Evaluation

Throughout the media course we have been working towards this one big task, over the last two years we have learnt all the things we need to know to create a music video and, as an ancillary task design a digipack and advertising album poster to accompany it. As you will be able to see further down my blog, I have had to put plenty of research into these areas also, in order to effectively produce the project to a good standard while sticking to the codes and conventions of my genre which in this case was indie. I used a various amount of equipment and worked in and out of school to complete this, here is what I did. My music video project is of famous indie band Bombay Bicycle Club using a track off their first album called Cancel On Me. After being a listener of this band and song before this project I felt I could understand and enjoy the lyrics and also the production task of actually making the video. I decided to stay fairly standard in terms of the convention and style making the decision that a mixture of narrative and performance footage would be the most effective for this style of genre and seemed the most realistic option, with the other style of music video conevention the art clip being much harder to create. After a few weeks of research and planning I organised four of my friends to partake in the shooting of the performance part of my video at one of the friends houses. On arrival I set up the camera and immediately decided it was not suitable and wanted to shoot the footage outside, to stick with the folk indie style of the band I was created the video for. However at that time it was snowing outside so I arranged it again for another day. When we met for the second time to shoot the performance I arranged it for a sunday morning where I could manage to get everyone their away from work etc. I filming my four friends perform to the track in the back ground with instruments from myself and the participating members of the video. I shot it in a grown up and unkept area for a rural look which I wanted to create, I feel the filming in general went well and I got all the footage and I needed for my videos performance parts while sticking to the conventions of an indie music video. After uploading this footage onto Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs in our media room, I loaded the backing track a song I copied off the album and went to work planning and arranging for my narrative section of my video. After listening to it over and over, I had come to the conlusion that the best way to go about making a plot for this track would be to use the lyrics. Deciding that 'cancel on me again' would fit effectively with a plan of a couple being happy and in equilbrium at the start of the video, then falling out and the girl turning to another man, then the pair of them being seen and confronted my the original boy. I felt as well as the lyrics their is an instrumental towards the end of the song that is built up and fast tempo and I felt would be very effective for a fight/confrontation scene in the video. I arranged narrative shoot again on another morning but this time it was in the holidays so it was easier to organise than the first time, I decided to shoot the footage on and around the local park in my village. I felt this would fit as I thought I could actively portray a more youthful style of young love at the start and it would fit with the genre that thesedays tends to be the weirder place the better. On the day of the shoot it was a bit overcast and raining slightly, however I made the decision to go ahead with the shooting and in my opinion got some fairly good shots and felt like I had captured the style and effect that I had planned. I used the over shoulder shot effectively in this shoot as I knew it was effective as a voyeur shot and fitted the video perfectly. After finishing my narrative footage, I then uploaded that also to Final Cut Pro and started the editing process of the task. I was initially suprised at how time consuming editing a video was and at times I found it had to sync the lips of the singer in my footage to the actual track. As well as this after one lesson my computer crashed and wiped almost half of what I had done that lesson. Despite all this though I eventually managed to edit and finish my video to a standard that I thought was effective and at the same time the storyline was clear and enjoyable. After showing it to friends including people whom participated in the video everyone seemed to like what I had done and outlined numerous sections which they said they enjoyed. I was happy with this feedback, as it has made me confident and quite proud of what I have created. The ancillary part of the task was to create and design a digipack and a poster to relate to and would be effective to use with my video in a real life situation. This part of the task I quite enjoyed as the girl I used in my video is also a photography student and so for each of these tasks I was able to use her camera, with the added advantage of having a fish eye lense at my disposal. I once again arranged for everyone I needed to be in the same place for this shoot and again I feel they went well and came out pretty much how I had wanted and planned for them to be. As the digipack and poster is important for the marketing of any band, I particually made sure items that represented the indie genre where included for example, cigarettes, skinny jeans and the singer wore a trilby hat, typical of the indie scene. I edited these pictures on Photoshop and arranged them into the poster and digipack you can see below. I think each of effective and striking and I believe the use of the fish eye lense espcially on the front cover of the digipack was vital on tying in again with the genre. I asked for feedback from my friends from each of the tasks, and in general they seemed to be able to link in the music video with the digipack and the poster which I was happy about. Throughout I tried to make a air of sadness around the lead singer due to events in the video and due to comments from friends and family I am confident that I achieved this. All in all I think I have done a good job on each of the tasks and throughly enjoyed the duration.

