Today my media class filmed a year 10 music band performing a rock track that they had previously recorded. Primarily we began by using 4 cameras, one camera was static and filming the whole band from the front, a second manoeuvred around the band capturing interesting shots. The third camera was a dolly shot using a camera person sitting on a wheelchair, using various speeds and angles. The fourth camera filmed the drummer and some shots of the band from behind. I was in charge of the fourth camera, capturing as many creative shots of the drummer as possible. We did this as practice for when we will have to record a band's performance for our coursework.
This experience was helpful as it allowed me to watch and experience recording a live band, and use what I've seen for my own music video. It showed us that while we are filming, we must always be creative and spontaneous. The lessons I learned such as in the first take the band's performance is generally less energetic and won't look as good as later takes., due to the nervousness of the band, and to always remain positive so the band remain positive, will be very helpful when recording our band. I also learned not to overwhelm the band with cameras at first, once they're relaxed after a few shots, you can add more cameras, e.g. we had 6-7 cameras on the 5th take.
If my music video is just to involve one singer, then the recording will be much simpler, but my group is still undecided as to whether we will do a band or a solo artist. Either way, the experience was helpful.
Wednesday 17 October 2012
Friday 12 October 2012
Music video website research - 12th October
What are the key features of a successful website?
- Contact information
- Videos and Pictures
- Easy to navigate - lots of different sections
- Simple Layout
- Consistent Housestyle
- Appropriate colours to suit band/genre
- Interactive
- Understandable
- Promotional tool
- Mechandise
Psychographics - Gathers psychological information. IAO (Intrests, Attitude and Opinions)
Resigned - Rely on law and order
Struggler - May be associated with poverty, poor education and gang culture
Aspirer - Focus on their image, want to appear rich, attractive
Succeder - People who have status or control, generally competitive.
Explorer - Enjoys the extremes, likes taking risks and seeks adrenaline experiences
Reformer - Makes decisions based on their values
Convergence - When a companies advertisment can be found on another website e.g. Sky - Katy Perry.
- Contact information
- Videos and Pictures
- Easy to navigate - lots of different sections
- Simple Layout
- Consistent Housestyle
- Appropriate colours to suit band/genre
- Interactive
- Understandable
- Promotional tool
- Mechandise
Psychographics - Gathers psychological information. IAO (Intrests, Attitude and Opinions)
Resigned - Rely on law and order
Struggler - May be associated with poverty, poor education and gang culture
Aspirer - Focus on their image, want to appear rich, attractive
Succeder - People who have status or control, generally competitive.
Explorer - Enjoys the extremes, likes taking risks and seeks adrenaline experiences
Reformer - Makes decisions based on their values
Convergence - When a companies advertisment can be found on another website e.g. Sky - Katy Perry.
Music Industry - Modestep Website Deconstruction
I have chosen to analyse the official website of the band Modestep since this is the dubstep band whose song we will be using when we create our groups music video.
Black and yellow are the main primary colours used. The yellow carries on from Modesteps logo, which is predominately yellow. The use of bright colours such as yellow is typical of the Dubstep genre, which uses bright, stand out colours.
Simple, sophisticated layout, Fans are able to easily navigate around the website, especially with the use of a navigation bar.
This button allow the audience to register with the website in order to recieve more information, keeping them up to date with thier activites due to the emails sent to them from the site, and have more interaction with the site. The forum button also allows fans of the band to share their thoughts and feelings about the band and provides good publicity to the band.
The advertisment of their new single is large and stands out on the left side of the homepage, drawing the viewers attention to it. It allows fans to download the single.
An interesting feature of the website is the use of fan points. By registering to the website, fans are able to collect points and claim rewards, one of them being meeting the band themselves.
The website also has convergence because you can use your Twitter account to sign up for the Modestep website and to keep up to date with the band.
Live news feed helps the audience keep up to date with the band.
As you can see the website is written in a typical font; Arial size 12.This is an effective way of using the font to familiarise with the target audience as this is a standard font on all computers therefore meaning that they are easier to read.
Wednesday 10 October 2012
Types and methods of Research - 9/10/12
Questionnaires and survey
Internet
Mata-Analysis
Interviews
Books
Documentaries
Word of Mouth
Focus group
Museums
Primary - Getting the data yourself
Secondary - Getting the data from other places e.g. internet. Someone else's data.
For our music video research, we will use a mixture of primary and secondary research. For our primary research, we will use questionnaires and surveys, and focus groups. We found them to be effective methods for our last project so we will continue to use them. These methods are good as they allow us to get results fairly quickly which we know are reliable. Our secondary research will consist mainly of the Internet and meta analysis. These will be used to back our primary research and to help build on any ideas we have or too even help inspire ideas.
Internet
Mata-Analysis
Interviews
Books
Documentaries
Word of Mouth
Focus group
Museums
Primary - Getting the data yourself
Secondary - Getting the data from other places e.g. internet. Someone else's data.
For our music video research, we will use a mixture of primary and secondary research. For our primary research, we will use questionnaires and surveys, and focus groups. We found them to be effective methods for our last project so we will continue to use them. These methods are good as they allow us to get results fairly quickly which we know are reliable. Our secondary research will consist mainly of the Internet and meta analysis. These will be used to back our primary research and to help build on any ideas we have or too even help inspire ideas.
Research Task - Focus Group
As part of my music video research, I will be conducting a focus group with Connor. The primary aim of this focus group is to gather ideas for our music video.
Focus group questions -
- Have you ever heard dubstep? if so do you like it?
- Whats the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Dubstep?
After showing them our Dubstep track -
- What do you expect to see in the music video of this song?
