewer, although this is not always the case. A characteristic of the whole pop genre is that it aims to appeal to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, the song and video follow this characteristic with their content being the universaly accepted topic of love, which in itself is a common characteristic, being a constantly used topic in many pop songs. The music video also caters to the characteristic of pop music that is that the music is intended to encourage dancing the use of dance-oriented beats or rhythms, it does so by following the convention of most pop music videos; using dance sequences, which this particular video is full of. The video uses a variety of close up's, medium shots and long shots. The Close up's are used to capture the artists expression and her singing, whereas the medium and long shots are used as to capture movement in the video resulting in them being used alot due to the many dance sequences. The lighting used is a contrast between light and dark creating shadows; the placement of cast members has the artist in the centre of a circle of the dancers, with the light coming down above the artist, casting shadows of the dancers. This use of light emphasises the superiority and importance of the artist. Both the location and clothing complement each other, with the location appearing to be a ball room in which case the clothing is suitable. In the video the artist is dancing with the various dancers in the ballroom, this along with the songs topic of love, may be a reference to the old fashioned romance involved in a couple ballroom dancing, further emphasising the theme of the song. The video represents her as a romantic, due to the romantic connotations of ballroom dancing, but also as unfaithful due to her many dance partners. The positioning of the artist inbetween a circle of the dancers underneath a bright light goes on to represent her as being superior to the men, connoting that she is above them and does not a permanent lover, although this would go against the songs content, so maybe it connotes that the dancers are not worthy or good enough for her and only the lover of whom she references in the song is her true love. The media theorist Goodwin’s theory of music videos can also be applied to this video; Goodwin said that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, which this video does, using a number of dance sequences and covering the topic of love and romance, which are common characteristics of the pop genre. Goodwin also said that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, as well as between music and visuals; This video doesnt exactly show any specific relationship between the lyrics and the visulas, but the overalls songs them of love and romance is portrayed through the romantic and flirtacious dancing. Another theorist Mulvey said that in music videos that everything is constructed around 'the male gaze'. For the majority of the video, this is not the case, but in the later second half of the video the artistis is more skimply dressed and her body language becomes much more sexualised. Mulvey also said that in music videos, women are used to provoke sexual pleasure in through their costume, body language etc.; this can be applied to the video, as throughout the artists body language is very flirtacious and sexual, along with her costumes becoming more revealing as the video progresses. Another theorist Claric’s theory of music videos could also be applied to this video; Claric said that close up’s are the dominant shot used, as performance demands close up, along with the need to show expression. This music video used plenty of close up's as to show expression and performance, but due to the dance sequences, close up was not the dominant shot used. He also said that music videos mostly use fast cuts, editing appropriate to the beat as to ensure multiple viewing. This is also true, the music video uses alot of fast cuts due to the dance sequences and the need for multiple viewing.

Music Video Analysis - Papa Roach (Rock)

The video is no doubt a rock music video; the most obvious convention of a rock music video present in ‘Kick In The Teeth’ is that they tend to be both narrative and performance based. The narrative in its self could be considered a convention, with the video accompanying the songs theme of being an under dog and life getting you down. Both the narrative and performance represent the artist as being angry and full of angst, but with a stiff upper lip. This representation along with the narrative makes the artist relatable to their target audience; a seemingly angry, youthful and angst filled audience. The lighting of the video is very dull and somewhat gritty, a rather common convention in rock videos. The mise-en-scene of the video also emphasizes the gritty feel of the video, with the use of a few other conventions; the location of the video appears to be a street and alley of an industrial estate, again emphasizing the gritty feel of the video, as well as following the common convention of having an urban location that’s present in many rock music video’s. The props used in kick in the teeth are both relevant to the location, but also follow the convention of violence found in rock music video’s, due to the use of some of the props in both the video’s narrative and performance. The camera angles used in kick in the teeth vary between the performance and narrative segments of the video; the performance segment mainly uses camera angles within the range of close up shots and medium shots. The close ups are mainly used as to capture the vocalists face, as to emphasize his expression and the synchronization of his singing and the song. Close ups are also used on other members of the band as to emphasize their significance to the song, but medium shots are usually used for this purpose, with medium-long shots being used to show more than one member in one shot, if not the whole band. In the narrative segment, the camera angles range from a variety of close ups, medium shots and long shots, this extensive use of angles is needed mainly to fit in every aspect of the narrative and to portray its message or ideals in the best possible way. The media theorist Claric’s theory of music videos could be applied to kick in the teeth; Claric said that close up’s are the dominant shot used, as performance demands close up, along with the need to show expression. He also said that music videos mostly use fast cuts, editing appropriate to the beat as to ensure multiple viewing. Kick in the teeth follows this theory, with the video containing a lot of performance, therefore needing close ups, as well as fast cutting being used due to the fast beat of the song, which is conventional in the rock genre. Another theorist; Goodwin’s theory can also be applied to kick in the teeth. Goodwin said that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics; which kick in the teeth does, using rock genre characteristics such as instruments and violence. Goodwin also said that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, as well as between music and visuals; the visuals of the whole kick in the teeth video is an illustrative narrative of the music, with certain lyrics being amplified by the visuals.

