ABSENCE: 31/09/13 - 4/10/12

During the week commencing on the 31st of September, I will be away on a Geography field trip in Swanage, Dorset. This unfortunately will lead to me missing several lessons which means on my return I will be behind on the coursework schedule. Luckily, Sam will be able to finish off the final quarter of the storyboard, photograph each page and upload them onto the blog in the form of an Anamatic which is our main concern at the moment as the storyboard is definitive to the success of the final video as it ensures each shot is considered carefully so the video flows. Sam will also be able to finalise the Risk Assessment we have been carrying out and also upload this to the blog. Furthermore, the lesson structure of the week I will be away means that I will miss five lessons and therefore five hours of work time. I plan to make this time up by increasingly working from home on my return from Swanage and to also attend after school sessions. The work I will need to be complete when I return is:

• Initial Digipak Front Cover Designs 
• Analysis of three digipaks
• Location for the final music video
• Entire Digipak Draft 

THE EVERYTHING Twitter Feed

(click picture to view the Twitter feed)

A Twitter profile has been created (by myself and my partner throughout this A2 project, Sam) which will be used to promote and publicise THE EVERYTHING and give information about the band across to an audience of followers who choose to follow the band if they are interested to see what is to come. We followed similar artists to THE EVERYTHING and also followed those who followed us so that we could interact with the fans to achieve a wider audience. We will be using this Twitter profile to give updates of pre-production progress to the music video, digipaks and album covers. 

THE EVERYTHING: FINAL LOGO

This is the logo I created for the band, The Everything. We have followed the conventions we found in our research of band logos but adapted them to incorporate a two colour colour scheme of cyan and black which is simple yet effective and will stand out compared to all the black and white band logos. these colours will be rememberable and the audience will relate these colours to the band. Although the logo is not complex, it flows and works well with the "THE" incorporated within the "EVERYTHING".

Band Logo Moodboard

This is a mood board we have created for inspiration to aid us in creating our final band logo for THE EVERYTHING. We have noticed the conventions throughout these logos of bands in our genre of having a very simple design with a font that stands out but is also clear. With the logos we have found, they are mostly black and white with the exception of The Vaccines. We liked the two colours of The Vaccines logo and we would like to adapt the concept for our logo.

Potential Equipment

CAMERA
The camera that we use will a very important factor in determining the success of the video as if a poor quality camera is used, it will alter the whole look of the video and as we are not producing a video where the camera is purposely of poor quality, the camera must be good to ensure that the final product looks professional and realistic compared to pre-existing music videos from our chosen genre.

The camera we are looking at using for the video is the Nikon D5100 which is a relatively expensive digital SLR which shoots in full HD (up to 1080p) and up to 30 frames per second. After some research into the camera, we have discovered that the camera produces good quality video which would be perfect for our music video. This good quality will ensure that the video we produce will look similar to those made by real bands from our chosen genre. An example of the video quality from the Nikon D5100 is shown below.

During the research into the Nikon D5100, we realised that to optimise the video quality results from the camera we would have to use the correct settings and set up the camera correctly in different lighting situations. We then searched the internet on how to optimise the video quality and have found many hints and tips from websites that will help us to get the best results out of the camera we use.

TRIPOD
To film the final music video will shall be using a tripod for the vast majority of the shots to ensure that the shots remain consistent and have a stable look for a professional effect throughout. The only instance where this could change would be if we chose to add handheld shots for an effect. We will be using the tripods provided by the college as they are of the standard that we require and will be easily accessible.

LIGHTING

As we are not including any indoor shots we may not need any equipment to create lighting for different shots as we will be relying on the weather but if the weather does not compensate then we may use artificial sources of light such as a professional photography studio lighting system. This will make sure the lighting in the shots is how we envisaged it to be to give a consistent video throughout. However, if the weather is as predicted then we will not need to use any artificial lighting which will make the whole process a lot more efficient as moving the lighting around would be a tough job compared to just carrying a small, easily handled camera. 

