Planning - Lead Singer

This is Jacob Henfrey, whom I have now confirmed as the actor I am using for my lead singer. I've used Jacob many times as a model for my photography work, on many different types of shoots so I know he is reliable, versatile and works with a professional attitude. I love his look and think it suits perfectly to the band/music I am using. I've filled him in on the song choice and given him the lyrics. I've also shown him the bands previous video, for the song 'Stitches', to show him what the lead singer is like and his performing style. Hopefully, he'll have learnt the lyrics by the time I've planned the video and organised everything. Obviously, I'll be checking up so all is perfect and ready for when I decide shoot.

Practice Piece Analysis

In class we watched everyones practices pieces to the opening 30 seconds of the song 'Radar Love'. We pointed out good points as well as picking up on things that could have done better. This is my analysis of two practices pieces produces by others:

Frankie & Graham:

In this video, the timing is almost perfect. The instruments are all played to the time and beat they are supposed to. They have been edited very carefully and come in when they are played. The changes on the shot of the guitar which then changes to a mirror shot, switches/cuts in time to the beat. This gives a sense of distortion of reality which rock songs like the track used often try to create in their own videos. The lip syncing too, is in perfect time to the track. 

On the shots of the singing, the actor has been back lit by the window, which appears to make him look too dark. This is a small fault that could easily be fixed by using a different angle/room with lighting coming from the side etc. Also, I think that the blue colour scheme introduced at the beginning could have been carried on throughout.

Overall there were a good range of shots and the video matched the tempo very well as well as meeting audience needs.

This is another video from my class. They have used a huge range of shots which keep the audience engaged and I like the split screen showing all the instruments being played. This shows the band as a whole rather than just individuals. The editing has been put to good use as there are loads of effects being used. I like the slight sepia colouring they use which make the video look as if it were made at the time of the songs release. They have also been creative with the background showing they considered mise en scene.

The syncing of the instruments is a little off. The first shot we see of the guitar starts off in time but towards the end it starts to go off time a little. This could be fixed by matching them to the music better in edited however I know myself form doing this task how hard this can be. Also the first shot we see the drummer but not the drums, an improvement could be to show the drums as they are being played.

Overall, good use of editing and a wide range of different shots but the syncing could be a little better.

Research - Genre Theory

I have been studying genre theory in class. This post applies the different genre theories I have looked at to music video's I have researched so that I am able to apply them to my own production this year.

Iconography:
In Jay-Z's video for 'On To The Next One', there is a lot of iconography used throughout. The genre of music is Rap/HipHop and Iconography is used to represent this sort of culture. As this specific genre often refers back to wealth/money, women and and general gang/youth culture, Jay-Z has used these as clear icons through the video. The screenshots below show very clear and intended icons of money and cars. Although the shot of the money only lasts very briefly suggesting less importance, the shot of the cars leads on to more shots of the car in sequence. He has also used a lot of the number 3 in this video as this represents the name of his album 'The Blueprint 3'. In the screenshot below, the money is being held together by 3 elastic bands, a subtle icon of the number 3.

Utopian Pleasures:

The video for 'I'm A Bore, Mostly' by Deaf Havana can be seen to show certain 'Utopian Pleasures' theory.  This video can be seen to show both sides of the theory: 'Social Tension' and 'Utopian Fantasy'. Social Tension can be seen through the setting, it is an derelict building covered in graffiti and slowly falling apart. This relates to the themes of 'Exhaustion', 'Dreariness' and 'Fragmentation'. The building is very empty and in the middle of no where, surrounded by fields, with no other buildings to be seen suggesting themes of 'Scarcity'. The colours used for these shots are very dark and desaturated with the lead singer, James, being the only one in shot, again suggesting 'Dreariness'. 

On the other hand, Utopian Fantasy can also be seen in this video. The shots of the band all together is in bright, vibrant colours suggesting 'Intensity', 'Community' and 'Energy'. The shots of the people all runing together suggest 'Community' and 'Energy 'and that they are all running together and are there for each other, like in the shot below of the family.

Repertoires Of Elements:

Young Guns' 'Stitches' can be analysed in terms on the 'Repertoires of Elements' genre theory. This theory recognises elements than can be seen in other products of the same genre. In this example, there are a huge amount of different shots all edited together using fast cuts, which is an element that can be found in many rock music videos. The band members in this video wear quite plain but dark, casual clothing which is an element repeated in this particular genre, often just jeans and a T-shirt. The location used for the performance shots is quite dark with strong/high contrast lighting. This has been shot in quite a basic location without many details or distractions. Below I have compared a performance shot from this video to another video (Mallory Knox - Resuscitate) of a similar genre to show this theory in use.

