AV script sheet for History of Album Covers assignment

*This sheet will need to be embedded in your Weebly page for the Specialist Subject
Study assignment to pass*

Student Name Alex Lambert

Task 1 of 3:
Introduction: write the script that you will be recording for your introduction here. Introduce yourself
and say what the documentary will be about. Maybe make a statement that you are going to challenge or
ask a question that you are going to try and answer through the course of the documentary and in the
conclusion.
“Since the 1940’s, artists have released album art to go along with all their music-
with some of these ending up being the most famous pieces of artwork of all time.” 
“But with the main source of music now being digital streams, are album covers
becoming a thing of the past.”
“In this short documentary, I'm going to be looking at album art through the
decades, how its evolved and if it is time up for album covers” 

Task 2 of 3:
Audio:
(Script being narrated/additional sounds heard.
Write ROUGH timings in here where possible)
· 99% of the doc will have
some sort of backing music
behind it.
· “Since the 1940’s, artists have
released album art to go
along with all their music-
with some of these ending up
being the most famous pieces
of artwork of all time.”
· “But with the main source of
music now being digital
streams, are album covers
becoming outdated.
· In this short documentary,
I'm going to be looking at
album art through the
decades, how its evolved and
if it is time up for album
covers”
(30s)
· “In the very early days of
vinyl packaging, records
would typically be sold in
Visual:
(What will the audience be seeing?)
Intro
- A short sequence of famous
performances of bands with
album covers.
Brief history of subject
- For this I will show examples
of some very early album
covers.
- Whilst showing the creator:
Alex Steinweiss
- Some animations on the screen
describing what I’m talking
about
- Followed by more examples of
what I’m saying in the script
like type of album covers or
technique
How Technology has improved album
covers
- Animations and pictures to
describe what I am saying
- Maybe show a timeline
throughout and how the
 boring paper or cardboard
sleeves with the name of the
producer or retailer on the
front.”
· Up to the late 1930’s, all
records generally looked the
same and, visually, there
wasn’t anything that hooked
the consumer. However, it
wasn’t until 1939 where...
· “Alex Steinweiss, an
employee at Columbia
Records, came up with a
genius idea- adding a design
to the front of LP sleeves”
· “After his revelation, he took
a photographer down to New
York’s West 45th Street and
took a picture of the famous
Imperial Theatre and its
distinctive marquee”
· “Steinweiss and the
photographer asked the
owner to change the signage
of the marquee to ‘smash
song hits by Rodgers & Hart’
and agreed that what they
captured was perfect for an
LP cover”
· “And the image currently on
screen would go on to be the
world’s first album cover”.
· “Despite being reluctant
about his idea, Columbia did
eventually invest in it and
record sales increased by
almost 900%. Steinweiss’
idea was hailed as genius.”
· “It didn’t stop there for
Steinweiss as his work
dominated the music world
throughout the 40’s. Records
had a complete change of
image; they went from
technology has developed
Key people in the industry
- Show the people I mention and
their most popular/famous
artwork
Key techniques used in the industry
- I will show examples of the
techniques I am talking about,
examples in and out of the
industry. With some
animations and labels to
describe the techniques.
Your own attempts at mastering the
technique
- In this section, I am going to
show the original album covers
that I have tried to remake and
describe them and their key
features and the person who
created each cover.
- I will then compare mine to it.
Interview with person discussing the
specialism
- In the voiceover, I will say the
questions I am about to ask
then show the persons answers.
Conclusion
- Animations across the screen
to describe what I am
summarising in the conclusion.
 something sold at the back of
shops to desirable objects.
Steinweiss’ work featured on
a range of genres from jazz to
classical to pop; and his art
had the same positive impact
on all the covers it was
featured on.”
· “In his book, Steinweiss
said,” I love music so much
so, to my mind, this was no
way to package beautiful
music, I want people to look
at the artwork and hear the
music.”
· “After this album covers took
off artists began to include
symbolism and psychedelia in
their album covers making
them better and better ever
since...”
(2 min)
· “Despite the general opinion
that digital streaming has
had a negative effect on
album art. There are
definitely points where
technology has improved
album covers.”
· “For example, in the late
1930’s when having art on LP
sleeves first became a thing,
the art on each sleeve was
done by hand; one by one.”
· “But then moving into the
40’s, black and white
photographs started to be
used on covers. And by the
time of the early 50’s more
and more colour was being
used on the covers along with
fancy fonts and
complimentary artwork.”
· However, when the 60’s came
 along the world of album
covers blew up and this
decade in particular is known
as one of the most
experimental of all time.
· With massive artists like the
Beatles, the rolling stones, the
who and others all releasing
incredibly experimental
artwork all with the theme of
psychedelia.
· “But in the early 70’s a
massive change happened
when the world was first
introduced to computer
imaging and by the 80’s
nearly every album cover had
some element of this in it”
· “This grew even bigger when
in February of 1990, adobe
released photoshop point one
and it has kept on growing
ever since”
(1 min 30s)

