Friday, 15 July 2016
Task 8 - Analysis of a music video (Arctic Monkeys)
This is their music video as I couldn't put it into the SlideShare as PowerPoint wouldn't allow me to:
Task 8 - Analysis of a music video (Nirvana)
The video that I am analysing is Nirvana's song Smells Like Teen Spirit, this is the music video for it:
Camera:
- Nirvana's music video has a lot of straight cuts and camera pans throughout, the camera pans and straight cuts are present clearly when the tone of the music changes. You can see this at the start when the music and beat is slower the video has straight cuts but most of the shots in-between have camera pans as the music is slower and smoother and is reflected through the pans, however in the chorus the beat starts to get faster and the camera stops panning and starts to do just straight cuts as the beat is faster and therefore "jumpier" and is reflected by the straight cuts. Goodwin's theory states that the beat of the music can influence the music video and that is seen quite clearly here.
Sound:
- The beat of the song changes throughout the video as it starts off smooth and when the chorus kicks in at 'With the lights out, it's less dangerous' the beat starts to get faster and inturn the actions in the video start to become more frantic along with the camera shots. The lyrics and the tone of the song get reflected well in the layout of the set as it is very dark and creates a negative atmosphere. This can be proven through Goodwin's theory that the actions in the music video match the lyrics or sound either in tone or in what the words are trying to say, you can see that is present here as the lyrics and beat of the music clearly powerfully dictate the music video.
Mise-en-scene:
- The costumes worn by the band and the audience in the stands are mostly dark colour which reflects the emotion the song releases as it creates a dark and gloomy effect, this complements the lighting in the shots as well. The main props throughout the video are the bands instruments, this is common for a band of their genre (rock) as this is the common theme across most rock bands music videos for example in Muse's video Uprising.
Editing:
-For this video to match the darkness of the props and setting of the video they added a brown tint to the video to make the video seem like they were in a dingey and dusky building, this effect gives the video connotations that the band playing there should not be there as if it is an abandoned building. They also used a slow motion effect when the drummer flicks his hair up and down when playing the drums at 1:09, this is to put an emphasis on the drummer and the passion that he puts into playing his music and this is 'head banging' which is a dance move of this genre of music.
Thursday, 14 July 2016
Task 9 - Analysis of a digipak (Foo Fighters)
The front:
The front of the digipak shows all the band members twice from different angles and a range of colours in a pattern over their faces, this makes them stand out from the solid black background and the fontis bright red which matches the colour pattern on the bands faces as well as standing out from the dark backgorund. The whole front cover is very minimalistic which could reflect the personality of the band which is very simplistic without entering the hollywood fame and keeping themselves in the media all the time like other bands.
The back cover:
The back cover of the digipak has an artistic abstract pattern to the back and includes some of the colours on the pattern of the front cover to continue the pattern and artistic feel of the album covers. The font of the track names are in white with some bits of yellow in which makes these bright colours stand out from the dark red and black background that they are placed upon, they are also in an absract pattern like the front of the digipak as the words have yellow triangles that connect to each other.
The CD design:
The CD has a dark background and the absract yellow and grey patterns on the front can create different images for the audiences to see as they can be interpreted in many different ways. The yellow and grey colours coninue onto the font to make it stand out against the dull dark balck background, the font colours allow it to merge in with the background and could signify that the band isn't important and that they should be known for their art.
The front of the digipak shows all the band members twice from different angles and a range of colours in a pattern over their faces, this makes them stand out from the solid black background and the fontis bright red which matches the colour pattern on the bands faces as well as standing out from the dark backgorund. The whole front cover is very minimalistic which could reflect the personality of the band which is very simplistic without entering the hollywood fame and keeping themselves in the media all the time like other bands.
The back cover:
The back cover of the digipak has an artistic abstract pattern to the back and includes some of the colours on the pattern of the front cover to continue the pattern and artistic feel of the album covers. The font of the track names are in white with some bits of yellow in which makes these bright colours stand out from the dark red and black background that they are placed upon, they are also in an absract pattern like the front of the digipak as the words have yellow triangles that connect to each other.
The CD design:
The CD has a dark background and the absract yellow and grey patterns on the front can create different images for the audiences to see as they can be interpreted in many different ways. The yellow and grey colours coninue onto the font to make it stand out against the dull dark balck background, the font colours allow it to merge in with the background and could signify that the band isn't important and that they should be known for their art.