Idea: Break Stuff- Limp Bizkit

Song Choice
The song I have chosen to do for my music video is 'Break Stuff' by the floridian rock band 'Limp Bizkit.



Style
The style of my video is going to be similar to the style of alot of rock music videos that I've seen; with the video consisting of a performance segment and a narrative segment, with both segments intertwining with each other.

Performance Segment
The performance segment of the video is going to be filmed in a performance room in The Hack (Music Department) here on site at college. The cast for the performance will involve a vocalist, a guitarist and a bassist, aswell as whatever number of cameramen I get to film the segment. After some planning, I ousted the drummer from the cast list, after deciding that obtaining a drum kit, moving it to the location and finding someone who could imitate the song on the instrument adequatly would be too time consuming, not to mention the limited space we have to fit all the cast members and instruments in. The performance segment will involve a lot of fast cutting due to the pace of the song, but this will require alot of stopping and starting, having to rewind the music to get a certain shot of the cast at that time in the song, making the filming of this segment foreseeably long.

Narrative Segment
The narrative segment of the video has not yet got a specifically planned filming location, but will be some sort of street or urban setting, following the convention I've seen in rock music videos of urban locations being used. The narrative will start with the male main character waking up on a street, after a hard nights drinking. Throughout the song, the narrative will involve the main character making his way presumably home, whilst nursing a hangover that causes him to stagger slightly and grab his head in pain. With such a hangover, the main character is portrayed as a defenceless individual; this is shown throughout the narrative, with the character being repeatedly assaulted and put down by random strangers who he comes across on his way home. He is first shoulder barged and knocked to the ground by a passing group of people who then carry on their way laughing at the main character who is left on the ground. After getting back to his feet, he is then approached by a stranger who at first starts a conversation with him, but then tries to grab his wallet, resulting in a struggle, ending with the main character being punched in the face and the stranger running away with his wallet. Again staggering on his way, he is then bombarded with rocks, being thrown by someone nearby who is elevated off the ground and out of reac, with one of the rocks hitting the main character in the face, causing him to start bleeding from his mouth. In each of these three ordeals, the main character has been too hungover to defend himself, but after the third incident, he has had enough and finally snaps. He finds himself a melee weapon and comes upon the group of people who had knocked him to the ground (The least severe incident) and commences to rush them and start beating each of them as they try and flee. The narrative is a visualisation of the songs lyrics and theme; anger and rage.

Narrative Segment Camera Work
The first shot is an extreme close up of the main characters face on the pavement, with him waking up from his alcohol enduced slumber. The majority of the shots will be medium and long shots of the main character staggering on his way home, aswell as his hostile interactions with the people he comes across. Most of the shots will be of the main characters front, but I wil use a mix of side shots and angles inbetween as to emphasise his condition and expression after each ordeal. After each incident, the camera will tilt by some degrees, representing how the main character is slowly being pushed over the edge, or it could even represent his moral compass, how after each time he is assaulted, he moves a step closer to turning to violence, anger and rage. Close up's will also be used alot, as to emphasise the main characters expression, especially when he is about to confront the group of people who knocked him down, with his weapon in hand, as his face will be full of anger, rage, and the temporary madness of violence. Such an expression will be the summary of not just the characters anger, but also the summary of the songs theme.

Performance Segment Camera Work
The performance segment will involve a variety of close ups, medium shots and long shots. The clsoe ups are a necessity as to show the expression of the cast members as well as there performance. The medium shots will be used to catch mulitple cast members in one shot whilst they perform. The long shots will be used far less than the other shots, used only to catch a few shots where the camera appears to zoom out and shows the cast members at a distance.

