0:00- Josh,
Harry and Cameron knock on door, Nick welcomes them they go into living room.
0:18- They are
discussing their math’s homework when they decide to playRockBand, they load it up and start
playing.
0:26- Camera
pans round Nicks head and shot changes to band performance on stage. The crowd
dance, the band playing instruments and crowd singing along.
1:17- Cut to a
changed location to Josh walking through school looking for somewhere to eat
lunch, he finds a bench with a cool group eating their lunch on it. The cool
kids are wearing shades and bandanas. He asks can he sit down, they say no and
threaten him, Josh gets angry after being picked on and finds the inner
strength to beat the cool kids up. He then steals their shades and bandana.
1:67- Cut to
next character and location, the next section is were Harry is walking down an
alley and he is approached by a drunken tramp who is dressed in a penguin suit
which he has found on the streets, the tramp asks him for change and then gets
aggressive, harry then uncomfortably fights back then his inner strength takes
over and he shoves the tramp back off his feet and knocks him out then takes
his penguin suit.
2:17- The next
scene is with Cameron, he is walking through school with his pok-e-mon cards
when a fellow nerd see’s he has the rarest card, he asks him to trade it, the
nerd has nothing to give him so trades Cameron his guitair.
2:67- The next
scene is were Nick is walking through his house after the boys have left and he
walks past his sisters room, he see’s his sisters have left her straighteners
on and un attended, he is curious to see what the straighteners are so trys
them out on his hair.
3:17- It then
cuts back to the performance on stage, we know see why the band are wearing
certain items, nick has straightened stylish hair, josh has the bandana and
shades on, Cameron has the guitar he traded for, and Harry is wearing a penguin
suit. They have also transformed from their nerd clothes to cool stylish indie
rock band members. Their incidents where in the previous story has transformed them
into rock stars.
Props list-
Sun glasses
Bandana
Instruments (including amps and leads)
Microphone
Rock Band set (RB drums, mic, guitar and
bass)
Straighteners
Lunchbox
Pok-e-mon cards
Alcoholic bottle
Location List-
Nick’s House (Front door area.)
Josh's House (Living room and bedroom.)
The school hall (The stage and lighting.)
The school site (The benches in school
& the music block.)
The alley down Wessex Way.
This is the production schedule I made.
This is a general release form which I got one of the members of my client band Mahogany Drum to sign on behalf of all the band for legal reasons. It gives me permission to use them as actors and release their material (their song) online as a part of my media project.
These are my story boards, I have only put the first twelve sheets on my blog. This is because I do could not put any more large images on my blog. The first twelve sheets just over one third of the amount I made and only covers the first three scenes.
I stated in my research what I would be taking what ideas I would be taking from my research. I started with some Initial Ideas.
I then decided to do a few draft texts to decide which font I wanted.
I tried various different fonts, I wanted a font which when you looked at it you didn't think of it as being typed on a computer. So I wasn't going to use the common arial or comic sands fonts. I have decided to go with the font of the word DRUM. I think its unique and you can do lots with it like fill in the letters or change the colours of the lines. I think it can be very recognizable after seeing it once. I have chosen to use the font for the album title Ice as the one at the bottom. It instantly stood out to me, it looks like its been draw by a crayon and not done on the computer.
I have decided to go with the background of this granite worktop. The lighting was good in the room, the granite surface was very well lit. I will be doing a close up so it is a fine size. The granite give as good patterned background shot.
What I hope to do for my album cover is too freeze an guitar pic into a block of ice and place into into a martini glass.
For my Album advert, I am going to make four penguins and photoshop on the bands heads onto the penguins.
These are a few album adverts I have researched, I will take ideas and inspiration from these.
The first thing I have concluded from my research is that the vast majority of album advert feature the image of the album cover. The Florence and the machine, Kings of Leon, Marina and the diamonds, Two Door Cinema Club and Jessie J adverts all feature the same image as their cover.
I think it is smart to put the album cover on the advert because that is what you are trying to promote the sales of, is the consumer see's the album cover on the advert he or she knows what to look for on the shelves.
The Two Door Cinema Club has tour dates and then a bold sold out written over it, I think the reason why they have done this was to show how good their music and tour is. So it promotes the high quality of the tour and encourages people to buy their album and listen to their music. I think it is clever, but one disadvantage of this is that it takes up a large amount of space on the advert for a tour that you cant get tickets too.
