Famous Album Artwork Analysis: Abbey Road by The Beatles

The infamous album cover

The 'Abbey Road' LP by The Beatles is one of the most famous album covers of all time. It was released on the 26th September 1969 and was their last studio recorded album.

The album cover features the four members of The Beatles, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, all walking in single file across a zebra crossing. The zebra crossing was just over the road from the Abbey Road Studios where the album was recorded, and so the location was probably picked purely for convenience rather than it's significance. However, as the album is entitled 'Abbey Road', the location provided to be very significant after all. Now, the zebra crossing at Abbey Road is a must-see attraction for all Beatles fans.

Tourists at the Abbey Road zebra crossing

The album cover is the only Beatles album without the name of the band or the album title on it. This allows the buyer to focus purely on the photograph without any other graphics to distort the image. However, by having a picture of the band and by having the location as Abbey Road, the name of the album and the artist name is not needed in a sense as a picture is worth a thousand words!

To take the picture of the album, The Beatles repeatedly walked across the zebra crossing whilst a policeman help up the traffic. Photographer Iain Macmillan was given only 10 minutes to capture the snap due to the traffic which would have disrupted the shot otherwise. 

In the picture, all of the Beatles are wearing suits, but Paul McCartney is the only member who is barefoot. It has always been a mystery as to why the Beatle is not wearing shoes with explanations ranging from a simple 'it was a warm day' to 'the album cover represents a funeral procession and Paul is the corpse'. 

The band preparing to cross the road for the shot. Paul is wearing sandals in this particular picture

The image for the album has been imitated so many times for various different reasons. It is one of the most copied album artworks of all times alongside Nirvana's 'Nevermind' and Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon'.

The album cover for 'Abbey Road' has been replicated in Lego

Nirvana's 'Nevermind'

Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' which, like 'Abbey Road' does not feature the name of the band or the album title.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Day	Scene	Location	Equipment	Costumes	Props	Cast +Crew
1 2 3 4	Katie lying on the bed writing a song with acoustic guitar and a notepad. Continuing the previous day’s filming. Lounge scene, in front of the fire with a photograph of the couple. Walking through the forest throwing the ripped up the photo into the lake	10 Aylmer Road “     “      “     “ Hainault Forest	Camera, Tripod “        “ “        “ Camera, monopod	Red skirt, white vest top, black tights. “        “ Blue tie-up top, blue trousers, beige pumps, hair pulled back. Black fur coat, black skirt, black boots, black tights.	Acoustic guitar, notepad, pencils. “            “ Photograph, fireplace (lit). Torn up photograph	Katie Edmead, Charlie Searle, Daniel Morris “            “ “            “ “            “

Camera, Lights, Action!

Me and my group have completed our stroy board and we are now confient that we are ready to film! Photos of our locations will be up soon!

Treatment Sheet

Treatment

Group Roles Cinematography: Katie Edmead, Charlie Searle, Daniel Morris Mise-en-scene: Katie Edmead Sound: Daniel Morris Editing: Charlie Searle

Title: ‘Make It Out Alive’

Synopsis: Girl and her boyfriend have broken up. The video sees her writing a song about the breakup on her bed with a guitar and a notebook. She is looking at a photo of her and her ex-boyfriend, which she then proceeds to rip up. Shows her scattering the pieces of the picture into a river/lake. Shows the girl in a forest singing.

Key Genre Conventions: Sad song – subdued colours, slow camera movements.

What is a Digipak?

A digipak is a CD case with design on each 'face'. It promotes the artist and should also fit in with the style of music. There are many things which should be included on a digipak:

• Name of artist and album
• Track list
• Barcode and record company logo
• Six panels
• Name of artist and album on the spine
• Disk impression
• Image of artist on the inside

Myself and my group will be producing our own digipak that will accompany our music video.

Our Animatic

This is the animatic of our storyboard. We produced this storyboard in one lesson and uploaded the pictures to the computer and created this animatic. We have also included a clip from the song we are using, 'Make It Out Alive' by Sarah Bird.

Our Story Board

This is the storyboard for our music video. We will be using a variety of shots and shot speeds for different scenes to add to the mood of the video. We will be using this storyboard for our animatic. Here are our initial ideas.

