Editing Progress

After spending around a week on editing my group and I have created a brief outline of the order that the shots will go in. We have decided to complete this rough outline before adding in effects and certain other shots to make the sequence better as it will be easier to work on the narrative and performance based shots first.

The shots towards the end of the image are shots that we put effects on at the start of the editing process and the shots at the beginning is the order that we would like the shots to be in before editing them further. We hope to have our first draft finished as soon as possible so we can start adding effects and quicker edits to the sequence.

However a problem that I noticed is that the order we have made so far may not make sense to anyone outside the my group, as we know the messages behind each shot. I am also worried that we will not have enough footage for the whole sequence. I hope that we can avoid this by editing the sequence in a way that makes sense and then showing it to our target audience to get their feedback.

Editing

Today we started the editing process for our music video. When we started editing we noticed that some shots varied in colour and we learnt how to use the effect 'three-way colour corrector'. This effect allowed us to change the saturation and colour theme of the footage to match the other shots and the theme of the song:

We also decided to add a lens flare shot on top of the nature shots that we filmed in the forest to give in a 'dream-like' effect to symbolize that Noxa is in purgatory:

These were just a few of the edits that we made today and we plan to start editing the order of the video as soon as possible to be ready in time for our first screening in a weeks time. My group and I hope to either focus on the shots with effects like the ones above or to put all of the shots in order before adding any effects at all.

Forest Shoot #3

Today we went on our final shoot on location to film the final scenes before we start the editing process. When we arrived at our location we decided to go on a circuit and work our way around the forest, filming shots as we went. We also managed to use and introduce more props to the sequence such as a white rose, a photograph and some signs that we could place around the location for Noxa to find. Below are some screenshots that I took s of some of the footage that we filmed:

As we have gathered all of the footage that we needed we are now ready to start the editing process. We have put all of our footage together into the editing software and are ready to start editing as soon as possible to meet our next target which is to have a rough draft to show for screening in a weeks time to our target audience. 

Canon XF100

We now have a Canon XF100 to film with and my group and I have decided to re-film certain scenes with this camera and experiment with the lighting and focus. I made a brief edit to show a small part of what the camera can do:

Risk Assessment: Drama Room - Canon XF100

As we are returning to the drama room with an expensive camera we are required to write another risk assessment to make sure that we know the risks being in the drama room and using the camera. This assessment is similar to the last but as certain things are different this time around there were some different risks.

A Trip To The British Film Institute

For a trip we went to the British Film Institute to learn about making music videos and to meet a music video director for a Q&A. The trip was great and overall I learnt a lot and cannot wait to try out everything I have learnt.

If the powtoon does not show up please use this link:

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dfYxKlQsbJL/british-film-industry/#/

Forest Shoot #2

Today we went for our second shoot at of forest location to film some more storyboard shots. We filmed both the beginning of the music video and the wondering around the location shots which were both planned on the storyboard. We also filmed both close-ups and long shots that both represent different messages and feelings. We plan to head back to our location once more to finish up all of our location shots. The link below is a glog containing all of the screenshots from our footage and why we chose to film certain shots:

http://lucysaunders240565c619c75011.edu.glogster.com/forest-location/

Risk Assessment: Forest #2

Before heading off to our location tomorrow to film we are required to write a risk assessment to show that we understand and acknowledge all of the risks present. We have identified these risks and the ways to avoid them.

Audience Research: An Interview With Jamie

For a deeper insight to how our target audience thinks my group and I prepared some questions to ask someone that falls into our target audience. We interviewed our fellow classmate Jamie and as she has never seen our project so far we questioned her about the genre and her thoughts on location, even though we have decided on a location. This way we would be able to see if it was suitable and if not we would work out another location.

Unfortunately I made a mistake in the editing process of the interview as the end text contains a small mistake as the filming process has already started and should read "when continuing to film and begin to edit" rather than "start filming and editing". Sorry for the mistake!

