Storyboard Anamatic

Using the storyboard, we've taken pictures of every frame and used these images to create an animatic, which gives us a better understanding of how the music video should look once completed.

Storyboards

Taking on board the planning we've done so far, we've visually developed our ideas into the storyboard which will provide the basis for the filming process. In addition to this we've written a minor amount of detail of how we will produce each shot, for example shot types, editing techniques etc.

Digipak Analysis (My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade)

This is the Digipak analysis of the CD album "The Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance.

This is the album cover for the rock band 'My Chemical Romance' and the album is called 'The Black Parade'. Straight away we get the impression that the album is going to consist of 'dark' songs, the bland colours also portray a dull atmosphere; we know the songs aren't going to be upbeat. The style of font used to display the bands name is really in your face and unique; it catches your attention straight away. Due to the album being called 'The Black Parade' they have used the imagery of a marching band member, however the face is a skull emphasising this dark atmosphere. Moreover it is symbolic to the album name, thus making the theme more cohesive.

The back of the CD case is a simple one, understandably the back of the CD case doesn't really have to be eye catching. This is due to the fact that when it stands on a point of sale display the back wont be visible to the customers, therefore it is more important that the front is more aesthetically pleasing because it's the part that will catch the customers eye. As you can see it has the track list on the back, as do most CD cases, this is so that it enables to appoint your songs chronologically or as you please. the overall design of the back of the CD case is adequately boring and simple, however it does the job that it's supposed to.







The ideology of the CD is fairly exciting, it's fair to say it doesn't look lifeless. It has the names of the songs that the album consists of written all around the CD which i personally determine looks good. On the inside of the of the CD it has images of horror-like characters that emphasise the dark, scary theme; some of the characters are wearing the outfits of band members, which coercively engages with the "Black Parade" theme. The consistency of this theme makes the overall digipak more clear and understanding as to why they have used specific images, typography etc.

Digipak Template

In order to help us produce our digipak to the correct measurements, we decided to download a template from the internet in PDF format, this can be opened in Photoshop and the images for each layer be imported in place within the guidelines given. A blank copy of the template is shown below.

Logo

This is the logo we created to professionally portray out music video. We thoroughly looked through different logos in different genres to just see how they vary. After looking, we came up with the logo shown before after altering it; playing round with colors and exploring different fonts. As a pair we wanted the final piece to look effective and aesthetically pleasing, so we stuck with the typical gothic black and white coloring and quite a simple yet effective plain theme. Cleverly, we found a font that was relatively similar to the Evanescence bands font that is presented on their albums, this was a cursive again gothic font in which we really though looked appealing. This logo is something that is representing us so we aimed for it to look eye-catching, interesting, different and also follow gothic conventions. We edited, created and recreated our logo on photoshop - this allowed us to play around with aspects such as: lighting, color, framing and a lot of different techniques which enabled us to come up with the logo shown below. It did take a few goes to perfect and develop however after 3 various developments and improvements, we finalized our music video logo with Aanarchy Records!

Music Trends

Music Trends

We have researched into some of the modern day trends within the 'Rock' music video genre, enabling us to incorporate some of the ideas into our own music video. By looking at modern day videos it will help us produce a more suitable music video for a modern day audience.

Shots of the band performing

In most Rock music videos, the shots mainly consist of close ups of the band reiterating this idea of "star image". The shots specifically show the band performing, giving the impression that they are playing the song live. They show individual band members performing, as well as showing the whole band perform together in one shot, these types of shots make it more realistic and shows more continuity.

30 seconds to Mars - Closer to the Edge

Some music videos have often contain a short movie format, this is done in the sense that there is some acting and dialogue usually at the beginning of the song before the music begins to play. This is a chance to set the scene more easily for the audience, helping them to understand the narrative more which will make it more enjoyable for them to watch. This also gives the artist/band a chance to promote specific things, for example there could be an image of an advert promoting a new song release, or may play one of their other songs in this short part of the video. This widens the promotional purposes to a music video.

