Storyboarding

After looking at our lyrics and noting down initial ideas regarding some of the themes we thought were present in the lyrics, we began to storyboard our ideas. This involved a lot of discussion, listening to the track several times and looking at the lyrics to be sure that our ideas were solid and definite. With our storyboards, we tried to keep them in as order as they could be (although they may be uploaded to Blogger in the incorrect order), but also used similar colours that we would use within our Music Video so that we had an idea of the sort of Mise en Scene we would eventually go for.

Second Shooting Schedule

Here is a copy of our second shooting schedule. We have revised the dates that could not be done previously, and changed the dates accordingly. Creating a shooting schedule has allowed our group to be more organized and has improved our planning skills for our project - it has allowed us to be more efficient with our time.

"Tarantula" Lyrics

The main lyrical themes throughout "Tarantula" are quite simple - the song is made only of one verse and one chorus, each time the lyrics being the same content.

Whilst reading the lyrics and after realizing how aggressive and upfront our genre was, we thought that it might be effective almost to shock our audience. In the end, some of our initial ideas included shocking shots of things such as drug taking and alcohol abuse, to fit in with lyrics such as "Go-a your funeral". Although we are not illustrating the lyrics and taking them literally, we have decided to amplify the lyrics, and give them a new (although admittedly dark) meaning.

[Chorus]
The tarantula,
Time for the massive come sing ya
Blad tarantula
Don't play with my style I might sting ya
Blad tarantula
You want me inject me bacteria
And if ya body goin’ stiff
And your spine goin’ numb
Now come fi get some...

Massive! Time to fix you up something here right now!

[Verse]
Shotter, hitter, serial killer
Go-a your funeral and all drink out your liquor
When you are bury we a-stand next to the vicar
Fling on some dirt and make your bury a little quicker
Shouldn’t test the youth them in the Tommy Hilfiger
Hug up ya mama, say sorry to ya poppa
All-a get number for ya little sister
It true we cold like alaska, freezer

Shooting Schedule One

Here is the first draft of our shooting schedule, in which many of the filming days fell through due to actors/people we'd asked not being able to make it. One part of this essentially was the band not being able to make dates that we had usually thought about filming, and as we thought the band segments were a pivotal part of our Music Video, we decided to change the dates of filming to accommodate when the musicians would be free.

After discussion, we will put up another shooting schedule which will be the revised version and hopefully one that will be followed.

Filming a Live Band

As part of our Music Video, I thought it would be a good idea to have segments of a live band performing the song, as the instrumentation in the genre (such as electronic instruments i.e. guitars and synthesisers) I felt called for some aspects of live performance. As part of planning for this segment, I decided to watch a clip of the song "Tarantula" being performed live by Pendulum, so I could note down ideas to carry forward when we eventually film the live music segment of our Music Video:

• At the beginning of the song, there are long shots of the entire band, used almost to introduce the act and each member,
• There are lots of sweeping shots and other interesting cinematography such as crane shots and extreme close ups to keep the audience's interest,
• Cutaways are present usually showing aggression and attitude of the lead singer,
• There is some extremely fast cutting and some clips are sped up, to add excitement to the live performance, something I feel would be effective in the editing stage,
• There are many close ups of the instruments as they are being played, something I feel would look good within the style and genre of our Music Video.

Here is the clip I took this inspiration from, taken from an official DVD released by the artist:

Table of Specific Genre

Similar to the table that we produced before analyzing Music Videos of various genres, we had to produce a table analyzing three videos from our chosen genre of Electronic Rock/Drum n Bass. Similar to before, we analyzed such aspects as cinematography, costume, props and locations. This helped us more with the planning as it allowed us to see how the genre we had chosen was interpreted by other directors on video.

Pictures From Our Chosen Genre

As part of the research stage (and entering the planning stage), we decided to look at different images from bands from our chosen genre. These included artists such as "Pendulum" and "The Prodigy". Looking at these images were useful, as it allowed our group to decide how artists from our chosen genre were represented on film and in images. I came up with the following points regarding the images we had collected:

- Usually in dark clothing, normally in Black

- Look of attitude on their faces – quite angry, quite aggressive

- Live performance looks colourful and extravagant

- Some element of make-up in their image

- Costume is usually informal – denim, jeans etc.

- Opportunities for live performance aspects

- Usually made up of ‘strong’ looking males, tough/aggressive image

- Many of the band photos are close up, adding to the aggressive sort of image - it's quite intimidating to the audience.

Tarantula Song

Here is the song, uploaded to YouTube by a YouTube user:



The song has many sections to it, an interestingly "laid back" introduction with overtones of the Reggae style, which led us to choose the song. Later on in the song, a heavy drum beat enters which I feel we could do some interesting editing/cinematography against, such as cutting to the beat and so forth.

Sadly, no official Music Video was made for the song - however, I feel this works to our advantage as a group because it means all of our ideas can be original - we have no creative barriers (such as copying ideas from the official video), though we have watched other videos by the artist and got ideas of how the genre is represented on screen.

Our Chosen Genre

Originally, our group was planning to make a video for a Reggae track, but after discussion, we realised that we may not be able to successfully create a Reggae Video - it would need exotic locations, lots of extras and so on. We did not want to go down the route of making a music video for a predictable genre such as Indie or RnB, so we decided to venutre into Electronic Rock/Drum and Bass. It was with this decision that we decided to make a video for Pendulum's "Tarantula".

Low Budget Videos - "X-Ray" by The Macabees

Similar to the previous music video, "X-Ray" by The Macabees is another good example of an effective low budget Music Video.

