Evaluation

After having done extensive research on the forms and conventions of the 'Indie' genre of music that our music track comes under, I have gained a wide range of knowledge on the conventions of music videos produced, created and directed by bands and artists that come under this title.
My group and I chose to challenge the forms and conventions of the 'ideal' music video and strayed more towards a figurative representation and narrative-based video. 

Single Frame Analysis

Shot 1

  I have chosen this particular shot because of the way it enforces the loneliness and deprivation of the single character. This is at the beginning of his journey and his wakening up in the rock. It is the initial shot of the character which instantly allows the audience to question who and why the person is there. It links to the genre because of the way in which it shows a natural environment and a hazy surroundings; this is similar to the video for The Temper Trap - 'Love Lost' (see 'Research' section)




Shot 2

This shows the overlapping of two separate shots; one of a setting sun and one of a forest. By combining these two, it adds to the confusion being felt by the single character at this time as to why he is there and why is he alone. The colours in this shot also add to the mystery as the darkness conveys loneliness.






Shot 3

Again this reinforces the characters despair and isolation. We have chosen to overlap shots here too as it matches the 'psychedelic' feel of the music and shows different places the character has been in order to find himself.






Shot 4

I have chosen this shot as I think the transition from the last shot to this is effective. It shows the haziness surrounding the character and once again reminds the audience of the 'psychedelic' nature of the music. It distorts the audiences view of the character as they become unsure as to what he is thinking.




Shot 5

This shot works successfully due to it's link to the song's title 'I See Silence'. The character's eye close up connotes desperation for interaction with other people or understanding as to why he is where he is. The bright light and the character walking into the light could connote death?





Shot 6

I like this shot because of the composition particularly. It shows the characters long journey and the lengths he has to go to. The bizarre coloured mushrooms link to the coloured layering of shots in Shot 4 and show confusion and something unnatural in a natural environment.





Shot 7

Shot 7 shows the characters hands unfolding which could connote the unfolding of his journey. We used smooth slow record here as it worked well with slowly revealing of what's in his hands. This again, links with the 'unknown' as the character is confused as to what the substance is and why it is there.





Shot 8

In this layering of two shots, it adds confusion to the narrative of the video as there is two characters shown here; this is actually the same character twice and shows his remoteness. The way he holds his hands up connotes his despair at his unanswered questions.








 Digipak and Magazine Advert Analysis

Magazine Advert

 Digipak Analysis


 Click here to view Digipak Analysis Powerpoint



Comparing My Whole Promotional Package

 When comparing my digipak, advert and music video, I believe the brand identity and continuity is obvious. I have purposely used screenshots of my video on my poster and digipak in order to show crossover between each promotional item; I believe this worked well as it showed the locations well but did not give too much away of the main character or the narrative of the video. The digipak and advert are described as a 'promotional package' which describe their purpose: to promote the single. Keeping the same colour scheme throughout meant that when comparing the three, the brand identity is obvious and also the genre of music (indie) due to the natural colours and environments we have chosen to include. I have kept the same serif font throughout each promotional item to show continuity; the serif font is also typical of the Indie genre.


Audience Feedback


In the first stages of the research of my music video, my group and I wrote a questionnaire which we handed out to friends and family. This included these questions:

Which genre of music do you listen to?
What is your favourite music channel?
What is your favourite music video and why?
Which do you prefer in a music video? (Narrative, Concept or Performance Based)

From this, we learnt that the most popular genre was Indie music; this was particularly popular in the 16-25 age range. It also showed that the most popular music channels were NME and MTV. These are both very popular and successful channels which show a variety of music, NME mainly Indie and MTV mainly Pop. Interestingly, although my group and I were initially very set on creating a narrative-based video, our questionnaire showed this was the most popular type of video. In conclusion, it showed what our audience wanted in a music video; this was to either be conformed to or challenged in the production of our music video.

At draft stage of our music video, we had not completed filming which made audience feedback difficult to obtain. However, our audience told us we needed to continue with the style we had created in the filming and editing we had completed so far. They liked the way in which we had overlapped shots and used flashes of colour and believe this style worked well with our genre.

My group and I took a collaborative approach with the band to get their feedback on the progress of the video. Having Elliot (one of the band members) in our group meant he was always available to critique areas of the video he didn't believe quite worked.


