Welcome to my A2 Media Studies Blog. The brief is: to produce a music video, a digipak cover, and magazine advert for the digipak. Throughout the course we will be learning about conventions (general and genre specific) used for each of these products.
After school today, Richard and I visited the area we're shooting at on Saturday. We took some pictures to give potential feedback providers.
The reason we have chosen this location for the performance aspect of the music video is because we are trying to achieve an isolated theme throughout the music video. This would tie into the location for the narrative as that also carries an isolated aspect as this will be filmed on the moors.
The shots taken also give us slight indication to what shots will be available on Saturday, an example of this is pictured on the right, as well as the positioning of each of the band members. As there are houses in the surrounding areas we will have to ensure these don't feature in the video.
There are several positions the band members could be situated in the woods. However as there is a small amount of rubbish and manmade ramps, we will have to tidy and position the band around these objects. For example the lead vocalist could be position on one of these, therefore showing that he is the focus as well as having the power over the audience, common conventions in music videos.
During the performance aspect of the music video we intend to have cut away shots which would focus on the performance location but not feature any of the band members. The two shots directly above and the one shot below are examples of how these cut away shots could be obtained and appear during the music video. Another aspect we could use during this aspect is the use of effects. An example of this is the use of multilayering.
This location, pictured throughout this post, will just be used for the performance (like previously mention), the reason for this is because we intend to film the narrative on the local moor. This change in locations for the narrative and performance aspects are commonly scene in music videos generally and genre specific.
This weekend I started work on the magazine article which is required for the course, accompanying the digipak. I used one of the blogs from last year, Beth Cooper's, and also a magazine ad I found in popular underground metal music magazine, Metal Hammer. For applications, I used PhotoShop primarily, and also the iPhone app Instagram, to edit one of the CD's on the front cover. I included information such as the band's releases, contact info and social networking options, how it is available for download and more. Below are some screenshots from when I was working on the magazine advert.
Creating the layers...
...and editing the images.
The filesize of the final image is 15.3MB which is extremely large for a .jpg file, so the picture on this blog is not as big as possible. Click here to see the image maximised.
Artist: Gallows
Album: Grey Britain
Magazine Found In: Kerrang!
Album Magazine Advert
The majority of the page is the album artwork which features a Union Jack with a shield and a white rose overlaying the flag. The artists name (Gallows) and the album title (Grey Britain) also feature on the page, above the shield. At the bottom of the advert there is a list of UK tour dates. The advert also contains information including the release date of the album, which in this case is the 4th May 2009. There are also several website addresses including Relentless' to obtain exclusive studio footage, as well as the album's own website everythingisfallingapart.com
Quarter page advert for
the band's single
"The Vulture (Part II)
Earlier in the same magazine, same issue, there is another advert for the same band however this time it is for one of the albums singles "The Vulture (Act II)", it is also a quarter page advert unlike the one found later in the magazine for the album. Again the same text is used for the band's name and the single. The advert includes information about where the track can be downloaded this also includes a strip at the bottom of the advert for the full album.
Album: Chained to the Nite
Magazine Found In: Terrorizer
The advert used is half a page however this is further separated down to advertise for four bands, the others being Carcass's "Wake Up And Smell The Carcass", Oceano's "Depths" and an announcement for SSS on tour with Cancer Bats with their album "The Diving Line" advertised below it. Thus making the advert a 1/8 f the page.
The album is pictured to the right of the advert with the band pictured to the left side. The band's name is pictured above the album artwork. Underneath the album artwork magazine reviews are included including reviews from Metal Hammer. To add to this additional information is also included telling the consumer that the product is now in stores and limited edition vinyl and a limited edition CDs, which contains a bonus CD containing two unreleased tracks, are available.
Our teacher and some of our classmates have given Sublime Transcendence some feedback regarding the initial digipak ideas, and while everyone agreed that the general stellar/cosmic/celestial idea was a nice touch and a nice theme to go with. However, a few disagreed with the stag's head design on the front, arguing that because the skull was a Flash drawing, it looked too cartoonish and novelty to be considered normal for the genre. Here is another similar design but with a different take on the skull; I took a photo of a dog's skull and doctored and edited it to sit the theme of the cover.
