Evaluation of my project so far.

After putting all my clips together using Adobe Premier Pro, between me and my teacher, we have decided that the majority of stuff needs re-shooting as there is a lot of problems throughout, for example the first few shots in my first clip, I have filmed it the wrong way, Also the scene with the balloons went extremely wrong due to the wind messing the up the direction and speed in which the balloons flew away, even though I have managed to slow this down by altering the speed, it still didn't go anywhere near as planned. The lighting is also poor throughout my footage, and therefore will start to use my HD camera.
Now I have viewed what I have done so far, I have decided to start from fresh with a new song and new ideas, and this plan didn't go to well. This will take a lot of time, however this is why I am thankful that I started early as I am now able to re-do this without falling behind.
I have decided to re-do my music video to The Wolves by Ben Howard, and will have to analyse the songs/genre again, however this shouldn't be too difficult as it has the same conventions as the previous song as they both fall under the same genre. I believe the main problem with my other video was that I had no performance in, it was purely narative. And therefore this made it harder to think of ideas to fill the gaps rather than having my actor lip syching, therefore I will introduce this aspect. I also chose quite a long song, whereas this new one is only 03:19 minutes long.

I have already began planning out my storyboard and have a few ideas, and will hopefully get back on track and begin re-filming my new video soon.

Music video so far.

Feedback from 7th December

Once again, my filming has been put back another week as the person I am using was ill and could therefore not perform.
I then thought I could film the shots which does not involve my actor, such as out the window and in fields - However due to the weather I had to post-pone this as it was heavily raining and the camera would get wet plus it would be too dark and wet to get any good footage.

As I am now 2 weeks behind filming, I havn't made any progress on my edit, however will get attempt to get twice as much done the next week.

Wednesday 7th December

As i didn't successfully manage to get my filming done the previous wednesday, This week I am going to film what I planned to last week in North Cave and hope that this time it goes to plan.

Research of digipak

These are some images of my digipak's which I found doing my research. I have gathered this together as I can look at the structure of the digipak and how my design would be based around it. I will need to design my own digipak which will have some relation to my music video - this could be featuring either the artist or a theme.
However, due to previous research on my cd covers photographs on the artist are not a convention.
To make my digipak i will use Photoshop to create my themes, and if i do decide to take images for my cover these will be edited using the same digital software.

By looking at existing digipaks, I have studies the formation of the way that the sleeves fold in, aswell as the conventional structure of the digipak allowing a CD disk and a DVD to be placed inside.

 

I have also looked at how the design throughout the digipak is consistent and all works together; therefore when I create my design/chose my set of images, they will have a constant theme throughout.

Feedback from 30th November

Unfortunately, as I was not in college on the Tuesday, I was unable to book out a camera for my filming on Wednesday, and therefore I am now a week behind and will have to do my filming in North Cave the following Wednesday 7th December.

Wednesday 30th November

Even though last weeks filming wasn't as successful as I had hoped, I am going to leave the re-shooting till after i've done the rest of my filming and have edited it all together.

Once again I am travelling to north cave to get the shots of the fields/lake/forest, however as I don't have to worry about only having one shot to do these, I can re-do them again with ease.

However I will need to plan my time more carefully as it is gradually getting darker quicker and therefore i'll need to start my filming earlier so that I can be finished sooner before it gets dark.

2nd filming

I decided to get the balloons blown up at a shop rather than buy a helium tank as I thought it would be more cost efficient. To do this however wasted time, As the cost of blowing up the balloon's was more than I thought and the price for the amount of balloon's was too much as it went over my £20 budget, however after looking at a few different shops, I was able to get them blown up and then travel to north cave.

Here we had problems with the balloons as I bought 30 balloons, 10 for each different shot. However, as we were walking to the field the wind tangled the strings up so badly it wasted even more time trying to seperate them - Losing a few in the process.

Once we had untangled them, I took my shots - However once again I had more problems.
Due to the wind, each individual bunch of 10 also tangled together which wasn't ideal as I had imagined them all to fly up in different directions, instead they flew to the side in a bunch. The wind also made the speed increase and therefore the shot of the balloon's flying was cut down to 2 seconds, rather than 8 in which i had planned. Therefore when editing I had to speed this right down.

Also the 3rd shot of the close-up of the balloons in the sky was also unsuccessful as there is a telephone wire in view of the shot; This ruins the whole effect however I didnt realise the balloons were going to travel this way until they had already gone, in which it was too late.

After I had edited all this together and messed about with the speed/duration; my shots began to improve. However, I am still unsure as to wether to re-shoot this as there are quite of lot of things in which I don't like about it, however this means having to find another £20, and take the risk as to wether the same thing will happen again with the wind.

First Edit

After putting my first footage of the cottage onto the edit suite; I have realised that I will need to re-shoot this was the lighting wasn't strong enough and therefore when put onto a larger screen pixilates. I have also taken some of my shots portrait and if I rotate these shots there will be a black border down each side, therefore I will need to re-shoot this and make sure that I shoot it all the same way.