Macro Genre/Micro Conventions:

The video for 'Into Your Arms' by The Maine is an example of the 'Micro Conventions' and 'Macro Genre' theories. Macro Genre for music videos states that they can be categorised into either Performance, Narrative, Experimental and Animation. The video for 'Into Your Arms' challenges this by falling into both Narrative and Performance categories. However instead of filming both in separate shots, this video uses them both at the same time as the band are playing in the location where the narrative is going on. In terms of Micro Conventions, this video can be classes as a 'hybrid-genre' of performance and narrative rather than in terms of musical genre.

Defining Criteria:

Although I have not researched this video, Weezer's 'I Want You To' is an example of the Defining Criteria genre theory. This theory states that videos are made to fit a certain purpose depending on the genre. The genre of this music video is alternative, meaning that it is a different musical genre to defined genres such as pop or rock. This means that there are no real set conventions to follow. The narrative of this music video follows quite a funny, comical idea. This video follows the 'Intended Affect' criteria of the theory and is intended to make people laugh. This has been done through accidents that happen in the narrative to the band members and editing to exaggerate them as well as putting their heads onto children's bodies.

Research - Music Video

'Make Her Say' - Kid Cudi Ft. Kanye West & Common

I love this music video for 'Make Her Say' by Kid Cudi and think the split screens used the whole way through the video is very unique and by having them consistently the same size and placement makes it work so effectively very simply. The video uses different shots or angles of the same narrative and or performance and combines them together using the split screen effect. I think it shows a distortion of reality, especially in the mirrored shots, which isn't often a technique used in this genre of music, giving the target audience an unexpected visual experience to the music.
I think that how they have edited together two different shots of the same performance, as seen on Common's verse, looks really professionally edited as the timing is perfect meaning both shots match exactly to the lyrics. I know from my own practice music video task that it would take a lot of time and precision to get right as I had trouble making my own actors lip syncing look perfectly on time.
I really like the idea of using split screens and think it would look effective for my narrative shots as I am thinking of showing two points of view. With this technique, I could have them both showing at the same time. This would keep to the creative style of video my chosen band use in their own real music videos.

Final Practice Music Video

This is my final edit of my 30 second music video opening for the song 'Radar Love' by Golden Earring. I am really happy with how it has come together and how the lip syncing and how the instruments have matched to the beat. I really like the old fashioned video effect I added to it and think it looks like an authentic video form the 1970's. By doing this, I think that I met the audiences needs as they would expect such a video form this sort of band.
I think this task has really helped me to practice these techniques that I will need to produce my final music video and I feel prepared to get started with my final project task.

Research - Digipack Inspiration

I have found a photographer on flickr who produces stunning images of clouds and storms and it has given me inspiration for my own digipack to include images similar to these.
Digipacks usually include images and lyrics as well as information about the album, band and producers etc. As the song I have chosen has literal imagery and connotations of clouds and storms, through the lyrics, I think it would be good to use some of this to illustrate as well as display lyrics/information in an interesting and relevant way.

Research - Music Video

'I'm A Bore, Mostly' by Deaf Havana

This is the music video for Deaf Havana's new single, 'I'm A Bore, Mostly'. This band is very similar to the band I am using for my own music video and produce a similar style of music. I love the contrast between the very saturated and old fashioned style look the narrative performance has compared to the whole band performance shots which are quite vivid in colour. I think this is quite clever as it relates back to the lyrics in the chorus 'The times are changing' showing the difference of old and new. 

Watching this video, I especially liked the shots of James, the lead singer, where he is completely in shadow and think it looks great against the colour of the sunset sky in the background. This is an idea I may try out and use in my own video as I think it would look very good with a moody, cloudy background. These shots also have their own, quite cold, look to them which contrast from the other shots used. 

Research - Real Text Comparison

To help understand the conventions of real texts and how I can apply them to my own productions I have compared my AS Film Opening piece to a real txt: Wrong Turn. By doing this I am able to understand the similarities and what they connote. It shows how my production compares with real texts already produced and by showing the similarities it shows how my text follows codes and conventions of similar texts in the genre I am working within. I will be thinking about codes and conventions for my current Music Video project as I go along with research and planning.

Editing - Practice Music Video

I have finished editing together the basic structure of my practice music video for 'Radar Love' by  Golden Earring. I am happy with how it has come together and the only change I have made to my original story board was adding in different angles of the drums being played as the same shot for so long would disengage the audience. Now, I am focusing on making the clips look like they have been filmed in the time era that this music was produced. To do this, I am experimenting with using the video filter 'Bad Tv' which creates an old fashioned video style. I have had to change the setting so that it is not over edited and looks realistic. To exaggerate the style of video at the time, I have desaturated all of the clips very slightly so they give that old almost black and white look but with a hint of colour. I think that this looks very effective and representative of what the video would have looked like if filmed at the time.

