Feedback from People About my Song Choices

 Most people told me they liked the song called "King Suffering" that I presented the most. It was also at the top of my list and the one I liked most. I was told my music choices were all good. However, what I didn't realise was that one of my song choices was a cover of an already existing song, therefore it would not be able to be used. The name of this song was "Dancing With Myself" and the person who uploaded the cover didn't say it was a cover so I didn't check twice. In addition, I also hadn't heard of that song before so I didn't look around for it. At the end of the presentation, I decided that the song I would most likely be going with for my music video would be "King Suffering". It has massive potential for a music video as it is very energetic and upbeat. I could see it being a video with a band dancing as they are singing while wearing leather jackets and jeans.

Song Ideas Presentation

 

Song Ideas

Song Name: TV Broke my Brain

Band Name: Man Made

Views/Streams: 4,878

Album: TV Broke My Brain

Song Name: King Suffering

Band name: Crowned in Chains

Views/Streams: 1,783

Album: King Suffering 

Song Name: Party's Over

Artist Name: Symbasyd

Views/Streams: 177

Album: N/A

Song Name: Dancing With Myself

Artist Name: Salem Mars

Views/Streams: 15

Album: N/A

Block Week Exercise

Today we had a few hours to learn about the production of a music video. We looked at the fact that we needed to keep the camera in the same place while using a green screen. In addition, we had to watch out for our clothing and make sure that it didn't include any green on it because that would ruin the green screen effect. After that, we looked at the rules for doing a tracking shot. We had a small tracking shot set up so that we could demonstrate what we learned after. There are 3 people minimum needed for a tracking shot. One as the guy sitting on the chair filming, One as the person who would be pushing the guy sitting on the chair filming, and finally the actor that would be filmed. One rule we were told about the tracking shot is that the person on the chair should not be sitting sideways or in any strange way because it is not a very stable seating position. We were shown how to use tape to mark starting and ending positions for the tracking shots. We could establish where to start and end by playing around with the camera and the positioning of the actor to find out where it would work best. Next, we learned about different positions of power on the music video set. We learned that the director would normally not actually be present on set but would be supervising everything in a top box area. We were taught that the floor-man gets directions from the director and tells everyone when to "stand by" "roll cameras" "action" and "cut." In addition, we were told some basic rules before we went to the experiment. One of them was that we should film each shot wide, then mid, and then closeup, to make the editing process easier and to get more interesting shots of the same thing rather than just, having one shot of what happened. In addition, we learned that we should not playback the shots while recording as it is distracting and might mess up the camera if we make a mistake.

 We then took turns doing each role.  I was the actor first and we took a few videos of me and another person lip-syncing to Harry Styles' "As it was" and dancing a little. Then, I played the person in charge of the playback. When the floor-man would say "playback" I would be the one to start the music and be in charge of when it stops. We would switch sets every once in a while to be able to test out every one of them. There was a green screen set, pink lighting set with a couch, and a tracking shot set. The point of this exercise was to play around with the equipment and see the rough feel of how it is to make a music video. Finally, we were recommended to research a song we like for our actual music video. This is because if we pick a song simply for the genre, we will not enjoy filming it on the day because it will be playing on loop for about 5 hours on our shoot day.

Digipaks and Pre-Production Work

Digipack Conventions

• 4-6 'panes'

• Spine - the slither of material that goes on the back of the album (what you normally see)

• Colour palette similar to video/social media

• Branding of star persona

Front Cover

• Image of singer/band on front
• Name of singer/band
• Name of album
• Parental Advisory Sticker
• Info about any bonus material included e.g extra tracks, behind the scenes, music video etc.

