RM - Research into Bullet for My Valentine

Bullet for My Valentine is a Welsh heavy metal band but also come under the genre metalcore. The band was formed in 1998 with Michael Paget (Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals), Michael Thomas (Drums), Matthew Tuck (Lead Vocals) and Nick Crandle (Bass Guitar). In 2003 Crandle left the band and was replaced by Jason James. To date the band has released three studio albums: The Poison (2005), Scream Aim Fire (2008), and Fever (2010).

The band currently has pages on iLike, Facebook, Myspace and Youtube.

The band's debut album, The Poison, was released in October 2005 in the UK. However it wasn't until Valentine's Day in 2006 was the album released in America. Four singles were released from this album, these were: "4 Words (To Choke Upon)", "Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)", "All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)", and "Tears Don't Fall". In 2008 the band filmed their gig at Brixton Academy and released it on DVD, this live DVD was entitled "The Poison: Live at Brixton".
The artwork for their album features on the left. As the viewer can see red has been used to signify blood. As well as this the band have followed the common convention of making the artist's name and album title stand out clearly.

These are the music videos for each single:

4 Words (To Choke Upon)




Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)



All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)



Tears Don't Fall





Bullet for My Valentine's second album, Scream Aim Fire, was released in January 2008. There were three singles released from this new album: "Scream Aim Fire", "Hearts Burst into Fire", and "Waking the Demon". Later that year, 1998, the band re-released the album with four new tracks "Road to Nowhere", "Watching Us Die Tonight", "One Good Reason Why" and "Ashes of the Innocent".
The artwork of the album is pictured to the right. Due to the colour scheme used a binary opposite features, which is light vs dark.


These are the music videos for each single:

Scream Aim Fire




Hearts Burst into Fire




Waking the Demon




 
The band released their latest album to date, their third album, "Fever" in 2010. To gain promotion for the new album the band released a free download called "Begging For Mercy". This new track, which appears on the band, was released on the band's website in February. As well as releasing the song "Begging For Mercy"  the band also released four singles entitled: "Your Betrayal", "The Last Fight", "Bittersweet Memories" and "Fever". The album was re-released in February 2011 as a special deluxe CD/DVD edition of the album titled "Fever: Tour Edition"
The artwork for the band's album "Fever" is picture to the left. Again the artwork seems dark natured due to the lighting, this would reflect into the genre of the music the band produce. 
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The music videos released with the singles are as follows:



Your Betrayal

The Last Fight

Bittersweet Memories

Michael Paget (left) and Matthew Tuck (right) In early 2011, in an interview with "Ultimate-Guitar" Paget announced that the band had already planned what their newest album was going to sound like. This new album is going to sound like their previous album "Fever". Paget also stated that the band had plans to write all their material in 2011 and go into the studio before the end of the year. As well as this there are a few remaining tracks from the previous album that didn't make it that might appear on this album. Here is the question and quote: "UG: What is the status of the writing process for the next album?" "Michael: At the moment there is nothing as of yet, but we do have a couple tracks left over from the last recordings that we’re looking at. When we finally get to it, I can tell you that it will, definitely going to be in a similar vein of Fever. So we will definitely start writing it sometime this year and hopefully start recording it nearer towards the end of this year." Source: Ultimate-Guitar Source: Wikipedia Bullet For My Valentie's Website Ultimate-Guitar I've also deconstructed one of their music videos, click here to view it.

All - Sample Scene

On Monday we recorded some footage for a sample scene for Sunburnt In December's "Like A Match To An Arsonist". After editing the footage during the week the sample scene is now finished. We are planning to film more footage on Wednesday 30th November, as the band have a band practice and the school is closed due to a strike. Allowing us to film as much footage as needed.

CO - Performance Sample Scenes

We have a Jubilee Day next Wednesday, which is actually the date of our regular band practices with Sunburnt In December; this means that instead of the normal 2 hours we usually have, we will be able to spend around 5 or more hours practicing, which means we can record footage of performance as we play Like A Match To An Arsonist at practice, as we can get miming right and include it in the sample footage. We will use two cameras to shoot HD footage and import it later next week.

