Thursday, 28 January 2010
Monday, 4 January 2010
Uprising Cover analysis
I personally feel that this album cover immediately attracts a selected audience. The uniformed repetition and very simplistic values of the picture creates a very interesting visual effect, as the band is fairly mainstream i think that the designer of this cover didn't feel the importance of making the name of the band or a picture of the band the main subject in this cover as its audience would be captivated by the value that the album and the music and not the bands image thus breaking the normal conventions. Although i am familiar with the band, Muse i feel that if i was unaware of who they were and saw this album cover i do believe that i would be able to create an accurate idea of what type of music and band this group was.
what i feel about this album cover is that it offers some sort of political view to the audience which in the current climate is very topical but i feel this political view is not seen by many people but it is very subtle and relevant. in conjunction with Blumler and Katz uses and gratifications theory the audience possibly wants and explanation or an understanding to war. The teddy bears can represent the young men and women out at war, or even planted mines, or child soldiers. although the image used does not give the answer to possible questions raised by the audience it infers that the music possibly could.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Evaluation
It is very important when you begin to make a form of media that you have an idea of the conventions that regulate it. In terms of music videos in general there are quite simple conventions that you should follow. Music videos are all about attracting an audience to your band/artist, their main purpose is to sell the band and their music, so following these conventions allows you to present it in a positive way. In a music video they use long shots, close-ups and extreme close-ups consistently. The reason they use long-shots is usually to emphases, the location or in terms of bands showing them playing together representing their relationship. The reason that they use close-ups on the music video is usually to help the audience concentrate on the face of the artist and to show the lip-syncing to the audience. In terms of camera movement cranes and dolly’s are used quite a lot to follow the band and artist to show movement makes it more intense. The editing in music video are usually straight cuts and sometimes fades as to put an emphasis on the video continuing rather than changing or time passing. Jump cuts are also widely used to increase the pace of music videos. In terms of mise-en-scene that is more specific to the actual genre that it is based on however music videos may use inter-textual influences from other music videos or in fact other forms of media. Most evidently artificial lighting is used in music videos to give the desired effect instead of what nature intends. Props, costumes and colours again however are very specific to what genre of music the video belongs to.
Thus talking about conventions you must talk specifically about our genre which is melodic metalcore, this basically is a toned down version of heavy metal music. Thus the conventions to this genre are very specific. In terms of camera shots there are many long-shots and two-shots to show the relationship of the band also there is also a need for close-ups and extreme close-ups ,this is to show the faces of the band but are also to increase the intensity of the song, having someone screaming in your face is quite a uncomfortable feeling. In terms of camera-angles and movements you have to use a variety of high and low angles including canted angles to give that surreal feeling you want to convey to the audience. You can also use hand-held camerawork as the freedom allows you to exploit many different shots and the movement once again helps to speed up the song instead of just a rooted shot. Editing is a very important convention in this genre the use of quick-cuts helps to keep up the pace of the song in line with the video. It also helps to use jump-cuts in narrative scenes to help that also keep up the pace, since it is hard to have consistent intense scenes. Finally the convention that gives the genre identity is mise-en-scene. In the mise-en-scene the use of harsh lighting is very important to create a light and dark comparison and highlight band members or instruments. The props and costumes very widely depend on the song, however in the band shots, the band members/cast are usually seen with long hair and can be scene casual clothes. The colours help to get the message across to the audience, in meliodic metalcore, which is quite dark in term of lyrics and storylines means that there is usually a consistent dark colour scheme of blacks and greys throughout to indicate this dark overtone, however this is also combined with intense colours such as red that are very eye-grabbing, passionate and intense to reflects the roots of the music and involve the audience.
In our music video we tried our best to follow the conventions of the genre very closely as the genre is very specific so changing the conventions will change the style in which it is expressed. In terms of our camerawork in our music video we wanted to create a surreal effect so we decided to use as many different shots as possible, we used long-shots and two-shots to show relationships between the band members and characters in the video. We used medium shots to put emphasis on the costume of the characters because since our video consisted of clowns and mimes it was important that we conveyed this and attracted the attention of the audience to give them the surreal feeling. We also used close-ups and extreme-close-ups, this was to highlight the singing of the music and show the audience all of the make-up and mask, so that they can develop a relationship with the audience and also by having the extreme close-ups, by using these subjective camerawork shots we can make the audience feel uncomfortable and show the intensity of the music.
This links in with Andrew Goodwin’s theory as he states “The demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work” This was something that was required in our video as it was very important that the audience notice our visual style of mimes and clowns as it not only helps them recognize them in the video but across other ranges of our work such as our ancillary texts, the album cover and magazine advert.
Of course camerawork goes hand in hand with camera angles and movement. In our music video we used many different angles such as high and low and angles to indicate the feelings of the character and so, as the uses and gratifications theory indicates allow the audience to identify with the protagonist. We also used a canted angle to give a surreal and unusual feeling to the audience. Andrew Goodwin states “There is a relationship between lyrics and the visuals”, which is why we used these strange angles as the lyrics are very surreal and create imagery thus we wanted to use angles such as canted angles to amplify this feeling. We also used some hand-held camera movement to keep up the pace of the music with the visuals on displays, as there is no point in making a slow visual with fast music as it will confuse the audience.