Camera work/framing: close up, full frame.

Notes: Black and white? Writing a song, it is raining outside.

Camera work/framing: Close up of face, side on shot.

Notes: Black and white? 'Won't you come on home?' - looking out of window.

Camera work/framing: Long shot, behind shot.

Notes: Walking away through long grass, guitar on back.

1) Camera work/framing: Mid shot, close up, extreme close up.

1) Notes: Cross legged in the grass playing the guitar.

2) Camera work/framing: close up, extreme close up, slow motion.

2) Notes: Dandelion blowing away in the wind. 

Camera work/framing: Long shot, zooming in slowly.

Notes: Playing guitar on a rock by the lake.

1) Camera work/framing: Extreme close up.

1) Notes: Holding a photo of the couple in a frame, taking the photo out of the frame.

2) Camera work/framing: Extreme close up, fading from home to Hainault.

2) Notes: Ripping up the photo.

Camera work/framing: Mid shot, close up.

Notes: Throwing the ripped up photo into the lake, close up of the pieces hitting the water.

Camera work/framing: Close up of face.

Notes: At home sitting on the bed, crying.

Our finished storyboard!

Our Preliminary Task: What We've Learnt

By doing our preliminary task, me and my group have learnt valuable skills that will help us when filming our final music video. 

We experimented with many different camera shots to get an idea of what looks good and what doesn't. We found that close ups worked really effectively and would look good in our music video.

By doing a preliminary task, we got to practise our lip syncing. It was very difficult to get right and took a lot of tries, but we finally managed to get the lip syncing almost perfect. This has definitely given us practise for our final video!

Our Preliminary Music Video!

Brainstorming: Ideas For Our Music Video

Brainstom - Initial Ideas on Prezi

This is a Prezi presentation made by Charlie for our group's brainstorming. Charlie, Daniel and myself all sat down with paper, pens and a lot of coffee to discuss our ideas for the video. 

We already had a rough idea of what we wanted from our video. We had the idea of myself, as I will be performing in the video, sitting in a bay window looking out onto a rainy street. As the song is about struggling love, it would be apt to have a rainy setting as the pathetic fallacy will reflect the mood.

We have also considered having the video in black and white as the lack of colour will represent the sombre mood. A good example of a black and white video reflecting the message of the song is Adele's 'Someone Like You'. The song is about lost love and so for the same reason as us, the production company decided to have the video in black and white.

Our Finished Vox Pops: The Preliminary

What are Vox Pops?

'Vox Pops' is an abbreviation for the Latin term 'vox populi' which translates into 'voice of the people'. They are interviews conducted with the general public in public places. The intention is to get spontaneous reactions and opinions in a chance encounter. They provide balance to news interviews as they give a wide range of opinions.

Here is an example of a real vox pop interview. As you can see, they have asked a wide range of people who all have different views. This is how we hope ours will look once we have completed our interviews!

Filming for our Preliminary Task

These are stills from our one and only day of filming for our preliminary. It took us roughly 3 hours to do as we had to film various shots all in a continuous shot singing the song the whole way through. I will be uploading the finished product soon!

Me and Daniel reviewing our final footage

Charlie and Daniel reviewing what we had filmed so far

The whiteboard we used to write the lyrics on so that we could recite them while being filmed

Planning for our Preliminary Task

Me, Charlie and Daniel all sat down and discussed ideas for our preliminary task. As this was only to demonstrate our skills in filming, lip syncing and editing, we did not have to worry too much about the location or the acting. Therefore, we had a very simple brainstorm.

We have decided to film our preliminary task at the lower school study room for sixth former's as it is large enough to film in without being disturbed. We have also decided that myself and Daniel will perform in the preliminary with Daniel performing Elton John's part and I will perform to Kiki Dee's part.

We will film various different shots and then edit them together to create a preliminary music video.

Lyrics to 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart'

These are the lyrics to the song that we are singing for our preliminary task.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and Kiki Dee

Don't go breaking my heart,
I couldn't if I tried,
Oh honey if I get restless,
Baby you're not that kind.

Don't go breaking my heart,
You take the weight off of me,
Oh honey when you knock on my door,
I gave you my key.

