Filming

Today, we filmed short clips to use as 'fillers' in our music video. Using a roundabout, we safely attached a tripod to it filmed clips of the sky as the roundabout rotated. The disorientating effect fits in with the random style of our video.

Inspiration

While in the process of planning the music video, I thought back to one of our first media lessons for inspiration. 

The fast tempo of the band Ok, Go is similar to the tempo of our song Fire + Bones by The Midnight Heavy and so I decided to look at some of their famous videos.

The first video, the video for the song Skyscrapers is similar to the ideas our group have for our own music video. The constant switching of scenes is something which we would like to incorporate and if possible, the multiple outfit changes. 

Planning the video

Our final idea that we are going to attempt is to utilise as many distinctive settings as possible and link them together when editing. In order to do so we are going to go to a number of locations, and shoot individual parts of the video at those locations.

Locations needed: 
A park (or a similar suitable area with grass and trees)
Garages
Shops
Play parks
Pathways
And any other distinctive settings we may come across while filming.

We need to have the people playing the band members who aren't singing in motion or doing something interesting while they are on camera to keep the scene looking interesting to the viewer. Other than this, they can distract from possible errors with the film, as the viewers would be watching the band members. To ensure our video uses the best shots we will take a variety of takes of the same shot, and we will need a lot of shots as they need to be quick shots to keep up with the tempo of the song we have.

Planning the video

As you can see from the screen shot we got from BBC Weather, the forecast for this weekend in London is sunny, a benefit for the scenes we want to film, which we have planned to do on Sunday, as we do not have to contend with the weather. The weather looks fine throughout the rest of the week, meaning we could film throughout the week if needed.

Planning the video

In our group we have decided to each be in charge of a certain aspect of the production of our video. We have assigned jobs for each member to focus on while we are creating the video. My job was to find locations and people to appear in the video, Frankie's job will be to control the camera work and Ahmed, will be tasked with constructing the sets for our different shots in the video. 

Despite having individual main jobs, we will alternate them between us so that we all have the opportunity to develop our skills from each different practice. This will give us a better overall understanding of the processes that go into creating a music video.

Conventions of a Music Video

All music videos contain different plots, stories and meanings.

Performance- When the band or artist is playing or performing the song for the camera. It could also be footage from a tour.

Narrative- This could be where the meaning of the song lyrics and the song is played out and acted out in someway so the video tell a story.

Mixture- This could be where in the music video the musician is playing as well as a narrative storyline occurring and the camera would cross cut to each scene and different shot. 

Cameo-where the musician features in the narrative but is not actually part of the storyline and does not perform in it. A great example of this would be Kasabian's 'Vlad The Impaler' which starred Noel Fielding.

Animation-Some music videos have a mixture involving animation that is edited in, this adds creativity and originality to the video. An example of this would be A Ha’s ‘Take me on’ video.

Planing our music video

For our video idea we are going to rely on having different settings to switch the band into and possibly having them switch their outfits. This is vital in creating our video as viewers will lose interest in our video if it begins to be repetitive.

We narrowed down in our search to use a couple of base locations for our film. Our main search criteria was to look for places that have a gritty look to them, with a splash colour. but mainly that they have distinctive characteristics about them.

The local park fits our description for what we are looking for. And parts of it will most likely be used in our filming process. Along with the distinctive colours of the tress at this time of year, it has a slightly darker look that is brought about by the colours themselves.

Audio Clip

                               

Here is an audio clip of our chosen song which we have received permission for. When we emailed the band asking for permission they also sent us the mp3 file of the song.

Animatic

                              

This is the animatic created from our storyboard. The animatic shows a rough idea of the outline of the video including camera angles and length of the shot.

Resources for our music video

For our video we will need:

4 band members ( At least one male for the singer)

Camera

Camera tape

Tri-pod

Several locations, varying from parks to places of distinct colours perhaps, Example garages and parks.

Several types of clothing for the members of the band.

Music Video Research

This video is called Friday Night, Don't Ever Let It End and is by a band called Spector. I was drawn to the still of the video on YouTube by the vivid colours and patterns on the singer's clothing and of the backdrop. The whole video has that sort of quirky attitude which I like and fits in well with the indie genre. The video also cuts between clips of the singer and clips of young people at a party drinking and laughing with the song playing over the top of this. 

There are certain aspects of the video I would like to incorporate into my own such as the changing locations and pattern backdrops coupled with the pattern of the clothes.