Research: Ideas

Volumetric Light:
I have thought about having shots of volumetric light, as I have photographed above. I really love the way it looks and think that it would look very effective by having shots of this, maybe in time lapse to show greater movement. I think this would go well nearing the end of the song where the instruments build up for the last chorus and it would show the moral the song is trying to give that every cloud has a silver lining. However, I am aware that this cannot be planned for a specific date so I will have to keep a look out and have my camera on me to be ready to shoot this footage as a when it comes.

Narrative Location:
I have had the idea of having my narrative shot in an open space such as a field. Pictured above is one of the fields in front of my house, making this easily accessible. I'm not quite yet decided on what the narrative will be but this would give a big space to work with in which I can play around with different shots and angles and have continuity almost guaranteed regarding background. As the pathway around the field is used by the public, I would need to be aware of people in my shots so there is continuity when it comes to editing and that they do not get in the way of my shot.

Editing - Practice Music Video

I started editing together my practice music video for 'Radar Love' by Golden Earring. I am using Final Cut Express to do this and so far it is all going well. I have put together the basic structure of my video, referring back to my storyboard. The only change I have made is to have different angles of the drums showing. The only problem that I have come across is having to render ever clip after each change I make which is very time consuming. For my real music video I will have to convert the clips so that it means this process may be eliminated and save me lots of times in which I can edit more efficiently.

The lip syncing was quite easy to match up and think it syncs pretty well to the music. I now have to work on the foot tapping and clicking so that they are simultaneous and to the beat. I really like how the letter boxing has turned out.

Research - Practice Music Video

To ensure that my 'Radar Love' 30 second music video opening appealed to the target audience, I researched into similar videos of that genre. As I do not listen to this genre personally, I had no idea of the codes and conventions of this style of music. As a result, I looked at similar videos displayed on the right hand side of the 'Radar Love' video itself on youtube. This showed me similar videos to the one I was producing. 

After watching a few of these I found out some similarities that would appeal. As I am meant to be focusing on practising performance only genre during this task, I found it helpful to find most of these video were mainly performance anyway. The style of performance was very simple, often filmed all together with some close ups on instruments as they start to come in and then a focus on the singer when the lyrics start.

As for costume, they are usually dressed in an indie style, a shirt and jeans is what I have found the most common to be. From this I made sure my lead singer had that indie look about him and dressed the part, in order for it to appeal and be a convincing music video.

As these bands are mainly from the 60's/70's it means that technology was not yet up to the high standard it is now. This means the videos have that old vintage look about them and the colour. Alternatively, they are in black and white. This is something I may try to achieve and experiment with in the colour grading process of my editing.

David Essex - Rock On

Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild

Planning - Copyright Permission

To use my chosen song, 'There Will Be Rain' by Young Guns, I have found out that they are on the label 'Live Forever' which is their own record label. This means that I will need to contact them directly or find a website for this record label in which I can submit a request to use this song.
I checked out their Facebook page information and it gave me a few names of management staff, booking and PR. I tried searching for a website or email for 'Back To Back Management' however, again this is a small independent management company which I couldn't find many details of.
This left me to contact them directly through their Facebook and Twitter pages, so I used both in order to ensure I got the best chance of them seeing the message (pictured below). As twitter has a word limit, I contacted the band themselves and each member individually and gave them the link to my Facebook post. I will now have to wait and hope I get a response to either one of them and hopefully be granted the permission I need to use the song.

Research: Previous A2 Example

The Vixens - 'Voo Doo Doll' A2 production

In class we looked at an example blog found on the the Get Ahead OCR media blog, containing previous work for the same project I am currently undertaking, their final piece shown above.
I looked through and analysed their final video piece and picked out micro elements and how they met the highest level.

They have used a high standard of editing techniques, especially with matching the cuts and shot changes to the beat of the music. They're lip syncing is almost immaculate with only one or two very minor and hardly noticeable errors. They have not over edited their piece by using lots of effects or transitions but instead kept it simple which in turn looks very effective. They have shown some experimentation, however, by using letter boxing which works well however I feel that it looks a little strange as it only appears once throughout the video.
They have a very wide range of angles and shots, when it comes to camerawork. They have used a wide variety of shots and plenty of techniques such as match on action during the introduction. In editing they have put these all together with a good sense of continuity throughout.
The narrative is kept very simple and sticks to the narrative and performance genre. The narrative is at the beginning of the music video and links back right at the end. I think this works well in this piece as it sets the scene and explains whats happening during the performance parts. The performance is set in a studio so the background and setting etc is very simplistic but enhances things such as costumes a lot better than any other setting would.
We also looked at their blog to see how they had gone about their research and planning. I found this useful as they had a separate sections on their blogs which gave links to specific sections. This allows the examiner to quickly get to sections they want to see. I have incorporated this into my own blog, splitting links into things such as research and planing on the right hand side of my blog.
They had very detailed research and planning going through current music videos and going into detail about micro elements and planning out locations and times etc. which I too will need to post about in detail in order to try get the highest mark I can.

