RB - Mini analysis on female singer

To allow us to continue developing our concept  we have decided to use a female to do the singing on the video rather than no singer, for a few reasons; which can be seen in Katy Bs video for 'Louder'



1. It matches the grain of voice of the vocals.
2. It gives more of a story.
3. It helps links shots together.
4. It makes the video more performance based and uses less random shots.

These points will all improve the quality of our video both generally and in the specific areas needed. They will give the video more meaning and make it more visually appealing as well.

JD - Analysis on Locations

To be able to continue with the development of our concept and music video, we need to come up

with some ideas for locations that would suit the low-fi and surreal feeling we want our video to

have.

- I watched a few videos of similar styles to what we would like to do and looked at the locations that they have been shot in. The locations all seem to be fairly anonymous and dark, some with an industrial feel to them.

- Some of the videos with abstract slow motion shots appear to be shot in a dark studio, which helps to keep the audiences attention on the detail of the shot.

After going over these videos as a group we feel that this sort of anonymous location would work well in our video. We are also going to be using slow motion throughout our video.

Below are a few screenshots from Hadouken - Take the Lights Out and Delirium - Dust in Gravity

SA - Technical Analysis on Costume

In order to carry on with out development of our concept and music video, we need to figure out what type of costumes will be needed for the characters in our video. We have decided that we need a female to do some lip syncing to the track, and they will need to be dressed in appropriate clothes in order to match the look of the video we are looking for.

• I looked at a few videos and looked at the costumes of the people in them, they all seem to be wearing very 'retro' clothes with plain patterns and nothing too new looking and bright colours. These clothes seem to add to the richness of the videos and this is what we hope to achieve in our video.
• The clothes don't usually have a pattern on them and they have an 'indie' feel to them and this type of richness and slightly low-fi look to them is something we hope to achieve in our video.
  
• I our video we have decided that the best type of costume will be something similar to the ones in the screenshots below:

SA - Development of Idea

We have now agreed that the shots won't be completely random, but they will still be quite surreal and abstract, but we feel there needs to be a small link between the shots. We are now looking for inspiration from other videos to provide this link.

JD - Plans for Hastings Reccie

When we go to Hastings we are going to take 2 of the potential 3 cameras with us that we have access to, so we have a chance to practice using more than one camera at the same time for different angles of the same shot. We are going to be looking for surreal locations that may be abandoned that are easy to access and will have potential to be used in our video. During the reccie we will take shots at the locations to make sure they look the same in the video as we picture in our heads.

RB - Proposal for Audience Research

What Style?
The style of our audience research will be an online survey in which anyone can answer a series of questions in  variety of ways so that we get the answers we need as well as being able to recieve new ideas from other people.
What Purpose?The purpose of our audience research is so that we can present our range of ideas and recieve information about what the audience think will work. We will also be able to recieve new ideas from people, ideas that we may not have thought of that could potentially be quite good.
Sample Audience?
I think a survey that suits both focussed and wide range of people would be better. Posting the survey on selected music forums (such as http://www.dnbforum.com/ and http://www.planetdnb.com/)

and on websites like facebook will give us results from both people into that genre of music and people that may not be but may have some good ideas.
Ideas for questions?
Examples of questions we would ask in our survey would be; What visual ideas would you associate with the drum and bass genre?,   Do you think the theme of running would be suitable in a drum and bass video?, Do you prefer music videos that are performance based of that have more of a narrative to them?, Would you expect the band to appear in the video or do you think a more artistic, non artist based video would work?

RB - Technical Analysis

For my Technical analysis I chose to do 'Red sign' by Kap Bambino it is very artistic and something that would suit our track quite well.


Here is a list of shots in 'Red Sign' by Kap Bambino:

- From 0.00 to 0.14 there are various fade ins/outs of smoke clouds.
- Fade to shot of the ground
- Cuts to shining light
- Fades to more smoke
- Fades to a CU of dust falling to the floor and someone runs through the shot. it starts off slomo but then speeds up suddenly
- Cuts to MS slomo running, skips
- Cuts to MS of runners upper body. Really jumpy
- Cuts to a slomo LS of the person running
- Cuts to a CU of the runners face
- Cuts to a MS and peds up the body of a second runner
- Cuts to a MS of one of the runners chasing the other
- Transition into the female runner 'on fire'
- Cuts to MS woman falling to the floor
- The angles change and there is a lot of flashing black
- Cuts to slomo of the man running
- Cuts to the woman kneeling on the floor, flashes in and out
- Cuts to a CU of the woman's face. Light flashes on and off.
- Cuts to black
- Cuts to CU of woman's face, flashes.
- Cuts to a MS slomo of the man running
- Cuts to a LS of woman kneeling on the floor as the man flies over her through the air
- Cuts to slomo MS of man falling
- Cut to CU of woman's face
- Cut to woman standing up
- Cuts to her falling, slomo
- Cuts to black

Video ends.

