The document summarizes the production of a music video by a student group. It describes the various shots and techniques used to emphasize the lead singer and make him the focal point of the band. It also discusses how the video challenges conventions by depicting a homosexual relationship rather than a heterosexual one. Audience feedback helped the group refine the video by improving syncing of visuals and audio and clarifying the narrative. Various technologies like digital cameras, iMovie, and the internet were used in the production.
2. Long shot of the whole band “The Fray” Close up of lead singer “ Kings of Leon These shots emphasise and solidifies the image of an accomplished rock band that are recognised for their ability to play the drums, guitar and sing simultaneously. All rock bands are expected by the audience to be able to effortlessly perform with a musical instrument as well as sing to the best of their ability. For example in ‘The Fray’ the lead singer is known for singing and playing the piano simultaneously. Also In the Kings Of Leon shot below it illustrates the lead singer singing an playing the guitar. Long shots used to involve the whole band – showing them as a unit. Mid shots – to show not only his singing ability but also talent to play the guitar. Using and Challenging forms and conventions of real media products
3. RAZORLIGHT THE KILLERS KINGS OF LEON The lead singer and most well known member always gets the most acknowledgment. This member usually acts as the face of the band and represents the name of the rock band (when someone thinks of a band they usually think of that particular member of the band). We converged with pop music videos by taking lots of fast cutting close up shots mainly on the lead singer to emphasise his lead role in the band. This emphasis on the lead singer is used in nearly all rock band videos, with examples below: Here we have used a cross-dissolve to add effect, we chose to use a repetitive flashing red light which signifies a number of themes including danger, excitement and also love. Our song is about a guy with a girlfriend who tries to start a relationship with a gay guy... These themes are all included in our video because of the nature of the storyline. Numerous close ups from different angles: low angle close up emphasising his importance within the band; side close up and mid shots.
4. Similarities between our music video and other music videos of the same genre: STEREOFONICS “IT MEANS NOTHING” A very popular feature of these type of music videos: ‘the confused main character in a puzzling dilemma’. In this case the dilemma is whether or not to contact the guy he met in the bar that night. Also utilised in another video THE KOOKS “NAIVE” Also it is very common for the character to go on a journey of some sort before he/she decides on what the right choice should be. This journey usually would be something like walking through a street or driving around in a vehicle.
5. Shots from THE KOOKS music video ‘guy & girl related’ Our video that, as a change involves a ‘guy & guy’ relation – Shot reverse shot of the two guys involved with each other. This particular feature is Challenging a stereotype and challenging a norm within typical music videos of this same genre . Almost every single video from this style of genre would include a storyline where a guy and a girl want to communicate with each other. This idea has been flipped in our video into a homosexual communication between two guys.
6. Here we cut the music track for a moment and allowed the diegetic sound (door bell) to be played. This subverge stereotypical music videos because it is very rare to have a gap in between the track where real life sounds are allowed to enter the video as a substitute. This could have been a problem as most music channels such as MTV wouldn’t approve of this type of cut in the middle of a music video which does in actuality extends the total length of the video. Of course a pause in the track like this has been used in other videos. This is the type of pause that is exclusively featured on the video and would normally be removed if the track were to be played on the radio or on a CD. Most videos that we see on a regular basis usually add some more content of the storyline at the end of the video right after the song has finished. We decided to differentiate and subverge this particular feature from existing music videos.
7. Album art cover and inside contents: Fact file included on each member of the band which lets the buyers gain an insight into what the three band members are actually like. A wide selection of tracks are on the CD – also introduction of four unheard bonus tracks.