Below are some designs I've done on PhotoSh00p 4.0 for our digipak, following a few different themes and ideas, mostly nature and space related. I did the drafts on a small scale so the canvas would be easier to work with, so the designs below will not be exactly on the digipak as they are depicted here, apart from the last one.
The finished 1st draft of the cover, with the title of the EP added.
The proposed back of the CD case, when it comes to the final one this draft
won't be changed much at all.
The final design for the front of the digipak, similar to the inital drafts in the previous post.
The lyrics booklet.
The digipak credits. We've had some audience feedback for this and it was generally favourable
apart from the text being somewhat hard to read in places.
Here is a screenshot of how I've been making the designs, by using both Adobe PhotoShop 4.0 and 10.1 to create the canvases, effects and finished editions.
In this part, I am designing and editing vector traces and patterns
for the digipak back, as well as patterns used elsewhere on the designs.
Lastly, this is an example of how the final digipak front came together, by
importing parts from other canvases and editing different bits and pieces
with the tools PhotoShop provides, such as shadow effects and tints.
This month we're trying to organise some filming on the 22nd. We will be going up on the moor and filming the narrative first just because then we can look back on it and see what we need to do for the performance such as make up and gore. We are struggling to get the cast and crew in on the same date, but we think we can organise some dates in early february to help catch up.
Artist: Metallica
Album Title: "St. Anger''
Album Producer: Bob Rock and Metallica
Record Company: Elektra Records.
Genre: Metal
Year Released: 2003
Additional Information: Contains an extra DVD of album rehearsals.
The front of the digipak contains no text apart from just a Parental Advisory Explicit Content logo. The band's name and title for the digipak are placed on the side panel. The front panel features a orange background with a red fist which has been tired to something (but unapparent to the viewer) hitting the background creating sound waves which are signified by black colouring. This theme however is different compared to the back panel which spreads onto the first panel the viewer views when opening the digipak. The theme on the back panels is a skull with flesh visible and jagged teeth, with the gums visable, there is also one front tooth missing. The person also has long black hair and the red fist, which appears on the front cover around his neck/her neck. The inside of the digipack is dark with the only pictures behind on the first and third panels. On the first inside panel the picture is an angel which is had been tied up, this is also the same picture which is on the booklet which comes with the album. On the third panel there are
four pictures which provide a montarge, pictured below left.
Artist: Nirvana Album: Nevermind Album Producer: Butch Vig
Record Company: DGC Records
Genre: Grunge
Year Released: 2011 (originally released in 1991)
Additional Information: 20th Anniversary Edition, this features the basic CD as well as B-Sides, Smart Studio Sessions, The Boombox Rehearsals and BBC sessions.
The digipak also contains a small booklet containing photographs of the band with brief information about the album and credits on the songs included on the two CDs. The outer-casing has a blue theme, with an image of a baby swimming under water, with a dollar waving on front of it, the blue theme carries on apart from on one of the interior panels where a red panel with a monkey appears. On the inside the theme is that of a notebook with handwritten song listings.
The writing style used in this digipak is the same style as their previous one (Bleach) except from the title "Nevermind" which ties into the artwork as it is written in a style similar to that of water.
Artist: Nirvana
Album Title: "Bleach''
Album Producer: Jack Endino
Record Company: Sub pop Records
Genre: Grunge
Year Released: 2009 (originally released in 1989)
Additional Information: 20th Anniversary Special Edition
The cover of the digipak is black and white with an image of the three band members playing their own instruments. The bands name is in grey block capital letters about the picture with the same font and colour for the title. On the front cover there is also a sticker in the top left hand corner signifying the digipak is a 20th anniversary. In the digipak the CD features extra content including never before released complete performance from 9/2/90. As well as a 52 page booklet featuring many unseen photographs.
When the audience opens the front panel they see a black and grey photograph of a group shot of the band members. Further inside the digipak each of the inside panels have a continuous photograph of each band member one per panel (From left to right Kurt Cobain, Chad Channing and Krist Novoselic). The section also includes a 52-page booklet featuring many unseen photos and never-before-released complete live performance from 9/2/90.