Final Song Choice: The Black Keys- Lonely Boy

LYRICS

Well I'm so above you

and it's plain to see

but I came to love you anyway...

So you pulled my heart out and I don't mind bleedin'

and the whole time you keep me waiting, waiting, waiting

oh oh oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

I'm a lonely boy, I'm a lonely boy

oh oh oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

Well your mama kept you

but your daddy left you

and I shoulda' done you just the same

but I came to love you, am I going to bleed?

and the whole time you keep me waiting, waiting, waiting

oh oh oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

I'm a lonely boy, I'm a lonely boy

oh oh oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

oh oh oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

I'm a lonely boy, I'm a lonely boy

oh oh oh oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

After a lot of consideration and alteration we have decided to change our song to THE BLACK KEYS – LONELY BOY. We first chose Friendly Fires – Blue Cassette and truly believed this was the correct song to go forward with in order to gain maximum potential marks. However after more consideration we have found that The Black Keys are a better band to go with, this is due to a lot of different factors. Firstly the people we are using in our band will be suitable to the psychical image and vocals of The Black Keys. Along with this we were struggling to find ways we could create narrative elements with Blue Cassette, this is because the lyrics have quite niche targeted ideas, however with Lonely Boy we can emphasise a feeling of isolation easily/creatively for one of the band members. Allowing the visuals to fit with the lyrics in the narrative will make the video more intriguing to watch for the audience, as long as we can keep the shots holding a variety of different angles and sizes so the audience stay involved. 

Band Clothing/Style

These are examples of what the artists in our band could potentially wear throughout the music video. We have chosen these items of clothing as we are attempting to adhere to the Indie/Alternative style in our video so will style our band in the appropriate way. We will try and follow conventions seen in other Indie/Alternative videos with our styling and use quite bland, retro/vintage, clothing that would connote the Indie/Alternative genre. The shirts included in the photo above are of particular importance as this is the main convention we have noticed, through analysing videos of the same and similar genres. The main style would be most likely known as casual with various elements of smart clothing used. Using this style a long with the music will allow the genre of the video to be easily identifiable.

Final Potential Songs for the Music Video

We have narrowed down the songs we could potentially use for our music video to three songs and are now discussing which one of the three we will be using. All of these songs fit in our genre well and are of an appropriate length for us to maximise our time and maintain a high quality throughout the entire video oppose to having an excellent start to a video with a poor standard end. Another concern for us when choosing a song to use was how involved are band could get into the song when performing in the video, so we had to ensure that the band members liked any song we could potentially choose. To overcome this, we discussed our song choice with the band members to see which songs they would prefer and only considered artists that they enjoy and know.

Band Biography: The Everything

Name: The Everything
Style: Indie/Alternative, Alternative Electronic
Influences: The Drums, Passion Pit, SBTRKT, Foals, Disclosure, The XX, The Maccabees
Members: 3 members, All male.

• Vocals and Guitar- lead man, energetic, lively and confident on stage (similar to Yannis Philippakis from Foals, Thom Yorke from Radiohead and Justin Young from The Vaccines)
• Drums and secondary vocals- more confined on stage behind synthesiser, dances and hypes up the crowd (similar to Jack Savidge from Friendly Fires) 
• Bass guitar- energetic and lively on stage (similar to Rupert Jarvis from the Maccabees and Kevin Baird from Two Door Cinema Club)

The roles of the band members in the video will be that the main vocalist/guitarist will take the lead role in both the performance and narrative elements of the video acting as a very charismatic and energetic character. Furthermore, this band member will also be calm in some of the narrative shots, acting naturally when not performing. 

The other two band members will take more of a back seat approach in both aspects of the video compared to the leading member but will have more dominance in the performance shots when they are playing their instruments.  

25 Word Music Video Pitch

Indie/Alternative Genre Mood-board

 

I created this mood-board as a way of presenting the inspiration I have used in choosing the genre of the music video and these artists are were inspiration will be drawn from when creating the music video.