Editing was also something that we had to pay a lot of attention to and we tried our best to follow the conventions. Firstly we our editing was very quick with our shots lasting no more than 3 seconds. This is to give the video some intensity and keep the audience at the edge if their seat, this is a very common convention in rock music videos. “There is a relationship between music and visuals” this is something which we knew is very important as the quick shots are what make rock different from others and this had to be displayed in not only band shots, which is quite easy because they are playing the instruments, but also in the narrative scenes to keep a continuing narrative and not to have dramatic fluctuations of pace. This is why we inserted some jump cuts in our narrative storyline to match the pace generated in the band shots and keep the audience interested. We also tried to some edits from other music videos to give ours a unique effect.
Thus talking about conventions you must talk specifically about our genre which is melodic metalcore, this basically is a toned down version of heavy metal music. Thus the conventions to this genre are very specific. In terms of camera shots there are many long-shots and two-shots to show the relationship of the band also there is also a need for close-ups and extreme close-ups ,this is to show the faces of the band but are also to increase the intensity of the song, having someone screaming in your face is quite a uncomfortable feeling. In terms of camera-angles and movements you have to use a variety of high and low angles including canted angles to give that surreal feeling you want to convey to the audience. You can also use hand-held camerawork as the freedom allows you to exploit many different shots and the movement once again helps to speed up the song instead of just a rooted shot. Editing is a very important convention in this genre the use of quick-cuts helps to keep up the pace of the song in line with the video. It also helps to use jump-cuts in narrative scenes to help that also keep up the pace, since it is hard to have consistent intense scenes. Finally the convention that gives the genre identity is mise-en-scene. In the mise-en-scene the use of harsh lighting is very important to create a light and dark comparison and highlight band members or instruments. The props and costumes very widely depend on the song, however in the band shots, the band members/cast are usually seen with long hair and can be scene casual clothes. The colours help to get the message across to the audience, in meliodic metalcore, which is quite dark in term of lyrics and storylines means that there is usually a consistent dark colour scheme of blacks and greys throughout to indicate this dark overtone, however this is also combined with intense colours such as red that are very eye-grabbing, passionate and intense to reflects the roots of the music and involve the audience.
In our music video we tried our best to follow the conventions of the genre very closely as the genre is very specific so changing the conventions will change the style in which it is expressed. In terms of our camerawork in our music video we wanted to create a surreal effect so we decided to use as many different shots as possible, we used long-shots and two-shots to show relationships between the band members and characters in the video. We used medium shots to put emphasis on the costume of the characters because since our video consisted of clowns and mimes it was important that we conveyed this and attracted the attention of the audience to give them the surreal feeling. We also used close-ups and extreme-close-ups, this was to highlight the singing of the music and show the audience all of the make-up and mask, so that they can develop a relationship with the audience and also by having the extreme close-ups, by using these subjective camerawork shots we can make the audience feel uncomfortable and show the intensity of the music.
This links in with Andrew Goodwin’s theory as he states “The demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work” This was something that was required in our video as it was very important that the audience notice our visual style of mimes and clowns as it not only helps them recognize them in the video but across other ranges of our work such as our ancillary texts, the album cover and magazine advert.Of course camerawork goes hand in hand with camera angles and movement. In our music video we used many different angles such as high and low and angles to indicate the feelings of the character and so, as the uses and gratifications theory indicates allow the audience to identify with the protagonist. We also used a canted angle to give a surreal and unusual feeling to the audience. Andrew Goodwin states “There is a relationship between lyrics and the visuals”, which is why we used these strange angles as the lyrics are very surreal and create imagery thus we wanted to use angles such as canted angles to amplify this feeling. We also used some hand-held camera movement to keep up the pace of the music with the visuals on displays, as there is no point in making a slow visual with fast music as it will confuse the audience.
Editing was also something that we had to pay a lot of attention to and we tried our best to follow the conventions. Firstly we our editing was very quick with our shots lasting no more than 3 seconds. This is to give the video some intensity and keep the audience at the edge if their seat, this is a very common convention in rock music videos. “There is a relationship between music and visuals” this is something which we knew is very important as the quick shots are what make rock different from others and this had to be displayed in not only band shots, which is quite easy because they are playing the instruments, but also in the narrative scenes to keep a continuing narrative and not to have dramatic fluctuations of pace. This is why we inserted some jump cuts in our narrative storyline to match the pace generated in the band shots and keep the audience interested. We also tried to some edits from other music videos to give ours a unique effect.
In the urban music video “Forever” (by Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem) which is a very different genre to ours, there is an edit where you have a long shot of the artist with a close-up of him singing superimposed on top of it. Seeing this we decided that it would be something different to place in the video. So we copied the shot except that we had him playing a guitar in the background and the lead singer imposed on top. I believe that this could be breaking conventions as such shots aren’t usually present in the rock genre but present in hip-hop, RnB and Pop videos. This then follows another of Goodwins theories “There is often inter-textual references” which we have reflected in a shot rather than a scene.