Task 9 - Analysis of a digipak (Nirvana)
The front:
The front cover is very different to most album covers out there as it is a image that audiences were shocked by and some did not like it at all, however this album cover made the album very memorable and caused Nirvana's fame to take off as the album was so successful. The image can be interpreted in many different ways, I believe that Nirvana were trying to show that there was a lot of greed in the world as the image represents something so innocent and pure can be tainted by greed so easily if it is there on a hook.
The back cover:
The back cover continues the water-like theme as if you are looking at the effect of the sun through the water on the bottom of a swimming pool, this allows the font for the song names to stand out on the right side of the back cover as they are black and in the Nirvana style font. The same strange pictures continue onto the back also with the monkey in a dark red fiery background, this is probably to draw audience's attention tot he back as without it the back would be pretty dull in colour.
CD design:
The CD desgn carries on the water theme as it has lots of turquoise lines going over it giving it a wavey design, the font on the CD also gives it a wave feel to continue the water theme throughout. The font is a bold black and the band name is in the classic Nirvana font, this makes the Band name and the album name stand out from the simple coloured background as the colours are not as promenatent as the black writing.
The front cover is very different to most album covers out there as it is a image that audiences were shocked by and some did not like it at all, however this album cover made the album very memorable and caused Nirvana's fame to take off as the album was so successful. The image can be interpreted in many different ways, I believe that Nirvana were trying to show that there was a lot of greed in the world as the image represents something so innocent and pure can be tainted by greed so easily if it is there on a hook.
The back cover:
The back cover continues the water-like theme as if you are looking at the effect of the sun through the water on the bottom of a swimming pool, this allows the font for the song names to stand out on the right side of the back cover as they are black and in the Nirvana style font. The same strange pictures continue onto the back also with the monkey in a dark red fiery background, this is probably to draw audience's attention tot he back as without it the back would be pretty dull in colour.
CD design:
The CD desgn carries on the water theme as it has lots of turquoise lines going over it giving it a wavey design, the font on the CD also gives it a wave feel to continue the water theme throughout. The font is a bold black and the band name is in the classic Nirvana font, this makes the Band name and the album name stand out from the simple coloured background as the colours are not as promenatent as the black writing.
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Research into a record label
The Warner Bros. Record label was started in 1958 as a subsidiary from the main parent comany Warner Bros and the chairman/CEO is Cameron Strang. The record label has around 113 artists spanning across many different genres from pop (Jason Derulo) to indie rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Friday, 8 July 2016
Prelim - Photography task
- Program settings ^^ (top to bottom): -4, -2, 0, 3.
- Aperture settings (below) (top to bottom): f/2.8.
- Shutter speed (below): 1/6400.
Friday, 1 July 2016
Task A - Brainstorming ideas
David and I started to brainstorm some ideas, we haven't got that many or started our storyboard but we had loads of ideas for the video and needed to discuss and write them down. These are the notes that we wrote down and the picture that Mrs took of us when we were brainstorming to provide proof:
Task 2 - Others work part two
Research:
In Rory Ford's research he was very detailed and explained his work very well so it was easily understandable and provided a lot of evidence through pictures and YouTube videos. However he could have used other mediums to display his evidence or his work for example through SlideShare or through GIFs just to make it more interesting.
Planning:
In his research he did adequate research to start on his music video and got the letter of premission from Warner, however it lacked detail and intense preparation which I feel this task needs and he also didn't use many mediums to display his work.
Music Video:
He captured the dark and casual theme of the indie rock genre in the video. However the video didn't look very professional as the shots were very shakey, the lighting showed the shadow of the camera man on the walls and some of the actions the actors were doing were ridiculous as they didnt fit what the music was playing. For example when one of the actors is rolling on the floor playing the guitar the music is slow and doesn't have a guitar solo or anything that would mean he would be doing that.
Digipak:
The strengths of his digipak were that his front cover photo was amazing as it was a really hard shot to take of the insect, it made it look very professional and made it unique to the others that I have seen. However the weakness was that the pictures near the end were a bit plain and the font on the back didn't match the front and the overall theme of the digipak.
Magazine advert:
The strengths of his magazine advert were that it shows the band to people so they know who they are and the font really stands out at the top. The weakenesses are that it is very plain and the website name at the bottom had a weird grey background that didnt really fit the magazine advert and drew my attention to that rather than the advert itself.
