Music Videos: Individual Ideas
Wildfire – Drake
I’m God – Clams Casino
Morph Into Any Shape – Dirty Dike
(No Video)
We Were Children – Tribes
(With Video)
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Group Post: Brighton Reccie (Initial Ideas)
The incorporation of street art with not only add an intresting urban twist on our indie music video, but it will also show a new sense of appreciation to a new and developing artform. Our group will use the artwork as a background for still shots which will be montaged into our final video to show the unity amongst the group (band), as well as relating to ordinary people through using a familar locations.
To also emphasise the companionship amongst the band members we will also include shots of the band eating food in a cafe, where the band shows their true colours by the use of 'banter' as well as a short section for each member of the band to emphasie the collectiveness amongst them.
Group: Concept Development Before Brighton
Tomorrow in Brighton we plan to experiment with pans and various close ups. This is because we have discovered that these types of shot's are common in music videos. We want to film in a location that we could potentially use for our own video - due to the scenery and the beach that could be used for establishing shots.
When filling out the call sheet and risk assessment we found that it is important to plan before we begin shooting. If we have a clear idea of what we want to film and where we want to film it we can save ourselves time and shoot our optimum amount of footage.
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Friday, 21 September 2012
DS: Music video deconstruction
1. Flourescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9I9VBKPiw
Genre - The Arctic monkeys are widely known as an indie rock band. The forms and conventions which makes this apparent in the music video for Flourescent Adolesecent is the concept of rebellion in the form of violence as they fight with clowns. The location is a generic characterstic of such a genre, with gloomy urban areas with large concrete buildings, typically council estates. Slow motion shots are also common as indie rock tracks tend to convey meanings and have a storyline, and this feature allows the audience to fully capture and take in the meanings.
Narrative - The music video according to Goodwin can be seen as amplified as the concept of old friends becoming enemies, is portrayed bizarrely but the concept can still be seen. The idea is not precisely outlined in the music video, but instead is adapted through a slightly changed visual, to not only offer a illustration of the circumstance but then to offer a more entertaining alternative, which conforms to The Arctic Monkey's indie genre. This video is particulary postmodern as it challenges certain stereotypes and norms, such as the clowns being portrayed as agressive. They take certain ideas, challenge them, and put them all into one.
2. Naive - The Kooks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkaMiaRLgvY
Media Language - The band are portrayed as a relatively youthful and almost appear as univeristy students, due to their young appearance and their presence in a nightclub. The purpose of the video is to illustrate the narrative in the song, which can possbily be unclear with just the lyrics, however the music video allows us to see that the lead singer is suggesting the girl that he likes, mistreats him and doesn't realise what he does for her, and also has flings with other boys. This can be represented through the editing, where the footage of the girl watching over the lead singer while he sleeps looking uncertain is juxtaposed to the footage of her mistreating him and spiralling out of control. The CU tracking shots that are used to follow the lead singer also allow us to see the uncertainty and anxiety in his facial expression, as at this time we're aware the girl is away with another man as he looks for her. Mise-en-scene is also used to help portray this message, as we see a MS of the lead singer holding the girls hair for her as she vomits, only for her then to abandon him once more and try it on with another person.
Representation - This band's stars representation is easy to see as he is given prevelance in the music video. His shaggy long hair conforms to his genre of music. He is represented as being sensitive and caring, as the song is about his love and heartbreak from the girl who has betrayed him. His overall star image is a young sensitive indie man. The ideological discourse in this music video is one that challenges generic stereotypes. In most case, it is the man who is unfaithful towards the woman; who then becomes upset over. However it is the opposite in this video as one can clearly see. The male gender is represented as being being wounded and immasculated, whereas the female is represented as being dominant and ruthless. This is a progressive ideology, as it is away from the norm, and a new emerging trend in society. Although appearing in their early twenties or late teens, the video represents them as being older through the issues discussed, however certain mise-en-scene such as location e.g. the messy bedroom portrays them as being young, giving the balance to represent them as young adults.
3. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74
Institution - The Verve had signed with a number of different record labels such as EMI, Hut, Virgin, Parlophone, Vernon Yard. Much of the production value of this band is in the quality of the music and more specifically the nationally recognisable voice of Richard Ashcroft, which can be seen as the band's USP as without the star, the band's sales would drastically decline. Therefore, little emphasis would be placed on the music video in terms of the band's perspective so it's most likely the video was for the most part composed by the record label as artists such as this place much more emphasis on the actual sound of music and rely on that to promote and sell their music.
Audience - Over the years this song has been widely recognised as a British classic, and to some is past it's days of people actually selecting to listen to it. This is due to the song's popularity on the release, it was frequently used in other media films such as films and TV programmes, leading to possible overplaying and people starting to relate the song to a certain film or programme, instead of linking it directly to the artist. Therefore, I feel these days it has more of an ambient viewing, whereas in that past shortly after it's release I certainly see it as having focused viewing.
Narrative - The music video according to Goodwin can be seen as amplified as the concept of old friends becoming enemies, is portrayed bizarrely but the concept can still be seen. The idea is not precisely outlined in the music video, but instead is adapted through a slightly changed visual, to not only offer a illustration of the circumstance but then to offer a more entertaining alternative, which conforms to The Arctic Monkey's indie genre. This video is particulary postmodern as it challenges certain stereotypes and norms, such as the clowns being portrayed as agressive. They take certain ideas, challenge them, and put them all into one.
2. Naive - The Kooks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkaMiaRLgvY
Media Language - The band are portrayed as a relatively youthful and almost appear as univeristy students, due to their young appearance and their presence in a nightclub. The purpose of the video is to illustrate the narrative in the song, which can possbily be unclear with just the lyrics, however the music video allows us to see that the lead singer is suggesting the girl that he likes, mistreats him and doesn't realise what he does for her, and also has flings with other boys. This can be represented through the editing, where the footage of the girl watching over the lead singer while he sleeps looking uncertain is juxtaposed to the footage of her mistreating him and spiralling out of control. The CU tracking shots that are used to follow the lead singer also allow us to see the uncertainty and anxiety in his facial expression, as at this time we're aware the girl is away with another man as he looks for her. Mise-en-scene is also used to help portray this message, as we see a MS of the lead singer holding the girls hair for her as she vomits, only for her then to abandon him once more and try it on with another person.
Representation - This band's stars representation is easy to see as he is given prevelance in the music video. His shaggy long hair conforms to his genre of music. He is represented as being sensitive and caring, as the song is about his love and heartbreak from the girl who has betrayed him. His overall star image is a young sensitive indie man. The ideological discourse in this music video is one that challenges generic stereotypes. In most case, it is the man who is unfaithful towards the woman; who then becomes upset over. However it is the opposite in this video as one can clearly see. The male gender is represented as being being wounded and immasculated, whereas the female is represented as being dominant and ruthless. This is a progressive ideology, as it is away from the norm, and a new emerging trend in society. Although appearing in their early twenties or late teens, the video represents them as being older through the issues discussed, however certain mise-en-scene such as location e.g. the messy bedroom portrays them as being young, giving the balance to represent them as young adults.
3. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74
Institution - The Verve had signed with a number of different record labels such as EMI, Hut, Virgin, Parlophone, Vernon Yard. Much of the production value of this band is in the quality of the music and more specifically the nationally recognisable voice of Richard Ashcroft, which can be seen as the band's USP as without the star, the band's sales would drastically decline. Therefore, little emphasis would be placed on the music video in terms of the band's perspective so it's most likely the video was for the most part composed by the record label as artists such as this place much more emphasis on the actual sound of music and rely on that to promote and sell their music.
Audience - Over the years this song has been widely recognised as a British classic, and to some is past it's days of people actually selecting to listen to it. This is due to the song's popularity on the release, it was frequently used in other media films such as films and TV programmes, leading to possible overplaying and people starting to relate the song to a certain film or programme, instead of linking it directly to the artist. Therefore, I feel these days it has more of an ambient viewing, whereas in that past shortly after it's release I certainly see it as having focused viewing.