The fast cutting rate in this video complements the speed of the track, which is what our video will need to do. It also is quite artistic rather than advertising the artist. Having an artistic feel to our video would be more suitable as our track is a remix and isn't the kind of track to be advertised to a mass audience. The way the video speeds up, slows down and skips keeps it interesting as it seems sort of abnormal, and that something is going wrong. Overall I think this is a good source of inspiration for our video as the use of slowmo will be beneficial to our video. also the cutting rate is similar to what we will be looking to do. This video also uses several visual ideas that would suit our video, these being the smoke/dust shots and the flashingof the lights.

JD - Further Proposal for Reccies

After further discussion as a group about our video, we have decided that London will still be a good destination, along with Brighton. We also feel that we could use more local destinations and our own houses to create some of the abstract shots. For some of the darker and surreal shots we feel that an abandoned warehouse or buildings of some sort would be a good location, but it's finding somewhere that is safe and legal to do a shoot in, not just if we think it looks good!
On Tuesday 5th October we're planning to go on a Reccie to Hastings to look at and film potential locations, as on the seafront there are lots of interesting shapes and abandoned, surreal locations.

SA - Development/Change of Idea

Between us we have decided that doing a music video with a clear storyline isn't the best option for our song, and after seeing the video for 'Red Sign' by Kap Bambino, I was inspired by the slow motion effects and the seeming randomness of the video.

• I think for our video we should try and make it visually appealing and not focus heavily on a mainstream story with generic boys and girls together etc.
  
• I think our group can use our creative sides to make a video that is considered art, and not so much as an advert due to the fact that the song doesn't have any band to promote as it is a remix of a song that is already successful.
  
• Our ideas for the video now are that we will have a few people and us doing quite random things, like jumping and running, and then we will use different depth of fields, time lapse, slow motion, time sped up and editing techniques that match the beat of the song.
  
• We all agree that this is a better idea than trying to make up a story to our video to follow the song.
  
• This also means that we have no limits in terms of locations and actions, we can do very abstract and surreal things, meaning the video can stand up to repeatability as there will be lots of things going on.

SA - Brighton Reccie

On Wednesday 22nd September we went to Brighton to practice filming potential shots and locations that we could use in our music video production.


We had three HD cameras to film with as we had the schools camera, and Rob has a HD camera and his digital SLR also records HD videos, we found that this availability of cameras would be useful when filming as each camera has different functions. Robs SLR was easier to use when filming shallow depth of field and blurred clips, whereas the other two were good for normal shots, and Robs HD camera was good for continuous filming, we used this for the time lapse shot.

We have decided that one of the main techniques we are going to use in our video is the use of blurring, pull back focus, and shallow depth of field. On the trip we practiced a few of these shots to get the feel for which camera would be best and how much to blur etc. In our reccie video the shots are shown in various locations inside and outside.

Below are some photos of the locations we found and the kind of shot compositions and angle
that we might use in these locations:

























Below is a video that Jake put together of the practice shots we took on the reccie:

SA - Technical Analysis

For my technical analysis I looked at 'The XX - VCR', as I felt the type of video is similar to what we are planning to use in terms of camera techniques and editing.

• As the cutting rate in this video wasn't very fast, matching the tempo of the song, I took a shot by shot analysis of the whole video and this helped me to see how the use of shallow depth of field and long takes on some shots can work effectively to show a particular mood in a video.
  
• In this video most of the shots were at least 2 to 3 seconds long, some even longer. In our video i think this very slow cutting rate wouldn't be suitable, however the shot types and techniques used in this video could be used very well in our video.
  
• This video is shot constantly in black and white until 1:58, when there is a transition from B & W to colour in one shot, as a lantern is brought down over the males face.
  
• The black and white at the start makes everything seem cold and harsh, and there is a hard contrast between the dark and light areas making it seem very moody, however when the colour comes in, there is a warmth to the video and near the end the room changes to one where there are cold blues and greens, the different colours and light is helpful in conveying different moods within videos.

Below are my notes that I took of each shot when analysing the music video shot by shot:

JD - Technical Analysis

Below is a shot list of Katy B's Katy On A Mission.