The back panel features of white writing in the same style as the front panel with the black background and grey capital letters.
The original vector trace of the
skull, drawn by me.
Yesterday, we all got together and discussed various designs for our digipak. I used Adobe Flash Pro CS3 and Photoshop Elements 4.0 on an iMac with a Windows operating system to start the initial design; we decided that it might go on the front cover, OR behind the main CD tray within the case. We conducted some research into the idea of skulls/other similar imagery as a convention of metalcore digipaks before we started, and Sam decided that the skull of a stag would be a good idea, set against a celestial background.
The ALMOST-finished design.
Once I'd drawn the skull shape, I opened Photoshop and found a suitable space photograph, then imported the drawing and superimposed it on the background. After toying around with a few shadow effects, we collectively settled on a transparent/ghostly effect as it added to the creepy/supernatural feel on the art more. The design for this part is almost done, I just need to add some text.
At the moment we're designing our cover for the digipak and coming up with a theme relating to lyrical content as well as our bands image, looking at other band's themes from the same genre we can see that they share similar themes normally revolving around skulls, bones etc. The album cover we have so far has a stag's skull on it and we haven't decided on background yet but want to incorporate something that will look 'metal' as many other bands include this skeletal motif, As I Lay Dying, Motor-head, Avenged Sevenfold. The skull is used in metal covers because it symbolizes death which is a theme touched upon by many metal bands in their lyrics, as well as undeath.
Many metalcore bands use a digitally painted album cover. They normally fit the theme of the album for example TDWP's album WRAABB (left) the cover fits in with the lyrics of one of their songs Louder Than Thunder, the album's artwork was produced by Dan Seagrave who has produced many other band's covers such as Morbid Angel, Suffocation and Demon Hunter.
The Devil Wear's Prada's With Roots Above And Branches Below
Today (Friday 6th January 2012) the class were spilt up into pairs. Conor and myself were paired together and were given Linkin Park's "Minutes to Midnight" digipak. For this we found the following conventions.
- Album Artwork on the front panel with the band's name.
- Parental Advisory Explicit Content
- Colour scheme throughout which is different shades and tones of black and white
- A small application slip informing the consumer of the band's fan site and allowing him/her to join.
- Lyric Booklet containing producer and band member notes for each song, the entire album as well as personal thank-yous to people whom have helped create the band.
- Photograph montage with the bands logo overlaying.
- Track list, Producers, Barcode, copyright information of the back panel
- Band Name and Album Title on each side panel.
- Photographs of the band through the digipak. This includes the entire band covering three panels for the inside. The front and back panel are the front and back of the band in the same position but one the shot is from in front of them the second where the photograph is taken from behind them.
During our research the type of label influences the advertisements as well as places where they're shown.
Some examples of labels which are famous for showcasing metalcore bands.
Rise Records.
Victory Records.
Century Media Records.
Metal Blade Records.
Earache Records.
Bands on Rise Records are: The Devil Wears Prada, Of Mice And Men, Attack! Attack!
Bands on Victory Records are: Emmure, A Day To Remember, Strife
Bands on Century Media Records: Tesseract, Suicide Silence, In Flames
Rise was founded in 1991 by Craig Ericson in Roseburg, Oregon. He released a small number of 7" records before putting the label on hiatus to attend college. Ericson didn't release anything further until 1999, after moving to Portland, Oregon. He began issuing small-print 7" records, and his first CD release came in 2000, from the group One Last Thing. The label gave a strong foundation to bands Ever We Fall who later signed with Hopeless Records and Fear Before the March of Flameswho signed to Equal Vision Records. Later signees, including Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Breathe Carolina and The Devil Wears Prada gained considerable popularity while with Rise, and moved on to larger labels such as Suretone Records, Fearless Records and Ferret Records, respectively. Rise has also signed some veteran bands likeThe Bled, Bleeding Through, This is Hell and From First To Last. Rise Records' releases are currently distributed nationwide by ADA. The label is currently made up of 28 bands.
