Videos, Then Music Videos

Just posting again to let you know how the editing process is going. The truth is that I think that it is currently going very well and that I am rapidly getting to the end of the song with alot of footage left over. The only problem is that I don't wish to get to the end of the song to then realise that I haven't completed the story that is supossed to be hidden amogst the timelapse's and backwards footage as this would give the video no direction. However on the otherside of things I don't wish to neglect the lipsyncing to fit the story in either, so getting these to things tp balance out I think is going to be a challenge.

There's Good News, Then There's Bad News

Basicly to cut it short I have started editing succsessfully on Final Cut which is cool because im allready doing more than I was in I- Movie allthough it has taken me a little time to get this far.

The bad news is that while editing I have discoverd that due to the complex nature of my music video and because I have filmed some shots allready backwards tht I did infact shoot the stair scene back to front. I know this baffles you as much as it baffles me. Buf what it boils down to is me needing to re-shoot some stuff. Luckily there is a school training day on Friday so I can film then.

RichMix Media Expedition

As you may or or may not be aware of on Thursday we continued our exploration of deepest darkest Bethnal Green and eventually found the tomb of Richmix. Well to tell the truth it was more of a cinema than a tomb, but ofcourse a little poetic lisence is allways welcome.

Whilst searching for various nuggets, not of gold, but infomation on the music promo industry we encounterd many dangers and boobytraps including a collapsing cinema chair. Eventually however as time passed on we discoverd Corin Hardy, the director of such videos as the Prodegy's "Warrior Dance" and Palo Nutini's "Pencil for my Lead." He told us many great pieces of infomation on how budgets etc have a huge part to play in making a music promo, we also learnt how to improve our own promo's. We then managed to escape Richmix by jumping onto a tube train which was being chased by a giant bolder down the tunnel.

This is proberbly the most comon type of promontional poster for a female artiste whereby the she has been photgraphed scantaly clothed in an obscure pose. This creates a feeling of sexual desire for any male passers by/ fans who prehaps aren't so interested in the music as the teenage girls but more in the performer herself. This ofcourse works well in the mainstream but there are also female artistes of a different genres that dont tend to play off of this selling point.

Florance and the Machine is such an artiste wherby instead of playing off of her looks she has a much more creative apporach. As you can see from the poster below the poster simply shows of the artistic, experimental style of her act, playing off the hand made authenticity of her music. The riped cardboard look of the poster is a good visual metaphor as it shows the rough and ready approach that she has with her music and audince.



The poster below is proberbly the most uncommon of all styles as it relates directly to the film to which the artiste performed the soundtrack. Either that or the artist, Jon Connor has used the intertextuality of the Terminator films to create this poster. I particually like how they have used the same typography and font as in the films.

Promo Poster Power

Another important part of an advertising campaign in the music industry is the use of promotional postaers. These can be put almost anywhere from bus shelters at the side of the road, A4 size to be put up in windows or magazines or buyable posters for people to put up in bedrooms etc.

Wherever they are put up they are a valuable resource when promoting the artiste or album and so must put across the demographic of the artist so that fans or passers-by begin to take notice. The last thing you want when promoting a band is for nobody to take any notice.

Improved Digipack

Due to a lasrge number of people editing at the moment I have decided to come back to my digipack and make some slight changes. As my music video is not only about the lead singer, Noah's past and the whole video is about looking backwards as well as going physically backwards I thought it would be good to reference this more in the album cover. So I have re-opened the photoshop file and rearanged the letters slightly so that there is more refence to the theme of the past.

Here is the new and improved digipack.

The Edit :D

Sry I havent posted for a couple of days I have been really busy putting bits and pices together. The good news is that it is now December but other than that I now also have all the footage I need and the edit is now underway. The only thing is that it might take me a little longer to edit than usual as I hope to use Final Cut Pro rather than the the basic timeline of I - Movie

Sad Sad News D':

Stupidly I reound the tape at some point during the the first Saturday when we were filming and so as a cociquence have deleted the beginning and ending of the music video. Don't say anything I wish to punish myself without your critisism included.

Thankfully Conor has agreed to come back on Sunday so that we can refilm the beginning and end, but atleast it doesnt matter what the wheather is like to a certain extent as all the footage I overwrote was filmed inside.

Film Friday like normal Fridays but with Filming, Wind, Rain and other general problems located when using a mechanism that records video.

That is the secon time that I have used the title Film Friday on blogspot but never before has film friday been so hectic. Due to it being a teacher training day, my sister who has the second lead roll in the music video had planned to go to the cinema which meant that I lost her till the afternoon from 10 O'Clock. Lucily managed to do some filming before she went. Then Conor who is the lead roll in the video couldn't staart until the afternoon. What a palava. So the truth is it was more like a Film Afternoon than a Friday. Anyway with that aside we did manage to film everything that I wanted which is a good thing as the abttery died as we literally finnished. Graet timing. So all that is left now is to edit out the wind nosi and hope that there is no water droplets on the lense. Curse you wheather!!!