Editing
The editing will involve a lot of fast cutting for both segments as to fit the songs fast beats and rhythm. The narrative segment will have far less fast cutting, as the whole purpose of a narrative is to provide a story for the song, and if the segment has too much fast cutting, then the viewer may not understand or comprehend the story the narrrative is trying to portray. To amplify the lyrics of the song, I will use captions in a peculiar way. After watching this music video:




I have decided to caption the last lyric of specific lines in the song. By doing so I will amplify the last lyric of these specific lines. Captioning these last lyrics fits the way the song is sung, with certain lines emphasisng the last lyric eg. "Everything is FUCKED" "Everybody SUCKS" The captions will fill the entire screen, with no transition for when they come onto the screen and when they go off the screen, instead they will suddenly appear on screen when the lyric is sung and will then suddenly dissapear off screen afterwards.

Coursework Progress Diary.

AS Media Studies Coursework Progress Diary.

15/09/10

At this point, Alex and me can’t even decide on a band we want to make a music video for, let alone a song. We’ve been throwing around the idea of maybe doing a song by Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold or Theory of a Dead man. To be honest, were spoilt for choice, but I like the idea of doing Limp Bizkit, then again, they are one of my favourite bands, so maybe I’m a bit bias.

18/09/10

We’ve decided on either Limp Bizkit or Papa Roach, right that’s the choice of bands narrowed down, now its just the matter of choosing what song we would want to do for both bands. At the minute for Papa Roach we might do either ‘Kick In The Teeth’ or ‘Hollywood Whore’ and for Limp Bizkit we might do either ‘Break Stuff’ or ‘Eat You Alive’.

20/09/10

We’ve FINALLY decided on a song; ‘Break Stuff’ by Limp Bizkit. Since Alex isn’t actually in my media class, I’ve got to do all of the research tasks, analysis etc. by myself. I suppose getting group members from outside the entire media course wasn’t such a bright idea. Oh well, either way we’ve been discussing the narrative and performance segments of the music video, for the performance we’ve decided that I’ll be playing the part of vocalist, and Alex will play the part of lead guitarist. For the performance part of it, we were thinking about recording on site at college in The Hack (Music Department) so I’ll have to see if we can book some space in there for recording.

22/09/10

We’ve enlisted a new member for the music video; Tom’s going to be playing bass in the performance segment, and since he does a music course in The Hack, he’s going to book us a room for recording when were done planning. We were thinking about the narrative part of the video, and thought we might go along the lines of an implosive anger theme; meaning that the main character of the narrative is repeatedly harmed, put down etc. until he explodes with rage. This resulting explosion of rage fits perfectly with the final chorus of the song, which is similarly as explosive. After I’ve finished the other research tasks, I’ll start on a draft storyboard.

08/10/10

By now, the research tasks are just about finished. We’ve got some solid ideas for the music video laid down, but now we just need to start storyboarding. I need to get around to taking digital images of the film locations; but we still need to decide one for the narrative segment of the video. I also need to start putting together some ideas for my digipak.

15/10/10

I've finally got my final idea for the music video (Performance and Narrative segments aswell as what camera shots I will use and how I will edit the footage) posted up ont he blog. The research tasks are nearly finished, but I just need to concentrate on storyboarding and getting rough ideas for the digipak down.

22/10/10

I've started the storyboard, but it has a long way to go before it fully articulates what I want my video to be. I've also started some research on Limp Bizkit; Target audience etc. and I've started analyzing their CD covers as to identify some kind of conventions between them that I can apply to my Digi-Pak cover.

5/11/10

After identifying the conventions between Limp Bizkits CD covers, I've come up with an idea for my digi-pak that will include most of the conventions. As my digi-pak will be 6 panels, the front panel will be a front profile mug shot of a character with a pixelated face, holding an information panel that has the bands name and CD title on it. The next panel that is seen after the first one is turned is a side profile version of the previous panel. I now need to work out what I will use the other panels for.

16/11/10

I've now drawn up a sketch draft of what I plan for the digi-pak to be and what it's panels will have on them, you can see what I've planned in the 'Digi-Pak Idea' blogpost. Filming for the performance segment seems to finally be organised; with the enlistings of 2 cameramen and a time slot where all the cast members are available for filming. The one problem is the college music department, who dont seem to like the idea of a media student using up one of their music rooms. I now need to hunt down the teacher that will be teaching on monday afternoon and see if she has a music room spare that I can use for recording and since apparently media students can't be trusted, I'll need a member of staff from the Media Department to come and supervise us whilst we film. I finally get my filming organised and the media department HAVE to go and make it harder for me.