Practising Photoshop

In preparation for making a digipak I decided to practise editing images in Photoshop. I have briefly used Photoshop before however I felt like I needed a refresher in the basics. I took the behind-the-scenes picture we took at the forest, on top on a hill and I wanted to remove my group and I from the top of the hill and replace it will Noxa on top instead and then put one of the logos in the corner:

Simple yet it was good practise with removing one object and replacing it with another, adding some text and trying out the colour contrasts. It was overall good practise with Photoshop basics and it will help when I come to editing my digipak images.

Drama Room Shoot #2

Yesterday my group and I went to our drama location to film our first artistic scene. We decided a while ago that we wanted to use masks to display some of the themes that are introduced in the song such as the loss of of innocence. We had one white mask that symbolized innocence and purity and one black one to represent darkness and evil and the removal of the white mask in replacement for the black portrays this theme in particular:

All of the shots we filmed have a metaphor or meaning behind them and correspond to our storyboard. We decided to focus solely on the artistic shots rather than lip-syncing as we wanted to film our first artistic shoot. The image below is screenshots from every piece of footage that we filmed:

I also edited another edit but this time I concentrated more on effect such as lighting and slow-motion than the lip-syncing. I also added every shots that we filmed in this edit to showcase everything we filmed which is why some shots do not match the lyric or beat or similar shots are repeated:

Risk Assessment: Drama Room #2

As we will be filming in a drama room tomorrow with filming equipment and we had to identify the risks and figure ways around these risks. We have written up a risk assessment to show that we have identified the risks.

Forest Shoot #1

Today we went for our first scheduled shoot the in forest to film some of the shots that we had planned on our storyboard and animatic. Unfortunately everything seemed to go wrong (which we are going to blame on Friday 13th bad luck!) as the dress got dirty, it started to rain and it was freezing cold. However we did manage to get a few shots during the time we were there and we plan to return next week to continue were we left off. Here are some of the screenshots of the footage we got:

Risk Assessment: Forest

As we are heading to our forest location to film some shots tomorrow (13/11/15) we were required to fill in a risk assessment. This is to show that we have recognised the dangers of filming in our location, the level of the risk and ways to avoid them. Luckily none of the risks are extreme and the highest risk is slipping or tripping over but this is easily avoidable.

We will be filming and checking the footage tomorrow to check over what we have filmed and where it could fit in with the song.

Animatic

My group and I have finished the animatic! Despite having some scary-looking drawings in the animatic I feel like it will be a great help when we start editing. As our animatic is like a storyboard to music it helped us identify where we wanted the shots to be in the song and how long we wanted them to be. The animatic should also make filming a lot easier as we know what shots we want in each location, however we have decided that we wanted to film more shots than we have planned so if we changed our mind on a certain shot we will have a wide choice of replacements.

This is our finished animatic:

Making an Animatic

Over the past few lessons my group and I have been working on an animatic to help us gain a better idea of what we want to film for our music video. We have sketched out the shots on post-it notes and have taken pictures of these notes before starting to edit the images alongside the corresponding lyric or sound.

Although we do not have enough shots for the entire  song we still have a lot of shots to film whilst we come up with new ideas. The animatic gives us an idea on what lyrics in the song have shots related to them and how they will look.

First Shoot

Today we had our first shoot which took place in the drama room. We decided to use the session as a practice to see how quick we could set up and pack away the lights and cameras and tested different lighting. We decided to use a blue covering over the lights to make the scene purple which makes a simple standing shot more visually interesting. The following shots are some screenshots taken from the footage we took during the session:

When editing the footage into a short piece I noticed that the medium shot cannot be edited next to a similar shot like the medium close up. It disturbs the flow of the song as the jump cut makes the lip-syncing jump forward. This is something I have learnt and will know to avoid when making the final video. Unfortunately we did not manage to film more than 6 shots (as several other contained behind-the-scenes footage) and when editing the sequence I had to use a cut as described above due to the lack of footage. However the lighting effect matches the feel of the song and this was a good chance for me to practice my editing skills when syncing the song to the lip-sync.

