Animatic

This is our animatic it shows our storyboard frame by frame while our song is playing in the background. You'll notice that the song doesn't start straight away as we will be having a little introduction to the music video.

Some of the frames show a match on action shot and others have a POV shot.

Filming Schedule

These are all the times that our group could potential film, however already some of the days have already being cancelled because of weather conditions.
We have decided this because we want our music video to have continuity and it would look weird if we filmed on two completely different days.

My Video Exhibitioner

I think when i create my video the best exhibitioner for it would be YouTube because it is a free website where everyone can view the video at their wish. It also allows me to gain an audience through sharing and social media. As well as that it is the fastest and easiest way to upload a video without any hassle.

Crew Requirements

These are the crew requirements it shows what everyone is doing. It can be used as a guide to help evryone know what they're doing.

Prop's List

Props List Template by Sulieman121

Some of our props list didn't upload correctly but it is still all there. The props list shows the props we need and will be using in addition to when we will use them.

Editing to the Beat

Today in class we had to edit a piece of footage to match the melody and beat of each song. This is what I managed to make. I think I managed to complete this task well as i have an understanding of music time signatures. However I also use some irregular cuts to keep the video from being predictable.

Story Board

Our storyboard is a guideline for the shots that we will use. It has already come in handy at many times because it lets us setup the shot quickly without needing to think about it.

Our  storyboard is 48 frames. This would account for approximately 2 minutes of footage, however our song is around 3 minutes. We overcome this by using some of the same shots throughout the video; for example the performance and playing of the song can be used several times through the video. These shots will be used to fill in the gaps while the narrative plays out.

Costume List

Mood board

Inspirational Images

The mood board is a compilation of images that inspired our group, there are concepts for both the music video and the digipack. We feel these images show a good representation of our ideas. Some of the pictures show an outcast which represents lonliness. And the road shows a journey.

All in all it is simply some images which were brought to mind when we listened to the song.

Music Video Treatment

Treatment
"The Rubber Tramp" by VisonedKarma (Max Showler)

The overall idea for the music video is that it will have a strong performance element alongside a limited narrative. The narrative itself will focus on two characters that embark on a journey seeking recognition for their musical talents. We came up up the idea when we listened to the song, we envisioned this scenario because it seemed appropriate for the style of music (progressive rock). The actual song itself implicates progression and so we thought of this concept. We feel this would be successful as it will relate with our target audience, and possibly other audiences also. It will be different to other music videos because we will be using unconventional camera angles.

Our primary target audience is males aged 16-23, they will most likely play an instrument themselves and may come from a musical background. Their interests will include independent rock groups as well as an interest in art. We decided this by conducting audience research, questionnaires, vox-pops and by analysing the artist himself. The idea of achieving recognition would appeal to most people, especially our target audience as it would inspire them to do the same. The secondary audience would be both genders aged 12-16 who enjoy groovy beats and tunes.

The costumes we will be using are fairly simple as they are a representation of the artist himself. They props will include a guitar and bass guitar they will be illustrating the instruments played in the song. We also include a BMX (or bike) and a skateboard, these will be used as the characters means of transportation. We chose these props because we feel they represented the artist in the best and most honest way. We want the characters to be as relatable as possible therefore the props are used props and nothing is expensive.

Locations include a bedroom, a park, a kitchen and lots of roads. We chose these because they where easy to get to and because they are free to film on. The park we are using is Beckenham place Park it is a huge park with lots of fields and both open and closed areas of woodland. We feel that if the location is similar to what people see everyday then they will feel more involved.

The video begins with the characters phone ringing, this straight away grabs the viewers attention through enigma codes as they ask 'who's calling?' 'why are they calling?'. We came up with this small reference; they song that will play when the phone rings will in fact be the song that the music video is about. The main character will answer the phone then when he hangs up he'll go back to sleep. A dream sequence will start of him playing guitar; shortly after he wake up in a sweat and runs hastily off to meet his friend.

All through the video we see a journey between two friend and how they get together; along with this we can see the recurring images of the main characters earlier dream and this is how we introduce the performance element of the song. The journey itself will keep the audience's attention as they are wondering where the characters are going.

