CW - Church Shoot Evaluation

On the 22nd of November, George and I filmed the church scenes of our music video after school. First off we collected all of our props and cast members, and waited for the vicar allowing us access to the church, from which we had been in contact with.

The props consisted of the orange jumpsuit, the over-sized suit and the vicar's outfit. We then briefed each member on what they would be doing in the shoot so that they would be prepared, and so we could get the best shoot possible. First off we decided to do the 'clothes on backwards' shot.

This was going to be difficult we knew to make it look like the boy was actually walking forward when put in reverse time. We also had to think about continuity when we were going to have to edit, so we kept the same lighting and positions for each re-doing of the shot from different places and angles. We had the boy stand in front of the camera and start walking backwards with a static shot, tyaking off each garment, revealing the orange jumpsuit. We repeated this shot using a side tracking shot, and a front tracking shot for editing later.

We used car lights to light the scene. We then got a shot of the boy walking into position from the church to explain how he got to this position, making it less jarring for the audience to watch. We did this shot a few times to get the best one.

We then went into the church and shot the establishing shot, which would be shown at ther start with a panning shot to establish locations in the video. We did this many timesto get the best possible location. After this we shot the boy sitting in the pew with the orange jumpsuit on. We got numerous shots of this for filler shots.

Many tracking in shots were used to create a more personal feeling. This was difficult due to having to walk down the stairs when tracking, which jogged the camera, so in the end we did this in the editing software.

Next, we shot the time lapse sequences of the vicar preaching. We tried this shot in three different locations as filler shots. We did each shot for around seven minutes to allow for maximum use of the shot when compressing time. A difficult part of this was trying to get the boy to look like he was in real time, but he ended up moving a little bit.

Lastly we took a tracking around shot ofthe boy by holding the tripod to his chest, and getting him to swivel around. This created a chaotic and confusing connotation. We had to take many shots of this, as some of them came out not as smooth as we wanted.

Overall, our last shoot day went very successfully without anything going wrong or being to difficult. We took lots of shots so we had a wide variety to choose from. We were very impressed at how the reverse shot worked, and are truly grateful for the vicar's and cast's support throughout the filming of our video.

GCT & CW - Music Video

CW - Kitchen Shoot Evaluation

On the 14th of November, George and I filmed the kitchen sequences of our music video.

First of all we collected all of our props, sorted out costumes used by our cast, and collected the cast together to brief them on what they would be doing. This meant organising the kitchen so that it was tidy, and modern electronics were out of sight, due to this being set further in the past. We told 'the parents' that they should wear a suit, and a light dress. We also dressed 'the boy' in a suit that was to big for him, as discussed.

The first shot we took was of 'the housewife' and 'the unnamed man' sitting next to each other at the table, expressionless. We took shots both from the side and front on. We then did the same with 'the parents', but made to look like they were facing each other on either side of the table.

We then took a shot of 'the boy' walking in and 'the parents' then putting thier hands on either shoulder. We took numerous shots of this to make sure the shot was symetrical. We took many low angel shots of this also, as it provided a better visual style.

We then extended this shot by having 'the parents' look down at 'the boy' to then smile. This gave a very creepy feel to the low angel shot, and we were very pleased with it.

We then took some lip-synced shots of 'the mother' talking to 'the boy' saying 'too many summers you've enjoyed'. We had to take this shot many times, so that we were sure the timing was correct. We played the song while we took this to make sure.

After that, we drew a barcode onto 'the boy's' hand and took bird's eye shots to make it look like 'the mother' had stamped the barcode onto his hand from hers. After that we drew a black circle covering the barcode, and took a shot of 'the boy' rubbing the barcode, to then take his hand away, revealing a black circle. We had to take a POV shot of this as we thought it was appropriate, and it made it look like the barcode had become a black circle.

Next we took a shot of 'the boy' wearing the orange jumpsuit. Here we used a tripod fixed shot that then tracked around him. This was done low angled, and looks very good in editing.

Finally we toook a 360 panning shot as an establishing shot.

Overall this shoot went successfully without anything going too wrong at all. We are particularly pleased with the smiling and tripod fixed shots.

CW - Treehouse Shoot Evaluation

On the 13th of November George drove Tom Powell ( the guitarist ) and I to the location where we were going to be filming, which happened to be a treehouse, as we thought this to be a good location to get a variety of odd and interesting performance based shots.

First of all we set up the drum kit up into the treehouse, which took a while, as we tried to see how the framing of the shot would be, with the kit in different situations.We finally settled on a place, and began filming.

For the first shot we just let the cast get used to what they would be doing by playing the track, so they could get the rythm of the music correct. This would make the shots look better once edited.

Our first shot was just a low angle of Tim Drake-Brockman playing the drums, which would then pan to show Tom Powell playing the guitar.

Near all our shots were took the same general form, as we experimented with various framing and camera movement.

Other shots we took were experimenting with shot size, then moving the cast into other interesting locations, as well as trying the occaisional high angel shot to give variation.

Overall our shoot went successful, despite the rain, and we look forward to being able to edit the footage to give our video a narrative fuzz.

CW - Kings Hill Shoot Evaluation

On the 14th of November, George and I went to film at King’s Hill. Here we were trying to get shots of a ‘housewife’ and the unnamed man coming home from work. First off we picked up Emily Burns from Tunbridge Wells, due to her going to be acting as the ‘housewife’ for our shoot.

When we got to Kings Hill we had to drive around for a small while, whilst we found the place we had decided to shoot, because there weren’t many street names and everywhere looked the same (which was advantageous for the effect we wanted to create) that it took time to find the same place we had decided on shooting at.
After we found the location of our shoot, we began to set up.

First we shot the section where the ‘housewife’ was to be beckoning her husband to come home. This shot went very successfully, as we have seen when editing. We tried a huge variety of angles and sizes for this. Mostly of low angle shots coming in from the side, and getting some of the white picket fence in the foreground. These tended to look the best.