No finally but probably the most influential part is the mise-en-scene of the music video. And straight from the off we can say that we have followed some more of Goodwins Theories, as he states “Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics” in our video we perform band scenes throughout the video as these are regarded as the characteristics of rock music and allow the audience to recognize this. We also followed the conventions and included some chiaroscuro lighting in our video to highlight the band members when they are performing or singing as these harsh lighting conditions make the audience focus more.
In our video we are trying to create a surreal environment for the audience, which means that in terms of the uses and gratifications theory we offer them a source of entertainment and escapism as we are trying to involve them into the world we have created. We have tried to juxtapose a real world with surreal characters so that people can also identify with the character, if they have had the same experiences as him. In terms of our props and especially costumes it was important to get these right so that the audience would believe what is happening. Thus we dressed the antagonist in Black and the protagonist in white and colours to help convey the binary oppositions to the audience, since the connotations of black is evil while white represents pure and thus the audience can chose which side they are on. It was the same case with the make-up the juxtaposition of the real world, with clown and mimes really allowed to the audience to feel the surreal feeling.
Another part of mise-en-scene is the signifiers and connotations that we inserted throughout our video. We included colours like red and black, which are quite intense and also show passion in our video. We also have the signifier of the mask, usually masks signify mystery and the unknown, which is reflected in our music video, as the character wearing them is super human, he is an unknown and never in the video do you or the protagonist find out who he is. This is very important, as it is an implicit way of getting a message across to the audience. In terms of Barthes study of semiotics the two branches that we exploit the most are the semantics and the pragmatic. Semantics is the relationship between signs and what they mean; this is exploited by us in our video by the use of dark intense colours such as reds and blacks because they carry the implicit nature of our characters to the audience.
No finally but probably the most influential part is the mise-en-scene of the music video. And straight from the off we can say that we have followed some more of Goodwins Theories, as he states “Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics” in our video we perform band scenes throughout the video as these are regarded as the characteristics of rock music and allow the audience to recognize this. We also followed the conventions and included some chiaroscuro lighting in our video to highlight the band members when they are performing or singing as these harsh lighting conditions make the audience focus more.
In our video we are trying to create a surreal environment for the audience, which means that in terms of the uses and gratifications theory we offer them a source of entertainment and escapism as we are trying to involve them into the world we have created. We have tried to juxtapose a real world with surreal characters so that people can also identify with the character, if they have had the same experiences as him. In terms of our props and especially costumes it was important to get these right so that the audience would believe what is happening. Thus we dressed the antagonist in Black and the protagonist in white and colours to help convey the binary oppositions to the audience, since the connotations of black is evil while white represents pure and thus the audience can chose which side they are on. It was the same case with the make-up the juxtaposition of the real world, with clown and mimes really allowed to the audience to feel the surreal feeling.
Another part of mise-en-scene is the signifiers and connotations that we inserted throughout our video. We included colours like red and black, which are quite intense and also show passion in our video. We also have the signifier of the mask, usually masks signify mystery and the unknown, which is reflected in our music video, as the character wearing them is super human, he is an unknown and never in the video do you or the protagonist find out who he is. This is very important, as it is an implicit way of getting a message across to the audience. In terms of Barthes study of semiotics the two branches that we exploit the most are the semantics and the pragmatic. Semantics is the relationship between signs and what they mean; this is exploited by us in our video by the use of dark intense colours such as reds and blacks because they carry the implicit nature of our characters to the audience.
By using black, we imply mystery, evil to the audience and by showing red we can show the passion and intensity of feeling that are convey in our music video. The other branch is Pragmatics, this is the relationship between signs and the way they make the audience feel, in terms of our music video, this can be seen from the use of our mask, as a sign it denotes mystery and the unknown as stated before and this makes the audience feel curious, they want to know who this person is and thus keeps them stuck on the video.
But also along with every music video you also have ancillary texts alongside them .In our case we made an album cover with a supporting magazine advert for the album. Beginning with our album cover we wanted to reflect some of the motifs from our music video on our cover. However from our analysis we also learned that the album title needs to be reflected on the album cover, in this case this is a self titled album and should reflect the band name. Considering this we realised that wolfs and moons are always linked and this has a massive influence on our album cover. To create the front we placed a moon in the background, we then superimposed an image of black smoke onto the image, this was then manipulated this by smudging it to form the mask that we use throughout our music video and advert, being our motif, we then gave it hints of red to reflect that passion in the album. Finally concluding by superimposing the title upon it as well, the font specifically was taken from an internet site, the influence being the rock band “Enter Shikari”. As can be seen on this we have used the moon to imply the name of wolfbane, as wolves are always interlinked with full moons. Also being important that you have a consistent sign, motif or symbol, we chose the most outstanding feature in our music video being the mime mask and incorporated it into the album cover. However there were also signifiers of the genre placed on the cover the use of blacks and greys indicate the metallic nature of the music. This when viewed by the audience straight away signifies rock music. The mime face also indicates the dark nature of the music; this is because we thought that this is an opportunity to place what we express in the video onto print. So if the audience has seen the video, they will straight away recognize that the album belongs to the band because of the similarities.