RM - Update on Podcasts/Vodcasts

As we have fallen behind in creating our podcasts and vodcasts we have taken the decision to create them in bulk during today's (Thursday's) media lessons. However if we haven't caught up to the required amount of vodcasts and podcasts needed today we will record during the weekend, which has been extended due to the school being closed tomorrow (Friday 25th November)  and Monday (28th November) due to Jubilee Day. These podcasts will be done over Skype and recorded using the program audacity.

SB - Talking To Actors

We've talked to the actors who are going to be in the music video which consists of the band.

From Left to Right: Mitch, Elliot, Sam, Jem, Conor

Sam - Vocals

Conor - Drums

Jem - Bass

Mitch - Guitar

Elliot - Guitar



We've talked to them about costume, and how we will be buying the costume. We've all decided it would be easier if we wore plains clothes on the shoot. White/black t-shirts this would mean we're more likely to have less continuity errors based around costume. We also discussed the idea with them and got positive feedback paired with minor criticisms which we've considered and changed our idea around e.g Jem driving a van on the moor... We discussed location as well and decided that the twelve apostles maybe a tad bit to far to walk with equipment for the performance but we decided on a location close to the cow and calf but out of the way from the general public.

SB - Lyrics To 'Like A Match To An Arsonist'

Join something greater than yourself
be on the lookout
for our eyes
we know the man in the sky
he's our everything
no mentioning
of the past is needed
we are your brothers
our hearts set to discover
the truth behind our lives

There's no need for airs or graces
faked up smiles and masked up faces
there's no need for innovation
this is your invitation
we are your new family
and we will welcome you
to our society
This new family will happily welcome you
to our
SOCIETY!

Fear is what controls you
his power will soothe you
exorcise yourself
with words of wisdom
meditate in his presence
he controls you now
he is me
he is all
he is everything you call
HOME!

(chorus)

If you're not on your best behaviour
to the brimstone you will be thrown
no saviours now
your seeds are
SOWN!

He's in your head
it's better than dead
we love you
he loves you
the pearly gates beckon for eternal bliss
only to live by certain
RULES!!

Ahhh f**k I think I'll just go to hell...

All - Production Schedule

Here is our production schedule for our upcoming shoots

Narrative Sample Scene Shoot:
Cast Needed: Sam Boyes
Location: Ilkley Moor
Clothing/Props: Normal (Stereotypical) teenage clothing
Description: In this shoot we are filming a rough outline of how the narrative aspect of the music video will be created. This includes shot types and angles used. The shooting will feature the chase aspect with Sam being chased by an unseen beast, however point of view shots from the beat's prospective. During the editing procedure we will implement this with the performance.


Performance Sample Scene Shoot:
Cast Needed: Entire band (Conor, Mitch, Jem*, Elliot and Sam)
Location: Elliot's garage
Clothing/Props: Normal (stereotypical) teenage clothing, band's instruments.
Description: In this shoot we are filming a rough outline of how the performance aspect of the music video will be created. This includes shot types and angles used. During this shoot we will record shots which feature the majority of the band (two/group) as well as single shots. We will also record a wide variety of angles. We plan to add master shots into the performance during the later performance shoots.


Performance Shoot:
Cast Needed: Entire band (Conor, Mitch, Jem* Elliot and Sam)
Location: Local Woods
Clothing/Props: Black and White t-shirts (White for the vocalist to single himself out), trainers, black trousers, band's instrument, werewolf claw.
Description: This is will be our first full shoot of the performance, using ideas formed used from our previous shoot as well as inspiration from the metalcore and horror genres. We will take a similar approach to how we will shoot the sample scene. However we will record a wider shot and angle variation due to the space being greater.


Narrative Shoot:

Cast Needed: Entire band (Conor, Mitch, Jem, Elliot and Sam)

Location: Local Moor

Clothing/Props: Black and White t-shirts (White for the vocalist to single himself out), trainers, black trousers, werewolf claw

Description: This is will be our first full shoot of the narrative, using ideas formed used from our previous shoot as well as inspiration from the metalcore and horror genres. In this shoot we will film a variety of shots and angles, including point of views from the beast prospective as it won't appear on the screen apart from the claw. We will film two sections during this one where the band members are exploring the moors and the other where the band member's are being chased.

If the performance and narrative shoots need to be re-done they will be carried out in a similar schedule to the above.