First Filming

Yesterday I did my first part of filming. This went exactly to plan as I intended.
We firstly went to the boat yard and were given permission to use the yard for filming/study purposes.
I then filmed the shots off my storyboards a few times, this was needed as even though I filmed all my shots using a tripod they were a bit shaky, So I filmed a few times just incase and can then pick the most successful when editing it.
Even though I got the shots necessary, I discovered a different location on the site in which I could get a better view of the boats. This was unplanned, and I had to decide there and then where I wanted the character placed and how long the shot was, however this may not necessarily be used in my music video - I filmed this just incase my previous footage wasn't as I hoped or in case I needed some filler shots later on in my video.

We then drove to the cottage in which I picked up some furniture from my house on the way to place in the room. As the cottage is currently a construction site, we had to be careful as to where we stepped and before filming had to spend some time moving all the building tools such as a cement mixer out of the chosen room.

However, once this was done we had a clear room to shoot, and I then set up the chair, a suitcase and a lamp in the middle of a room. From here I stood in the doorway to enable that I could get a pan of the whole room. Once I did this I then did the same shot but without the person sat in the chair for a later shot.

I then attempted to do the pan from behind, however the furniture was too close to the camera to get a full pan from the back. Therefore I had to re-adjust the setting and move the furniture forwards to get it all in the shot - Hopefully this will not be noticeable when I put all the shots together.

I then got Elliot to stand in the doorway in which I was filming from, and got an over the shoulder shot of him observing the room, and then a close-up from the front - This took several shots as he kept laughing when I asked him to look obervant, however I was able to get this shot done before it got dark and whilst I still had good lighting.

Now I have done part of my footage I am excited to get it done again next wednesday, Hopefully my next shoot will go to plan like this one!

Wednesday 22nd

The following Wednesday, I am hoping to get all of the footage in North Cave. This includes the chrous in the fields with the balloons, the shots by the lake, the shots of the the boy walking through the forest, and the pan shot of fields.

For this I will need to have:
Cololured balloons (Approx 30)
Confetti to throw in the lake (Will need to buy)
Fairy lights and elephants for the tree in the forest
Washing line (Need to buy)
Sheets and pegs

Wednesday 16th

This is going to be my first filming. I will begin filming in the boat yard, for this I will need to remember to take some paper, a pen and some cellotape in order to create my sign.
I will also need to ask for permission to use this location as it is private property, however I am hopeful as I recently went there to take some photographs for a different subject and was given permission for a short period of time to get my studies done. However, if I am not allowed this time I will have to think of another suitable location.

Once I have got these shots I am hoping to drive to the cottage to get the beginning and end footage, For this I will have to collect the old vintage furniture and place it in the living room, allowing room at the front and the back to get the pan shots.

Audience Research

I have gathered my audience research by creating polls and asking friends and peers to fill these in for me.
I have created 4, each of these studies helped me when deciding on my music video as I am aiming to produce something in which entertains the audience, but also fit in with the chosen genre 'Indie' and it's conventions.

My first poll was the age group of those which are participating in my audience research, out of 12 chosen candidates, only 1 of these was ages 20 or above, the rest were 16-19 which was helpful as I knew the majority of which age group I was working with.

My next question was to ask how often the candidates updated their music. This question sounds irrelevant, however out of 12 people that voted, 50% said that they updated their music every few weeks - This means that they get bored of the same thing, and therefore my video will have to introduce new qualities and ideas to keep the specific age group.

I then asked which was the preferred style of music video; Both narrative and performance had the same most popular votes, I also realised this when looking at existing music videos - However, even though they both have the same amount of votes I have chosen to do just a narrative video as I think this is more interesting than a performance video.

Finally, my last question was what the chosen age group thought the album cover of Radical Face's was, this poll is currently still open, however all the votes so far have selected 'Indie' which shows that the chosen art work was successful and follows the genre, therefore I need to use the same conventions when creating my own album cover.

Filming Schedule

Luckily, Both me and the chosen person I am filming are free on Wednesdays, therefore I am hoping to get my filming done on a weekly basis on a Wednesday.


I am hoping to start this week on the Wednesday (16th November).
I am aiming to get the footage in the cottage and the boat yard.

The week commencing, Tuesday 22nd November I am aiming to get the footage of the fields out the car window as I am free in the afternoon and will be able to get some footage before it gets dark.

Wednesday 23rd November, I am hoping to drive to North Cave and get the shots in the fields of the balloons. However this will include having to travel into town in the morning to get the balloons blown up in the shop before driving to the fields.

Representation of album covers

This is the album cover from Radical Face's album 'Ghost', in which my chosen song 'Welcome Home' is off.

This is the tracklist for this album:

1. Asleep On A Train

2. Welcome Home

3. Let The River In

4. Glory                 

5. Strangest things   

6. Wrapped In Piano Strings

7. Along The Road

8. Haunted

9. Winter Is Coming

10. Sleepwalking

11. Homesick

I have chosen to analyse this as not only will I have to create my own album cover later on to this song, but also because I wanted to know if the content of the album cover could determine the song genre, therefore I am going to create a poll to see if people can identify the genre from the layout, photography and typography displayed on the cover.

