Album Cover Research

I have conducted research into a few album covers created for female artists, a large amount of them include extreme close ups of the artist, which I think makes the cover stand out and constructs a strong image of the star.

The layouts included in these 3 album covers are fairly minimal, this links with the genre and connotes the sophistication of the artists.

None of the artists are looking directly into the camera, this shows some kind of innocence behind their work and gives the whole cover a softer feel.

In these 3 album covers there is minimal use of colour, with just one main colour making the whole image stand out, I intend to use this approach to colour within my album cover.

Props Planning

Risk Assessment

 

 

Location Planning

The location we are using for our music video is an old manor house located about 15 miles away from college, called 'Temple Laughern' therefore it is fairly easy to access. The house is an ideal location to film in, as there is a lot of space to experiment with, also the décor within the house will coordinate with the overall theme of the video.

I have received permission from the owner of the house to use the premises as our location.

Mood Board for 'Gravity' Video

Permission for the song

I emailed Sara Bareille's manager, however I have not received an answer as of yet, I am therefore assuming that there is no problem with me using the song for my video.

Target audience research

Audience Profile

age - 12-30

gender - female 93%

              Male     7% 

Sara Bareille's work has a mellow atmosphere to it, and the majority of her songs include minimal involvement of instruments, it is much more about her voice. As Bareilles is such a talented artist and belonging to the genre that she does, she doesn't tend to use much editing software as she is not going for the 'perfect' finish. Due to this, Bareilles appeals to both a younger and older audience because her songs are just simple and feel good. However she definitely appeals more to women than men, as her main theme throughout her songs are love and breakups etc. 

Audience Feedback

I asked a number of friends who enjoy this genre of music to give me some ideas about what they would expect in the music video..

I have found this feedback very helpful and I intend to use a lot of the ideas put forward, for example; the piano, the girl sat at her window and the idea of the man disappearing.

Song Change

Due to our group having to split up,we have decided to change the song. The song we are now using is sang by a female alternative rock artist - Sara Bareilles and the title of the song is 'Gravity'.

Pitch Feedback/target audience feedback

After our Pitch, we discovered that the overall idea for the video was as good as we thought, however there were a few issues surrounding location.

Our original plan was to film the narrative section on the beach at Weston, unfortunately filming will take place in late November/December and the beach will not be a very good location at this time of year. We won't have long to film in a day as it will get dark earlier and also the actor will not be able to go in the sea due to the temperature.

Our solution for this location problem was to travel a little further to Wales. Another member of the group has an apartment here therefore we could use this as well as the Coast for filming and this would solve the lighting and temperature issue.

Also we received some constructive criticism about the 'entropy' within our video. In order to make our video less common and more entropic we will introduce unusual lighting and camera angles.

Extreme Close Up practice

In the video we hope to use a number of extreme close up shots when filming the performative element. When the band are playing in the black room there will be minimal lighting, a lot of extreme close up shots of the band member's faces and flirtation with the camera from the singer.

In these I have not used the actor that is going to feature in the video as it was just an experiment to predominantly focus on lighting and angle. However in the video I will instruct the actor to be more playful and relaxed with the camera.

Green Screen practice No.2

In order to make our pitch more interesting we decided to incorporate the use of a green screen. This was not only to give an idea of what we hope to produce in this video; but also more practise using the technique and a intriguing way to sell the video.

We aimed to recreate 'Buried to neck in sand' scene as we hope to carry out this shot of the singer in the video. However when creating this, the piece of card used to cover our bodies was not the same colour green as the backdrop and therefore the technique was not very successful.

Fortunately this is not what we intend to use the green screen for in the actual video, therefore we will not have to deal with this problem again and also we had further practise at the technique.

Pitch & Audience profile

This was our pitch we used to sell the ideas within our music video. In the Media Industry, every music video producer will have to do a pitch in order to get the money to fund it and also make colleagues aware of what the video will be like.

We didn't want our pitch to appear tedious and repetitive, therefore we decided to include short clips of us talking and also incorporate the green screen technique.

These are the elements we covered in the pitch:

The Pitch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF-I-m1ELKo

Mood Board for Music Video

 

 

In this mood board are a few ideas about location, cinematography, editing and mis en scene.

 

Final Comparison Assignment for Research Phase

In my assignment I have researched two music videos that are the same genre as the video I hope to make. By doing this final piece of work, I feel I have a good knowledge of what is expected within my chosen genre and how I put this into practise in my video through the use of editing, mis en scene and cinematography. I have also acquired knowledge of certain theories behind music videos and different theorists views on what makes a 'good' music video.

Green Screen Practice

I hope to incorporate the use of Green Screen within my video as it is a very simple way of editing and creating 'make believe' situations. After using the Green Screen technique today, I now understand how it works and how to edit it to create the desired affect. Obviously today was my first attempt, but with a little more practise I should be able to use this technique to a higher standard in my Music Video.