 

Treatment

TREATMENT

Rock music is hugely popular and has a gained very dedicated fan base this includes the many sub-genres that are all part of rock music. One of these genres is alternative rock which has a smaller fan base than rock music but is still very popular. Much like a music video of any genre the video contains certain shots, colours and themes to display what the genre is and alternative rock also applies to this rule. Alternative rock music videos have to contain all of the above in order for the genre to be identifiable however my group and I want to experiment with what would suit the music and to see if we can add something new to the genres stereotype.

Our artist's name is Noxa, which is Latin for the word 'harm', and perfectly represents our song “Narcissistic Cannibal” by EarlyRise. The song falls under the alternative rock genre and the average age of this genres fans are around 16 to 25, making this the age of our target audience. This audience is perfect for our video as we intend to use lots of metaphors and hidden messages throughout the video and as our target audience are, or where recently, students they will have a easier time interpreting the video to find out the themes and messages that we are hinting at. The themes that the song brings up will be displayed through artistic shots which the audience will have to interpret. However we would also like to have a element of narrative in our video but this too will be very vague and can be taken in many different ways. This allows our video to link to our audience as we want each person in our audience to interpret our video differently and to suit them. To use the song we have written a copyright letter to EarlyRise asking for their permission to use their song to interpret into a music video.

Our video will be an artistic piece with a few narrative shots to create a sense of storytelling within all of the metaphors. An overview of the song is about a woman trying to 'survive' after escaping the 'narcissistic cannibal' however she is still trapped in her own misery. Our aim is to display all of this through metaphors and creative shots to make the video visually interesting to watch but still linking back to the lyrics. An example of a metaphor of this is the line "pushing on I can't escape". During this line our character will be in the forest so we plan for her to become stuck in this location and to link back to the line we planned on having tree vines wrapped around her arms as she tries to escape or have her on the other side of a set of bars to symbolize that she has no means of escape even though she keeps trying. We also hope to stain something white to symbolize the lack or disappearance of innocence which could link back to any line in the song. The hidden meanings behind each shot can be discovered when linking shots back to lyrics or annotating what colours and locations could represent. We intend on using the colour scheme of black and white within are shots to show the transformation of the character and her descent from good to evil. Some examples that we have planned out include a birds-eye shot of Noxa lying down wearing a white mask to symbolize her innocence but this mask is removed and replaced with a black one causing Noxa to open her eyes, representing the darkness has woken her up. Another is a close up of Noxa's hand as she crushes a white rose showing that we is in control of her emotions and that she no longer wants to be 'good'. These shots are all quite dark and have hidden meanings to match the style alternative rock genre as all of the alternative rock musics that I have studied have similar colour schemes and themes within the video. Our target audience would enjoy these as they can figure out the hidden messages.

Our character is our artist Noxa and she plays the role of the woman desperate to escape. She will be the main focus of the video as the song is about how she is trying to free herself from the 'hell' that she is living in. All of the shots will be centered around her and the theme of loss of innocence. Her purpose is to display the themes and to be the character expressing the thoughts and feelings that come across in the song. We have also considered including the 'Narcissistic Cannibal' to show the cause of the thoughts that are conveyed through the song. The Narcissistic Cannibal would also be used for narrative shots as they are a main part of the song. The final characters that we have considered using are the 'figures'. The figures will stand behind Noxa in all black and will also wear a black mask to create the illusion that although they cannot be seen very clearly they are there. Their black masks also serve the purpose to make Noxa seem pure and innocent as she will be in white showing their lack of innocence.

Our main location is the forest which has many places inside such as a field, long pathways, a river and many more places that we intend to use. The forest was our first idea and will serve as Noxa's person purgatory where she is trapped alone. As the forest offers so many places to film it has become our main location. We also plan to film in a drama room where all the walls and floors are black. This location will be used when we want the darkness to symbolize something in particular or to make Noxa stand out.