The colours used on this album cover are neutral and very basic. This is because unlike a stereotypical 'pop' genre, bright colours to capture people's attention aren't necessary, as the photo alone determines this. There is also a 'sepia' tint to it, which makes it look vintage, this style is used a lot with indie/alternative music, hence why when editing I am going to try apply this sepia tint myself to my video and to my own album cover.

Also unlike other genre's which are mainly based on image, the artist is rarely displayed on the front of Indie genre's album covers. In this one, there is a man displayed sitting on the wall; whether this is the artist or not, I am unsure. As the use of editing and techniques used to make the album cover look interesting is more important than the artists identity.

The border around the album is a broken black line which looks like the edge of a Polaroid, not only does this once again impact on the idea of 'old', but it also makes the cover look more interesting rather than a solid black line, this is another quality in which I am going to try incorporate into my music video.
Like the genre of music, I don't think the album cover is directed at either a male or female audience, however I do think it follows the conventions of it being for teenagers/young adults.
This album work is creative, a quality in which is usually associated with a young age as they are experiencing new influences and ideas.
When looking at reviews for this album I came across some information about this specific album and it's influences 'Ghost is a concept album based on the idea of houses retaining stories of things that have happened in them. Each song is a story and some of the stories are told from the house's point of view. Cooper cited an old house he lived in as one of the inspirations for Ghost'. This is interesting as when creating my story board, I decided I wanted to use an old cottage for the main part of my filming, this is because the lyrics for the song 'Welcome Home' spoke out to me and gave me the idea to use this, therefore Cooper has achieved what he intended with his lyrics as his influence gave me my own.

1. Names
2. A Pound Of Flesh
3. Family Portrait
4. Black Eyes
5. Severus And Stone
6. The Moon Is Down
7. Ghost Towns
8. Kin
9. The Dead Waltz
10. Always Gold
11. Mountains

This is also an album cover by 'Radical Face' called 'The Roots'. This doesn't include photography as the previous album, but basic typography to display the artists name and the name of the album. This relates to my previous point as identity is not important, and even though only typography is being used, they have still managed to make this look 'old' and 'vintage' by the use of editing to create a texture. This effect has made it look as though this is an old cover as some of the colour has been rubbed away, the type of text aswell is also necessary as it is aligned by gold decorative borders, this is an old style as nowadays basic black borders are used.

Even though this album cover with the use of typography is effective, when creating mine I think I am going to use photography as it makes the album cover that little bit more eye-catching.

Even though this is by the same artist as the album in which I have analysed above, this album seems to appeal to an older audience. My reason for this is this cover seems to represent an old book, something which would be more of an interest to an older audience - This could suggest that this album is more mature and is trying to aim at an older audience, either this or the cover artist decided a new approach to the style of the work would be more interesting.

Checklist

Male and Female Actors to choose from.

Richard Botham.
Amy Smailes.
Elliot Mann

Props.

Furniture
Balloons
Washing line
Rucksack
Diary
Calender
Car
Fairy lights
Decorations for tree
Sign for boat yard scene (need to make).

Locations.

Brough Boat yard
Fields (North Cave)
Bridge in North Cave
Cottage
In car
Lake in North Cave

Script/Screenplay

The first image of my story board is of a young boy sat on a chair in an old vintage room. I already have the location as my dad owns an old cottage in which he is refurbishing, however for now the vintage wallpaper and old furniture are still there which I can use in my video. I have chosen to use a young person as it will relate more to the audience, however whether I am definitely going to use a male is undecided, as I may find that a female may work better – However both options for this is possible and I have willing candidates to participate in my video. In this shot I am going to place the furniture in a cemi-circle formation so that when I do a pan of the room it will get the whole mise-en-scene in.

The next shot after this is in the same room, and using the same pan and long/mid shot camera angles, just from a behind angle. I am still going to have the young person sitting in the chair in the same place, however all we will see of them is the back of the head (perhaps shoulders) over the back of the chair. This allows the viewers to see the room from all different angles and also emphasizes the fact that the figure is all alone in the room.

After this I am going to use a dissolve to get to my next shot which is of the figure from behind, I am undecided as to whether this will be an over the shoulder shot or just a mid shot from behind, but I am going to place the figure in the doorway holding a suitcase (Which will be shown in previous shots on the floor) and looking around at the room as though giving one last glance.

There is then a jump cut to my next scene, which is a close-up of the figure looking around the room. The use of the close-up not only allows the audience to see emotion but also will follows the figure’s eye movement so we can see that they are surveying the room.

As the instrumental starts at 0:16, there is a jump cut to a motion shot out of a car window. This is going to be of a busy street in daytime. The use of the motion shot out the car makes the audience feel as though we are seeing it from the figures perspective and we presume they are sat in the car watching. This is effective as the scene before is of the boy leaving, therefore I have included aspects of continuity.

In my animatic and story board, I have drawn that the next shot will also be out the car window but of a field/trees. However by reviewing this I realised that this lacks continuity and therefore will continue the use of the ‘street’ but change the shot/setting to have a variety.

