Tim,
I cant get this till monday morning as its saved on college PC's.
Sorry, it will be uploaded monday morning.
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
More common then videos now are DVD's, they are an excellent example of a common household interactive media. How they work is they store information and video like movies, TV shows, extras, deleted scenes and often commentary and when put into a player or computer you can view and watch them. Much like DVD's are CD ROM's, once put into the computers disk drive you can rip music on to there CD's and from then on you have a CD ROM you can play anywhere and listen to the music you put on there. Interactive media can even be found on your TV nowadays, the 'Red Button' found on 'sky' controllers takes the viewer to a another platform that gives further information on a program and can also take you to another part of the TV show.
Kiosks are usually found in busy town or city centres, they are like small stalls that sell anything from maps, flyers, literature to most commonly newspapers. Kiosk are also great places to find out information about the place your in, encouraging you to explore. Another interactive media that isn't found in the home is presentations, most often given in business meetings, schools and colleges. They are often made up of researched information and joined with a speech from the lectures explaining the information and its relevance.
Something that interactive media's have help become more popular is short films, there are many websites now dedicated to allowing people to watch short movies, such as www.shortfilmcentral.com. The internet also promotes film festivals, encouraging people to go watch small short independent films. Besides promoting and allowing people to watch short films interactive media's are also a great way of promoting larger films through trailers, on websites like www.filmtrailers.com and www.IMDB.com. Most successful movies now have a large interactive campaign and promotion behind them, such as their own websites. Interactive media has also pushed User-generated content to the for front of the public eye. This is when ordinary unknown people create video's and upload them on to websites, the largest of which is www.youtube.com. Many of the more popular ones catapult the creator into a new strange sort of stardom. One of the first to become part of the new wave was panacea81 , her real name is Lauren Luke. She creates make-up tutorials under her user name, the popularity of these eventually lead her to being offered a book deal on her tutorials and she has also been on day time TV programs such as 'This Morning'.
As well as being a great platform to promote movies interactive media's have also given way to a new type of marketing, known as Viral Marketing. This has take of because its a free and effective way of advertising a product. The most clever and effective adverts don't even let you know their really advertising anything. Such as '“Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit.”', this video showed a guys secretly filming his 'hot' girlfriend on the Wii fit shaking her hips, the video was a instant hit on YouTube and emails. Apart from advertising through videos there are also many advertising Pop-ups on the internet, this however is less common as the user often finds them annoying and will ignore them.
Interactive media's also promote learning, E-learning has become quickly popular. You can go online or order DVD's and find tutorials that help people earn things such as languages and how to work things.
Interactive media's can be vast and confusing but the basics are very simple. Compression is what a video would usually go through before putting on a website. Compression is where the quality of the data is reduced to make the file smaller and quicker to deliver and receive. After compression the is often embedded on a website, this means placing a HTML code in a page, the result is ou video will be able to be viewed in full on the site. 'Buzz' words can be placed with the video to hep people find it, this is called video tagging.
Another way of viewing a video online is streaming or downloading. Streaming means to watch a file with out storing or saving it to your own computer. Where as download means the sending and receiving of data that is saved to your computer.
To conclude, in my findings and research I have discovered that in the modern world the use of interactive media's has become part of everyday life. To ignore it would be to ensure your product to fail. Interactive media's will only grow and become better quality, the only way to stay in the media business successfully is to grow with it.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Music Video . . . .
Evaluation
This is the finished article of our music video project, our song was called Imagine us although the song was predominantly written by Jessica, I did help add some lyrics and I also sung on the recording. We all came up with the actual idea and style for the music video, it was a very organic process and it is hard to say if any one person had more influence on it and put more ideas forward.
I also did all my own per-production although it was corroborative and team work when it came to things such as the storyboard to ensure we all had the same kind of ideas and pace.
What I did take a big role in was filming and actual camera work, I did almost all forest panning shots and location shots, and a lot of the shots that made it into the final edit were my work. I also set up a lot of the group shots, this was mainly because Jessica and Lucy were the main people in our video and it would have been difficult to get back into shot where they were placed, looking back although it might have been better to have two other people playing the leads as it meant the couldn't do much filming, even though I did enjoy getting shots and experimenting. I think I did do the camera work rather well, I particularly like the first panning shot you see in the video after the sunrise, it was supposed to be a straight shot but I just thought the tilting upwards just lead though into the music quite well and it did. We did use a some different footage techniques in our video, such as the Quick time capture (still edited together very quickly) a lot of the thanks for that go to Lucy as she was much more skilled at photography or though she did help and show me and Jessica how to shoot the shots, it was also her initial idea to use this technique. I also took a strong role in editing, I logged and captured all of our two tapes worth of footage and then happily worked together with the rest of my group to edit and put the video together, however further in when it became necessary that there where other things needed to be done and my partners went to go do them while I finished edited, then they would come back and we would discuss what I had done and if changes and tweets were needed. I think it worked well in the system because it meant we weren't getting in each others way and we always had a fresh pare of eyes on the edit.