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
HL: Festival Poster
Reflection on production
1. Reflect on your use of Photoshop. How does it enable creativity? What were the challenges? How did you overcome them?
Photoshop gave me a great amount of freedom when creating my music festival poster; it allowed a lot of creativity on my behalf due to its easy and user friendly page layout. However there were some challenges especially when the magic stamp tool was selected, as it struggled to follow the line I wanted giving me an inaccurate and poor outcome, however this was solved by adjusting the tool, more specifically by adjusting the size of the cursor and the amount of opacity.
Other challenges included the quality of the images chosen, however this could only really be resolved by finding a larger picture, meaning that the finished image would not look pixilated.
2. List the techniques used in Photoshop. To what effect?
The list of techniques is as follows:
The type tool- this allowed us to enter different texts onto our posters i.e. the festival name, date and acts that are meant to be playing.
The magnetic lasso tool- this meant objects could be cut out of existing images quickly and easily allowing our word to build up at an appropriate rate.
The gradient tool- this meant some acts written on the poster could be boxed, giving a colour contrast when the opacity was adjusted.
The sponge tool- this meant that bright colours could be dulled down, for example this was used on some parts of the strawberry which I thought were too bright, as they would draw the audiences attention away from the actually poster itself.
3. Evaluate your finished product in terms of the brief. How successful were you?
I feel that my music festival poster met all the criteria that was necessary as I used ICT (seeing as I created it on Photoshop). It was also very conventional of other posters as it was based around the poster of ‘Strawberry Music Festival 2009’. I feel it also appealed to the target audience as it used the initial logo which the audience would remember, even if it was used in a completely different way to what the audience would expect. And finally its purpose was very clear, putting the attention on the logo and name of the festival, with the acts given appropriate space around that, with specific logos and fonts which are linked to the different artists.
4. Moving on to print production for the digipak and advert. What advice would you give yourself?
The advice I have given myself is simple, before starting the project I must be sure that I have a clear understanding of what I hope to achieve and how I am going to achieve it. To further help me with this I will research other didgipak’s and advert to see how others have created them.
Monday, 17 September 2012
AS: Music Video Analysis
- Leave Before the Lights Come On- The Arctic Monkeys (2006) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEukS2YN9B8
Representation:
This video focuses on gender representation and the female is represented as vulnerable and mentally unstable. In contrast, the male is seen to be a hero because he’s there by chance at the time that the woman is thinking about taking her life. Through persuasion, he seems to convince her not to, making him appear heroic. As a result, the woman appears reliant on the man.
In the rest of the video, the woman is shown to become attached to the man and it seems she wont leave him alone, portraying the woman as a child, Goffman called this ritualization of subordination. At the end, she goes back to the location at the start and kicks her shoe off the roof again. Another man is walking by, giving the video an enigmatic end because the audience are left wondering if she is mentally unstable or she is just looking for a man.
The dominant value in society is that women are reliant upon men, this is portrayed especially through media forms and advertising and when looking at the ideological discourse in the video it is clear that the women is represented as being reliant upon the man to save her life, as she is portrayed as irresponsible and someone who it seems cannot be trusted.
Narrative:
In the video, there is a relationship between music and visuals. This is because the line “This is a good idea, you wouldn't do it if it wasn't” is accompanied by the woman standing on the roof of a building contemplating suicide. This is known as an illustrative relationship because the lyrics have a literal meaning in relation to the events in the music video. Doing this means that the video comes across with a stronger storyline and has more of an impact upon the viewers.
However there is no relationship between the sound and the visuals. The music doesn't coincide with events on screen. A pattern between the music and features of a music video such as the cutting rate cannot be found and therefore, the relationship is disjunctive.