The shot after this is of the figure sat in the car, however using a close-up of putting objects into a rucksack, this will include props such as toothbrush, clothes, hairbrush, ect.. This follows the illusion that the figure is packing and moving away.

As the first line starts, the shot changes to an extreme close-up of the figure’s eyes as they are asleep in the car, this will be taken from the right hand side as though the driver is watching them sleep, this shot is relevant as it links in with the first line to the song ‘Sleep don’t visit, so I choke on sun’. When I am editing I am going to attempt to include a lens flare in this shot as I will not be able to determine what the weather will be like on that day in which I’m filming this shot.

I will then use a jump cut to my next shot of a close-up of the figures hands on their laps. I may choose to make the figure hold their hands as though a sign of reassurance or comfort. This is effective as the positioning of the hands can show the emotion or how the figure is feeling, for example, scared, relaxed, ect..

This then goes into a dissolve for the next line ‘And the days blur into one’. Here I am going to create a short animation but getting someone to go through a calendar. I could either film this and speed it up, or using photographs. However, making this go fast plays on the lyrics of the days blurring together. This also demonstrates a range of filming techniques.

As the line says ‘And the backs of my eyes hum with things I’ve never done’, I am going to use an extreme close-up similar to the previous one of the face, however this time of the eyes slowly opening which is once again relevant to the lyrics, this then dissolves into another animation of an empty diary flicking through the pages, this links in with the ‘things ive never done’.

After this I will use another jump cut as the line changes to ‘Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline’. Here I am going to film a long shot of either some clothes or bed sheets on a clothesline, however I need think of a location in which I can do this as if I shoot this in a basic garden it will ruin the ‘vintage’ theme, therefore I need to find a garden in which has long grass and doesn’t include a lot of planted flowers and statues, ect. Or on a building site which gives the extraordinary contrast.

This should then hopefully link in with my next shot of the figure walking through a field of long grass with a bunch of balloons, this will be a long/tracking shot, and I am going to edit the colours so that the balloons don’t look too vibrant.

This then goes to an extreme close-up of the figure’s hand brushing in the grass, this is the same location, however the variety of shots make it look interesting and avoids repetition.

This then cuts to another two shots in the same location, the first a mid-shot of the figure walking away from the camera, and then the second the same shot but a close-up.

As the chorus starts and the instrumental builds up there is a long shot of the figure letting go of the bunch of balloons, which is then followed by a similar shot but with an establishing shot, and then by a close-up of the balloons. This is going to be difficult to get all these different shots using the same set of balloons, therefore I am going to have to get a lot of balloons blown up and do each shot separately, however here I have to think about the cost, and therefore it may be cheaper to buy a helium tank and blow these up myself, therefore I can do it as many times as needed. After the various shots of the balloons, there is a 360 degrees pan around the figure as they look up at the balloons. This is the chorus which I will take the shots of the balloons and use them in the chorus’s afterwards.

There is then a jump cut as the video switches to a different surrounding – For this I am using the boat yard in Brough as the song is referring to this ‘Ships are launching from my chest’ At this point I am going to have a pan of the boat yard, as this captures the surrounding, and shows the audience where the figure is. After this, in the same setting I am going to have a long shot of the figure walking towards one of the boats, and then writing on a piece of paper and sticking it up against it, this then dissolves into an extreme close-up of the sign saying ‘Welcome Home’, this is the name of the song but it also links in with the lyric ‘Some have names but most do not, If you find one, please let me know what piece I’ve lost’. This scene ends with a tilt up from the boats into the sky, and once again in my editing I hope to incorporate a lens flare as the camera tilts up into the sun.

Once this scene has ended, I have another motion shot of people rushing about in the town centre, to do this I am going to set up a camera in the town centre and film for at least 10 minutes, and then cut it down to the right amount of time needed and speed it up. This then dissolves into another motion shot, out the car once again but this time of fields, when editing I am going to change the saturation so that the colours look dull and ‘vintage’.

After this the chorus is once again repeated with the balloon scene, however rather than the 360 pan at the end, there is a tilt up of the figure looking up at the sky, this is similar to the previous chorus however has a slight variety.

At 2:37, there is a soft instrumental, this reminded me of a fairground, therefore before I even finished my storyboarding I went to Hull Fair and got some footage of a carousel as I thought it fitted perfectly with the tone of the music.

The scene after this has finished is an old TV playing back previous footage but backwards. I am going to do this by putting some of my previous footage onto a dvd, and then playing it back on the TV, and I will then film it playing on there. This is effective as when this plays the line is ‘All the nightmares escaped my head’, the fact that the previous footage is being played backwards suggests that the nightmares are re-living the past.

As the line says ‘Bar the door, please don’t let them in’, the same shot of the pan of the furniture in the cottage is replayed, however this time without the figure sat in the shot. And this then cuts to the figure walking through a forest, this varies from long/tracking shots of the figure walking, to close-up/tracking shots of the figure’s feet, as the figure stops, this then goes to a pan of the forest. Here I have found a location In North cave where there is a small bridge which overlooks a stream, surrounded my trees. I’m going to get the figure to stop at this location, and I am going to hang things off the tree’s such as fair lights, ect..