Some music videos have hardly any significance to the lyrics at all, nor does it have a narrative. However this doesn't mean that the music video is unsuccessful, a music video is something that should be remembered or gets people talking. If the music video is unique or bizarre, people are more likely going to remember it, thus talking about it, watching it etc. The song itself will be advertised by word, this is a really efficient way to advertise. For example, the song "Clint Eastwood" by the Gorillaz has no significance to Clint Eastwood himself, however its a name that people will talk about as he himself is a high profile celebrity. The music video is a fully animated video with extraordinary illustrations used, however its more likely that people will remember it.

Gorilliaz - Clint Eastwood

Recce Shots



This page consists of recce shots, they are images of the location that we will film within. These will help us through the planning process of our music video and will enable us to produce more ideas. Moreover it allows to look, in detail, at what the location has to offer, things we may not have noticed whilst taking the images. As you can see, the location gives off a dark, gloomy vibe and I think it is the perfect match to go with our song, as it too gives off the same vibe; they certainly compromise with each other. Also, this means that it well work well hand in hand with the narrative, making the music video cohesive with the conventions.

This picture shows a damaged part of the house which looks ruined, messy and decayed, this is perfect for our video as the location and every picture represents her emotion in the song, ironically the pictures match the song perfectly.

This is just another shot of a room which again is showing ruin, we will use low key lighting in the editing process to show a dark gothic tone.  Also the emptiness of the room is symbolic of her broken heart.

We took a picture of this long kind of corridor to emphasise her struggle now she is heartbroken and could show how long it will take for her to recover. Everything we see in the frame suits the song and also looks imaginative and different.

This wrecked doorway looks quite old fashioned so we thought if we aded low key lighting and have Emily walk through it, it will create a old gothic look, again everything has been vandalised which finishes the overall look we want for the video.

We thought we would create the video on different locations of the house, this photo is from outside. it does look a little bit more brighter and by looking at it has happy positive connotations although being ruined.

This is more or less the same picture, we though throughout the video we could use the same locations area and switch the angle when the lyrics have a turning point - you could say they change in angle represents a juxtaposition in the lyrics., as we know in the song Amy sings about her heart being broken and how she can't cope but knows her being alone will stop the metaphorical pain.

I liked this picture because i thought that the red walls and red door could metaphorically show her heart, i think it is effective when the location has a hidden meaning.

The graffiti shown on the wall here looks effective, also if it's windy on the day we film, the leaves and other things around this part will move creating a ghostly effect.

As we walked round our locations we found variou rooms, they all loked particularly similar but also quite different, the detail on the wall and the decay on the floor made this room look old  evolving and ruined.

We particularly liked this room as it was more secluded and when we looked inside it made us feel a certain way because of how dark, mysterious and unique it was. Most of the rooms had flashes of red/white in them whereas this room was just blacks and greys.

As a group we decided we liked this balcony and the barricaded window, this could show how she is trapped maybe and emphasise her aloneness.

This establishing shot shoes a side view of the house, in the dark this is a scary locations which will really help tell our narrative and also because it's an old house it portrays typical gothic/horror genres.

Call Sheet

Digipak Research (Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City)

Like the advert, it is vital to analyse the deign of a digipak as i am required to produce a product like this as a part of the brief to create a music promo package. 

Vampire Weekend - Digipak

This is the digipak for indie rock band Vampire Weekend 'Modern Vampires of The City' album. the package continues the theme 'of the city' with a blurred overview of a city. Personally i think that the creators of this have been quite clever, because in my opinion the digipak is simple however there is still a lot going on. The simplicity of the black whites and grey colouring makes this aesthetically to view.  This cover is symbolic of the band, the contemporary, relaxed kind of indie look is a perfect visualisation of the group. When i bought this album i was drawn in to the font used, the italic cursive writing made it look appealing and quite futuristic. Also, their is an additional cover that places on top of this which is a flowery vibrant strip placed on the left. This juxtaposes with the indie rock band, although it looks eye catching and different. The band is the most important aspect of the whole digipak this is why 'Vampire Weekend' is in the centre of the digipak and it creates a sort of star image. The big bold white evenly spread font draws the attention to the band name and specifically focuses on them. 