Apart from how to use quick time capture I learnt how to create a stripboard successfully, this I created for our group. I was also able to refresh my memory on how to compress and upload a video, in truth I wasn't happy in the quality of the video once it was compressed but it was more a matter of time and file size, because of the footage techniques and camera we used for the stills the music video's file size was enormous and had to be compressed quite a lot for it to be upload able to YouTube and even then it took a significant time for me to upload. It is a shame but thankfully it didn't effect the sound or music to much.
The storyline was of the love between two woodland creatures and the narrative followed a day in the life of the woodland creatures who are celebrating the love between the main characters. Although our original idea was the typical love song video, set on a beach with two people in love and so on, we ended up specifically not wanting to go down that route, so inspired by Florance and the Machine's music video to the song 'dog days' even though we new it was going to be harder. Looking back I still think the idea we went with was the best and most interesting but if we could I think we should have done a little more planing. For example because our location was outside, reasonably remote, only accessible by foot and as we shot over several days it was hard to control lighting it was hard not break the continuity of the final video. Also we had carry all of our equipment and props to the location, although this was a bit of a pain we all agreed it was worth it for how it would look on camera.
When we finally aired what would be the final edit to an audience of our class the feedback we received was surprisingly good and encouraging. Many said they thought the Mise-En-Scene worked well and that the costumes and they way in which the creatures moved helped the to identify the creatures a such and how they felt about one another. They also said that they found the direction we went with the unusual love song music video worked and was 'unique', which is what we were trying to achieve. A lot of people also respected our decision to sing in our music video task as everyone else rapped in theirs, this reassured me and Lucy as we both did not like the way in which we sounded. Our class also helped us decided on a genre for our song and it video as we couldn't decide. Most said it remained them of a Snow Patrol song because of its backing track and that the sings was a good mix between pop and alternative. The three of us were very happy with the classes suggestions, help and feedback over all.
I was happy with the end result of our music video, although we could have done better planing and taken more footage, as a lack of became a problem in editing, I think we successfully created a good, well put together Music video that achieved the goals we set our selves.
Storyboard . . . . .
Here is the first page of my storyboard, describing how the major shots and scene changes will be played out and how the storyline will run.
Treatment
we decided to give our music video a contemporary as the music is modern and that we should aim it at the target audience of older teen age girls, 16 - 20ish. The song tells a story of love, so we thought the music video should portray a story of magic and love. We decided this because we thought young females would find the magic and love side of it interesting and would hold their attention. Our music video would be shown and seen manly on the modern music channels like MTV as our targeted audience are more likely tuning into those channels.
Our music video opens we decided with a wide shot of a sunrise that will be sped up later in editing, this means the sunrise will have to be shot for around an hour or two. To shoot this we have chosen under Orwell Bridge as the river at this point gives us a good wide shot of the sunrise and refection of it on the water, creating a settled feeling. There is no music when the sun is rising.
After the sunrising we will have a panning shot of the forest, this we will shoot at Pin Hill Mill in Chelmondiston, just past the Orwell Bridge. To emphasise the moment when the creatures come out we first need the audience to think the forest is empty, and give a atmosphere of an abandoned forest and uncertainty. This is why the panning shot will be of an empty part of the forest and as the panning shot begins the music will to, this is the storyline beginning. We start the music at this point instead of the sun rise because the main storyline is set inside the forest, whereas the sun rise signifies the starting of the music video not the storyline, and lets the audience know the music video starts in the morning. The introduction to the music is slow this will work with the wide shot of the quiet forest well.
The third scene is where the woodland creatures will emerge, because all the creatures are different we have chosen to use different techniques the creatures. We will hopefully be using quick time capture (still images edited together quickly) to create an unusual movement for the creatures. The creatures emerging continue through two scenes using different locations and range of shots. These scenes our are most important scenes as they introduce the creatures to the audience and is a point at where the audience stays to watch the rest of the video or turn it of.
We want the creatures to be 3dimensional and have personalities, to achieve this we are going to dress the creatures up in bright surreal outfits and have them move in different ways, for example some shy and some coming out straight away. They will be wearing patterned trousers and bright coloured tops with lots of big jewellery and bright scarves. Not only will this help them stand out in the forest on camera but it will also make them look less threatening and more interesting and strange. My group, me, lucy and jess will be playing the creatures, we have also agreed with three people from our class to help be our extra creatures.
After the creatures have emerged we will film the creatures forming a circle, using a wide shot, this scene is about showing the audience the creatures unity and closeness, because of the the lyrics, 'Be my friend. Be my love. Be my forever'. As the song enters the chorus, the circle will divide revealing a couple in middle, this will be a medium shot. Here the the audience are being introduced to main couple, to show they are the ones in love later they are lip-syncing ‘Forever you and me’.
