For this research I will look into lighting for my second question. Lighting is key to successful music videos as there would be no point to them if you cant see what is meant to be shown by the camera. In the music video ' 21 Guns' by Green Day, straight away you can see the background light on the desk and a few cuts later you have lateral light, which is the light from behind the object. This object is in actual fact a bullet which has its obvious connotations of death and murder.
As you can see in the above picture the light from behind the bullet is effective as it adds emphasis to the object on show, in the instance the bullet. Furthermore, later on in the video the use of the mystery light is effective as we don't know where it is coming from even though it is under the girl. In Linkin Parks video ' New Divide' they use light but this time from above them so the light is shining down on their faces. They also use negatives on the face in different shots which makes the video look abstract.
I have looked at a few videos to try and get a grip of costumes for characters in a narrative. I have looked at videos such as ' Under the Bridge' by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers where the lead singer wears a white t-shirt for part of it. This is pretty basic and i have looked further into different possibilities with what our characters can wear. We are going to have one boy and one girl in the video so we will need to look at different videos for each gender. In the video 'Little Lion Man' by Mumford and Sons, the band is simply on stage performing the song. They are all wearing similar clothes such as a waist coat and a shirt, two of them are wearing blazers and they are all wearing smart shoes. This gave me the idea that the boy could be smart and educated so he could wear a shirt on the train to Brighton with possibly a waist coat or a blazer.
In the video ' Somebody Told Me' by The Killers the lead singer is wearing a polo shirt with a black blazer over the top which looks smart but also something that someone are age would wear.
I think after this research myself and Nathan have decided that the boy will wear a shirt with jeans with the girl also wearing casual wear. The band may wear either shirts and jeans or T-shirt and shorts depending on weather.
I have chosen to look at this music video as it is by the same artist that we have chosen to do for our music video. This video is narrative based and there is no performance in it at all.
Starts with two guys talking to eachother MS. Background starts to animate. 1:44 camera starts to pan, the person on the right starts to fade in and out. 1:59 cuts to CU of 'fading' person's face. Face starts to animate. 2:50 person fades away 2:55 animation stops.
I have analysed all of this music video, it does not have many cuts in it which is very strange for a music video, by doing this they have broken with one of the conventions of making a music video. However in order to keep it interesting they have used the animation of the background then later on in the video they do they animation over the CU of the mans face. They use of this animation i found very interesting as it is only very simple but it is very effetive as it is very colourful and means that it catches and keeps your attention.
The idea of this animation is something we could look at in our music video, not necicarily the animation but the idea of less cuts but more going on in the shot to keep you interested in the video you are watching.
Whats the purpose?
The purpose for audience research is to find out who your target audience is and what will fulfill their needs as the consumer. From the results you can helpt to decide where you should go with your music video which can be very useful for an end product.
Methodology
We are using qualitative research and I am going to gather a small focus group to show them the track we propose to do. Hopefully this will give them ideas to write down for us for the future. I will also give them some questions to answer and they can be seen below.
Possible Questions
What is your favourite genre of music?
Who is your favourite musical artist at the moment?
What is your favourite song?
Do you prefer music videos or just the song themselves?
Above questions are basic questions we may ask just to understand the audience and not questions relevant to our work as such.
What do you like to see in a music video? A performance based video or a possible narrative in the video?
Do you like completely abstract music videos such as 'Fire' by Kasabian?
Do you prefer videos with a fast cutting rate or a slower cutting rate?
Do you prefer videos with colour or if they are in black and white?
Do you like the track?
When you listen to the track, who do you see singing the song?
I have chosen this video as it is similar in the way it expresses emotion out of the sound. It is a depressing song, probably more than the one we have chosen however i feel it would be a beneficial song to analyse for use towards our chosen track. This particular song is a performance narrative about women being treated badly by men and in turn watching them cry in the streets.