This is the actual CD inside the packaging. Again we see the typical theme of black and white with an aztec kind of design. All of the bands songs are named around the CD which is unusual but again is symbolic of the band itself. Obviously there wil be no movement on the CD however it has been modified on the internet to move, this looks quite abstract and different. The font again is eye catching and stands out, we can see it's in white and it is the largest aspect of the CD.  The CD looks rather professional and unique. 

The chronological listing on the back enables the audience to specifically select certain songs and helps them memorise the order so soon they will know which song is which number so they can skip to the ones they want to listen to most. The row of songs as aposed to being in a typical column shows individuality within the group and makes the back of the case look exclusive. As the audience, i bought this album and i liked all of the graphology shown, particularly on the back. Modern Vampires of the City in bold, italic and cursive font just concludes the album and i think looks rather  mature. The whole idea of the digipak which is quite individual and contemporary is made omnipresent throughout which creates a continuos theme. 

Inspirational Music Videos

Wellcome to The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

 

 

Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance is a video I watch often because I thoroughly enjoy the rock genre. The rock conventions used portray the message excellently. The dark colours used throughout create a gothic gloomy tone and make the video look authentic. The use of dark makeup is effective because everyone in the video looks in character, and when watching this you know they are all in the same boat. The costume and art design portrays the narrative well, dark clothing create a star image. The lip syncing is beyond perfect and the video has been a complete success. Even if you didn't know the band you would know from watching the video without sound, what genre it is - this is because of the rock conventions shown, things like: guitarists, drummers, explosions, patriotism and colour. As a result of this, in the editing process of my video I will watch it without sound and make sure I have typical rock conventions, not only will this make the video interesting to watch; it will also attract our target audience because as a producer we like to please and ensure that the audience watches and listens to our videos because it's what they like to see in a video.

 

Complicated - Avril Lavign

This video is excellent in showing pop rock! Our target audience, as well as being rock lovers, is teenagers! The conventions in the video Complicated attract teenagers, the clothing, the lyrics, the style. Avril starts out with a group of boys in which teenagers can associate with because it's what they want, male attention. She has a skateboard which has now become quite a trend with the younger generation so in this video she is classes as a 'skater' - this actually juxtaposes with the 'Sk8ter boy' song. The overall video has a natural look to it and uses low key lighting, it doesn't look to professional and staged, it's more spontaneous yet still very fluent. We see parts when she is singing with the rest of her band; the guitarists and drummers are shown which gives it a rock feeling to it. I would like my video to look quite natural and not to choreographed so I will inform Emily to do what comes naturally with a little direction from us, I think this will make the video more enjoyable to watch and I do want people to 100% enjoy viewing the video and want to watch it again.

 

Jail House Rock - Elvis Presley

This song by Elvis Presley has also made it on the list of my inspirational music videos, this is because it has been listed as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In today's rock videos we wouldn't as such see dance moves and choreographed movement, it's more typically to be spontaneously formed and this would create a natural effect. We thought because Emily (main character) has a dance/drama background we could try and make the video effective with movement but again it will not be too choreographed; we will ask Emily to do what she wants and to just feel the music and follow the movement from the lyrics. In this video he does wear black clothing but everyone looks like clones of each other this did work well - look effective and eye catching however  in our video everyone will be wearing all black but different clothing to show variety. Jail House Rock topped the country charts for 1 whole week and also reached top single in the UK for a week! The setting on this video is just simple, in a staged jail, although still looking highly entertaining and effective to the audience. 

