Convention of a Music Video

There are many elements that go into making a music video these include:
Camera Shots: Camera shots are a major element in music videos, of course because it is a video. Music videos usually include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. These shots create emphasis on the artist of the video, the location and the emotions being shown in the video. Close ups are used to show emotions such as love, sadness and anger, but close ups also reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist, this is especially important in our music video as the artists will be miming and we want it to look convincing.
Camera Movement: Camera movement is used in music videos to follow and trace the artist or band throughout the video. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking shots and crane shots. During the filming of our music video we will use a lot of slow pans to show all of the band members.
 Mise-en-scene: Mise en scene is important in music videos as it helps to set the scene of the music video. Props are a key element, for example in a Indie music video instruments and props  such as drums, guitars and microphones are used to show a band in the video. Costume plays a key part in music videos as it can reflect the mood of the video, for example if the artist is wearing all black it can reflect their mood as being sad or depressed. Where as vibrant colours can reflect the artist being happy. However certain artists wear different outfits to suit what they are representing in the video, for example a rapper maybe represented in a music video by wearing a baseball cap and alot of flasy jewllery. Also the type of costume worn by the artist attracts it suited audience, as the audience can relate to the artist as they may wear the same sort of clothing.The setting for music videos sets the scene immediately, many settings used are simple settings where many people can relate to. For example in our music video we have used a derelict building for band shots and a grassy park like area for narrative shots.Editing is used to put the video together. Jump cuts are an editing technique used alot in music videos. This is because jump cuts allow sudden change from one scene to another. Also, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cut to different scenes.
Lighting: Lighting is also effective, some music videos are  black and white which help emphasise a particular mood such as sadness or loss. Some videos use artificial lighting which gives the artist an enhanced look. Sound in music videos is mainly the vocals of the song and the backing music. However some music videos are made into short films meaning there is alot of sound.

Here is an example of a black and white music video showing loss and sadness

Amy Winehouse- Back To Black

Here is an example of a vibrant video showing happiness. This is also an example of  an animated music video

Mika- Lollipop

Here are some conventions of a Indie Rock music video:

• They tend to be black and white
• The artist or band is shown throughout the video
• Extreme close ups and long shots are used quite alot
 • Dark locations such as derelict buildings 
• Some use of special effects sometimes.

 

Here is a example of an Indie Rock Music Video
The Killers- All These Things That I've Done

What is Indie?

'Indie' stands for Independent music. Indie music is a where the artists or band is not signed to any big shared record label. Usually and independent label on their own, so they produce and master their own music. There are different types of Indie music such as :

• Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s.
• Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s
•  Indie dance is a musical genre that mixes rock subgenres with electronic dance music

We will be focusing on Indie rock as that is the genre of the song that will feature in our music video.
Memorable Indie rock bands and artists include :

Blur



The Friendly Fires

Muse





Ancillary Task:drafts

Here are some drafts I have created 3 are hand drawn and 2 have been made using Adobe Illustrator. The theme I was going for while creating these hand drawn drafts was a good and bad side, this relates to the song and music video ass the main character starts off feeling good then goes on to have a sort of mental break down after finding out his girlfriend is cheating on him.

Here is my first attemptat a draft for a potential album cover one side represents good while the other represents bad

Here is a draft for a potential magazine advertisement

Annotated Advertisement draft

Annotated draft for advertisement

Annotated draft for advertisement

Draft of a computerised CD digipak

Computerised draft of CD cover

Progression of Ancillary Task

So far for my ancillary task I have looked at existing album covers and album magazine advertisements and analyzed them. I have now gone on to create drafts for my magazine advertisement and my album cover. Unfortunately I have not been able to scan them onto the computer but they shall be posted in the following days. From my hand drawn drafts I will create computerized drafts and eventually go on to create my final products for my ancillary task.

Current Progression of Music Video

The group is still currently in the process of taking footage for the music video, so far band shots have been taken by Tayo and Nick as me and Antalia were not able to be there. As a group we have looked through some rushes of the band shots taken and started to put things together in post production. In order to keep in time with our planned schedule we have started post production without all the shots.



Here is a 40 second clip to show some of the band shots captured by Nick and Tayo. It shows all of the band mnembers and the singer (Charlie Morgan) singing some of the chorus.

Ancillary Task: Change of Style

The group has had a meeting to talk about the changes that should be made to the style sheet. Looking at the current style of Muse products, we saw that the style reflected time and space. After seeing his we figured that it would be better if we created ancillary products and a promotional package that reflects the current Muse style.We will not be copying their existing products, but we will be taking conventional/ iconic elements from their products (posters, album covers, website) to create product that is represents Muse and the indie genre.