Music Video Pitch

Audience Research

Audience Profile

Hobbies

He will spend most of his time watching music videos created by bands none of his friends of heard of. He will love seeing music videos that are Indie so he can brag to his friends about new music nobody has heard. To add to this he also likes videos, which are a mixture between Performance and Narrative. Along with this he will love going to big festivals like Reading and Leeds so he can get a nice collection of music bands and small gigs with non-mainstream bands that any particular person wouldn’t enjoy going to. He will enjoy going shopping with friends of similar interests to buy vintage clothing and vinyls. He will enjoy using social networking sites, specifically Instagram taking vintage look photos of his recent purchases.

Clothing:

He will usually wear black spray on skinny jeans (or other minimal colours) revealing his ankles or plain socks, sometimes he might even have huf plant life socks on show. He will never wear clothes which show off a brand, instead he would chose to wear expensive clothing brands, which are neat and give off a vintage look. He will wear fully buttoned shirts with the sleeves very high up, and also plain t-shirts, which will also have sleeves, rolled up very high. He will also claim he was the first person to start rolling his sleeves. He will always like to have a watch on, watches which vary from retro/vintage along with tacky bracelets and festival bands from many years ago, to prove a point. He will either show off his new short back and side’s haircut with no blend a tall, a casual messy long look or wear a snapback or vintage beanie. Footwear will consist of authentic vans, creepers and boat shoes, and possibly a pair of Clarks Originals but only for collection. Furthermore he will wear denim jackets, oversized coats and an indie feminine backpack. 

Music:

He will listen to a lot of different genres of music but artists in each genre that he doesn’t believe anyone knows. His primary genres that he loves the most will be alternative/indie music, bands like: Foals, Friendly Fires, MGMT, Metronomy, TDCC, Peace, Vampire Weekend and Miike Snow. He will never illegally download any of his music from websites using torrents but he will buy every song from iTunes, to prove that he loves his music so much.

He will enjoy reading music magazines like NME, which will help fulfil his knowledge on indie/alternative bands, however he will also purchase magazines of different based genres like complex because he also likes this style of music.

This type of audience would be extremely interested in listening to our band because they are new to the indie/alternative genre, therefore they need to be the first to listen and watch the video, so there friends know they were the first to find them. Furthermore the style of music and video will be a mixture of performance and narrative which suits them perfectly.

Genre/Song Decision

Deciding what genre and song to use for the final music video are arguably the most important decisions made in the Research and Planning stage as if the wrong song choice is made, the entirety of the coursework will be of a lower standard than if a fitting, realistic song was chosen. Therefore, as a pair, we thought carefully about these choices.

We always had a vague idea of what genre we were going to do since we applied for the course back when we were Year 11's as we both have similar music tastes. We knew we wanted to do something from the Indie/Alternative generally but as we have discussed this further we found that we wanted to steer slightly away from the heavier rock based Indie/Alternative music and more towards the light rock with potential hints of electronic elements. This would include artists such as Miike Snow, SBTRKT, The Vaccines, Friendly Fires, Passion Pit and Foals. Listening to songs from these artists we soon came across a few that stood out to us as possibilities for potential songs to use. These were:

• Miike Snow- Black and Blue

• Friendly Fires- Hawaiian Air
• Friendly Fires- Blue Cassette 

• Swim Deep- King City

• Vampire Weekend- A Punk

• Foals- Late Night 

• The 1975- Chocolate

• Two Door Cinema Club- Sun

• Alt J- Tesselate 

• Peace- Lovesick

After several days of deliberation, we came to the final decision of choosing Friendly Fires- Blue Cassette. We came to this decision as the song is in our chosen genre, fits what we imagined and pictured in our heads whens discussing initial ideas and also is not too well known which will not restrict us in any way. The song is also an appropriate length to fit the time limit we have. We also believe that the lyrics will be easy to illustrate at times if necessary and that we could also create some relations between lyrics and visuals. 