 

Basket case - Green Day

Basket case is song by American punk rock band Green Day. It is the seventh track and third single from their third album Dookie (1994). The song spent 5 weeks at the to of the Modern Rock Charts chart. Green Day vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong quoted the song was about his struggle with anxiety before he was diagnosed with a panic disorder years afterwards, he thought he was going crazy. Armstrong commented that at the time "The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it." I like this video because the bright colors and high key lighting mise en scene aspects juxtapose with original rock, however this is punk rock and it works really well, for our video the color scheme will mainly be black, but looking at this we thought it would be good to incorporate bright colors somewhere, i.e. in the characters hair, we would use a color like red or pink because the song is about a broken heart and flashes of pin and red could be ironically symbolic of her heart.

 

Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones

 

The Rolling Stones song  Paint it Black is an old classic rock song, I like this video because it's not completely edited and remodeled in the editing process, in fact it didn't have a editing process, it's a live performance which still portrays rock conventions. We see the hair cuts are all quite similar and now in todays society people now tend to listen to rock typically have long hair which would kind of cover the face to portray a moody kind o depressed look, when we look at Goths/emos we automatically infer they listen to rock music. The irony of the song painting it black could by a metaphor for the world turning to rock. The music video is black and white in which I think although back then they couldn't produce things in color, overall it looks effective.

The Calling - Wherever you will go

Wherever you will go by The Calling is a personal favorite, the low sort of relaxed hormonal tone it has really emphasizes the message.  I like the fact it looks like a typical everyday band practice, teenage girls will latch on to this punk rock look and think it's aesthetically pleasing. It's almost the opposite of Male Gaze. The instruments they use are perfectly synced and just give the music video a musical feel. The close ups used when the lead singer sings certain parts are used to dramatize specific aspects of the song. We will use close ups to show emotions within the character. Long shots have also been used, these show everything within the frame, such as: colors, costume, props, instruments and setting.

 

Track Choice

As a group we have decided to produce our music video on the song My Heart is Broken by the rock band Evanescence. "My Heart Is Broken" is a song by American rock band Evanescence. It was released on October 31, 2011 as the second single from their eponymous third studio album. The song was written by Amy Lee, Terry Balsamo, Tim McCord, Will Hunt and Zach Williams, while production was handled by Nick Raskulinecz. Musically, "My Heart Is Broken" is an up-tempo rock ballad that begins with piano and Lee's vocals before transcending into guitars and drums.

What is Genre

Genre is a key media concept and as such, it will be necessary to consider it when producing a music video. Genre is particularly important in the music industry as everyone has varied tastes in music. In this project I will need to pick a song beloning to a particular genre of music, and then produce the video according to that genre's conventions and target audience. I will also need to think about challenging these conventions to make the product more interesting with a USP. This will be done by a combination of things; analysing exiting media texts using theory to identify trends, and asking audiences what they would like to see included and challenged, etc.

A musical genre is a category that identifies a piece of music as belonging to a set of conventions, ideas and traditions, etc. Examples include "pop", "rock", "indie", etc. Each have their own trends which evolve over time, such as a sense of fun, bright colours, dancing and catchy lyrics in pop music.
Sub-genre: Many genres can be broken down further into these, identifying more specific conventions - usually in terms of the music.

Treatment Sheet 2

 I have produced a "treatment" for the music video, in which I have developed my initial ideas thus far into a comprehensive "brief", stipulating what I intend to do with the video in terms of the overall concept, performance and narrative, camera and editing, lighting and dancing. This will help me to produce the storyboard and such like, and will help ensure that I remain true to my "vision" as best possible. However my ideas are very much likely to evolve over time due to problems along the way etc. 

Initial Ideas

Please use the digital canvas above to view my Initial Ideas for my music video thus far, based on my research and the conventions I identified, etc. I have tried to incorporate media theory where appropriate, and naturally, my ideas will evolve as a result of audience research/feedback, and coming to terms with how I will carry out techniques etc. 