The back covers obviously has to be a reflection of the front cover, thus we used the continuation of using the moon as a background, this obviously being to reflect our name, however the black and white juxtaposition also reflects the situation and the binary oppositions present in the actual music video. Plus the simple reason that it makes the text easy to read. Creating this cover was quite simple as it was a background of the moon that was in fact yellow, which we manipulated to white by making the picture black and white and changing the brightness and contrast to give the moon a gleam. We then simply superimposed the text and logos on top of it. Once again the connotations of the colour scheme reflect the dark nature of the music on the album as well as the metallic nature of the genre. We also realised that the track-list font should imitate that of the album name and while not the same, it has the ancient medieval feel to it. To once again connotation that dark feels to the audience.
As you can see our advert carries a lot of the connation’ and signifiers that our music video and album cover held however it is much more eye catching. The first thing that you notice is the colour scheme on the advert. You can see the dark colour scheme of dark browns, blacks and greys in the advert connotate the dark nature of the music as well as the dark lyrics. This is then also supported by the blood red in which the text and border is written and made in respectively. This signifies the passion that is shown in the music video as well as the intensity of the music to the audience and indicates to them what genre it belongs to. However we have also included our motif on this as well, which is the mime mask, this once again reflects the surreal style of the music and helps the audience identify and relate the music video and ancillary products. The binary opposition is also shown in the video with the contrast of black and white in the costumes showing the audience the pro and antagonist.
This was the most difficult of the ancillary products to make. To create I had to get the two required photos and merge them together by having each one and resizing them to link together properly, I then used a filter effect on both of them to merge the pictures together and make one it look as one. I then superimposed the band name on top of the image colouring it red. I then changed the opacity so that it merges with the background image. Then it was a simple case of placing all of the shapes and text upon the image and colouring them in the correct colour, the reason I chose white for the general text was so that it stands out to the audience. The reason that the cover also has a border is for the same reason, so that it stands out. Another feature on the advert is the comic style filter on the picture; this was also to connotate and signifies the surreal feel of the video, we want the audience to see this and see something unique to others.
The way in which we created AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) would be by firstly making them aware of the music video by the magazine advert, the surreal style and rock connotations should, if he is a lover of the genre, convey the message that this is the type of music that he likes, however we have also created interest on our album/advert by having featuring artists on the album, including big names such as Slipknot, so if these are bands that the audience are interested in they will then go and watch the video on the internet or on the TV. Then if they like what they see from the video they will gain that desire to get a copy of the album of the song, and thus they will be able to take action because from the advert they would have realised what the album looks like and can thus buy it.
When you look at our products from the view of the audience you need to know how they think thus you turn to theories such as Richard Dyers Utopians Theory. This theory states that the audience look for something missing in their lives in forms of media. We then offer excitement and mystery to our audience; this is because of the intensity and passion of the music as well as the surreal lyrics and the music video. People, who have dull boring lives, should then in fact be interested in our music video because it carries that fast paced nature. This is then reflected in our ancillary products through the use of black and grey colours to reflect the metallic nature of the song. The moon also reflects the name of the band, wolf, which signifies excitement to the user. The passion is reflected through the use of red in the mask on the cover as well as the title on the cover because that colour connatates the passion and intensity.
Another theory, the uses and gratifications theory, states that there are five things that a form of media offers to the audience, Information, Identification, Social Interaction, Entertainment and Escapism. Specifically relating to the ancillary products that we have made, we will specifically be focusing on Information and Social Interaction, as the other three are more part of the video itself. We firstly need to make sure that we give the audience all the information that they need to sell our band, such as the name, album cover, songs and release dates, so that they know what the video is like and know how to buy it i.e. the album cover. Secondly Social interaction is very important for us as word of mouth is a very important aspect of music as friends can spread the music around increasing the audience, thus we need to make the advert a point of discussion, I believe we have done that from the unique style that the advert is made from as well as the album cover. Also by inserting famous names on our advert and album such as slipknot we increase the point of discussion as the band then gets much more recognition.
So to see what people thought of our music video we ran a audience feedback session, in which we got some people to watch our video and then we asked them a couple of questions on film. We firstly asked them what they liked about our music video. The response that we got was very positive we were told that our camerawork was very edgy and used crazy angles which suited the style of the song. Another big positive from our audience was the editing they said that the editor has been very creative and that the special effects that we have used worked really well. We were also told that the video remains fast-paced which was something we were hoping to achieve. Finally and probably very importantly we were told that the video reflects the genre of music.
We then asked our audience on what they thought made the video unique and stand out from others. We were told that it looks as if we have put a lot of work into it because of the way we have created the mise-en-scene, the fact we were interested as much in the appearance as the music this was reflected through another as well who said that it is a very dark video. The amount of varied shots that we had was also something that made us stand out, as well as the songs fast paced nature which suited the genre, however probably the best answer that we got from this question was that it looks more professional than other videos. We were also told by everyone we asked for feedback that they could imagine our video on the TV.