Inside Front Cover

• Other image/background
• Possibly any of the following:
• Thank you note to fans
• Credits for crew involved
• message to fans
• Lyrics to a song
• Info about the artist

Spine

• Name of singer
• Name of album
• Record label logo

Inside Back Cover

• Other image/background
• Space for disc to be inserted

Back Cover

• Other image
• List of tracks (most have at least 9-12 tracks)
• Barcode (MUST)
• Record label logo
• Copyright info

Examples of a couple Album Covers:

This album is quite rebellious. It is very graphic and clearly wants to be remembered. However, it could not be the first album as normally, the first album of an aritst will have their face. Levi Strauss's Binary Opposition could be introduced because a heart connotes love and a grenade connotes death and violence. These two are binary opposites.

                                        

Taylor Swift's Fearless album shows Taylor Swift to be strong as a lion and very powerful. the colour palette is very similar with not many differences. It may slightly portray her as flirtatious.

Key Points

• The music vides are for a song on the album, not the whole album
• There is a connection, but its not a direct take away
• The video:
• Establishes a genre 
• Creates a star image
• Represents the ideology of the band/artist
• Links to the album

Draft Digipak

Analysis of "Pompeii" by Bastille

•  Theme of being alone. There a shot on the roof, a large portion of it is taken up by the sky and building implying how small the person is compared to the rest of the world
• Him being on the edge of the building could be portraying the idea of being suicidal playing into the element of being alone
• Behind the shoulder shot showing the city in front is showing how big the city is compared to him and without introducing the song yet giving off the impression of quite a sad type of genre.
• Placing the person at the centre of the camera is creating the star theory by making the connection that this music video is going to be connected to him
• The man is looking out the window and we can see that he has ambitions 
•  The lyrics clearly have a chorus of people singing. This contrasts from him being alone and the rest of the world being connected which is separating him from reality.
• In a more wide shot it shows a mattress on the floor looking very beat up which gives us the impression that maybe this man is homeless. This would explain the massive empty building away from the city making him 'different' from everyone else.
• Grabbing of the jacket creating a shield for him
• Singer is singing in a dark space alone, creating loneliness maybe having a connection with the character in the music video
•  "I was left to my own devices" stating now that he is alone and has no one, also saying "devices" making a connection to social media and how the people of the world are becoming more attached to devices and detached from the world. 
• We get the impression that this man is the last connected with the real world
• Man walking down the stairs leading to the streets where all the people are and have maybe now been taken over by social media creating an image that he is going down to hell.
• In the window behind from the outside world you can see a shade of red implying hel
• Inside the building is a bright white light contrasting from the hell and this is where the man feels safe and secure
• Man is opening a well reinforced door another idea of safety
• Darkness outside  often refers to loneliness and suffering. In addition, the rain is also implying hurt
• The city looks very deserted, almost a post apocalyptic end of the world situation
• Biking around looking for people but no luck 
• "city that we love" showing sadness that it is all disappearing.
• "darkness from above" telling  the audience that its a scary place
• The chorus of the song is saying that if u imagine that everything is ok it will be ok
•  Shot of him entering a shop to get something to drink but when he realises that the cashier is also possessed he runs away
• As he is running through the night, he passes two people who are kissing and then turn to the camera showing that they are also possessed. This tells us again that he may be the last person in the world who is in touch with reality and not taken over by what this video is portraying to be a social media plague
• As the main singer runs into an arcade and sees two girls playing, we get a closeup shot of his face showing us that he has hope they may be normal. However, when he sees that they too are possessed, he continues to run away
• "But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all" showing that he is trying to remember what it was like before the world became corrupted by social media
• Him driving a car alone at night makes portrays the idea again that he is alone in this world 
• In addition, the night time is normally when people feel most alone and lost hinting at some mental health issues possibly
• The car breaking down in the middle of the night as the lyrics state "darkness from above"  saying that maybe he was unable to escape the possession and he will get infected too
• Shot then cuts to daytime as the main singer looks into the review mirror seeing his eyes change showing that he is in the process of being infected
• "How am I gonna be an optimist about this" while he is looking into the river seeing his eyes change is an example of Andrew Goodwin's link between the lyrics and the visuals theory
• Him walking alone in the desert again reinforcing the theme of loneliness and being lost physically and mentally in the world
• Walking towards a mountain which has a heavenly white shine coming from above implies he accepting death but trying to get to heaven before the evil consumes him
• Stands at the top of the mountain looking into the distance making us think that he has managed to make it out safely, but then turns around to reveal that he has been infected by this evil as well and has not managed to escape
• This can also be seen as social media consuming everyone in the world no matter how hard some people try to stay away from it and creating a sense of displacement and being far from reality
• After doing some research I have found that this song is originally about two souls inside bodies in a museum that were mummified and turned into statues by the Pompeii volcano disaster. In addition, this is why the lyrics say "grey clouds rolled over the hills" and "the walls kept tumbling down" however, I do stand by my interpretation of it