We then got a shot of the ‘housewife’ jumping up and down due to her husband returning home. We tried quite a few angles and distances here also, but found a closer up shot was better for this, than in the previous shot. We also tried various types of jumping up and down, varying leg position whilst in the air, e.g. legs tucked behind or not.

We then started to shoot the ECU of the ‘housewife’s’ lips saying ‘with all their pearly snapping’ in time to the music as lip syncing. We had to try this a few times as the position of the lips didn’t stay completely in frame every time.

After that, we started to shoot me as the unnamed man. Firstly, we shot a MCU of the unnamed man walking through the white picket gate. We got many angles of this shot, and were pretty satisfied with the result.

After that we got a shot of the unnamed man walking towards the door, or camera and grimacing as he got close. We only tried one angle and size for this, as we found others didn’t give the right effect. We took many different takes however, so we have a majority of shots to pick from.

Lastly we took our establishing shot. This was a simple 360 pan, which we took a few takes of from different areas.

Overall the shoot day went according to plan, and we are very satisfied when looking back on the shots, on the composition of the framing and colour.

GCT – Office Shoot Evaluation

Cameron and I recently to a trip to an Office block in Windsor where we filmed for the music video. The purpose of the location is to show the main character of the narrative working at a desk where he is dressed in a prisoner outfit with a ball and chain around his foot, this connotes that he is a prisoner to his job.

The shoot went very successfully as the location was exactly what we had been looking for. It had many rows of identical workstations all with computers and small divides between the rows. We filmed our panning establishing shots, close ups of Cameron sitting at the desk working, including a shot which peds up from the ball and chain to his hand where he is typing at the computer.

I also developed one of the shots after we had arrived at the location, I noticed that there were fish tanks around the office, this gave me the idea that the fish could be shown to be looking at Cameron as if he were the one in the cage and the fish were actually the free ones.

I positioned the camera behind the tank and filmed Cameron through it, this gave the illusion that the viewer is in the tank with the fish and watching Cameron working at the desk.

Overall, this shoot day has been the most successful so far, with everything going according to plan. We shot all of the footage we had intended to and it came out to be a good standard.

GCT - London Shoot Evaluation

On Thursday the 12th of November, Cameron and I went to shoot a section of our music video in London. The section we would be shooting included a time lapse which relied on the rush of business men in London in the evening, establishing shots and close ups of Cameron who stars and the main character of the narrative in our video.

The first issue we faced was holding one of the shots steady. The shot tracked in from an extra long shot to a medium close up, this meant that I had to walk forwards to track in, the pavement which I had to walk across was made from cobble stones making it very hard to keep balance and the shot steady.

To get around this we realised that if you hold the camera by the end of the tripod and extend it out in front of you, you can actually create a primitive steady cam. This technique paid off when we watched our footage back and realised that it was steady.

The next issue that we ran into was the weather, unfortunately after shooting the majority of our close ups it started pouring with rain. We had to cover the camera with a plastic bag but this did not stop water from reaching then lens, we made sure we wiped the lens between shots to prevent water blobs showing up in our footage.
We then waited for the 5:30 rush of business men but despite asking many commuters who all said there would be a huge surge of business men, only a small amount appeared, this was disappointing especially as it had now become dark but luckily there were just enough to create our time lapse successfully.

Overall, on this shoot we ran into many issues which were all due to the weather. But we feel our footage is what we were trying to achieve and therefore a reshoot is not necessary.

CW - Callsheet and Risk Assessment

Here is an example of the callsheets and risk assessments that we use to plan out our shoots before going on location.

CALLSHEET

RISK ASSESSMENT

These were useful when planning out each shot, to have with us a detailed plan of which props and shot sizes we were doing, with any other technical notes we may consider.

CW - Song Sheet

Here is the sheet with the song lyrics that we used to develop the concept for our music video.

PG.1

PG.2

This was very useful, and we take this sheet with us on shoots, as it refreshed our minds of what the concept as a whole should be like, and to take that into account when filming a whole scene.

GCT - Digipak Ideas

Below are some possible designs for the Digipak which we will be creating, the band who's track we chose to create the digipak for are called 'The Shins', Cameron and I have both created a Digipak design.



This is my Digipak design, although I think the Digipak looks good it is not in keeping with the image of our band and does not fit in with the genre of music. I tried to show a rebellious attitude which is stereotypical of indie bands through the use of the colour splats. Although this worked successfully the vibrant colours are more fitting of the electronic genre.


This is Cameron's Digipak design. This idea is much more fitting for 'The Shins' and therefore we will be working around this idea for the final Digipak. The businessmen queuing at the heavenly gates represents key ideological values which the Shins represent therefore make it a perfect scene for the Digipak.

CW & GCT - Music Video Animatic

CW - Prop and Costume Ideas

Ideas that George and I have been discussing about props and locations can be clearly seen in our pitch, which is accessible on the blog.
Costume Ideas that George and I have had were influenced heavily by our audience research. We found that people really saw that the band should be wearing winter clothing. For this we have decided to use coats and scarves both in our possesion to dress our cast in 'the band'. This conforms to the majority of peoples expectations, and gives a good look when combined with the woddland location.
Other costume ideas were to have the housewife to be dressed with an apron, and tied up hair to give the stereotypical 60's housewife look, which is vewry useful when trying to convey our ideological discourse on conformity.
Lastly, the costume ideas for the boy and man will be a suit, for the above mentioned reason, and to wear an orange jumpsuit, for which we have already attained. This is due to ideology as well, as in our interpretation of the song's meaning we found that the lyrics conveyed the situation of an 'office job' as more prison like. Something that the orange jumpsuit connotes.
Props George and I will be using will be a ball adn chain for the above mentioned reason, a guitar which we have obtained for some performance pieces ( we may include drum sticks, for someone to beat on their legs or on the ground. ) We also are using a computer for the character to type on, which we also have access to. Overall we have planned and obtained the majority of what we need, with other such pieces easily gotten. Any further ideas or changes, or problems will be posted on the blog.