The lightning in our video will be dark to make Noxa stand out more in the locations and to create an atmosphere. Noxa's clothing will alternate between black and white to show the transformation of losing her innocence. This will also help her blend in or stand out from the lighting. Some of the props that we hope to include in our video are something we can smash, roses that we can crush and paint or water that we can throw but we also hope to use the environment to our advantage such as tree vines and gates.

During the filming process we will need to use more than one camera for certain shots -  such as staining a dress or rose as once stained they cannot be ruined again - to get different angles. As we are trying to avoid using to many medium shots we plan to use a lot more close-ups and long shots to create a diversity within all of our shots. We also want to use birds-eye shots as well as extreme close-ups to allow more detail to be shown in each shot. We will also use a tripod for the shots that need to be steady but with more than one camera we can have also take a handheld shot. All of this equipment will be borrowed and returned to and from the media department as all of the cameras will need to have the same lenses to make all of the shots the same quality.

Some editing techniques that we hope to use include reverse and slow-motion shots to create a impression of slowed time or dysfunction. As both of these techniques require a certain pace of editing they will be put onto shots that are correspond to the editing pace. For example the beginning of the song will start of with slower paced editing to the beat of the song but as the song goes on the beat picks up therefore making the editing speed up. At the end of the song the artist of the song scream sings and we plan to make the editing fast paced and have quick, exaggerated shots to emphasis the song in more depth. For example when the music begins to pick up Noxa will throw her hair back - this shot will be in slow motion but will be a quick cut to the next shot to keep up with the editing pace but to also create a effective shot. We have not planned to use any titles or any other sound effects than the song in our videos but have considered putting effects onto certain shots to make them lighter/darker or to add a certain texture or colour.

Some potential struggles include our schedules as getting to our location takes some time and we only have a short amount of time in lessons. To work around this we have created a shooting schedule with we will update regularly to coordinate our working schedules. Another issue is the risks of filming  in a forest. With large tree branches and dips in the ground there is a lot of opportunity to fall over! We also planned to possibly film a shot from up a tree which means the person climbing would be at risks to falling or injuring themselves. Therefore we will need to fill out a risk assessment before each filming session - especially shoots that take place in the forest - to show we are aware of the risks of filming in a certain location and we know how to avoid them if possible.

To conclude my group and I are creating an artistic music video to the song 'Narcissistic Cannibal' where our main location will be the forest as it creates a sense of wide open space but also being alone and trapped within the trees. We hope to use multiple cameras and a tripod and are overall aware of all the safety risks.

Logos and Copyright Letters

Today we took a break from story-boarding and decided to make some logos for our artist Noxa and a copyright letter. We started off by making some logos that we thought matched Noxa's star image. The first is the word 'Noxa' but the 'X' has a painted look to it as we thought it matched the alternative rock genre:

This logo has a sleek look to it and would look good on top of a website or CD cover. However the font used for the 'N', 'O' and 'A' is just a first draft as we wanted the 'X' to be the main focus of this logo. Our second logo is once again Noxa's name with a rose underneath it:

This logo represents Noxa's star image in a better light: sweet and innocent-looking yet deceitful just like a rose. This is shown through the rose being a dark grey/black rather than red or white, to show the loss of innocence. The text in this logo also looks scratched or roughly hand-written with gives the logo a more personal look.
We also discussed using just 'X' from the first logo or the rose from the second logo as a image alone so our audience could identify our artist through a picture alone:

Depending on which logo we choose we could use the full logo on the website and digipak but in other scenarios the image above could act as a logo without the text and our audience would still be able to identify who it belongs to.