*UPDATE: Jem couldn't make it to either of these shoots therefore we asked our friend and musician James to cover in for him.

All - Shooting of sample footage

We have spend Monday's lesson shooting sample footage for our media video so that our teacher has a rough idea of what we are going to do for the actual thing. We focused mainly on the concept narrative because we viewed it as more important and it was also easier today considering that we didn't have the band at ready disposal or the instruments required etc. At this moment in time we are importing the sample footage into iMovie which we will then import in turn to Final Cut Express and we will then start editing it from there.

All - Location

For the location of the music video we are intending to use one location. The location will either be near the twelve apostles, located on Ilkley Moor, or a similar site. We want the location to be easy to get to as we will all be carrying equipment which will either be the band's instruments and amps or filming equipment. As well as this we would like this location to be in a place which isn't a tourist attraction this enables us to film without being interrupted.

CO - Influences/techniques for the video



A band member being dragged through the forest.

I have recently come across another video that has ideal influences and ideas that we could try and replicate in our video, which focuses on both conceptual narrative and performance. The band in question is Leeds-based hardcore band Pulled Apart By Horses, and the song being Back To The F*ck Yeah. The basic narrative is the band playing in a forest normally up until they are pulled dramatically by an unseen force and dragged around their location, then escape and return to their instruments where they start playing again.

I believe that this is an important style to try and implement into our video; the location principally as it is a dark part of the country; we could shoot the performance of our video in a forest rather than in open moorland but we'll decide that as a group later. Obviously this video is comedic and doesn't focus on seriousness whereas our video will be slightly more downbeat and earnest, yet aspect such as the location and performance will be similar. It also continues the narrative enigma of the thing attacking them in the video, as our video will do as well; except obviously with a few flashes of fangs and fur rather than totally nothing.

Here is the video embedded below; please excuse the expletives.

 

CO/RM - Sublime Transcendence Twitter Account

You can now follow Sublime Transcendence on Twitter!

To follow either search "STranscendence" or click the following link: http://twitter.com/#!/STranscendence

This page will contain the latest updates on our coursework task and feedback

RM - Common Conventions in Magazine Adverts

Magazine adverts a placed in media related products, normally music magazines including Q and Kerrang. These adverts gain awareness of a new album, single, digipak, special edition disc, or several tour dates, etc.

Common Code and Conventions

• Artists Name
• Album Cover
• Web Address of artist, record labels and ticket retailer
• Twitter, Facebook and Youtube pages
• Tour dates (if any)
• Record Labels
• Availability (Where can the CD be bought/Exclusives)
• Font Variation, framing and colour
• Theme of the artist - fits with the lyrics and albums
• Information about the album (usually says "Including" followed by the singles released from the album)
• QR Codes
• Thumbnails
• Photo of the CD/Product/Merchandise
• Format (CD, CD + DVD, CD + Vinyl or Digital)
• Either release date, out now or pre-order

RM - What is a Digipak

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Pak is often used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray.
Sourced: Wikipedia

Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums. An example of this is the re-release of Nirvana's Nevermind which contains B sides, live recordings at the Paramount Theatre, O'Brien Pavilion, The Smart Studio Sessions, The Boombox Rehearsals and BBC Sessions as well as the original CD.

Re-release of Nirvana's Nevermind in
the form of a digipak (outside)

Re-release of Nirvana's Nevermind in
the form of a digipak (inside)

As digipaks are traditionally made from paper board or card stock this gives the product an environmental factor as it is seen as a more green product compared to the jewel case format.


There are several common conventions amongst digipaks which feature.