Originally focusing on hardcore punk or post-hardcore bands, Victory later expanded to emo, pop rock and metal. The label has had multiple records exceeding the 250,000 sales mark, including gold records The Silence in Black and White by Hawthorne Heights and Taking Back Sunday's Tell All Your Friends and Where You Want to Be. Recently, Victory has expanded their roster to an even wider variety of genres, including nu-metal and alternative. In early 2002, 25% of the label was announced to have been sold to Universal Music Group. However, later that year the deal was terminated by Victory. Victory is currently partnered with and distributed by Sony's RED Distribution.
Century Media was founded by Robert Kampf in Dortmund, Germany in 1988 and has gone on to launch the careers of bands such as Divine Heresy, Eyehategod,Nevermore, Moonspell, Diecast, Suicide Silence, Winds of Plague, Iced Earth, God Forbid, Lacuna Coil, In This Moment, Warbringer, and Shadows Fall. The label specializes in many different styles of heavy metal music. A number of artists listed are licensed to Century Media for the American market from labels mostly based in Europe. Century Media is also home to legendary acts such as Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, and Trouble. From 1995 to 2007, Marco Barbieri was the label's president.
The label’s most popular band is Lacuna Coil. Shadows Fall experienced its greatest success during its time with the label. Iconic hardcore punk band Sick of It All also resides in the Century Media family. Lacuna Coil’s 2002 album, Comalies, became Century Media’s first act to crack the Billboard 200 album chart, peaking at #178 two years after its release. Their fourth album, Karmacode, improved on that achievement, having sold over 490,000 copies since its release, and peaking at #28 on the US Billboard Album Chart. It hit number one on the Top Independent Albums Chart. Shadows Fall’s 2004 album, The War Within, set a new milestone for the label with a Top 20 debut on the Billboard 200 and also debuted at number one on the Independent Albums chart, having sold over 300,000 copies since its release. Other notable artists on the label that have also made appearances on the Billboard 200 include In This Moment, Arch Enemy, Stuck Mojo,Nightrage, Behemoth, Strapping Young Lad, Suicide Silence and God Forbid. The Finnish band Sentenced were awarded on August 14, 2008 for their platinum Buried Alive DVD labelled by Century Media. In April 2009, the label announced that they were extending their existing distribution deal with EMI, who had been distributing their releases in the United States since 1997, and in Europe since 2005, to include Australasia.
Student: Alex Burke Working With: Jonathan Bailey Artists: The Doors Song: People are Strange
Research:
Basic/Proficient - Looked at a range of of different bands in the genre - The Doors "Greatest Hits", Tim Whalen Nonet "Magnus, Distoture "Reverve", Myth and The Killers "Greatest Hits". Although a basic description explaining what each cover looks like and a brief description what common conventions are found in each digipak. Pictures are provided to allow the viewer to see what digipaks the group have deconstructed.
Appropriate material to the set task:
Excellent - On the front cover the photograph used shows the front of the hotel used as well as the cast members used for the video. There is also a sticker anchoring that the digipak is a limited edition and a bonus music video which contains the group's music video is features as well as a Greatest Hits CD. These two aspects are both common convention amongst digipaks, however normally if it isn't a cover which features the band it is normally a art designed cover. On the back panel the digipak has a track listing and websites for The Doors and the band's record company (Electra), this also includes e-mail addresses. There is also a barcode and copyright information location towards the bottom of the digipak. Again these are all common conventions for digipaks.
Editing so that the meaning is apparent to the viewer:
Proficient - The photographs which have been taken for the digipak depicts the front, an inside, and back of the location used for the music video, thus gives an insight into the music video as well as allowing the target audience to recognise it straight away if they have viewed the music video. The cast members from the production of the music video are included on the front cover which is located outside the hotel used.
Selected mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objectives and setting:
Excellent - The production the the digipak ties into the music video location as both are the same. Also an unusual, yet effective layout shows that the photographs taken have clearly been thought of before hand this is shown as the front of the digipak is the front of the hotel, inside it (the digipak), where the CD would be located, is the inside of the hotel looking upwards, and finally the back is the back of the hotel. For the inside the photograph used spans across the two panels however the middle section of the picture has been cut out to creating two sleeves this is to allow for the CD, the bonus DVD and extra material including the lyric sheet.
