Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Audience
I am aiming for quite a specific audience with my video. It will be designed for teenagers and young adults with quite silly humour. Of course I will try to make it appeal to others as well, but I think it will be more popular among teens.
I want to represent them as the fun-loving type. I'm not showing any shots of drugs or anything as I do not want to condone it, despite the song title. I'm hoping to get across the more flippant view of the song, so my audience just sees it as a laugh, a bit of light relief in their lives, rather than anything serious or profound. I'm going to do this with my use of background footage. The bits I filmed of the fairground and general holiday scene will be perfect for this.
tbc..
I want to represent them as the fun-loving type. I'm not showing any shots of drugs or anything as I do not want to condone it, despite the song title. I'm hoping to get across the more flippant view of the song, so my audience just sees it as a laugh, a bit of light relief in their lives, rather than anything serious or profound. I'm going to do this with my use of background footage. The bits I filmed of the fairground and general holiday scene will be perfect for this.
tbc..
Branding
Branding is incredibly important in advertising musicians. Sometimes I honestly believe that the world of marketing begins to overshadow the music and soul behind it. This may get a little philosophical...just so you've been warned.
Branding represents the artist in the desired way, to best appeal to the intended audience. There are always going to be people more interested in making money - and after all, an artist can't keep making music without it; so getting it right and selling 'units' is rather important. Artists are encouraged to dress in a certain way, to live their lives to match their image, and to generally be a walking advert to help gather fans and sell music.
Image is a huge part of success these days ('These days' - what do I sound like!) but lets not forget the reason music is so dominant in our hearts. It captures our imagination, our feelings and provides a soundtrack to our lives. As part of my branding I want to emphasise that. I decided that despite the usual necessity to be conventional in order to suceed, that I was going to ignore it. Well not totally ignore it as that would be ridiculously arrogant. Not to mention stupid. What I want to get across is that not everything has to be the same - with a bit more of an open mind so much more can be enjoyed. I'm going to stick with conventions that work, but I will not include ones that don't. I want to stay true to the music and the real meanings behind it; not figures and statistics. I know this approach won't always work, and definately hasn't worked for some in the industry (see, even the word industry implies business, corporation, chain production...!) However breaking conventions sometimes does work really well. I think that if you've got a solid idea that you - as the artist - believe in, then that will come across to your audience. Obviously it needs to be realistic and not totally off-the-scale levels of weird. But there's no reason why artistic inspiration has to be blocked by the walls of convention. For example, a cartoon band:
In 1959, Ross Bagdasarian had the idea to create a 'virtual band' He recorded his own voice and sped it up, matching it with cartoon images to create 'Alvin & The Chipmmunks'. In 2000, 'Gorillaz' did the same thing, and have maintained their cartoon image in all of their branding. Although Gorillaz weren't the first to do this, they definately brought the concept into the spotlight. Alongside their albums and videos etc they have created a whole virtual world on their website for themselves and their fans - including short films featuring their animated characters. They won the argument of money as well, selling merchandise including figures of their characters.
This is what Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz said about their formation: "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that." That's what I admire about them - they created a fan base around themselves. They set out determined with their vision in mind, not to just fit in, and I respect them for it; it's great that they believed enough in themselves to get out there and do it their way.
Here's one of their videos:
This is what I want to do with mine. I can't do anything too out-there, as I don't have access to all the equipment, money etc, I would need to do some of the things I'd like. So I decided on a set style throughout my video. When I first listened to 'Vince The Loveable Stoner' I pictured lots of crazy dancing.
Despite my need to stay true to the music and the creative inspiration it gives me, I've got to remember not to forget the commercial aspects necessary to advertise the band. Without financial success it makes progressing difficult, so I'll have to make realistic desicions including a mix of generic signifiers so it will sell to an audience. However I won't falsely portray them or the music in favour of commercialism.
Branding represents the artist in the desired way, to best appeal to the intended audience. There are always going to be people more interested in making money - and after all, an artist can't keep making music without it; so getting it right and selling 'units' is rather important. Artists are encouraged to dress in a certain way, to live their lives to match their image, and to generally be a walking advert to help gather fans and sell music.