Finished Advertisement Poster

Here is my finished poster, which I constructed using photoshop, I tried to make it simple but striking so it could catch the attention and appeal to the target audience. To contsruct this I used Photoshop again, and used one of the pictures taken in the digipack photoshoot which I had planned to use for the poster. I feel my poster is quite effective because I tried to make it quite simple, with bold and striking fonts that still suited the style of the poster. Once again the subject my lead singer in the video is wearing skinny jeans, with a plain cut top and a trilby with a cigarette in one hand. I did this to obviosuly stick with the indie genre of the project as a whole and in my opinion looks very good.

Poster Construction Screen Grab

I constructed my poster on Photoshop and this is a screen grab from this process.

Poster Examples and Inspiration

Here are two exmaples of indie genre posters which I have scanned in from popular indie magazine 'NME' I feel they are good examples of what I want to create as they are simple but effective and show the main singer of the band as the most prominent figure. I think this theme of using the lead singer is effective and in many cases typical of the indie genre, and I will try and design my poster to a similar effect. Here are my examples :

Finished Digipack

Here is my finished digipack, using the photos that I have recently uploaded based on my previous digipack designs and plans. I am extremely happy with how my digipack came out in the end, I feel its looks sleak and appealing and truely shows the indie genre through the contents and style of the shots. For example skinny jeans and smoking, in my opinion this digipack would effectively appeal to its target audience as it is interesting and stark. I am very happy with it and despite a large amount of time spent on Photoshop creating it I feel it couldn't be much better given the shots I had. As well as this I think it fits in with the genre as it is similar to the examples of other indie digipacks displayed earlier in my blog fitting with many indie conventions. Now I have to create my poster that will advertise the single as a whole and I will use a photograph taken in the digipack shoot to achieve this.

Digipack Photographs

Here are the photos I have taken for my digipack, using the plans from 'Idea 2' which I explained earlier on in my blog that I would use. I feel they have come out very well and I utilisied the fact I had a photography student, ( Marilena Ingle) in my video, where she let me use her camera and advised me on how to take the perfect shot. Despite my plan from 'Idea 2' I have decided after taking the pictures to swop the inside cover picture of the band with the individual picture of the singer roud as I think it is more effective as an album cover. Here are my shots: Front Cover: Back Cover: Inside Cover: I also used a fish eye lense on the camera to take the pictures I feel that this works quite effectively to display the subjects and also the genre, which I think will appeal to the target audience.

Inspiration for Digipack

I was inspired for my digipack ideas by a number of various bands with a similar genre to the band I am doing my music video for, which is the indie genre the examples I have used to inspire my design are from two popular bands in this genre Vampire Weekend and The Strokes. The following examples I used on thge 'Idea 2' of my rough designs for my digipack.

This first example is the album cover for Vampire Weekend's second album which I took for inspiration which is clear on the front cover of my 'Idea 2' rough design.

Another example that inspired me when making my digipack was this picture which can again be seen in a similar fashion on my rough designs on 'Idea 2'. I used this because I thought it was effective and typified the sort of indie genre I want.

Thanks to these examples I feel my finished digipack will be effective in relaying an example of my genre, I plan to finish my digipack within the next week or so allowing time for organisation and unexpected events, and will upload them soon.