The shot will return to a wide shot of the creatures where they throw leaves into the air over the couple. In editing this will be made to play in reverse so the leaves are returning into the hands of the creatures, following our theme of surrealism and carrying on the magical feeling of the story. The creatures begin to dance with the couple along side them.
The next scene is a close up shot of the couple lying underneath the stars, this is where they they lip-sync. This will be shot using a rotating shot around them from above, then angle up to form a low angle shot of the sky as if seeing through the couples eyes.
The creatures then come together and dancing a final time. We are then going to replay the creatures emerging but in reverse so the are returning in to hiding, the same with the panning shots and then with the sunrise so it is setting. The day is over.
Our music video opens we decided with a wide shot of a sunrise that will be sped up later in editing, this means the sunrise will have to be shot for around an hour or two. To shoot this we have chosen under Orwell Bridge as the river at this point gives us a good wide shot of the sunrise and refection of it on the water, creating a settled feeling. There is no music when the sun is rising.
After the sunrising we will have a panning shot of the forest, this we will shoot at Pin Hill Mill in Chelmondiston, just past the Orwell Bridge. To emphasise the moment when the creatures come out we first need the audience to think the forest is empty, and give a atmosphere of an abandoned forest and uncertainty. This is why the panning shot will be of an empty part of the forest and as the panning shot begins the music will to, this is the storyline beginning. We start the music at this point instead of the sun rise because the main storyline is set inside the forest, whereas the sun rise signifies the starting of the music video not the storyline, and lets the audience know the music video starts in the morning. The introduction to the music is slow this will work with the wide shot of the quiet forest well.
The third scene is where the woodland creatures will emerge, because all the creatures are different we have chosen to use different techniques the creatures. We will hopefully be using quick time capture (still images edited together quickly) to create an unusual movement for the creatures. The creatures emerging continue through two scenes using different locations and range of shots. These scenes our are most important scenes as they introduce the creatures to the audience and is a point at where the audience stays to watch the rest of the video or turn it of.
We want the creatures to be 3dimensional and have personalities, to achieve this we are going to dress the creatures up in bright surreal outfits and have them move in different ways, for example some shy and some coming out straight away. They will be wearing patterned trousers and bright coloured tops with lots of big jewellery and bright scarves. Not only will this help them stand out in the forest on camera but it will also make them look less threatening and more interesting and strange. My group, me, lucy and jess will be playing the creatures, we have also agreed with three people from our class to help be our extra creatures.
After the creatures have emerged we will film the creatures forming a circle, using a wide shot, this scene is about showing the audience the creatures unity and closeness, because of the the lyrics, 'Be my friend. Be my love. Be my forever'. As the song enters the chorus, the circle will divide revealing a couple in middle, this will be a medium shot. Here the the audience are being introduced to main couple, to show they are the ones in love later they are lip-syncing ‘Forever you and me’.
The shot will return to a wide shot of the creatures where they throw leaves into the air over the couple. In editing this will be made to play in reverse so the leaves are returning into the hands of the creatures, following our theme of surrealism and carrying on the magical feeling of the story. The creatures begin to dance with the couple along side them.
The next scene is a close up shot of the couple lying underneath the stars, this is where they they lip-sync. This will be shot using a rotating shot around them from above, then angle up to form a low angle shot of the sky as if seeing through the couples eyes.
The creatures then come together and dancing a final time. We are then going to replay the creatures emerging but in reverse so the are returning in to hiding, the same with the panning shots and then with the sunrise so it is setting. The day is over.
Syspnosis
Our music video, 'Imagine Us', is set in a abandoned forest. The empty forest is not the usual and is much more mythical, it is home to unknown woodland creatures living amongst the trees, they do not destroy forests like us, they live at one with it. The creatures dress in bright unusual homemade outfits, their hair follows this strange trend and they also have their faces painted in what could be called almost tribal face paints. For our video we wanted to move away from the typical cliché love story and change it all around making ours unique. Our music is quite an alternative style, so we thought it also made sense to take the video in that direction. Our video creates for the viewers a feeling of surrealism, while at the same time not giving the impression this creatures are malicious.
There are two wood creatures we concentrated on in particular, the two are in love. The start of the music video is a sunrise, sunrises are often associated with peace and calm which it does represent in our video but also when it is on screen there is an absence of music creating suspense as to where the video is going. After the sun rise we cut to panning shots of the forest. The woodland creatures eventually start to come out from their hiding places, behind trees and bushes when the lyrics start, almost as if the singings awoken them and the story's begun. The forest we chose is Pin Mill as it's made up of tall tree’s close together in regimented rows giving it a very unique and odd feel. The forest’s light can be beautiful at times with the sun streaming through the trees but other times the forest grows dark, this would be a great look for our video as again it adds weirdness and make it unusual. Our woodland creatures; who will be played by Sharni, Arti and Amy, who are three other media students who we asked to join in our video. Kirstin was also a woodland creature. They will make up the rest of the creatures who form the circle around main couple, who will be played be Jessica and Lucy, while i join the others as extra. The circle eventual breaks apart and reveals Lucy and Jessica inside, and then they all begin to dance, after which the creatures perform ritual like activity's around the couple such as throwing leaves. The dance then repeats and the creatures return to there hiding places, this is played in reverse.