CW - Shot Idea 4

A further idea that George and I had was to involve strange time-lapse sequences within the video to give a strange and uneasy feeling to the viewer and the characters within it. A particular part that we are doing this in is in the London scene. Here many businessmen in suits will be rushing by in fast forward, while the ‘man’ character appears to be in present time. This will signify him as different from the others. After this, we will force him to join the people rushing past to show that he is now like everyone else. This aids in the ideological side of our music video, and will help to inspire meaning within our video. George and I are experienced with this as we experimented with this technique last year, and in Brighton testing our shots. An example of this can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDF_i_Kxil4

CW - Shot Idea 3

Another idea that George and I had was to use a shot in London with a tripod held to the chest of the ‘man’ character so that the camera is always fixed onto the face of the character, making the rest of the world look very erratic while the camera constantly keeps the characters face within the frame. This can be very effective if the character breaks the fourth wall and sings into the camera for use of connecting lyrics with visuals. This will be done in one of the more erratic sequences of the song, and so will connect sound and visuals as well. We plan to do this on an early morning in London, to get a crowd of businessmen walking to work to give the busy, hustle and bustle feeling. An example of this technique can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZt_8-dr_w8

CW - Shot Idea 2

One aspect of finding ideas for the music video difficult was in promoting the band without the aid of the actual band itself. For this we came up with a simplistic and blatant technique that we thought would be quite effective. Our idea was to have the words ‘The Shins’ or the bands name and song’s name on various objects that the characters use. This could be extended and be used as a link between lyrics and visuals, as important lyrics could also be written on places that the character goes to, or on objects he/she uses, e.g. on the ball and chain that George and I are planning to use ‘The Shins’ could be written on it, or ‘Split Needles’ could be written on one character’s name tag if we planned on using one.

CW - Shot Idea 1

George and I have discussed possible shot ideas before, and they have been rather vague. To try to sculpt these ideas into a more defined visual style, we are using the blog to document and discuss ideas. One of our Ideas was to have the characters in the video to be singing the words to the audience. This would provide a strong visual link between lyrics and visuals, as well as sound and visuals, and could be interesting as in providing dialogue in the sequence. Part of this idea was used in a video for The Shins ‘Know Your Onion’ where a man is debatably playing god, speaks to the camera the lyrics of the song. This can be found in the media section here:

http://www.theshins.com/

GCT - Audience Research

Questionnaire results:

1. How does the track make you feel, what mood does it convey?

• “Depressed”
• “I feel calm when the track is playing but also feel that it has strong mood underlying the calmness. I feel like the song goes through a journey.”
• “Pensive, loneliness, unsure of things.”
• “It makes me feel reflective; it conveys a mood that I would feel when thinking seriously about things.”
• “At the beginning during the introduction, the mood is quite lonely and there is a sense of a a great journey yet to be undertaken.
However, throughout the track the mood improves as the journey is undertaken and develops.
The track makes me feel relaxed but at the same time leaves me feeling confused due to the crazy instrumental sections.
The track also makes me feel the colour yellow.”
• “Relaxed, calming, along those lines”

2. What style clothing would you expect the artist to wear?

• “Skinny jeans and a shirt”
• “casual but stylish”
• “Indie clothes, but also imagine clothes like The Enemy wear.”
• “Bright coloured, cold clothing, scarves etc.”
• “Warm, outdoor clothing.”
• “Knitwear and generally slightly raggedy attire, with simple and understated yet trendy styles.”
• “Indie, a kind of normal/indie blend”

3. What type of weather do you think of when listening to the track? (you may select multiple answers)



4. What colour does this track convey ?



5. What do you interpret the song to be about?

• “a rebel in society”
• “frustration about life”
• “A journey that takes place where a young person is developing into an adult but being pushed into a life that although is idyllic, he does not want.”
• “Being pushed into the stereotypical 'American dream'
• I'm unsure.”
• “A long journey, both physical and metaphorical, and not forgetting the colour yellow.”
• “Finding yourself, coming of age, something like that, not really sure hard question, but that's the feeling I got listening to it a few times.”

6. What kind of imagery does the song make you think of?

• intro sounds like traditional japanese/chinese music.
• dreamy, pensive, stuck in dead end job
• Urban settings early in the morning and late at night and the inside of run down buildings with moody lighting and high contrast between the light and dark.
• Bright, and dark contrast.
Church, prison, holes, office, everyone looking the same, masks, old fashioned contrast against modern.
• I'm unsure.
• The song makes me think of imagery of journeying as well as brief sections of confusion and disruption.
• Cloudy, see that picture i sent you

What we’ve learnt from this:

Our audience research reinforced our ideas for our music video and gave us confirmation that we were thinking along the right lines. Cameron and I believed that the track had the feeling of a journey taking place where a young boy grows into a man and makes decisions about his life. Our audience research shows that our target audience also believe that this is what the song is about as well as being calming but serious. We intend to take into account these factors when making our music video. The clothing in our video is going to be alternative and indie styles, these tie in with our audience research where we found out that the clothing that the audience would expect our band to wear is of the same genre. We planed to have dull cloudy weather in our video and when the idyllic life is shown, sunny weather. Obviously we cannot control the weather so this is quite a lot to ask for but our audience research shows that our target audience would also expect this weather. As we are filing during the winter months it is quite likely we can film during dull cloudy weather and therefore this will work out quite well for us. We planned to have a section of the music video which would be slightly de-saturated and yellow, like a sepia filter to give an ‘old fashioned’ and tradition feel. Again our audience said that the track made them think of the colour yellow so even though we weren’t thinking along such basic lines this will tie in quite well. Another decision we have made which was influenced by the audience research was the use of contrast. We were undecided weather to use high contrast during certain section of our music video but following up from our audience research we have decided that this is a good idea. Overall we have found that we are satisfying the target audiences needs through our ideas and therefore can continue creating our music video without altering anything.