After showing them two different dubstep music videos -
- What aspects of the music video did you like/worked well
- What aspects of the music video didn't you like/work well
(The two music videos our focus group will analyse, they were chosen as they are contrasting music videos, each containing examples of typical dubstep conventions e.g. slow motion and elements that challenge the convention e.g old people and strippers)
- The group will meet for a maximum of 30 minutes.
- The group will contain no more than 10 and no fewer than 4 members.
- Focus group is conducted with two evaluators...one to ask the questions and the other to record actual conversation.
- It will be recorded, with permission from each of the participants.
- After the session, the footage will be uploaded. We will note down any key themes and interesting quotes from the focus groups responses.
- The notes made from this focus group will be constantly referred to when making the music video.
Focus group questions -
- Have you ever heard dubstep? if so do you like it?
- Whats the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Dubstep?
After showing them our Dubstep track -
- What do you expect to see in the music video of this song?
After showing them two different dubstep music videos -
- What aspects of the music video did you like/worked well
- What aspects of the music video didn't you like/work well
(The two music videos our focus group will analyse, they were chosen as they are contrasting music videos, each containing examples of typical dubstep conventions e.g. slow motion and elements that challenge the convention e.g old people and strippers)
Monday 8 October 2012
Lip Synching - Sleeping with the light on (Busted)
(Insert video here)
For the lip synching task, I decided I would perform sleeping with the light on by Busted. This was because it is a song I am very familiar with and there were many things I could do as incidental shots during the song. We done this task so we can familiarise ourselves with the task of making the audio synch up with the video, and well as realising the pressure we will be placing on the performer in our music video. Overall I believe it was a success. I was able to successfully produce a music video, synching the audio with the video fairly quickly. I am confident that when the time comes to edit our actual music video, I will be able to edit successfully.
For the lip synching task, I decided I would perform sleeping with the light on by Busted. This was because it is a song I am very familiar with and there were many things I could do as incidental shots during the song. We done this task so we can familiarise ourselves with the task of making the audio synch up with the video, and well as realising the pressure we will be placing on the performer in our music video. Overall I believe it was a success. I was able to successfully produce a music video, synching the audio with the video fairly quickly. I am confident that when the time comes to edit our actual music video, I will be able to edit successfully.
Wednesday 3 October 2012
Richard Dyer Star Theory
Richard Dyer Star Theory
In lesson we looked at Richard Dyer's Star Theory. This helped me to understand how artists are constructed and represented, using stuff such as Font and merchandise. It allows them to build up an image that people will associate with them (Eminem - the end E being backwards) and is easily recognisable when seen by people. From this lesson, i have learned I have to be consistent when making an image for my band. Stuff such as colour and font must be consistent throughout different medias such as album cover and Webpage design.
In lesson we looked at Richard Dyer's Star Theory. This helped me to understand how artists are constructed and represented, using stuff such as Font and merchandise. It allows them to build up an image that people will associate with them (Eminem - the end E being backwards) and is easily recognisable when seen by people. From this lesson, i have learned I have to be consistent when making an image for my band. Stuff such as colour and font must be consistent throughout different medias such as album cover and Webpage design.
Mood Board
Mood Board
I created this mood board with images I think the lyrics of our chosen song connotates. For me, there seems to be a sense of loss and frustration. As if someone he loved has died and he is upset as well as angry. He uses the line 'now that you've gone, to the stars'. Ive interpreted that as someone dying, so loneliness is a theme within the mood board. He also used the line "Now that the storm, has finally come". Storms are usually fierce and related to anger, so I believe his sadness has turn to anger. With this in mind, for the performance part of our piece, I'd have our artist be quite bold in his actions and a bit angry when it comes to the chorus, as that is when I believe is the anger part of the song.
I created this mood board with images I think the lyrics of our chosen song connotates. For me, there seems to be a sense of loss and frustration. As if someone he loved has died and he is upset as well as angry. He uses the line 'now that you've gone, to the stars'. Ive interpreted that as someone dying, so loneliness is a theme within the mood board. He also used the line "Now that the storm, has finally come". Storms are usually fierce and related to anger, so I believe his sadness has turn to anger. With this in mind, for the performance part of our piece, I'd have our artist be quite bold in his actions and a bit angry when it comes to the chorus, as that is when I believe is the anger part of the song.
Our chosen music track.
Now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally comeSo now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally come
When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray...
Now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally come
So now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally comeSo now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally comeSo now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally come
When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray...
So now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally comeSo now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally come
Now that you've gone...
When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray...
Now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally come
So now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally comeSo now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally comeSo now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally come
When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray,You're a million miles away.When these colors fade to gray...
So now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally comeSo now that you've gone to the starsNow that the storm has finally come
Now that you've gone...
Monday 1 October 2012
Music Video Analysis: Foo Fighters - Best of you
Best of you is a song about resistance ("were you born to resist"). The refusal to be taken advantage of by something thats bigger than you, or someone your in love with. You can see from the music video that life doesn't only offer pain/broken hearts, but beautiful memories and life events as well. Do you give into the pain, or do you resist?
Band plays on top of an abandoned hospital - resistance to death.
Video plays clips throughout the video of happy and sad things:
- Children playing alone or with eachother
- Car Crash
- A lion pouncing on its prey
- Snarling wolf
- Crash test dummies getting crushed
- Men and women kissing
These shots help to add representation to the video that it is based around nature, youth, love and death.
Close ups of lead singer and microphone used throughout video. Shows singer as very confronting towards audience as he asks the question.
Filming done with handheld cameras - adds to the effect that the viewer is closer to the band.
Band are all wearing black as if in mourning - Director of the videos wife died a couple of months before the beginning of production of this music video.
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