After this, there is a variety of shots such as through fields, the different shots of the figure sat at the lake and repetition of shots in the fields, and then ending the video with the very first shot of the video with a pan of the figure sat in the room.

Anamatic

Storyboard

Evaluation of AS Media Production.

When I first begun studying Media in my first year, my knowledge of the Media Industry and the ability to adjust to the terminologies was limited.

My awareness of the range of technologies available was little, and by creating my magazine covers I have experimented with Photoshop, using layers, the effectiveness of opacity and basic knowledge on editing photo’s.

For our first project, we were asked to create a magazine cover for a college. My first step here was to analyse existing music magazines, by doing this I looked at the stereotypical conventions of a college magazine. This included consistency, chosen colours, images and composition of the text in comparison to the images.

After this I thought of a range of title’s for my magazine, which were relevant to a Collage. After I had selected my name ‘TrueWYKE’ I looked at a range of fonts to decide which was the most suitable for my magazine. Once this was chosen, I then took a range of photo’s using a Canon SLR camera. This allowed me to familiarize myself with a camera, and taking into consideration the lighting and composition of the chosen subject.

For my range of photo’s, I specifically chose my friend who had a young and friendly face, this was done intentionally as it presented a warm welcome impression, which was what I needed to promote the college.

I asked my model to wear glasses as they are stereotypically a connotation for ‘Cleverness’. This is what is usually associated with college’s, endorsing achievement, and therefore I think this is reflected in my image. The newspaper was also a connotation for intellectuality, but it also deliberately covered part of the model’s face, this is mysterious and not only could make the reader want to read on to find out who she is, but also it reflects the idea of individuality.

The use of the newspaper was a good way of displaying my sub heading as I used the eraser tool on Photoshop, removing the original headline of the newspaper and replacing it with my own, I was able to make this look more realistic by the use of the ‘Transform’ tool on Photoshop, this allowed me to change the scale and angle of the text so that it was in the right alignment with the text box.

I chose several subheadings which were placed down both sides of my main image, these content of these subheadings were chosen specifically to fit in with the college brief.  These advertise fun things that occur by attending the college, such as the wyke parties, however it also demonstrates the academic side and suggests there is help at hand.

Even though this was only a starter task, I enhanced my technological skills, aswell as learning all the new terminology which helped me when I was making my decisions as to what specific clothing would denotate and connotate.  

My main task for AS Media was to create another magazine cover,  yet for a music magazine. Like what I did previously by analysing college magazine, I looked at existing music magazines and once again looked at the conventions.

I thought of a variety of names for my music magazine, and entered them into a poll which was displayed on my blog. Doing this allowed peers to vote on which was their preferred name for the magazine, which resulted in the name ‘XX INDIE’ being the most popular.

However, I don’t think I advertised this poll well enough as not enough people voted, therefore for my A2 Music video I am going to advertise the poll’s more so I can clearer results.

As the title ‘XX Indie’ the genre is apparent, which is indie/alternative. I then looked into imagery and the conventions of the specific genre, doing this allowed me to realise that it is usually stereotyped with a male gender, with a ‘grufty’ look. Therefore I tried to find people that fit this criteria, it wasn’t until a small indie band in which I had connections with asked me to do a promotion shoot for their social network page. I thought this was the perfect opportunity for my images as they fit the principles and were willing to do it. I took the band to certain locations, such as a boat yard and gold course. I chose these two in specific as the boat yard devised interesting background with dull colours, this was a nice contrast with the bright clothing of the band. I also chose the gold course as this was a more basic background, ensuring that the main focus was on the band members. I was lucky with my timing here as the sun was just setting, ensuring a warm glow from behind the band.

Once I had edited these photos on photoshop changing the contrast to ensure the photo’s were dull against the text. I chose white and red as the connotation for red means danger, this creates a strong image for the band members as people like those that are rebellious. The white has no connotation, however it was a crisp contrast against the background and stood out well.

Overall I am pleased with the outcomes of my designs, and have used my skills of digital technology well, adapting to them over time.  Not only have I learnt how to use these skills, but to use them in a way to adapt to the audience’s needs using the aspects of genre, connotation, denotation, conventions, composition and more.

Analysis of existing music videos

This is a music video also by the artist 'Radical Face', the artist in which I am creating a music video to one of his other songs. I thought it would be interesting to choose this video as I wanted to see how the same artists work is interpreted by directors and professional film/music video makers.
In doing this, I can use this as a comparison for when I have created my video and look at the similarities and differences.
It starts off with a young ethnic child wandering through a forest, however we don't know this straight away as the first shot is a birds eye view/tracking shot of a teddy bear being dragged on the ground by a chain, this gives us an incline that it could be a child, however we are not certain of this yet. 0.7 seconds into the song, an instrumental starts and there is an upwards tilt of the camera as it shows us the young child's identification.
The next shot is of the young girl stopping and waving at another young girl in a tree, the shot of this girl is a low angle tilt which makes her look empowering and in control.
Next there is an effective close-up of the ground as the same footage of the bear is being dragged along the ground, however the scene is interrupted when the girl from the tree jumps down, however we aren't aware of who this is yet as the camera angle is still on the ground and all we see is the young girls hands and feet as she falls down onto the floor. The next shot is a tracking shot of the two girls walking through the forest, this tracking shot is over the shoulder so not only does it make the audience able to see where they are heading but it also makes the audience feel more involved as it appears as though they are they right behind them. There is also a panning of the trees, this is used as it sets the scene, rather than an establishing shot.