Music Video Workshop #3 - First Music Videos

 Today we began the workshop by discussing how to bring on a new artist. We agreed that some considerations that need to be taken into account are the individual look of this artist, it has to be unique to them and not a copy or a resemblance to a known or existing artist. When shaping an artist we need to be a little frugal. Money should definitely be invested into them well, however, it should be spent with caution. Some things that we learned we must look for when shaping an artist is reaching a certain target audience. In addition to this, let the audience know what they look like and how they perform live. The aim of this workshop was to look at first music videos of various artists and bands and then analyse them.

We had an initial example of looking at Lady Gaga's "Just Dance." Throughout the duration of the music video, we looked at all the different locations the camera had to be set up. We made a short analysis of it while we were there as well. One thing that was pointed out was that the video portrayed the artist as showing her rebellious side. In addition, at the beginning of the video, the scene of the party seemed a little dead, that is until Lady Gaga joins in and lights it up. We also pointed out that there are some defining features that she is showing. We can tell that she is into fashion, and dance, and is showing to be young and available. A part of the mise en scene in this music video is that there is a constant strong light in the middle of every shot which makes the scenes look like disposable camera pictures of a party. One final thing we considered was the possible length of the shoot day. We came to the conclusion that it most likely last a whole day and was very relentless because each shot location would have taken about 40 minutes to set up and execute. This would be the minimum. There are about 15 shot locations so the shoot day would have been very lengthy.

  

Another example we looked at is "I kissed a girl" by Katy Perry. In this video, I think what the label is trying to show is that Katy Perry is attempting to appeal to a young audience. Some examples of this are the pillow fights and the vibrant pink theme in the video. This music video is not completely male gaze as it is more dressed to impress the same gender than trying to appeal sexually. It is an incredibly formulaic music video. The song has a straightforward structure. We can see this because the scene stays the same as long as the music is the same. The moment the music switches up, the scene immediately follows. Every scheme would take an extended period of time because of needing to style hair and makeup, along with putting on different dresses. The lighting is quite girly, it can be seen as traditional beauty lighting. This would also most likely be a day shoot, however, it would not be as lengthy as the previous example.

Nextly, we looked at a band example which was "I Bet you Look Good on the Dance Floor" by Arctic Monkeys. We figured out that this band only had two main different shot locations. The band tries to emphasise that the point is more about listening to music than trying to make a big music video. In addition, bringing drum sets and a whole band's music equipment everywhere just wouldn't be viable with the amount of time it would take. Traditional bands make the majority of their earnings through tours and live performances. This is the reason they make performing music videos. It shows a taste of what you will get when you end up going to see them live. We also talked about the filming which sort of looks like they purposefully shot it on old cameras for added effect. The way they look on stage makes the audience think they simply showed up in casual attire which they would wear in everyday life. However, I would argue saying that it is carefully thought out clothing just to make the audience feel that way. 

To conclude, it is so much harder to come up with activities for a solo artist's music video to do than for a band. This is because a band will have preemptively set activities. The instruments they play. However, for a  solo artist, there have to be lots of scenes where a lot is happening. This is because otherwise, they will be lost and simply standing around. For example, you would make them stand on cars or dance around in a party atmosphere while they sing.