· “Throughout the decades,

there have been many artists
that have created iconic
pieces of art to go along with
an album.”
· “The biggest name probably
being the famous artist: Andy
Warhol. Hes mainly known
for making album covers for
the rolling stones, Velvet
Underground, John Lennon
and many more.”
· “Some other massive names
in the industry include Storm
Thorgerson who is known for
making one of the best album
covers of all time for Pink
Floyd with their album (dark
side of the moon). Hes also
 known for making album art
for Wings, T-rex and Led
Zepplin. Another name is
Peter Blake who, like
Thorgerson, created one of
the best album covers of all
time: Sargent pepper's lonely
hearts club band by the
Beatles.”
· “And finally, Ed Thrasher
who is known for his bold
uses of psycadelia and colour
in his artwork for covers like
the Jimi Hendrix experience,
whilst creating album art for
other artists like Neil Young,
Van Morrison and The Beach
Boys.”
(1 min)
· “In this industry, so many
artists have their own unique
way of creating album
artwork. But one technique, I
would like to highlight is the
use of psychedelia in album
art.”
· “Most commonly used in the
1960’s, this featured on a
bunch of album covers with
one of the most famous
examples of this being
Revolver by the Beatles.”
· “The artist, Klaus
Voormann, wanted to do
something different to the
generic photographic style so
he created this illustrated
swirling drawing of the band
whilst still combing it with
photography by adding
clusters of black and white
pictures of the Beatles
around the cover.”
· “Another technique I want to
look at is the use of colour
 and distortion.”
· “Colour can either be used to
make the album cover stand
out from the rest or going the
other way, colour could be
used in a very conservative
way to make something stand
out within the album cover
itself”
· “Distortion, whilst being a
more modern technique, has
been used throughout the
decades with artists using it
to reflect the type of album
their art is on. Some
noticeable examples being
unknown pleasures by Joy
division and, more recently,
the weekend, using colour
distortion, on the deluxe
addition of after hours.”
(1 min 30s)
· “For this part of the
documentary, I will be
attempting three colour
techniques that have been
used in popular album
covers...”
· “Number one is the deluxe
version of after-hours created
by the Tammi Brothers. This
album cover features a dark
red version of the original
split down the middle with
one side being heavily
saturated. Here is my
remake...”
· “Number two is whole lotta
red created by Jung Chung.
This album cover features a
black and white picture of
carti with a white outline
and, inspired by the 1970’s
punk-rock magazine slash,
this cover has large, red,
 blood-type writing at the top.
Here is my remake... ”
· “And number three is
Menlove Avenue created by
Andy Warhol. John Lennon
had always admired Warhol,
so he got Warhol to create
illustrations of himself: this
was done only months before
Lennons’s death. The cover
itself features a colourful
portrait of Lennon. His face
is red with some blue
highlights in his hair and a
plain black background.
Here is my remake...”

· “To help me conclude if

album art is outdated, I
wanted to get a second
opinion, so I asked Michael
Bush: a lecturer at
Bournemouth and Poole
College. Part of what Michael
teaches is advertising and
marketing, so I started off by
asking him, how does a strong
album cover influence how
well an album performs?”
· “I then gave him a choice of
five iconic album covers and
asked him which was his
favourite and why”
· “I also wanted to know what
about album covers appeal to
him”
· “To add to this, I wanted to
know how he thought album
covers have changed over
time”
· “After picking – out of the
selected 5 album covers I
gave Mike, I wanted to know
his favourite cover of all
 time.”
· “And finally, I asked Mike if
album covers are dead and
outdated.”

· “In conclusion, I think that,

despite now being consumed
in a different way, album
covers, and album art is still
very much a popular concept
that still grasps an interest by
the consumers.”
· “And with the evolution of
technology and software like
AI, I think that is an exciting
time for album art too see
how far it can go... the sky’s
the limit.

Task 3 of 3:
Conclusion: write the script that you will be recording for your conclusion here. revisit your initial
question or statement from the introduction, recap some highlights of the things you’ve studied for your
question/statement and suggest whether the statement is supported or what the answer to the question
was.
“In conclusion, I think that, despite now being consumed in a
different way, album covers, and album art is still very much a
popular concept that still grasps an interest by the consumers.”
“And with the evolution of technology and software like AI, I
think that is an exciting time for album art too see how far it can
go... the sky’s the limit.