Image is a huge part of success these days ('These days' - what do I sound like!) but lets not forget the reason music is so dominant in our hearts. It captures our imagination, our feelings and provides a soundtrack to our lives. As part of my branding I want to emphasise that. I decided that despite the usual necessity to be conventional in order to suceed, that I was going to ignore it. Well not totally ignore it as that would be ridiculously arrogant. Not to mention stupid. What I want to get across is that not everything has to be the same - with a bit more of an open mind so much more can be enjoyed. I'm going to stick with conventions that work, but I will not include ones that don't. I want to stay true to the music and the real meanings behind it; not figures and statistics. I know this approach won't always work, and definately hasn't worked for some in the industry (see, even the word industry implies business, corporation, chain production...!) However breaking conventions sometimes does work really well. I think that if you've got a solid idea that you - as the artist - believe in, then that will come across to your audience. Obviously it needs to be realistic and not totally off-the-scale levels of weird. But there's no reason why artistic inspiration has to be blocked by the walls of convention. For example, a cartoon band:
In 1959, Ross Bagdasarian had the idea to create a 'virtual band' He recorded his own voice and sped it up, matching it with cartoon images to create 'Alvin & The Chipmmunks'. In 2000, 'Gorillaz' did the same thing, and have maintained their cartoon image in all of their branding. Although Gorillaz weren't the first to do this, they definately brought the concept into the spotlight. Alongside their albums and videos etc they have created a whole virtual world on their website for themselves and their fans - including short films featuring their animated characters. They won the argument of money as well, selling merchandise including figures of their characters.
This is what Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz said about their formation: "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that." That's what I admire about them - they created a fan base around themselves. They set out determined with their vision in mind, not to just fit in, and I respect them for it; it's great that they believed enough in themselves to get out there and do it their way.
Here's one of their videos:
This is what I want to do with mine. I can't do anything too out-there, as I don't have access to all the equipment, money etc, I would need to do some of the things I'd like. So I decided on a set style throughout my video. When I first listened to 'Vince The Loveable Stoner' I pictured lots of crazy dancing.
Despite my need to stay true to the music and the creative inspiration it gives me, I've got to remember not to forget the commercial aspects necessary to advertise the band. Without financial success it makes progressing difficult, so I'll have to make realistic desicions including a mix of generic signifiers so it will sell to an audience. However I won't falsely portray them or the music in favour of commercialism.
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Research: General & Directors
As my 'stoner' video unfortunately not my first idea, when I did finally give up on my Stereotypical Blues Train (the band who weren't available to film), I didn't have very long to reconduct all my research to a more relevant degree. I'm hoping that my earlier research (on my main blog) will still be okay to be graded, as I simply recorded opinions on my idea, as used the enthusiasm I recieved as a positive sign towards my video. I accept it may damage my mark as I've not done very much for my new idea, but I made the choice to focus on creating the actual video and ancillary tasks in favour of my overall mark rather than the process I would normally follow.
[audio research here! - cant upload from home]
Despite the scarce research, I was influenced also by a shot in the My Chemical Romance video for 'The Ghost Of You' that uses green screen. It is at 1:28 of the video:
It is directed by Marc Webb - a complete legend! He's a director/producer/editor. He's recently directed 'The Amazing Spider Man' which is currently in the post-production stage, awaiting release in 2012. He directed '(500) Days Of Summer'; and in television: 'The Office' (!!!), and 'Lone Star' as well as a lot of documentaries. He inspires me because of his work in various areas, as I want to experiment a lot too; however mainly for his music videos. Here are just some of the bands he's produced videos for:
- My Chemical Romance
- Green Day
- Good Charlotte (and their video with M. Shadows and Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold)
- Weezer
- Santana
- Snow Patrol
- AFI
- The Used
- Evanescence
- Jimmy Eat World
- Maroon 5
- Hoobastank
- Daniel Powter
Webb's video for 'The Ghost Of You' (the one above - sorry got sidetracked by his genius) has a special green screen shot at 1:28 that I love. I always wondered how it was done, and puzzled over it for ages. I had a theory and wanted to try it out. What I was going to do was to place a glass or clear plastic tray on a flat surface on top of the green screen and pour water into the tray. Then I would add a background so the water would spread across the background, as the sea spreads across the ballroom. However I couldn't figure out how to keep the constant points of the couples in the ballroom, and the rock things at the warzone.