- Begins with Shallow DOF of tree branches
- Cuts to shallow DOF of fence with O2 behind, tracking
- Cuts to ECU of Katy B singing
- Cuts to MS of man in darkness
- Cuts to shallow DOF CU of DJ equipment
- Cuts to MS of DJ from behind in silhouette in club
- Cuts to Tracking shot along wall
- Cuts to Dark MCU of men in dark room
- Cuts to CU silhouette in-front of blue wall
- Cuts to MS of Katy B dancing in doorway of make up room
- Cuts to MS of men sitting in dark room
- Cuts to MS of Katy in recording studio
- Cuts to CU of man in silhouette in dark room
- Cuts to MLS of crowd
- Cuts to MS of Katy B walking on stage
- Cuts to CU of Katy B singing in recording studio
- Cuts to ECU of Katy B's lips in recording studio
- Cuts to MCU of Katy B singing in recording studio
- Cuts to MCU of Katy B singing on stage
- Cuts to CU of mans arm whilst walking
- Cuts to Panning shot of crowd from behind
- Cuts to MS of crowd members from front
- Cuts to Tracking MLS of Katy B walking on stage
- Cuts to MS of crowd members
- Cuts to LS of crowd from above
- Cuts to MS of DJ from behind, showing crowd
- Cuts to MLS of crowd from above
- Cuts to CU of crowd
- Cuts to CU of crowd
- Cuts to Panning MS of Katy B
- Cuts to MS of Katy B on stage, goes in and out of focus
- Cuts to Panning LS on Katy on stage with crowd in front of her
- Cuts to ECU of Katy B singing in recording studio
- Cuts to panning MLS on Katy B singing on stage with crowd behind her in shot
- Cuts to MS of DJ in silhouette with crowd out of focus behind
- Cuts to CU of Katy B singing into mic
- Cuts to MS of Katy B singing into mic from side
- Cuts to CU of Katy B singing into mic from in front
- Cuts to panning MS of men in back of car
- Cuts to CU of Katy B in recoding studio
- Cuts to ped down MS of Katy B in the front of a car
- Cuts to MCU of Katy B and DJ dancing
- Cuts to tracking right MLS of Katy B and DJ dancing with crowd behind them
- Cuts to LS of crowd
- Cuts to MCU of 2 black men shaking hands at camera, begins out of focus.
- Cuts to panning right CU of crowd
- Cuts to MCU of Katy B leaning on car
- Cuts to ECU of Katy B singing
- Cuts to MCU of Katy B and DJ singing from behind Katy B
- Cuts to Panning left MS of Katy B and DJ singing with crowd behind them
- Cuts to 180 right pan CU of Katy B in recording studio
- Cuts to CU of dancing mans t-shirt
- Cuts to MCU of DJ in silhouette
- Cuts to Slow-mo ped up of girl in crowd dancing
- Cuts to left pan of men drinking champagne in dark room
- Cuts to CU of mans trainers
- Cuts to CU of Katy B singing on stage, low angle
- Cuts to MCU of Katy B singing on stage
- Cuts to slow-mo MS of girl dancing in crowd
- Cuts to LS of crowd from high angle
- Cuts to MS of man in mask
- Cuts to slow-mo MCU on man dancing
- Cuts to slow-mo ped up of dancing girls legs
- Cuts to slow-mo MS of girls dancing in crowd
- Cuts to CU of Katy B singing, goes out of focus at end of shot due to
shallow DOF
- Cuts to zooming out MS of Katy B singing in the front of a car
- Cuts to MLS of couple sitting down
- Cuts to MS of Katy B singing in a room
- Cuts to MS of man dancing in silhouette
- Cuts to CU low angle of Katy B singing into mic
- Cuts to MLS over the shoulder of DJ of crowd
- Cuts to MS of girls dancing
- Cuts to out of focus MS of crowd
- Cuts to MCU of Katy B in the front of car
- Cuts to CU low angle of Katy B singing into mic
- Cuts to MS low angle of Katy B on stage

I stopped at 1.30 as the video is very repetitive, so there wasn't much point in recording similar shots over and over. Through out the video the camera is moving fairly constantly to help add energy to the video. It also helps portray the club scene that the video is filmed in. Although the video is very lively it has a low-fi and backstage feel to it, which is one of the reasons why I chose to analyse it. The video is also filmed in a constantly shallow depth of field which is what we are looking at doing in our video so this could help give us some pointers on how to make it look effective. The video has no obvious narrative, with a large percentage of meat shots during the performance shots.



This video has helped to give us more ideas for our video and we feel that the shallow depth of field with a low-fi look is going to suit us well.

JD - Proposal for Reccies

For our video we were thinking of a low-fi area that maybe has dark aspects to it. I came up with the idea of East London as it has lots of fairly run down , lots of council estates and large blocks of flats. If we wanted to get some more upbeat shots we could go to Victoria or Hyde Park. Brighton is another option for less dark shots as we would have the option of filming on the seafront or down The Lanes.