All the adverts feature the album name and artist name on the advert, I think this is a key feature that I will also do on my advert. It is important to promotes the band's name as well as the album name.
I have found album adverts have a variety of written text on like tour dates, ratings or stars, release date, sons the album includes, website links, the debut album, and how to obtain the album. I should include some of these in my advert. I think the release date is key information that has to definitely be on there.
I like the marina and the diamonds advert the most, this is because of the imagery, it features the album cover image as well as an extended version of a different but similar picture on a larger scale as the background. I definitely find this advert more interesting then the ones with just the album cover like Kings of Leon and Florence. I do however like the arrangement of texts on the Kings of leon and Florence and the machine adverts the most, the artist name on the top the image underneath then the information underneath, I feel it attracts more users eyes by a big single bold artist name.
I have researched a few album covers which is one of my subsidiary texts. The album covers are all similar genres to Mahogany Drums.
This first album cover is by the Arctic Monkey. Black
and white- very rock related colours, post modern. There is the band
name, however there is no album name. I like the simplicity of just he artist
name. Suggests you don’t need to know the album name because whatever the name
a album by the Artic Monkeys will be good. May be seen as arrogance by the band. Actor-
we don’t know who he is, short hair and stubble compliments the cigarette and
rebellious look, Very recognisable.
Cigarette-
the cigarette is a rebellious act, this is a genre related prop as artic
monkeys are a very outspoken rock band it appeals to the audience, this is the
image the band wants to portray.
The next album is by a folk singer called Frank Turner. The album consists of three things, an image of the artist, the artist name and the album title. Large
artist name and in red, makes you notice it a lot more. This could be because
Frank Turner is not a hugely recognisable star yet and is hoping to get more recognised when people see his album. Name
of album is the majority of the cover. Frank Turner believes that people buy
his album for the music. He wants to try and promote his album name. Having
himself in the cover makes him more recognisable, it allows the audience to see
his simplistic image. Having
his instrument shows what type of music it could be. This is genre related as
he is a folk and acoustic artist.
The next album is Noah and the Whale's an indie folk band. This album is very simple and to the point, it has the name of the artist, the album name and them an image of a big five in with a cartoon drawing inside. The colours are very eye catching, a bright yellow and blue. I think audiences like album images like this because of its simplicity and relevance to the title.
This album cover is by the Macabees. The
band name and album name on the cover is written in a interest way, different to most other
album covers, individual to the Maccabees. The
location goes with the narrative of the name, given to the wild. The location
is a in the middle of no where in the bit of humour having a bee hive and their name being the Maccabees. Humour is a
common trait of indie rock bands.
This album is by the famous Oasis. Having
the band in the album promotes them and shows their image, makes them more recognisable. A
very random image,un related random
objects. This suits the random and craziness of Oasis. Its also a common trait
of indie rock bands to be individual and random.
This is Bombay Bicycle Club's album cover. The name
of album, small and in corner. The band may think they are most recognised by
the theme of the album cover. The
album artwork is the theme of their albums. It is cartoonish, very random, very unique to Bombay Bicycle Club.
By choosing to do all of there albums like this is makes their albums very recognisable by their theme.
What am I going to take from my research of Album Covers?
Firstly I have decided to keep the Artist Logo or Font fixed. So in future albums and in all there advertisements there name is instantly recognised by the style. Below I have made a collection of artist names on some of my researched album cover as an example to what I mean.
Secondly I wanted my album cover image to be relative to the title or artist name. I had two options, I could either go with something random which is very genre related or something related. I choose related because I think the albums I researched which I thought looked the best were the ones with images related to either the artist or album name. I think when you look at an album with an un related image it is very confusing, which is not what I want for a potential customer to think when buying an unknown debut album.
I have chosen not to feature an image of my band members because I found with the album covers with artist imagery they tended to be very boring. If a person is not recognised like in my bands case you often wouldn't look twice. The Arctic Monkeys album did pull there random man in there image off because they are very well known by their name alone. I do believe that I should put some imagery of my band into my advertisement though because I need to show my audience who the band are, and I think the advert is more suitable to show who the artist is rather than a album cover.