Casting Sheet

For the casting of the video, i asked a friend who is heavily involved in performing arts. She was more than willing to take part as she is quite professional and experienced in the whole drama\dance area. I feel Emily will be extremely enthusiastic and do well as she has danced and been apart of a drama committee from a young age. I contacted her to ask her to participate and also gave her details of the shoot. We made sure Emily was fully aware of the song, narrative and the overal look and feel of the video. For the video because of the heavy rock genre we though it would be good to incorporate musicians; therefore resulting in me asking a few friends to see how they felt about participating, Will was pen about the idea and agreed to feature in it after i explained what he would have to do which would be to play guitar in time with the music, i asked if he could listen to the song so he would have an understanding of it. Evanescence have both guitarists and drummers so it would be a great help for the result of the video that there are some musicians in it.

Audience Survey

This is the audience research task, for this we created a questionnaire to find out aspects of music that effect the audience. This will help us generalise what our target audience like to see in a music video and help us make our video suitable for people who enjoy the genre rock. I tried to use as many open-ended questions as possible, ensuring the best possible, elaborate answers. Multiple choice answers were used when I needed opinions and/or a simple "one or the other"-like format to the answer. Hoping to receive 20-30 replies, I will analyse and assess the data against my current ideas and plans, and adjust them accordingly to effectively meet a specific target audience's needs and desires. This multiple choice question asked participants which of my current ideas they preferred. I may chose one based on their opinions, or combine the two. It is important to consider the audience's opinions as it is them who the product is made for and they ultimately would determine its success. I will also try and incorporate some of their ideas and wishes into the above ideas.

Purpose of a Music Video

Music videos are created for many reasons:

• They illustrate the lyrics
• They can increase the revenue stream
• Music videos can often tell a story to the viewer
• A good music video can increase the popularity of the song
• They can evoke reactions from viewers

Song Request

This is a tweet to request permission from the head office of Wind Up Records to use the song My Heart is Broken from their signed artist Evanescence. The requested song will only be used for educational purposes only.

Treatment Sheet

Treatment Sheet from chanjam

Lyrics Breakdown

Before I begin to formulate my initial ideas of what I intend to do with the music video, I've broken down the lyrics of song, noting exactly when each line starts and ends, as well as any instrumental segments or significant beat changes. This will enable me to work out what would best fit where in the song, i.e. different shots types, etc as well as try and study the lyrics in some detail to pick out eye points and create meaning around this.

My heart is broken lyrics breakdown from chanjam
For this task we had to find the lyrics to our chosen song and breakdown hidden meanings etc. This helped us understand more about the narrative of the song.

Narrative Anlysis

Music video narrative analysis from chanjam

This was a mini task we did at the beginning of our research which again helped us break down narrative. Also in doing this we analysed camera angles, i.e.: close ups, medium shots and long shots etc. mise en scene which was everyone I could see in the frame which range from costume to props, sounds - everything we could hear e.g. instruments  and diegetic sounds, basically we analysed everything in the frame.

This video is both pop and rock and I though it would be interesting to see how conventions have been combined. Both rock instruments have been shown which typically would be in a rock video, however you wouldn't normally see a choreographed dance routines which have been shown in the video - surprisingly it works well because of the beat and fluency of it. A lot of thought beats have been used which sort of make it more dramatized and creative.

I have looked at conventions of this sub-genre and will take these into consideration when forming my music video.

Media Theory

As stipulated in my Personal Skills Audit, I plan to incorporate Media Theory into my research this year, improving its depth and allowing me to address the key media concepts in a more systematic approach. This will influence the planning and construction of my product, as to hopefully produce a music video that is similar to a real media product. This document covers theorists within Genre, Media Language, Representation and Narrative and as such, will underpin much of the content on this blog. 