Used effects selectively and appropriately:
Excellent - The text used has been influenced by one if the digipaks the group deconstructed, which was The Doors "Greatest Hits". The text used looks slightly like the one the group deconstructed, like is a common convention throughout a band's history to stick with the same name template as it is recognisable. There are also little/no effects used for this product however if used the effects wouldn't be appropriate for the set task.
In conclusion I would give this 7 marks out of ten. As the research is just a brief description of what the digipaks are and the common conventions are used.
Here is a rough list of what we've done so far for the A2Vid2012 music video course, such as research, casting and more, and also a short list of what else we have to achieve before the February deadline.
For our research we are conducting a certain amount of investigation into how bands such as ours increase their notoriety using the media. For example, one such band, Los Angeles-based technical metalcore band Elitist, who have risen to fame in the undergroud djent/metal scene by using social media to get noticed, through websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud and more.
Elitist formed in December 2010 when Rodriguez and original vocalist Jacob were trying to re-start their previous band Another Day In Vain and recruited Hall and original drummer Robert from another previous Rodriguez project The Fortune Teller as well as bassist Mike Danese. The group decided to create a whole new sound which Rodriguez says is “a balance in our music that will appease both musicians and non-musicians with smart songwriting and a main lyrical theme of having strength to keep pushing forward.” A progressive viewpoint as well as a progressive sound as it were. Based in Los Angeles Elitist shares camaraderie with such fellow neighbouring artists as Volumes, Bermuda and Erra. The release of Caves to the internet last year ignited kids nationwide to take instrument in hand and try to play along and post instrument covers on youtube.
The band used the internet, principally websites like SoundCloud and MySpace, due to their built-in music players, to distribute their songs (for free normally, but with the option to buy on iTunes) to the masses online. They then got a stronger following by utilising other social media/networking sites like the most popular Twitter and Facebook to attract more attention, then started work on the Earth EP.
After a recent band practice, Sam, our vocalist, and one of our guitarists went up to Ilkley moorside to scout some locations for our video which we plan to start shooting on soon. Whilst we found a decent amount of possible areas to set up, we were always faced with the problem of how we were going to get the equipment that far onto such remote territory, especially the instruments like the drum kit. Here are some of the photos we took of possible locations.
A nearby (enough) forest on the Eastern side of the moor.
Large, flat scrubland and moorland with rocky outcrop.
Mitchell, our guitarist, near a path
with ferns and more rocky
Today we finally completed our sample scene that we'd been working on for the past fortnight or so. The quick excerpt includes a variety of shots we intend to use, as well as incorporting the two narratives of concept and performance throughout. For the final thing, we intend to shoot on the moorside as mentioned numerous times.
After much hardship and sorrow, I have finally completed our group's animatic, which demonstrates the different camera angles we'll use, who'll be in the video and more. The song is also included in the animatic, but only an excerpt because to cover the entire 4 minutes I would've had to spend time we didn't have on the flash document, so it is more of a summary of ideas.
We didn't
get to film yesterday due to band members not showing up to practice so we
couldn't get the shots we needed for the performance. However we'll be filming
next week and we'll have to get some filming done at the practice next week.
As our music video will be containing chasing scenes, I was asked to look at several music videos that contain chase scene aspects. The music videos I looked at were: Paramore's "Monster", Pulled Apart By Horses "Back To The F**K Yeah", Cavalera Conspiracy "Sanctuary", Beastie Boys "Sabotage" and Cancer Bats " Sabotage" and "Scared To Death".
Paramore - Monster
- Several shots of the band members in a hospital before chase sequence.
- Explosions in close proximity to each band member alert them which start the chase sequence.
- Jump cuts to link chase and performance scenes, which uses the music to change the shot used.
- Special effects used such as slow motion - especially used whilst explosions are behind at least one of the band members
- Shots used for chase scene are in front of of the band members. Chase scene covers several locations (hospital, church).
- Chase scene ends where the performance scenes are based.
- Camera moves slightly from left to right (or vice versa) during chase scenes.
- Variation of shots used however the majority of shots used are long shots.