Music Video Textual Analysis: Frank Ocean- Lost

Lost is from Frank Ocean's first studio album "Channel Orange"and falls into the Alternative R&B/Hip Hop. The genre of this song/album is quite difficult to distinguish but despite this I think this video implements some good features and follows some conventions of the Indie/Alternative genre which is the genre I will be basing my own music video on hence the reason for this analysis.

This song, a long with the rest of the album, has some very deep and subtle meanings behind it. Reading deeper into the lyrics it can be seen that many themes are being explored by Ocean such as his cynicism towards relationships due to his exposure to "adult ideas" whilst growing up. This song also hints at themes of trying to escape the same monotonous destiny as everyone else whilst still carrying on the pimp-hooker relationship characterisation from the song Pyramids.

Although this video may conform to conventions of several different genres, I am going to look specifically at the Indie/Alternative conventions that are conformed to as that my chosen genre. Elements of the Indie/Alternative genre can be seen throughout the video which shows how Ocean's genre is mixed and rather undistinguishable.

The video itself is mainly narrative but also with elements of performance. With the video being disjunctive, there are no relations between lyrics and visuals but the visuals do portray Frank Ocean's persona, mannerisms and gives the audience an insight to what his personality may be like. Coupled with the song, I think this type of video works well as it would be hard for an artist to illustrate the lyrics in a song such as this with some quite deep meanings behind them.

In terms of the relationship between the music and the visuals, the shots change in time with the back beat of the song which makes the disjunctive video seem to fit the audio. Also, as with many music videos, the lip syncing parts of the video connect the music to the visuals and also make the video seem more conjunctive.

Throughout the video there are many close ups of Ocean from differing angles in different scenarios as the video is Ocean and his associates casually exploring a number of different cities. This works well as the video appears very natural and not forces which eliminates the chance of bad actors/acting which can quite obviously ruin a music video. In all of Ocean's videos, the star image motifs would probably be Ocean's distinct dress sense which many of his followers would attempt to replicate. This is a reoccurring feature through many of his videos and is a good way to draw an audience to his videos as they would want to see his clothing throughout the video so they could attempt to copy it.

In reference to the "Notion of Looking" (a theory from Andrew Godwin- 1992), there aren't any clips which show females acting seductively even though some lyrics may have suggested that there may have been some such as "Double D, Big full breast on my baby" but as this video is rather disjunctive there were no visuals to illustrate this lyric.

Overall, this video is disjunctive with no real relevance or reference to the lyrics although there are a few relations between the music and the visuals as previously discussed. As far as effectiveness, I think the disjunctive nature of the video works well with this particular song as the lyrics would be difficult (and maybe slightly inappropriate for some audiences) to illustrate through the visuals of the video.

Music Video Textual Analysis: Foals -Olympic Airways

Olympic Airways is a song from Foal’s debut studio album “Antidotes” and falls into the Indie/Alternative genre. The video for this song is a mix between a performance and a narrative video with elements of both working well together to create a video, which, in my opinion, works well and has given me inspiration for my own final piece.

This song is generally about the theme of escapism. The song name suggests this, as Olympic Airways is a reference to a Greek Air Company, which is Yannis’ (the lead singer) home country. There are also further elements, which illustrate this theme visually throughout the video.

This video follows many conventions found in videos of the same/similar genre such as a natural environment as a background, a performance from the band and elements of mise en scene to reinforce the genre to the audience (clothing, hairstyles, props etc.).

However, the video also defies conventions found in music videos from its genre with the use of some unusual and quirky props that would not be commonly found in other videos such as the child’s tricycle, hula-hoop and mattress. Although these props may have been used for a greater purpose (maybe to symbolise and illustrate certain things to the audience) they go against conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos, as they would not be commonly used within them. Also, the shots of the band smashing up the props defies conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos and is something that would be found more commonly in more heavy Rock videos oppose to Indie Rock genre that Foals fall into.

 Throughout the video there are many simple relationships created between the lyrics and the visuals. For instance, the first line of the song “Suns up, we wait” the sun is out whilst a band member is sat is field and appears to waiting. This immediately shows to the audience that the video is not disjunctive and is relevant to the song and lyrics. Furthermore, throughout the lyric “disappear, disappear, disappear” a band member is falling onto a mattress which could be a metaphorical way of showing to the audience that he is trying to “disappear” which then fits into the lyrics playing over the visual.

