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.