The next scene is of a young boy banging a stick on the tree, this is effective as he bangs it in sync to the beat of the song, but it also represents his childlike innocence. The boy is wearing toy monkeys around his neck, this could be interpreted in two ways - These could either represent childhood or nature, hence being in a forest.
The use of the mixed gender could be used so that there is no discrimination against gender or stereotype, for example if it was only males used, females could argue that just because they come across as 'feminine' it doesn't mean they can't be getting their hands dirty in a forest.

All the children are wearing some sort of white material, for example the girl in the tree was wearing a cloth over her mouth, this reminds me of a mask that doctors/nurse's wear, and could therefore insinuate authority. Those that aren't wearing white clothing have white face paint, this once again represents the idea of childhood but also suggests they are forming a 'cult'.

The last child that they find is wearing hiking clothes and is holding a knife, this could be an connotation of a poacher in the jungle, especially as the shot of the last child is a high angle tilt, which shows him having higher authority, this could suggest that the rest of the children are animals and he is the poacher. However this use of ideology could be interpreted in lots of different ways.

As the beat picks up, the children begin to run faster. This makes the audience ask questions, why are they running? who are they running from? This makes the narrative more intense as it leaves the plot on a cliffhanger.
The children come out into a clearing, and there is an establishing shot of some cliffs surrounding them, all the children run out into the clearing holding a picture frame with themselves in, this could be suggesting that they want to be somewhere else? to escape? The picture frame could also be a insinuation for a doorway, which is relevant to the song title 'Doorways'.

The whole concept of the children running around the forest relates to the novel 'Lord of the flies' by William Golding. In this novel it is about a group of young British boys stuck on a deserted island, this is an example of synergy as the two relate to each other.

This book was published in 1954, and therefore the narrative of this video may interest an elder age range that have known the story for longer; However the genre of the music is alternative which is usually stereotyped with teenagers, therefore with the narrative and the song the two could appeal to a wide audience, including genders as this video does not specify to a specific gender.

Radical face are signed by an independent record label based in Germany called 'Morr Music'.
This specific label has signed band genre's such as electronica, plinkerpop (rock) and indie. Therefore Ben Cooper (uses Radical Face as a stage name) fits into these categories, and as this specific music label are already experienced in influencing and advertising this specific genre they have managed to create a successful music video which reflects this genre.

This is a music video by The Wombats called 'Perfect Disease'. I chose this specific video as I am interested in this band and this is a similar genre of music to the song in which I am creating my video to. It starts with a close-up of a life support machine with the heart rate at a steady pace, before the video has even started and the song has even been introduced we get a basic idea of what content the video will contain.

In the next scene, the music starts and the camera is using a close-up angle on the main singer, however a blur has been used here so the figures face and emotions aren't very clear at this point. However the blur fades, whilst the camera angle remains the same, and we have a clearer view of the performers and the aspect of performance in the video.

Scenes of the green light from the lift support machine interrupt the performance as they are placed in now and again, this could be a reminder to us that it's still there and just because it isn't visible it doesn't mean it isn't still happening.

The next scene after this is a mid shot of the band performing, here we can see in the chosen mise-en-scene they have been placed in a hospital/surgery room, this is effective as it relates to the song title 'Perfect Disease'.

Even though this is not an establishing shot, we still see that there are large surgery lights surrounding the band, not only does this create an effective scene but it also provides lighting for the performance. These lights flash in sync to the beat, this is similar to the previous video in which I analysed with the young boy banging the branch in sync with the beat of the song. We also see a range of scans all over the wall, these could either be suggesting that they are scans of the band, or could just be there for mise-en-scene.

After this there is a birds eye view of one of the band members on the keyboard, here we see close up of his fingers playing, the use of these angle shots and the location in which this is shot is similar to those in documentaries when they are filming surgery; this is effective as it relates to the whole idea of the hospital, therefore the director of this video is taking ideas from other concepts of Media and using it in this work.

These shots also switch to over the shoulder shot of playing the keyboard, this is another suggestion that us (the camera) are observing the surgery and makes us feel as though we are actually there.

Throughout there are changes to some of the footage which is being shown through the green lighting used on the screen of the life support machine, this shows consistency throughout but it also implies that the band are the life support machine, and therefore their music is the only thing keeping whoever is hooked to the life support machine alive. This is clever as it is another form of promotion as it suggests that you can't live without their music.