GCT - Reccie to Kings Hill

Cameron and I needed a location which would show many similar, uniform houses for our music video. We decided to go on a location ‘reccie’ to find such a place. The reason we needed this sort of a location is because in our video the narrative shows a young boy being brought up and being pushed into a stereotypical set of values and beliefs, therefore to show these ideologies we thought it would work successfully to show lots a similar houses to suggest how everyone eventually gets pushed into the same life. We had heard about a place called ‘Kings Kill’, this housing estate was built by a residential company called ‘ENVIRON’ who designed every building very similarly, this gives the whole area an eerie feel as it almost looks like a toy town. We decided that this would be the perfect place to base our location ‘reccie’. Below are some photographs of the location:



Here I practiced my shot framing to get an idea of what it would look like if we used the location for our music video. You can see that I’ve taken into account the rule of thirds.

Here are some general pictures of the location:










We then discovered that one area of Kings Hill had white picket fences. This was ideal as even in our initial concept of the narrative we had describes white picket fences as having strong connotations of communism and the ‘ideal life’.







Then as if to reinforce our ideas that ‘Kings Hill’ would be perfect to shoot a sequence of our music video in, we found an American mail box. This is an icon image of ‘the American dream’:


Finally we took away a ‘Kings Hill’ brochure for an aerial view of the location:

CW - The Shins - 'Split Needles' Pitch

THE SHINS PITCH

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( CLICK THE BLUE TITLE ABOVE THE EMBEDDED POWERPOINT PRESENTATION TO VIEW IT ON SLIDEBOOM )

Above here is our powerpoint presentation, for pitching our idea for a music video for ‘Split Needles’ for The Shins. First off we showed what our brief for the music video was. This was just to gently introduce the viewers into what we were doing, including our limitations. Next we showed the viewers the track, so that they could get a feel for what the track was like, and to stimulate the class for what kind of imagery and genre can be associated with the track to get some appropriate feedback. We also decided to show a our moodboards of different album covers to show a general format and images associated within this typical genre of music, for our digipak as well as our music video. Next we showed what we had learnt from both our product and technical analysis of the various music videos we had analysed to teach us what kinds of techniques and imagery are used. Most importantly from the technical analysis we spoke of how an asynchronous narrative is common in this genre, and that this adds cryptic messages to the viewer, acting as an intellectual puzzle for the viewer. Most importantly from the product analysis we spoke of how dominant ideologies are mostly challenged, and this is something that we must take very seriously when creating our video, as this is important to the lyrics and the target audience. We also displayed our audience research, and told the class what we had found, which was that the costumes for the band were seen as winter clothing, and that the weather should be cold and dreary. Something that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, and that the song was interpreted to be a refection on life.
Next we pitched our actual idea for our music video. We showed how it was going to be an asynchronous narrative based video, about a boy growing to becoming a man, trying to reject the dominant ideologies you are eventually forced into. This got a good response, and everyone seemed to be onboard with the idea. Then we pitched the locations we had in mind for the video. This turned out to be extremely helpful as one pitched location that we weren’t so sure about, had feedback on a good location that someone knew. We have since visited this location (Kings Hill) and have decided to use it for our production. Pitched costumes were also well received, as we showed the stereotypical housewife costume and the orange jumpsuit, which were taken as good concepts, and in concordance with our ideological discourse on dominant values. Shot ideas were taken well, as we spoke of the strange time lapse sequences and the tripod fixed to the body shot. These were experimented on before and we shown to be aesthetically interesting. After that we spoke of difficulties we might face, this turned out to be mainly concerning the time lapse sequences, as weather may be a key issue when maintaining the impression that one person will be in the present while others are in ‘fast forward’, and that being out for long periods may run out the battery on the shoot. We then displayed the cast, which was no problem, and spoke of how we were going to promote the band. Our idea of putting the name of the band on random objects in the video was very popular. Lastly we talked about our ideas for our digipak design, which turned out to be taken well, with some queries on style of the image. After we said that it would be in a cartoon style, the class was no longer concerned and liked our idea, that being of businessmen and housewives queuing up for the heavenly gates, all looking the same, while one, non suit wearing person is turned away.

Overall our pitch was a success with a lot of very valuable feedback. Everyone was on board with our idea and concept, and found our pitch well laid out. This has given George and I confidence in our ideas, and look forward to filming.

CW - Product Analysis

The Shins – ‘Phantom Limb’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkITsv3Nk6M

GENRE / NARRATIVE

I chose to analyse this track due to its similarities in the genre and style of the track both I and George have chosen for producing a music video. I therefore hope that analysing this video will stimulate new ideas, and enhance ones already present. The band is also the same band George and I are creating the music video for, and should help build a bigger picture into what the band’s image is.

The genre of this track is alternative, and so comes with its own set of forms and conventions. Conventions evident in this video are its asynchronous narrative, which is present in a majority of alternative videos, as it builds a more cryptic feel to the story of the video. Another typical part of an alternative genre video is that pieces of performance are used throughout the video. This advertises the band as genuine as they can apparently perform in reality. This is heightened by the naturalistic depiction of the band, denying the artificial look to create band image. This makes the audience empathise with the band further and makes it easier to form a ‘relationship’ with the band. Alternative videos often contrast between use of bright colour and dark and dull colours. This was shown in the video when the bright red backdrop in the video is used to depict the band, which then cuts to a battle scene at night, contrasting colours heavily to quickly change mood and connotations within the viewer. Another convention typical of alternative bands is style of dress. This can include either bright, colourful and inventive costumes, or dark toned suits, and or smart style of dress. Here the band is shown collectively wearing suits. Therefore the band is conforming to the stereotypical style of clothing associated with alternative bands. This video conforms to typical conventions within this genre. The video reinforces Goodwin's theory that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. For example, style of dress.