Unlike in Kasabian's "Fire" music video Coldplay have chosen to title their video. They have most likely done this to simply advertise the name of the song and credit their band name, label and music video producer. The Titles are a basic font, positioned in the middle of the screen at a medium size. During the titles there is a collection of long shots of Africa at a low sun set. There is little action happening in the shots. I think the director has made the shots calm, peaceful and dreamlike so the audience get this relaxing paradise feel, and of course paradise is the name of the song.
The narrative of the video is about an elephant who escapes his captivity in a zoo to travel back to his homeland in Africa in search of his fellow elephants. The main elephant is actually the lead singer Chris Martin dressed in a elephant suit and the other elephants are the fellow band mates of Coldplay. I think the music video is funny and entertaining and the director has chosen to use this narrative story for the comical and entertaining effect which I received.
At first we are not sure where the location is, we understand that he is in a zoo because he is in a cage and the shot of him running past a monkey in an enclosure. We are un aware what country the zoo is in and we have some suspicion it is in Africa due to the opening title shots, but the audience soon find out the zoo is near London. In about fifteen seconds of shots we can establish it is London because of the directors use of the iconic London Barclay's bike and how he has included the iconic London phone box and London tube in his shots.
This medium long shot has the elephant holding up a piece of cardboard with a lyric on which matches the lyric being sung. In the London underground it can be common to find homeless people or buskers that hold up cardboard asking for money or change. I think the director has decided make the elephant do this to make the audience emphasise that the elephant has just broken out of the zoo and may be short on money, and to also make us feel apart of the elephants journey and desperation to find whatever he is searching for. And he decides to put a lyric on the cardboard instead of asking for money to make things more interesting, plus we still feel what the director wants.
I think it is important for a music video to keep flowing and I believe the director does this by his use of transitions. For example, at forty nine seconds the transition of the train taking up the whole of the screen and driving past. The same transition happens at one minute. Also through out the video a lot of the shots are very short. By keeping the shots short and quick and the use of transitions to link shots keeps the audiences attention and keeps the video interesting.
Again we see more elements of funniness that the director is trying to get across through the use of obscurity. For example the pictures below, a elephant standing on a tube holding on to the rails with his trunk or a elephant riding a tricycle can be seen as comical. The director is again trying to make the music video more entertaining to the audience.
Similarly to a point mentioned before, the director is trying to make the accidence feel apart of the elephants journey. He does this through the use of not using a tri pod. An example of this is when the elephant is walking by the road in search of a lift and the camera is walking behind him. The motion of the camera makes us feel like we are walking the same path. The director again emphasises the point of the elephants long journey by the use of very long straight roads and the shots he accompanies them with like the one above of the elephant on the tricycle. He does this all to make us emphasise with the elephant and how desperate he is to find what he is searching for.
We soon find out that the elephant is Chris Martin the lead singer of Coldplay. After the shot of the sun setting and clouds moving, which shows the passing of time. We see the elephant walking, the next shot is a hazy shot of something in the distance which then focuses to reveal three other elephants. This give a realistic effect of realisation and the audience know he has finally found what he is searching for. We soon find out by there unique accessories on the elephant suits and their instruments that the other elephants are in fact the other band members of Coldplay. This adds to the narrative and the entertaining and comical feel of the video.
The elephants then dance and play their instruments like they would a performance. This is called a contrived performance. It then cuts to footage of a live performance of the song. I think the director has done this to credit the band, show the audience of what their live performances are like and it advertises to people. It also has an entertaining effect on the audience.
Please comment of what you think about the use of live performances in music videos as well as any other opinions on Coldplay's music video?
The first part of the music video is a convention called extended narrative, were there is no music, just story. In this music video it is done to set the scene. The lead singer narrates about what we believe is something to do with the plot whilst shots of each band member waiting for something, then a final slow motion shot of a bag in the wind with music sheets flying out. So far the audience know little about what is the relevance of these shots and narration, this could be done to build suspense and mystery on the audience.
During the video the artist is looking into a reflection and singing. They may have done this to reflect how the character is feeling, when he is looking into the mirror he is reflecting about what he has done. I think they did it to show the artist was singing about something which has previously happened. By doing this to the audience the shots which are not him looking into his reflection are in the past.