In the end they will be playing to a group of people (their fans) and this is to show how they have being recognised for their talent. We want the last shot to leave an impact on the audience, for it to be memorable. An idea is that the characters would climb a big tree and the audience would remain below, this would represent the characters climb to fame and how they have elevated themselves from the common crowd. We believe this would relate to almost everyone as everyone wants to stand out from the crowd.

Vox Pops

I interviewed a few people on the subject of music videos. I wanted to gather information on what makes a good music video. I also gathered feedback on the song I selected, the responses have helped me decide what my music video will contain. All of the people I interviewed were keen to view a music video of the song, which suggests to me that even music videos do help broaden the audience of the song. This would explain why many pop stars and up and coming artists release music videos. I am looking forward to the feedback I will receive for my music video.

Inspiration: Mise En Scene

I take inspiration from this music video on the mise-en-scene I find the location very similar to the one I want to film in. I like the mirror and the fast paced editing.

Song Selection Shortlist

Short List by Sulieman121

This was my shortlist for my song selection, I picked the first two songs because I know the artist personally, as for the third i found it on a copyright free website (music alley) and decided it was good enough to potentially be used as  a track.

I presented this to my group and we made our final selection along with the shortlist's they prepared, I final choice was 'The Rubber Tramp' by VisionedKarma, it was the 2nd song I proposed on my shortlist and the group thought it would be a good song to make a music video for so we chose it.

Inspiration: Performance

This video 'CAFO' by Animals As Leaders inspires me with it's performance. Some of the camera angles they use are unconventional. The actual performance element of the music video is quite spectacular as the band show off their technical abilities as musicians. I particularly like the way they filmed the tapping section of the song.

As you can see the camera angle amplifies the playing, it is a difficult camera angle to pull off as the camera must be setup without getting in the way of the guitarist. This also amplifies how difficult the song is to play.

This is the Camera angle I'm thinking of using in my music video. I like it because it really lets the viewer see the size of the guitar and it makes them more involved as it allows the viewer to to see the intricate details that the guitarist must play.

The whole music video is the performance of this song. At multiple points in the video the camera shakes, I imagine this is to amplify the intensity of the song, to create a frenzy as such to accompany the fast pace and quick notes.

The background is often bright with nothing really going on, this goes well with the performance as it keeps the audience focussed on the band. Although, the background does reflect the song in some way, for example the scattered lines could be seen as to relate to the scrambling of the guitarist's fingers.

The Cuts are both rhythmic and non-rhythmic as the tempo and time signature of the song is forever changing, as the song slows down so does the background, it smooths out.

But you'll notice it is always blurry never taking the attention away from the performer, and sub-textually it assists them, or supports them.

Overall this video is an inspiring performance for the sole fact that it is an amazing difficult song to play and you'll note they are not moving around but are in fact focused on their instruments, which would suggests this is one of the few performances that isn't mimed and is live. This is why I find it inspiring because if you think about the camera angles in this performance and the fact that they are actually playing this live it would be hard to shoot and edit, I assume they used multiple cameras to achieve this music video.

Target Audience

This is who I think our target audience is. I thought about our style of music being mainly instrumental so it is more for relaxed people. As it has being said before "Prog-rock is music for musicians" I took this into account so I would think the target audience would play an instrument wouldn't matter which as the musical rhythm and melody itself would serve enough for any musician to analyze and appreciate.

Potential Album Cover

Today I found a program online that I think could have potential to create the album cover of our Digi-pack. The software lets you create different graphics in a luminous light style

The website is http://weavesilk.com/

This is what I created in around 15 minutes:

As you can see it may not be perfect but I believe it has the potential to become a great album cover if I spent an hour designing it. Especially from a progressive rock style, their album covers focus on colours and shapes an example of a progressive rock album cover is Chon's album:

The cover focuses on shapes and has luminous colours which is why I think it could be done in this new program and up to a decent standard.

Again this took me as least 30 minutes so it really illustrates the potential of this site:

The Song We Have Chosen

This is the song we have chosen. We chose this song because it is instrumental. I personally am a musical person so I can provide guitar should we choose to do a performance music video. I like the concepts that this song gives me, and the general feel of it is quite upbeat.