Here is the result from my first attempt:

 www.youtube.com/embed/iXc9E_HVdMc

Computer Animation

We created this short animation of a computer logging on. From this I have learnt how to create an animation using a large number of camera shots and very detailed editing. Now I have practised the skills of intricate editing the final outcome of my music video should be of a higher standard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocIHft_UHKQ&feature=youtu.be

Goodwin Analysis assignment

Music Video Research Assignment

 

Coldplay – Every teardrop is a waterfall

 

Coldplay are a renowned band and therefore their target audience is on a large scale, due to this they cannot come across as entropic because of the reaction they may receive. This video is redundant as they are set in an external urban location, in addition to this they use graffiti, which you would expect to typically find within this setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a strong relationship between lyrics and visuals within this video because at the beginning a few of the lyrics are portrayed on the background through animated graffiti. This supports one of Andrew Goodwin’s elements of a music video. The graffiti is typically colourful and the words included are important for the song.

 

 

Coldplay are classified as a ‘Soft Rock’ Genre, and this video is typical of that. The band is a main part and there are also a number of close up shots of instruments being played.

 

Another element that is commonly used within videos of this genre is the use of hand held cameras, this makes the video appear more ‘home made’ and ‘real’. It is obvious there is a dominant use of a hand held camera, this links with Goodwin’s idea of a clear link between music and visuals. Using a hand held camera allows the producer to capture the rapid movements of the artist, these movements then coincide with the tempo of the music. The quick cuts used during the chorus increase the fluidity of the visuals which again show a link to the music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The punching movement shown here is on the exact beat of the music, this makes the audience more aware of the beat.

 

The idea of ‘Synaesthesia’ is very prominent within this video. It’s almost as if the exact sounds are portrayed through animations behind the performer. The animations are continuous throughout the video and continue with the flow of the music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The use of focus pull is very common; the camera zooms in and out on the artist and members of the band. This constant movement makes the video appear busy and again coincides with the music.

 

 

 

There isn’t an obvious narrative within the video; however there is an element of journey shown. Through the majority of the video there is a continuous tracking shot, the audience is encouraged to follow the animation on a journey. There is no point in the video where the artist/band/animation just stop, until the very end where there is an abrupt cut away to darkness, showing the journey has come to an end. Therefore the video does include another of Goodwin’s elements (a narrative) but it is not completely apparent.

 

This video falls into the conceptual category of Sven E Carlsson terms, we as an audience are encouraged to focus and follow the animations instead of the artist. The artist and other band members have fairly equally shared screen time, whereas the animations are on screen throughout the whole video.

The image portrayed of Coldplay from this video shows mainly their passion for the music. Each member of the band looks as if they are just enjoying the music and we get a sense of this through close ups used, especially of the main singer. I believe for bands within this genre, the overall video is more about the music than anything else, and they aren’t aiming for that ‘perfect’ finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Out Boy – Sugar, We’re going down

This band falls under the same genre as Coldplay, however there are a lot of differences between the two videos. This video includes a narrative and a very comical aspect.

The standard foundations for this genre are fairly similar, the band is included around the narrative and there’s many close up shots of instruments and the singer.

 

Overall the video could be seen as redundant, however there are certain elements which completely defy this; for example the setting is a country type house, this is not necessarily what you would associate with a rock video. In addition to that, the narrative includes and boy wearing antlers, this is not something you’d witness every day and therefore can be seen as entropic. Fall Out Boy do not need to worry about target audience reaction however, as the entropy is not that severe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no direct relationship between the lyrics and visuals of this video, and the narrative doesn’t necessarily connote what the lyrics are aiming to portray. However the use of the narrative adds some kind of depth to the song and also creates slight comical value. In addition to this there isn’t a strong structure to the visuals of the song, both the band and narrative are included throughout the verses and chorus.

(Both of these shots are included in the chorus)

I don’t believe this video could be viewed as completely disjunctive because there are some elements that could link to both the lyrics and synaesthesia, therefore I think it would come under Andrew Goodwin’s term ‘amplifying’ because there are some meanings created they are just aren’t apparent on the surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The synaesthesia within this video isn’t very prominent as the narrative has been made a much more important part. Although, there are certain parts where you can visualise the music, for example all shots are cut on the beat which adds to the flow of the song. During the bridge there is a number of close ups and extreme close ups of band member, this shows a relationship with the music; as the music begins to build so does the intensity of the shots. Also the producer plays with the angles used, to create an overall image of the band.

 

 

 

 

 

The narrative included in this video is a typical love story with a very unpredictable, strange twist. A standard ‘love story’ narrative is not what you would typically see in a video of this genre and I think that is why the comical twist was necessary.

 This narrative links strongly with Barthe’s Semiotc Theory. The overall narrative is fairly self-explanatory, however the twists included connote a deeper meaning. For example the boy is wearing antlers, this makes him an outcast, but towards the end of the video it is revealed that the father of the girl is also a deer; this could create the meaning that on the inside they are both the same and the father was just trying to hide his true self.

Voyeurism is included a tiny bit within this video, and we discover the notion of looking from the male’s point of view, however there is not actually a typical ‘Male Gaze’ involved. Theorist Laura Mulvey said that the camera is controlled by Male gaze, and this is usually very typical in this genre of music. By not including any form of male gaze the producer has kept the feeling of the narrative and the notion of the boy looking at the girl appears innocent.