After analysing music videos I then looked at digipak and advertising to see how they are also used to promote the music video.
Please click here to view my work
I think this helped me to see how the band can use advertising such as album covers to promote their music video/ star image etc. and also how they promote it to the right audience for the genre of music that they are part of. Analyzing the Slayer album cover for Hell Awaits showed me that the band use the album cover to the full extent to promote their bands image and what the album displays and stands for, helping to stand out from other covers to possibly target the right audience for the customer to buy their product.
I have used a digpak from a professional band of a similar genre to my band and analyzed the different aspects of the digipak in order to understand the conventions of a digipak. This will help me when I’m creating my digipak to know what to include. I also looked at the band I’m doings current digipak and analyzed this.
Please click on the image to see the full document
Once we were put into our production groups we discussed what qualities make a good production group. This was to help our group understand the different attributes which we should consider putting forward and the different responsibilities that we would need to have. We then created a mind-map on the attributes we would expect from the perfect production group.
We then split these attributes into the important roles that are needed in a production group, we felt that these skills were a lot more necessary in terms of creating a well-working production group and a ‘team’. This attributes meant that we would not only produce a good media product but would also work well together in the teams we were put in.
We then looked at the different roles that are necessary to create a production group and what we expected from the people that were taking on these roles in order for them to fulfill the role in the best way possible.
We finally looked at the skills that would be helpful to use throughout the different stages of the production of our media product. This includes editing which is an area which Georgie has said she has experience, as well as other areas which we shall all work together on as well as contribute this area of work to the person who is most comfortable in this area or even will help the other member of the group. This means that the group is equally helpful in terms of skills and what each of us are good at.
I think it was really important for us to come up with these mind-maps and let us all decide and what elements we think create a good production group, this meant our group could discuss what we found to be important when working together and therefore meant that we could work on these areas that we knew would be more important to the other members of our production group.
To create our Swede we have been split into different groups and given different areas of the music video to work on. This helps to divide the work load equally as well as to determine times when we will be filming or taking part in the acting of the narrative/performance of the music video. The Swede we are doing is Echosmith- Come Together. Here is the original music video-
To create our storyboard we thought that it would be easier to use the original Echosmith music video and take screenshots of each shot within the times we were given to create a shot-by shot presentation that we would be able to use on the day- this would also mean that we could be a lot more accurate when it came to the production day and we could look back to the storyboard for the details, it also meant we could create a very detailed 6 page storyboard in a short amount of time instead of drawing the shots and having less accuracy.
Please click here to view the storyboard
We created a shot-list to help us establish the shots we were doing in the sequence we were given, what kind of shot they were e.g close-up or long shot as well as which member of the band it was focused on. I circled my group and the shots I was going to be involved in filming to help me know on the day which shots I had to be doing and the specifics. This was really helpful and meant that there was less confusion during the production.
Please click here to see the shot-list
We created a production meeting agenda to help us be more organised and determine who is responsible for different aspects of the production such as costume and make-up and who in the team are doing which shots, this will help us on the day to have all aspects organised and know exactly what we’re doing, this will avoid wasting time and mean that we can get the shots that we need done straight away.
Please click here to see our production meeting agenda
This is our part of the swede that we edited…
After all the filming was completed and each shot that was needed for the swede had been done, we were put into pairs and given a section of the swede to edit and sync with the music and put into order to look similar to the narrative/performance of the original music video by Echosmith. We used Adobe premiere pro to complete the editing of our section. We uploaded the shots from our section into premiere pro as well as the Echosmith track, we then separately worked on each shot, finding the part where the singing started, which was easier for the lead singer, for example the time in the shot where the actor opens her mouth, we would then bring it down into the editing, taking only the video footage without the sound so that the track would fit over without any natural sound that came with the footage. Using a clip marker we set a marker over the place in the footage where the lead singer starts singing, we then used a clip marker and placed this over the audio where the singer starts singing. Using zoom we then zoomed further into the audio and footage for greater accuracy before moving the footage to fit better with the audio, this involved moving the clip around and until the audio synced with the movements of the performers in the clips. This could take a while but finally it was finished and I think it looks really good and the syncing looks pretty much spot on, it will look even better once all the parts of the swede are together to create the finished swede.
Here is the final swede, I think it works really well and it has taught me a lot of what to do/not to do when it comes to filming and editing my music video.
Evluation of the Swede…
I learnt how important the planning and use of all the planning documents (Storyboard/shot-list/production meeting agenda) was. The planning before the production seems a bit tedious at the time but when it comes to production day it is completely invaluable and the realisation of how the shooting could be a shambles without the planning documents becomes very apparent. We constantly throughout the shooting referred back to the shot list and storyboard to see what part was coming up and how the subject is composed in the frame. The production meeting agenda meant that we all knew who was doing which shot and that on the day the people that were responsible for the different parts such as costume knew that they were responsible and were prepared on the day. My target for when we are doing our music video would be to make the shot-list and production meeting agenda a lot more in depth as well as the storyboard to make sure that the shooting goes smoothly because this will be a lot more work going into the short amount of time we have to film to create the music video.