Genre Shopping List

This is the overall mind map if you would like to see the full mind map visit https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6XknUlV2H_bMTY1SEFjc0ZELVk/edit?usp=sharing

This is our genre shopping list, it shows different ideas and conventions of progressive rock. It outlines which key ideas we wish to use. For example the instruments we would use in our music video would most probably be a seven string guitar and 5 string bass as is the convention. The album covers in the mind map inspire me personally because of the graphics design and the strong concept throughout the covers.

In addition we will be breaking some of the conventional camera angles. Costume isn't really an issue although we probably won't have anyone with a tattoo. I think we will film outside in the daytime, because you can get good lighting and there is more potential for developing a narrative for example a journey.

Standard Three-Point Lighting

 I was researching about mise-en-scène when I came across this.

This is standard three-point, it is a one of the basic techniques used in cinema. The object/character(s) is placed in front of the camera, a light to the left of the camera (#1) is pointed if not directly then a little to the side of the object. This is known as the Key Light and is the brightest light used to illuminate most of the object. Another light (#2) slightly dimmer is placed to the right of the camera. It is known as the Fill Light and is used to take away the shadow from the object. the final light (#3) is placed behind the object to the right of the camera. This is known as the Back Light and used to get rid of any remaining shadow behind the object.

I found this interesting simply because I feel it would be a good technique to use if I choose to shoot some of my music video scenes in a room or studio.

9 Key Frames

9KF The Verve

This is nine key frames produced by Troy. We all thought that this music video had some inspirational ideas for our video. As it shows a journey and uses some nice camera shots and angles.

Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

Evaluation of 2 A level Music Video's

I would grade this music video a level 4 because it uses four quadrants to keep the storyline moving along and it's a difficult technical feature to pull off. As it requires a lot of match on action or multiple camera work. And because it is done well I'll keep it to a level 4.

Although they may be trying to become the artist with all the references and comparisons which isn't as good because originality is a rare thing to come by. However the referencing still links in with the story so it is a nice addition.

It is especially good how they managed to get lots of people to take part in the chorus by showing parts of the lyrics.




I would grade this music video a level 3 because although there is some effective camera work and camera effects, the lip synching is a bit off, in addition the shot at 2:47 you can see all the camera equipment they used which I think takes away verisimilitude.

Although the technical skills are good I feel they lack a proper narrative, there is no real concept apart from them dancing.

Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey came up with a theory called the 'Male Gaze'. In Her theory she states that all media is designed by heterosexual males for young heterosexual males. This is suggested because of how women are objectified in todays media. She suggests this is used to draw the male audience in even if they are not the primary target audience.

An example of the 'Male Gaze' theory would be this rolling stones magazine cover. Firstly why would Jennifer Aniston be on a musically themed magazine. This is part of the 'Male Gaze' theory. She has no business being there but obviously if any Heterosexual male see's this cover, whether he like this style of music or not he is more encouraged to buy the magazine just because there is a is a woman being objectified on the front cover.

Star Theory

Star Theory Essay by Sulieman121

Andrew Goodwin's Theory and The Deconstruction of a Music Video

My Presentation 2

This is a presentation which deconstructs a music video using Andrew Goodwin's theory

Music Video Timeline

Music Video Statistics

Music Video Statistics | Create infographics

Teaser Music Videos

We recently learned about music video teasers. they are usually music videos just showing the lyrics and presenting the song. The reasoning behind putting out a lyric music video is to draw an audience an d draw attention that a new album is coming out or that a music video will be made.

An example of this is Katy Perry's Roar which at first was released as a lyric video



 Then after drawing an audience the actual music video was released



I then stumbled across this video, the song is Vahle by Volumes it was released recently On the 12th of September 2013. I think it is a way of letting people know that a new album is coming out, by releasing one song they already have drawn back the fans of the first album and it's possible that a music video will be made for the same song once the album is out. This way people can share the video and let others know of the upcoming album making the album more likely to get more sales, making it more successful. One thing is for sure I will be buying this album, so just goes to show that this type of marketing works.