Starts off with a women walking down a street. MS
Cuts to a man walking from the opposite direction. MS
Cuts back to the women, now crying. MS
Cuts back to the man. MS
Cuts to a close up of her feet. CU
Cuts to the man walking past the women crying. MS
Cuts back to the women crying, slightly closer to her face but not yet a closeup. MS
Cuts to Daniel Merriweather singing with just his face on screen. CU
Cuts back to a midshot of him sitting on a chair with a women to the left of him. MS
Cuts back to the close up of his face. CU
Cuts to three people cycling down the street. The woman at the front of the three is crying. MS
Cuts to behind them where the man is walking past from the first few cuts. he turns to see them pass him then walks into the camera. MS
Cuts to close up of the mans face walking still. CU
Cuts to him walking across the street from a sidewards view. MS Pan
Cuts to a close up of his feet walking through cartoon tears.CU
Cuts to him on the phone, looking like he has just received bad news. MS
Cuts to another man on the phone in an alleyway. MS
Close up of the lady who walked past him, crying. CU
Midshot of Daniel singing again part of the verse. MS
It cuts quickly to a close up of him singing. CU
Two quick cuts of him spinning slowly on his chair first from a close up to a midshot then back to the midshot of him singing. MS, CU, MS
More quick cuts of him moving then a cut to a man walking into a shop. MS
Cuts to a close up of another women crying. All the tears are in cartoon. MS, CU
Cuts to Daniel singing again. CU
Cuts to man sitting down and then to the woman crying looking at him. MS, CU
Cuts to another random woman crying. MS
Cuts to her tears on the table. CU
Cuts to man looking at the woman crying at the till. MS
Close up of her crying. CU
Cuts back to Daniel singing. CU
Cuts to a flood of cartoon tears flowing out the door. MS
Cuts to Daniel looking away from the camera. CU
Cuts back to tears flowing out of windows. MS
Cuts to just one window flooding tears. CU
Cuts to tears flooding down the streets. MS
Cuts to man walking down the road. MS
Cuts to woman crying on bench then the flood of tears flowing past her. MS
Cuts to her crying. CU
Cuts to taxi driving through flood. MS
Cuts to Daniel singing in a flooded bar. MS
Tears full from sky in time with the music. MS
Cuts to Daniel singing then back to tears falling from the sky. MS, MS
Cuts to a close up of a cars wheel driving through the tears. CU
Close up of male driver. CU
Another close up of car then to the male driver again. CU, CU
Cuts to angle behind car. CU
Cuts to Daniel singing with a light behind him which looks similar to sunlight. CU
I have analysed two minutes of this video and from it i can see where we can get some ideas from. There are many scenes where we just see the girls face and expression so maybe in our video we can incorporate some of this in. This will help us convey a saddened mood throughout the video we create. I also found the use of technology interesting such as the tear drop effects that were used to create cartoon tears. I believe they did this to emphasise the meaning and emotion this song has. For instance, you wouldn't be able to get the same affect with just normal tears as you wouldn't be able to see them as well or have the flood of tears at the end which i think was very effective for getting across the message of the song. I think for us to be this effective in our video, we will need to have one general theme in the video, not many. This should hopefully provide more understanding for the audience viewing the video we will create.
We believe the song portrays a change in time throughout the song and some sort of longing for something or someone. We are going to have the band performing in the background of the narrative as if they were just extras and have like a pull back focus to the narrative that they will be over looking, as if they were story tellers and the audience are listening to his story. Our initial idea for the narrative is following some friends or a couple that split up and are longing to be back together and at the end of the song they are back together or they both find someone new. This will fit with the last part of the music around the start of the penultimate verse as this bit has a group of people singing it.
At 2:18 there is a short guitar solo for this bit we are thinking about having to lead guitarist standing on some dunes with 2 amps one on either side and the camera low to the ground looking up at him, this shot will be similar to some shots that guns 'n' roses have used in November Rain and some of their other videos.
Consider why the Reccie is an important part of planning?
The reccie is an important part of planning as you have a chance to see what type of shot look good before actually recording anything meaningful towards your music video. It gives us a chance to practice shots we may or may not use in our videos which is useful for when we come to shoot the actual music video.
What was the brief?
As a group we travelled down to the coast to visit Brighton, which gave us valuable time to practice shots in a completely different location. Our aim was to take around 10-12 shots, some of which we were set and others that were our own shots.