Take 2

Once again we have started to film but have had to stop once again due to weather, again :( Im hoping that it will improve so that we can get out and finish later. Stay tuned and hope for the best.

The Weather

Seamed to be most unlucky yesterday trying to film the outside scenes for the music video. "The worst storm of the year" had decided to hit the southeast coast and there was nothing I could do to prepare for the onslaught of wind annd rain. We did try to film during a brief moment in the morning but had head back due to ear ache and heavy rain. Once this had cleared up we went back out again to film a time-lapse by taking shelter underneath a bus stop. Hopfully I will be able to use this footage and it wont look to out of place. CURSE YOU WEATHER!!!

The Pitch

Pitched my ideas to the class yesterday which was a little nerve racking but I must have done ok as they appeard to like it, those that could get their heads around how it's gong to be made that is. I'm glad that I did present my ideas to the class because if there was any problems or anything that didn't quite ad up they would have spotted it and then I could have though of a solution.

Filming Week 1

I know this post is a little late as I filmed on Saturday and that it is now Tuesday but I suppose that it is better late than never. I also think that you would like to know how the first day of shooting went. To be honest I think that it went very well considering we had to factor in the fact that my leading actor had to leave to baby-sit later in the day,I had to attened a job interview at one o'clock and that we had a family friend come and visit. This meant that we had to e very careful with the time that we had so I decided that we should try and finnish the inside scenes with what little time we had. This saved us having to film outside n two seperate days which could have caused some continuety issues. I plan to film agin this weekend and hopefully get all the footage I need, if not I will need to go back out the week after and get the last few shots.

Shooting Shedule

Here is my shooting schedule which I hope to film this weekend, if not the weekend after.

Digipack

To the photos for my digipack today which is good, I have also edited it in photoshop and will upload it to the blog as soon as I can. :)



Finally managed to upload the digipack to the blog which is good. The top pictures are upsidedown because when I fold the top pictures over they will form part of back of the digipack.

Animatic

Here is the animatic for my music video.




Note that although the animatic was cut to the song it doesn't represent exactly how the music video will look and is only a rough guide.

Noah & The Arc Moodboard

Digipack Design

Here is my planned design for my digipack. It includes a space for the CD, booklet for photos and lyrics plus a sleeve for an additional DVD.

The Creating of the Musical Artiste

• Name - Noah and the Arc: Noah is lead singer, the Arc is the band.
• Genre - Britpop
• Brief Description - Rough and ready the band is origernaly from Manchester but now lives in the suberbs around London. Age, 21

Noah and the Arc are origernally from Manchester allthough they moved to London in search of a record deal but had to move to the suberbs due the high rent. Noah, who is now a christian after a life of crime has found his place in music and now spends most of his time with the band. Noah joined the band after attempting to steal from the Arcs record shop in Manchester, although they were formally known as instramental band; Thinkcentre.

The bands musical influences include such bands as Oasis, The Stone Roses and also Blur. The band has only just joined the record label and so hope that their new single, 'You Showed Me' will give them enough publicity to go on tour from late November right through to the new year.

Their discography includes the album which You Showed Me originates from plus a few experimental songs posted on thier Myspace page.

Despite Noah's press coverage in the Manchester local news the band has very little publicity other than a small following in Manchester and in London from where they have played local pubs and clubs.

Intended semiosis includes promoting the band as being all about the music. The main place of doing this would be their web page on Myspace. But a website specifically for the band is under construction.

The bands unique selling point is their faith in god, allthough they aren't heavy preachers they promote respect and well being which are all part of their beliefs. PR stunts planned included a live performance in the street outside the record label's shop as well as drive around London with a loud speaker promoting upcomming gigs and events. This will allow the bands music to be heard for free creating an interst so that people will want to come to the gigs and pay to see the band.

• Target Audience: The main target audience of the band is 15-30 yearolds. They are generaly gentle people and enjoy quite songs as well as the faster paced louder numbers. They too, like the band are putting forward well being and kindness but in a way that doesn't involve reciting the Bible. Merchandising includes T- Shirts, keyrings and also badges. CD's are at reduced price to encourage the fans to come to gigs. This will extend the bands image as being all about the music as it would show that they would rather fans listened to them live rather than listen to a audioedited CD; plus making them more money as concert tickets are more expensive than CD prices and fans would feel obliged to see the band in concert.
• Other promotianal art styles include a digipack which will hold the CD plus other memorabilia includeing photos of the band and lyrics to the songs plus a booklet explaining the bands background and insperation.