After creating our logos we wrote a copyright letter to the artists of our song choice "Narcissistic Cannibal", EarlyRise. We wrote a short, but sweet, letter asking for their permission to use the their song cover in for our music video:

We decided to end the letter with our names, in alphabetical order, and our artist name 'Noxa'. We also decided to include our logo (although this is not a final decision and we could not make it any smaller!) as that is part of our star's image. The main reason we wrote the letter is to make sure that we can get permission from the band as we do not want to take their song if they are against people using their song.

Group Blog Questionnaire - Answers

http://shotgunrecords3.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/auidence-rearch-1.html

The response to the questionnaire was very helpful and interesting to read. My group and I enjoyed reading the opinions from people of all different ages and to see their interests and what they like. I was most intrigued by the question about favourite music videos. Nobody had the same one and each one was like for a different reason. I decided to make a mind map on a summary of the results from the questionnaire:

Storyboarding and Writing a Treatment

This week we have been drawing up our storyboard and planning out our treatments. This is to help us have a plan for when we begin to film our music video. Our storyboard is a set of images that will help as a visual aid during film whereas the treatment is a written analysis of the overall look and feel of what we want and expect from the video. After we have completed both of these tasks and drafted up a shooting schedule we will be ready to start filming in our locations. The final image is our complete storyboard!

Meetings and Location

This week my group and I have been having meetings where we discuss our artist name, locations and props that we would like to use in our video and also went on a location check. Our meeting have been very helpful in terms of planning as we now have a artist name! Our artist is called Noxa which is Latin for the word 'harm' which I think represents our song choice and, hopefully, our artists star image quite well. We also annotated the song lyrics to 'Narcissistic Cannibal' and this allowed us to write down any ideas that came to mind when reading a certain lyric. I have taken pictures of each sheet and written them out on a group blog post. We also went on a location check which was very inspiring and I made sure to vlog the trip to show off our location. This trip helped all of us with our ideas and where we could film our music video.

Meeting Notes:

Annotated Lyrics:

 

Group Post Link: http://shotgunrecords3.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/meeting-notes.html

Vlog Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9T3mbIEZWs

Digipak Research

A digipak is a luxurious case for a CD that provides the owner with extra exclusives that would not be in the ordinary case. Digipaks are not as common as regular CD's as they usually contain special editions of the CD and have a overall nicer appearance as the case is laminated and involves several pages but the biggest reason they are uncommon is because they are expensive to manufacture. There can be either 3, 4 or 6 pages in a digipak that each have something on them such as: lyrics to a song, a thank you note, photos, vouchers or discounts, information and links.

There can also be more than one disc in the pack which can persuade the buyer even more as they get more than one CD. The purpose of a digipak is to advertise the artist or band and to tempt fans and the public to buy their digipak over another artists, this can boost sales and profits. The following alternative rock digipaks include (in order): Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Nirvana, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails.

Something that all of these digipaks have in common is they all include the CD, which is expected in a digipak, and a list of what is on the disc. This is a good way to inform the audience on what to expect from the digipak. Some of the digipaks are simple, similar to the Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana and Oasis digipak, as they only contain a front page, a disc (or two), a image and a list of what the disc contains. It does not overload the customer with information or extras and it stays to the point. The Muse and Nine Inch Nails digipaks, on the other hand, contain lots of extra content such as booklets, pullout images, a memory stick and plenty of discs. This can make the digipak feel more full to the customer and almost like a gift as their are many extra presents inside.
All of the digipaks represent the artist and/or band by the use of colour and images and each one is identifiable by appearance alone.

When creating my own digipak I would like to go down the simple route by adding in some exclusive images, a disc or two and what the discs will contain however I am keen on the idea of offering my audience more than what they would find in a ordinary CD case. I will also use colour and images to make my digipak link back to our artist, Noxa, and her star image and they way she is represented throughout our video.