JD - Moving onto A2

At the beginning of the AS course we were all new to using video cameras and blogs to record our work. Due to this, it took us a while to learn to use them both to their full potential. Hopefully at A2 we will be able to utilise these more and use them to their full potential right from the start.

- This year we are designing the digipacks for our track, so we will be able to 'personalise' our blog further than we were able to last year by using our graphics. Using our own graphics in the blog will hopefully make everything more aesthetically pleasing and will help to link everything that we do together with the same design.

- This year we have HD cameras, which are of significantly greater quality to the DV cameras. The new cameras also allow us to be more creative as we can adjust the depth of field and focus manually, whereas on the old cameras we were not able to do anything like that.

- The blogs allow us to communicate with each other via commenting on each others posts and giving our opinions n our other group members ideas. These commetns help to add depth to our blog and help to show development of our idea, whereas if it was on paper we wouldn't be able to show that we communicated with each other over our ideas.

- The blogs also enable us to embed tracks and videos from youtube which adds depth to our research and makes it easier to go back and find things that we liked and could gain inspiration from.

RB - Moving onto A2

 Using blogger last year really helped us out as a group, mainly because we could discuss and develop our ideas and concepts not only in the classroom but at home as well. However this year we can use it to help us even further in a number of ways:

- As I mentioned above, the blog allows us to discuss and develop our ideas out of the classroom. We can comment of individual posts which allows us to discuss ideas but also the comments specific to that part will be easy to find under that post. This helps us by ideas and concepts to be recorded and not forgotten.

- We can also add links and embed youtube videos into our posts/comments. This makes things easier for us as a group as we can view others ideas easily without worrying about finding the right clip etc. This allows the rest of the group to give feedback on ideas easily developing our concept further and quicker.

-We can customize the look to create a more aesthetically pleasing blog. As we will be creating a digi-pack for our music video, we can use our images/artwork from this as a background and title image. Relating the look of our blog to our work to create a more professional look.

- New high definition cameras will increase the quality of our music video dramatically. Not only will the video be of much higher quality, but the new cameras have a lot more functions than the older DV cameras, such as manual focus. you can also adjust the aperture etc to create the exact look you want in the video. They also make editing quicker as there is no need to capture the footage into the computer as the video files are saved onto an SD card allowing you to drag and drop the files into the editing software.

SA - Moving on from AS

When we first started AS we were new to using cameras and the blogs to record our information, notes and research. We quickly adapted to using them, but still didn't use it to its full potential, something which we can change this year for A2.

• The blogs' style this year can be more specific to our particular music track, and can be more customised because we will be designing graphic art for the digi-packs, so this art can be transferred to the blog title page and finish off the look and aesthetic appeal of our blog.
  
• The form of the blog and the interactivity allows all of our us as a group to access and post on it, but also it allows for us to view each others posts and comment and share our ideas on the subject of the post. This type of interactivity between us allows for our ideas and concepts to develop easier than if we did all our work in books.
  
• Another aspect of this, is the fact that it is on the internet and this allows us to link to websites and embed videos that we have looked at into our posts so other groups members can see what we have been looking at and feedback on the research and contribute, further helping to develop the idea and concept.
• The new HD cameras will also help us improve from AS as they have manual focus functions and the superior quality of them compared to the old DV cameras. This allows for more creative shots and more experimental shots, without much worry of the footage being of a low resolution.
  

JD - Ideas

After watching Katy B's 'Louder' video, I really liked the idea of using an extremely shallow depth of field all throughout the video to add depth and a cinematic aspect to the video. After thinking about a low-fi look and discussing the idea of a 'chase' as a group I came up with the idea of group of friends messing about outside a club or shop in the evening. During their messing about one of them causes another to spill their drink over themselves, leading into a playful chase. If we wanted to try some lip syncing we could include a back story of a girlfriend of one of the boys, that appears to be left out or forgotten.

JD - Responding to Track

1. The track we have chosen is Chew Lips - Karen (Netsky Remix)


2. The track is of the Drum & Bass genre, but as it is a remix of an indie song it has some different characteristics to a normal d&b song, such as guitar riffs and 'chilled' vocals. I can tell that it's of the Drum & Bass genre due to the drum beat and the speed to the song.

3. I think that the song would allow for a mixture of low and high-fi aspects. The more indie aspects of the song could connote a darker side to the video, maybe allowing for a sub-story in the video. The low-fi look would also be related to the fact that D&B is not a mainstream genre and a majority of indie videos have a low-fi feel to them. Some of the guitar riffs in the video may allow for a happier, brighter look to the video.