• Album Artwork is located on the first panel with the artist and album name
• Artwork is also featured inside the digipak
• Track listing which is normally on the back panel
• Lyric booklet or song information normally featuring photographs of the band
• Record Labels names, logos or both
• Details of the artist
• Small print with copyright information (Band's and Record Label's)
• Website of the artist and record labels
• Addresses of social network sites and user-generated content the band have an account for (twitter, facebook and youtube normally)
• E-mail address of artists and/or record labels
• Deluxe digipaks contain either a live or behind the scenes DVD or a CD either containing live performed songs or extra tracks
• Year of release
• Stickers (Normally saying "includes" then a list of singles that have been released from this album)
• Composers of the album (Normally saying whom play what instrument and wrote each song)
•  Barcode
• The CD(s) are located inside the digipak

RM - Motionless in White Research

Motionless in White are an American metal-core band, formed in 2005. The band is associated for its dark horror-themed lyrics and physical appearances. The band currently have only one studio album released to date entitled Creatures (2010) and two EPs entitled The Whorror (2007) and When Love Met Destruction (2009). Motionless in White currently have five members Joshua Balz (Keyboards and Piano), Christopher Cerulli (Vocals), Angelo Parente (Drums), Ryan Sitkowski (Lead Guitar) and Richard Olson (Rhythm Guitar and Backing Vocals). The band are also easy to follow as they have their own youtube, twitter, facebook and Pandora* accounts.


In 2005 Motionless in White was founded by members Chris Cerulli and Angelo Parente, during high school. At the time, being influenced by alternative rock, emo and post-hardcore bands. Cerulli and Parente invited several friends to join the band before deciding on the band name as well as the genre which was a more heavy metal sound, and a metalcore musical style. This was highly influenced by gothic and industrial metal bands.




The band's debut album "When Love Met Destruction", artwork pictured to the left, had been fully recorded in 2008 and had been played to be released the same year. The album never reached an official release. However all of its songs did leak online. During this time the band changed record labels several times from Masquerade Recordings to Tragic Hero Records and then Fearless Records. At this point, Motionless in White then made the decision to re-record six of the eleven tracks that were supposed to make up When Love Met Destruction, however this was to be released as an EP instead of an album.




In 2009 bassist Frank Polumbo left the Motionless in White due to growing disinterest in the band's style of music. In October, later that year, Rick Olson replaced Polumbo. In May 2010 the band recorded their debut album, Creatures. Creatures was released on October 12, 2010. The artwork is pictured to the right.


In May 2011, rhythm guitarist, Thomas Joseph Bell left the band. Olson then switched his position in the band to playing rhythm guitar and Devin Sola. At the time of this post Devin Sola is only filling in as the bassist for the bands latest tour however he has featured in two of their music videos "Creatures" and "Puppets".


Creatures




Puppets





*Pandora is only avaliable in the US due to licensing constraints.
Motionless in White's Website
Wikipedia

All - Treatment

Our treatment for this year's coursework.

A2 Video 2012 - Sublime Transcendence

RM/SB - Casting

As the band members of Sunburnt in December will be the only cast members required for the muic video of their single "Like A Match To An Arsonist" there is no need to cast anyone. We decided to use the band members as we felt it was easier just to have the band as the cast due to practical purposes and for direction it was easier to control a smaller number of people. The members of the band fit in with the typical audience of the genre young males, this is also a convention of metalcore bands the members are made up of young males between the age of 15-24.

Sunburnt In December (from left to right)
Mitch Cundale, Elliot Drew, Sam Boyes, Jem Whitehead
 and Conor O'Loughlin

The costume the band will be wearing is planned clothes either white or black shirt, depending on the role of the band member. We have decided the band member in be the only member wearing a white t-shirt thus singling him out. The band members will also be wearing trainers during the shoots. This would lead to less continuity errors with costume but also reflects into the conventions of the genre. During the narrative aspect of the music video the band members will be weaing casual cloths as well as these plain t-shirts. Whereas for the performance the band members will be dressed in these black or white t-shirts with the same trousers as the narrative. During the performance each band member will be covered in fake blood to signify that he is now in a state of limbo.

UPDATE
Sadly on the performance shoot Jem couldn't make it so we asked James Newton to step into help us.
Above you can see the band in non-metalcore clothes whereas below you can compare it to how the band looked in the outfits we decided to use for the music video.

Here is a demo of their single:

CO - Ideal video style for shooting

Whilst searching for new music a couple of weeks ago, I found this video for "Caves" by American progressive/technical metal band Elitist. The video for this song is extremely simplistic yet pretty effective at the same time; it depicts the band playing on a hilltop in what looks like their hometown of Arizona; the scenery is bleak and desert-like with only a few parts of vegetation and I thought about how similar this is to our idea for the performance narrative aspect of our chosen music video idea as well. Obviously the scenery would be different as we'd be playing on a moor rather than in an arid area but the similarities outweigh the differences; both videos, the actual one by Elitist and our proposed ones feature similar shot types, camera angles and more. 