There are two wood creatures we concentrated on in particular, the two are in love. The start of the music video is a sunrise, sunrises are often associated with peace and calm which it does represent in our video but also when it is on screen there is an absence of music creating suspense as to where the video is going. After the sun rise we cut to panning shots of the forest. The woodland creatures eventually start to come out from their hiding places, behind trees and bushes when the lyrics start, almost as if the singings awoken them and the story's begun. The forest we chose is Pin Mill as it's made up of tall tree’s close together in regimented rows giving it a very unique and odd feel. The forest’s light can be beautiful at times with the sun streaming through the trees but other times the forest grows dark, this would be a great look for our video as again it adds weirdness and make it unusual. Our woodland creatures; who will be played by Sharni, Arti and Amy, who are three other media students who we asked to join in our video. Kirstin was also a woodland creature. They will make up the rest of the creatures who form the circle around main couple, who will be played be Jessica and Lucy, while i join the others as extra. The circle eventual breaks apart and reveals Lucy and Jessica inside, and then they all begin to dance, after which the creatures perform ritual like activity's around the couple such as throwing leaves. The dance then repeats and the creatures return to there hiding places, this is played in reverse.
Music Video Director
Paul Boyd is a British music video director, well known for his Shaina Twain music video, 'Man, I feel like a woman' (seen above). Boyd was born in Scotland originally although he then studied and eventually graduated from St. Martin's School of Art in London where he studied film-making. He has directed forty seven music video's, from 1989 to his most resent video to be released in 2010, most of which are American country style music.
In 2006 he also directed and wrote a feature film called 'vicious circle', which in 2008 won NYILFF HBO Best Picture Award. He has also directed advertising campaigns in the past for companies such as L'Oreal, Revlon, Jaguar and Dodge.
Another example of Paul Boyd's work, apart from Shaina Twain's 'Man, I feel like a woman' video, is Sugarland's 'Settlin' music video that he also directed, which fetures the band, this seems to be a convention of Boyd's music videos . . . .
This video could very easily be called a modern, more contemporary take on his later video, 'Man, I feel like a woman' as the two are very much the same in ideas, set and even scenes, while at the same time being completely different.
The very first shot is of Sugarland's lead singer, this is exactly the same as the start Boyd uses for Twain's video. He also uses the set up of having just lead again at 0;17 to 0;19, and then on/off though out the video, alone dancing again much like in Twain did in her video, however were he differs is Boyd also shows the bands lead guitar in a similar set up, alone with no one else focusing concentration on to the single person, this is at 0;10 to 0;12 when the guitar comes in and from then after this type of shot is used though out at different parts when the guitar sound is particularly prominent. There is also the varied wide, mid, close up and long shots of the band and lead singer which have been successfully edited to the fast beat of the music bringing up tempo and giving the video a energetic feel much like the music.
The music video has a very raw but polished look to it, again much like the song and sing. The way in which you see the sides of the white flats that make up the background and how at 1;19 to 1;21 you see crew moving the flats out the way to reveal the audience at 1:25, giving the raw, energetic happy feeling to the video, also it makes the viewer feel as though their part of the audience at a real live performance. This mixed with the bright lighting, dancing band and revolving stage it makes for a pretty fun and happy music video.
Boyd has also quite carefully chosen the audience in the music video. Majority of people think Country music is for the much older generations, in this video Boyd has quite subtly but effectively tried to lower that target audience. He's done this by filling the stands with young healthy, happy people ranging in age from around eighteen to mid twenty's all of whom look as though they are thoroughly enjoying themselves. Boyd has also tried to mix up the stereo-types by choosing a range of young people from different social groups. Giving the impression any young person can enjoy this bands music and the unity it brings.
Reviews to this were amazing, almost everyone who left a comment on this video through YouTube said pretty much the same, "I LOVE sugarland... you might say its obsessive :)", "Love sugarland, and this is my favorite song. So inspirational! " this user goes on to say that he's only thirteen, although this is younger than the target age it is still a young person who thoroughly enjoys the song and video.
In 2006 he also directed and wrote a feature film called 'vicious circle', which in 2008 won NYILFF HBO Best Picture Award. He has also directed advertising campaigns in the past for companies such as L'Oreal, Revlon, Jaguar and Dodge.