4. Below are some interesting stills from videos of the same genre:

5. I could not find a budget for either of the above music videos (Katy B - Louder & Example - Kickstarts (Bar9 Remix)) I would expect that they both had fairly similar budgets as neither have been shot in a set, all on location and neither of them have great amounts of actors or effects such as animation which would help to keep the costs low.

6. As a group we have decided that we would like to incorporate a chase or someone walking into our video. We would also like to keep the video low-fi and maybe incorporating some high-fi aspects to it, such as 'loud' colours. If we were to incorporate a chase it would probably be friends chasing each other as a joke rather than a serious chase sequence that could be hard to pull off in a music video.

7. For this type of music and low-fi video, I think an urban location would be perfect, not too run down but somewhere where a group of freidns would hang out on a friday night on the streets.

8. If we were to include lip syncing, we would need a female to sing for us. The singer has a very emotional voice, so this would need to be portrayed in our video.

9. I think that a handy cam would be suitable for this video and also a shallow depth of field to give it a more low-fi feel. Filters may also be suitable to be used in the editing stage to add a different feel to some of the shots.

10. We may need to 'employ' a group of friends to help us with a chase sequence if that's what we decide to do. Also if we decide on trying some lip syncing we would need a female to help us out, as the singer is female.

RB - Video Analysis

Track: 'Gimme Sympathy' - Metric. 

I chose this song to do an analysis on as it is the same genre as the original version of the song we are making a video for.

'Gimme Sympathy' - Metric

Institution and Audience:

I think this video would be consumed by the audience in a focused and ambient way. I think they would consume it in a focused manner as the video is quite artistic in both the way its filmed and in the mise en scene. however it would also be consumed in an ambient way, as its quite relaxing and catchy. When using Adorno's critical framework we can see that the video doesnt really advertise to the audience. The lead singer is wearing rather extravagant clothing however the rest of the band are just wearing fairly normal clothes, which doesnt advertise certain styles and life choices to the audience. This hints to us that the audience is more active than passive, going against Adorno's theories.
Genre and Narrative:
This video is performance based, with the band members changing roles during what appears to be one continuous take. Using Goodwin's theory we can see, that there aren't any links between the audio and the visuals in the video. However the lyrics and music are synced to the person singing and the people playing the instruments. I think this video could be considered art and individual because of the way its filmed and the way the band members change roles. Also the use of light is creative too.
Media Language:
In this video the bands image is the most important, as the video has no linking to the lyrics and there is no narrative. The setting and lighting imply that the performance is on a stage live, and the way the people in the band swap roles seamlessly gives us an idea of how close the band are.  There are alot of meat shots in the video which sells the star image and connects the artist to the audience.
Representation:
In this video the bands star persona is constructed in the way they dress and in the setting they are in. The use of light and colours create the band's meta-narrative of an indie rock band. The video agrees with Dyers theory that a star image is created and the artist is incoherent as it uses the two paradoxes. In the first paradox the band members in the video are dressed  in fairly ordinary clothes and dont give off too much of a 'star' personality, allowing the audience to connect with the artist, making them seem ordinary, yet at the same time the artist is extraordinary because they are performing to a mass audience. Also in the second paradox the artist performing to the audience making it seem individual as if the artist is singing directly to the viewer, however they are also absent from the audience as it is really targeted to a mass audience. These paradoxes along with creative visual ideas within the video ensure the continual consumption of the video.

RB - Responding to a track

1. 'Karen' - Chew Lips (Netsky remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttaKD6XVGI4
2. The track is a remix of an indie song, you can tell its a drum and bass remix from the fast drum beats, however you can tell its a remix of an indie song because in some areas it slows down with some slow guitar riffs, and some singing.
3.I think this song is more of a lo-fi track as most drum and bass songs aren't really a mainstream genre. Also the track is a remix of 'Karen' by Chew Lips, who personally, I have never heard of.
4.A similar video that would be comparable is 'Iron Heart' by Netsky. It also uses the same sort of ideas in the video as we were thinking for ours.
screen shots of the same genre:

5. I couldn't find the budget for Iron heart by Netsky, however it looks like a fairly decent budget, as it is a good quality video and there are a lot of post production effects.
6.I think a suitable treatment for a video for a track of this genre would be a chase scene with someone running away from other people or a more dance kind of video with people having a good time with their  friends etc.
7. Suitable locations for this type of video would be urban setting with traffic etc. I would have it set at night as well.
8. Obviously the singer in our track is a female so we would have to use a female to sing the parts in our video.
9. I think pro-filmic and post production special effects would have to be shot brightness and slow motion. Maybe camera shake would be useful if the video involved running or dancing.
10. I think we would need to employ a few people just to create a crowd to use in a party sort of scene. Also people that are good runners may benefit our video if we decide it needs to have running in it.