Ooh hoo, nobody knows it,
When I was down, I was your clown.
Ooh hoo, nobody knows it,
Right from the start, I gave you my heart,
Woah, oh, I gave you my heart.

So don't go breaking my heart,
I won't go breaking your heart,
Don't go breaking my heart.

And nobody told us,
'Cause nobody showed us,
And now it's up to us babe,
Oh I think we can make it.

So don't misunderstand me,
You put the light in my life,
Oh you put the sparks to the flame,
I've got your heart in my sights.

Ooh hoo, nobody knows it,
When I was down, I was your clown.
Ooh hoo, nobody knows it,
Right from the start, I gave you my heart,
Woah, oh, I gave you my heart.

Don't go breaking my heart,
I won't go breaking your heart,
Don't go breaking my heart.

Don't go breaking my heart,
I won't go breaking your heart.

Don't go breaking my,
Don't go breaking my,
I won't go breaking your heart.

Don't go breaking my heart,
Don't go breaking my,
I won't go breaking your heart.

Don't go breaking my,
Don't go breaking my,
I won't go breaking your heart.

Don't go breaking my,
Don't go breaking my...

(FADE)

Preliminary Task: The Basics

In order to be successful in making our own music video, me and my group must first conduct a preliminary exercise to understand how the process works.

For our preliminary task, we will be making a short music video that includes lip syncing to Elton John and Kiki Dee's popular song 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart'. Myself and Daniel will be performing in the video and Charlie will be filming. All of us will play our part in the editing of the finished product.

Here is a video clip of the song we will be lip syncing to:

Research Into Our Artist - Sarah Bird

Sarah Bird was formerly in a band named Sugabeat who she no longer plays with as the band have since parted ways. However, whilst they were together they proved to be a hit around the middle of England. Sarah and her band played at Glastonbudget which has been dubbed the greatest music festival for tribute and new acts. They recieved rave reviews for their sets and have previously been reviewed in The Rutland Mercury on 4th June 2010 and De Monfort University's 'The Demon' newspaper on 9th February 2010. Even though Sarah was part of a band at this point, the reviews always commented on Sarah's strong and soulful voice.

 

Since going solo, Sarah has been very popular by other means. Just in this year, Sarah has played the following venues:

 

Sunday 29th July – Crumblin’ Cookie, Leicester - Solo acoustic set

Friday 3rd August – West End WMC, Leicester - with BirdHeart Duo Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th August – Private party, London
Saturday 11th August – Private party, Leicestershire
Thursday 16th August – The Terrace, Leicester - with Bird & The Bad Man Acoustic Duo
Saturday 18th August – Wedding

Thursday 4th October – Private party

By analysing the venues she plays at and the age group of people who view her on YouTube, I would say that the target audience for her music is 16-24 year olds, possibly ranging to people in the age group of the mid-30s.

Lyrics to 'Make It Out Alive'

This is the email message Charlie recieved from Sarah with the lyrics of our chosen song attached.

Here are the lyrics:

Make It Out Alive
Words and music by Sarah Bird ©2012 

I’m sat at home alone, feeling sad and blue,
Won’t you come on home, baby's missing you.
It’s hard to believe, but you’ve really got a hold on me,
And baby, lady won’t leave with the sugar you’re giving me.

Chorus

Tried to forget you,
But my mind wouldn’t let you disappear.
Tried to leave you,
But my heart wants to feel you.
And I’ve lost all my pride,
And I don’t think I’ll make it out alive. 

Papa don’t like you, but what’s a girl to do,
I’d rather be near you, than stay home and be blue.

 Chorus 

I tried to forget you,
But my mind wouldn’t let you disappear.
I tried to leave you,
But my heart wants to feel you.
And I’ve lost all my pride,
And I don’t think I’ll make it out alive. 

Alive, alive, alive.

I'm not dead, but I'll never make it out alive.

Make It Out Alive - Sarah Bird

Here is a home video of our artist Sarah Bird singing our chosen song - 'Make It Out Alive'. We really liked the song due to the 'bluesy' tone to the music. We also believe we could make a very moving video to this track.

Here is the studio recorded audio track that we will be using as the actual music for our video.