This video is famous in the underground metal world already, even though it is only a year old, for the close up shots of the instruments, most notably the amount of string sway and the way the drumsticks bend in the video, as shown to the left. The bass pedals of the drummer's setup are also shown a lot, which is another convention in metal videos due to the style of drumming being interesting enough to show. Because there is no concept narrative to the video, the focus as previously mentioned is almost all on the instruments and the vocalist, as this brand of metal
principally focuses on technicity and the fluidity of the playing

We would aim to replicate this style of video in this way, except we would be using a small amount of makeup for each member seeing as we're supposedly in limbo after being attacked on the moor. However, during all performance of our video, the shot style and editing techniques would be similar to Caves' style as well.


Here is the video:

All - Podcast 2: Discussing the Metalcore Genre

In this podcast the group discuss the genre metalcore.

RM - Copyright Issues

Sunburnt In December's artwork for
"Like A Match To An Arsonist"

As two of the members of "Sunburnt in December" are in the production group there is no need for an email to be sent, asking for permission to use the song "Like A Match To An Arsonist" for our coursework task.

CO - Influences/techniques on our band and on the track

Architects' debut album, Nightmares.

As a band of five people, we all have different influences when it comes down to making our music, however we all share similarities in taste and ideas as well. Obviously we are all fans of the metal genre hence why our music sounds the way it does, but there is a little more to our influences than just that. Bands that influence myself the most include Architects (mostly their more technical early stuff, around Nightmares-era). Their approach to amazing-sounding yet technically outstanding brand of metalcore/tech-metal influenced myself when writing my bands songs; as much as I would've loved to include their complex rhythm changes and time signatures, I felt that it would be too challenging for both myself and the guitarists in my band so I stuck to Architects' approach to chord dynamics and tonal styles. All of the members of Sunburnt In December enjoy this style of music and it influences us when writing.

A drum kit fitted with a double bass pedal.

Dwelling on the conventions and instruments of metalcore, we also as a band make sure that our rhythm section is powerful while one of the guitars is doing the lead work; we accomplish this by ensuring most, if not every note played on bass and guitar is accompanied by a beat on the bass drum, and seeing as this is regularly fast, we include the use of a double-bass pedal when drumming. In addition, all metalcore bands do this as it is integral to making the song sound powerful; examples include The Devil Wears Prada, Bring Me The Horizon, August Burns Red and Parkway Drive to name a few of a vast amount of bands.

However, although as a band we take influence from a lot of contemporary musicians, we also play in the style sometimes of bigger older bands, such as Metallica; our songs often have fast, rhythmic yet simple passages that are akin to Metallica's mid-career stuff (and none of that Lou Reed garbage.) Similarly, bands like Nirvana and Pixies also have an influence on our approach to songwriting due to the way the instruments are set out.

Guitar tapping on an 8-string.

The elements that are most obvious in our songs come from metalcore but also has elements from deathcore too, which is obviously a fusion genre, similar to metalcore, which combines elements of death metal and hardcore; noticeable aspects in our stuff include the long, drawn out breakdown is reminiscent of deathcore bands likeThe Acacia Strain or Emmure (the latter band is disputable as Emmure, whilst retaining one or two good songs, often duplicate their material very frequently, as their songs all sound the same and are normally just breakdowns that last two minutes and have lyrics with them. Also, the members are pillocks and have recently kicked out their only really talented member). A noticeable (from a musician's standpoint) feature of our songs that relate it to deathcore is the dissonance chord halfway through (Where two notes, normally only one note from each other, are played together creating a harsh-yet-heavy sounding chord). This is noticeable in our song, Like a Match To An Arsonist. Still continuing with the guitars, a highlight that could be related to metalcore and deathcore is the use of tapping in the breakdown, a concept where the string is sounded with the finger pressing a fret on the neckboard rather than plucking the string and fretting it with your other hand; a lot of metalcore bands use this technique. Another feature is that the lyrical content is similar to that used in the two aforementioned genres, dealing with matters of religion and faith, a topic regularly voiced in metal.