Media Diary Post

After filming my band shots for the music video three weeks ago, I have finally finished my narrative storyline shots also. Despite having to cancel more than once due to the weather conditions I was finally able to organise around everyones work the shooting for the rest of my video. Much like when I did the band shots I was proud of my selection of actors as everything went smoothly and exactly to plan. All that is left to do now is for to edit my video on to my backing track.

Media Diary Post

Today we were shown how to use photoshop for when we are ready to create our final digi-pack, I have drawn up two rough designs for my digi-pack and have arranged with a photography student I know to take the pictures I need in order to carry out my favoured of the rough designs. Here are my current designs-

They are my three designs I am hoping to complete my digi-pack using my idea 2, which I will organise and plan to finish in the near future.

Camera Shots and Angles Continued

Looking Space- this is where the subject is looking in a certain direction, by leaving a space to the side that the subject is looking it emphasises to the audience he is looking in a certain direction.

Over the shoulder shot- used mainly for conversations looking over the shoulder of one of the subjects in order to involve the audience in the conversation.

Rule of thirds- when taking a picture it is much more effective to put the subject in 2/3rds of the frame leaving a third blank to show the audience the background as well.

Research into chosen artist and target audience

I have chosen Bombay Bicycle Club, due to the fact that they are a current up and coming indie band which I enjoy. I chose the song Cancel on Me because it is one of my favourite songs by them and I feel as if I can do it justice in a sense of making a promotional video. The band itself are from Crouch End in London, it consists of lead singer and guitarist Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, Suren de Saram and Ed Nash. Formerly called 'The Canals' Bombay Bicycle Club rose to fame after winning the competition 'Channel 4's Road to V' by which winning meant the band opening the 2006 V festival. After leaving school in 2008 the band concentrated mainly on their music and realeased debut album 'I Had The Blues And I Shook Them Loose' in 2009 followed by second album 'Flaws' in 2010. In terms of target audience the band will appeal to the younger sector of the market mainly due to the nature of their indie rock ganre that is very popular with the younger generation who are in nowadays terms the biggest followers of the indie scene. Since the rise of indie rock in the 80s it has become very popular and in many cases pushed into the mainstream making many of todays big indie bands popular chart hitters. Bombay Bicycle Club are exactly this with their last album 'Flaws' reaching 8 in the overall UK chart 38 places higher than their previous album, showing an obvious rise in popularity. For these reasons I feel that they would appeal to a large audience, espcially the younger section of the market that are the main consumers of this genre of music. Therefore due to its current popularity I have chosen this band and song as I think I will be able to pull it off effectively.

Camera Shots and Angles

Camera shots and angles terminologly is vital within the media industry when producing items of media such as television shows or films, the terms I have used below are recognised by the BBC but may be slightly different elsewhere but generally they are quite universal. Here are some shots and angles that I have taken using a friend within the surrounding area of school, however the extreme long shot and the birds eye angle shot is taken from the internet as I could not find appropriate cicrumstances to create an effective shot.

ELS (Extreme Long Shot)- Otherwise called an establishing shot, used to introduce surroundings to the audience.

LS (Long Shot)- shows a subjects entire body from head to toe.

MS (Mid Shot)- this shot shows subjects from the waist upwards and is the most common camera shot as it focuses on the important parts of the subject.

CU (Close Up)- a close up of the important part of the subject, usually the face showing the persons emotions.

BCU (Big Close Up)- otherwise known as extreme close up it is used to show a specific part of the subject in detail.

Low Angle Shot- used to make something look bigger or more prominent due to the low angle of the camera.

High Angle Shot- the opposite to low angle shot the camera is located higher up at an angle looking down to make the subject look small and powerless.

Birds Eye View Shot- a shot taken from high up looking down on a scene used to show a surveillance style shot.

Worms Eye View Shot- opposite to birds eye view, camera is at ground level looking up at a subject to give it a powerful appearence.