The Use of New Media Technologies In The Construction, Planning and Evaluation Stages of my Music Video and Promotional Package


When conducting my initial research, access to the internet was crucial in gaining the necessary information about key conventions of music videos (youtube.com) , past-pupil blogs (blogger.com), and research into music video directors (www.google.com/www.wikipedia.com).
I began by researching into the 'Indie/Alternative' genre by searching videos by particular bands I knew fell into this category and produced interesting and inspiring videos. I conducted a semiotic analysis of 'VCR' by The XX because of the minimalistic nature of the video and the way they had used narrative to relate to lyrics and genre. I was able to then Google the director Richard Ayoade who created videos based around narrative and concept and discover his reasoning and why he made the creative decisions.
In the planning stage, my group and I, along with the band, came up with a plot synopsis and then created a story board using post-it notes. From this, we created an Animatic using a digital camera to take images of each shot and then imported them into Adobe Premiere to show more clearly the shot duration and precise ordering of the shots. This was extremely helpful in giving us a clear plan for shooting schedule and actors needed.
In the contruction of my promotional package to go alongside the video, I used photoshop to manipulate images by changing the brightness, contrast and colours. This enabled me to perfect my image in order for it to be a good starting point of my digipak. When creating my magazine poster, I purposely used screenshots from my video to show continuity which meant print-screening from Adobe Premiere and pasting into a Photoshop document.
When creating my blog using www.blogger.com, I also used other sides such as slideshare to exhibit presentations I had constructed and www.youtube.com to directly upload music videos onto my blog.



Final Finished Music Video 

'I See Silence' - Tornado Style

 




 

Planning

Initial Ideas

 Having conducted my pre-liminary task as a movie trailer, this gave me the skills to work with the editing software and piecing together the music etc. After this task, and after examining the briefs, two friends and I decided to choose the Music Video task for our coursework. This was because of our keen interest in music and our creativeness which could be expressed in creating a video, digipak and magazine advert. 

We arranged a meeting with the band 'Tornado Style' in order to pitch our ideas and allow them to voice any opinions they have of what they would like to be included in the video. Each of us gave our idea for a plot synopsis and the band members (Dave and Elliot) gave their creative input. Having one of the band members in our group to create the video had it's positives and negatives; it was helpful in that Elliot was on-hand to voice what the band would and wouldn't want in the video. However, it also meant that quite a lot of creative decisions made by Jack and I had to be finalized by him which slightly took the control away from us and at times meant we had to convince him of our ideas. Eventually, we combined our three different ideas into one plot synopsis (below).

Plot Synopsis

The video will overall have an apocalyptic feel to it because there will only be one character (human being) throughout the video. However this does not mean that it will be a negative video. I want the whole idea to be a portrayal of a journey. So basically there will be a homeless person whose home is the road, he is the only person in his own world and he lives, sleeps and eats in the wild.

The music for the video is of a psychedelic nature therefore this will not be the only basis to the video. To add some adventure I have decided that because this is a world in his head, not everything is how it seems. He will fall over and he won’t hit the floor but fall through it, the shot will then change to a different location and he will fall from the sky into the new location. This gives the idea that he keeps falling through portals from world to world.

As the character is homeless then his clothes will be dull and ragged to give the sense of serenity to the world, however I would like to contrast this by giving the video some unnatural colour. I aim to achieve this by using explosions of powder paints. I also plan for there to be little significant items in the different locations and stick with him from location to location.

Specific Shot and Location Ideas

• Open country- close ups of ragged body and location shots takes his first fall and falls through to a forest bewildered at what just happened.
• Forest- walking through a forest and it get thicker struggling to get through, trips over prayer flags and falls into next location.
• Abandoned street at night time – lands hard on concrete with prayer flags around his ankle, discovering what he can do he starts running and jumps to the next location.
• Sea/beach – a shot of him falling into seawater and then crawling onto the beach then a shot change to him falling/ rolling down sand dunes at the bottom he falls into the next location.
• Empty field at dusk – still wet and covered with sand, black silhouette in front of a white light, walking towards light slowly when lots of different coloured powder is exploding around him (maybe dressed up figures dancing around him throwing the powder at him but he is ignoring everything and staying focused on the white light). Then a big explosion of paint will appear and then he’ll disappear.

   

 








Risk Assessment 

The document below shows the risk assessment we made in order to ensure every aspect of our 'powder paint scene' kept to health and safety guidelines. We chose to have the location of this on school grounds; this meant we had to organise a meeting with the school's Site Manager to check that all was correct and that he could advise us on any precautions we needed to take. The outcome of this meeting was that we were told to contact the supplier of the powder paint to gain access to the COSHH data sheets (Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health) in order to check for any hazardous ingredients in the powder. 

Letter of Permission

I took on the role of constructing a 'letter of permission' to be sent to the Peak District Organisation in order to gain permission to film on their land.

 Props and Costume

This shows a visual mood board of props and costumes we would like to use/include in our video. 

 Animatic

The purpose of creating an Animatic was to develop our storyboard to show timings of each shot and the durations. It was helpful in creating our music video as we could fit the shots with the music track we were initially given by the band. 

  

Research

After deciding to produce a Music Video for my coursework, I conducted research and completed an analysis of a selection of music videos and video directors in the 'Indie/Alternative' genre.