RM - Research into Meshuggah

Meshuggah are a metal band from Sweden, formed in 1987, at this time the line-up was Fredrik Thordendal (Guitar), Jens Kidman (Vocals), Johan Sjögren (Guitar), Per Sjögren (Drums) and Jörgen Lindmark (Bass). However Kidman soon left the band and started the band Calipash.



In 1988 Sjögren left Meshuggah and guitarist Jonas Lindberg took his place in the band. Although later on Thordendal found Calipash’s music more in line with what he wanted to do and so left the band, as well as leaving the band Thordendal took the band's name Meshuggah. From then on Calipash were known as Meshuggah. However after the newly re-formed group Torbjörn Granström, one of the founding members of Calipash left the band.






Psykisk Testbild's artwork

Contradictions Collapse's artwork

In 1989 Meshuggah's line up consisted of Fredrik Thordendal (Guitar and Vocals), Jens Kidman (Guitar and Vocals), Niclas Lundgren (Drums) and Peter Nordin (Bass). During this year the band released their debut EP entitled "Psykisk Testbild". However later this year Lundgren decided to leave the band.  Tomas Haake replaced Lundgren in 1990 before the band recorded their debut LP entitled "Contradictions Collapse" which was release in 1991. During this period the band had been signed to Nuclear Blast, a German record company.

None's artwork

Selfcaged's artwork

At the end of 1992 and the beginning of 1993 the vocalist and guiartist (at the time), Kidman, decided to relive his guitar duties and consenrate on his vocals. This left the responsiblities for guitar to Mårten Hagström. This new line-up recorded the EP "None" in 1994 as well as "Selfcaged", which was a demo for the band's upcoming album “Destroy Erase Improve" this album was released in 1995. "Selfcaged was released in 1994. However Peter Nordin left the band due to personal reasons and illness which he suffered throughout the start of 1995. Gustaf Hielm replaced Nordin in the 1998., after being a session member for two years.

Destroy Erase Improve's artwork

Chaosphere's artwork

The band recorded their next album in May 1998 and was released in November the same year, the album was called "Chaosphere". Chaosphere, showed a faster and more aggressive Meshuggah. Three years later the band released a collection of rare tracks entitled "Rare Trax". The album consisted of demos and impossible-to-find recordings.











Nothing's artwork

Catch Thirtythree's artwork

The band's next album was entitled "Nothing", it was released in August 2002 and it showed a Meshuggah focusing more on groove and a lower/growlier production. The band continued to promote the album until Hielm parted with the band. After the departure of Hielm the band entered the studio to record the 21 minute song later to be named “I”. With Gustav now no longer in the band, Meshuggah needed to find a new bassplayer the band recruited Dick Lövgren. In 2005 the band released “Catch Thirtythree", this new album was very guitar driven. The band's next album "obZen" was released in 2008.

obZen's artwork

Meshuggah Discography
Albums:
Contradictions Collapse (1991)
Destroy Erase Improve (1995)
Chaosphere (1998)
Nothing (2002)
Catch Thirtythree (2005)
obZen (2008)

Compilation albums:
Rare Trax (2001)
Extended plays:
Psykisk Testbild (1989)
None (1994)
Selfcaged (1995)
The True Human Design (1997)
I (2004)


Sourced:
Meshuggah's Website
Meshuggah's The Band Page
Meshuggah
Meshuggah discography

RM - A Brief History of Music Videos

During the 1980s music videos came into the limelight after the channel MTV was setup basing the channel around the medium. The first music video MTV showed was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. Although this was not the first station to show music videos the first one was BBC. The long-running British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, this meant a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week.

However music videos have nearly been in existent for a hundred years but were called several different names including talkies, Screen Songs, Promotional clips and Musical films.
Although modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of the accompanying single and album.

During the 2000s lo-fi videos started being made. Lo-fi is made with minimal budgets and not much shot variation. The most common lo-fi music video is called a one-shot where the entire video is one shot. The reason for these types of music video becoming what it is known for today was due to the shift towards internet broadcasting and a rise in popularity for user-generated video sites with YouTube being the leader in the market. Artists including R.E.M. and Tom Jones have had lo-fi music videos for their singles.

