Video done!

I finally completed the video, and it is now uploaded on here, as you can see

Digipak design

I have also finished my digipak now. I used a similar image for the front cover of it, and used a stock photo of cardboard with various other pictures for my back cover. I found pictures of gig locations around the world including the Camden Barfly and New York's Joe's Pub to put on the cardboard and elsewhere in my digipak. I also used pictures I had taken while travelling to university open days to give a more obvious sense of travel, as the places used may not be distinguishable to a viewer as being on separate continents

The centre piece of this is my front cover, which shows similar fonts as my poster for the album, as well as having the same photo and same editing done to it, with the sketch in the top left corner spreading across the image. On the right is my back cover, with a track list and images to keep the page from being bland and on the left is an inside page, with a picture of large open spaces, to show the aspect of freedom in the album

The central piece of the inside of my digipak is my CD holder, and is the reverse of my front cover. I was going to put a media tray template in here, but I could not find one that did not have a background and would sit on this with the card behind it still visible. To the left and right of this I have placed images of places where gigs are held, the Camden Barfly on the left and Joe's Pub on the right. As stated earlier these are both on different continents, with the Barfly being in London and Joe's being in New York. I feel this helps increase the idea of travel having a key part of the album and links with the rest of my tasks well.

Album poster

I've finished creating a poster for my album as part of my ancillary tasks. I used a similar text font and position to keep continuity between the poster and my album, and used the picture of the front cover of my album as the image for the poster

I have tried to create a sketched effect in the top left corner of my work, and had it meet with a section that I had blurred to try and make it meld more with the image, as I felt the image on its own was quite boring

Music Video Ideology

During a lesson we discussed ideology, which is a system of meaning inherent to a specific culture that allows us to define the world and make value judgements about it.

We also discussed the idea that this ideology allows us to 'normalise' media texts, accepting the behaviour or values it holds as part of its conventions. An example of this is the media representing social interaction and social institutions. Because these representations are repeated they are reinforced into broad social definitions.

For example, a video I put on here for 'Headbutt' by The King Blues has a very 'British' style to it, due to low production values and being filmed in grimy/run down areas, which are conventions of British cinema. It is also reminiscent of communist principles, especially those of Vladimir Lenin, due to the video showing that the people in it are happy living in run-down areas, and that it is good to be a part of the lower classes. While it is easy to tell the style of music is linked to punk, it is only loosely related, as there are more links to other genres such as folk, by singing about love. There are also influences from rap music, such as the type of hat the singer wears and the way he moves his hands while singing. This shows that while there are many ideological conventions taken from other genres, the feel for this type of music is very low production values and simple video styles.

A different viewpoint in this genre could be shown with the video for 'London Is The Reason' by Gallows, which leans more towards the heavier side of the punk genre

This video is again based in grimy, run down areas, however it has lost the folk aspect, as the song is not about love, with the chorus being:

We have no fear, we have no pity

We hate you, we hate this city

 

This shows that the song is not about love, its about anger, which is more in line with punk ideology. The lyrics are also sung with a much deeper tone, which makes it sound more violent. The video itself is based around the normal people rising up against a police culture, showing the police as animals such as pigs to dehumanise their actions of attacking people in the streets. This sort of view on the authorities is definitely in line with a punk ideology, which makes this video far more simple to assess, as it doesn't fuse genres like the King Blues one does. The video for this song still uses conventions of British cinema, but there is very little influence from anywhere else but punk music videos.

One Take Videos

While looking at various types of music video I came across the One Take video. TVTropes.org explains a "Oner" as it calls them as:

One very long continuous shot. The camera moves, the actors move, things happen, the camera keeps shooting. Difficult. Expensive. Rarely makes it out of the editing room intact. It's also an expensive pain in the ass on film cameras, many of which hold no more than 5 minutes (if that) of film for a shot.

While this is very colloquial it does have a truth in it, it is difficult to create an effective one take video, as it requires a great amount of precision and timing. There are a few artists in my genre that use One Take video.