Research - Music Video

'On To The Next One' by Jay-Z ft. Swizz Beatz

Although this music video does not relate to the genre I have chosen for my own production, it has given me plenty of new ideas for my own music video. I like the very artistic and creative edge to it and find the experimental genre very interesting to watch. 

The ideas I have picked up from this video are mainly to do with macro shots with liquid as this links into the idea of water and rain in my chosen song. I really like the extreme close up of the liquid dropping, making it appear like raindrops falling against a surface. The strong use of a black background and white liquid make it a lot clearer than normal rain on a pavement and think that this is something I may experiment with in my own video, especially as I am thinking of using black & white throughout. This also work very well for the shots where the liquid drips down the wall.

Another idea I like is the ink drops in water. I think this is quite an interesting and eye catching visual which is quite striking, In this video, I found it especially interesting when they showed these clips in negative, reversing the black and white. I though this look quite strange and wasn't as obvious as to what it was.In this video, they have used a mirror effect in editing which I really like. They have used this on shots of the ink in water and on a birds wings. I think that this creates quite an illusion to the audience and makes an effective visual very simply. 

Planning - Lyrics

I think that to create a successful and engaging narrative, it has to follow the message of the song or lyrics.  It has to be related to what the song is about and what the band are trying to put across by creating and singing this song. To help me think up a good narrative to go in my music video I will analyse the lyrics and pick out possible ideas and meanings.


When I was a kid I filled bottles with messages of hope.
Now we kept clutching broken glass,
Cause all my questions have been answered by the floods,
Even those I never asked.


I think that this verse is talking about his childhood and how he had many hopes and dreams; plans for the future. Now he is older he has grown wiser of the world around him and maybe feels that he hasn't accomplished many things. The use of the word 'we' suggests a relationship of some sort.


(Oh, there will be rain)


All the storms that I've seen,
Are countless reasons not to believe.
But I know, that as long as there will be rain,
There will be clear skies after


The chorus talks about how that however many bad things happen, sometimes it seems that things will never get better but he knows deep down that ever cloud has a silver lining.


Every day under in the sky,
I stood, arms raised in imitation,
Watching birds in flight.
And now I'm older youth has passed me by,
But I'll keep reaching till I get what's mine.


This verse maybe talking about how he looked up to people and trying to imitate them and get to where they were. He says that he will carry on trying and won't give up till he gets to where he wants to be.


No matter how far I go,
I know that you are by my side.
Together we'll see this through,
As long as I am still alive.


This verse might mean that he has someone in his life who helps him through the bad days and he can always count on them. Maybe a friend, partner or maybe even God.

All the storms that I've seen,

Are countless reasons not to believe.

But I know (But I know), 

That as long as there will be rain,

There will be clear skies after.

There will be rain,

There will be clear skies after.

There will be rain,

There will be clear skies after


This last verse and repetition reinforces his strong believe that good things will come eventually after all the bad he will go through.


Overall, I think that this song may be about some sort of depression or low stage in his life. The use of the word 'we' in the first verse and the third verse as a whole suggest that this may be to do with some sort of relationship. The message the song is trying to put across is that no matter what bad things happen, something good will always come afterwards.

Research - Music Video

'Into Your Arms' by The Maine 

This is the music video for the song 'Into Your Arms' by American band The Maine. I really love the reversal technique they have used in the video and think it's really cleaver how the protagonist, the woman, is always in reversal where everyone else is in normal real time. I find this especially clever when the band appear to be playing normally and the people around them are reversed. I also like how objects such and the torn photograph have been put into reverse and it is slowly revealed throughout the opening of the song to what the image is.

I also like how the band themselves and the performance are intertwined within the narrative. They appear to be playing, very subtly in some cases and more obvious in others, at the setting of the narrative. In a way this suggests that they are singing about the present tense and what is happening around them currently or what has just happened.

As a video overall, I think that having the narrative fully in reverse has been very well done in this case as it seems quite a difficult thing to have to plan out and achieve with effective results. I think that for my own music video, this idea wouldn't work so well and as I don't have much planning or filming time it would be risky to try. However, I am thinking of incorporating some reverse shots, maybe like the short clips of the objects they have used in this video (photo, flowers etc.) but making it relevant to my video.