I have used many codes and conventions of a music video in order to have the typical music video feel, and giving it a more professional look. I used both technical and symbolic features in order to construct meaning and make the narrative more understandable to the audience. Therefore, my music instantly fits a common style of music video which is catergorised as a mixture (both performance and narrative based). I would liked to have involved a cameo appearance from the band member, however, I didn't feel there was an appropriate time for him to appear. Plus, it may confuse the audience to what is actually going on as he would be playing himself in the performance, but someone completely different in the narrative, and it may confuse things as to if the performance is part of the narrative.
The reasons for these codes and conventions are that they are a firm set of rules. They can slowly adapt, but shouldn't be challenged on too great a level, this is because they allow the audience to become familiar with a certain genre as they become more accustomed to seeing certain things. It also ensures that a certain text works well and fits into it's genre.
We did originally plan to have the actor within the narrative to also be the performer in the video, however, due to his lack of knowledge of the song musically and lyrically we decided to have him only involved in the narrative. Therefore, I decided that I would do the performance part for I knew the lyrics of the song as well as the chords to play the song on guitar.
We did originally plan to have the actor within the narrative to also be the performer in the video, however, due to his lack of knowledge of the song musically and lyrically we decided to have him only involved in the narrative. Therefore, I decided that I would do the performance part for I knew the lyrics of the song as well as the chords to play the song on guitar.
I tried to use a wide range of camera angles for the performance side of the piece, however, this was more so to give it more of a lively feel rather than a single static shot, this helps make the video seem shorter and far more enjoyable. The narrative shots needed to seem personal in the opening. So to do this I wanted the recording to seem very old fashioned, I got this idea from Lana Del Rey's music video for Summer Time sadness, where all the 'home video' shots have no light filter like the old fashioned cameras causing the lens to flare up. I knew I really wanted this effect/look in my video, but doing it through an editing program made it look cheap and fake. Therefore, I searched the internet until I found what it was called, and I found that the technique is called 'Lens Whacking'.
To generate this effect without the right camera, I recorded the footage without the lens attached to the camera. I held the lens in my free hand just so it sits next to the eye of the camera rather than attached to it, with this I was able to manipulate the amount of light that entered the camera by covering or opening the gap between the lens and the camera. As well as this, I was able to get some very unique focuses by altering the angle of which I held the the lens to the camera. Additionally, I removed all colour from the shots, this was a way to reflect the mood of the song as the song is a fairly sad and depressing song, as well as this, black and white footage is very common among indie genre of music videos.
The mise-en-scene for the music video was very important, I knew I wanted the performance element to be in a rundown location, but I didn't quite know where. Then I had the idea of filming in the garage of my own house, inside there was cardboard boxes and old furniture, it really fit in well with the juxtaposed narrative. The inside of the garage looked as though someone had been packing up and they're about to move out. We even placed a cardboard box in the background which read 'Home Furniture'. This fit so perfectly with the song and the narrative because it's about heartache and break up. We had other shots relating to the actor moving out, such as a tracking closeup of a bicycle, as well as a tracking closeup of some car tyres, both relating to travel. There is also a closeup shot of an amplifier to, just to help enhance the musical of the video.The costume of the actors also had some importance, we wanted the performer and the female role to be dressed almost funeral like as a way to represent the death of the characters love together. For this I, as the performer, wore a smart shirt and tie combination. This has great contrast against the location of the shot, this is a smart well dressed man stuck in a dirty and messy garage. The female actor we had wearing a formal white dress, very reminiscent of a wedding, these are the points she is happy in the relationship. As soon as the relationship turns sour, her whole outfit changes to a casual baggy jumper and leggings, from this we are trying to show that she is just fed up.
The advertisement featured many conventions of a music advertisement. Firstly the title of the artist, album, and an image of the artist are all very common in the music industry advertising, not only for my chosen genre, but for everything. This is a way for the audience to know and recognise this artist, helps make them more memorable. One of the main and most important features of an advertisement is for what it is actually advertising, in the case the release date of the album. I specifically chose this date because it is exactly 100 days from the end of the year, and as well as this, English playwright Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel and is indicted for manslaughter. This again is a small relation to the idea of death of love. However, Jonson wrote a play called The Magnetic Lady, which is about a fair lady living in a male dominant world, with struggle for not having a husband to lean on to. The very fact that Lady Loadstone is guided constantly by the advice of Master Compass, who is described by Parson Palate as 'the perfect instrument your Lady should sail by' indicates her dependence upon her male friend's guidance, as a widow in a male dominated society. This is a big link to the end of the narrative part of the video, in which it is suggested that the leading female actress is wanting to take the leading male back (in relationship terms). The available on iTunes just gives it a more realistic and modern feel to it.
The digipak I also had to feature many conventions of an album cover. These included things such as;
The ancillary texts needed to match with the main product in order for them to all feel together. However, the digipak was an album and not a single, therefore I felt I could stray away from the similarities with each other as long as it's extremely clear that they're all by the same artist.
For this I made a connection with each. The music video relates to the poster through (besides the obvious artist name) having a photo of the performer from the music video in the advertisement poster. This way way the audience could relate both the advertisement and the video product together. As well as this, the poster has a very classy feel to it, which relates to the formality of shirt and tie in the music video. The poster relates to the digipak predominantly through imagery. Both share the album name of One Night in Paris, but I thought having shared imagery would create a greater perception. Fortunately, I had recently had a weekend trip to France, thus the name One Night In Paris, and this gave me the opportunity to take photos for my work that many other students would not have. So both the advertisement and album contain strong and recognisable imagery of France. And finally, for the album to relate to the video was pretty simple, this was shared through the title of the song All I Want, but to make this more clear, I edited a sticker/splash stating that the album contains bonus content featuring 'The Making of All I Want Music Video'; this is a clear indication that they're a shared product. As well as this, the song is a romance song, and where else is more romantic than Paris? To go along with the idea, I slapped a picture of the Moulin Rouge which is very sexual. I removed colour from the CD's and added a bit of grain to make them look more vintage. This is very common with the indie genre, it's very stereotypical of the genre to enjoy vintage.