 

The camerawork in the video consists of many different shots. There are close ups of the band playing the instruments and of the singer lip syncing which is very typical of this genre and is expected from a performance video. Also incorporated are long shots of the band, which add a new dimension to the video and give the audience a wider angle of perspective. There is a mixture of static and panning shots throughout the video, which is again a convention, found in videos of the Indie/Alternative genre. The shot length in Olympic Airways is generally longer than heavier rock music videos due to the pace of the song and this works well and fits the music.

The video on a whole is an amplification video as the band are metaphorically trying to escape by causing carnage and disarray within a forested area which fits in with the meaning behind the lyrics through a creative interpretation by the director. Therefore, the audience will have to look slightly further into the video to grasp the meaning behind it making it an amplification video oppose to an illustrative video. 

Music Video Textual Analysis: Metronomy- Heatbreaker

This song falls into the ‘Indietronica’ genre and is from Mentronomy’s second album “Nights Out”. The song was also released as a single and is one of Mentronomy’s most well known songs.

Lyrically, the song is about the a male who has previously suffered in a love triangle and the situation is repeating itself (shown by the lyrics “back to the start again”) as the girl, who is already in a relationship with his friend, is trying to flirt with him. The lyrics could be referring the woman involved as a prostitute with the lyrics “friends in the business” and with this knowledge he then warns the other male of this and attempts to console him for his loss.

Typical of its genre, the video follows the convention of a narrative based music video with performance elements such as lip-syncing. As seen throughout many music videos in the ‘Indietronica’ genre, the band do not appear in the video in full and do not perform. The video is illustrative as it illustrates the meaning of the lyrics so the viewer can easily interpret the meaning of the song. Another convention of the ‘Indietronica’ genre is conformed to with the clothing (thin ties) and hairstyles of the actors in the video, as it is quirky and what would be considered ‘cool’ and ‘modern’ which is seen in many other videos of the same genre.  Also, what can both be considered as an old and vintage/retro, the car and tape machine used in the video. These elements conform to the conventions found in music videos of the genre as it fits in with the lifestyle, which would be considered fashionable by followers and fans of the genre.

The story of the video is that a man has had his ‘heat broken’ by a break up with a woman and his friends are trying to console him by taking him on a road-trip to the seaside, zoo and countryside.

The use of mise en scene in the car is clever as it gives the car a quirky feel and gives the video a bit of an interesting indie edge that fits in with the genre of the song and this benefits the video as if it was just a normal car, it would not have the same effect. This mise en scene is created through various colourful props throughout the car.

They travel to what appears to be a deprived old English seaside town, which has past its prime time. The mise en scene in the town presents the town as run down and old fashioned which matches the car used and also the ‘indie’ theme of vintage and retro items and locations, which reoccurs throughout. The men look out of place in this town, as they are young, dressed in full suits and well presented. The town is the complete opposite of this and the two are juxtaposed which could be a hint to the depressed member that he is still young and he has a lot more time to find someone else.  The shot used here is an establishing shot as it establishing the location to the viewing but could also be classed as a long shot. The man who is grieving is stood slightly further apart from the other two, which could connote his sense of loneliness.

This is my favourite shot from the video as they are walking from the car towards the beach.  The camera remains still with the car in a medium shot whilst the men walk away into the distance. The shot works so well because even though the shot is so simple, there is a lot to look at and take in. The blue sky and the clouds, the sea, beach, grass, men and car all combine into the one shot, which is very effective. I think this shot works really well given the scenario of the video and is something I would like to replicate in my final product.

This long shot is so simple yet effective as the other two men walk off, the saddened man remains starting at the sea for a couple of seconds which implies to the viewer that he is deep in thoughts as he takes a few seconds to realise the others have started to walk off. This shows his has a lot on his mind and is an effective way of illustrating the lyrics.