So I tried using a smoke machine instead of water, and similarly sized objects instead of the larger markers. My attempt obviously didn't work, but I think (i hope) I may have been going along the right lines.
[my attempt]
I have since been told that there are behind the scenes clips on the bonus DVD of the MCR (My Chemical Romance) album that show how it was done. I'm going to watch it and try film it from the TV screen to upload to here.
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Another director I admire is David Slade. He's directed some of my favourite music videos and many films and documentaries including The Twilight Saga: Eclipse! He's done these videos for my favourite band, Muse:
- Feeling Good
- Bliss
- Hyper Music
- New Born
- In the 'Feeling Good' video, its simply Muse in a red room, playing the song with some fans. Except the fans all have warped faces. Sounds odd but it looks really cool!
- In 'Bliss' it is purely Matt Bellamy falling down a massive tunnel singing as he falls. Slade chooses really simple ideas and works on perfecting every detail to make it visually awesome.
- In 'New Born' some of the shots are sideways, so it looks like the band are standing upright but horizontally on a normal wall with a crowd below them.
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Wayne Isham is another brilliant director, responsible for the likes of:
- Bon Jovi
- Avenged Sevenfold
- Muse
- Michael Jackson
- Ozzy Osbourne
- Jimi Hendrix
- Pink Floyd
- Deep Purple
- Metallica
- The Rolling Stones
- Motley Crue
- KISS
- Aerosmith
- Richie Sambora
- Journey
He has a way with his videos that tell the story and capture the essence of the song exactly. He shows that in the above video. I think it takes some serious talent to make a video that will keep the audience's attention for anything over 3 minutes really. This one is 5:39 minutes and amazing; its more realisticly shot that some of his other videos, and it definately plays to the audience's emotions.
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All 3 of these legendary directors are truly gifted and I can't quite explain it but I would absolutely love to one day be capable of making people feel the way their videos make me feel, to create the same kind of physiological response they create in me. I feel that music videos need to do this, to match the quality of the music, to bring out as much emotion as possible; be it love, sorrow, fury, guilt, humour, excitement etc. I'm going to keep working on more and more videos until I can make something even a fraction as good as they do. :)
Part 2: Vince The Loveable Stoner
Unfortunately my old idea isn't possible now, so I've done what I can, and switched to this new idea:
Its when I'm just drifting between thoughts, usually at night or when I'm getting ready for something or other that I get my ideas - when I don't really have to be doing anything (or when I should be but procrastinate instead!)
I like to develop my ideas by writing them down and drawing little sketches (I use the word 'sketches' very lightly!) Once one idea's popped into my head I tend to get attacked by a barrelful more all at once. I like to try them all out, otherwise I won't know which one will work out best. It's probably a fault about me that I do try to keep all my ideas running at once, but I do eventually choose one to focus on. Quite often I'll keep my ideas to myself until I'm confident they're any good. Although once I've shared them I do benefit a lot from discussing them and using inspiration from other people's perspectives which definately helps me not to miss important aspects.
I get a lot of inspiration from music - useful considering this task is a music video! I'll be listening to a song and images appear in my mind of how I'd stage it. Usually I see it as a situation, more of a dream; but I like to think I'm getting better at translating those into film :)
I was listening to 'Vince The Loveable Stoner' by the Fratellis, when my music video was born. The song name made me laugh when I first heard it; and the song is cheerful and a little crazy. As I listened I got images of this Vince guy dancing, especially for the verse intros that reminded me of Hawaii. I listened to it a few times over to be sure, then started piecing it together.
