Our music video (William Powers by The Maccabees) uses and develops conventions of real media products by using similar techniques and thought processes to create a unique video that stands up to repeatability.
As you can see above and below we follow the video with two main parts; the band and the couple of the narrative.
There is a clear distinction between the narrative and the band shots with different filters layered over each one to create them more unique and to stand out. This conforms to other media products conventions as with performance and narrative based videos they want the audience to notice the difference and therefore enhancing Dyers two key paradoxes. I will come onto this in more detail later on.
In our video we use a fast cutting rate which is very conventional to normal music videos. A bit we struggle on at first was the lip syncing and the cutting rate of shots in time with the music. Eventually, with the help of the drama studio shots, we overcame this. Here is an example of some of the lip syncing in the video.
This shot above of Ryan singing 'There are storms' is perfectly in time with the music and lyrics and to help enhance this we cut the shot just before in time with the music to see Ryan sing those lyrics. Although this is an 'indie' genre of music we actually conform to the pop conventions of a music video where we have a performance and a narrative with lip syncing and close ups of the band and couple.
With the shots we have taken we have tried to create a simplistic video however when it came to editing we were far from simplistic as we used many effects to create a unique video. For example on the shot above alone we have created a pre-set filter which has upped the sepia in the video to make the beach shots with the couple in look dreamy and out of this world.
Furthermore what I think turns this video from a simplistic one to one of more complexity is the fact we have the narrative that is slightly unclear and is there for the audience to interpret in their own way. Add this too the band shots and the occasional shots that involve both of them create a slightly more complex video that people can interpret in their own way.
Above shows most of the band in the drama studio. For these shots, we tried to stick with the indie type of mise-en-scene with a polo top for the lead singer, a cardigan for the drummer and a rock T-shirt for the bassist. This makes the band image look normal and more ordinary which is what we wanted. It makes the audience feel like they can be part of a band because of the simplistic clothing of these band members.
For the mise-en-scene with the narrative shots of the couple, we again went for an ordinary selection of clothes with the male only wearing a polo top and jeans with the girl wearing a top and skirt with a cardigan.
This is an example of a close up of the female in our video, overlooking the beach and sea of Camber Sands. This conforms to conventions however it is evident in most videos that close ups are used.
This is the close up of the couple, showing emotions between the two and furthering the narrative between these two characters.
Dyer
When applying Dyer's critical framework to this video we can see that the bands star image is created through the performance in the drama studio. It makes them look ordinary as it gives the audience the impression that they are just 'rocking out' as a band by themselves. This is contrasted with the fact they perform on the dunes of Camber Sands which makes them look extraordinary as no one would normally do this. Also, with the characters looking ordinary it makes the video more accessible for the audience as they can relate to the characters.
With the 'dreamy' feel of this music video with the dissolves and different saturation levels in the narrative and band shots it makes the bands star image mysterious yet not intimidating. After consuming this video you are left wanting more and this conforms to Dyers work.
This is the lead guitarist on the dunes by himself with the wind blowing in his face. This creates a star image for him as someone who is cool and furthermore this makes the video look post modern.
Another aspect of our video that makes it post modern would be the dissolve effect, which is used heavily throughout, as you can see above. This creates a video that looks different to most but it keeps in line with the storyline without really challenging any conventions. It looks normal in our video as the video is always switching from the narrative and performance; it looks natural for them to link towards the end.
This is one of the final shots we see, right at the end of the video. We dissolved the band shot of them in the drama studio in to the Camber Sands shot with the male walking away from the female, and copied the effect twice.
We also look at Goodwins theory of there being a link between the lyrics of the song and the video. For example, the lyrics ' There are storms' show visual links as we have the lead singer walking along the edge of the sea with the wind in his face, possibly connoting the 'storm'.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
This is our final digipack for The Maccabees album 'Wall of Arms'. The style of the album is slightly different to that of the main product in such that it contrasts each other. This is because the digipack is all black or white with no colour what so ever whereas the music video uses a wide range of colour between the shots in the drama studio and the shots in Camber Sands.
The effectiveness generated from these contrasting products are that it doesn't necessarily conform to conventions. The digipack looks and feels different from the main product, which is exactly what I wanted to do; create something so different to the video so it stands out as its own product. Furthermore there are some links to the main text through the bands togetherness. What I mean by this is they perform together on Camber Sands and in the drama studio and are all together on the front cover. They are a band but it also looks like the relationship between the band shows another link to the narrative of caring for each other.
This is the front cover of the digipack. I used photoshop heavily here to create this final cover. What I believe is effective in this cover is that all the band look present to the audience, apart from the lead singer Ryan. He is looking away, almost as if he didn't care about the photo being taken. Furthermore you could interpret it as him posing for the camera but whichever way you look at it I believe it creates a band image of 'cool' and 'stylistic'.