Another example of Paul Boyd's work, apart from Shaina Twain's 'Man, I feel like a woman' video, is Sugarland's 'Settlin' music video that he also directed, which fetures the band, this seems to be a convention of Boyd's music videos . . . .
This video could very easily be called a modern, more contemporary take on his later video, 'Man, I feel like a woman' as the two are very much the same in ideas, set and even scenes, while at the same time being completely different.
The very first shot is of Sugarland's lead singer, this is exactly the same as the start Boyd uses for Twain's video. He also uses the set up of having just lead again at 0;17 to 0;19, and then on/off though out the video, alone dancing again much like in Twain did in her video, however were he differs is Boyd also shows the bands lead guitar in a similar set up, alone with no one else focusing concentration on to the single person, this is at 0;10 to 0;12 when the guitar comes in and from then after this type of shot is used though out at different parts when the guitar sound is particularly prominent. There is also the varied wide, mid, close up and long shots of the band and lead singer which have been successfully edited to the fast beat of the music bringing up tempo and giving the video a energetic feel much like the music.
The music video has a very raw but polished look to it, again much like the song and sing. The way in which you see the sides of the white flats that make up the background and how at 1;19 to 1;21 you see crew moving the flats out the way to reveal the audience at 1:25, giving the raw, energetic happy feeling to the video, also it makes the viewer feel as though their part of the audience at a real live performance. This mixed with the bright lighting, dancing band and revolving stage it makes for a pretty fun and happy music video.
Boyd has also quite carefully chosen the audience in the music video. Majority of people think Country music is for the much older generations, in this video Boyd has quite subtly but effectively tried to lower that target audience. He's done this by filling the stands with young healthy, happy people ranging in age from around eighteen to mid twenty's all of whom look as though they are thoroughly enjoying themselves. Boyd has also tried to mix up the stereo-types by choosing a range of young people from different social groups. Giving the impression any young person can enjoy this bands music and the unity it brings.
Reviews to this were amazing, almost everyone who left a comment on this video through YouTube said pretty much the same, "I LOVE sugarland... you might say its obsessive :)", "Love sugarland, and this is my favorite song. So inspirational! " this user goes on to say that he's only thirteen, although this is younger than the target age it is still a young person who thoroughly enjoys the song and video.
I found researching into Paul Boyd's work really interesting. I particularly enjoyed looking a audience response to his work because many of his videos are for American country artists and that genre is something that's not to widely thought of here in the UK, although recently artists like Taylor Swift have brought it more into the spotlight for young people. I also love the polished rough feel to his videos, like in Sugarlands video were you can see the flats being moved by stage hands and the simplicity of Twain's 'Man I feel like a woman', to allows the viewer to feel the artist is much more real and down to earth and just having fun with their work. This is a very cleaver technique.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Lip-Sync Project . . .
To help us get used to the equipment and the planing of a music video we were given a one day assignment to create a lip sync version of an Abba song, we were given 'Money Money'. We originally recorded footage of Lucy and Jess in Ipswich's Christ Church park, performing a planned routine between some trees. But due to a recording mistake that we believe came from rewinding the tape to watch footage we had filmed, we lost certain shots meaning we had to record again. In the end we decided it would be best to record around the college.
To make it an interesting background we decided use the college stairs, this helped us to create lots of different angled shots. Lucy was the main person in our video, lip-syncing most of the verses and then we all joined in the chorus. For the chorus we used a effect, as one by one we all flash in between lyrics.
We found it hard to match the song perfectly with our lip sync simply because we didn't really have the correct audio playing equipment so we couldn't really hear the song when we were filming.
To make it an interesting background we decided use the college stairs, this helped us to create lots of different angled shots. Lucy was the main person in our video, lip-syncing most of the verses and then we all joined in the chorus. For the chorus we used a effect, as one by one we all flash in between lyrics.
We found it hard to match the song perfectly with our lip sync simply because we didn't really have the correct audio playing equipment so we couldn't really hear the song when we were filming.
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Task 2 - Contemporary Music Video - Part 1
I thought this would be a good video to start my research with, though there is lots of shots and fast editing, this is a style of video that my group could quite easily achieve for little expense and in a short amount of time. I also like the way the director of this particular video has blended the two typical music video styles of narration and performance.
Usually a performance based video would have the band in one place or place standing still with perhaps seemingly random things happening behind them were as whats happening around the band in Barefoot Confessor's video is a form of narration. At some moments the band even slightly interacts with the main character in the narration, to give the impression of the band speaking to her and that they are also part of narration, it's almost as though shes stuck in a loveless marriage or relationship and seeing/hallucinating about someone from her past . Although this method is used throughout the video there are three moments when this crossover and interaction is particularly noticeable, first at 1:12 till 1:36 and again at 1:47 till 1:53. This crossover is also used at 2:29 till 2:44 and resumed at 3:54 till 3:17 in a more unusual way being that the performance side and narration side of the video blend, starting with the band under the covers and more closely interacting with the narration lead and then eventually her jumping under and becoming part of the performance.