Developing Ideas

Our group has come up with a few basic ideas that we could use to structure our video around. The ideas will be visualised onto a storyboard later on.

1. We're going to have shots during the main chorus where the band is set infront of alternating locations. Whilst the lead singer is miming the song, an idea maybe to have the other members of the band in motion. Creating something that takes focus away from the lead singer's lip-syncing which obviously isn't going going to be perfect.

2. Having the different members of the band wearing different costumes as we cut to the different settings, which adds more variety to the video.

3. Another possible idea is to film the lead singer singing from different angles. That way we can cut between the the different angles during the video to make it more visually interesting. The idea of having the many settings and costumes is most probably going to be our base idea. But also, means we can be more creative as we don't have to stick to one strict idea and can incorporate various ideas. A key part of the filming process will be creating enough variety and change to keep the viewer interested despite there being no actual story, a challenge we are going to tackle with unique shots and edits.

Survey Monkey

Here is the link to our survey which is on Survey Monkey. We have made this to gain information on what contemporary audiences might like and give us some indication of possible music video ideas.

Click here to take survey

Here's a screen shot of our SurveyMonkey Questionnaire.

Below are the results, I have screen shot two answers for each question.

As you can see from the results we received, the participants answers show a variety of interests. The results show that they both watch videos on YouTube; generally most people today watch music videos on the internet as it is free and widely available on a multitude of outlets, such as smart mobile phones.

Music Video Research

When researching music videos, the first one that came into my head was 'Always Like This' by Bombay Bicycle Club. The video features conventions that I suggested we could use as inspiration in our own video. For example, the use of different locations, the repetitive clips, close ups/extreme close ups.

The idea of moving between different settings sounded appealing to us as we could make it look like the lead singer lip syncing was singing the song all at once in these different positions. However where our video is different is we have decided not to go with a story based video, something that is common in the rock genre.

As you can see from the video, the directer has used different settings that have distinct colours such as the garage doors. We like this idea of filming against different backdrops each with a visually interesting aspect. When taking inspiration from these videos, it is important that we do not just copy them; firstly, because we want our video to feel fresh and secondly due to copyright infringement.

I have made a Prezi to show examples of broadening audiences and increasing sales through the music video.

Wordle

Preliminary Task

Above is our preliminary task. The task was to successfully show lip syncing to a song. The song our teacher chose was Elton John's Don't Go Breaking My Heart.  For a comical effect we chose best friends Jack and Parvinder to act out the part of a couple madly in love singing to each other perhaps the cheesiest love song ever made.

When filming, we found it easier to film Jack's part through and then Parvinder's part through, we then filmed the chorus where both of them are sitting at a bench singing. 

To edit our preliminary, we used FinalCut Express. We dragged the three clips into the sequence bar and used the 'Toggle Clip Overlays' to switch from one clip to another. This tool allowed us the option to fade parts of the video which we used at the end to fade into a blackout. throughout the video we mainly used straight cuts to transition from the clips. The lip syncing we didn't have to change as Jack and Parvinder followed the lyric sheet perfectly. To further ensure the lip syncing was perfect, while filming we played the song out loud on a mobile.

Overall, I am pleased with the outcome and the preliminary task has helped me to refresh my knowledge of FinalCut Express.

Permission to use the music

Before we started to plan and create the music video  we had to ask for permission from  the band, The Midnight Heavy. One of my group members, Frankie, contacted the email address that was on the band's unsigned.com profile and it is the email address of the bands drummer.

We were slightly concerned that the band wouldn't reply to our email as our teacher had previously warned us that some bands could have spilt up since signing up to unsigned.com and have not deleted their profile.

Frankie explained why we would like to use their song Fire + Bones and the purpose of it. Dean Babbage replied that we could use definitely use their music and he would send us the mp3 version of the song which he later did.

 

Then Dean Babbage replied later on:

Chosen Artist Profile

This is the unsigned.com profile for the band we have chosen to create a music video for. The band's name is The Midnight Heavy and they are a four piece from Southend, Essex who have said they create music in the Rock and Indie genre.

We know what instruments we can include in our music video as the list is shown on the artist's profile; guitars, drums, bass along with vocals.

The band currently have two songs on their unsigned profile, one being a live demo. The profile includes an email address of the band's drummer who we have contacted and we have received confirmation that we may use their music, the song Fire + Bones, to feature in our music video.