The shots we took were;
POV shot
High angle shot
Low angle shot
5 minute time lapse
Split frame shots
Medium long shots
Pull back focus shots
Panning shot
First person mode of address
Tracking shot
360 Panning shot
These are the shots we tried to do and we did most of them quite well. I particulary like the 360 panning shot as we do it in the middle of the pier and it makes me look overwhelemed by it all.
Where did you go and what did you do?
We went to Brighton Pier and the surround locations such as the beach and the lanes. This area was very useful as Brighton is such a photogenic city. We found a few alleys in which we recorded me running through them and into a locked door, which we had fun with using the cameras and getting new, interesting shots.
How are you going to use what you learned in the production of your music video?
As we experimented with so many different shots, we found out what worked and what didnt so the shots that we thought were good we may use in the final video, the ones we didnt find good we will not use. Hopefully this should help us waste time on shots we do not need and also improve the whole standard of our work.
When are you going to carry out the reccie for your music video?
We are planning to carry out a few reccie locations in the next week hopefully one of us will get down to Camber if not both of us and also i will go to a remote location such as the countryside just outside of Langton Green.
What was the Brief? In our groups we had to go to Brighton and take a set list of shots to improve our skills of shooting in a location other the tunbridge wells. The shots we had to take are:
Tracking shot - with first person mode of address
Panning shot
Time lapse shot over 5 minutes reduced to 15 seconds
Shots in preperation for the masking effect
High angle shot
Low angle shot
POV shot
360 panning shot
These shots had to use a mixture on different CUs and MSs.
Where did you go? What did you do? We used the Lanes and the East pier to do out shots, this gave us some contrast in our shots. The look and feel of the pier is very different to the look and feel of the lanes.
How are you going to use what you have learnt on this trip in the production of your music video? This trip gave us an idea of how much work is going to be required to find the correct locations escpecially as we want to use a couple of different locations in our music video. Furthermore it gave us a good chance to use the new cameras for an extended period of time, it was also very good to spend the whole day just focussed on one subject and to not be distracted by anything but our music video.
We are thinking about using Camber Sands as one of our locations as the dunes will enhance the mood of the video in certain places. We are thinking about going there next week after school, it will just be me and Owen there may possibley be some other people but we have planned for just us.
The trip to Brighton was very useful as it helped us try out a completely new location with the HD cameras. Furthermore we were able to try new shots which we hadn't tried out before such as pull back focus. We also looked at a time lapse and split frame shots. As Brighton is such a photogenic city it was an ideal place to record some shots we haven't tried before and also to use as a possible location however we may instead use Camber Sands because of the sand dunes.
In Brighton we used the HD cameras as much as possible by taking shots on the famous pier and along the beach. We also used 'the lanes' for inspiration to use as running shots. Overall, the trip to Brighton was very successful but also useful for our work and hopefully will give us a possible location to film our music video.
I am analysing this video as it is by the same band that we have chosen to do so will give me an idea of how their star persona is being constructed. The video is quite low fi but i has some very overate post production editing in the use of the background lights that animate in different ways in different parts of the video.
This video is very different to a lot of music videos i have seen as we do not see the band at all in any part of it, which even in a narrative based video there is usually even a quite glimpse of the band or parts of it. Using Dyer you can suggest that even though we do not see the star we see another famous actor and through this we visually connect the two of them and it means that we see the two as similar raising the image of the band. This also shows the band as absent but we are pulled closer to the actor and his presence.
There is no cutting rate in this video which is very strange for a music video, however this is overcome by the animation of the lights which is creating the movement in the video keeping our attention held very easily. This quite different thing enforces Dyer's idea of stardom by portraying them as original and almost rebellious in the way they are not conforming to the normal music video concepts.
Using Adorno we can see that by breaking the generic formula based music video they are actually conformingto the indie genre as many indie videos are quite quirky and by not conforming they are actually conforming. However, this video does not try to 'sell' you anything so is not providing false needs which Adorno believes that marketing does, this in turn doesn't create any commodity fetishism.