RB - Using the HD cameras

In our lesson with Mrs Johnson we used the new Panasonic HD cameras. These are the cameras we will be using to create our music video so we were allowed to go out and test the functionality of the cameras and get a feel for them. Overall we adjusted to the new cameras quickly as they have the same general functionality of the old cameras however there are some major improvements over the old cameras. First of all the definition of the footage is a lot cleaner and crisper. The new cameras also record straight to SD card which saves us having to capture the footage into the computer as now we can just drag and drop the footage into the editing software via USB or SD card reader rather than firewire. These new cameras are smaller and lighter than the older cameras so creating a steady shot would be a bit harder if it wasn't for the anti-shake feature which is very good and when testing it gave a visible result. With the new cameras shooting video in AVC-HD format we have had to upgrade the editing software to allow it to cope with the bigger file sizes and resolution of the high definition videos.

JD - Video Analysis

Track: Louder - Katy B

I chose to analyse this music video as the video is very artistic and has a fairly low-fi feel to it. The track is also of the same genre as the track we have chosen.

Institution and audience:

I feel that the video would be viewed in a more ambient way than focused. This is because it doesn't really have a narrative. As the video is fairly artistic and cinematic in the way it has been filmed the first couple of viewings of the video may be focused. The extremely shallow depth of field used in the shots helps to keep it interesting, along with the continuously changing scenery

Genre And Narrative:

The video is solely narrative based, with nearly 100% of the shots being meat shots. Katy B is the main character in the video with her seemingly walking nowhere and meeting up with friends. Looking at Goodwin, there isn't an obvious link between the sound track and the visuals. The video cuts mainly to the lyrics, but when it does cut to the beat of the music it only goes on for around 4 beats. After the video has been cut to the music there is often an extended shot that helps to add to the narrative.

Media Language:

This music video doesn't seem to have a distinct narrative, but in a way the lyrics could be connected to the video. The lyrics seem to connote Katy B as a rebel: 'As I buy another round, with my final twenty pound. Seems as if my money's spent, how'm I gonna pay the rent?' When watching the video at this point there seems to be no worry of not being able to pay the rent, as Katy B is sitting round a table in a cafe laughing with her friends. I think that the video depicts a a girl still in her youth, with nothing to worry about, and the lyrics tell us of a girl who's adventurous and sociable, just like the stereotypical teenager.

Representation:

The lyrics of the song represent the artist as a stereotypical teenager, but the video represents her as a more mature, young woman that enjoys meeting up with friends. The location looks fairly run down and reminds me of East London with lots of flats and run down shop fronts in small streets, which is a fairly typical characteristic of rap videos.

SA - Responding to Track

1 . The track we have chosen is Chew Lips - Karen (Netsky Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttaKD6XVGI4

2. The genre of the track is mixed between indie and drum and bass, as it is a drum and bass remix of an indie track. I can tell this from the fast drum beat, which show the DnB side and slow singing parts with soft guitar riffs, which show the indie side to the track.

3. I think the track would represent a relatively low fi video in places but then maybe switching to quite a high fi look to the video due to the slow, quite indie parts to it, and then when the main beat comes in it is quite clean and crisp and could represent a cleaner, more clear look to the video

4. Some stills of interesting shots from the same genre are shown below:












5. I couldn't find the budget for the examples above, but looking at their low-fi quality, they don't seem to be big budget productions which is good for us as it will be easier for use to replicate and use ideas from them effectively without it looking bad.

6. An outline of a treatment for this type of genre of music would, in my mind would be a chase sequence with a happy feel to it, so perhaps friends chasing each other or friends running together to somewhere. Then parts of the video cutting to the friends sitting together, camping or at a house relaxing.

7. Some suitable locations for this type of video would be quite urban, but not rundown and dirty, quite bright and content. For example, like the ones below:












8. The grain of voice would have to be a female as the lead singer in the band is female and although in this remix there is only a small part where there is actually singing, I think a female character would be the best option.

9. I think in terms of pro-filmic and post-production special affects, the ones that would be suitable would be brightening the shots and using blurring and slow movements to create a sense of surrealism.

10. I think we would need to employ a few people that we know so we can have a good size group of people to work with, in whatever direction we go. Also i think we definitely need to to employ a female character so that the grain of voice is correct and makes sense to the audience.

SA - Video Analysis

Track: Chew Lips - Karen

• I chose this video to analysis as it is the same band that the remix originated from, and I like the richness and use of shallow depth of fields to create very surreal looking atmosphere.