We soon find out that the narrative of the story is that the whole band are robbing a bank. When the music changes in pace and intensity the shot changes to a black and white high angle shot like you are watching it from a CCTV camera. They use this shot for that exact reason, so you really get a feel for them robbing a bank by watching them through a security camera angle. I think the use of the unique camera effect works very well on the audience but I would not necessarily use this unless my narrative was a robbery or similar.
The band may have chosen for the music video to be a robbery because crime can be seen as rebellious and often stylish to some audiences. Kasabian are an indie rock band which supports the fact they could be trying to gain a rebellious image. However it can have a negative effect as crime may reflect the band in a bad way.
The setting is in the "western". It is the mis-en-scene that gets this across to the audience. Firstly the location and props set the scene. The audience can instantly tell that the dusty setting is western America by the choice of location. Also the director has chosen to dress the actors in cowboy dressing. For example, Serge one of the band members is wearing a long back coat and black cowboy hat, and another member Ian is wearing a classic western three piece suit. We do however know that it is the present date due to that the use of the items below which you would expect to see in modern times. If I was to do my music video in the past I must make sure I remove all signs of the current day.
The director uses two props in a very clever sarcastic way. Instead of holding guns the robbers and police have guitars and instead of them stealing money they are stealing music sheets, however the actors use the guitars like they would guns and imitate that the music sheets has the same value as money hence them robbing it. This cool change of prop relates to them being a band and gives a sort of noticeable comical effect adding entertainment to the video. I will definitely think about what I can do to my video to add comedy.
Through out the video there is a constant reminder of time. They do this in two ways, the first is how the music video starts and finishes with the non-digetic sound of a clock ticking. The second is the on screen digital time counting down to zero in the bank robbery scene. I think the digital clock was counting down to when one of the robbers is shot. This is when their plan starts to go wrong, and the non digetic sound of ticking is the clock counting down until he gets caught. I think the director has purposely made the audience aware of the time to add suspense and danger.
As "Mahogany Drum" are an indie band I decided start researching similar bands and their music videos. One very interesting music video I found was by the very liked indie band "Bombay Bicycle Club" their song called "Shuffle". Here is the link for you to take a look.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFI2BPVxt-s.
The artist has decided to be very basic by having no narrative and featuring no people or themselves in the video. However the video is very interesting by the technical use of stop frame animation in which lyrics are uncovered. The artist may have done this to exaggerate and draw attention to his lyrics. In my opinion it does that very well and I have remembered the lyrics from just a few watches. Not only that but I think its a stylish music video that is very interesting by how the words appear for example, twenty two seconds in when the dirt removes itself in a unnatural way and I find myself being very entertained.
However I think band are almost being a little arrogant how they ignore the convention of appearing in their own music video. This may be because they are already famous and do not feel they need to appear to make their video entertaining and feel they do not need the self publicity or recognition because their name is recognizable enough.
As my band is just starting up and this is their first song I feel I must use them in my music video. So if I am to use the stop flow animation convention I will only feature it for a small part, for example just the chorus because I thought it was a unique interesting way to show lyrics.
Feel free to post your opinions of this music video as it will be good to get some audience feedback. Do you think the use of the stop frame animation convention is good or bad?
This is a video I made and published on YouTube about the media theorist Michael Shore.
Michael Shore Michael Shore believes a music video is one or more of the following..
recycled styles … surface without substance … simulated experience … information overload … image and style scavengers … ambivalence … decadence … immediate gratification … vanity and the moment … image assaults and outré folks … the death of content … anesthetization of violence thorough chic … adolescent male fantasies … speed, power, girls and wealth … album art come to turgid life … classical storytelling’s motifs … soft-core pornography … clichéd imagery …
This list was taken from Sven E Carlsson's perspective on music video analysis document. Below are a few example of Michael Shore's list..
The music video to Ed Sheeran's song The A Team is an example of decadence. Decadence is a state of deterioration, in this video a person who has fallen into a decadent state of mental or moral decay. Decadence can mean morally corrupt or self indulgent.
T.I's music video of his song Whatever You Like is an example of speed, power, wealth and girls. The music video features fast cars, private jets, big houses, jewels, money and girls. This lifestyle is also an example of an adolescent male fantasy.