The points raised by Dyer in his theories show that all media of this type are just advertisement and are all just trying to sell you a product. Even though we do not see the band who we are trying to be sold by not being shown them we are drawn to think about them and their absence creates enigma. This also enhances the idea of the start being absent from us, however we are not being made to believe that we are close to the band as there is no first person mode of address from the band as they are not in the video. The way they have used the famous actor raises their star image and creates the false needs in the industry to use famous people to become successful.
Introduction
I have chosen this video to analyse as it can be seen as similar to the video we would like to create. The video is of a song called We Cry by the band The Script and is in the genre 'alternative rock'. The video itself is clearly hi fi as the image is clear and although there is a sepia filter over the top, it comes across perfectly with the shots because of the sun in the background.
Adorno
This isn't your typical generic music video either, yes there are similarities to others however the only real meat shots are that of the lead singer and there aren't that many of them compared to a Lady Gaga video for instance. This video appears to have a high budget and Theodor Adorno would argue that this is similar to many other videos because of the landscape and locations being used in a performance narrative way. Adorno would argue that nothing new is being created apart from false needs to satisfy the consumer.
Dyer
In this video Dyer would state that a star image is being constructed and you can see what he means by this as the lead singer is trying to be ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. The lead singer is acting cool by walking through almost empty streets and this is also shown through what he is wearing, a leather jacket and black skinny jeans. The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences strive to complete or make sense of the image.
Cutting Rate
The cutting rate in this video is slower than most videos as it isn't that fast of a song so they have slowed the cutting rate down to conform with the genre. There isn't a object to be won in this video, such as a woman, which is normally what the man tries to claim in a music video. This means there isn't a female gaze for the viewer which i find refreshing and different.
Goodwin
There is some relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which shows Goodwins point does have evidence as in this video we see a lady as soon as the lead singer says ' Marys ambition'. This video is different to your normal 'pop' song as although it follows similar roots such as a performance and a man walking down the street, you feel there is more emotion in the performance from the lead singer and the band itself. Futhermore the lack of close ups in the video show that the lead singer isnt trying to show off his body and attract the female gaze. There are many midshots in the video of him walking down the street with the sepia filter over the film.
2. What is the genre of the track? How can you tell?
The genre for this track is Indie. Some people would class it as alternative indie but either way it has firm roots in the indie genre. It is quite easy to tell as well; the clothes each band member wears and the style of their hairs can indicate to which genre they are in but the most obvious point would be the style of music. They use guitars, drums and bass. They have no need for auto tune in their voices.
3. Do you think this track represents a high or lo fi video? Why?
I feel this video is fairly lo fi as the image quality looks pretty basic yet it is quite effective watching the band play in the streets and small locations. What i like about it is that it is different to pop artists who will have an extremely high budget for their video and shoot it everywhere across the world to try and make themselves look better where as i think this is more effective as it tells me they are just trying to be themselves.
4. What videos would be comparable? Publish and label some interesting stills from the same genre.
Similar videos to this would probably be something from the same band like 'No Kind Words' or something which uses similar locations like the Artic Monkeys' 'Fluorescent Adolescent'
5. Find out the budget for one of the above examples.
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6. Give an outline of a treatment
A simple outline of the treatment for us would be that the band would be performing while there is an element of a narrative involved. It may be slightly unclear to the audience what is happening but this is the style we would like to achieve. If we can leave the audience confused or just thinking about the video, we have done what we set out to do. We will have a boy and a girl in the video, possibly in a relationship and then will have the boy leave the girl.
7. Identify suitable locations for filming particular sequences of the music
Well at the start of the song there is a mildly depressing tone to 'William Powers' and 'Always Like this'. I would like to film one character in an urban location with the others in a countryside area. This will hopefully convey how there lives are so different yet they are drawn to each other. We may however just use Camber Sands and the local town, Rye, as the main places in the video.
8. Consider grain of voice. What characters would you use?
What we have been thinking of is that their will be eight people in total, maybe six if we need to cut down. There will be the band and then there will be the four characters, hopefully two boys and two girls. This will then create an interesting contrast between each band member and the characters.