19/11/10

There's no room free for monday afternoon. Time to improvise, I'll use monday afternoon to film the narrative segment of the music video instead, just need to find 2 more people to fill the cast. If I can, I'd like to take some photos on monday afternoon aswell, maybe get the magazine advert photo taken and maybe get the band photo for the digi-pak taken.

23/11/10

After letting me down repeatedly, I've decided to cut Alex from the project and replace him with Mark. I was unable to film on monday afternoon due to Alex not telling his teacher in advance that he'd be out of lesson, but since he didnt he wasnt allowed to. Then when I organised to use a room in The Hack, Alex said that he couldnt be bothered to wait around until after college to do it, so I decided to replace him with someone more flexible and eager to participate. So now I've had to re-arrange the cast and their roles, plus I need someone new to fill in Marks original role, but I've gotta say, it's a whole lot easier working with someone who's cooperative and actually enjoys taking part in my project. But yeah, a rooms been booked for Tuesday after college 4:00-4:30, Mark and Tom have got their guitars, Marks got everything for his costume, the equipments booked out, so the performance segment should be filmed and finished by 4:30. Maybe if we have time, I can get some of the pictures I need taken today aswell, such as the band pose picture and maybe even the magazine advert picture. It's FINALLY coming together.

3/12/10

A whole lots happened since the last update; we filmed the performance segment and I've just finished editing the footage. My plan is to use the edited performance footage as a base for the music video, and to add clips of the yet to be taken narrative segment footage over it, this will save me having to re-synch the footage to the music. I've also got the photo's for the magazine advert taken, all I've got to do now is edit it accordingly. The last few things on my to do list are to film the narrative segment and finish editing the whole music video, finish editing the magazine advert, take the photo's for the digi-pak and then finally get the digi-pak fully produced. Havent got alot of time before the deadline though.

8/12/10

Since the last update I've made a rather radical change to the music video. I've decided to not have any narrative in my music video and to have it solely made up of the performance footage. You can find my reasons for this decision in a more recent blog entry, but basically I decided to keep the music video to just performance footage as to have my video in the style of Limp Bizkits other music video 'The Truth', I also feel that by doing this I'd be following alot more conventions of Limp bizkits music videos. This change means that the panels of the narrative segment in my storyboard and no longer valid and the cast list needs to be edited. All the photos have beent aken now and just need to be edited.

13/12/10

Music video finished and all print products are finished. :)

-Back ground history into music videos, music channels etc.

-Back ground history into music videos, music channels etc.

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. In 1894 when sheet music publishers still ran the music business, Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song The Little Lost Child. Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneously with live performances in what became a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. This has been termed the first music video. But music videos only really came into their own in the 1980s, when the very first music channel, MTV,` based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1. The term "music video" coming into popular usage after the launch of MTV. The early music videos that made up the bulk of MTV's programming in the 1980s were often crude promotional or concert clips from whatever sources could be found. As the popularity of the channel rose, and record companies recognized the potential of the medium as a tool to gain recognition and publicity, they began to create increasingly elaborate clips specifically for the channel. In the UK, music video’s first started when the long-running British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, although the BBC placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos TOTP could use. Therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week. In 1980, David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to director David Mallet's eye catching promo for "Ashes to Ashes". Another act to succeed with this tactic was Madness, who shot on 16 mm and 35 mm, constructing their clips as "micro-comedic" short films.

-Decide the brief that interests you (Music)

-Decide the brief that interests you (Music) – Write a short paragraph explaining why you have chosen this option and your initial ideas (Choice of song/Genre)

After some deliberation, I’ve decided to go with the music brief, mainly due to the fact that my AS coursework was a film related project, so I’d like to try my hand at something else at A2, that being a music video. I’ve chosen to do a music video for the rock song ‘Break stuff’ By Limp Bizkit; mainly because it’s one of my favourite songs, by one of my favourite bands, but also because I’d like to see if I have the capability to make a half decent rock music video, by incorporating conventions from the music videos of the genre that I’ve noticed.

Under Pressure - Whole Class Music Video Practise

Kings of Leon - Use Somebody (Lip Sync Practise)