Unsigned Music

Websites such as Unsigned.com/ Newgrounds.com aim to bring music closer to the fans by making it more accessible and also for independent artist to showcase their music. 

Unsigned's Mission: "Unsigned.com is dedicated to providing independent Artists from solo, trio to bands, the best outlet possible to be heard globally on the Internet. Just as important is our goal to provide you, the Artists, with a new revenue and distribution model for your music."

Newgrounds.com offers specific categories to search from including: 

New Audio

Popular Audio

Best Audio this Month

Best Audio this Year

High Ranking Classics

Newgrounds.com

We used the detailed search features on Unsigned.com to find our music, the song Fire + Bones by The Midnight Heavy. We narrowed down the music to the indie and rock genre then, after searching through bands that didn't fit our criteria we found The Midnight Heavy.

The process of making a music video

The process of making a video is different for each music video as, although usually following conventions, each is unique and has different aspects to cater for.

Analysing album covers- The Beatles

What makes album art famous, is it the simplicity of the design or the complexity? Is the art iconic, significant to the genre? Is an idea replicated many times by different artists in different eras still iconic?

The Beatles- Abbey Road  is one of the most recognisable and also replicated pictures of The Beatles, crossing on a zebra crossing near the famous Abbey Road recording studios. The album was a symbol of the break up of the band; unknown to the public at the time, The Beatles were in the final disputes of a bitter break-up and would never record another album together. The band were photographed walking away from the studios and everything they once shared.

The incredibly influential photo has been interpreted and replicated by other bands and The Simpsons even recreated the picture. Tourists and Beatles fans travel to the famous zebra crossing to recreate the image for themselves.

Analysing album covers- the punk/rock genre

During the 70's, album art became more controversial, prehaps the most recognised of these is 'Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols' from the punk band Sex Pistols. This was an iconic album cover from the punk rock era during the 70s, and yet the design is very simple. The yellow background immediately grabs the attention of the audience and has no photographs to show the band yet through the font displays the sense of the music the band produced, rebellious and loud. The contrasting pink with the yellow stands out and is disrupting and also pleasing to the eye. Overall the cover is not easy for the eye and this is exactly the purpose- to encourage discomfort and controversy.

Despite the fact that The Sex Pistols only actually produced one album, their music has been repackaged and re-released many times.

This is the officially recognized list of albums:Never Mind The B******s, Here's The Sex Pistols(1977)
The Great Rock n Roll Swindle(1979)
Some Product - Carri On Sex Pistols(1979)
Kiss This(1992)
Never Mind The B******s (aka This is Crap)(1996)
Filthy Lucre Live(1996)
The Filth and the Fury(2000)
Jubilee(2002)
Sex Pistols Box Set(2002)

Another iconic album from the punk rock era is 'London Calling' by The Clash.  On the cover, there is a guitar being smashed, which is seen as a stereotype for rock bands, as it showed off their status (they could afford another guitar) and their involvement and passion of the music, and also excited audiences and fans. The  font style on this album was inspired by artwork for an Elivis Presley album.

In 2002, this photograph was named the best rock and roll photograph of all time by "Q magazine", they also commened that "it captures the ultimate rock'n'roll moment - total loss of control".

Analysing album covers- The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses was the debut album by English rock band The Stone Roses, released on Silvertone Records in 1989. It solidified the band's reputation among critics, and is still rated as one of the most influential albums.

As with most of the Stone Roses' releases, the cover is a simple but meaningful piece of artwork designed by John Squire. It was influenced by an artwork by action painter Jackson Pollock titled "Bye Bye Badman", the artwork which makes a reference to the May 1968 riots in Paris. The cover was named by Q magazine as one of "The 100 Best Covers of All Time."

Squire had said:

"Ian Brown had met this French man when he was hitching around Europe, this bloke had been in the riots, and he told Ian how lemons had been used as an antidote to tear gas. Then there was the documentary—-a great shot at the start of a guy throwing stones at the police. I really liked his attitude."

Analysing album covers- The xx

'Coexist' is the second studio album by the English indie pop group The xx.

 

The album features a minimalist musical style and experimentation with tension, simple chord progression, sketchy guitar patterns, slight grooves, keyboard ostinatos, and fading motifs. Coexist is about heartbreak, loneliness, and intimacy. Croft and Sim's lyrics address failing relationships and the changes in  romance with inner monologues and metaphors.