T.I's music video is also an example of clichéd imagery. The shots of the girl sat on her bed in her room at night deciding weather to call the man is a cliché scene used in film and music videos often.
Surface without substance means lyrics which have nothing to do with the on screen video. An example of this is Artic Monkeys music video of their song Fluorescent Adolescent. In this the song lyrics are about a girl and the video is just clowns and civilians fighting.
Shakira's music video to her song She Wolf is an example of soft core porn. You do not see any sexual body parts but the video is very revealing and she acts in a sexual nature. Modern Mythic Embodiment Sven E Carlsson has a thoery about artists which he calls “modern
mythic embodiment”. He thinks artists “embody one or a combination of modern
mythic characters in music videos”. His
three types of performances in which he thinks describes an artist are
commercial exhibitionists, electronic shaman and televised bard.
Commercial exhibitionists are artists who
try to sell their own body, attractiveness, style, face, record label,
hairstyles, fashion, voice etc. and perform in the spotlight to try to gain
popularity, stardom and success. One major example of a commercial
exhibitionist is the modern Lady Gaga. Her videos have hundreds of millions of
views. I have chosen to look at her video Telephone which features Beyoncé
another big example of a commercial exhibitionist.
The first example of commercial exhibitionist in the video is the high sexuality she try's to get across. She does this by acting in a sexual nature by kissing another woman and dressing the cast in sexual revealing costumes, she specifically is wearing only underwear at one point.
The next example is a very cliché and is used in a majority of commercial exhibitionist music videos. The artist is dancing to the camera with an entourage of other dancers all dancing in sync to her, this happens multiple times in the video.
The shots below of the artists looking into the camera singing and posing is a prime example of how the director has used close up shots to try to sell the star.
Lady Gaga has a very unique obscure style which she try's to get across as a commercial exhibitionists, I think she try's to get get her various styles across to the audience such as woman power, rebellious, outrageous, high charisma, unique, weird and random and very individual. She gets these styles across by her unique fashion and the costumes she wears, the fact there are very few men in the whole video and the narrative shows women as stronger and conspiring against men and Lady Gaga and Beyoncé even murder people. The occasional use of strong language, the setting of being in a jail and being wanted by the police. Her videos are also very long and have parts of extended narrative were she does very random things like kisses another woman.
Electronic Shaman is described by Carlsson as "a guide on a spiritual journey through blipping and magical attributes". It means the artist or music video is doing something out this world or magic, things that wouldn't happen in real life.
My example is The Maccabees music video Feel To Follow. In this video people float/fly in the sky into space. This is an example of electronic shaman, they have used it because it shows the journey of people who are following something.
Televised Bard is the singer telling a story. Sometimes the artists acts in the story sometimes the story is just told through images. My example is Eminem's music video Mockingbird. In this video he is telling a story about his children, he used real footage to tell the story. He also acts in the video watching the real footage. The footage on screen matches that of the lyrics.
Visual Music Styles
Sven E Carlsson visual music video styles are categorised. A standard clip has more visual traditions than one. It can be a filmed performance, narrative clip and art clip. An example of a standard music video is Queen's music video Bohemian Rhapsody.
A performance clip is mostly filmed performance, the performance can be song, dance or instrumental. It does not have to be live performance. An example of a performance music video would be some of Michael Jackson's videos which contain dance performance.
A narrative clip is a visual story that is easy to follow. Bruce Springsteen's music video to his song Im On Fire is an example of a narrative clip.
A art clip is a clip with no narrative and no singing lip syncing. Some examples of art clips are below. An example of an art clip video is Lisa Stanfield's video So Natural.
Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin is a media theorist who
has identified his own theory of what he thinks are the key aspects of a music
video. His first point is the relationship
between the visuals and lyrics. He believes a music video visuals either
illustrate, meaning the images illustrate the meaning of the lyrics. Or
amplify, which means continuously repeated into the viewers mind. Or are contradicting,
which means the visuals go against or ignore the lyrics.
Similarly the relationship between the
visuals and music. The visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the
music.
Goodwin says another key aspect is self
imagery. Who is the star of the imagery? And how they use multiple close ups of
the main artist or star, and lots of looking into the camera and self
publicity.
Voyeurism is the practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at sexual
objects or acts.