Micro Analysis - Music Video.

This is Bittersweet Symphoney by The Verve. Like my song it has a slow rythmical pace making it perfect for a video that invloves alot of walking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3m4e45bTo

The video begins with the musical introduction playing straight away, probably due to it being so long so the camera has enough time to set the scene, zooming away from Richard Ashcroft’s (lead singer of The Verve) feet until he stands in the centre of a high-street. As the rhythm of the song picks up he begins to walk towards the camera, the camera which appears to be handheld tracks backwards away from Ashcroft maintaining an unsteady wide shot. What is particularly interesting is how the public dominate the pavement don’t appear to gather around the camera but simply continue their lives around Ashcroft as he cuts his path straight down the middle, regardless of people or trolley-bags. This is extremely evident when Ashcroft barges between two women in conversation causing them to both look back over their shoulders in surprise and anger.

The camera does change angle to be behind the singer every so often to allow the audience to view what is in front of Ashcroft but often cuts back to tracking backwards to allow for more close-ups of the singers face, the camera having jumped between wide, mid and close up shots as the audience grow more towards liking the star. My two favourite camera angles from the video are when the camera is extremely low to the floor tracking Ashcroft’s feet through the crowd as this gives a real sense of how crowded the pavement is. My second favourite shot from the video is the point of view angle, particularly when he steps over the woman’s car and she gets out to scream in his face, especially as you see her get out the car from over his shoulder and run up to him before you cut to the POV shot and she lets loose her anger.

There isn’t a great deal to be said about the editing in the video as it appears to be mostly one long take although it is broken down by the other shots such as close ups and wide, POV and close up shots which I mentioned earlier by the ordinary simple cut.

Intertextual Refrancing

Intertextual Refrancing is when you use the idea of another medium in your work such as a film clip or a TV program. Here is a good example from a Blur video entitled "Music is my Radar"



Obveously you have to be careful not to copy the other medium otherwise it's possible you could be accused of copyright,

Star Image

The Act...

-My act is a solo artist although they do have an acompaning band.

-Name- Noah, and the arc

-Backstory- Came second in the X- Factor compertition after a life of singing in local pubs and clubs. Is a very serious person and has been known to self harm and take recreational drugs despite being a practasing christian.

-Ideology- Hopes to redeem himself in gods eyes by starting fresh. He hopes to escape from the life he used to lead and continue on the straight and narrow.

-Record Label- Has signed with Rough Trade due to the success the label had with Pulp and is hoping to continue the with the same style of music.

Plan of Action

14/09 - Choose song and create an image for artist/ band.

29/09 - Textual analysis & adding elemants for meaning.

28/09 - Moodboards and Glogsters & lern how to pitch ideas.

05/09 - Pitches

12/09 - Storyboarding

19/09 - Create Animatic

Welcome Back

Well, I have offically started year 13, hence the huge gap between the posts known as the summer holidays. Can't wait to get my teeth into my music video, I have a rough idea what I want to do possibly with some animation but I need to plan it out further so I know exactly what im doing.

Gorillaz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq7Ovshz1UI


The Gorillaz were revolutionary back when they hit the underground music scene early in the millennium year but it had taken them two years to get this point, targeting what they believed to be worthy of writing a song over.

What appeared to create the success of the Gorillaz were how they were animators first and song writers second, which allowed them to manufacture unbelievable music videos as well as awesome songs. Tapping into new media technology allowed the public to see the band on computers in their own homes and so the bands popularity spread through word of mouth; helped by the air of mystery surrounding the band as nobody really knew who were controlling the animated toons.

The particular video that I am writing about is titled, Gorillaz 19-2000 and is one of the first songs that the band made. My reasons for choosing the video are perhaps a little simple but then that could also represent what the video is about as it makes little or no sense.

The animation throughout the video is superb which in itself is a great marketing tool as viewer quickly becomes engrossed in the bizarre storyline of the video, quickly establishing a sense of relationship with the toons and a feeling that they wish to find out more about the band. Which can be done at the Gorillaz website which allows the user to tour the bands headquarters, inspecting not only their individual bedrooms, kitchen and loo, but also play games. This interactive feature alone adds another dimension to the animated world, allowing fans almost 24 hour attention, something that a human band simply can’t achieve.

There is a separate, serious website which holds information on the bands next alums and singles plus also the dates of their next tour. It is difficult to believe that an animated band is able to tour on the stage, but due to many of the bands songs featuring formed groups such as D12 the audience wont be disappointed by viewing not only animated sequences/ movies but also witnessing other famous bands perform at the same time. Perhaps it is fair to say that the Gorillaz are not just a band but are instead a project which shows of a multiple of different media while trying to make comments on the worlds situation.