Media Diary Post

Shortly I will upload my camera shot examples on to my blog that I spoke about in my last diary post, after this the first stages of shooting footage for my video will commence. I have planned to take the camera out over this forthcoming weekend in order to get my clips of the band playing. I won't be shooting my narrative side of the video straight away as I am still in the planning stage and not certain of the content I will include.

Music Video Analysis 3- Rock Show By Blink 182

Overview
Blink 182 are a Pop-Punk band from California, America. Formed in 1992 the band started out as three piece, Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Scott Rayner (whom was replaced by Travis Barker as the main drummer in 1998). The band have released five albums since being together, achieving success globally in the process as a quirky and original punk band selling over 25 million albums worldwide and winning numerous prestigous awards. In 2005 guitarist Tom DeLonge left the band after a fall out with the other two members, leading to huge upset amoungst fans. In 2009 the band announced they were reuniting and that a new album was being worked on. After this news the band played a number of sell out come back gigs re-enforcing the bands loyal fan base.

I feel this song and video typifies the bands style and sound making it an effective thing to analyse.

Genre

Blink 182 are widely known as a punk rock band from the modern day music scene, however the actual genre of punk rock has been ongoing for a long time constantly changing in sense of imagery and style but generally being the same fast tempo, rough edged songs throughout. In the seventies, The Ramones, The Clash and The Sex Pistols were widely considered to be the founders of the punk scene revoultionising the music world converting millions into lovers of the genre. Over the years many bands have followed into this genre creating new styles of punk rock, after forming in 1992 Blink 182 were publicly known to be making music from a pop punk perspective. This form of the genre was slightly different to classic punk rock, as in turn it was made for a wider audience with a larger fan following. Stereotypical things from this genre were recongised from the general style of the music, the bands fashion styles and attitudes which projected an air of rebellion and a laid back, cool persona. I feel 'The Rock Show' by Blink 182 perfectly displays this genre and the overall apperance of the band in many of their videos. For example they all wear black skateboard brand t-shirts with messed up hair and tattoos, as well as this they use a typical unedited scratchy style for the guitar and bass which is again typical of this genre. Another example of genre of the punk rock used this time through intertextuality would be at 2.35 in the video where the guitarist Tom smashes his guitar typical of the punk rock genre since the Clash's album cover for London Calling a very iconic picture in the punk world.

Video

In my opinion this video by Blink 182 is created for viewers to see and understand the bands personality and style, it is set up in such a way that the band are allowed money to basically entertain an audience (the fans) to which they decide to do lots of crazy things to excite and inspire them. It links in with the genre well and the way that punk brings about a rebelious and care free attitude which the band show throughout by doing crazy things like buying cars and TVs just to smash them up and throwing money of the top of a building. It states and the start of the video that the band were given some cash to spend on a music video they are in control of making themselves so straight away it seems a more personal video from a fan point of view. I think the band made this video to reveal what they are like out of the public eye and that they are down for lots of fun and crazy things, this I feel connects with the audience very well and may influence the way they live their lives, for example buying the same clothes the band wear. This is all to do with imagery and this video shows alot of that, they include guitar smashing, skateboarding, crowdsurfing and a live performance, as well as basically wasting all their production company's money in order to make a video which ironically works very well. This is because all the things above typify the band giving them an original style and personality which the fans want to see.

Music Video Analysis 2- Duality By Slipknot

Overview
Slipknot formed as a nine piece heavy metal band in 1995, originating from Des Moines, Iowa. Largely known for their agressive fast tempo music, Slipknot changed the current generations view on heavy metal music with their huge fan following and chaotic live performances. Since they formed the band have always worn masks throughout their live shows and also in any appearence as a band in public, this is another reason for their rise to fame through such acts of originality. The band has so far produced 5 albums since 1995, winning numerous awards from industries related to the rock/metal genre as well as winning a Grammy award after being nominated for seven previously.