At 3:21 there is a soft harmony in which all the ligths light up all at once and illuminates the room, this could be a play on the saying 'The light at the end of the tunnel', this suggests that the 'patient' is awakening, however the video ends with the life support machine cutting out, this suggests that the patient has died, however this also suggests it is an end to the video.

The Wombats are an indie rock band signed by 14th floor records which have also signed popular artists such as Biffy Clyro and Joshua Radin. Joshua radin's is an alternative singer songwriter who's sound is very similar to my first chosen artist Radical Face, which links in with the same genre.

This video is a narrative video to a song called Holocene by Bon Iver.

Bon Iver is an Indie/Folk artist who is signed by the label Jagjagauar. This minor record label has signed small independent artists in which aren't very well known.

The first shot in this video starts with a mid shot showing an old room in what appears to be a cottage. This room has low lighting which suggests the time of the day, but also contains old wooden furniture and a candle light rather than a lamp, this suggests that is an old fashioned room.

This shot then goes to a close-up of a boy sleeping, the use of editing here in that this specific shot was shown right after the shot of the room suggests that the young boy lives here. There is a mid-shot of the boy climbing out of bed and a variety of shots and close-ups as he is putting his clothes on. This suggests that the clothes are significant in that they need to be noticed.
The jumper he wears is a very odd and unique style, this suggests the 'Indie' genre, but it is also a good contrast against the snow when the boy gets outside and there is an establishing shot of him walking through the valleys.

The use of reflections is used when there is a close-up of the young boy looking out the window. The close-up is shot through the window in which the boy is looking through. In the reflection we can see a large bird fly past, at this moment we see the young boys eyes follow it, this is effective as we see what the boy is seeing, whilst watching him see it.

After this shot there is a tracking shot of the boy picking up a stick from inside the house, this represents childhood similar to the previous video I analysed by Radical Face.

Throughout the video there is a variety of shots as the boy is watching the bird, the fact that the bird keeps appearing makes the audience question is, Is this bird symbolic? Why does he keep watching this bird? Is he fascinated by this bird because it seems to be the only living thing in sight besides himself?

Throughout the video there are close-ups of the young boys feet as he is walking, this is a clever technique and it puts the audience in the boys eyes as though he is looking down to see where he is going, this technique inspired me and I shall try to use it in my own music video.

As the young boy is throwing rocks into the lake, this once again represents childhood but the chosen camera angles also make the audience question it. For example, as the boy throws the rock the camera pans towards it as the boy walks out of the camera frame, this means we are watching the rock across the water rather than the boy, (The main character), this makes us wonder, Is this rock significant? And if so, why?

A tilt is used from behind the boys shoulder as he is looking up at the waterfall. This makes the water look empowering in contrast to the little boy, and suggests that the boy feels small in the big world.
This is also suggested with the different shots of different locations as it implies that the boy likes to explore, but also that the world is so big compared to him. This suggests naivety, which also plays on the idea of childhood.
When looking at the comments which were left on this video, someone had left the comment 'This makes me want to be young again. Childhood is magical.' This intrigued me as it showed that other people interpreted the childhood innocence in the video aswell.

Even though a child is used throughout as the actor, the music in specific is not usually associated with this age group, as it is too slow and the depth and meaning of the lyrics would not be understood. Therefore this music and the video would be aimed at teenagers up through to middle aged people, also in specific artistic people as the video has a hidden depth in which needs to be understood.

History Of Music Videos.

    History of music videos.

The purpose of music videos are to promote the artist through a visual form as finding a venue that held the appropriate amount of fans was difficult in the early years of the music industry. Therefore, narrative music videos were made, similar to short films which involved the artist so that fans could watch them perform in a cinema, rather than a venue/stadium.

Only 2 TV channels displayed music videos/performances, one of these was ‘Top Of The Pops’ which showed ‘live’ performances of the band, these were not videos, however still grabbed the same aspect of performance in which the fans wanted to view.

Music videos were only introduced in the 50’s, before this music was shown through the use of radio. In 1965, Bob Dylan brought out a short film promoting his song ‘Don’t look back’ produced by D.A Pennebaker. This was a very basic film, with the artist stood holding a range of cue cards displaying the lyrics to the song playing in the background, with only one simple camera shot used. Even though this is very simple to the music videos we are used to seeing in the 21^st century, this was the first real music video produced. This video challenged authority and pushed the boundaries as it had never been done before. However, this video was a success – And from here the music industry was created.

The next big success after this video was the famously known ‘The Beatles’, in which they produced a video for their song ‘A hard days night’, directed by Dick Lester in 1964. This video was black and white (similarly to Bob Dylan’s), and had a basic narrative running throughout, however also contained aspects of performance.

Unlike the previous artists in the 60’s, The Beatles and Bob Dylan were the first to produce their own lyrics to their songs, this was effective as it spoke out to teenagers (The aimed audience), and therefore the fans could relate to them more. The Beatles first video not only had more narrative than Bob Dylans, but also used a wider range of camera angles, this allowed individual shots of each person (the band members), and therefore made the video more appealing.