The Mise-En-Scene fits well with the story behind the video. All the furnishings are dull, brown, bland and drab much like how the female character feels about her life. Also the house has a very English feel to it, there's floral wallpaper which can be best seen at 0:9 to 0:11 and best shown at 1:22 to 1:37 in the living room scene you can see very old fashioned 'manor house' furnishings. All the rooms that are used all tend to have the same theme running through them this means that the audience aren't focusing in on the surroundings, instead they are focusing on the storyline.
Commonly indie type bands tend to use much less effects, and those they use are often just black and white, sepia, or a slight de-saturation in colouring. In this video the director has chosen not only to use dull furnishings but also to de-saturate the video colour to help convey the over all feeling of boredom and thought of 'what could have been'.
I think there is a very strong link between the lyrics and video. They are very parallel in the story they are telling, At the very beginning when the lead singer first appears there is a lot of subtle focus on a condiment of salt and pepper, seen at 0:11-0:13, 0:17-0:20, 0:26-0:27 and 0:29-0:35. The salt and pepper is representative of situation, the choice between the singer who loves her and the her husband, this fits well i feel with the lyrics at this point of the video, "I don't mind if in the short term, if I can only see you when his back is turned, there's no doubt he is a good man, but he can't reach the places that I know I can," and "and I would hold my breath now just to hold your hand".
Just like the relationship between the lyrics and visuals, the relationship between the music and the visuals is also an obvious link from the beginning. At 0;14-0:16 when the instrumental introduction to the song is playing there are close-up shots of the bands guitars, drums and bass being played.
The song and video is very much in the Indie style, this genre is very popular at the moment amongst teenagers and young twenty-soothings. They haven't really taken any risks like in Paul Boyd did in his direction of Twain's 'Man I feel like a woman', so they were always bound to have a good majority or good reviews because their a band you kind of have to already know about, its hard just to stumble on their work. Because the band is quite unknown and unsigned one of there biggest platforms is YouTube, there has been almost fifty comments posted and 15,190 views since it was posted in 20 December 2008 shortly after its release. Many of the reviews read like this, "This song is RIDICULOUS! I fell in love with the music, music style, and the lyrics! It makes my day =D", "this is some good stuff guys! all the best for the big road ahead". Another place where a lot of the bands work is showcased to the audiences is on MySpace, many of the comments are again posative, "so glad i tripped upon your sounds. love your stuff!!!!", "Your music is fab! I love it. Look forward to your future success".
Task 2 - Contemporary Music Video
Filmed: January 11, 1999
debuted: March 3, 1999
Director: Paul Boyd
Another video I decided would be good to look at was Shaina Twain's 'Man I feel like a woman'. I chose this because it is a reversed replica of Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to love', first released in 1986, Palmer's video was shot in a day and used real female models for to play the band. Twain's video takes Robert Palmer's very objectifying theme of his video, with model women all looking the same and moving the same and turns it around, using stereotypical handsome men and having them arranged the same as the women in Palmer's. One of the female models recalls being asked to act like show room mannequin, furthering the idea of these women being manufactured objects, even in the way the models 'dance' is provocative, as they slightly ripple their body's as well as move in time with the music
Movements by the models in Twain's are slightly more dipped and larger although staying simple making the move fitting the up beat sound of Twain's song, just as the women, in Palmer's, more subdued movement fit the smooth sound of his song. The shots used by the director of Twain's video are mirrors of the shots used for Palmer's, with close ups on the face of the singer and of the bands instruments. Were it varies is Paul Boyd, the director of Twain's, chooses to have single shots of Twain alone with out the band behind, the first time he uses this shot can be seen at 0:58 to 0:59, this is to allow room for twain to move and attention to be wholly on her.
Because Paul Boyd chose to reverse the roles of males and females in this video from Palmer's original the video was always going to either be received well or it would flop. In general the video was a hit and won the 'MuchMoreMusic' video of the year award at the 'MuchMoreMusic' awards in 2000. It was also a success with ordinary people all over, comments such as "I love this video. It is the women's Robert Palmer video, 'bout darn time!" from user MySolidDreams, "The similarity to Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love video is hi-larious!! <3">
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Task 1 - Purpose of a Music Video . .
Purpose of Research . .
Before making my Music video it is incredibly important to do research. Research is important to anyone making a media product. The reason for this is because before making a product , especially a media product, it is important to understand, understand how the product is made, your target audience and be able to answer questions effectively.
There is two main types of research you can do, the first is . . .
Secondary research . .
This is the easier of the two as this is information someone else has gathered and put together, it's second hand. The best places to find this type of research is on the internet and in books, although you have to be careful when collecting this information as some could be incorrect. The best secondary research you can find is usually from a mix of sources.