In May 2010 the death of the Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, rocked the music world leaving the band in obvious distress and shock, since then the band have made next to no appearence in the media apart from an interview shortly after the death of their band mate to which they explained their massive sadness. After this Slipknot have made no more movement as a band, and it has been rumoured that the unfortunate death of Paul Gray may be the end for the band. Records show that in May 2010 Slipknot's sales figures stood at around 14 million for worldwide sales of their records, showing their obvious success and prominence in the heavy metal and also music world.

Despite this the reason I have chosen this video to analyse is becasue I feel it typifies the heavy metal genre as well as being a well produced and interesting video.




Genre
It is widely known and also easily recognisable by Slipknot's music and video productions that they are very much a heavy metal band. In general this is fairly obvious for a number of reasons, the first of these reasons would be the music itself with vigorous vocals, dense thumping percussion sounds and distorted guitars. This is very typical of the metal genre and became an almost signature sound for Slipknot which their fans grew to love. Another indication to genre in this particular song and video and the bands other productions would be the way the members dress. Clothing has always been something that points to a music genre, and the heavy metal scene is no different, in this case dark clothing, body piercings, skulls, metal studs and leather. On top of this in Slipknot's case their iconic use of face masks that again boosts their imagery into the heavy metal style genre which has always contributed to their aggresive style which pleases their fans.




Video
I think that the video to this song by Slipknot, is quite hard to judge as to what style of production it actually is in terms of narrative or a performance. However in my opinion I feel that by watching this video it becomes apparent that the band and the producers of this video are trying to show the emotion and personality of the music through the way the actors do things within the production. This is because the video shows fans of the band running towards a house smashing things on their way and meeting with the band, inside the house. The way in which the band connect with the fans in the video by playing their music in the same vacinity as them shows an obvious unison and love for the fans on the bands part. Despite it being quite to describe I feel that the video overall is a statement from the band to the fans that they are at one with the fans, in the way that they feel the same emotion as the fans when listening to the music, by the 'head-banging' and 'mosh' style movement typical of heavy metal fans.

Chosen Song Lyrics and Permission- Cancel on Me By Bombay Bicycle Club

Bombay Bicycle Club - Cancel on Me Lyrics.

Cancel on me again;
Oh, cancel on me again.
And it's not your fault and again;
No it's not your fault you said.
Oh.

All the world has come to see the end.
You will never see this place again.
And all the world has come to see the end.
And you will never see my face again.

No it's not your fault and again;
No it's not your fault you said.
So cancel on me again.
Oh, cancel on me again.
Oh.

All the world has come to see the end.
You will never see this place again.
And all the world has come to see the end.
And you will never see my face again. (x2)

Dreaming of you pushing up to me;
And I know where it's going to lead.
Dreaming of you rushing up to me;
And you know it's where you want to be.
Dreaming of you pushing up to me;
And I know where it's going to lead.
Dreaming of you rushing up to me;
That was the boy I used to be.

Yeah, I'm dreaming of you rushing,
I'm dreaming of you rushing,
I'm dreaming of you rushing up to me

Permission From Band Manager.

Our email

Dear Bombay Bicycle Club


We are two A level media students from North Hykeham Joint Sixth Form, and would like to ask for your permission to make a promotional music video for your songs Magnet or Cancel on Me as part of our year 13 media project, filming and editing a promotional music video.


Personally we both feel that your songs Magnet or Cancel on Me would be perfect for our task and ideas, and would be overjoyed to be given permission to use it.


Many thanks, we hope to hear back from you soon.


Kristian Barnard and Antony Hogg

Reply

Hi,

If this is only to be used privately for a school assignment and not used commercially or publicly then this is fine.


Jason

Just to clarify from an early media diary post I am doing the song Cancel on Me, after realising we have to work individually rather than in pairs.