Evaluation:
His evaluation was very different to the rest of his work as he had included lots of detail in each section and actually used different mediums to display his work however the only thing that I could point out as a flaw in his evaluation was that he had a few posts that were just text only and he could have included some pictures in them.
In Rory Ford's research he was very detailed and explained his work very well so it was easily understandable and provided a lot of evidence through pictures and YouTube videos. However he could have used other mediums to display his evidence or his work for example through SlideShare or through GIFs just to make it more interesting.
Planning:
In his research he did adequate research to start on his music video and got the letter of premission from Warner, however it lacked detail and intense preparation which I feel this task needs and he also didn't use many mediums to display his work.
Music Video:
He captured the dark and casual theme of the indie rock genre in the video. However the video didn't look very professional as the shots were very shakey, the lighting showed the shadow of the camera man on the walls and some of the actions the actors were doing were ridiculous as they didnt fit what the music was playing. For example when one of the actors is rolling on the floor playing the guitar the music is slow and doesn't have a guitar solo or anything that would mean he would be doing that.
Digipak:
The strengths of his digipak were that his front cover photo was amazing as it was a really hard shot to take of the insect, it made it look very professional and made it unique to the others that I have seen. However the weakness was that the pictures near the end were a bit plain and the font on the back didn't match the front and the overall theme of the digipak.
Magazine advert:
The strengths of his magazine advert were that it shows the band to people so they know who they are and the font really stands out at the top. The weakenesses are that it is very plain and the website name at the bottom had a weird grey background that didnt really fit the magazine advert and drew my attention to that rather than the advert itself.
Evaluation:
His evaluation was very different to the rest of his work as he had included lots of detail in each section and actually used different mediums to display his work however the only thing that I could point out as a flaw in his evaluation was that he had a few posts that were just text only and he could have included some pictures in them.
Task 11 - Music video idea (Saturation filter)
In the music video 'Why'd You Only Call Me When Your High?' by The Arctic Monkeys throughout the whole music video there is a saturation filter which makes the look of the shots look grainy, I think this is a good filter to add to the shots as it suits the genre and the look of the music video as it is very dim lit and casual. Here it is in the Arctic Monkeys video:
Task 11 - Music video ideas (Out of focus)
When watching the music video for Arctic Monkeys song 'Why'd You Only Call Me When Your High?', we saw an out of focus background shot right at the start of the video, this is good as it really makes the artist stand out in the scene. In the GIF down below you can see that the bar in the background is blurred.
Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Prelim task - Evaluation
Overall I thought our music video was good but it definitely could have been better as some of the shots were very shaky or they were not completely the same as the real video. However despite those flaws we followed the story of the music video and what events happened in the video, If we had the right equipment and more time to prepare and film then we might have gotten a better result and finished product at the end.
Some problems that we encountered when doing this process was trying to get the scenes matched up perfectly with the original, even though this will not be a problem for my final product as it is a music video of my own creation I could have rectified it by having the original video in the bottom corner from the start as I did not when I first started putting the clips together. We also did not have enough props and costume when doing the filming due to lack of time to do it, this means that in my music video I will make it a key point to make sure that props and costumes are properly researched and used in my video to make it more professional.
Evaluating the process.
I feel that the process was very useful as it really showed me how hard it is to make a music video and make sure that it matches the track that we would be using, without this I think everyone would have struggled to adapt and learn from their mistakes that they made this time round for their finished product. From this process I have learnt how important it will be to plan thoroughly for our final product and to make sure that all my shots are watched back thoroughly to make sure that they are the best that they can be and to the standard that I had on my storyboard/plan/head.Some problems that we encountered when doing this process was trying to get the scenes matched up perfectly with the original, even though this will not be a problem for my final product as it is a music video of my own creation I could have rectified it by having the original video in the bottom corner from the start as I did not when I first started putting the clips together. We also did not have enough props and costume when doing the filming due to lack of time to do it, this means that in my music video I will make it a key point to make sure that props and costumes are properly researched and used in my video to make it more professional.
Task 3 - Marketing packet research: Digipak
On the back of the digipak it lists all of the tracks on the album, it has very simple and small font to display the tracks. However this type of font might not draw the customers eye but they focus mainly on the background art where it shows the band by a lake much like the front cover however they look more like silhouettes than people. This background is what the album relies on to make the customer look closer at the back, it also reflects the laid back characteristics of an indie rock artist/band.