• Simple use of effects (such as colour hue changes, split screens and boxes),
• There are only a few shot types used throughout the video,
• Simple, accessible locations are used,
• Costume is kept simple and usually to a minimum,
• Mise en Scene is made up of cheap materials,
• The video is made up of one simple but effective ideas - there is one main theme throughout.

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

(embedding has been disabled by the YouTube user)

Low Budget Videos - "Jenny Again" by Tunng

There are many aspects of this Music Video that makes it an effective low budget music video.

• The video contains more of a narrative,
• Very soft focus editing, almost hiding something - makes it quite emotional,
• Mainly use of simple camera techniques such as close ups,
• Not cut to the beat which is different and goes with the slow feel of the song,
• Lots of bright colours and natural light are used,
• There is a change of sound halfway through, making use of a basic but effective audio effect.

I feel that this video shows how simple technology and techniques can be used effectively to create a good music video - the lack of extravagant effects and shots make the video easy to understand and to watch.

Sugar Water Powerpoint Presentation

Here is a PowerPoint which I produced analyzing the Music Video for Cibomatto's "Sugar Water". The PowerPoint detailed how different editing theories were used within the Music Video, and other details including genre and demographic. We presented our PowerPoint presentations to some other people in the class, and here is some of the feedback we received:

WWW:

• Presentation related and applied to genre of the song,
• Correct use and detailed content about the theories,
• Good use of Media Language,
• Good mention of Audience and Demographic,
• Right context in terms of Godwin's Theories.

EBI:

• Expand on some bullet points and go into further detail,
• Expand ideas on Mise en Scene,
• Some more specific details on target audience needed.

Cibomatto - Sugar Water

As part of our research into the ideas and conventions of Montage and Continuity editing, we were given a music video to analyse, ours being "Sugar Water" by the Japanese group "Cibomatto".

Continuity:

• Simple shots used - one continuous shot throughout the video,
• Follows each character through a narrative,
• Chronological (in time order),
• Only three real locations used (not extravagant).

Montage:

• Extravagant use of effects (reverse, split screen etc.),
• Characters are reversed in split screen (Abstract),
• Mirrored split screen on the right hand side,
• Messages for the audience (for example the "You Killed Me" sign),
• One shot but a variety of angles are used.

There are some screenshots of the video above, which show the idea of the split screen, the idea of the message showing to the audience and also the simplicity of cinematography - the mid shot being used pretty much throughout the whole video.

Montage Editing...

Continuity Editing...

Godwin's Theories

Godwin came up with theories to do with lyrics in a song and how they can be shown on tape. There are three main theories:

Illustration: The visual narrative tells the story of the lyrics in the literal meaning/in a literal way.

Amplification: The visual narrative does not contradict the lyrics, but creates new levels of meaning (in a metaphorical way). In amplification, the theme of the lyrics is present in the visuals.

Disjuncture: The visual narrative goes against or does not match the lyrics in the song.

Bordwell and Thompson - 4 Categories of Film Editing

There are four methods of editing that can make a Music Video interesting to the audience, or any other type of video in fact.

GRAPHIC:
Draws upon Mise en Scene and Cinematography

Graphic Match - Linking shots by graphic similarities,
Graphic Continuity - Centre of interest constant throughout the cuts,
Graphic Discontinuity - juxtaposition of centre of interest.

RHYTHMIC:
Considers the duration of each shot (long or short?)

SPATIAL:
Is to do with the Mise en Scene and how it is established - how is it placed within the frame?

TEMPORAL:
To do with time - is it like a film? Is it chronological?

Genre Analysis

After collecting the results of my Questionnaire, I analysed 3 music videos from 3 different genres, those being the most popular from the results I had found. These were "Rock", "Indie" and "Soundtrack". Within these three genres, I looked at aspects such as the locations used, costumes, props, effects and editing techniques used, which allowed me to see how videos for different genres were constructed. Here are the videos I analysed in the order as shown on the sheet.

Kings of Leon - Notion (embedding disabled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oayv_JWCpY

Coldplay - Yellow (embedding disabled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAME8GDRTfI&feature=PlayList&p=FDC7E7E03039788B&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=10

Evaluation of Questionnaire and Results

WWW:

• Wide range of questions asked to find out more about the demographic
• Clear questions, with a mixture of open and closed questions
• Talked well about Music in general, finding out the target audience's tastes and so on
• Clear percentages in summary and good visual representation of results

EBI:

• Better if I collected more of a sample, for example a greater number of people of different demographics
• Some more questions focussing on the elements of Music Videos
• Ask a wider range of ages and demographics for varied results

Questionnaire Results

Here are the results of my Questionnaires (in percentages). The results shown although interesting, may not help a lot with the development of the music video, and this could be due to many reasons. Primarily, I feel that I did not reach a large enough demographic, I could have solved this by asking a greater number of people with wider music tastes, although through people taking part in my questionnaire, I was able to gain a wider understanding of what people would expect in a Music Video, which included dancing, a variety of cinematography, the Band/artist performing and some sort of narrative.

Music Video Questionaire

As part of our Market Research, we had to create a Questionnaire to give to a number of people so they could fill out their ideas and views on what a Music Video should be. In my questionnaire, I included basic demographic questions such as age and gender, but also asked people about their favourite genres of music, and asked some of the things that they would expect to see within a music video.

Advanced Portfolio - Music Video

For our A2 project, we have to create a promotional package for a new band, including making their music video. This blog will detail the processes of Research, Planning, Construction and Evaluation.