I had footage I'd taken from my holiday at my nan's in Somerset. I'd literally taken the camera everywhere with me to practice and improve my technical abilty. I taught myself how to use most of the manual settings, and was particularly happy when I found I could use shallow focus and alternate between the foreground and background.
I'd initially planned to do a serious, intelligent music video however I had filming difficulties as the band weren't around enough for me to film them. So I improvised with this Fratellis idea and changed my mind. I decided to go for audience impact and fun instead.
I wanted to experiment with different technologies...
Albeit a slightly over-dramatic account of that afternoon, it is a truthful one. I checked over my hours of holiday footage, looking for shots to lend themselves to my new idea. I later filmed some more, as not all of it was useful or relevant for my plan.
I asked some of my male friends if they'd let me film them raving etc for my film. I managed to collect 6 of them! By the end of the day I'd filmed a decent amount to work with and see if my idea was feasable.
At first, I found the green screen a little difficult to produce clear video with. I realised that the problem was the material not being stretched smoothly enough, so I re-pinned it up and held the corners down, which made a substantional difference to the quality. I tested my videos over some of my holiday footage and was delighted to see my idea would work! I had my vision, and now the means to create it!
My idea for 'Vince The Loveable Stoner' literally came to me in the media room one afternoon form time. I was zoning out staring through the green screen, letting my mind wander...
Its when I'm just drifting between thoughts, usually at night or when I'm getting ready for something or other that I get my ideas - when I don't really have to be doing anything (or when I should be but procrastinate instead!)
I like to develop my ideas by writing them down and drawing little sketches (I use the word 'sketches' very lightly!) Once one idea's popped into my head I tend to get attacked by a barrelful more all at once. I like to try them all out, otherwise I won't know which one will work out best. It's probably a fault about me that I do try to keep all my ideas running at once, but I do eventually choose one to focus on. Quite often I'll keep my ideas to myself until I'm confident they're any good. Although once I've shared them I do benefit a lot from discussing them and using inspiration from other people's perspectives which definately helps me not to miss important aspects.
I get a lot of inspiration from music - useful considering this task is a music video! I'll be listening to a song and images appear in my mind of how I'd stage it. Usually I see it as a situation, more of a dream; but I like to think I'm getting better at translating those into film :)
I was listening to 'Vince The Loveable Stoner' by the Fratellis, when my music video was born. The song name made me laugh when I first heard it; and the song is cheerful and a little crazy. As I listened I got images of this Vince guy dancing, especially for the verse intros that reminded me of Hawaii. I listened to it a few times over to be sure, then started piecing it together.
I had footage I'd taken from my holiday at my nan's in Somerset. I'd literally taken the camera everywhere with me to practice and improve my technical abilty. I taught myself how to use most of the manual settings, and was particularly happy when I found I could use shallow focus and alternate between the foreground and background.
I'd initially planned to do a serious, intelligent music video however I had filming difficulties as the band weren't around enough for me to film them. So I improvised with this Fratellis idea and changed my mind. I decided to go for audience impact and fun instead.
I wanted to experiment with different technologies...
So lets get back to that earlier green screen moment...
There I was, staring past the green screen, beyond the real world, zoned out in some crazy music world of mine, when the opening bars of 'Vince The Loveable Stoner' can be heard... I could see my dancing stoners clear as day... the green screen comes back into focus... my stoners are still there...they step out of my mind's eye... and begin to dance in front of the green screen!
Albeit a slightly over-dramatic account of that afternoon, it is a truthful one. I checked over my hours of holiday footage, looking for shots to lend themselves to my new idea. I later filmed some more, as not all of it was useful or relevant for my plan.
I asked some of my male friends if they'd let me film them raving etc for my film. I managed to collect 6 of them! By the end of the day I'd filmed a decent amount to work with and see if my idea was feasable.
At first, I found the green screen a little difficult to produce clear video with. I realised that the problem was the material not being stretched smoothly enough, so I re-pinned it up and held the corners down, which made a substantional difference to the quality. I tested my videos over some of my holiday footage and was delighted to see my idea would work! I had my vision, and now the means to create it!
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