Media Theory

Genre

o   Barry Keith Grant (1995) – genres allow audiences to identify texts specifically by their familiar and recognizable characteristics.

o   Jason Mittel (2001) industries use genre to sell products to audiences

o   Dennis Mquail – uses and gratification theory

·      Information, learning, satisfying

·      Personal Identity – gaining insight into ones self, reinforcements of personal values

·      Integration and social interaction – identifying with others, sense of belonging

·      Entertainment escapism, relaxing, filling time

David Buckingham (1993)  “Genre not… simply” given” by the culture rather: it is in a constant process of negotiation and change” (genres are not fixed, they evolve over time)

Media Language

o   Carol Vernallis (2001)  

·      Narrative  -

·      Disjointed, fragmented narrative

·      Might not be clear resolution

·      Video may portray un answered questions

·      Editing

·       Jump cuts

·      Juxtaposed shots

·      Breaking 180 rule

·      Camera movement and framing

·      Camera moves in with the movement

·      Close ups and master shots often used

·      Diegesis

·      Diegesis slowly revealed

·      Character or object move in time with the music

·      Certain frames more important than others

·      Gaps in audiences understanding of Diegesis in the same space, music performance and narrative.

o   Andrew Goodwin

·      Thought beats

·      Narrative and performance is repetitive

·      Idea of ‘star image’

·      Relation of visuals to a song

·      Technical aspects

·      Record companies demand close ups on main artist and vocalist

·      Voyeurism present in many music videos

·      Intertextual references to other music videos, film, TV texts

Representation

o   Stuart Hall (1980) The media is an insight into society but through careful mediation.

·      Representation can only be meaningful if shared recognition of people, situation, ideas,, etc.

o   David Guantlett (2007) “Identity is complicated. Everybody thinks they’ve got one. Artists play with the idea of identity in modern society”.

o   James baker (2007)

·      Selection - much more will have been left out than what appears on screen

·      Organization – various elements always end up with us. Audience encouraged to concentrate on one element of the text and ignore others

·      Stereotypes – race, age, gender, sexuality

Narrative

o   Tim O’Sullivan (1998) All media texts tell some kind of story

·      Through mediation, media texts offer a way of telling us stories about ourselves through ideologies

·      Al narratives have a common structure:

·      Establishing of plot or theme

·      Development of an problem/enigma, an increase in tension

·      Resolution of plot

·      Such narratives can be unambiguous and linear

o   Pam Cook (1985)

·      “Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution”

·      High degree of narrative closure

·      Fictional world contains verisimilitude governed by spatial and temporal coherences

o   Tzventan Todorov (1997) five different codes

·      Stage 1 -  stable equilibrium

·      Stage 2 – stability disrupted, disequilibrium

·      Step 3 – recognition that the disruption has taken place

·      Stage 4 – action against disruption

·      Stage 5 – restoration of a new state of equilibrium

o   Claude Levi-Strauss (1958) stories operate to certain clear binary opposites

o   Barthes (1977) five different codes

·      Enigma code – works to keep setting up problems or puzzles for the audience.

·      Action code – based on cultural and stereotypical understanding of actions acting as shorthand to advancing the narrative.

o   Adrian Tilley (1991) use buckling of gun belt in Western genre as a means of signifying the preferred reading of an imminent shoot. Works in the same way as starting a car engine

o   Vladimir Propp (1928) all narratives contain shock characters as audiences understand stories because of such features.

o   Andrew Goodwin (1922)

·      “Narrative relations highly complex” – meaning can be created from individual audio-viewer’s personal musical taste to sophisticated intertextuality that uses multidiscursice phenomena of Western culture.

·      Many narratives dominated by advertising references, film pastiche and reinforce postmodern ‘reuse’ tradition

o   Carol Vernalls

·      Narrative: disjointed narrative, may not be clear resolution, the video may pose un answered questions

o   Sven Carlsson (1999) music videos general fall into two rough groups

·      Performance – shows mostly artist of band singing and dancing

Ø  Instrumental

Ø  Song

Ø  Dance

·      Conceptual – shows something else, often with artists ambitions

o   Narrative clip – visual story that is easy to follow and can stand alone as a short silent movie. True narrative clips contain no lip-synchronized singing.

o   Art clip – contains no perceptible visual narrative and no lip-synchronized singing. Tends to be more experimental music.