RM - Importing videos from recording [Update]

Yesterday as a previous post says that the group imported the footage recorded on Sunday onto the macs. However as we had used two cameras to record the footage one camera had filmed the footage in .MPG which wasn't accepted by iMovie HD. Yesterday night I imported the footage into Sony Vegas Studio and rendered it into a .MP4 file. Today Conor tried to import it onto iMovie and success, it worked. This allows us to add the majority of the footage recorded into the behind the scenes video. We will be editing the video throughout the week and hopefully have it finished before the weekend if not as soon as possible.

Update (8th Nov 3pm):

We have managed to fully edit the video and will be uploading it tomorrow.

CO - Importing videos from recording

We began uploading the footage we recorded on Sunday to iMovie HD today (7th November), which as a whole was successful. However, because we used two different cameras, the first one we used recorded in .MPG format rather than the universally accepted .M4A. This means that only half of the footage we shot on Sunday was able to actually be imported into the iMac, but we have begun working on editing the takes we have anyway, and once we find a solution to converting .MPG to .M4A then we can upload that too and simply insert it between takes already on the timeline.

CO - Tracking updates for song

Today we began work on tracking our song, Like a Match to an Arsonist at a studio based in the nearby area. We successfully completed the majority of the drums, the bass, both guitars and vocals. However, we will need to go back in a few weeks to the get the track totally completed and getting the mastering finished and the mixing done. The song so far is everything we'd hoped for minus a few details, but these can be adjusted when we go back to the studio; examples of tweaks and altercations needed include a tuning of Mitch's (clean vocalist) vocals to a small degree, an increased tone on some of my drums (primarily the bass drum) and some of the guitars synchronisation, because the guitars in the breakdown don't quite match up to each other giving it an unwanted delayed effect, though this is only small it still needs fixing. Anyway, here's a link to our song on SoundCloud, a link to our song on BandCamp and the YouTube video for it.

In addition to recording the song, Richard also came to the studio to record a lot of footage detailing the processes of recording, as a kind of behind-the-scenes of what was going on. He recorded tracking of the instruments and a quick interview with each band member, and the footage will be uploaded to the Macs on Monday the 7th.

RM - Class Vids Deconstructions

Britney Spears’ Womanizer had a budget of $236,000 and was directed by Joseph Karh. The genre of this song is pop with an audience for teenagers however the music video creates a secondary audience for males due to the male gaze aspect of the music video, thus being a common convention amongst female pop artists. This is done in a number of ways which are close-ups of her face and body, which when in a saner has been “oiled up”, thus objectifying her body as well as trying to brand all females to have a body like hers this is determined by the audience whom features of 12-18 female teenagers. This brings out two different views, one from feminists and the other from post-feminists. The feminist view is critique exploitation whereas the post-feminist view is strong independence that is in control of her sexuality. The oiled up element of the music video is juxtaposed against by the sectary stereotype, thus stereotype features thick framed glasses, below knee pencil skirt, blouse, pearl necklace and conservative hair. Spears’ new brand is juxtaposed to her old “Disney” brand when she started to sell records. However there are examples of pop artists that are binary opposites of her new brand one of these being Cristina Aguilera.

Wolfmother are an Austrian hard rock band, whom only released one album. The music video deconstructed was Dimension. The song only reached number 41 in the UK charts but has an audience between 14 and 25. The music video consists of pure performance with the band playing in front of a black background. The music video is also in black and white. Unlike the Britney Spears music video this one is had a low budget, a possible reason for this is that the band hadn’t broken through yet. The music video also has an appearance of being low-fi and vintage. This is down to the genre of the band which is indie and down to earth, unlike the Britney Spears music video which features special effects whilst this music video looks like a brand practice. As well as this appearance the music video has references to two of the biggest 60s hard rock bands: The Jimmy Hendrix Experience and Cream. Like most music videos the focus is on the lead vocalist and has a master shot of all the band members throughout however there are no close ups of the instruments being played.








Nicki Minaj is trying to replicate Barbie during her music video for her single Superbass. The audience for this genre is teenager whilst the genre is R’N’B. Throughout the music video there are several stereotypes which consist of motorbikes, cars and aeroplanes all in the colour pink, thus playing with the genre stereotypes as well. During these small sections of the music video all the objects have been glossed up to add to the gender stereotype. As well as this during the video the vocalist fills in the male role whilst the males, whom provide female gaze, play the female role. According to Judith Butler gender is not fixed, it is fixed by how we act.

