Music Video Lighting Evaluation

In our music video for A Town Called Malice we will have to use selective shots to use three point lighting, thats if we use it at all. Because our planned music video idea is conventional to a tourism video and follows a documentary style we will use naturalistic lighting to create a sense of realism.

A music video that I found that follows a similar style of filming is a unofficial production for the song Tron Cat by 'Tyler, The Creator'. Seen here:



This music video creates a negative outlook on the surroundings that it is set in, an aspect that needs to be present in our final video. This will allow our narrative and comedy to work together to create a successful and original music video. If our lighting is high key then it could confuse the audience in what to believe about the surroundings and whether 'Malice' is a good or bad place to be in. If it then stops the ironic comedy that we aim to achieve in the video it will not be interesting to the target audience. This is because they will not be able to tell what we are trying to portray in the production and may become confused into the point of the video.

Summer Homework: Ryan Oldham

‘Always’ (2008)

‘Follow The Water’ (2009)

‘Day In Day Out’ (2010)

‘Learn To Live’ (2011)

Architects:

Architects identify themselves as a heavy metal band; we see this visually through the instruments that the band plays, as they are conventional to the genre.  Throughout almost all of Architects videos there are frequent close ups of the instruments, band members and vocalist. This is also often seen in music videos of the heavy metal genre. The band members are constantly moving which makes their video ‘Always’ look very hectic, throughout the song we see various clips from an underlying story, although the shots are very fast paced and often an extreme close up. This tells the audience a minimal amount of information and leaves the message of the video open for interpretation. If I compare this to there more recent release ‘Day In Day Out’ we see a different approach to the way the video is made.  There is no shots of the band playing their instruments that is not related to the story that the video is telling, however this is because the band members are part of the story line. This is different to all of the other recent releases by the band such as ‘Learn To Live’ where the bend members are not the subjects of the story.

Also, in older videos like ‘Always’ the images of the band would be set up in a studio and probably recorded multiple times. However as soon as the band released the video for ‘Follow The Water’ in 2009 all of the shots of the band are of them playing live in front of a crowd, this limits them to one shot only.  However it coveys a completely different message to the audience, it shows that the band are not interested in a ‘dressed up’ image and do not care if they are seen as every day people. I would say that the genetic conventions od an Architects video would include camera techniques which include: shaking, extreme close-ups and fast pans.  Visual conventions of an Architects video would be around a half and half split of clips of the band performing and an underlying storyline. In the shots where the band are performing facial shots are minimal and the camera mainly focus’ on the crowd or the instruments. Over time from their earlier video’s to their present the band have focused more towards the audience and listeners than themselves. Also, older videos such as ‘Always’ tend to have a sepia or faded colour effect on them while more recent videos like ‘Learn To Live’ are in full colour, this gives it a more uplifting feel which backs up my earlier point that the band have stepped away from writing songs with a more negative feel.  The change in video style may be because after their debut album ‘Ruin’ the band got the new vocalist Sam Carter, since this the band have become more uplifting to acquire to Carter’s taste.

Visual style and image:

Always (2008)

Day In Day Out (2010)

In ‘Always’ we see the story of a man drawing out the plans of some form of building. This tells the audience subliminally who the band is, although it is unrelated to the song. In the video for ‘Day In Day Out’ we see the story of the band traveling to their show and then the audience as they play. This is a lot more accurate in defining and conveying the band to the audience as it shows the band members values and outlook on playing in front of an audience. I would say that the artist’s visual style has very much stayed the same since the first video, they still portray the stereotypical heavy metal band with aspects such as long hair and alternative clothing.

Architects often use extremely fast paced editing to show aggression or confusion, they also use a shaking camera to achieve similar reactions.  However, in more recent videos they editing seems to have slowed down and it is easier to get a clear shot of the band members.  Architects music video’s never seem to include other media text’s such as: television, film or radio content. I think they have done this as they do not want to be associated with and brand or person in case they want to move in a new direction in the future.  Such as they did before.

CD cover analysis:

The three CD covers I have chosen are of the same genre of music but range in artistic styles, I chose to analyze these as it will give me more idea’s for my own album cover idea.

All of the album covers feature the band name and the album title, which shows that this should be present on my design. The font of the band name also represents or is similar to the bands logo. All of the logos and legal information tents to on the back of the album at the bottom, this keeps it out the way so that the track titles are the main feature on the back cover.

In order for me to design a good album cover I have decided to stay away from using peoples face’s in the artwork and to stick to a similar graphic of that in the top album. A circle design with a status logo in the middle that is relevant to the album content. In this case, world travel. 

Textual Analysis - Abby Hellon

For this research we had to analyse a music video, this was a good task to do as I chose to do an artist from the same genre as The Jam. This gave me an insight into the genre and why the music video is like it is. This could help us to make our music video fit right in to the genre.

Recee sheet - Abby Hellon

We had to make sure that the location was suitable for filming and as I live closest I went down to the location and took a few pictures and once the group agreed that it was a suitable place to film I filled out the description and the different sections so that we could use the location for filming.

Storyboard - Abby Hellon

We had to storyboard how we're going to film so that we have a structure to follow when filming. This is the plan for some of the shots we will be using. The storyboard will be helpful as it tells us what type of shot and angle to use for the shots we've planned.

Here is the textual analysis i have done. it is a song by  The Jam and it's called Going Underground.  when analyzing the music video i found that it is very basic and simple but carries the elements of a mod/punk/rock genre.

Website Analysis & Research by Ryan Oldham

To develop and advance the standard of our website I researched the already existing website for The Jam. This helped us target the sites weak points in design and ascetics so we can improve them in our own design and production. From this research we learnt that the website needs to be representative of the band and their image that is conventional to the genre and look. 

Our proposed design can be seen in our planning folder below.