2. I Will Wait - Mumford and Sons (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kS8RTRi7HA
Audience:
Having been released this year, this video is able to benefit from the current growth and expansion of social networking and web 2.0 - which allows it to open up to an audience on an extremely large scale. Therefore, this video is likely to be consumed through music channels such as MTV as well as the two methods mentioned earlier and this procedure has now become commonplace for music videos. Sites such as YouTube allow an artist or a band to increase the selling content of their track.
The video is likely to be for more ambient viewers due to the lack of events in the video and the relaxing nature of the song.. This means people are more likely to have the music video on whilst doing something else because they're not drawn into a strong narrative like other music videos and are not confronted with strong and fast paced music to accompany it - these sorts of videos would be known as more focused viewing for an audience.
Institution:
For this video, it is the likely that the record label would choose to play this video over TV perhaps through advertising or on a trailer for a TV series. This is because although the music is not very imposing or aggressive it is still easily recognisable and a powerful piece of music.
The lyrics are the most 'powerful' aspect of the video because they're connoting that the individual singing is expressing his desire to wait for his true love - a familiar scenario that is prominent in a number of media texts - especially TV dramas that are built around a love story. Similarly, it could also be used for a film trailer, or as an end piece of music in a film, because the song has a strong underlying message and a familiar theme.
These potential uses of the track are enhanced by the fact that the band is well-known and renowned for strong and powerful and moving songs that are based upon the idea of love, and the implications surrounding it.
3. Esacapee - Architeture in Helsinki - (2012)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EoLsS2tRC0
Genre:
This video has identifiable aspects of the Goodwin model, for example, there is an illustrative relationship between music and visuals. This is because the line "I'm escaping, you're escaping" is accompanied by a shot of a young boy supposedly escaping on a bicycle with balloons on the back. Furthermore, the line "I need to flick the switch and show you how to hide" is followed by a close up of a man driving around suburban streets looking for who we assume is the boy who has escaped in the video.
As well as this, the video has an element of performance from the band juxtaposed in along with the narrative. Goodwin identified this as being common because he said that the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist. Shots such as these are known as 'meat shots' and help to promote the band, as well as maintaining focus on the narrative in order to develop recognisable style.
I believe that this video can be considered as art. This is because it presents a challenging storyline of a young boy who is seen to be 'escaping' therefore the video seems to challenge the ideology that young children should remain safe and dependent rather than the rebellious young boy shown in this video.
Media Language:
The video has a purpose of demonstrating how a young boy is presumably bored and wants to 'escape' and does so by taking a bike and riding away. The social message that is portrayed in this video is that young children can get bored easily in a daily routine and sometimes they want to do something different and became rebellious and escape from authority.
In order to portray this message, the video gives prevalance to the young boy so that the audience are positioned with him on his escape journey. The cuts are mixed between the boy and the band in order to give the band some prevalance as well in order to keep the image of the band prevalant in the video.
The most notable aspect of mise-en-scene in the video is the balloons on the back of the bike, that symoblise freedom for the boy on his escape. In contrast the man pursuing him is in a harsh and large vehicle, compared with the vulnerable boy on just his bike, reflecting the way in which the grown man has authority over the younger boy.
Camera shots include various pans follwoing the boy on his bike, and close up 'meat' shots of the band playing. The pans for the boy on his bike help to show him riding into the distance and convey a sense of never ending freedom, and then when the video cuts back to the close ups of the band abruptly it helps to cut in and out of the storytline - almost as if the audience are checking back on the boy on his journey as he goes along.
Group Post: Pitch Feedback
When we presented our idea for our track we recieved the following feedback:
- We need to consider the lyrics of the video - so that we can then base our video more closely to the lyrics rather than the visual and disjunctive ideas we had in mind.
- We found our track, 'Do Me A Favour' by the Arctic Monkeys suits the genre, and our audience understood what we were trying to create.
- The audience were happy with our ideas regarding costume, and felt that they conformed to the conventions of the genre.