Pulled Apart By Horses - Back To The F**K Yeah
- When the band members are being pulled by an unseen force close-ups of each band members are used.
- Each time the band members return to the centre of the forest, the location of the performance, each one appears to have blood on them and appear to be in a state of limbo. The band members also appear to be worried that the same occurrence will happen again.
- Points of view from the unforeseen monster and band members are used. During these sequences the camera shakes from side to side. However some shots are stills (normally when a band member falls).
- Throughout the chase scene there are jump cuts to other band members, who are all being chased.
- There is a wide variation of shots and angles used until the band members are back in position playing their instruments. This time they are in a further state of limbo.
- For a split second at the end the audience can see the drummer is pulled back signifying this occurrence is happening once again.
Cavalera Conspiracy - Sanctuary
- Shaky camera work throughout the music video.
- The monster is seen throughout the music video.
- Points of view from the people's prospective and the monster's are used throughout the music video.
- These sometimes consist of the person looking back to see the monster chasing him or her.
- Audience watches monster devour people and destroy the set.
- Jump cuts to performance aspect throughout the music video.
- When cast and crew members hide and the monster finds them the shots are quickened up allowing for the "prey" to escape.
- Point of views of people dead either in clear body bags or laid on the floor - blood and guts are shown.
- Everyone appears to be dead except from the band that is performing. The band is also surrounded by bodies.
- At the end the monster kills someone (shown through at point of view). The ending shot is from the person who has just been attacked prospective looking at the band finishing their performance.
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
- Wide variation of shot types and angles used. Panning and tracking are also used in a lot of the shots.
- Small amount of point of view shots used during the chase scenes. The majority of shots are from the "predators" prospective.
- If not a point of view the shot used is normally from the side allowing the audience to see what is happening. Sometimes shots are from the front but this is rare.
Cancer Bats - Sabotage
- Wide variation of shots used. Some of them the camera shakes from side to side.
- Some of the actions are repeated. An example of this is at 1.06 were a band member catches van keys.
- Point of view shots used whilst running behind other band members. Also used in front and at the side of a band member.
- Used a wide variation of shots and angles.
- Majority of chase shots are from being like the band member is being hunted.
- Several different location and environments used e.g. Streets and the car park.
Cancer Bats - Scared To Death
- Point of views from the monster chasing its prey and the prey itself.
- The majority of performance shots are points of view from the hooded figures - anchored through camera shaking slightly. Also through several of the hooded figures are holding cameras filming the band members.
- Snorricam used for front on close-ups whilst band members have escaped and being chased.
- Shots from still positions which track and pan are also used.
We intend to start experimenting with filming this month, and look for interesting locations, shot types. we also need to start experimenting with the gore and start choosing how the members are going to die and where they'll die. We are also planning to do a number of Sublime Transcendence vodcasts as a group on the metalcore genre and the progress of our idea and how it has changed, we'll also be doing podcasts together as a group, we intend to do them about progression in the week and any new ideas we have thought about or problems we will face during filming.
A shot from the Animatic, featuring a part of the performance.
I am currently working on an animatic storyboard for the group which documents some of our proposed camera shots, scenes and more. I am creating it using Adobe Flash CS3 Professional as opposed to other groups doing it by hand, as I believe it looks a lot more presentable as well as being able to include a lot of detail then export it as a movie to watch online. However, I do intend on putting a suitable amount of detail on it which means I am taking my time with it, so the finished thing can look as decent as possible.