However the point of audience feedback was to find out how we can improve, so when asked about what we should improve we were told that the casting could have been improved a bit more because some of the people didn’t suit the roles alongside this we were told that the narrative is a bit confusing, we were also told that the lip-syncing could have been improved on some of the scenes. Finally we were told that some of the lighting could also be improved because in some scenes there was some glare.
So from this feedback we realised that if we were to make another video there would be a couple of improvements that we would need to focus on. In a general sense we were told that the narrative was a bit confusing. To solve this problem I believe that what we would do would be to write the narrative down, so we know exactly what we need to film and show it to some of the audience and get their feedback before the actual filming starts so that we will know if the audience understand the potential narrative and if they don’t we can adjust it and do it again. We were also told that the casting could have been better in some areas. I guess this could be done by doing some extra research into music video of similar characters and see what the people in that are like, such as hair etc So that we can find someone suitable.
In terms of the actual video we were told that the final scenes weren’t as good as the ones in the rest of the film. I believe that this is because of the lighting conditions that were present at time of filming. So in future we could take more care with natural lighting conditions. However we were also told that some of the artificial lighting could be improved because there was a bit of glare and it was a bit flashy. So in future I guess lighting would be an issue we have to address. Finally we would improve some of the lip-syncing because in a couple of scenes it was off. This problem however is an easy one to solve; the problem would probably be in the filming, so we should leave ourselves enough time to improve aspects such as that. So overall I believe that an improvement in the pre-production would be necessary as well as lighting conditions and editing in the video.
This shows that the audience feedback is very important in the production work of and actual making of a music video. This is because first and for mostly music videos are made for the public, for the fans and thus what they think is the most important thing because the point of making music videos are to publicize the band and to make money so if the audience like the video it will be much more popular. However the other reason is that the people making the actual music video see it from one angle, they know everything that is going on and thus it is important to see it from the views and angles from the other people because they can point out things that you don’t see or don’t even know about and it is this way that you can make a video to sustain the appetite of the audience. However audience feedback is also as important before you make the video, so that as I mentioned in the previous paragraphs it allows you to make sure you have the right cast and a good narrative in your video so that you don’t have to waste your time re-filming or re-casting when you have gotten far into the creation of the music video.
Talking about the creation of videos leads me onto the final aspect of the evaluation, which is the use of technologies in the work. Firstly you have to actually mention the camera that we used because that was our tool to make the video, to get the best quality video we chose a HD camera. Specifically on the camera we used its zoom features to get a variety of shots. But a camera is not enough thus to get professional steady shots we used tri-pods to get steady shots as well as dollies to get movement in our shots, along with this we also used hand-held camerawork to get a variety of shots and movement. These are probably the most important aspects because if you don’t film properly there is no editing in the world that can make it look good..
All of the pre-production work, analysis of exiting products, ancillary products etc were all posted on our personal blog, as it was an excellent way to provide all of our coursework in a digital form. The advantage of using a blog to present our work was because it is an multimedia application, when we needed to place text we simply typed it in, when we needed to insert images we simply uploaded them on to the blog, when we wanted to insert a video we simply uploaded it, which is something that would not be able to work if it was on paper. It also allowed the teachers to get copies of all the work without the need of wasting paper. It also allowed the teacher to check our progress instantly and vice versa when our teacher needed to tell us about deadlines she simply posted them up, allowing the information to be available at any time. Personally the greatest advantage it gave us was that we could collate all of our work in a safe and organised way.
The internet as always was a very important aspect in our production of a music video as it allowed us to effortlessly conduct research on existing ancillary products, as well as get images for them such as logos etc. It was also very useful in the form of you tube as the site allowed us to view many different music videos and provided us with a lot of ideas and influenced us a lot in our own music video. As you can see from the paragraph above it also provided us with the blog, which as I stated gave as a nice digital way of storing and organising all our work without harming the environment. We also hoped to upload our music video onto you tube so that it can be viewed by anyone, however this was a problem due to copyright laws and resulted in having to abandon the idea.
When it actually came down to making the music video we had the privilege of using the professional film making program Final Cut Pro on an Apple Mac.
On this program we uploaded all of the footage from the camera and allowed us to effortlessly create our video. We simply inserted the song onto the program and it gave us the feature to cut out the specific scenes from the footage that we needed and simply place them where we wanted them. It also allowed us to tinker with the actual shots by moving them around the visible screen, cropping the shots to make things such a split screens. We could increase/decrease the speed as well as reverse the footage. It also allowed us to mess with the opacity to blend shots in and it was with all these tools that we were able to make a professional music video plus as you can see from the screenshot you can see that it is very complex from our shot structure. However this was just messing around with the shots, there were still many different effects at our disposal. These were what we used to give our video a unique feel. We were able to use effects such as find edges, which gave everything in the shot a white out-line and the rest being black and a combination of two, line-art and solarise, to make a colourful image of the clown to represent the binary oppositions in our work because the connotations of the work made it really clear.
We also used an effect called bloom, which basically adjusted the contrast and brightness on all of our shots to give it more of a professional look rather than a home video. Along with filters however we also used transitions in our music video. Specifically we used fades in some of our shots to have a smooth continuation as it is easier on the eyes of the audience and makes the video look much smoother in terms of the editing.