What have your learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback allowed me to note down my mistakes and begin to change them. Having insight straight from a viewer who is unaware for the ideas you're trying to portray really aids in making the final product better. Audience feedback also providing a lot of the influence for the music video; through a questionnaire on my blog, I discovered that people are more interested in a narrative music video for the indie genre, also these voters were in my age group which really allowed me to relate to them in hopes of providing a very entertaining music video.
One of the main critical opinions from the audience feedback was the fact that some of the shots in the music video are slightly out of sync or maybe last for too long or for too little.
One of the main critical opinions from the audience feedback was the fact that some of the shots in the music video are slightly out of sync or maybe last for too long or for too little.
As I was working in a group, we had to try and distribute the work load evenly. The work was approximately distributed like this:
Planning: 75% Me / 25% Mark
Filming: 10% Me / 90% Mark
Direction: 25% Me / 75% Mark
Editing: 50% Me / 50% Mark
To film our music video, we used my own camera which is the Canon EOS 550D with an 18-55mm lens, as well as these, we used a Nikon 18-70mm lens with infinite focus depth in order to create the Lens Whacking technique discussed earlier. The Canon camera allowed is to record in Full HD for more cinematic and professional quality.
Throughout the opening of the task, all the work other than the video (digipak covers and advertisement poster) were individual tasks. But the whole concept of the video was a shared plan. Firstly, the use of internet hugely impacted the work, using websites such as Blogspot allowed us to have our planning online constantly, meaning we could be granted access from pretty much anywhere. YouTube also helped in allowing us to distribute the video in order to gain some sort of audience feedback. Having the video online, allowed me to share it on social networking sites in order to receive feedback from not only college peers, but also friends and family. The use of a mobile phones camera also let me record video interviews with people who had watched the music video in order in get an insight on whether or not the video works or not.
Of course, the computer programs like Adobe Photoshop CS6 came in very handy when creating the music video poster and digipak. Photoshop allows me to create a very professional looking digipak. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to be able to express my ideas thoroughly. For example, I was able to create the exact look for the front cover without encountering any problems whatsoever. I had to make sure that my title piece was not too over powering that it takes away from the photo, additionally, to prevent this I edited the colours of the photo to be a bit more vibrant. Other uses of Photoshop was that I edited the colour levels of my photographs to make them appear more vibrant and vivid and therefore more aesthetically pleasing. Also I removed some colours from other photos in order to create a vintage feel to it.
Of course, the computer programs like Adobe Photoshop CS6 came in very handy when creating the music video poster and digipak. Photoshop allows me to create a very professional looking digipak. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to be able to express my ideas thoroughly. For example, I was able to create the exact look for the front cover without encountering any problems whatsoever. I had to make sure that my title piece was not too over powering that it takes away from the photo, additionally, to prevent this I edited the colours of the photo to be a bit more vibrant. Other uses of Photoshop was that I edited the colour levels of my photographs to make them appear more vibrant and vivid and therefore more aesthetically pleasing. Also I removed some colours from other photos in order to create a vintage feel to it.
I was also familiar with a lot of the key concepts of a digipak cover, for I have studied this in previous years as well as being a album consumer myself; this greatly helped with actually thinking of the
concept of the digipak cover. For example, a barcode is always on the back, and the additional sticker on the front cover that advertises one of the singles on the album. I even distributed the song titles across the back of the cover without it taking up too much space and looking messy.
To create the actual music video, I used a program called Adobe After Effects for the editing of the actual music video. The choice for the program was because it allowed me to edit to a definite 1/29th of a second for precise accuracy. Unfortunately, the choice of a slow song was something different to a lot of others, unfortunately it is really hard to have a slow song music and edit in time or in sync with the actual music because it's not a constant 4/4 beat. After Effects also allowed me to export the video as the highest quality possible. The only down side to this was YouTube. YouTube decreased the video quality greatly and it also knocked the music out of sync slightly. Within AE, many of the clips had to be cut down and shortened, and AE made this very simple with just a click and drag on the clips timeline. Unlike many other editing software, AE allows the timeline to have many layers, the allows me to overlap many recorded clips.
To create the actual music video, I used a program called Adobe After Effects for the editing of the actual music video. The choice for the program was because it allowed me to edit to a definite 1/29th of a second for precise accuracy. Unfortunately, the choice of a slow song was something different to a lot of others, unfortunately it is really hard to have a slow song music and edit in time or in sync with the actual music because it's not a constant 4/4 beat. After Effects also allowed me to export the video as the highest quality possible. The only down side to this was YouTube. YouTube decreased the video quality greatly and it also knocked the music out of sync slightly. Within AE, many of the clips had to be cut down and shortened, and AE made this very simple with just a click and drag on the clips timeline. Unlike many other editing software, AE allows the timeline to have many layers, the allows me to overlap many recorded clips.
Throughout the course, my IT skills were improved greatly as
I continued to learn how to create online projects such as Blogger and Prezi.
With the use of Prezi, it helped me realise how an artistic point can be put
across to an audience though the use of digital images and animations, rather
than just a plain text on the screen. I also realised that user interaction
helps someone actually pay attention to your work.