These changes mean that the style sheet needs to be changed. This means choosing a  'colour schemes' will be altered and edited to give 'space like' theme that flows consistently through our media products

Ancillary Task:Magazine Advertisement

Magazine adverts for album releases have become popular as it is a way for the artist to appeal to their audience, also it can appear in more than one magazine thus meaning it is more likely to reach the intended audience. Album release advert are most likely to appear in music magazines for example for the genre of 'Indie' music , an album release advert is likely to appear in music magazines such as 'Q' and 'NME' as this fits the genre of music. However adverts can also appear in other genre magazines that would appeal to it's intended audience.

Here is some analysis of album release advertisements.

 Typical conventions of a music magazine advert are:

• An image,usually from the digipak
• The date the CD is out or released
• Band name
• Album name
•  Reviews e.g. 5 stars
• Available from e.g. HMV, Amazon
• Record label logo
• Tracks featured
• Website
• Slogan/strap line
• Tour date
• Limited Edition
• Offers to download
• Quotes from newspapers and music magazines
• Name at the top of the advert

Through looking at theses magazines advertisements has helped me to understand what conventions I need to include when

creating my own album release advertisements.

As using these conventions has made these advertisement

popular and well known

Ancillary Task: Album cover and Analysis

So for my ancillary task I have decided to do an album cover and a magazine advertisement for the band. In order to have and idea of what my products should look like i have looked at existing album covers and magazine advertisements and analyzed them, from this I have seen what conventions are most used and work well.

Here is some analysis on The Kooks album cover and back cover 'Inside In The Inside Out'

The main colour scheme for this cover is black and white thus making it very simplistic, a simplistic cover is a common convention that is used for album covers. The main picture on the cover features the band although it is not a direct shot of their faces it shows the band members practising. Also the fact the picture is in black and white give the feel that it is looking back at the bands past.

This again is very simplistic as it has not been staged it looks like the band in their natural environment. For the title of the album there is different use of colour as the band name is in black where as the title is in red , it is also a play on words  as it is saying taking a look at the inside of the band from looking outside , this also gives the audience an idea of what the album will be about.

Here is the back cover for the CD it contains :

• The names of the songs on the album 
• Parental advisory to  show that  the content of the CD may not be suitable for a younger audience 
• The band website features so the listener can go onto the website and find out further information about the band. 
• The signature barcode that is featured on the back of all albums.
• The black and white colour scheme is also used on the back cover, showing that it has been kept the same throughout.

Here is another album cover this on is by another indie band called The Wombats with their album ' Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)'

As you can see there is a plain coloured background with an eye catching image in the middle, the plain background helps make the image more eye catching. This again applies to the simplistic cover convention. The logo font for the band name 'The Wombats' has been used this makes it stand out from the rest of the text on the cover, however the name of the album is in a different font although the word 'Tokyo' is bigger than the band name it does not stand out as much. The main image is a stylized image of a wolf's head this relates to the name of album and gives an idea of what the album may be about. The use of bright colours  and glow around the wolf's head helps it to stand out.

Unfortunately i couldn't find the back cover

for this album 

Here is the cover for the album 'Tourist History' by Two Door Cinema

This cover again uses the convention of having a simplistic layout. As you can see the background is again very plain and there is the main image in the centre of the page. However the name the the band is the biggest piece of text on the cover, where as the title the album title is quite small at the bottom of the page. A specific font  has been used we can see this as the more rounded letter such as 'o' and 'c' are not as bold as the other letters and more rounded. Also the main image is seen to be a cat this does not really relate to the name of the album unlike the other albums. However the cat's eyes look through the two o's in the word 'door', this attracts an audience as the eyes are green and eye catching, where as the rest of the cover is quite dark.

Here is the back of the cover to 'Tourist History'

The back cover is very simplistic like the front, however there is no image on the back cover unlike The Kooks album. There is only the names of the songs on the back cover, the same font style from the front has also been used for the song names. Like the back of most album covers the barcode is visible and the website of the band at the bottom, so listeners can find out more about the band.

From analyzing these album covers I have learnt of the important conventions that are needed for an album cover. I will use thses convention when creating my own album cover

Progression

For our production schedule Dynamic productions planned to film over two days during the chirstmas half term, the 27th December and the 3rd January. However some of the actors were not available and there were some problems with the weather, we had to cancel filming. Due to actors not being availible and weather problems we had to cancel the dates with regret. In order to avoid these problems in future we have been checking the weather days in advance to check that it would not be a problem and we have also asked the actors if they would be free in advance to avoid disappointment.


Although canceling the video shoots held up the production, we have been able to move the footage onto the video editing machines and began editing the footage. From using the abandoned house we have completed a large section of the music video.