The lyrics are amplified through the visuals in the video. Parts where the video and lyrics match literally are ‘file by one five and one’ as people are marching, and ‘latent power I know they hide’ when an angel pulls out and holds a sword, as a symbol of power. The meaning of the lyrics are very cryptic. My own interpretation of the lyrics are about a girl in High School who is an outsider and wants to be part of the ‘cool’ group. She follows the cool girls to malls and houses, and no matter what the cool girls do or say to her, it feels good to be part of the group no matter the cost. Though the surreal meaninglessness and superficiality of that particular way of life seem wrong to her, but she’s too far along in her ‘crime’. ‘This is that foreign land, With the sprayed on tans, And it all feels fine, Be it silk or slime.’ The lines convey negative connotations about artificiality, and suggests that this is what people now aspire to, and the girl in the narrative of the song is unsure whether to join in or not. The video however doesn’t really convey this meaning. The video is instead about how idealization of innocence, purity and god can lead to inspiration and willpower to further better mankind, but how this ultimately leads to bloodshed through the self-righteous nature of humankind. This is shown by an angel giving a young girl (Joan of Arc) a sword (a symbol of violence) to fight for freedom over the British. She kills everyone on stage, and raises her sword in victory as all her kin are dead on the floor. She is then burned at the stake later on. Due to ‘God’s’ inspiration. Other historical events are then shown throughout the video that convey the same meaning, and further enhance this idea that idealisation just provides reason for people to separate and ultimately die at the hands of it.

There are significant links between the sound and the visuals, in the way of change in pace of rhythm. At the beginning, the song is fairly slow, so the camera tracks in slowly, to convey a calming mood as enhanced by the track at this point. Then the curtain opens and a beat is established, people are shown marching, and march to the beat of the song, which anchors the beat in a visual format into the viewer. Cuts are also made when the beat hits, this establishes a visual beat which further enhances the rhythm. When the song slows down later into an instrumental, the video slows by showing people struggling in slow motion in the snow. This represents the slowing of the beat aesthetically. The cutting pace also speeds up and slows down according to the pace of the song. The band is always depicted within a normal time signature so as the beat can have a direct link with visuals.

This video could mainly be considered as art, while also advertising the band. This is why the music video is postmodern. The video presents challenging ideas, by showcasing idealisation of martyrdom, religion and purity as naive, and generally used as a reason to display separation form others, while being intolerant of others ideals, ending only in killing and prejudice. This is a provocative idea, as the meaning of the video displays what is stereotypically depicted as entirely good, and the ultimate aspiration in a negative and haunting way through truth of historical events that seem identical despite location and time period. The video is however also an advertisement as it contains a performance piece of the band, displaying them as genuine musicians, and so this attribute of the band is commercially shown to the public by the product. The use of meat shots create a band image. The fact that the product can be considered art in itself, can force the video to become advertisement, as the band is now conveyed as deep and thoughtful through the challenging ideas of the music video. Music videos are postmodern as they are visual representations of sound. They combine advertisement with entertainment in order to create band image. This is also true due to lifestyle associated with the band as a product e.g. clothes are advertised through costume.

MEDIA LANGUAGE

Lots of meat shots were used during the band performance pieces, this was to allow the audience to form a closer relationship with the band members. This is in concordance with Dyer’s theory that a band must seem distant, yet close paradoxically at the same time. At the beginning a red curtain is seen opening, connotations associated with this image is of theatre, which establishes the location as a play or stage to the audience. LSs were used to establish ‘location’ or time period on the stage. MLSs were used constantly on stage to display costume in further enhancing establishment of time period and location. Leading lines were commonly used to display opposing sides, e.g. the Indians and crusaders. A telescope mask was used to convey distance. Here the fourth wall was broken by a band member looking into the camera. This creates discomfort in the viewer and spoils the voyeuristic nature of the shot. White fluff was used to connote snow to help show temperature and location of the pilgrims. The performance section is located on a stage presumed to be by the side of the stage by the camera only filming the band location from the left. A red curtain and green bush comprises of the mise-en-scene, as well as the instruments. The green bush, and red curtain glamourises the naturalistic look, a motif of ‘The Shins’. When Joan of Arc receives the sword a bright light is shown behind her head, and a low angled shot is used to convey moral superiority. Slow motion used in editing during fight scenes and struggling in the snow, this is used to show the brutality and simplistic nature of the fighting and suffering and the moral blindness of it. Jump cuts were used throughout the video to give a jarring effect aiding in the visualisation of the beat of the song. Fake fire and snow are used as profilmic special effects. Other effects used are smoke machines and a sword being lowered on a clear string. These effects are all done during filming, and add to the child’s play connotations. Slow motion effects were done during editing. Dark lighting and red lights were used during fight scenes to create negative, evil connotations of fighting. Costumes were used to portray ethnicity e.g. the Indians wore little clothing, and tribal garb, while the crusaders wore armour with the Templar’s cross on it. Dark filters were used during the burning of Joan of Arc and when depicting the angel at later stages to connote negative aspects of the situation, and give a general depressing feeling to the video. This challenged the dominant associations of angels, aided by her facial disposition which is seemingly cold natured.

Little reference to popular culture is mentioned throughout the visual text. Instead reference to historical events are shown throughout the video in the style of a school play. This creates parody of these events, as the crude styles of the play depict what was a serious and terrible event, and shows them as light-hearted entertainment. Which then becomes a play on innocence due to the obvious association with children and purity. Meaning created through this use is that idealisation of religion and senses of moral responsibility lead to hate eventually through lack of unity in lifestyles and opposing theologies.

REPRESENTATION

The band are represented in a stereotypical alternative band style. This is due to the style of dress that conforms to the conventional clothing options of their genre. This agrees with Dyer’s paradox that the band must seem ordinary and extraordinary simultaneously. The band wears suits which are commonly worn by everyday people at work and casually. The performance also keeps to the paradox as the performance piece shows the band as talented musicians, and so makes the artist-audience relationship inaccessible, which then inspires the viewer to try to regain this relationship through continued consumption. This is enhanced by the use of a red curtain positioned behind the band throughout their performance, this brings out the glamourous connotations of their performance, depicting the band as extraordinary, and unattainable, whilst exaggerating their talent. This glamour conforms to the cult of youth and beauty, therefore heightening their status, further distancing themselves from a relationship with the audience. This makes the audience want to buy the product to establish a more personal relationship with the band, to show something about their personality to make themselves seem unique, original and meaningful as the audience might find the song.