Perhaps the most well known One Take video is Ok Go's video for 'This Too Shall Pass', showing a very complicated process across the whole video

While this is very impressive, it is not representative of all One Take videos. For example, a singer in a similar style to my artist, Jonny Craig, has created a One Take video for his song 'I Still Feel Her Pt.3' which is a very simple video, just following him around a house.

While this is very simple, there are more complicated One Take videos used in this genre. For example, a band I have previously made a post about, Motion City Soundtrack, made a One Take video for their song 'True Romance' where the first half is filmed in reverse, and the second half is shown in reverse

While this is a technically impressive type of video, I feel I would not be able to create a video in this style as it takes a large amount of precision and planning to get correct, and any mistakes ruins the entire take, and has to be restarted from the beginning. As much as I would like to create a One Take video I doubt it would be possible unless it was very simple.

Plans for Digipak design

For my digipak I am going to create an actual version of it rather than using a computer software, as I feel this would present what I make better than just using an image manipulation program. I am going to use cardboard to make the case, and will probably make it with 6 panels, but the number of panels could be increased if I can find enough stuff to put into the digipak. So far I have decided that I am going to use one of the panels as a holder for a booklet, one to hold the CD in place, one for a front cover and one for a back cover with a track listing. This gives me 2 panels yet to decide what to do with, which I may fill using images from filming.

For the track listing I will probably use songs from the same album my song is off, Poetry of the Deed, but could use songs from other albums, or covers he has performed as bonus tracks. For the front cover I will use one large image, while for the panel containing the booklet I will use multiple photographs, as I intend to have the holder cut diagonally from corner to corner.

Bad Religion - True North

I thought I would post a video that is in my genre that shows a similar style to what I want to do, to show that it is done inside my genre. I want to create a video where there is little or no lip-sync, and the action is not focused on an artists performance of the song but on a single event. For this reason I have chosen Bad Religions song 'True North

As you can see, this video has no interaction with the band, instead focusing on a person listening to the song on a record deck while they're getting ready to go out. I think this style is quite good as there is minimal amounts of detail to distract from the song, which is the main reason that a video is made, to sell an artists music

Motion City Soundtrack - L.G. FUAD

Yet another music video post, this time the song 'L.G. FUAD' by Motion City Soundtrack. Motion City Soundtrack (MCS) are a rock band from Minnesota who use a very definitive sounds that is easily recognisable to fans of the genre

This is the video for their song 'L.G. FUAD' which features many different people lip-synching to the song as they go about their daily life, starting with the singer and ending with the band performing the song. The use of multiple people lip-synching the song is an easily replicated video, as long as people have the timing to get it right. The video itself is very straightforward, as I have shown this genre normally is, however this also uses animations as part of the transition from person to person, making it more complex than other videos I've shown While this is a very 'simple' video concept, I am unlikely to use this style throughout the entirety of my video, due to the difficulty of finding several people who know the song well enough to do this.

Specific target audience

The style of acoustic music my artist uses is very difficult to quantify into a single target audience, being very generic and open to differences of opinion. However, some of his songs are a bit more 'rocky' than others, such as 'One Foot Before The Other'

This shows that there are definitely songs that can be put into a genre and had a target audience analysis on them, but overall the artist has a very middle-lane style, and is approachable from all directions of music.

For my analysis of the specific target audience I am going to break it down into 5 sections: Socio-economic group, Age, Gender, Ethnicity and Lifestyle.

Socio-economic group
This term defines the income of an individual household, as well as their professional background. The professional background of people who listen to this music is generally within the C1 group (supervisory/clerical roles) and below. I would say that due to the younger age of most of this audience it would drive the overall group down so I would think that the group associated with this style of music is C2/D.

Age
This style of music is more likely to be listened to people of a younger age, and as such I would expect the age range to be between 16 and 30. This also affects the overall socio-economic group by bringing the overall professional background down, as people of this age are less likely to have more professional careers

Gender
This style of music has been known to be preferred by more males than females, but the more acoustic style in my artists other music would attract a wider audience, so for my artist I would suggest that it is a fairly even split, but for the genre as a whole it is more males who are attracted to it.

