Skills development - Music Video Day

The tips we got to help us gain a higher grade were.

• Plan everything in great detail, the more planning we do the  better our finished product will be because it means we will already know everything we want to do in advance. It is important to not just plan big things it is important to plan props and costumes as well as locations and lighting.  
• It is important to know the equipment well, we must take multiple test shots to find the quirks with the cameras and to ensure the camera works properly and we know how to use it. 
• We have to make sure we know how to use the software like final cut before editing so we don't have to spent time figuring it out whilst doing the important editing work 

While actually performing the video at first it was embarrassing and I didn't really want to get involved but I quickly learnt despite not really being a performer that it was easier to not get embarrassed and just join it. I actually ended up having fun in the end. Personally I learnt that I'm not a performer but we did have a go filming which for me was much more comfortable, and we got to use different methods of filming which has given me some inspiration for when filming our own music videos.  

Random Cover Exercise.

This is the CD album cover I made using the random cover exercise. 

I found this exercise very useful, it made me realise that putting together album artwork is actually much easier that I thought it would be. Once I had the image and the band name and album title it was very easy to change the colours and get find an appropriate front and colours for the titles and track lists on the back. 

Digipaks

A digipak is a 6 paneled insert for a CD including a front cover, the track listings, a CD slot, and 3 pages for photography and lyrics.

The purpose of a digipak is to encourage people to buy the CD instead of downloading the album and it helps to create a brand identity and the concept is shown throughout the digipak and for a band they would use this concept in their tour set ups/name and their music videos. The digipak is also used to signify the genre of the music and to help reach a target audience.

• How is the identity created?
• Is the genre apparent?
• How do you think the target audience affects the aesthetics?

From the picture on the cover of One Directions album, we can see a direct address has been created between the band and the audience making the audience feel like part of the band, . The band are clearly having fun and laughing showing they a pop band and their music is quite fun and uplifting. The soft colour pallet reflects soft pop the music on the album. 

The Killers are an indie rock band, we know this because of the desaturated colour pallet, it shows they are rebelling to what is the norm like one direction with soft colours. the sense of non conformity reflects the indie rock genre. From the woman on the front and the simplicity of the cover it suggests that it is directed at a more mature audience.  

Katy Perry's album cover shows us two different sides to her music, while her name is pink and bubbly and she is dressed in girly, pretty clothes and is the centre of the cover showing the pop side that conforms to what everyone else does. The background is dark and cloudy and the album title is "one of the boys" which would suggest she thinks you can have it all, and she is a post-feminist woman so even though she wants to look pretty and cares about her appearance she still believes she can have it all, which is reinstateing by the white picket fence in the background representing the american dream. 

Initial music video ideas.

Famous Last Words by My Chemical Romance is one of my favourite music videos



The video is almost all performance based, the narrative is in the costumes and the fire, which is in fact the burning of the float from the beginning of the black parade album, and with the costumes being all ripped and dirty and the band playing in the dirt its actually sending the message the black parade is dead. So despite the story being in the costumes and props the whole video is performance based and looks good with the contrast of the flames on the black background. Another way this video inspires me is it makes it so easy to recognise the genre of the music, straight away from the dirt and the darkness we can tell it's alternative rock.

Robbie Williams - Let me Entertain You. Music Video Analysis.

From this music video compared to Passenger i have learnt that different genres require different things in the music video. Where Passenger were quite casual and dull, Robbie required many costumes and makeup and there were considerable more performers in this video.
This video had a larger number of shots than Passenger, so depending on the genre and therefore the pace of the music I will know how many shots I will need and the pace they will have to be edited together.

Passenger - Let Her Go Music vdieo analysis

Using what I learnt from this video, I can see this video would not have been to hard to make. It is a simple location and being mainly performance based there are minimal props. I will probably do a mainly performance based video with very little narrative like this one because even though it is simple it still is easy to remember.  

My Group

This year I will be working in a group with Michael Owens and Christian Potter.

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