The gatefold/book style paperboard inside the album is very different to the front of the digipak and the look of the CD, inside it contains the words to the songs featured on the CD and the background to them are very colourful and each has a different theme which links to the song or creates a feel as to what the emotion in the song that is conveyed. As you can see from the pictures down below they are very different to the other pictures of the digipak that I have shown, this helps show a different side to the artists that you can only see if you buy the album therefore connecting with their most loyal fans.
The CD inside the Minutes to Midnight album is very simplistic, it shows the main band logo and name in dark colours which really stand out on the CD. It also has the track names and their numbers on the outer rim of the CD which add to the design of the CD. The simplistic design of the CD represents the laid back and relaxed nature of the band and the genre.
For the Minutes to Midnight album they also made a poster to go with it, the poster followed the same theme as the outside of the album where the background was entirely black and white with simplistic font to go on it. However as it is a poster which is designed to attract customers to buy the album they had made the band name very big and a unique font to make it stand out, also they put their logo in the middle of the poster and made it big and red which makes it stand out on the poster consequently makes the poster more eye catching due to the contrast in colours. Here is the poster:
Prelim task - My contribution
Overall I contributed the same number of hours as my group as I spent two hours planning and filming in the first lesson and then at the next lesson I spent two hour editing the music video with my group, therefore altogether spending four hours in the production of this music video.
In our music video there wasnt much lipsyncing throughout as the music video was for a film called 'Jennifer's Body' with Megan Fox starring in it, therefore in the scenes where it featured scenes from the film they didn't lipsync as that would have made the film weird and confusing for the audience. In one of the scenes where I am the solo singer on stage you can see my mouth lipsync words, however these were not the words of the song as in the video that scene is from the film so he is singing something completely different therefore I made up a sentence to act like him.
In our music video there wasnt much lipsyncing throughout as the music video was for a film called 'Jennifer's Body' with Megan Fox starring in it, therefore in the scenes where it featured scenes from the film they didn't lipsync as that would have made the film weird and confusing for the audience. In one of the scenes where I am the solo singer on stage you can see my mouth lipsync words, however these were not the words of the song as in the video that scene is from the film so he is singing something completely different therefore I made up a sentence to act like him.
Prelim task - Editing
We all took turns editing the music video and made sure that the work that the other people did in the group was correct and to the best possible standard it could have been. Therefore I cannot show specific parts that I edited as we all contributed equally to the editing of the music video, however I can show you the editing bay that we used to edit:
One of the things about my editing process that I would have changed is to make sure that the real video was put in the bottom corner of the screen so that it would be easier to piece the clips we had made together, therefore it would have took less time to edit and made sure that all of our clips were properly timed to make sure that we could get it close to the original as possible.
One of the things about my editing process that I would have changed is to make sure that the real video was put in the bottom corner of the screen so that it would be easier to piece the clips we had made together, therefore it would have took less time to edit and made sure that all of our clips were properly timed to make sure that we could get it close to the original as possible.
Prelim task - Filming
When filming my preliminary task we shared the task of filming between the group so that we could all get a go at filming, I did quite a bit of filming as I wasn't acting in the preliminary task that much as a lot of the scenes were for the girls to do to keep consistancy. Filming was challenging as we had to make sure that we got the shots right to successfully recreate the real video, also a lot of the shots that the real video had used had been done with special equipment therefore it was hard to recreate the shots to match the original music video. However I think that we did well with the filming despite not having the same equipment as the real video had, we could have done a better job had we had more time to film with proper preparation and the right equipment.
The shots that I filmed are down below:
The shots that I filmed are down below:
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Task 5 part two - Research into Indie rock
- This is music for the band I am going to use, you can hear at the very start the quiet instrumental sounds that then turns into the main riff and the lyrical sequence.
Task 5 - Research into Indie rock
Indie rock is an alternative rock genre from the UK founded in the 1980s, examples of Indie rock bands past and present are Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes and the original main founders of Indie rock: The Smiths.
Typically in Indie rock music videos the band/actors are dressed in dark and casual clothes, for example in The Kooks music video of 'Naive' the main character is dressed in a black leather jacket and black jeans.
In Indie rock music videos they also don't have a variety of props, the common prop that they use in the videos are their own instruments such as guitars, drums, bass and microphone. A good example of this being used is in The Smiths song 'This Charming Man'.
