Today we did our first shoot so that we would have some footage to play around with and also so that we could see if there were any areas in which we could improve. We thought it was best to film during the day and we managed to get some really good shots, such as a ghosting shot which appeared to work quite well. This helped us to see exactly how we could make the shots work practically. We decided to film some shots inside one of the train carriages so that we work out the best angles for the shots on the train, as well as using the railway to determine the best place to film. We have the callsheet and risk assessment for this shoot as proof that we considered any potential health and safety issues.
We have now finished our stroyboard and animatic meaning that we are now able to film practice shots of our location. The animatic works really well as we cut the song down so that it would be easier for us to storyboard shot ideas as we would not have as much time to fill. We are pleased with the animatic as it means we now have our ideas written down and can now visualise the music video taking place
Our first shoot will be on Sunday 25th October when we will shoot the scenes that do not have any people on screen. These shots will be the fire shot, pullaway shot and the train coming towards the camera shot.
On Thursday 29th October we will be doing location shooting on the tracks. We want to get the shots of the singer, getting he close ups and the shots of him singing into the camera. We will also get some of the on train shots, these may only be practice shots as we don't think the train will be moving on this day.
We are planning our future shoots at the moment to determine when we will shoot the girl on the tracks and on the train.
At some point we also need to plan our performance shots in the drama studio.
We have now started producing our animatic on Premiere as a project before our music video. This is to show the shots we are planning on using, allowing us to put our ideas down on paper and meaning that we are able to put together a preliminary plan of how the music video will be put together. This, therefore means that through the making of the storyboard animatic, we will be able to decide exactly how the music video will be structured and how we will shoot it properly.
We have been thinking of some ideas from our digipak and Tom has been experimenting with some ideas for the digipak on Photoshop, which allows us to see exactly what options are available to us. The ideas that we have been putting forward and that Tom has been experimenting with ideas on photoshop using different effects and textures which includes using darker colours for the cover, working with the conventions associated with the digipaks we have analysed, using three or four colours and having a centralised motif.
We did our pitch in class yesterday and we believe that the feedback we received was positive, with some new ideas included in the pitch. We managed to put across our ideas successfully which helped us to understand exactly what we were aiming for. The idea of the pitch was to show exactly what we had learnt through our product analysis and also through the technical analysis. This meant we could point out the typical conventions from our genre and show ideas for our locations after the reccie. We also put forward ideas for our digipak which we have now learnt needs at least four sides, but the ideas we put forward seem perfectly apractical and work wel with our concept.
As we are about half an hour away from our pitch now, does anyone else have anything to add to the powerpoint slideshow? If not then it is all ready on my memory stick and it has been printed for us to see the notes that go with it.
I have chosen to analyse ‘The Pretender’ by ‘Foo Fighters’ as it is a purely performance based video. This will help our group understand what is needed for our performance parts in our music video by Three Days Grace. As this video is also from the rock genre, it will help more towards the production of our video, as they follow the same types of forms and conventions as each other. This genre is shown clearly throughout the video through the performance and the instruments are typically a rock bands. Their performance reinforces the rebellious form as it is very much jumping around and shouting down the face of the camera.
This video could be considered art with a message. This is due to the simplicity and impact of the video. The video would be postmodern as it is clean and original and by the band performing in front of a red wall signifies a stage performance although they are not on a raised stage.
As the whole film is performance based, they have relied on many camera angles and effects to keep it interesting. For example, the first shot is an ELS high angled shot which introduces the lead singer as if he were walking onto a stage with the instruments already set up and the lights being turned on in this warehouse/ hanger. Also the slow motion is used for the slower bits of a song which creates the feeling of tension and importance. At the beginning there is a CU shot of the lead singer wrapping his fist up like a boxer would before a fight. This could be representing the rebellion of the band. The costume within this video, reinforcing the stereotype of the rock genre, is also black and one other colour in this case, white for the lead singer. This creates the illusion that the lead singer, which is often the case, the main focus in a band. This colour scheme continues throughout the video in the hanger, with the riot police and band. However there is one bit of colour with the wall behind the band to make them stand out.
At the beginning of the song, the guitar introduction has similarities of ‘Stairway To Heaven’ by ‘Led Zepplin’. This could intrigue people that are fans of Led Zepplin to listen to this track and create a larger audience.
Foo Fighters are a strong stereotype of a rock band as rebellion and this is represented through the bands performance and shouting at the camera. The performance also blocks riot police which is supposed to be a powerful force of the law. This then connotes that their rock music is anti authoritative with a stand off and them winning which can indicate the idea of protesters. The lyrics state the rebellion against conformity with ‘What if I say I’m not like the others?’
The police are represented to being ready to fight and reinforcing male stereotype. There are no females within this video and so it is targeted towards the male audience and would be probably consumed as focused viewing due to the message behind this male stereotype.
For my second product analysis I have chosen to analyse ‘The Kill’ by ‘30 Seconds to Mars’, a band within the same genre as ‘Three Days Grace’ which is the alternative rock genre. The video was produced by Virgin Records and Josh Abraham in 2006. The broad characteristics of the genre portrayed in the video are the costumes used, with dark clothing and also the shots of the instruments as a method of establishing exactly what genre the music is in.
Are the lyrics amplified and are they illustrated by the visuals?
As the song is about seeing yourself for who you really are, the lyrics are amplified to a great extent at certain stages of the music video and a key example of this idea is when the singer says ‘this is who I really am’ a face-off shot is shown, with the singer facing a duplicate of himself. This connotes the idea of an inner struggle because in this shot, he can be seen fighting with his doppelgänger, showing that he is refusing to come to terms with who he is. There is also a direct reference to these lyrics when one of the band members is seen reading a sheet of paper that says ‘this is who I really am’ over and over again, suggesting knowledge of who his is but also connoting his refusal to accept the truth. At one point in the video, the visuals do illustrate the lyrics, because the singer is shown shouting as part of the performance, connoting high emotion and also working with the lyrics because he is singing about breaking down, connoting that the emotion he is portraying is all a part of the emotional and psychological struggle that he is going through.