The album's title was inspired by their idea for the cover artwork, which depicts an iridescent oil spill in the shape of an "X", a variation on the group's white-on-black "X" logo. Croft compared the mixture of oil and water to her holistic view of the group, saying in an interview:

"You see a puddle of petrol on the floor — it can look sort of beautiful with the colors that come through it. I looked it up on Google or whatever, and it said oil and water don't mix, they peacefully coexist? And that's what it is when you see those colors. I liked that idea: those two things coming together to make something more beautiful than they are. And I liked the idea of us three coming together; only when the three of us are together, that's when it exists."

Audiences

The Internet is increasingly becoming the most prominent way to reach and broaden audiences. Websites such as YouTube are the main way to gain more audience and get new fan bases around the world. Websites that sell music and also offer downloading are beneficial for independent bands and third party retailers as they provide an opportunity to expand the customer base and also increase their income. The effectiveness of a music sales website depends on many factors, such as the type of music that is sold, the variety of different styles of music available to the audience, and also the overall design, options and security that are available to the online buyer.

For those that are not on the Internet, most commonly older generations, newspapers and television adverts promote music videos, new songs by new bands, new album releases and often make them appeal to a wider audience. This is an effective way of expanding audiences as a band or new music video is promoted by more than one for of media.

Vox Pops

Here is a selection of spoof vox pops featured on the comedy show A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie. Although we laughed at what was being said, the clips are somewhat useful in showing how vox pops are shot, ie. camera angles and what parts to show.

Below are the Vox Pops we filmed. We asked questions such as:

Do you watch music videos?

What is your favourite music video?

Where do you watch music videos?

What do you like about music videos?

What makes a great music video?

From the feedback we received, we concluded that most young people watch music videos on YouTube, and the variety of genres is quite varied.

Analysing a Digipak

A Digipak can give the veiwer and/or potential customer an small idea as to the general genre and 'vibe' of the music. Generally, the Digipak matches the usual vibe that it's genre has already been using.

What is a Digipak?

A Digipak is the packaging for an album, usually consisting of a outer binding with plastic trays that can hold a CD attached to the inside. Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums. This type of packaging is less resistant to abrasion than jewel cases, so it tends to show signs of wear more quickly. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s.
There are a general set of conventions that are expected to be found on it, such as:
Track list
Barcode
Record company logo
Disk impression and separate disk design
Six panels
A spine with the Artists name and album
A picture of the band on the inside.

Example of a Digipak





Example of a jewel case

Editing our Vox Pop

In the editing process we will make the Vox Pops brief and to the point. At the beginning of the sequence we will show the interviewer asking the questions then show the interviewees answering them, meanwhile the question will be captioned at the bottom of the screen, along with the interviewees name, age and occupation. 

Vox Pops

The word Vox Pops comes from Latin 'Vox populi' meaning 'voice of the people'.
Usually the interviewees are shown in public places and are supposed to be giving put-on-the-spot-opinions. Vox Pops are often used on news programmes to show balance. Each person is asked the same questions, the aim is to get a variety of answers and opinions. Journalists are usually instructed to approach a wide range of people to get varied answers from different points of view.

Our Vox Pops will be staged. We will prepare the following questions:
-Do you watch music videos? If so where, YouTube, MTV?
-What is your favourite music video?
-What is it that you like about music videos?
-What do you think makes a good music video?

Task
Record the interviewer asking the questions straight into the camera.

Recored the interviewer asking the question to at least one person while staring deep into their eyes.






Record different people answering the questions.

100 Greatest Music Videos

Elton John 'I Want Love', 2001
-Elton John decided to not continue appearing in his music videos, Robert Downey Jr lip syncs in one continuous take. At the time, Downey was openly struggling with drug addiction.

Talking Heads 'Once In A Lifetime', 1981 

-The lead singer moves around in the video, it's been described as an abstract art piece and has been displayed as contemporary art in the MoMA. 

Sid Vicious 'My Way', 1979

-This video shows punk icon Sid Vicious performing a cover of Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' in an alternative style. Vicious is shown to be performing in front of an audience of white, middle class men. The actual video was filmed in an empty cinema in a two hour slot. The directer wanted to retain the 'punk essence' of Vicious' performance by not taking so many takes.

Johnny Cash 'Hurt'

Product Placement

The company which owns the product pays the production company of the music video to put their product within the video with an aim of advertising their product. A good example of product placement is in Avril Lavigne's What The Hell. Personally I think product placement when done so openly cheapens the video and the artist, portraying them as 'only interested in the money'.