Ethnicity
This style of music does not have much representation in minority groups, as the area these groups traditionally live in are more heavily urban, and as such have different music coming from the area. However, this doesn't exclude the entire group from a genre, as there would be a few people who listen to this music from ethnic groups not expected to listen to this style.

Lifestyle
Many fans of this genre are likely to be found with items that show support for their particular favourite band, musician etc. Most do this by wearing T-shirts and official merchandise of the group, but there are quite a few others who get tattoos linked to a artist, and are highly likely to actively seek out a chance to see a musician at a concert

Contacting my artist

As we are supposed to gain permission from the original creator of the song we are using I emailed Frank Turner yesterday to gain this permission. I found his email from his website, http://www.frank-turner.com. On the 'contact' page of the site he posts his email, which is shown here:

 I received a reply today saying:

hey chris
thanks for the mail. sure thing, if it's a non-profit scheme then I'm always fine with this kind of thing. a credit would be nice. good luck with it.
ft

 

This means that I have been given permission by the artist himself, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

Digipaks

For my task I am required to create a digipak of the album. Unfortunately I don't know what this is, so I had to research these to find out about them.

What is a digipak?
A digipak is, as wikipedia puts it, 'a style of Cd, DVD or BD packaging' such as this:

As this shows, they are normally made of card or paperboard and have multiple panels, which are used to display information such as track listings and information. There is always one panel which has a plastic tray capable of holding a CD in it, but sometimes there are multiple panels of this, if there are extra Cd's to the album.

While these cases look better than normal 'jewel cases' they tend to be more fragile, due to the materials they are made of. digipaks tend to be less resistant to abrasion and show signs of wear easily.

Recently there has been a change in the manufacturing process, aiming towards reducing the environmental impact of the digipaks, being made with recycled materials such as plastic bottles or sugarcane.

How I can match it to my artist

As I intend to match the digipak style to the style of Frank Turners albums, I should put some style models on here:



As these show, normally the album art for his albums are drawn or simple graphics, with a single album having a real model. I will probably focus more on making a digipak like the 'Love Ire & Song' album, as I have limited drawing skills and would find it difficult to replicate a style similar to the other albums. I also want to create a physical version of my digipak rather than just have one made of images, as I feel it would look better to have a physical copy photographed rather than a mock-up made on photoshop.

Directors of my Genre

It was very difficult to find people who direct music videos in my chosen genre, but I finally found two, so I can make a post about them

Adam Powell
Adam Powell is the director of the music video for the song 'The Road' that I am using. He started directing films by going skateboarding while in school and filming friends while skating. He went from skate videos to music videos in university when his friends band asked him to film a video for their new song, as they had just been signed to a record label. He used 2 types of film to record this, digital video and super 8mm film. He started working with Ascension, a production company, and started working with bands in my genre such as The King Blues, Architects and Gallows, who he made 5 videos for. After working with Gallows he was approached by Black Dogs RSA, who are a UK hip-hop video company, making him go in a different direction from the genre he was used to, but this has given him recognition as a director of successful music videos and has increased the amount of videos he has made massively

Darren Doane
Darren Doane is a director who was an influence on Adam Powell and many others, creating many music videos over the years and recently moving into film. He has produced videos for many bands, including AFI, Blink-182, Atreyu and Chiodos, who are all bands in my genre. He originally wanted to draw comic books, but after being rejected from comic production companies he moved towards filming and then towards music videos.

Digital Technology

For my piece I am going to have to use many different types of technology, most of it digital. The programs I will use are:

• Final Cut Pro/iMovie - uploading footage and editing

• Video camera - for filming

• Photoshop - creating digipack

• Blogger - showing work off

• Slideshare - adding slideshows to my blog

• Youtube - finding videos to help give ideas for my video

Frank Turner - Try This At Home

Since I'm showing the conventions of my chosen songs genre, I thought I should use one of the artists other videos to show how he uses and challenges the conventions of his genre. To this aim, I am using the video for the song Try This At Home to show this.

