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
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
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