Rough Trade

Rough Trade Records started in 1978 after growing out of the Rough Trade Record shop in Ladbroke Grove, west London which specialised in unusual and left-wing music. Seen as a mecca for punks it quickly became a success as it stood against the ideals of the major labels by sharing money equally with bands and also paying a single wage to all employees despite gender or job title.

However the lack of professionalism which had helped the company grow soon became and problem as bands decided to leave the indie label after becoming successful as they weren’t tied into a contract. In 1982 the record shop had to be shut due financial problems and sold to three members of staff, who still own the shop to this day.

In 1983 Rough Trade Records hired The Smiths and decided to put the band into a three album contract, becoming more like a music machine the company grew larger and began to spread across Europe. With this however came the board of middle mangers that dismissed the equal pay scheme, but still the record label continued to grow until in 1991 the machine grew too big and administrators were brought in. The assets, including the name were sold off and the company ceased trading.

Geoff Travis had other ideas and so began to manage the band, Pulp (with Jeanette Lee) who was signed to Island Records. In 1995 Pulp got into No. 2 in the charts and continued with a string of successes which lead to the pair rebuilding the Rough Trade label and signing the American band, The Strokes in 2000. Recently they have also signed Duffy who after 4 years of development has finally awarded the company its first No.1 chart song.

The Rollin' Stones

The Rollin’ Stones began in 1962 and despite numerous deaths, drugs and disaster they appear to still be going strong. It is hardly surprising that a band that has stood the test of time has had to face all these problems, but how did they manage to survive in “the industry” for so long, what is their secret?

It would appear that hard work pretty much had a lot to do with the bands first major break, whereby they were nearly performing every night and so it wasn’t long before they became lucky and became signed with Dick Rowe, who had previously decided not to sign the Beatles.

The band were an unusual bunch as Ian Stewart is dropped from the line-up as he looks “too normal” The fist song goes into the UK charts at No. 12 which rockets the band into the corporate spot light. After working with Kellogg’s rice crispies the band become a household name and play at the Royal Albert Hall.



Using the money the band made from their previous concerts the group travelled to America, which although wasn’t a successes on their first visit due to the unusual appearance and a tendency to be the complete opposite to the Beatles the band began to build up a reputation of trouble and destruction which finds its way back to the UK.

Due to the bands reputation the band become less of a household name but become heroes with the youth, I believe it is this along with the bands ability to churn out numerous songs that has caused a generation of people to grow up with the band. The fans growing up with music as the band members also grow older has allowed the groups music to adjust to an older pace, allowing an audience of 17 year-olds to still be listening to the music at the age of 60, and it is for this reason that I believe that the band has passed the test of time.

The Full Moon

Here I have discoverd a short video with a Vincent Moon interveiw, despite what you may think he is saying first of all it does eventuly become recognisable anglais, proberbly not helped by the poor quality of the video but it definatly makes some intresting listening.

Vincent Moon who is an independant film maker from Paris (France) is renowned for his style of directing music videos which involves using warm colours along side yellow and black. He has worked for such bands/artists as R.E.M and also Arcade Fire.

Here I have included the R.E.M. video so you too can see the effect of Moon's colours and the effect of movement that he creates when directing/shooting a music video. I particuly like how he has mixed the footage of the traffic with the words which keep continuity through the sequence. Below I the video I have also found a short clip of Vincent Moon (in the green parkar) shooting the acoustic version of the same song in a wine shop.

The Prodigy- Warrior's Dance

Amazing stop animation by The Prodigy. Take a look




My reasons for liking this piece is not only that its a great video but I also like the technique which requires alot of patience, somthing I have tried to shy away from in the past due to the amount of time it take to succesfully pull off an animation.

The Offspring - (Animation)

My reasons for liking this video are simply because it looks so different, the technology seams pretty straightforward but to execute the differerences between the animated and realife "worlds" is a particuly hard thing too achieve. This is particuly well done in my favourite part of the video where he walks down the street before revealing his face because you are unsure what to expect although suspect something due to the occasonal close up on the toons face.

Oasis

I like this video as it is a simplistic idea finnished well, but I cant help but feel that it doesnt promote Osis mainly due to too not showing the band often enough, howver this could be the general idea as the "sound" of Oasis has been around for a while now and prehaps doesnt need any more promoting. But then I thought to myself, thats a really silly idea, why waste money on a video when you do need one and your band is at full momentum? Prehaps the days of Oasis are becomming numberd or they just enjoy the procces of adding moving image too their music.

Hi

It is with great confusion that I greet you to the Video Ross blog. I should have put the introduction first but decided to let Glogster do that part, so all I really have to do is tell you that this is a blog for A2 Media Studies and then I can get back to watching music videos and drinking tea Great :)