The camera operator should be making sure that everything is going well whilst they are filming, they can be doing things like making sure that the composition of the actor is right in the frame and making sure that they are still in the frame and not moving outside of it and if they are doing this that they are moving the camera to adjust. For example if the actor is cut out of the frame through movement the camera operator needs to make sure to inform the actor to either move back into the frame or for themselves to move smoothly to fit the performer back into the frame. As well as this they need to make sure nothing else comes into frame if it’s not supposed to, for example another band member, so whilst filming they need to be looking over the camera to see what is going on and if anything is getting to close to the frame. They also need to make sure the camera is in focus, which can be quite difficult if the subject focus is moving around a lot, this means they need to keep adjusting the focus on the camera from shallow to wider depth of field to include the subject focus whether they are closer or further away from the camera. Lastly the camera operator needs to make sure that the camera is being kept still or that any movement is smooth and purposeful, this means using a tripod for the times where the camera is meant to be steady. My target for when we come to filming my own music video is to use the focus of the camera more to make sure that the subject is clear and does not go blurry at any point in the shot.
I learnt more about directing someone in front of the camera and that you have to make sure you are honest with the people in front of the camera and tell them what you want them to do to make sure you get the performance you are looking for as well as being polite and positive. You need to know what the performer is comfortable with and how you can relax them so that they have more confidence in front of the camera and are not embarrassed. This can be done by joining in on what you are asking the performer to do, in this case we joined in singing the song as well as dancing, this made the actor a lot more comfortable and at the same time allowed them to see exactly what it was we wanted them to do. I think when we are doing the music video I will direct the performer a lot more and off camera I could also play out the part to allow them to relax more and to show them more easily how it is you want the performance.
With the filming of the performance I learnt that it is really good to get a few of the same part, every time its filmed it will be different and this way allows me to chose which shot is better, I also learnt how it is good to get a few different angles of the subject focus and how this can be really good when it comes to editing to add more of a variety of shots and make the sequence a lot more interesting. This links back to the target I am setting myself for my music video which is to take the same shot in a lot of different angles as well as using a wider variety of camera techniques to add interest to the sequence.
In editing I learnt how to bring the video into editing without the audio, I also learnt how to set clip markers as this was crucial to the precision of the editing and also meant that it was easier and quicker to do. Setting the clip markers meant it was easier to point a moment in both the audio of the track and the footage and then to sync them together. Despite this making it easier, editing was time consuming and could be frustrating when the sync was just off but didn’t look quite right, guessing how far to pull back the footage could be a frustrating process but having patience and taking our time as well as spending the time meant that the process would eventually be completed and we could look at what we produced proudly and see our work coming together. My target for when I am editing my own music video is to find points in the audio and the video that can be linked to make it easier for myself.
I discovered that the conventional use of mise-en-scene for this type of music video which fit best under the pop genre was best to use in the filming and editing so that the audio felt like it belonged with the footage, for example using soft light to show the light type of music as well as the school location which meant that a lot of the potential audience could relate. My target when doing my music video is to use mise-en-scene that is conventional to the genre of the music I’m doing.
I looked at previous student and using the assessment criteria which is used to mark the music video’s I decided what the best aspects of the video were and rated the video of a previous student against the assessment criteria as well as exampling the times where the criteria was met successfully.
Here is the previous students work that I marked against the assessment criteria-
Here is the document I filled in to mark the work against the criteria for the video, please click here to view my work-
Here is the document I completed to mark the work against the criteria for the print/Digi-pack, please click here to view my work-
I think completing this helped me to understand the criteria that is needed to create a successful music video and what looks good or not so good when creating the video, this helps a lot for my research for when I come to creating my own music video and being able to identify the assessment criteria and what is important in my music will help throughout the stages of creation. It also helped to create a link between the music video and the Digi-pack and to see how to create the artwork for the Digi-pack that will fit both the music video and the genre of the music, to make it interesting and to attract potential audience.
After identifying different parts of the bands album cover I then created a pinterest page of different things I could find on Pinterest relating to the band which may help create different perceptions of the band and their ideology as well as things that may fit in well the bands image and ideology. Please click on the image to view my work.
I think this was helpful to my research because it shows me more of a range of platforms that the band can use to form a perception that they want to give to the audience and a perception that will sell their products and music. This includes normal images, news articles, magazine covers, album artwork or any other media text relating to the band.
Here is my work where I looked into a closer analysis of a music video. I chose Seasons In The Abyss by Slayer because I found the video to present the band and their ideologies interestingly and correctly to how I and other see the band and how they represent themselves showed with cameras, lighting, location, performance and narrative.
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Overall I think doing this analysis of the music video has allowed me to see how different techniques are used to represent a star image as well as looking more in depth of the star image and how the star may want to be represented by things featuring in the music videos with Mise-en-Scene. This will also help me to look more into the star image for my essay.
Here is the work I completed in my analysis of a range of music video’s. This helped me to see how different artists use a range of ratio’s changing between performance and narrative as well as how different styles of music video’s can be presented. This could be in a narrative sense where the music video tells more of a story, a performance sense where the music video has mostly the band and their performance (although there is generally also narrative in the music video as well as performance), a disjunctive music video which is generally where the narrative is hard to follow and make sense of for the audience- this is common in hard rock or grungy bands, an illustrative music video where the video illustrates the lyrics and finally an amplified video which amplifies the meaning in the video.