Music Video Analysis 1- The Strokes- The End Has No End

Overview
The Strokes are a revolutionary rock band formed in New York in 1998, the band consists of five long standing friends called Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti. Their rise to fame was almost instant after releasing their debut album in 2001 'Is This It', to which they recieved awards for Best Album, Band of the Year and Best New Act in 2002, and also more recently their first album was voted 'Album of the Decade' by popular indie rock magazine NME. Since then the band have produced two more albums 'Room on Fire' and 'First Impressions of Earth', and have played on countless major stages worldwide. The band are currently developing a fourth album, after a long awaited return from a break where the members have been doing different projects individually collabrating with other artists and making solo records.

The video below is of the song 'The End Has No End' a track taken off their first album 'Is This It' which I think is a brilliant song and video with plenty to analyise.





Genre
This song and the Strokes in general have been branded an indie rock/alternative garage rock style group, this is obvious within the video for a number of reasons. One of course would be the music that the band makes, with up tempo guitars and drums an established bassline and a rough but very talented voice from the singer which is typical of many indie rick style bands. As well as this the way in which the band dresses in the video says alot about them genre wise, with skinny jeans, leather jackets, long messy hair resulting in a retro and stylish band very typical of this particular genre. The lyrics also point towards the rock/indie genre, being quite catchy but at the same time also delivering a serious message, in this case about politics and also like the video expressing views on the life cycle in general.

Video
By watching the promotional video for 'The End Has No End' a number of things can be deduced from it, the first of these being that it is a mainly narrative structured with performance scenes by the whole band included. The narrative that is the major part of the video consists round a main character who is incidently the bands manager, it shows a high tempo and fast edited narrative of the main characters life, and the main stages throughout it, school, prom, graduation, realtionships and jobs. At 1.18 in the video we are shown the main character as an old man sat in a dark room with a black portal/door style thing towering over him as he is sat quite helpless fashion on a chair. It becomes apparent that this old man is looking back on his life before death, and the title of the song and the lyrics coinside with this idea. The video then continues at a high tempo with fast paced edits showing different highlights of the main characters life, with little cut scenes to the old man worsening and also shots of the band playing in a room surrounded by mirrors. Towards the end, at 2.28 we are shown the main character as an elderly man once more, this time the door style thing in shot with him reveals a bright growing light towards the top of it which engulfs the room in light. In my opinion this ties in with ideas of seeing light in the darkness before death indicated towards the afterlife, this also ties in very appropriately with the lyrics and the title the theme of 'the end has no end'.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is quite prominent in this video as the actors used within the video could easily be linked by the viewer to other forms of media, for example film or music. The main examples of this within the video would be the inclusion of huge stars in the TV and film industry, Eva Mendes and Mila Kunis each of whom would be easily recognisable to anyone familiar with current forms of media. Another inclusion of intertextuality that would be less easy to recognise would be the main character in the film Ryan Gentles, the bands manager. This is a nicer thing to put in the video, in the sense that only the more devoted fans of The Strokes would recognise this and it would make them feel as if the band were trying to make a connection with them.

Media Diary Post

Today we have been shown how to use the video cameras for our music videos, we have also recently learnt about camera shots and angles which will be uploaded to my blog shortly. We are nearing the stage where we need to be thinking about booking the video cameras out in order to start filming our music video, therefore I am starting to draft out a storyboard for my videos content.

Mood Board

Laura Mulvey's Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey a professor of film and media studies and former employee of the British Film Institute devised a theory on the male gaze while watching items of media in particular music videos. Laura identified that in most cases the audience is put into the perspective hetrosexual male in which for example womens curves when featured in videos are lingered on for longer in order to appeal more to the male hetrosexual audience. She argues that males have a different mind set to females in terms of the way they percieve the opposite sex.

Her theory suggests that women are used as objects in music videos rather than actual people, this again forces the point that a large amount of music videos are viewed through a male perspective to which women are almost forced to accept. Some feminists believe that women watch it to try and conform almost to the hegemonic norms established by the interests of men.

This is a prime example of this theory.