Institution and Audience:

• I think the video would be consumed through ambient and focused viewing as there is an artistic feel to the video, which some people may like to watch just for the visuals, whereas the track may be consumed as ambient as it is quite relaxed.
  
• The video helps to amplify the artists meta-narrative, due to the low-fi look and interesting use of depth of field and focus. When applying Adorno's framework I can see that this video doesn't show off any 'false needs' and doesn't focus around 'commodity fetishism' at all, as the artists themselves are wearing quite bland clothes that don't seem to be worth much.
  
• This helps portray the idea that you don't have to focus on the clothes artists are wearing to appreciate their music, this would then make the audience for this band active, going against Adorno and siding more with Bulmer and Katz.

Genre and Narrative:

• This video is narrative and performance based, although the characters and the band seem to be in a similar location, making the band almost part of the narrative.
  
• When looking at Goodwins theory we can see that in this video, there aren't many links between the lyrics and the visuals that are obvious, apart from lip syncing and syncing the instruments with the audio track.
  
• There are a few examples of where the beat of the drums is synced with the visuals, one is when she punches the air and as she stops the u hear a drum beat.
  
• Also the cutting rate in some parts matches the beat, especially in the verses. I think this video could be considered art because of the use of light and colour, and the use of blurring in and out of focus, and changes in depth of field.

Media Language:

• In this video the band image plays a main role, and the narrative is very vague and the lyrics don't seem to relate to the video. The light colours and blurriness of the video connote quite a happy mood, but then the locations where the band and the characters are is quite dark in some places.
  
• One example is where the boy and the girl are laying in an empty bath in an undecorated room watching a TV that has no signal and is fuzzy. The look of the characters seems to connote a sense of relaxation and contentment with life, as they jump around slowly together in loose clothes and are kissing and cuddling each other.
• The location and mise-en-scene of the video is very lightly coloured and has a faded look, not one of a derelict nature but one that shows perhaps a bedsit or squatters lodgings, the characters are also similarly dressed to match the location. One example of this is when the female character is lying on the mattress on the floor with a empty look on her face as if there is some sort of drug use involved which would connote a darker side to the seemingly joyous atmosphere of young love.
  
• This adds to the polysemic nature of the video and conforms with Stuart Halls different readings of music videos. the different moods mixed in with each other in this video show lots of meaning to different people and this also improves repeatability as each time the audience watches it in focused viewing there can be different images and readings emerging.
• The camera angles switch quite a lot in the video, but when the characters are playing with the dove, the camera is quite low and moves slowly with the movement of the characters. It tries to follow the dove but isn't quick enough. This adds to the overall atmosphere, possibly fueled by drugs, as the slow moving connotes disorientation and relaxation.

Representation:

• The bands start persona is constructed through their clothes and the whole environment and atmosphere that they are in. The light colours and blurriness of the video add to the band's meta-narrative of an indie/alternative band.
• In the video there is little ideological discourse that challenges society's view on what is the norm. Although youth and young love is portrayed and the representation conforms very much to the social norm.
  
• This also helps add to the bands meta-narrative as a happy, and contented band, however the is a deeper view of the band that could be interpreted. The story in this video seems to be a memory, and so there is a more mournful aspect to it as well.
  

SA - Using HD Cameras

In our lesson on Friday 10th of September we used the new HD cameras for the first time, this gave u s chance to explore their differetn functions and try out some shots that we could use in our music video production. The main difference between these cameras and the DV cameras is the improved quality, HD. The cameras have relatively the same controls and have touch screen capabilities. The cameras connect to the computer via a USB port and not a Firewire port meaning that there is no need for real-time capturing and the clips from the SD card can be dragged and dropped into a folder from which we can then use them in our music video. This will save time and give us more time to edit and experiment with more challenging editing techniques. The new HD capabilities require a higher specification editing program, Adobe Premiere 8, which allows for HD footage to be used on it efficiently, and because the camera record in AVC HD format the final results will be a lot clearer and sharper than the DV footage we used last year for our two minute opening of a film. The cameras are smaller and more lightweight, however this oculd be a problem when trying to keep steady shots, although our first test shots seemed to be quite smooth and we didint encounter any shake problems.

JD - Using New Cameras

In our last lesson with Mrs Johnson on Friday the 10th, we looked at the new HD video cameras for the first time. This gave us a chance to try them out an explore their features that the DV video cameras didn't have. A good point about the new cameras is that they have pretty much the same layout as the old DV cameras so they are very quick and easy to get used to. The new cameras also have a touch screen. This allows for an easier to access and use menu. The touch screen is also used when the manual features are selected, for example, when manual focusing you use the touch screen to adjust the focus. The HD cameras record the AVC HD format onto an SD card rather than onto a DV tape which results in much greater quality footage. It also means that there is no need to capture the footage to the computer as each clip is saved as a seperate file to the SD card. This will save time as the files can just be dragged and dropped into a seperate folder which will allow more time for editing. They also connect to the computers via USB instead of Firewire. This makes the cameras much easier to connect to different computers. The school has also just got Adobe Premier Elements 8 which allows us to edit the higher quality HD footage more easily than the previous version of Adobe Premier.