This video is slightly faster paced than 'The Road' but has a similar low budget feel to it. The video features several members of the public performing various parts of the song, along with Frank Turner. This style is very simple, yet effective as it gives large amounts of variation to every frame of the video.

This video reinforces the idea of simple conventions in this genre, as it uses handheld cameras and random members of the public to play the song. It also shows a humorous side to the music, as Frank Turners backing band are occasionally seen directing people, but are mostly seen messing around.

This video has shown me that the type of video I want to make can be very easy to make, and that the genre itself is not at all serious, which will help for any video I want to make.

The King Blues - Headbutt

My favourite music video would probably be for the song Headbutt by The King Blues. The King Blues are a punk band who mix various forms of music together such as ska, folk, and punk. The singer, Jonny 'Itch' Fox has been known to use self-written poetry in the songs to give a more personal approach to the music. The song is featured on the album Punk & Poetry (2011). The video itself is a very simple one, but it helps to emphasise the meaning of the song, which is about a girl that he loved. While this goes against the topic punk songs would normally focus on, the mix of punk and folk allows this to work well.

 

The video shows the singer performing the song throughout in different run-down areas, which gives it a very cheap feel, but this fits the vocal and instrumental style of the genre, as it has a very 'unpolished' quality. The video itself mostly takes place in a single location, a rooftop, and has slight use of imagery to match the song. The chorus of the song is:



I said to all my mates, she won't make a monkey out of me
But when she kissed me it felt like a headbutt
It felt like a headbutt

 

This section has imagery matched to this, by having a monkey in almost all shots of the video with the singer, as well as frequently touching his head or hat when he says 'it felt like a headbutt'.

The video itself has very little story, being a performance video. This does not stop it from showing imagery, as stated above, and using cuts and unrelated shots to effectively add to the video. The video itself is shot in very few locations, mainly taking place on a rooftop with a few additional areas, such as a small kitchen and a red wall, to add some variation to the video.

This video appeals to me because of its simplicity. It shows that you do not need a big budget or fancy settings to make an effective video, and that a good video could be made using only a camera and a few friends.

This video also shows that the conventions for this genre of music are very simple. The videos I have seen in this genre tend to be very simplistic, looking as if they are filmed with handheld cameras in the open areas rather than in studios. This will be very helpful for me, as it makes it easier to create a music video which could be closer to the standards of my genre than other ones would be.

This has influenced my work greatly, as it proves to me that it would be easy to produce a good music video in this genre, as videos for The King Blues and others in this genre, such as Frank Turner, all follow a style model which gives them a low budget, improvised approach.

The song I'm using

I figured I should put the song I am using for my video on here, to show how it sounds and is paced, so I found the official video for it to post on here.

Research methods

There are 4 types of research that are used in any business. These are:

·       Primary

·       Secondary

·       Qualitative

·       Quantitative

Primary

Primary research is first hand information which you have gathered yourself. This is an advantage as it allows the information to be completely up to date, but can be costly and take a lot of time to collect the information together.

This form of research can be used in interviews and questionnaires, and can be used anywhere from the streets to social networking sites

Secondary

Secondary research is information which was collected previously by other companies or opinion survey organisations. While it is cheaper and quicker to get this information, the information may be out of date or not as true as it was, which makes it not very useful for use on modern media.

Secondary research is easily accessible, as much of it is available from books, the Internet, newspapers and even census results could hold some useful information (how many people live in an area where your product sells well etc)

Quantitative

Quantitative research deals with numbers. For example you could research the number of products of a particular type bought in a week, and break that down to see how a single brand is doing compared to its competition. This type of research can also be used for looking for patterns in the numbers obtained in Primary or Secondary research methods.

Qualitative

Qualitative research is research that is based on words or interviews rather than numbers, for example an interview with members of the public would be qualitative. These can be useful if you want to gain an insight into popular opinion of your product rather than look at sales figures. These normally take the form of surveys or questionnaires

About my artist

For my coursework I am using a song from the artist Frank Turner, and it seems like a good idea to give an overview as to how this artist fits into the musical world, so that is what this post is for.