This was basically the main ways in which technology affected our work because this is one of the only projects in which we have worked were everything has been based on technology from the construction, research, planning and even this evaluation. This has allowed us to effortlessly pass on the work to each other as well as presenting the work in a unique way.
This then concludes the evaluation as you can see making a music video isn’t just about the music; in fact, ironically, it is the easiest part of the video as it is the only thing that you get premade.
But also along with every music video you also have ancillary texts alongside them .In our case we made an album cover with a supporting magazine advert for the album. Beginning with our album cover we wanted to reflect some of the motifs from our music video on our cover. However from our analysis we also learned that the album title needs to be reflected on the album cover, in this case this is a self titled album and should reflect the band name. Considering this we realised that wolfs and moons are always linked and this has a massive influence on our album cover. To create the front we placed a moon in the background, we then superimposed an image of black smoke onto the image, this was then manipulated this by smudging it to form the mask that we use throughout our music video and advert, being our motif, we then gave it hints of red to reflect that passion in the album. Finally concluding by superimposing the title upon it as well, the font specifically was taken from an internet site, the influence being the rock band “Enter Shikari”. As can be seen on this we have used the moon to imply the name of wolfbane, as wolves are always interlinked with full moons. Also being important that you have a consistent sign, motif or symbol, we chose the most outstanding feature in our music video being the mime mask and incorporated it into the album cover. However there were also signifiers of the genre placed on the cover the use of blacks and greys indicate the metallic nature of the music. This when viewed by the audience straight away signifies rock music. The mime face also indicates the dark nature of the music; this is because we thought that this is an opportunity to place what we express in the video onto print. So if the audience has seen the video, they will straight away recognize that the album belongs to the band because of the similarities.
The back covers obviously has to be a reflection of the front cover, thus we used the continuation of using the moon as a background, this obviously being to reflect our name, however the black and white juxtaposition also reflects the situation and the binary oppositions present in the actual music video. Plus the simple reason that it makes the text easy to read. Creating this cover was quite simple as it was a background of the moon that was in fact yellow, which we manipulated to white by making the picture black and white and changing the brightness and contrast to give the moon a gleam. We then simply superimposed the text and logos on top of it. Once again the connotations of the colour scheme reflect the dark nature of the music on the album as well as the metallic nature of the genre. We also realised that the track-list font should imitate that of the album name and while not the same, it has the ancient medieval feel to it. To once again connotation that dark feels to the audience.
As you can see our advert carries a lot of the connation’ and signifiers that our music video and album cover held however it is much more eye catching. The first thing that you notice is the colour scheme on the advert. You can see the dark colour scheme of dark browns, blacks and greys in the advert connotate the dark nature of the music as well as the dark lyrics. This is then also supported by the blood red in which the text and border is written and made in respectively. This signifies the passion that is shown in the music video as well as the intensity of the music to the audience and indicates to them what genre it belongs to. However we have also included our motif on this as well, which is the mime mask, this once again reflects the surreal style of the music and helps the audience identify and relate the music video and ancillary products. The binary opposition is also shown in the video with the contrast of black and white in the costumes showing the audience the pro and antagonist.
This was the most difficult of the ancillary products to make. To create I had to get the two required photos and merge them together by having each one and resizing them to link together properly, I then used a filter effect on both of them to merge the pictures together and make one it look as one. I then superimposed the band name on top of the image colouring it red. I then changed the opacity so that it merges with the background image. Then it was a simple case of placing all of the shapes and text upon the image and colouring them in the correct colour, the reason I chose white for the general text was so that it stands out to the audience. The reason that the cover also has a border is for the same reason, so that it stands out. Another feature on the advert is the comic style filter on the picture; this was also to connotate and signifies the surreal feel of the video, we want the audience to see this and see something unique to others.
The way in which we created AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) would be by firstly making them aware of the music video by the magazine advert, the surreal style and rock connotations should, if he is a lover of the genre, convey the message that this is the type of music that he likes, however we have also created interest on our album/advert by having featuring artists on the album, including big names such as Slipknot, so if these are bands that the audience are interested in they will then go and watch the video on the internet or on the TV. Then if they like what they see from the video they will gain that desire to get a copy of the album of the song, and thus they will be able to take action because from the advert they would have realised what the album looks like and can thus buy it.
When you look at our products from the view of the audience you need to know how they think thus you turn to theories such as Richard Dyers Utopians Theory. This theory states that the audience look for something missing in their lives in forms of media. We then offer excitement and mystery to our audience; this is because of the intensity and passion of the music as well as the surreal lyrics and the music video. People, who have dull boring lives, should then in fact be interested in our music video because it carries that fast paced nature. This is then reflected in our ancillary products through the use of black and grey colours to reflect the metallic nature of the song. The moon also reflects the name of the band, wolf, which signifies excitement to the user. The passion is reflected through the use of red in the mask on the cover as well as the title on the cover because that colour connatates the passion and intensity.