Generic Conventions

I worked with my group and discussed and identified the key generic conventions of music videos. I have put what we thought were the most relevant to us in capital letters. 

Music Video Analysis
 
I chose to analysis ''VCR'' by The XX. I created an analysis of this video and explored the generic conventions, star motifs and intertextual references among other things.

''VCR'' - The XX

click the documents below to view my analysis

 Music Video Directors


Richard Ayoade

As well as being a music video producer, Richard is also a well known comedian and actor best known for starring in ‘The IT Crowd’. His music videos have been recognised for their individuality and sometimes comic nature.  A lot have a narrative element and therefore tell a story, usually involving the band or artist. The group and I feel the elements in Ayoade's work appeal to us and we would consequently like to take inspirations from his videos use in our own.

''Vlad The Impaler'' - Kasabian

Ayoade has chosen to make the video narrative-based. He uses famous comedian, Noel Fielding which adds a comic element and is a contrast to the brutal scenes in the video as the audience take it less seriously. The video has been edited to look like it has been filmed on an old camera which adds to the horror element. The video’s narrative fits with the lyrics and with the rock genre. A colour scheme of dark, neutral tones makes the introduction of the blood more vivid and the camera work looks ‘handmade’ which accentuates the horror. 

Below are a selection of videos directed by Richard Ayoade


My group and I have looked at these due to the focus on visual-style and narrative and we also thought the way Ayoade uses comedy works well for the bands.





''Kape Cod Kwassa Kwassa'' - Vampire Weekend

       ''Cornerstone'' - The Arctic Monkeys

Dougal Wilson

Dougal Wilson directs not only music videos but also commercials. Born in England, he worked as a copywriter before moving to London to pursue a career as a director. His work directing music videos include, ''Satisfaction'' for Benny Benassi, ''Tribulations'' for LCD Soundsystem and ''Take Me Back To Your House'' for Basement Jaxx. Wilson's commercial work has been for the likes of Orange, Stella Artois, Becks and Coca-Cola. He has won Best Director at the UK Creative and Design Awards twice and been awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. 

''Love Lost'' The Temper Trap

This video directed by Dougal Wilson shows a group of school children, obviously in a PE lesson/cross country event. The colours match the genre very well as the music conveys an atmospheric feel and the children's expressions are emotive but natural. The lyrics - 'our love was lost, but now we've found it, our love was lost, and hope was gone' - show a sense of previous desperation which is shown in the children's faces. I particularly like this video as it is a simple idea but keeps the viewer interested throughout as there is a slight comical side to it and you are interested to discover how it will end.

Digipak Research

I have purposely selected these two album covers due to their simplicity and the way they are centered around one good image. The Mumford & Sons 'Sigh No More' album cover features the artists but in a more subtle way in an urban environment; this contrasts to their folk style music.The Laura Marling album cover uses a simple image and serif font to mirror the minimal and natural sound of her music.

 

Digipak

Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holding company

The most popular template is the 4 panel digipak. This is most commonly used for singles, however, for albums, the band may choose the 6 panel digipak with or without the 2CDs.The 4 panel digipak with a pocket/pouch is useful for artists wishing to include a poster or a separate insert. 

Typically the digipak is made out of plastic with a paper insert, however Indie/Alternative bands seem to more often than not use a completely cardboard digipak rather than using any plastic.


Music Advert Research


When reading through magazines such as NME and Q, it is apparent that the album/single adverts featured by bands and artists that fall under the Indie genre are minimal and are often a similar image or the same image as that featured on the album cover. This is to show continuity and keeps the viewer aware of the release as the same image is used repeatedly throughout the media. The adverts contain minimal text and the focus is usually on the image. The conventional things are obviously included such as band/artist/album/single name, release date and band/label website. Often, there are also reviews or 'star ratings' featured on the advert in order to show the popularity and blessing of the release from people within the media industry.

Audience Feedback

Having conducted a questionnaire, the results showed that the most popular genre of music was 'Indie'. This was apparent in the 16-25 age range which also showed 'Pop' and 'Rock' to be popular genre's; this made our decision to choose to produce an Indie music video even stronger. The two most popular music channels were MTV and NME; MTV being a channel showing the more mainstream music and NME being a more Indie/Alternative music channel. Our audience also

chose a Narrative-Based video as their preferred style of video; this  partly influenced our creative decision to choose this style.









Pre-Liminary Task

Before embarking on the research and planning of the A2 Coursework, two class members and I created a Pre-Liminary Horror Teaser Trailer set in school. This was to become comfortable using the camera and tripod in a successful way i.e. using a variety of shots and focus pulls etc. As well as this, it enabled me to become familiar with the software Adobe Premiere-Pro to edit my footage. Having participating in this task, I compared the two briefs and decided that Jack, Elliot and I would be more suited to produce a music video and promotional package to demonstrate our creative skills.