In 1965, The Beatles produced another video to the song ‘Help’. This was when colour was introduced into music videos, along with the concept of developing features such as close-ups, birds eye shot, performance based, jump cuts and montage editing. This video also had no continuity of time, this made it unrealistic which went against the original objective of music videos to display to the audience a realistic performance, however boundries were further being pushed.

 After this was David Bowie’s ‘Space Odity’ in 1972. This introduced new media technologies such as the coloured lighting (Red) and the use of zoom. The lighting was used to create a futuristic mise-en-scene, even though to us this appears ‘cheesy’, in the late 1900’s this was seen as a clever effect created, due to the lack of technology and mediated knowledge.

The use of zoom achieves a close up of the face giving the audience access to read the emotions of the performing artist. Not only does this give the performance a variety of shots as there is no narrative, but it also makes the audience feel more involved as they are interacting with the way the artist feels. In this video Bowie is placed on a stool, surrounded by the dark red lighting and instruments, this gives the illusion of alienation, and also plays on the idea of the futuristic idea.

Music videos are not only a reason for the artist to impress the audience with their voice, but also with their appearance. Not only do the fans watch music videos to watch their favourite artist perform, but also to look at their image, and what their chosen clothings/hairstyle ect represents.

For example, in the early 90’s, ‘Song for whoever’ by Beautiful South, the band are wearing dark glasses throughout the video. These were seen as a code for ‘being cool’, and was then re-created in future music videos. Another image in which was shown throughout music videos from the early 90’s till the 21^st century in which we analyse now was the concept of Religion. In R.E.M’s video ‘Losing My Religion’ there is a narrative story line which is linked to the lyrics content ‘I’m losing my religion’. The suggestion to religion in this is clever, as a famous painting by an painter named ‘Caravaggio’ is imitated in this video through the use of acting. The way in which the actors in the video have been placed re-creates this painting, showing the audience in ways in which religion can be interpreted.
This not only has relevance to the religion, but also suggests that the viewers see music videos as a form of art.
This music video displays plausibility; as even though the wings that are featured in the mise-en-scene would be unlikely – The whole concept of religion as a revolution and the different beliefs developed over time makes this plausible as we believe what we see. In today’s video’s, Naivety is perceived however the theorists show it.

(The photo by Caravaggio

immitated at 02:24).

For example, Madonna’s ‘Die Another Day’ video – Madonna is perceived as a dirty, masculine women who isn’t bothered about her appearance, this is done through the use of mise-en-scene (For example the ripped clothes and the make-up). This is a completely different approach to her previous videos in the 90’s, for example her music video ‘Vogue’. This is a performance based video featuring dancing. This video has style over substance, as her music video has no relevance to the song. However her personal appearance us enough, as we are looking at her rather than the choreography. Not only is this an example of voyeurism, but also narcissism. This is interpreted this way  she is wearing revealing clothes and stroking her arms and face.

This video also has aspects of Synergy as she is portrayed as the famous ‘Marilyn Monroe’. Monroe was known as a sex symbol, and therefore this image is being impersonated in this video with the blonde curly hair and the way she is dressed.

However, relating back to the ‘Die Another Day’ video, Madonna’s personal image has gone from narcissism to not being afraid of how she is judged by her appearance in this video. However, as she is so high in the music industry, personal image doesn’t matter anymore – And therefore she is able to make a more exciting narrative video.

In this video, it shows Madonna’s horror of being tortured throughout the video, this is a very strong narrative throughout, as there is also other scenes of her fighting aswell against herself. This effect is created by computers, and in the early years of the music and video industry this was not able to be created, however technology is now getting more involved and constantly being upgraded.

The whole idea of the ‘narrative’ backs up Tim O’sullivans point, in that he argues that all media texts should tell a story, and this is what is happening more and more regularly throughout the years of music videos. This video also has another concept of Synergy as this song was originally created for a James Bond film, however as this film was so popular, so was the song – And therefore a video was created after. This had to contain aspects from the film (such as the fighting scenes, ect.) In order for the two mediations to have continuity and relevance.

The mediations are turned into media texts which are then interpreted by the audience however they like. The media texts demonstrate culture and society through the use of narrative and demonstration. Even though the technology, narratives and performances have changed over the years in Music Video’s, the basic aspect of Mediation will always remain the same. We upgrade the techniques used in music video’s as the world has to develop, otherwise the people who purchase the music (us) would get bored, and sales would rapidly drop in downloads and music shares. Not only does the tecniques need to evolve, but technology is constantly being upgraded, allowing us to continuously improve the music and music video industry.



This the existing music video of the song in which I have chosen to promote through the use of my own music video.
I have placed this video on my blog to allow peers to view and answer the polls which I have created, this will help my audience research. I will also analyse existing music videos with a similar genre/type of music video (e.g narrative) to this one.

Audience

I am producing a music promotional video for Welcome Home by Radical Face, and I need to establish the demographic and psychographic profile of my audience.

Brief

For my A2 task, I have been asked to design a promotion package for the release of an album, which will include a promotional video.
Aswell as this, I have also been asked to choose one of the three following options to design alongside my promotional video:

• a website homepage for the band
• a cover for it's release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).