Frank Turner is a British singer/songwriter from Winchester. He became involved in music initially by being involved in the punk rock scene in the early 2000's, being the singer of the now deformed band Million Dead between 2001 and 2005. Following this he started performing solo, using an acoustic guitar to fuse his original punk sound with a more folk inspired one, creating his current style of music, which is normally linked to the Post-Hardcore sub-genre of rock music. His songs normally centre on life in Britain ('Once We Were Anarchists'), touring as an artist ('Nashville Tennessee') or his personal beliefs ('Try This at Home').

Since becoming a solo artist in 2005, Frank Turner has released 4 full length albums, titled Sleep Is for the Week (2007), Love Ire & Song (2008), Poetry of the Deed (2009) and England Keep My Bones (2011), with a fifth, currently untitled, album in development. There have also been 14 official music videos made from his songs.

About my coursework

For my coursework I am going to use a song by the artist Frank Turner, who is a solo folk/punk singer, to make a music video. I am going to use his song 'The Road' for my task, and my aim is to create a more literal video than the official video for this song. This will also prevent me from copying the original, as I will have to create something which avoids the original video

Music video budgets

The video for Michael Jackson's 'Scream' is the most expensive music video of all time, costing roughly $7 million to make in 1995. While this would suggest that the video would be very technical and impressive, the video itself is very bland and boring, and it does not look like it cost $7 million to create.

The videos for the band OK Go's song 'This Too Shall Pass', on the other hand, are very technical and impressive, using a lot of things going on in the shot to keep the viewers attention, and the entire filming being done in one take, which would be difficult due to the technicality of the videos. These videos cost far less to produce, for example the Rube Goldberg Machine (a machine which performs a task in an overcomplicated way, usually involving chain reactions) video only cost $90,000. While it is significantly cheaper than the Michael Jackson video, it is much more entertaining and impressive. This shows that the budget of a music video is not important as long as it is an enjoyable video.

Goodwin's music video analysis

In ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992) Andrew Goodwin explains that music videos have defining characteristics, such as:

(1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

(e.g. stage performance in rock music video, dance routines for pop band)

(2) There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

(this could be illustrative – being performed ‘literally’, amplifying – exaggerating the meaning or contradicting – goes against the meaning, perhaps ironically or satirically)

(3) There is a relationship between music and visuals

(either illustrative, amplifying or contradictory again)

(4) The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work

(e.g. the artist creates a distinct visual style for themselves, to allow intertextuality through their work)

(5) Frequent references to looking or watching, along with voyeuristic or erotic treatment of the female body

(depends on genre, and can also be applied to males in a video)

(6) There are often intertextual references

(e.g. referencing films, TV programmes, over music videos etc.)

I think that this information could be useful for when I make my own music video as a coursework piece, as it allows me to use ideas already used in proper music videos.

Types of music video

There are several types of music video, each having a different way of promoting the band or song. Examples of these are:

• Performance video – band ‘perform’ the song (e.g. Falling In Reverse - 'Raised By Wolves')

• Story videos – can be related or unrelated to song (e.g. Hadouken! - 'M.A.D')

• Hybrid performance + story – perhaps the most common, story intercut with band performing (e.g. Pierce The Veil - 'Caraphernalia')

• Animated - video is animated rather than using actors (e.g. The Flobots - 'Handlebars')

• One-take video - all the video is filmed in one take (e.g. OK go - 'Here It Goes Again')

• Artist absent - the artist does not appear in the video, often story videos as well (e.g. Funeral For A Friend - 'Roses For The Dead')

• ‘Random’ video – video is unrelated to songs theme (e.g. Motion City Soundtrack - 'Her Words Destroyed My Planet')

• Intertextuality - video references other forms of media, like film (e.g. Atreyu - 'Her Portrait In Black')