The way that the actors convey their emotions in their music videos is very minimalistic as they keep a straight face and don't show how they are feeling. However you can see emotion in their faces in some Indie rock artists music video as they focus on the narrative of the video and therefore need to show emotion. An example of this is in The 1975's music video 'Chocolate' as the lead singer can be seen conveying emotion in his face when he is with the mystery woman.
Typically in Indie rock music videos the band/actors are dressed in dark and casual clothes, for example in The Kooks music video of 'Naive' the main character is dressed in a black leather jacket and black jeans.
In Indie rock music videos they also don't have a variety of props, the common prop that they use in the videos are their own instruments such as guitars, drums, bass and microphone. A good example of this being used is in The Smiths song 'This Charming Man'.
The way that the actors convey their emotions in their music videos is very minimalistic as they keep a straight face and don't show how they are feeling. However you can see emotion in their faces in some Indie rock artists music video as they focus on the narrative of the video and therefore need to show emotion. An example of this is in The 1975's music video 'Chocolate' as the lead singer can be seen conveying emotion in his face when he is with the mystery woman.
Task 11 - Music video ideas (Instrument focus)
Whilst watching Paper Shop Dave's music video 'Next Day' I saw another shot that I wanted to use in my music video as the music I am going to use has a few guitar rifts and strong drum beats in the background, therefore I would like to use a close up on the strings of the guitar and a close up of the drums when this is happening as it brings the beats to life and doesn't just focus on the lead singer. I created a GIF of the example I saw on the music video:
Boom clip
The clip Boom was made by MTV and Adobe to encourage young film makers to create their own music videos and compete against others to win the competition, they then created a video to give advice to the people entering on what to do and what not to do when making their music video. This is some of the advice that they gave which I will pay a lot of attention to when creating my own music video.
- The music video you want to create needs to have a clear beginning, middle and end.
- When preparing to plan your music video you need to listen to it over and over and write down whatever comes to mind as these are your natural ideas.
- A woman on the video really stressed the importance of making a storyboard, I think this is very important thing to do as it makes sure that your sticking to your original ideas so the video flows correctly without confusing the viewers.
- Before you go to shoot your video you need to be really prepared, this means good research and organisation which is key for planning.
- Location is another key factor as it draws the viewer in as if it isn't interesting then it will make the whole video look bland.
- Angle variety is very important as each different angle can make the shot look better or worse and it can make someone perceive a situation or person in a different way, then once you have finished log every shot to show which is the best one.
- Finally you capture an atmosphere when filming so try to make it fun for the actors as that will portray across to the viewers if they are not having a good time.
Theorists
Theorists.
Adorno:
Adorno believes that capitalists create music videos to give us false needs, false needs are things that we as consumers think matters however it does not for example who is going to die next on your favourite television programme. Adorno said that false needs are created so that it takes away our attention from how much the government is messing up our country.
Hebdige:
Hebdige is the opposite to Adorno as he believed that people interpret music videos differently because we all have free thoughts, this therefore creates subcultures due to our different interpretations for example: emo. These subcultures popularity creates music taste changes in the future as they create niches in the market.
Negus:
Negus believes that there are two ways of thinking about potential artists coming into the market, these are the organic ideology of creativity and the synthetic ideology of creativity. The organic ideology of creativity is a long term solution as it makes sure that the artists success is sustained, it also focuses on albums and the record company enhance the artists image, an example of a organic artist would be Michael Jackson as his legacy in music has been carried on for a long time even after his death.The synthetic ideology of creativity is a short term solution and create a lot of artists that are one to four hit wonders, this means that they focus on singles as the artist might not be around long enough to create an album. The record company acts differently to the organic record company as it constructs the artists image so it isn't actually their real personality. Examples of this are Girls Aloud where they took five single artists and put them together on a singing show to create them, therefore they have artificially created the band.
Dyer:
Dyers main beliefs are to do with the stars in multimedia such as music, radio and television. He believes that stars have key features in common and that a star is an image not a real person, the image is created due to things like advertising as it can brainwash people into thinking that is what the artist is really like. He also states that stars are commodities and that they are consumed on their strength of meaning and that they depend on the subsidiaries in media like TV and Radio to construct their image. He believes in two paradoxes: the first is that a star is ordinary and extra-ordinary at the same time, this means that the ordinary is where you see them going to the supermarket for example as it is a normal thing to do and the extra-ordinary is where they have/do something that isn't normal such as owning a lion as a pet.The second paradox is where the star is absent and also present as people read things about the artist in magazines and it creates the illusion that they know the artist personally whereas in reality they do not.
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