Location Check

Today my group and I decided to visit our main location: the forest. The connotations of  the forest can vary from mysterious and magical to isolated and trapped and we wanted to see what themes came to mind when visiting our location for the first time as a group. Our main objective was to find some over head trees, winding and split paths and a bridge which we found! We also found many extra locations including a graffiti wall, a hill that can be used to make small silhouettes, a river, a empty car park, a small town and a field. There are so many places within the forest location that have certain connotations that we can make the most out of. After visiting our location I was left felling very inspired and I have many ideas for music video. Visiting our location will also make story-boarding and linking shots to certain locations will be a lot easier and more realistic.

I made sure to vlog the trip so I could show off our location and have something to refer back to when annotating our song lyrics in more detail. I decided to try and edit my vlog in time to the music to get use to that kind of editing for when we edit our music video, however I made each shot cut quickly to the next so that our location was shown but not in so much detail that it gives away to much as I want the location to be a one of the main factors of our video:

Apologises for my shaky hands and poor camera quality!

Audience Research

Having the right audience is important when making any kind of media as they are the people the creators have in mind when creating their project. For example a gory horror film would have the target audience of 18 - 28 yet a colourful children's TV show would be marketed for 5 - 9 year olds. However there can be horror films for children and children shows that adults enjoy but during the creative process the creator had a certain group of people in mind whilst they were creating. This is the same for music videos.

This is the work we completed as a class on audience research

Our song choice is the dark and slow song 'Narcissistic Cannibal' (the Earlyrise version) and we have decided on a dark themed video. Our target audience is 16 to 23 year olds - the average age of students. The video will contain a lot of hidden metaphors and themes that link with the lyrics which may be missed by a younger audience. This particular audience may be able to take apart our video and see the messages behind the images as students more likely to look at videos more critically. Many other alternative rock bands also have this target audience and it seemed natural to have a similar one to other songs from our genre.

Jay Z and Linkin Park Digipak Analysis

Jay Z and Linkin Park had one of the more interesting digipaks. It was 6 pages and each contained something different and the artists logo and names were repeated constantly throughout to advertise and market both of the bands. The reason I chose to analyse this digipak was because it is two different artists merged together and the digipak is in both of their names, advertising both of them equally.

///CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT///

The overall feel of the digipak matches both of the artists star image and genre which fans will enjoy. It is also contains different content such as a music disc and a behind-the-scenes disc which gives the audience a chance to listen to the music and then see how it was made. It gives a insight to the amount of work that both artists put into the digipak and it keeps fans involved and intrigued.

This has given me some ideas on what catches the audience's attention, by the use of colours, and how I can advertise our artist.

Wix Practise

During yesterdays lesson we had practice using the site wix, which is a website making site. I have used wix before for one of my AS evaluation questions but since then the site has been updated and is a lot easier to use. The site is really easy to use and this is a good point when a beginner uses the site for the first time. I wanted to see what was new since the last time I used the site so I tried out everything. I liked the backgrounds that moved as it added something different to the site and made is visually interesting and the background was easy to change. The banners are all professional looking and the pictures can be given boarders to make it match the site. There is so much customisation available to the user which I really liked as it gives me the freedom to make the site how ever I wanted it to look.

This screenshot is of the layout of wix and my testing of the website to see what had changed and how easy it was to move things around and add new objects.

Voyuerism - Laura Mulvey

Goodwin stated that woman in music videos are objectified as they are put in small amount of clothing and are used to attract attention from a male audience. Another theorist, Laura Mulvey, supported this theory by writing about 'scopophlia'. Scopophlia is the pleasure gained from looking or watching something or someone and in this case it would be gained by watching a music video. A video that supports this theory is Rihanna's "Stay". She spends the entire video presumably naked inside a bath and although everything is covered it is still provoking a male audience into watching a song that actually has a lot of meaning behind it.