Primary Research . . .
This is the more time consuming of the two as it is a collection of data you have collected yourself and been carried out by you also. The best way to go about carrying out this information is my using questionaries, group feedback sessions and other things such as interviews. Primary research does involve a lot of preparation but is good as it is the post reliable form of research as you created it.
Before creating my music video I am going to do research into music video background and other various music videos.
The very beginning of a visual clip being put with a music track started in France in the late 1950s, the machine that put the two together was called the Scopitone, it was described as a visual jukebox. The machine played short films made by french artists to accompany their songs. The machine quickly spread across Europe and the USA and with it the idea of adding images and film to music/songs. Something that helped propel the development of the music video was the feature film 'A Hard Day's Night' from the early 60's, the movie was based around a musical fantasy land and shot in a mock-momentary style. The film contended musical sequences, this were innovative and influential as they were later used for Promo clip and were also the model for later music videos. These 'Film Inserts' were distributed and shown in many other countries, especially USA, so that the band wouldn't have to make in person appearances to promo them and the movie. By the time The Beatles finished touring in 1966 there work had become more sophisticated including there promotional clips and film inserts.
Promotion is a big part of what a music videos are all about because of the fact that they can go places the band cant and it means the band don't have to make in person appearances. Plus the videos let the audience see what the band are like, or at least what they portraying themselves to be, making the audience feel as they have a connection to the band/artist and are more likely to be fans.
By now the importance of having a promotional clip to go with you single was growing in importance and other bands that took on The Beatles style of promotional clips were 'The Who' who featured in several promotional clips from 1965, The Rolling Stones also appeared in many promotional clips that when with some of their singles. A lot of these bands videos where purposely rough looking and a little rocking roll, but one band that made their clips a little more dynamic was The Doors who had a background in film-making as the lead singer and keyboard player had been studying film at UCLA. The clip for their debut single was full of atmospheric lighting, camera work and editing. Their 1968 anti-war single was also a little different, it combined specially filmed footage of the band, including a fake execution by firing squad. it was also full of inter cutting of graphic images and film of the bloodshed and madness that was the Vietnam War.
This is another example of what a music video can be used for, protest. Not only can the promotional clips and videos be used to show the band but also to show there views, manly on politics. This can create for the audience great respect for the band, again strengthening their 'connection'.
Music television came to the United Kingdom in the late 70's when the popular TV show, Top of the Pops, began playing bands/artist music videos were as normally they would only have live artists on the show. Despite the fact the BBC put strict limits and rules on the number of 'outsourced' videos Top of the Pops could use, if the music video was good the song's sales would increased as viewers hoped to see it on the show the next week. In fact David Bowie can credit director David Mallet with helping Bowie to achieve his first UK number one in nearly a decade and Mallet directed an eye-catching promo to accompany his single 'Ashes to Ashes'.
But when the idea of Music television really took off was when the channel MTV was launched in the U.S. The channel airing "Video Killed the Radio star", it was the beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television with this new outlet for videos the popularity of music videos grew to the point where they began the central part of the music business.
The music video has kept up with today's technology and transferred its self to computers and Internet as well, although it wasn't till the launch of YouTube that the idea of watching a video online was common place. Music videos had had a slow and steady increased in popularity by managing to keep up with trends and technology's, keeping them in the public eye.
Before making my Music video it is incredibly important to do research. Research is important to anyone making a media product. The reason for this is because before making a product , especially a media product, it is important to understand, understand how the product is made, your target audience and be able to answer questions effectively.
There is two main types of research you can do, the first is . . .
Secondary research . .
This is the easier of the two as this is information someone else has gathered and put together, it's second hand. The best places to find this type of research is on the internet and in books, although you have to be careful when collecting this information as some could be incorrect. The best secondary research you can find is usually from a mix of sources.
Primary Research . . .
This is the more time consuming of the two as it is a collection of data you have collected yourself and been carried out by you also. The best way to go about carrying out this information is my using questionaries, group feedback sessions and other things such as interviews. Primary research does involve a lot of preparation but is good as it is the post reliable form of research as you created it.
Before creating my music video I am going to do research into music video background and other various music videos.
The very beginning of a visual clip being put with a music track started in France in the late 1950s, the machine that put the two together was called the Scopitone, it was described as a visual jukebox. The machine played short films made by french artists to accompany their songs. The machine quickly spread across Europe and the USA and with it the idea of adding images and film to music/songs. Something that helped propel the development of the music video was the feature film 'A Hard Day's Night' from the early 60's, the movie was based around a musical fantasy land and shot in a mock-momentary style. The film contended musical sequences, this were innovative and influential as they were later used for Promo clip and were also the model for later music videos. These 'Film Inserts' were distributed and shown in many other countries, especially USA, so that the band wouldn't have to make in person appearances to promo them and the movie. By the time The Beatles finished touring in 1966 there work had become more sophisticated including there promotional clips and film inserts.