• Amplified emotions - video overdoes the emotions expressed in the song (e.g. Ed Sheeran - 'small bump')

• Humour - video is comedic (e.g. Blink-182 - 'All The Small Things')

• Extended video – video goes way beyond the length of the song (e.g. Michael Jackson - 'Thriller')

• Low budget – the video has low production values, either deliberately or by necessity (e.g. Get Scared - 'Sarcasm')

• High budget – the video is very expensive and has high production values (e.g. Thirty Seconds To Mars - 'The Kill')

• Subverts or contradicts central theme of the song – e.g. if the song is happy the video is sad or angry (very rare)

People required for a film

Films take huge amounts of preparation to create and there will be a lot of people needed to help plan, produce and edit the film. For this reason, a lot of people are 'hired' in the film-making process to help make the film. Some of these would be:


Director
Assistant Director
Producer
Planning & Scheduling
Legal & Financial
Accounts & Pay Roll
Distribution
Production Designer
Art Director
Costume Designer
Make-Up & Hair
Casting Director
Actors
Second Unit
Animation & Effects
Director of Photography
Camera Operator
Gaffer/Lighting
Sound Production
Film Editor
Colourist
Sound Designer

This amount of people would only be required if you were making a full-length feature film. However, short films would require fewer people to take on more roles, to allow the limited budget to be used more evenly.

Genres Throughout History - Fantasy

1910 - 1920's
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910)
- The Thief of Baghdad (1924)
- The Insects Christmas (1913)
- Dante's Inferno (1911)
- The Phantom Carriage (1921)


1930 - 1940's
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- the Blood of a Poet (1930)
- Its a Wonderful Life (1946)
- Fantasia (1940)
- Bambi (1942)

1950 - 1960's
- The Seventh Seal (1957)
- Orpheus (1950)
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
- The Raven (1963)
- Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

1970 - 1980's
- Eraserhead (1977)
- Heaven Can Wait (1978)
- The Princess Bride (1987)
- Ghostbusters (1984)
- Labyrinth (1986)

1990 - Present Day
- Pans Labyrinth (2006)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Monsters Inc. (2001)
- Toy Story (1995)
- The Lion King (1994)

Genres Throughout History - Horror

1910 - 1920's

- Nosferatu (1922)
- A Bargain With Satan (1913)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
- Frankenstein (1910)
- The Golem (1920)

1930 - 1920's
- Freaks (1932)
- Dracula (1931)
- Dead of Night (1945)
- The Wolf Man (1941)
- The Invisible Man (1933)

1950 - 1960's
- House on the Haunted Hill (1959)
- Psycho (1960)
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- The Birds (1963)
- Godzilla (1954)

1970 - 1980's
- Halloween (1978)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- The Thing (1982)
- The Evil Dead (1981)
- Eraserhead (1977)

1990 - Present Day
- Interview With the Vampire (1994)
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- The Woman in Black (2012)
- Devil (2010)
- Scream (1996)

Genres Throughout History - Sci-Fi

1910's - 20's

- 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea (1916)

- Frankenstein (1910)

- Metropolis (1927)

- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920)

- The Lost World (1925)

1930's - 40's

- The Invisible Man (1933)

- The Walking Dead (1936)

- House of Dracula (1945)

- Dr Cyclops (1940)

- The Ape Man (1943)

1950's - 60's

- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

- The Time Machine (1960)

- Planet of the Apes (1968)

1970's - 80's

- Star Wars (1977)

- Alien (1979)

- Blade Runner (1982)

- The Terminator (1984)

- Predator (1987)

1990's - Present Day

- The Matrix (1999)

- The Fifth Element (1997)

- Serenity (2005)

- Paul (2011)

- Tron: Legacy (2010)

Film Genres

• Fantasy
• Satirical
• Sci-Fi
• Adventure
• Spoof
• Crime
• Anime
• Romance
• Western
• Slasher
• Bollywood
• Action
• Thrill (Psychological and political)
• Documentary
• Horror
• Romcom
• Historical/period
• War
• Gangster