Really only one age group is represented in this particular video. However it is the ethnicity that is conveyed differently. The Indian tribe are conveyed as savage people who sacrifice animals to their god in one way, but are also depicted as care free through the boy’s smile when he holds up the sheep’s head. This is a stereotypical view of this ethnicity, and so the crusaders see it this way, they act on this and kill them, reasoning it to be for God. The angel is represented as a negative being, whilst still maintaining most signifiers that connote the angel to be good. This is done by showing the angel (or idealisation) in a cold disposition and being the cause for all the conflict throughout the world, as shown when the angel gives Joan of Arc the sword, only to be burnt at the stake later on. This creates a negative depiction of the angel, and by association, religion. This creates a challenging ideological discourse on the stereotypical view that religion embodies all that is good and purity, and is the one true motivation and aspiration. This instead shows this ideology to be null as it only succeeds in creating destruction and conflict within humankind, due to flaws in the human condition and its intolerance of oppositional values. The band here makes a statement on the naivety of a perfect ideal and self-sacrifice provided by religion throughout our history. This is conveyed more meaningfully as children as they represent pure and innocent forms. These forms are then corrupted by conflict motivated by the angel or religion and its myth of true heroism.

INSTITUTION / AUDIENCE

This text would be consumed at both a focused viewing mode and ambiently. This is due to slower editing, historical historical significance and complexity of the narrative. However, parts may be viewed ambiently, for example the performance sequences would be viewed ambiently as narrative is no longer present and editing is faster paced. Whilst aesthetically pleasing shots are used frequently, without complex signifiers, which can be viewed ambiently without difficulty. Music channels this video would be shown on may be such channels as ‘The Hits’ or ‘MTV’ while staying away from the more R&B channels. This piece is aimed at alternative music stations due to its genre that strays from such genres as rap, due to its oppositional values on wealth and success. The record label would promote the video by advertising the complexity of the messages in the text to create an enigmatic aura attracting consumers that enjoy this genre of entertainment. This video would be promoted as art to bring in the correct demographic, which intentionally, is also a main aspect within the alternative music demographic. This creates an intellectual ‘puzzle’ for audiences to solve, and becomes a talking piece (social currency) due to its cryptic meaning, which further promotes the track.

GCT - Product Analysis

The Shins – Australia

I have chosen to deconstruct the song ‘Australia’ by the band ‘The Shins’ for my product analysis. I have chosen this video because we are creating our own music video for ‘The Shins’ and as this is an existing video for the band by deconstructing it I will have a greater understanding of what the artist is trying to convey in their music videos. This will form part of my research to help and inform me when creating my own music video.

The video is mainly narrative based but is a narrative of a concept, therefore making it have both aspects of narrative and conceptual ideas. Moreover throughout the whole video there is no performance, this says a lot about the band as it shows that they are not all about their image and showing off their star persona and skill with instruments but more about the meaning behind their songs and conveying their songs message. By using Goodwin’s framework for identifying key features in music videos it is apparent that this video follows the stereotypically forms and conventions of the genre. For example, because there is no performance based sections of the video making it entirely narrative and conceptual this complies with the typical conventions of the indie genre where it is very rare to see performance based aspects but more conceptual ideas. Another genre characteristic that this video shows is having narrative fuzz. The video almost seems random in some places but this is just to address the fact that the target audience are focused viewers and need cleaver, innovative new content to stay entertained and create consumer satisfaction, again this reinforces the ideas in Goodwin’s theory. Another key feature which is apparent and complies with Goodwin’s theory is the fact that there are strong relationships between the lyrics and the video. An example of this is when the lyrics “Born to gaze into night skies” are sung; at this point it shows the sky from a low angle. This is a clearly illustrative way in which the video uses the lyrics but also puts the consumer in the video with a POV shot and therefore draws in the consumer forming a stronger relationship with that consumer. Overall the video is predominantly illustrative of the lyrics and helps the consumer gain an understanding of the concept and meaning which the artist is trying to portray. More of Goodwin’s key features of a music video are shown by the many close-up’s used in the video. These close-ups are used to show the cutting of balloons, the artist’s faces and many other things, this is another convention of the indie genre and characteristic of a music video. There is also a frequent and strong reference to the notion of looking with the video. One of the artists who seem to be the leader of the pack uses binoculars during the narrative. Repeated meat shots of these binoculars are shown and this reinforces the notion of looking, again reinforcing Goodwin’s theories. The song does present some challenging ideas and concepts. One of these ideas is inside the lyrics, one line is sung which says "android's conundrum", the meaning of this is to live but never be alive, and this connotes the idea that by living a normal everyday life you are not truly ‘alive’ and therefore creates an ideological discourse. This ideological discourse is conventional of an indie band’s rebellious attitude and therefore lets there consumers and fans relate to them which forms a deeper relationship between the band and consumer, this also forms a para-social relationship as the band does not know much about the consumer, but is divulging information about themselves and their beliefs. The video can be referred to as post-modern, this is due to it blurring the boundaries between music video, advertisement, art (With its unique costume and visual styles of the orange colour theme) and promotion as the band are shown in the video which all adds to their meta-narrative, therefore the video could be considered as post-modern.