Another theory, the uses and gratifications theory, states that there are five things that a form of media offers to the audience, Information, Identification, Social Interaction, Entertainment and Escapism. Specifically relating to the ancillary products that we have made, we will specifically be focusing on Information and Social Interaction, as the other three are more part of the video itself. We firstly need to make sure that we give the audience all the information that they need to sell our band, such as the name, album cover, songs and release dates, so that they know what the video is like and know how to buy it i.e. the album cover. Secondly Social interaction is very important for us as word of mouth is a very important aspect of music as friends can spread the music around increasing the audience, thus we need to make the advert a point of discussion, I believe we have done that from the unique style that the advert is made from as well as the album cover. Also by inserting famous names on our advert and album such as slipknot we increase the point of discussion as the band then gets much more recognition.
So to see what people thought of our music video we ran a audience feedback session, in which we got some people to watch our video and then we asked them a couple of questions on film. We firstly asked them what they liked about our music video. The response that we got was very positive we were told that our camerawork was very edgy and used crazy angles which suited the style of the song. Another big positive from our audience was the editing they said that the editor has been very creative and that the special effects that we have used worked really well. We were also told that the video remains fast-paced which was something we were hoping to achieve. Finally and probably very importantly we were told that the video reflects the genre of music.
We then asked our audience on what they thought made the video unique and stand out from others. We were told that it looks as if we have put a lot of work into it because of the way we have created the mise-en-scene, the fact we were interested as much in the appearance as the music this was reflected through another as well who said that it is a very dark video. The amount of varied shots that we had was also something that made us stand out, as well as the songs fast paced nature which suited the genre, however probably the best answer that we got from this question was that it looks more professional than other videos. We were also told by everyone we asked for feedback that they could imagine our video on the TV.
However the point of audience feedback was to find out how we can improve, so when asked about what we should improve we were told that the casting could have been improved a bit more because some of the people didn’t suit the roles alongside this we were told that the narrative is a bit confusing, we were also told that the lip-syncing could have been improved on some of the scenes. Finally we were told that some of the lighting could also be improved because in some scenes there was some glare.
So from this feedback we realised that if we were to make another video there would be a couple of improvements that we would need to focus on. In a general sense we were told that the narrative was a bit confusing. To solve this problem I believe that what we would do would be to write the narrative down, so we know exactly what we need to film and show it to some of the audience and get their feedback before the actual filming starts so that we will know if the audience understand the potential narrative and if they don’t we can adjust it and do it again. We were also told that the casting could have been better in some areas. I guess this could be done by doing some extra research into music video of similar characters and see what the people in that are like, such as hair etc So that we can find someone suitable.
In terms of the actual video we were told that the final scenes weren’t as good as the ones in the rest of the film. I believe that this is because of the lighting conditions that were present at time of filming. So in future we could take more care with natural lighting conditions. However we were also told that some of the artificial lighting could be improved because there was a bit of glare and it was a bit flashy. So in future I guess lighting would be an issue we have to address. Finally we would improve some of the lip-syncing because in a couple of scenes it was off. This problem however is an easy one to solve; the problem would probably be in the filming, so we should leave ourselves enough time to improve aspects such as that. So overall I believe that an improvement in the pre-production would be necessary as well as lighting conditions and editing in the video.
This shows that the audience feedback is very important in the production work of and actual making of a music video. This is because first and for mostly music videos are made for the public, for the fans and thus what they think is the most important thing because the point of making music videos are to publicize the band and to make money so if the audience like the video it will be much more popular. However the other reason is that the people making the actual music video see it from one angle, they know everything that is going on and thus it is important to see it from the views and angles from the other people because they can point out things that you don’t see or don’t even know about and it is this way that you can make a video to sustain the appetite of the audience. However audience feedback is also as important before you make the video, so that as I mentioned in the previous paragraphs it allows you to make sure you have the right cast and a good narrative in your video so that you don’t have to waste your time re-filming or re-casting when you have gotten far into the creation of the music video.
Talking about the creation of videos leads me onto the final aspect of the evaluation, which is the use of technologies in the work. Firstly you have to actually mention the camera that we used because that was our tool to make the video, to get the best quality video we chose a HD camera. Specifically on the camera we used its zoom features to get a variety of shots. But a camera is not enough thus to get professional steady shots we used tri-pods to get steady shots as well as dollies to get movement in our shots, along with this we also used hand-held camerawork to get a variety of shots and movement. These are probably the most important aspects because if you don’t film properly there is no editing in the world that can make it look good..
All of the pre-production work, analysis of exiting products, ancillary products etc were all posted on our personal blog, as it was an excellent way to provide all of our coursework in a digital form. The advantage of using a blog to present our work was because it is an multimedia application, when we needed to place text we simply typed it in, when we needed to insert images we simply uploaded them on to the blog, when we wanted to insert a video we simply uploaded it, which is something that would not be able to work if it was on paper. It also allowed the teachers to get copies of all the work without the need of wasting paper. It also allowed the teacher to check our progress instantly and vice versa when our teacher needed to tell us about deadlines she simply posted them up, allowing the information to be available at any time. Personally the greatest advantage it gave us was that we could collate all of our work in a safe and organised way.