8. The ancillary texts (the fast/slow sequence & Britney Spears video), which took place before thoughts about our main product began, helped us prepare and acquire ideas. During the filming of the Fast/Slow sequence, we found it clearly evident that the camera or person didn’t need to be moving as it’s recording for the video to work, which was what we thought was necessary to begin with. We also noticed that faster and more frequent shots are suited to a quicker paced track. and vice versa, slower timed cuts and shots wouldn’t suit a faster track, but only with a slower one. Another aspect of filming shots that we gained from this text was how to make that transition and change from the slow track to the fast track in sequence. We used this to our advantage because our main video had changes in pace where the speed of shots and cuts needed to be altered to suit with the quickness of particular moments in the song. The Britney video also helped us gain an understanding of the importance of miming and performance within the music video. We saw how important the timing of the mimed words were and also the way in which they were mimed. In our main music video, we started off with our lead singer miming the words, however as we were editing we realised that in some shots, it almost became a bit too obvious that he was miming and didn’t look like he was singing. So we decided to get the lead singer to actually sing the song and not mime it. Fast/Slow sequence and Britney Spears music video.
9. Silent scene: music froze at this particular time The music resumed this this point We gained a lot of mixed feedback about this particular scene and point in the video. A lot of people enjoyed this pause in the middle near the end of the video and said it kept them waiting in anticipation. However there were a few people who told us they didn’t like it and that it wasn’t necessary. Audience Feedback
10. The audience feedback proved very valuable during the editing process and at the end of the editing. We of course gained feedback from both teachers and other students. people from our class our music video half way during the editing. We gained negative as well as positive feedback. We were told that some of the video wasn't in sink with the lyrics of the song. We therefore attended to this problem by deleting certain parts and re arranging other parts to make sure the change doesn't effect the rest of the video. At some points this was the case because the lead singer would not be singing the words at the same speed as the singing in the song. Also another interesting point that we noticed after feedback from 10+ people was that some people didn’t realise that the main character in the narrative was gay until the final scene of the video. It was clear that all the boys that watched the video knew from the first scene that the two characters were gay. However some of the girls, only completely understood the meaning of the narrative until the last scene, where the two guys finally meet and both go inside the house. Audience Feedback This shot reverse shot scene below was the scene that made most people begin to understand that these two guys are actually gay.
11. Walat and Izu asked me for my opinion of there work at the beginning of there project and I liked the idea I just thought they could have had 1 more venue”. Audience Feedback part 2 Danielle Kilpin Olumide Adebayo Stephanie acheampong Lester Tyler looking at the boys video I found very positive features and areas which I really enjoyed, for example I liked the idea of having a storyline based on gays: it’s really different.” “ I really liked the part where the guy at the end rings the door bell and the music stops for a moment and we actually here the door bell. This made me curious to know what was about to happen”. “ Overall I thought it was a good video, and I thought the actors were good, including myself. However, I didn’t like the car scene.”
13. DV digital camcorder Used for filming of all the scenes featured in the music video. Very easy and convenient to use on a regular basis. These camcorders were very mobile which made it very easy to move to all the different locations. However difficulties included picture quality during filming of scenes without satisfactory lighting. For example the bedroom that we filmed. The picture was too dark in the bedroom, which made it impossible to film, so therefore we improvised and used a slight opening of blinds along with a nearby lamp. Use of iMovie and iMac’s in general. The wide range of features on iMovie that aren’t available on other similar programmes such as Windows Movie Maker or on Windows XP or Vista in general. However we did run into some difficulties such as crashes, which at one time resulted in some of our work being deleted. Also some of the editing transition features would not drag in between certain shots as they are supposed to. Therefore we had to find other ways to compensate for these disadvantages. Finding the right audio sound effects We first searched on programmes such as GarageBand and iMovie but we were unable to find a good enough door bell sound effect for the video. So in which case we searched on the internet on freeplaymusic.com and mp3000.com which provided good quality door bell mp3 files. However of course these files didn’t have any security and had the potential to disrupt the computer. The biggest and most obvious technology used: digital TV We watched many music videos on music channels such as MTV2, TMF and the Vault. Also watching interviews and live performances from rock bands that were similar to our rock band. Use of websites and internet For example using YouTube to watch music videos and gain valuable ideas for our own music video. Also use of SlideShare to upload essays and presentations onto our Blog. However SlideShare did have a habit of freezing and also not uploading certain parts of a presentation properly. Technologies utilised