Many visual techniques are used in the video to convey certain ideas and shape the consumers view of the band and concepts within the video. One of these techniques used is the type of shot and angle at which the artists are shown. The use of a MLS (medium long shot) of the band members in first person mode of address introduces the artists to the consumer and because of the use of first person mode of address creates a more personal and intimate relationship between the band and consumer which leads to a greater consumer satisfaction. Whilst it does this it also shows the band from a lower angle which connotes to the viewer they have a greater status. This helps the band be present but also absent simultaneously which complies with Dyer’s critical framework on stars. Also the use of a tracking in shot draws the viewer in closer to the scene. There is also the use of editing to connote the passing of time in the video, this visual technique is used a few times throughout the video but one of these examples is when long shot of the truck moving right to left is shown, this long shot is situated between two medium close-ups shots and this difference in shot size commutates the passing of time. Reinforcing Goodwin’s theory, close ups were used repeatedly in the video showing something that was important to the narrative, they were repeated much like a ‘meat shot’ to convey to the viewer importance of aspects of the narrative. Certain camera techniques were used to connote the relationship between the members of the band, this was done by showing a medium close up of one character and then showing a reaction medium close up shot of the other character. The shot would repeat several times to show the reactions and actions of the characters and this also keeps the viewer interested by increasing the cutting rate. The only times low angles are shown is when the band is separated and one member is on his own. He is shown through a low angle which would suggest that the band are only strong when together and that they are a unit, conveying to the consumer there strength and relationship.

The video represents the different social groups and the artist in certain way which the band wants to convey to the consumer. Firstly the band are shown as rebellious though the narrative as they are sneaking into a car lot and stealing balloons. This ties in with the conventions of the indie genre as rebellion is a common convention, and also ties in with the expectations of the consumer, also helping to relate to the consumers who are likely to rebellious themselves. On the other hand the use of the balloons and the fact that the band is dressed in bright orange suits suggests that they are very childlike and young. This connotes innocence and naivety which could be seen as ideological discourse due to ‘ignorance not being innocents’ as in the end of the video they have still ‘stolen’ from another person. The band are represented as youthful so that they can relate to their target audience who are likely to be young themselves and help boost sales. Two social groups that are shown in the video are the artists themselves and the security guards. The security guards are considerably older than the artists and our dressed in darker and considerably more boring clothes. This represents the normal working man as ‘boring’ and ‘old’ which creates ideological discourse by generalising this social group and portraying to the consumer an unfair image of the working man. On the other hand the band are represented as youthful through the very colourful clothing they are wearing and they way they move in an energetic way. This suggests to the consumer that the band are significantly different from the ‘normal man’ and therefore retain youthfulness, making them more attractive to the audience which eventually helps sell their product.

The main consumption of this video would be through the internet and viral marketing, this is because ‘The Shins’ target a very niche audience and the social demographic that are their fans would predominantly use the internet to watch music videos. Music channels would also be used to deliver the video to consumers, channels such as MTV would be used, MTV is a good channel to target the target audience though because the social demographic that watches MTV is the same as ‘The Shins’ fans. The video would target a group of focused viewers and try to keep their attention and not let them switch between channels, the video’s narrative is designed to have narrative fuzz and therefore hold the consumers attention.

GCT - Audience Research Survey

Cameron and I have composed a questionnaire as part of our audience research. We will use the results to find out what consumers want from our music video and to help us when making decisions about the music video.

Here is a link to the survey:
Click Here to take survey

GCT - Technical Shot Analysis Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHTSxw6zN1E

Artist: The Shins
Track: Australia

As the music video has an asynchronous narrative, the opening shot serves the purpose of being establishing shot as well as showing the ending of the narrative. This shot is a long shot and therefore clearly an establishing shot as conventionally establishing shots have a larger shot size. The ultra low angle used works well in the establishing shot because it disorientates the consumer leading to a narrative fuzz which makes the consumer want to find out more and therefore grabs their interest. I Should look in to using this technique of creating a narrative fuzz when making my own music video, because our genre’s audience consists of mainly focused viewers and therefore it is essential to capture their attention. The band is also introduced through a series of secondary establishing shots, A medium long shot of the band members in first person mode of address is shown, this introduces the artist to the viewer and because of the sot size and use of first person mode of address creates a more personal and intimate relationship between the band and viewer which gives the viewer more consumer satisfaction. When the band are shown through first person mode of address a slow tracking in is used to draw the viewer in closer to the scene. Throughout the music video more lower key establishing shots are used frequently to establish a new location of the passing of time. For example, when the truck arrives at the car park a long shot of the car park is shown to establish the new location, this is also apparent when the car sales men are introduced and when the truck arrives at a field where another long shot is shown to establish that location. There is also a long shot used of the truck travelling along from the right of the screen to the left, this long shot is sandwiched between two medium close-ups and this difference in shot size commutates the passing of time. Many Jump cuts were also present to convey the passing of time as the whole narrative is condensed into the four minute of the song.

Close ups were used a lot in the music video and always showed something that was important to the narrative, they were repeated much like a ‘meat shot’ to convey to the viewer that what was shown in that shot was important to the narrative. For example when the balloons were being cut from the cars, multiple close ups of the scissors cutting the string were shown to connote the removal of all the balloons. From this I have learnt that when making our own music video we can use multiple close ups to reinforce ideas which are important to the narrative.

The video used certain camera techniques to create a relationship between two of the characters without the use of spoken words. This was done by showing a medium close up of one character and then showing a reaction medium close up shot of the other character. This technique would be very useful when trying to show the relationship between two characters in our own music video.

In the video the only times low angles are used are when the band are shown all together driving a long in the truck. This connotes that not only is the truck large but the band have authority and that we, the audience should look up to them. However sometimes the band are shown form a high angle but this is only when one member is on his own and used to connote the fact that he is staying close to the ground and hiding from the car salesmen.

At the end of the music video as the tempo of the music decreases so does the cutting rate, this clear connection between the cutting rate of the video and the tempo of the song makes the video more interesting for the consumer as it splits it up into different sections. The slowing in cutting rate also conveys the message that the track is finishing and therefore when the track finishes it is left on a smooth transition.

CW - Technical Shot Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkITsv3Nk6M

The video took place at a school play, and so not many establishing shots could be used for location, and had to be assumed due to the opening when the curtain opened.

Nearly all shots of the band were either MS or MCU, this gave a more intimate understanding of the way the band looks to the viewer, and so I should take this into account when filming my video.