Codes and Conventions

Conventions are the social expectation of something, for example you expect a rapper be rapping in front of the camera with lots of girls around him, and you expect a punk band to have lots of shots of the band playing their instruments.

Codes are more specific. They relate exactly to the music video itself

Technical Codes - They focus on the camera movement, Lighting and camera angles

Verbal Codes - These are to do with anything written or spoken, e.g. font used, how the words are said.

Symbolic Codes - These can be anything from the misc en scene, colour, object, costume, etc.

I have chosen two band's music videos:

August Burns Red - Empire

As you can see It shows the Band playing the song making it a performance music video which is the convention for this type of genre. their is very minimal narrative apart from the lyrics being said. The camera work is fast paced and shaky, to emphasise the power of the instruments and voice. The colour is quite grey there aren't really any bright colours, showing the brutality of the riff. The macro image of the rocks shaking is a code as we relate rocks shaking with an earthquake, I believe it is the band's way of suggesting that their music is so powerful it can cause earthquake's. There is some choreography as the 2 guitarists and bass guitar come into synch at one point, this is to symbolize their bond and that they will face anything together.

Suicide Silence - You Only Live Once

Compared to the previous video their are some obvious similarities, again the band plays the song while a short narrative is also presented to the viewer. their is a lot of energy going through the video with the fast paced shots and the shaking of the camera. Again the video is mostly colourless with the acceptation of the dark red of the blood. The idea of the shooting range and them being the target ties in with the lyrics "you only live once".

This type of genre I think uses this style of music videos to credit the whole band on the song, whereas pop stars usually don't show themselves playing any instrument, or credit the composer of the song.

Purpose of a Music Video

Purpose of a Music Video

Summer Homework

For my summer homework I had to make a basic music video to a song selected by my teacher, we where told that it didn't have to look it's best but it did have to have some element of creativity.
So Creativity is what I focused on.

I used stop motion in a lot of my video, along with some synchronised sound and visuals (e.g. the guitar playing along to the tune). At the end of the song I kept the video going with the original diegetic sound still playing to give show verisimilitude in the scene, I then concluded the video with a fade out.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did making it.

Structures of Music Videos

There are 4 different Structures of music video:

Performance: 

This is when the music is performed either through dance, playing of an instrument or singing. Their is no narrative in the video it is just performance. An example of this is



Their is only performance as it is just the girls and Beyonce dancing to the music with nothing else. This style is most used by rock artists and dance artists

 Narrative: 

This is when the video shows a story usually the story has some connection to the song either through the lyrics or the message of the song. Their is no performance in the video just a storyline. An example of this is 'Sleepwalker' by Parkway Drive

Their is a narrative being shown here in relation to the music, it is a point of view shot of a man representing the sleepwalker.

Abstract: 

This is when the video and music have no relation to each other and no performance is done in the video to mimic the music. An is example of this is 'Vermillion Pt. 2' by Slipknot.


The Video is very abstract to the song, their is no change of scene or appearance of the band. Their is no significant objects or people apart from the girl.

Hybrid:

 This is when the music video uses two or more qualities of the other types of music video. It can incorporate elements of all three Abstract, Performance and Narrative. An example of this is 'Wormholes' by Volumes

This is a

combination of abstract performance and narrative as some of the shots have nothing to do with the music or story.This is a typical structure of a music video and all artists use this type of hybrid.

Favourite Music Video Presentation

I have chosen the music video Through the glass by Stone Sour. It is a hybrid music video of performance and narrative. I like this music video because it has a clear message it is trying to portray; the message being that Hollywood and most celebrities are one dimensional; that they are fake and are artificially made for us to look up to them.

I like the match on action that this video does with the cardboard cutouts and the actual people, It is quite cleverly done. I think the lyrics do match some of the storyline for example "its the stars that shine for you... its the stars that lie to you." This is matched with the one dimensional cutouts.

I mainly like he music video for the concept and message that it is trying to put across. Which is, that Hollywood and celebrities are one dimensional and created to be sold to the public no different from advertisement or a product in a shop.