Whilst Abba are a pop act from the 1970s, with an audience from all ages








Periphery is a Prog metal/Djent band. The music video for their single Icarus Lives is a concept and performance based. Whereas Tyler The Creator is an American Rapper. The music video for his single Yonkers is a concept and features three shots which are all long in the entire music video, thus being a counter type to the common convention of quick short takes. The shots are broken up by Tyler throwing a t-shirt at the camera and him walking off screen and back on. Compare this to Periphery’s music video which features the normal common convention of quick short shots, these shots are on screen for a number of seconds showing creditability to the band. Another example of this is Slipknot’s “Before I Forget”. Tyler’s music video was directed by himself. Both music videos feature the use of shadows and silhouettes thus providing a narrative enigma, this is a common convention amongst certain genres. During the Tyler video he uses symbols to emphasis his feelings to America by holding up a cockroach.

RM - Common conventions of music videos

Focus on vocalist signified through low angles as well as more shots of him/her compared with the other band/group members

Group shots of the band together

Lip-syncing

Fast paced/Short shot takes (depending on genre)

One-shot vids (anti-vids)
   Examples:

      Pixies – Velouria

      OK Go – Here We Go Again 

      Coldplay – Yellow

      U2 – One  

      Snow Patrol – Open Your Eyes

      Kaiser Chiefs – Loves Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)

 Multi-Layering/SFX

   Example:

      Nirvana – Come As You Are

      Muse – Knights of Cydonia

Use of stereotypes – Gender/Sexuality – Female/Male gaze

Computer graphics 

   Example:

      U2 – Vertigo

      Muse – Butterflies and Hurricanes

Product Placement

   Example:

      Black Eyed Peas

Lighting – Pop is made glossy (Britney Spears). Rock is low key (Nirvana).

  

Borrow a format from another aspect (Film/TV)

   Examples:

      Muse – Knights of Cydonia 

      Martin Solveig - Hello

               

SB - Sunburnt In December Studio Update

We have now set a date this week to go to the recording studio where we will be recording 'Like A Match To An Arsonist'. We will be recording on the 6th of november all day, we will then each given a CD with the raw track on, which we will listen to, to see if there's anything we want to change and then head back on a seperate date to get the track mastered.

SB - Sunburnt in December

From left to right:
Mitch, Elliot, Sam, Jem and Conor

The band which me and my colleagues are using is mine and Conor's band Sunburnt in December. The band started as a side project for a few of us who were already in a band (me, Conor and Mitch) we were all in pop-punk bands at the time and loved heavier music, we had tried before to delve into heavier music but it never happened. Me, Mitch and Conor then decided to start the band, we went on the look for a rhythm guitarist and bassist, as Mitch wanted to sing and play lead guitar, Conor was the only drummer in the area with the skill to play metalcore music on the drums which is filled with double bass fills and large amounts of technical patterns and I was lead vocalist, I was the singer of another band and had incorporated screams into songs before but they were frowned upon by our guitarist at the time, so I wanted to try out screaming vox. We then found Elliot in the year below after me and Conor were talking on a Facebook post about 'The Devil Wears Prada' in which Elliot had commented on we asked him if he played a instrument and he said guitar, Elliot has now become the backbone of the band, we practice at his and he writes a large amount of the riffs. We then were on the lookout for a bassist, we then realized the perfect candidate... Jem Whitehead, he was an incredible bassist and we wanted someone who had been in a band before, who could help write songs. Jem at first showed no interest, but gradually has started to show an interest in the band. We got together and wrote our first song 'Where There's a Will, There's a Wave' a nautical song inspired by the band Parkway Drive, a band we are all very fond of. We then started making songs rapidly such as 'Ghosts With A Voice' , 'Take It All Back' and 'Like A Match To An Arsonist'. We have got a grant from a professional recording studio in Leeds where we will be recording probably our best song 'Like A Match To An Arsonist'.

All - Podcast 1: Discussing the chosen idea

In this podcast the group discuss the chosen idea and how we are going to create it.