A lot of LS were used to help establish what period and setting in the story the play was in. This will be useful when establishing location in our video as we plan on changing the location regularly and frequently, e.g. performance to narrative.

CU was used to help depict an object or person as more important or vital to the narrative, this will be distinctly useful when creating my own video for 'Split Needles' as it creates a slight enigma as to why this item may be important and therefore sparks interest in the audience.

Tracking shots were used to bring the viewer closer into the scene, and could be used to give a greater understanding of the structure of the setting to the viewer. This could be useful when filming in a complex scene, and can negotiate to each scene with greater ease without the jarring effect of jump cutting. It can also be used to show things as more significant if tracked into.

Jump cutting was the only transition between shots. This created a slight jarring effect, but cut to the beat, so it gives visualisation of the beat of the music, which is exactly what George and I must take into account when editing footage for our video.

A mask was used half way through the video. This was useful as it gave a voyeuristic aspect to the video, which draws the audience in further due to the feeling of safety it provides.

High and low angles were used during the video. However this changed fairly frequently in depiction of the band, low angles were used mostly when showing the band as a whole or one member, but occaisionally a band member would have a slight high angle. This shows the band as authorititive as the audience looks up to them, but then corresponds with Dyer's paradox that the star must seem extraordinary and ordinary simultaneously, as high angle was used to give the impression as them not being as important. Something that George and I must be very careful about.

Overall this technical shot analysis has been very helpful in helping me negotiate the style of camera shot, shot size and type of editing congruent with this style of music, and will rtake this research into careful consideration when constructing my own video.

CW - Location Proposal

Forest:
Possible uses for this location would be to provide a bright setting, to have the performance section in. It would also be a strange place to have a performance scene in, and so would interest the viewer. For example we could have a guitarist sitting in a tree. Many of The Shins videos are set in, for some part a forest, and so would be in keeping with the visual motif.

Streets:
Here we were planning to use a section where a crowd is sped up around our main character. We were planning on using London for this section, as business men in suits would be walking around, which gives the effect that we want.

House:
For this location George and I were planning on using the kitchen, saturated to give an old fashioned idyllic scene, and also for our main character to get up and get dressed in the morning.
And for some parts, the performance section.

Green screen:
We may use this to place our character in strange locations or situations, e.g. to give the appearance of standing on the ceiling. We could also use this to saturate his surroundings, or to more easily do a sped up scene, or any time altering pieces, e.g. rewinding time.

We may add additional locations later on, when ideas strike us to further enhance our concept of our video. This is most likely to be for our performance shots, as George and I would like to place our performers in a variety of strange places to strike the viewer's interest.

GCT - Brighton 'Reccie'

This week Cameron and I went on a trip to Brighton for a shot ‘reccie’, we also used this opportunity as practise to familiarise ourselves with the camera equipment, practice our time management skills and practise our shot framing and composition. We both feel that we have benefited from the trip greatly and both feel we have learnt new skills. We also formed many new ideas for our music video whist on the trip.

One of the first ideas that we came up with was when we saw some light shrubbery growing from a wall, if you looked at it a certain way it would look like it was actually the ground. We came up with the idea that you could have someone leaning against the wall and if the camera was positioned correctly it would look as if they were lying down, then if you tracked the camera out it would become apparent that they were actually leaning against the wall. Below are some photographs of this idea:

As you can see here, it looks as if Cameron is lying down.

Once the camera tracks out it is apparent he is just leaning against a wall.

Another idea which we formed whilst on the Brighton ‘Reccie’ was to have the camera positioned inside a hole, this would give an interesting angled shot and because of things in the foreground add to good composition. Here is an example of the idea below:



We also had an idea which we could not test out because it would have invalidated our risk assessment. We found a area of stone slightly off a pier which waves were crashing against, we believed it would have a made a very interesting shot in a music video to have someone on the stone singing whilst waves crashed around them. Unfortunately because we did not state this shot on our risk assessment we could not shoot it. I did however take some photographs as reference to the idea when we come to plan our music video which are shown below:



The Trip was also a good opportunity to find new locations so here are some of the locations which we found and believed would be useful when making our music video.



Brighton Reccie Video:



Video Evaluation:

From filming on our shot reccie to Brighton, Cameron and I have learnt some key skills for when it comes round to shooting our real music video. By making mistakes in this shoot we can learn from it and ensure that we don’t repeat these mistakes in our music video. The first mistake that we made was to have the tripod screw done up to tightly, this meant that when panning it was quite stiff to move and lead to a jerky panning shot instead of a smooth one which we were aiming for. This is apparent in almost all of our panning shots, including our 360 pan. The next mistake we made was that we didn’t pay too much attention to the spirit levels on our tripod. Because of this a lot of our shots look as if they are tilted to one side, you can see this in our medium long shot which pans across the beach. Next time round we are going to make sure that the spirit levels on the tripod are set in the middle at zero degrees. One shot which we felt we had mastered was the POV Handi-cam shot, we are very happy with the outcome of this shot and feel that we do not need to change anything if we use it when we film our music video. Another skill that we need to improve on is zooming on the camera, the zoom is very sensitive and therefore hard to control, we both need to practice using the zoom before filming our music video. One shot where you can see how we struggle to use the zoom feature successfully is in the first, first person mode of address shot where Cameron walks down the street. Here we zoom out very quickly before stopping and zooming out again. This is also apparent in the last experimental shot. Another shot which we feel we had successfully captured was the second first person mode of address shot, here we strapped the tripod to Cameron’s chest so that it would always be locked onto his face whilst he walked around, we will definitely consider using this shot in our music video. Although we believe the time lapse shot works successfully we both see room for improvement. Because we had positioned the camera in such a way that people were walking towards it and also across it, it made the people walking across move very quickly and the people walking towards move not so quickly. If we were taking the shot again we would find a location where people would only walk in one direction, either towards the camera or across the camera, but not both.