Promotion is a big part of what a music videos are all about because of the fact that they can go places the band cant and it means the band don't have to make in person appearances. Plus the videos let the audience see what the band are like, or at least what they portraying themselves to be, making the audience feel as they have a connection to the band/artist and are more likely to be fans.
By now the importance of having a promotional clip to go with you single was growing in importance and other bands that took on The Beatles style of promotional clips were 'The Who' who featured in several promotional clips from 1965, The Rolling Stones also appeared in many promotional clips that when with some of their singles. A lot of these bands videos where purposely rough looking and a little rocking roll, but one band that made their clips a little more dynamic was The Doors who had a background in film-making as the lead singer and keyboard player had been studying film at UCLA. The clip for their debut single was full of atmospheric lighting, camera work and editing. Their 1968 anti-war single was also a little different, it combined specially filmed footage of the band, including a fake execution by firing squad. it was also full of inter cutting of graphic images and film of the bloodshed and madness that was the Vietnam War.
This is another example of what a music video can be used for, protest. Not only can the promotional clips and videos be used to show the band but also to show there views, manly on politics. This can create for the audience great respect for the band, again strengthening their 'connection'.
Music television came to the United Kingdom in the late 70's when the popular TV show, Top of the Pops, began playing bands/artist music videos were as normally they would only have live artists on the show. Despite the fact the BBC put strict limits and rules on the number of 'outsourced' videos Top of the Pops could use, if the music video was good the song's sales would increased as viewers hoped to see it on the show the next week. In fact David Bowie can credit director David Mallet with helping Bowie to achieve his first UK number one in nearly a decade and Mallet directed an eye-catching promo to accompany his single 'Ashes to Ashes'.
But when the idea of Music television really took off was when the channel MTV was launched in the U.S. The channel airing "Video Killed the Radio star", it was the beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television with this new outlet for videos the popularity of music videos grew to the point where they began the central part of the music business.
The music video has kept up with today's technology and transferred its self to computers and Internet as well, although it wasn't till the launch of YouTube that the idea of watching a video online was common place. Music videos had had a slow and steady increased in popularity by managing to keep up with trends and technology's, keeping them in the public eye.
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Although subtle the lighting in this video is staggered, with a lot of white light on Twain making her stand out, especially when she strips to the white shirt as it reflects the light, the light is then slightly less when its on the two band members closet to Twain and even less so on the two furthest away. This creates almost a pyramid effect, initially your eyes are drawn to Twain, then the two band members and then finally the two at the back. The lighting is consistent through out the video, however at 2:30 - 3:34 this changes slightly as Twain undresses the band members are lined up behind her and are dimly lighted, this is because at this moment they are adding nothing to the video they are simply thought of a background. That is the only point in the video where the lighting changes slightly, even at 2:56 where the man are again slightly lined up behind Twain Boyd goes back to using the lighting techniques of focusing on twain then the next two and then the next.
Boyd uses a lot of the same shots in Twain's video, close-ups, mid-shots and wide shots. There isn't a lot of variety to what he shoots in these shots, it tends to stick to the same things, most of the close-ups tends to be of either Twain's face or of an instrument and once or twice of a band member, most of the mid-shots are of the band or Twain and the wide shots are used for Twain on her own and when shes with the band. This could easily get boring as not much changes through out the video in the way of story, set and lighting but it is because of the way in which Boyd edits the the shots together that the audience doesn't get bored. The cuts are quick and clean and often to the beat, keeping the audience interested and makes the video seem fun and modern.
The video opens with a circular video transition i feel this gives the audience the impression that this video will be fun, light and entertaining. There is another of these transitions at 1:40-1:42 fitted to the sound of the electric guitar helping to flow into another shot. Unlike most videos the edits aren't necessarily on or off the beat, they are instead more focused around making the video flow. Boyd breaks the usual rules of editing, for example at 2:08-2:09 he cuts from a wide shot to a close up on Twain, this normally wouldn't work but does, due to the consistent element of Twains head staying in the same place. There is some very interesting, fun editing at 2:34-2:45, its a fun mixture of shot and scenes of her at various stages of her transformation edited to the beat, this editing style is repeated at 3:44-3:50. A part i particularly like and find fun is at 3:47-3:49 when there are three shots edited to the 'woo's, the three edits are shots of her transformation.
I feel as though this is a slight link between the lyrics and the visuals, as the song is about Twain wanting to go out and have fun, this is what she is doing in the video. Although there is not much to the video other then Twain having fun and showing herself off she does pick up on certain lyrics and emphasize them, for example at 2:00 Twain makes a hand gesture for the word 'crazy', she also tuggs on her shirt at 2:01 accompanied with the lyrics "man shirts, short skirts".