 



In my opinion I think that the song is very moving and the video could have gone many other ways in terms of narrative yet Rihanna interestingly choose this style, which I think only provides emotion rather than the story that the song is expressing. This particular style does not suit me, likely because I am female, yet a male audience may enjoy this due to the voyeurism in the video. This is not to say that females cannot enjoy the video but I personally think that there could have been a strong narrative used in this video but this style was chosen, possibly to gain a male audience. This supports what Mulvey expressed as the camera can be considered as the 'male gaze' as Rihanna is always in the centre frame and is clearly seen to be undressing.

 

In contrast to Mulvey's theory, the male body can also be displayed in videos to attract female attention. Typically if both a female and male character are present the female character will take the role of reacting to the male body and how much of it is showing. However a video where the entirety of it is just the male body is Panic! At The Disco's "Girl/Girl/Boy". All the three minute video shows is the main singer with no clothes on lip-syncing and spinning, but similar to Rihanna's video nothing is shown yet it is still clear what the video is suggesting.

 

 

There is no narrative for this video, yet a small outline of the song is about sexuality which is why he is likely 'naked' and just like the 'male gaze' this video likely attracted just as many women as Rihanna's attracted men. Similar to Rihanna's video this video could have had an interesting plot yet this was the chosen theme for the video and in some ways it makes sense as the song is linked to sexuality yet so much more could have been done.

 

Something interesting I noticed about each video was the comments left on YouTube video. On Rihanna's video people commented about how meaningful the song was and how it had helped them through tough times in their life however Panic! At The Disco's video comments were all about the amount of clothing, which was none, the singer was wearing. Most of these accounts had a female name or icon and were commenting on how attractive the singer was. A drastic difference. I did not find a single comment on Rihanna's video about the amount of clothing she had as the song is what stood out to that particular audience, who also happened to be female. This could have been because males are less likely to comment on this particular kind of content but it was interesting to see the difference.

Overall Mulvey's theory applies very well to these two videos as it attracted the opposite gender to the video, however from what the comments suggested more females were attracted to the male body which is the opposite of a majority of the both Goodwin and Mulvey's voyeurism theory.

Performance Shots - McBusted: Air Guitar Analysis

Performance shots are used in many videos of all sorts of genres as they allow the audience to see the band in action and can create a facade that the viewer is watching them perform like they would if they were watching them live. Many performance shots are similar in the fact that it is just the artist or band lip-syncing their song, sometimes with added props or instruments so I decided that I wanted to find a performance video that brought something new to performance shots as I know them. I remember watching, one of my favourite bands, McBusted's "Air Guitar" when it first came out and it came to mind when thinking of a new performance shot.

 

For a majority of the video McBusted are seen in a hall and are playing their instruments and lip-syncing while being surrounded by and cheered on by a crowd of, presumably, there fans. To match the song lyrics the instruments and sometimes even a band members body disappears, just like a air guitar would not actually be there! It is a clever use of performance shots that still match the lyrics of the song in such a interesting way.

 

 

 

 

My favourite shot in the entire video is when the band is 'teleported' to a field with no instruments. This could be a metaphor for how the hall filled with their fans is actually all in their mind as they play their air instruments. The editing on this particular scene is amazing as it is so smooth and all of this scene is still a performance shot and it adds something new to the video rather than them simply standing, singing and playing their instruments.

 

 

This video is really creative and if my group and I decide to use performance shots I defiantly want to add something new to the shot, just like McBusted have done, to make the sequence more visually interesting.

Intertextuality

Some music videos like to add a reference towards another pieces of media such as songs, films, artwork and fashion. Intertextuality can be either the main part of the video or just small references in the corner of the video for the viewers to find. For example a video that uses intertextuality throughout is Taylor Swift's "Love Story" which is based on Shakespeare's novel "Romeo and Juliet".

The video is based around a forbidden love story and the song even references both the names 'Romeo' and 'Juliet'. The costumes and setting match the theme of 'Romeo and Juliet' which makes the intertextuality very clear the second the video is clicked on, however Taylor Swift has added a small 'modern' section to the video to give the story her own twist.