Goodwin believes voyeurism is a major aspect of a music video.
Andrew Goodwin also says a music video
may have intertextuality to
provide further gratification to the audience.
He also says an audience can simply like
or dislike a music video through the individual audio-viewers musical
taste.
The band I will be using are called Mahogany Drum. They are a band from my school, Cox Green School. The song I will be using is the first song they have made. Mahogany Drum consist of four members a lead singer, bass player, guitar player and a drummer. They are an indie rock band. Indie is a shorter word for independent, indie music is produced independently from major commercial record labels. In modern times indie is used as if it is a music genre. Indie artists music usually create music that can be categorised in various genres. My band can fit into such genres as indie rock, folk, alternative rock and indie pop. They are more prominently an indie rock band. The reason why they are an indie rock band is because of the style of their music. Indie bands have been around since the start of the 1980's. It was in the early 2000's when indie rock has been very mainstream in North America and The United Kingdom and other countries in Europe. I think my bands target audience age would be between 16-33. I think my band are young and a developing talent and want to appeal to audiences their own age.
I have got information to back up my target audience age rating by researching similar bands music videos on YouTube and using the video statistics they offer. For example I found for The Vaccines song I Always Knew had been watched around 300,000 times, the average age was for females was 13-24 and the average age for males was 25-34. It was watched the most in Italy, Ireland and the UK. After researching various other indie rock bands I came to the conclusion of the average age of 16-33 year old. I think the audience are both male and female audiences. I think if I was looking into the life of someone from my target audience they would like going to festivals, listening to the radio, buying bands CD's or downloading them, be quite in touch with the music they like, read music magazines, be a student, part time or full time work.
I am going to research conventions and theorists in my upcoming blogs, I will then decide what conventions I will use that are suitable for an indie rock music video. Jack
A music video is a film which accompanies a song, they are made for promotional or artistic purposes. Music video's started in 1984, of course not like the modern videos you see today, the 1984 music video was a collection of still images which were projected onto a screen whilst the live performance was happening. It was Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern who decided to make the first music video to their song The Little Lost Child, it would be George Thomas who made their vision come onto the screen.
In 1902, it would be Leon Gaumont who made the next step in music video history. The phonoscene was the first sound film, it was a chronophone sound recording with a chronograph film with actors lip syncing. This was the first sign of the convention lip syncing that you now see in a vast amount of music videos.The last phonoscene video was in 1917.
In the years after 1917 as technology developed so did music videos. In 1926 many more musical short films were being produced and music videos started to feature the bands, artists and dancers. In 1929 Bessie Smith made a two reel called St. Louis Blues and it was one of the first dramatized music videos. In 1930 Max Fleischer an animation artist created a series of sing a long short cartoons. It was in 1940 when Walt Disney made an cartoon film to a classical music piece. The increase in television lead to more music videos being made. In 1959 Tony Bennett's music video of his song Stranger In Paradise was played on television in the UK and US. He then claimed his video was the first ever music video.
It would be The Beatles in the 1950's-1960's with their videos of A Hard Days Night, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever that took a move into how modern videos are today. They started to construct narrative and visual vocabulary in their music videos, and started to use conventions, shots, lighting and editing from films.
Again it would be the increase in technology that developed music videos even more. By the 1970's and 1980's there was an increase in colour television and the technology of cameras and filming was becoming a lot more advanced. Around this time artists were producing bigger and better music videos for commercial and promotion of themselves, this led to a lot more money being invested into music videos.
Some examples of music videos which changed music video history in this era are Alfred Yankovic's music video Weird Al Yankovic, which brought humour into music videos. Michael Jacksons Thriller which introduced extended narrative and making your music video into a short film. And Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer music video which introduced using special effects and animation.
Once again it is the increase in technology that has developed music videos even further. The introduction of the MTV channel which showed music videos all around the world. Coming to the most recent years when internet was introduced which connected mass audiences across the world. The introduction of YouTube, Google Videos, Facebook and iTunes has made music videos very commercial and profitable and available to a mass audience. According to NME magazine the most viewed YouTube video is Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris, Baby, with a total of 549 million views! And this is just one video on one website, Billions of views are occurring across the web each day.
Jack
Friday, 21 September 2012
To all readers, feel free to comment on my posts it would be much appreciated! :)