The positioning of the guitarist as well; with his head just over laying 'Of' in the cover makes us feel slightly different about it. In a way it shows the band members to all be unique in a way with Ryan looking away, Oli standing up straight with his arms crossed, the bassist on the left with his arms by his side and finally the drummer with his arms across his stomach.
This is one of the inside covers for the digipack and again I have used the filters on photoshop to create this. It is just a simple stamp however it contrasts the main product with Ryan in black and white, almost like a cartoon, leaning on the microphone stand. If you look closer, he is positioned to the right of the background, meaning you can see The Maccabees text running along underneath Ryan.
This is the other side of the digipack. What we have done is taken the two main band members in our video, (Ryan the singer and Oli the lead guitarist) and used the stamp effect to make them look different for the digipack. This however is a key link to the main product as it shows the two main members of the band in the video and on the digipack. This makes them look extraordinary compared to the other band members but it also makes them look unique, such as Oli playing the guitar solo on the dunes of Camber Sands.
We also have a link between the digipack and Nathans advert, this being the text running behind the digipack of 'The Maccabees'. This effect makes the digipack and advert stand out compared to other products as wherever you look you will always see the band name, which I believe is important as it makes people stop and look at the products.
The Iconic and Linguistic Signs
On the front cover we have the band addressing the audience with first person mode of address, apart from Ryan who looks away. The leading line on this front cover of the digipack would be starting right in the middle and from there you would go down looking through the band members and then you would follow up to the top of the digipack cover where all the text is.
From this cover you could interpret one of the iconic signs to be the band as a whole. We are shown the band all next too each other. The linguistic signs would be the album name and the bands name written in different styles of text all over each cover.
From this cover you could interpret one of the iconic signs to be the band as a whole. We are shown the band all next too each other. The linguistic signs would be the album name and the bands name written in different styles of text all over each cover.
There are links between the ancillary texts and the music video. For example the black and white colour choice links in with the desaturated band shots in the video. However the audience may not pick up on this so we have a picture of the band on the front cover to link with them performing in the drama studio and Camber Sands.
This is the old digipack and we felt it didnt link to the main product of the video. It didnt have the 'indie' feel we wanted and as it was in colour it didnt link with the desaturated band shots in the video.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In the construction phase, we were lucky enough to be able to use High Definition cameras for the first time this year. This proved extremely useful as the quality was just incredible compared to last years work with the older cameras.
The camera above is very similar to the actual cameras we used. The quality of picture and sound were far superior to the old cameras and with the help of this new technology we were able to create something which not only looks good but sounds good also.
Obviously the cameras played a significant part in the capturing of our music video however without Adobe Premiere 8 we would have no edited footage. This programme, although slow at first, was the reason why we produced such a good standard of work.
The usefulness of Premiere 8 helped us not only create a pre-set filter that Nathan made but also allowed us to drop dissolves and fades wherever we wanted. For the animatic, it was also useful as it allowed us to put in snapshots of our storyboarding as well as actual footage so we could get an idea of what stage we were at. That was the other useful ability of Premiere 8. It enabled us to drop a screenshot where we wanted so we could create an animatic.
The snap shot above is that of Camber Sands, with the filter over it. As you can see the filter was useful as it created that sepia feel we were looking for.
This is the other pre-set filter that was created with the help of Premiere 8. This filter was for all the band shots and we made it slightly darker, with a little bit more red, to contrast the Camber shots but also to cover up parts we didn't want the audience to see; such as the lines on the back of the drama studio wall.
For the research before we made any of our video, we used resources on the Internet such as YouTube and Google to help us not only find inspiration or something we could use in our video but to also find out background information about the band we were trying to imitate and their style in general.
YouTube was probably the most useful resource we had, as there are hundreds of thousands of music videos on there which we could watch and take tips from. Some examples of videos I enjoyed and helped me in making this video are below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaVE4WVlsDQ - Spanish Sahara by Foals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPUlichsfQg - Wires by Athlete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDCMth8poM - I Can Talk by Two Door Cinema Club
Another resource which we used was the social networking site, Facebook. I used this site to distribute our music video, and we now have over three hundred views so it shows that it can be useful.
When it came to planning we used a few things to help us. The main thing was the blog. We used this to record all our bits of research, all our notes on construction and to evaluate everything we have done. Blogger has definitely been the website we have used the most as it is simple and easy to use to record everything we are doing but also as we can link videos and images into our work.
For the evaluation again we used blogger to answer the questions. We did this as it is easy to see your own contribution but also because you can upload images, snapshots and videos of your work. Furthermore we felt that as there was a lot of information to put for each question, blogger would have been the most appropriate way to record the evaluation.
No comments:
Post a Comment