Does the video cut to the beat? Does the pace fo the visuals change with the tempo of the song?
There are various stages in the video where the visuals seem to cut along with the beat, as indicated early in the video where longer cuts are used as a method of establishing what is happening, with the music being slow paced. There is also a segment in the video where the drums and guitar speed up, causing the shots to accelerate with roughly ten frames flashing up within the space of two or three seconds, indicating an obvious change in the video as the music changes pace. However in some cases the music and visuals do differ in pace because at one point, when one of the band members is skateboarding down a corridor there is a relatively mid tempo beat and longer cuts are being used with the visuals.
How are the band represented? Are motifs used?
Throughout the video there are multiple meat shots of the singer and the rest of the band, an idea made obvious through one particular shot, when the singer is staring directly into camera and screaming with his performance, indicating Goodwin's notion of looking, The band is continually advertised as the video frequently cuts back to the band members in their specific roles, as well as the fact that they are all included within the narrative of the video. Another less obvious form of band advertisement is included in the film with the 'room 6277' which spells out 'Mars' on a telephone keypad, meaning a part of the band name is included within the video, as well as the band members themselves. This relates to other videos by the band such as 'From Yesterday' and 'A Beautiful Lie' two videos which are also heavily focussed on the idea of a performance. There is a specific motif used by the band with the idea of make-up, most noticeably eye-liner, worn by the singer, which he wears in other music videos, such as the two previously mentioned videos. The band are provided with the image of being rebellious rule breakers at the start of the narrative, the characters are given a note saying not to go into 'room 6277' which one character ends up doing later on.
Which dominant ideologies are shown here? Are they reinforced or challenged?
Throughout the video, the main character played by 'Jared Leto' is seen as breaking the myth of masculinity because at one point, such as during the face-off shot, he is seen showing some form of vulnerability as he ends up putting his head on his doppelgänger chest, connoting that he may be about to be reduced to tears. However there is a reinforcement of typical male characteristics as the singer is shouting in his performance and at one stage is shown throwing a ball at the wall, the first image connoting hostility and the second connoting stress, suggesting that men get stressed easier than women. At the very start of the video, in the little clip just before the music starts, 'Leto' says how they will be alone all weekend, suggesting that as men, they enjoy being masters of their domain. There is also a reinforcement of violence in the nature of men as during the face-off segment the apparition is held up to the wall by the main character, suggesting some form of inner struggle and also connoting the idea of self realisation, indicated by the phrase 'this is who I really am'. There an idea of Jhally's theory of the subordination of women as at one stage a woman steps out of the shower wrapped in a towel with a male character staring at her, also suggesting that she is being shown in a sexualised way. However, there is also a reference to the feminine touch as when she touches the male characters face, he appears to succumb to her will, connoting that she seems to act as a figure for reassurance of the male role.
Are there any references to other texts? music videos?
Intertextual references are evident in this music video especially with the film industry because the video is directly based on the 1980 film 'The Shining' as indicated by many factors and images in the video. Two key references to 'The Shining' are the fact that the video is set in an 'empty' hotel and also with the shot of the typewriter with a sheet of paper saying 'this is who I really am', directly relating to the character played by 'Jack Nicholson' descending into madness with the line ' all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'. Another reference to the film industry is the use of credits at the start with the song name, but there is also an allusion to the silent movie genre with writing indicating locations and also time passing shown on dark screens and highlighted with white writing as a method of making the writing more noticeable.
Is more narrative, concept or performance based?
This music video is both narrative based and performance based with more performance aspects as more shots of the singer performing are used throughout the video, indicating that the video was being to advertise the band as great an extent as the artists could. It is more of a mainstream video because with the intertextual film reference, it means that the video is being advertised to more than one audience demographic.
Therefore, this video is a performance and narrative hybrid which is being used to advertise the band to a great extent with intertextual references. All in all it is a video that not only reinforce stereotypes but also challenges them.
This is my moodboard in reponse to our track. It shows most stereotypical motifs from the rock genre. i can see and learn that most things to do with rock are dark and, if any, not many colours. Most of the motifs are bland but affective. There are also wings in the motifs and the clothes are dark to connote the inner struggle of the bands lyrics.
This is my moodboard on punk and alternative rock. What I have learnt from this moodboard is that the members of the bands tend to wear dark clothes in their videos and also in their performances, wearing colours sch as black or red. Also , with reference to the album covers, there are only two or three colours used, which seems to be a feature of the genre as quite a lot of bands from the genre use this style.
Below are shots from a reccie that we did on Friday at the Spa Valley Railway in Tunbridge Wells. As you can see there are shots both on the train and of certain areas of track that we could use.
Using ideas from other music videos we have seen by bands in the same genre to 'Three Days Grace' we decided to attempt a shot from a '30 Seconds to Mars' video. This was the face off shot and we wanted to see if it would work with our ideas. It seems to work really well so this is a shot that we can potentially use in our music video.
Today we also spoke about what type of costumes we would be wearing, for the performance and narrative. for the performance i thought we could go for a smart but casual black and red, to keep it a bit gothic.
And then for the narrative, the girl could be wearing something a bit old like a corset dress.
Today we discussed a new narrative for our video, and also been thinking about who will be in the video. So far we have Patrick for a guitarist and Tom for singer, aswell as Scott being the bassist. There are also two girls up for playing the part of the 'ghost' girl. these are Mandy and Sophie. we will decide who will be best for the part. And then finally the drummer, if he agrees will be Alex.
