Past Student Video Analysis

Student Music Video 1: This House Is A Circus

 This is a very impressive music video. It seamlessly combines a convincing performance and an interesting narrative, balancing them perfectly throughout the video. This is what I am hoping to achieve in my music video. I have taken inspiration from this video, such as the idea of combining the narrative and performance in the video. It also has a very interesting, unique concept behind it that makes it compelling to watch.

Student Music Video 2: Party In A Forest (Where's Laura?)

 This is an average music video. On the plus side, it does include a solid performance, if the syncing is a little off sometimes, and the location fits with the songs lyrics. However, the narrative side of the video is a bit of a mess. The narrative is not clear, and, without an explanation as to what is happening, makes no sense. It should be made clear that the guinea pigs at the end are meant to be wombats, thus fitting with the name of the  band. This is not made clear, neither is the fact that the lead singer and the female lead are meant to be these wombats. Again, the reason for this is not explained, and makes for a confusing video.

Website Header

Just finished editing and completing the header of our website, happy with the results. Incorporated social network hyperlinks what will allow users of the site to access all aspects of the bands internet presence.

Shooting

Our first official shoot date will be on Sunday 27th November. We will be filming the narrative part of the video, which includes the story of the chav, up until he sees the party on facebook. We will conclude the shooting sometime in the next couple of weeks when we film the performance/narrative conclusion part of the video. We will be posting photos and parts of the video to show our progress in filming.

Photoshoot Results

 This is the photo we are using for our back cover for the album, we will use a vintage hue to give this an 80's feel, fitting with our "retro" indie theme.

 This is the photo we will use for the main photo on the website, as it is large and shows all the members. This fits with the genre's conventions as it is set in an urban location and the band all look "moody" and grim. Turning the colour down on this photo may make it even more effective.

I personally like this photo a lot, I think this could possibly be the album cover if our original idea cannot be made in time. I really like the way that the focus is not on the band, but on the detritus on the floor. It is a very "indie" concept and so fits with the genre effectively.

Back Cover Finished

Just finished the back cover of our CD. We decided to use a picture of the band complimented by the signiture font. We also created a barcode to add realism to the CD cover.

Website Design - T-shirts

Merchandise is a big part of the modern music industry, and so I thought it would be a good idea for a band to sell merchandise, and advertise this on the website. These are our designs:

Past Student Website Analysis

This is a past student website for the indie band The Wombats. Overall it is a well made website, with a clear layout and bright colour scheme that fits with the sound and tone of the music. Another interesting idea is the use of band merchandise, which is a big part of modern music and an idea we could use on our website. The photo of the band is also well shot and well used on the website. However, the fonts used are quite dull and do not scream "fun indie band" at me.

This is a website for the Arctic Monkeys. It is a very well made website, with an interesting, original layout and a style that clearly fits with the "homemade" indie feel. The music video is clearly advertised, the text is well written, relevant and fits with the genre, and the logo is original and interesting. However, the two random black boxes spoil the website. Whether these boxes are there as a glitch or just accidental is not known,.

This website, for the metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon, is very poorly made and seems half-finished. There are only four items on the website: the band's actual logo, which is not allowed anyway, a description/biography of the band seemingly lifted from Wikipedia, a picture of the band's tour dates, again, taken from an existing website and clearly not the original work of the creator, and a seemingly random photo of a person. Whether this person is a member of the band or not is unclear, and makes the whole thing seem, quite frankly, laughable. A very poor website.

Summer Homework - Plan B

Plan B is a unique artist has he has made radical transition in a short amount of time, with regards to the genre he makes. With his first album, Who Needs Actions When You Got Words, his image was a working-class, UK underground rapper, and this was reflective in his image. In videos and photoshoots he wears casual clothes such as t-shirts, jumpers and hoodies. For his earliest work, the video for his song “No More Eatin’” clearly defines his image and his genre. Firstly, the video is shot in black and white, which gives the video a dark tone, both literally and metaphorically. This fits with the dark, explicit lyrics and angry performance Plan B gives.

The majority of his performance is set in a featureless, dilapidated room. However, Plan B also breaks conventions of the hip hop genre by playing a guitar while rapping. This sets him apart from his peers and may make him seem more “accessible” to those unfamiliar with hip hop.

Plan B’s image and sound have completely changed with his second album, The Defamation Of Strickland Banks. Instead of a pure hip hop album, this is a soul/indie album with hip hop elements, with Plan B primarily singing instead of rapping. The video for “She Said” is a complete contrast to the dark, gritty video for “No More Eatin’”. It tells the story of how soul singer Strickland Banks (played by Plan B – it is a concept album) is falsely accused of a crime by an obsessive fan that he had a one-night stand with. The video, set mostly in a lavish courtroom, is in full, if slightly dull, colour.

Plan B’s fashion has also radically changed, from casual wear to a suit in the courtroom, and a slightly less formal shirt and waistcoat in interrogation by the police. The style of filming has also changed. Whereas in “No More Eatin’” the direction was in pure music video style, “She Said” is shot much more professionally, playing out more like a short film than a music video. This is probably because this video tells a story, rather than just a straight performance like other artists.

 The setting and costume of this video is also different due to the different social class each album deals with. Plan B’s first album was dealing with lower social class issues, Strickland Banks is much more sophisticated both musically and thematically, and this is reflected in the video.

Analyzing Past Websites

In order to grasp how we want our website to look, we want to look through past websites what have done well in order to understand what is necessary for high marks on our websites.

We used this website:
http://bilboroughcollege.hostinguk.org/Site/Bilborough_Media_Studies.html
to find the websites to analyze.

The Smiths Live Review Wordle

CD Cover Tutorial

Despite the fact that we are not using a Hip Hop artist or using existing images we can take inspiration from this. We will use our own images cut out of a photo (masked) and place it in our background.

CD Cover Draft (FONTS HERE)

This is the font reference for our CD cover. It includes the fonts for our CD cover and website.

Shot and Lyric List

NVC Grid for Every Song Section

Classwork - The Three Types of Music Video

Performance videos are the most common type of music video. They feature the star or group singing in concert to wildly enthusiastic fans. The goal is to convey a sense of the in-concert experience. Gow suggests "the predominance of performance indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by images of artists singing and playing songs". Performance videos, especially those that display the star or group in the studio, remind the viewer that the soundtrack is still important. Performance oriented visuals cue viwers that the recording of the music is the most significant element.

Narrative videos present a sequence of events. A video may tell tell any kind of story in linear, cause-effecting sequencing. Love stories, however, are the most common narrative mode in music video. The narrative pattern is one of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen.

Conceptual video rely on poetic form, primarily metaphor. Conceptual videos do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing. Conceptual videos contain the possibility for multiple meanings as the metaphor is interpreted by the viewer. The metaphorical relationship between images are structured according to sounds, music and visual rhymes and rhythms, which play a suggestive role for the viewers/listeners.

Classwork - Goodwin's Music Video Analysis

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in rock video, dance routine for boy/girl pop band)

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)_

3. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which will recur across their work (a visual style)

4. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

5. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes and other music videos etc.)

Marking Criteria for Website and CD Cover

Production Schedule

Permission

Equipment Hire

Booking and Payment

Recee Sheets

Step Outline

Drawn Storyboard

Website Design

Our website design is simple and stark to fit with genre conventions. We will add more colour and patterns than is show here, but the general layout will stay the same.

Website Analysis

Test Shot