9. What pro-filmic and post-production special affects would be suitable?
We will probably not need to many special effects as we are trying to create something realistic. However what we may decide to do is use black and white when we see each character as it can connote helplessness. We want each character to feel lost so maybe when they find each other we go into colour.
10. Who else would you need to 'employ' to help you with this production?
We would need to employ some of our friends and a band. What we are hoping to do is employ Midnight, a band which recently finished 5th out of 50 in the south east as some of my friends perform in that band. We are also employing Nathans two friends Dan and Lisa to help portray the boy and the girl in a relationship in our video.
How could your use of this form of technology be improved when planning for A2?
With the use of the new HD cameras we will be able to achieve a lot more this year. We will have to practice with the cameras before hand to get used to the style of them and have a play around with the HD features.
How does the use of a camcorder enable you to be creative?
The use of a HD camcorder helps us to be more creative with the shots as the quality will be better but also more importantly we could do things we couldnt do before with the old cameras. The pull back focus is useful and the easiness to upload what you have recorded helps a great deal.
We believe the song portrays a change in time throughout the song and some sort of longing for something or someone. We are going to have the band performing in the background of the narrative as if they were just extras and have like a pull back focus to the narrative that they will be over looking, as if they were story tellers and the audience are listening to his story. Our initial idea for the narrative is following some friends or a couple that split up and are longing to be back together and at the end of the song they are back together or they both find someone new. This will fit with the last part of the music around the start of the penultimate verse as this bit has a group of people singing it.
There is love There is lust There is love fuelled lust Little thing called trust Which I must not break, for you Forsake, all others but you
There are storms I must brave There are things I must do Things I must not do to break, for you Forsake, all others for you
And I'll see you when you're older When we're older And I'll see you when you're older When we're older
Strong arms they held you to it That's what they are singing in the shadows There's all this nonsense in the dark
We may bend No doubt stretch Pull at the seams Of these four legged jeans For what is at stake I will not break, for you Forsake, all others for you
And I'll see you when you're older When we're older And I'll see you when you're older When we're older
And in faith I left you to it That's what they sing in the shadows There's all this nonsense in the dark Left you in strong arms Two strong arms that held you through it And I blew it And I blew it
Now now now now now There's something in it Now now now now now We've grown up with it Now now now now now We know, if that's enough Then that's enough for Now now now now now There's something in it Now now now now now We've grown up with it Now now now now now We know, if that's enough Then that's enough for now
This is another music video by The Maccabees. It is called 'Love You Better' and in the video basically you see the band performing but they have a filter over them with multi-coloured glow around them.
This is an indie track, which could be seen as more alternatiev or punk, but i would deffinately say they have firm routes in indie. You can tell this by the way the bands image is portrayed and the way they have very low fi videos and the clothes that they where all fit in with the indie band lifestyle. The Maccabees already have a clearly defined target audience as they fit into a group of other indie bands that all target the same people, this makes them a comercially viable band that are easy to sell, as the people who are into their style of music have already been defined through other groups.
Do you think this track represents a hi or low fi video? why?
I think this track is deffinately a low fi video as the feel of the song gives me the impression a low fi production. The lead singers voice gives the sound that is very indie and I feel that indie songs usually suit having a low fi production and can look quite jarring with a very high fi video.
What videos would be comparable?
I would say that mumford and sons could be quite comparable to this song as they both have the same indie slightly querky feel to then and both seem to do quite different things in some of there music videos like in mumford and sons - the cave, where they just ride around on scooters for most of the video.
Identify suitable locations for filming parts of the video.
I think that two different locations that are pretty much opposites to each other would be appropriate, this would show the divide between the two characters and that they are far apart from each other. For example camber sands and a starkly different urban location for example london or brighton as this would reinforce the ideas of the lyrics.
Consider grain of voice, what characters would you see?
I see quite a young singer in his early 20s as the voice gives that kind of feel. And i would see this as deffinately a performance and narrative based video switching between the narrative and performance quite quickly. I see something that reinforces the lyrics and puts across a compelling and nearly like a short film kind of feel, keeping the audience interested
What pro filmic and post production effects would be appropriate.