A video that has subtle references is Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night". The video is fun and enjoyable to watch but their are a few hidden references that have to be looked at closely.

A larger part of the music video is made to look like a film with the credits and opening sequence to make it look like a official movie extract. This is a clever way of presenting a music video with a strong narrative.

A smaller piece of intertextuality is the social media page that is briefly shown at the beginning of the song. The page is called 'Friendplace' which is a small nod towards 'Facebook' as the two pages share many similarities such as users having their own personal profile which they can update with statuses and pictures that people can comment on. The reason it was a made up social media site and not an actual Facebook page could be because of copyright laws or even because it was easier to make a fake site than use a real one.

A, possibly more obvious, piece of intertextuality is the use of Rebecca Black in the video. Katy Perry's song is about partying on a Friday and having fun and Rebecca Black became famous for making a video about Friday. Having her as the main character relates back to her video 'Friday' and she is continuing this theme by throwing a party on a Friday in Katy Perry's video.

The final bit of intertextuality that I could find was the game 'Just Dance' being played during the video. The video clearly states that it is Just Dance as the layout of the game is exactly the same but also the screen has the Just Dance logo on it. This could have been paid for advertisement but it is still a nice touch for fans of the game.

The Codes and Conventions of Music Video Websites

There are many codes and conventions that need to be thought of when making a music video website as it needs to attract a audience and keep them interested. As our song choice comes under the alternative rock genre it was a good idea to analysis some artists under that same category to get an idea on how to layout my own website.

EVANESCENCE - INFLUENCING MY WEBSITE

As they have a similar sound to their music as our song choice I thought that looking through their website was a good starting point. When the home page loaded up the first thing I noticed was the moving banner as it took up a majority of the page.

The banner contained three images: one advertising the band, another informing fans about the fan-base and to advertise their newest video to "My Heart Is Broken". As this is the first thing users will see when they enter the site it is a good place to broadcast their music and what they are doing. This is something that I would like to include in my own website as it works in capturing the users attention. There is also a social media bar that contains links to sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and this is a good way for fans to stay interactive with the band. Something else that caught my eye was the biography link on the page bar. It gives a little bit of background about the band and how they came to be who they are. I think this is a nice way to introduce new fans to the band and make current fans know them a little bit better.

PARAMORE - LAYOUT

The Paramore site is not my favourite yet it has a nice layout to it. The navigation bar is at the top of the page, like most other websites, however it is the home page layout that I like. It is split into sections so the user can easily scroll down to see a particular section of the site. The sections are: instagram posts, blogs, band photos and videos. This is a good way to organise the page into neat pieces.

GREEN DAY - STYLE

The second I clicked on the Green Day website I knew I liked the style of it. The site matches their image and is very appealing to the eye. My favourite part of the site is the small 'X''s next to each section on the navigation, this was present on their albums, "Uno", "Dos" and "Tre" and it gives the sight a bit more personality.

The blue background colour is bright and this compliments the colour of the pink on the 'X''s and the logo. It makes the site look fun but still professional and it reflects the band's personality and gives the fans a overall feel of what the band are like. I love the style of this site and hope I can achieve something similar on my own.

FALL OUT BOY - SYNERGY

The Fall Out Boy website is full of synergy and this is a great way to advertise other albums. The navigation bar contains a box labelled 'LYRICS' which is something I have not seen on other sites. This is a great way to involve fans and advertise their songs. The background of the header is also their most current album cover, another use of synergy.

LINKIN PARK - NAVIGATION

The navigation bar on Linkin Park's website is one of the most organised that I've seen. Some of the tabs on the bar cause a smaller one to appear so the user can go to the exact page they want to go to. This allows the user to navigate freely through the site and access all of the pages easily. The navigation also matches the rest of the page so it looks good whilst also doing a good job at navigating the site. The page that the site is currently on will be highlighted and the selected tab will also be highlighted so the user will know it has been selected, a good thing to have on a busy website.