The internet as always was a very important aspect in our production of a music video as it allowed us to effortlessly conduct research on existing ancillary products, as well as get images for them such as logos etc. It was also very useful in the form of you tube as the site allowed us to view many different music videos and provided us with a lot of ideas and influenced us a lot in our own music video. As you can see from the paragraph above it also provided us with the blog, which as I stated gave as a nice digital way of storing and organising all our work without harming the environment. We also hoped to upload our music video onto you tube so that it can be viewed by anyone, however this was a problem due to copyright laws and resulted in having to abandon the idea.
When it actually came down to making the music video we had the privilege of using the professional film making program Final Cut Pro on an Apple Mac.
On this program we uploaded all of the footage from the camera and allowed us to effortlessly create our video. We simply inserted the song onto the program and it gave us the feature to cut out the specific scenes from the footage that we needed and simply place them where we wanted them. It also allowed us to tinker with the actual shots by moving them around the visible screen, cropping the shots to make things such a split screens. We could increase/decrease the speed as well as reverse the footage. It also allowed us to mess with the opacity to blend shots in and it was with all these tools that we were able to make a professional music video plus as you can see from the screenshot you can see that it is very complex from our shot structure. However this was just messing around with the shots, there were still many different effects at our disposal. These were what we used to give our video a unique feel. We were able to use effects such as find edges, which gave everything in the shot a white out-line and the rest being black and a combination of two, line-art and solarise, to make a colourful image of the clown to represent the binary oppositions in our work because the connotations of the work made it really clear.
We also used an effect called bloom, which basically adjusted the contrast and brightness on all of our shots to give it more of a professional look rather than a home video. Along with filters however we also used transitions in our music video. Specifically we used fades in some of our shots to have a smooth continuation as it is easier on the eyes of the audience and makes the video look much smoother in terms of the editing.This was basically the main ways in which technology affected our work because this is one of the only projects in which we have worked were everything has been based on technology from the construction, research, planning and even this evaluation. This has allowed us to effortlessly pass on the work to each other as well as presenting the work in a unique way.
This then concludes the evaluation as you can see making a music video isn’t just about the music; in fact, ironically, it is the easiest part of the video as it is the only thing that you get premade.
Music Video & Audience Feedback
Unfortunatly we have not been able to upload the videos on to blogger due to an unkown error. However they are present on the Apple MAC already converted to Quicktime files
Magazine Advert
Here you can see the magazine advert that we have created for our album as well as song. You can see that we have used filter effects to give it a surreal feel to reflect the narrative in the video. We have also continued using dark and bland colours to reflect the dark theme and lyrics of the song. However we have also inserted some red as the title to signify the passion and intensity that is consistent throughout the video.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Album Artwork
This is the album cover that we have created for our music video, it contains the front and back, as well as a track-list. As you can see there is a very dark overtone on this album cover due to the use of dark colours, which we believe reflects the music video as well as the song.
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Paramore Advert Analysis - Sharoze Tallat
This is the advert for the new Paramore album Brand New Eyes. As you can see the advert has a very distinct style from others. It has its on niche style, the image is of a wooden background with various pictures and notes stuck on to make the poster, what this does is that it gives the poster a very unformal feel to it. It gives is the feel of a pure band, down to earth which is something that as the Uses and Gratifications Theory states, people could relate to. The poster is made from very bland colours which connotate the type style of the lyrics in the music, it is the opposite to one that would have intense colours such as red and black which indicate intense and in your face lyrics. Also as stated in the Uses and Graatifications Theory you have to offer Information, which is very important in a poster. On this poster they have band name right at the top left in the albums signiture style so that it is easy to recognize. the font is dark and is juxtaposed with the bright background so that it stands out, it is the same with all of the other pieces of information with the text being darker than the background so it is easier to recognize. Since this advert is made after the album came out instead of the date they have the text "out now" however it is the same effect as the audiece know that it has been released and can buy it. They also have the album name but use the phrase "your favorite" this makes it inclusive for the audience and they feel part of a community because it is talking to them. They also have a form of synergy on the advert as they have put a special feature on it which supplies you with a number to text and get a ringtone, which advertise it in another way, as if the band is unknown to you, you straight away have a chance to find out about their music. Then they have a massive image of the band on the advert which links to Andrew Goodwin’s theory as he states “The demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close ups of the artist" this is so that the band can be recognized by the fans as they are trying to sell the band more than the music. The other picture that they have is of the actual album cover, this is so that the audience have the information and can ecognize the album online or instore so that they can buy it straight away rather than have to reserach what it looks like, this way they also remember, so if they see the advert with the cover and see the album instore they remeber that it belongs to this band, however if he didn't see it he wouldn't have realised it. Finally they have the record labels at the bottom so that they can have some recognition but in terms of the audience so that they now which label it is and if they like the music they could look at more artists signed to the label and thus the label company make more money.
Finally the other uses and gratification you have on this is of social interaction as you can go around giving your friends the text so that they can download the song as well and it spreads the word of the album and advertises it through synergy.
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