RB - Track Decision

The track we have decided on is Chew Lips - Karen (Netsky remix)




After showing our track to the class we recieved fairly positive feedback. The main concern with our track was that it was fairly long, however we have found some areas in the track where it is possible to fade or cut the song without it feeling like we have cut it. Ideas for the video given to us via class feedback included things like chase scenes and running, however we would need to think of some kind of narrative rather than just the characters running without an actual purpose. Another idea given was a sort of party/club theme with people dancing and creative use of lighting, however we would have to think of something clever and creative to keep the video interesting to the audience we would also need to borrow/hire some studio lights and a generator. Also having a crowd is a risk because people may say they will turn up to the shoot but they may forget to turn up or they might not be able to, so unless we have people that are guaranteed to turn up to the shoot a crowd scene is not the best of ideas as it could delay shooting.

RB - Development of the indie rock genre

As the track we are doing is remix of a song by an indie band there going to be an added indie style to the video we produce and after looking at my mood board I realised that there were a few areas that show the indie style that I missed out, the areas I missed I have included below:

Indie album covers:
The images used as album covers for Indie rock albums are very strange and interesting and don't feature an image of the artist on the front. they look like they are almost solely created digitally.

Indie rock locations:
The locations associated with the Indie rock genre are very urban and estate looking. They look as if the artist doesn't have a high budget to produce pictures/videos with so they don't travel to exotic locations and instead use what is close to them.

Indie rock colours/graphics:
The colours and graphics are very minimalist and simple. All of these graphics are relatively simple and fairly easy to do on photoshop.

SA - Development of Moodboard

In my initial moodboard I used quite a lot of iconic images, which showed various locations, clothing, colours, graphics and album covers associated with the electro/drum and bass genre. After researching these images and getting ideas that we could use in our video, I decided to look at music videos in our particular genre and get screenshots from them that we can then can ideas or emulate when producing our music video.

Some screen shots that fit into our genre are shown below:

Some of these screenshots have very stylistic features and I feel this would be a good direction to head in our music video production, experimenting with depth of field and focuses and interesting angles will make our music video have an artistic look, so it could be considered as art rather than an advertisement.

JD - Moodboard Development

After trying to develop my moodboard further, I have found that I have covered the costumes, locations and album covers well as the same themes occur across the whole electro genre. To broaden my knowledge of electro music videos more, I have watched videos from multiple electro artists and below you will find some screen shots from somevideos that I felt were the best out of what I watched.

RB - Track Ideas

I think these tracks would be good to do because in my opinion the more drum and base style tracks would be a lot harder to create a music video that would fit in with that type of music. These songs still keep some of the electronic sounds that we were thinking of doing, but it also seems a lot easier to create a video that would fit the song well. I personally think that Blindness would be the better of these two songs to do.

RB - Moodboard

The image above is my first moodboard, which is created based on the indie rock genre. From the moodboard we can see that it is a very individualized genre, with its own style and fashions. This is seen in one aspect by the way that the band members dress, in a sort of smart/casual style. Indie videos are also usually different and fairly random, this could be of use because so far we arent planning to do a performance based video, this gives us a bigger range of things to do.

JD - Possible Tracks

After a quick discussion after our lesson today we have decided to look at Vocalised Drum & Bass and Electro songs. Below are two that I feel are good options for us to consider.

I'm not so sure about the second track, but I feel that the vocals would allow for some interesting cutting and footage.

JD - Mood Board

Above is the first version of my moodboard. I chose to do the genre Electronic as it was a route that we looking at going down. Electro music videos are often quite random, like indie videos, and we liked this idea. I have found some album covers from key Electro artists and also significant iconography from the Electro music scene such as clubs, bright colours and 'retro' clothing.

SA - Moodboard and Possible Tracks

This is my first initial mood-board of possible genres we might do for our music video. I looked for quite conceptual and abstract graphics, which I feel would be a good way to go in our production of the music video. The images, colour and text in my mood-board reflect the style of music, with lots of colours and abstract looking subjects and shapes.


Possible songs that we are looking at for our music video production are:

-Karen (Netsky Remix) - Chew Lips



-Black & Blue (Netsky Remix) - Miike Snow