Conventions of a music video

Similarly to my study of films in the thriller genre last year, music videos also have a set of general conventions or 'rules' that directors attempt to follow for an aethetically pleasing outcome. Some conventions can be seen to have negative connotations or be stereotypical and are usually associated with certain genres of music. In the Rap/RnB/Hip Hop genre of music, a stereotype within the video would be expecting to see scantily-clad girls, flashy cars and extravagant displays of their wealth. This is a common example of a negative convention, as most music videos of this genre could be veiwed as quite similar and therefore un-original and prehaps slightly boring.

However it's not always negative, by knowing these conventions, we can learn from them and try to avoid them when making our own music video and create a sucsessful outcome.

Music videos always include several long shots, medium shots, close ups and extra close ups. This is to emphasis the artist or band themself to help promote them. It can also be to highlight the emotions behind the song. Close ups are used to not only show emotion and facial expressions but also to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the artist lips and even their eyes. Johnny Cash's 'Hurt' is a perfect example of using camera angles to reflect emotion.

Shot length can be used to connote the meaning of the song, for example quick face paced shots create a different effect on the audience than a shot lasting more than 5 seconds.

The shots need to be chosen wisely and match the music to the shots. This can make discarding rushes you have grown attached to, difficult to ‘throw away’. Lip syncing is the most common way an artist records a video, it is rare that a video is recorded live....unless it is footage of a tour and includes teh sound of audiences and fans cheering.

The mise en scene in a music video needs to be accurate as it needs to connote the style/genre of the music. All music videos contain props depending on the genre and type of song it is, such as, if it is a performance style video, there would be instruments, and stages and lighting. Also if it was a rap video, the video would usually involve several half naked girls dancing around teh artist with a very expensive car and large house in the background. Costume depends on the lyrics of the song as well as the genre and also to what the artist is comfortable in. For example, Justin Timberlake probably wouldn’t feel comfortable strutting around in his videos wearing what Eminem would wear. The setting for music videos sets the scene immediately and many locations that are used are simple locations where many people can relate to. For Example, Hip hop music videos use quite dark colours, simple settings and there are portrayals of women to show their sexuality, which appeals to males, which means they have a narrow target audience.

Information about Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept which gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it. Copyright gives the holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work, who may perform the work, and who may profit from it. The duration of copyright is usually the whole life of the creator plus fifty to a hundred years from the creator's death, but for corporations can be finite. Most jurisdictions recognise the limits to a copyright, and allow fair exceptions to give users certain rights. The development of digital media and computer network technologies have introduced new difficulties in enforcing copyrights.

The reason we use music from Un-Signed.com is so we do not violate the copyright of artist's work. This means we cannot use the music to make another video for the work. Artists on sites such as Un-Signed have not copyrighted their music, due to either lack of money or they want people to use their work, which can increase the profile of the band and song.

Case Study: Emil Nava

Nava began as a runner for film production companies. After, he graduated to assistant director, where he would manage the video shots. He signed to Academy, the biggest music video production company. He then worked for Between The Eyes, Now Works, and Pulse. He now freelances for OB Management. 
Nava has directed a number of advertisements, for clients such as L'Oreal, which generally have a larger budget and production values, however they do not allow for as much creative freedom as music videos.

At his busiest, Nava has made 24 music videos in a single year. When he begun shooting music videos for independent labels the budget would be as low as £5,000-£10,000. His most expensive video to date has been for Jessie J, the budget was £160,000.

Nava's first music video was for the band Kid British, and their track 'Our House'

-The budget for the video was £20,000.
-Filmed in Manchester.
-The cast involved local people.
-One day was spent filming.
-2/3 days for editing.
-10 days for pre-production.

This demonstrates the tight timescales involved when filming a music video.

My Favourite Music Video

My favourite music video is 'Dissolve Me' by Alt-J, a British, indie pop quartet formed in 2007. Their debut album An Awesome Wave was released in May 2012 in Europe. They are one of the favourites to win the 2012 Mercury Prize.

The Process

The starting process of a music video

A 'commissioner' from a record label sends a track to 5-10 directors whom each then submit a treatment (a storyboard or brainstorm of ideas). The director who has submitted the most-liked treatment is then employed to make the video.
For many directors in the industry, this can be seen as a precarious existence their livelihoods depend on these commissions.