- Finally, the audience also felt strongly in favour of our decision to use low budget urban locations such as housing areas and car parks, because our artist- Arctic Monkeys, are commonly known for music videos with low production values in these sort of locations.
- We decided overall that we wanted to mix performance and narrative as well as some of our own unique shot ideas in the video
DS: Auter Task
Y12 Auteur Research Task
1. Gotye ft. Kimbra
The visual style of this music video is abstract and unique. There is only one set and visual effect which is the painting of the man, and suggest the video to be amplifying the song. I believe this motion of blending him and the woman into the background supports the lyrics as ‘somebody that I used to know’; meaning that they no longer stand out to one another. There are frequent close ups of the artists face as he sings key lyrics to help emphasis the emotion and meaning behind the lyrics.
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2. Mikill Pane – Summer in the City
The visual style of this video is urban combined with a saturated effect to help support the idea of ‘summer in the city’ to make the environment seem brighter and more like summer. The video is a clear narrative as the song is about summer time in urban areas and is supported with a video including the artist and other characters enjoying summer in an urban area. For example, the line ‘barbequing chicken in the pouring rain’ is supported by the visual of him doing so. The inclusion of industrial buildings in the backdrop of most of the shots again conforms to the title of the track.
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The visual style and effect of this music video is strange. While the song was released in 2006, the music video features footage from what appears to be the 1990’s of random
civilians dancing. The faded filter of the filming suggests the time of the footage. This leads to the conclusion that the video is completely disjunctive to the lyrics and track, however the tone and humorous nature of the song means that this seemingly random and meaningless footage works in coordination with the also strange and unsystematic lyrics.
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4. Kings of Leon
The visual style of this music video is particularly simple. It is a basic performance based video, including mainly footage of the band playing. This technique, although simple, is used to emphasis their skill as music artists, as the emphasis is on the quality of their music, not their visuals. Therefore by using a performance based video they can highlight their musical talents, as well as display their rock and roll passion and lifestyle. Although minimal, There are also shots of the band ‘out on the town’ drinking and smoking representing their characters and attitudes.
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5. SBTRKT – Wildfire
Visual style in this video is has a dark wash filter over the footage to create an eerie feel combined with the actual visuals of the supposedly possessed girl. There is only one location in this video, being the bizarre bedroom. There is a frequent dismemberment of the girl’s body through the use of close ups, with emphasis on her deluded eyes and sweat dripping from her body, which helps display the out of the ordinary. The movement of the girl also portays this supernatural idea, as she moves in an inhumane way.
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6. Azealia Banks – 212 ft. Lazy Jay
A noir filter is used in this video to connote an urban and ‘old school’ background. Dismemberment is used on a number of occasions, predominantly focusing on the artist’s mouth as she sings key lyrics. This helps create emphasis on the lyrics and makes them more potent. Azealia Banks is dressed in a childish way, making her infantilised with her Mickey Mouse jumper and pigtails. This portrays her as innocent and vulnerable, which is refuted by her aggressive movements and sexual lyrics. The brick background has a similar effect to the noir filter, which helps to suggest the urban nature of the track.
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The visual style of this video is a very simple one. The camera gives prevalence to the artist by tracking his face with a close up as well as displaying his POV of the surroundings. There is little production value, as the video is almost a prologue of the artists evening, hence why it is a basic style, however effective. The video is very much a narrative one as the camera juxtaposes with the actions of the artist, for example as he says ‘I hate coming to the entrance, just to get bars on my phone’ he is stood at the building entrance attempting to get signal on his mobile phone.
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AS: Music Video Research - Three Initial Ideas
Call it What You Want – Foster the People
Avicii - Superlove
The Killers - Runaways
DS: Music video research
1. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Zephyr; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcRa5Z6LmU
3. David Guetta & Avicii vs Laid Back Luke - Till Sunshine; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDwkZTb59rg
2. The Kooks - Naive; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkaMiaRLgvY
3. David Guetta & Avicii vs Laid Back Luke - Till Sunshine; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDwkZTb59rg
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