letlive. are primarily a hardcore band with elements of different genres mixed in there such as metalcore, jazz and funk. The band are from Los Angeles, California. The band has released three albums :
Exhaustion, Saltwater, and Everything in Between (2004 At One Records)
Speak Like You Talk (2005 At One Records)
Fake History (2010 Tragic Hero), (2011 Epitaph re-release
Their latest endeavor Fake History has been quoted as; "a post-hardcore album fit for many of 2010's best-of lists" and representing "their exhilarating brand of progressive hardcore"
After a lineup change (with only vocalist/writer Jason Aalon Bulter remaining), their second album Speak Like You Talk was released in 2005, also on At One Records. The group gained momentum and after more personnel changes, signed with Tragic Hero Records in 2009. They released Fake History on Tragic Hero and it got favorable reviews The band continued touring and after signing with Epitaph Records in February 2011, undertook a brief European tour. Epitaph re-released Fake History in April 2011 with three additional tracks, including two B-sides and one new song produced by Brett Gurewitz. The re-release has been the subject of several favorable reviews. The band are known for their incredible stage presence and live shows being 'crazy'. They have four music videos of tracks that are off Fake History. These include 'Muther' 'The Sick Sick 6.8 Billion'
The concept of "Postmodernism" argues there is no reality. The audience views everything in the world through symbols which represent more symbols. It has emphasis on the role of language and motivates ideas and beliefs. In particular the theory attacks the use of classifications and stereotypes including male versus female, straight versus gay, and white versus black. Postmodernism has had influences on many different fields including: religion, sociology, architecture, history, visual arts, and music.
This applies to our music video through the preferred reading as we are trying to portray a beast attacking the band members, which then become in a state of limbo thus being signified by the use of fake blood and guts. We will provide anchorage of point of view shots from the beast by using special effects (i.e. changing the colours of the shot). Also present in our music video are the use of stereotypes which oppose this concept.
The concept of "Interxtuality" is where an author of a peice of text either makes reference or uses part of another piece of text. This has been done across all media platforms from film and television to books. An example of this is in Kasabian's music video for the single "Re-Wired" which contains Noel Fielding who plays Vlad The Impaler. Fielding plays Vlad The Impaler in two separate music videos which are both for the song "Vlad The Impaler". As well as this the is also reference to one of the band's B-sides "Julie & the Moth Man"
Here is Kasabian's "Re-Wired" music video:
Here are both of the singles for "Vlad the Impaler":
Johnny Truant was a British, Brighton-based metalcoreband, formed in 2000 under the name Severance. The band recorded their debut release The Repercussions of a Badly Planned Suicide (which featured three remixed songs from their second demo) in 2002 which was released on Undergroove Records. Their second album, In the Library of Horrific Events was produced by Killswitch Engageguitarist, Adam Dutkiewicz. The band have toured the UK, Europe and Canada with the likes of Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Cancer Batsand Alexisonfireas well as playing Download Festivalin 2005, 2006 and 2008.
The song 'Death Rides' is from their 2008 album No Tears For The Creaturesand was one of two singles released, as well asThe Grotesque. It was directed by Adam Powellwho has worked with bands of the genre including Architects and Gallows. The video is entirely performance narrative and focuses on each band member playing their instruments throughout, and follows a lot of codes and conventions.
The video begins with a quick tracking shot from behind the drummer, and all of the band are shown in a group/ML shot. The camera shot styles then begin varying from that point onwards, beginning with the focus on the vocalist as he begins screaming the lyrics for the song. A majority of the shots are done using a handheld camera as a lot of them are extremely shaky, as well as being fast-paced with quick editing.
Vocalist Olly Mitchell, shot with a low angle.
A lot of shots follow the musicians as they perform, with quick zoom shots and techniques used throughout, and there are also a lot of different height angles, such as a lot of shots filmed from a very low angle, as pictured, making the band look intimidating which matches the aggressive nature of the song. The location for the video seems to be some sort of hangar or some large storage space, and is actually quite sparse, so the camera focuses primarily on the band instead of the location. There is an open door in the hangar and that provides the light source to the video, and there are often frequent lens flares and naturally brightened shots due to that.
Today we had a long band practice due to the teacher's strike, meaning we could shoot some sample footage as well as rehearse our songs. Using an HD camera, Richard recorded various close-ups and group shots so we could include an idea of the performance narrative for our video pitch, in addition to some of the concept narrative we shot earlier. We practiced as usual and played Like A Match To An Arsonist, our recorded song. (nb we will have recently uploaded a newer version of the song, fully mastered, and this'll have to be taken into account when submitting the finished sample footage) so we can synchronise it with the playback already in the video and include shots of the band playing, intermittently inserted between shots of the concept narrative.
After school today, Richard and I visited the area we're shooting at on Saturday. We took some pictures to give potential feedback providers.