I would consider using rather subtle post production effects maybe some filters and just adjusting the levels on the images, I would consider using a few transitions in the video but anything that was completely overt could change the feel of the video, and make it seem quite amateur.
Who else would you need to employ to complete this video.
There would need to be some other actors besides the band as these would be used for the narrative, there would also need to be two actors a male and a female to take the two lead roles that the narrative is based around. Due to the large number of people there may have to be more people to be able to transport everyone involved and all of the instruments.
This is the track we have decided to do a music video on. We like this song as it has elements of sadness within the lyrics yet towards the end of the song it is an upbeat classic. The Maccabees are a indie rock band who have had hits such as 'Love You Better' and 'Toothpaste Kisses'.
As Nathan said below we would like to go as abstract as possible within reason as such as the video below which Nathan has posted, the budget will be quite high. As we are doing the video on pretty much no budge we will have to be imaginative in what we do. I would like to take inspiration from many videos such as 'I Can Talk' by Two Door Cinema Club or 'Spanish Sahara' by Foals. Both can be seen below.
In the video above there are many meat shots at the start showing the band. The cutting rate is very fast as the image switches between each band member. This shows the audience the band right at the start so they know who they are.
I really like the Foals video as they go to a unique location, which obviously we cant do but it is completely different to the normal video which would be kept close to home and either in a town or a studio.
I agree with Owen in how we should try and break the boundries of making a music video and be indie and not mainstream in the way we do things. After doing the opeing to our film which tried to stay in the boundries of filmaking I think it would be a good idea to try and do something very different and abstract. Which would push me out of my comfort zone of making videos. This is an idea of how abstract I would like to go but obviously something like this has quite high budget. I like the concect of this video and the way they personify an everyday object in this case matchstick cases. The way the way we follow one matchstick 'person' enhances the 'reality' we are being shown in this video.
This is my second mood board and is similar to the first one yet is focuses more on indie and alternative rocks bands such as Muse and Arcade Fire. We are still deciding on a track but we have limited it down to a few bands and tracks one of which include Arcade Fire's 'My Body Is A Cage'. I looked into Bands such as Mumford and Sons, Muse, Arcade Fire and radiohead to provide inspiration and options for song selection. Sigh No More, the number one debut album from Mumford and Sons is a mix of Country music with hints of indie involved. I looked at this band as they have only made three music videos and they have some very good songs towards the end of their album which they dont plan to release as singles.
Initially we were going to do the Arcade Fire song 'My Body is a Cage' but as things have changed we may either stay with that song or choose another. Personally i don't mind what we do but i would really like to go all out on a music video and make it as abstract and weird as possible yet leaving subtle hints to the consumer about the storyline and plot as I'm hoping to do a story based narrative.
We have looked at this in class and it is an incredible spectacle as it is a story based narrative from Plan B's View. There are two songs before which are also connected but are before this one in the storyline. They are ' Stay Too Long' and 'She Said'.
The thing i like about this video is that the camera effects are amazing, for example Plan B moves in and out of focus of the camera which really creates a feel that he is emotionally upset as he is moving about so much. I think the video for this song is so effective because of his body language, it makes it realistic and believable.
The video we are strongly considering to be the song we create a music video is 'My Body Is A Cage' by Arcade Fire. We like this song as the possibilities to create an abstract music video are quite vast. The song itself is quite mellow but powerful which we hope we help us to make a music video to match the feelings of the song.
This is my first music mood board and i took inspiration from the indie genre to come up with these bands for my mood board. I have seen Bombay Bicycle Club, The Drums and The Maccabees all play live at the NME awards show and they were all fantastic. To comliment these indie bands i put brit pop legends Blur in as i enjoy their music and their video 'Park Life'.
In order to develop this mood board i would look further into the indie genre and look at what makes a band indie and how they become an icon in their genre. Bands like this would include Arcarde Fire who's roots are firm in the indie genre evven though they are kinda related to the alternative rock genre. They show this through there use of fashion, icons and just their general style of music
