Music Video - Final

My Final video. I have sped up the music video to match the music and have gotten rid of boring bits by adding more shots and flashes. Using Adobe After Effects CS6, Mr Wallis taught me how to add in the CRT TV Static Effect which I think looks really cool as it makes the less flickery, less jumping chorus shots more interesting

Planning - Shots

Survival - Eminem

Being a huge fan of Eminem since childhood I was psyched when I heard he was back (again). On the 8th of October Eminem released the video for his new single 'Survival', which is incredibly different from his other awesome and recent single 'Berzerk'.

Eminem's music is incredible he's constantly producing great music. Just yesterday he released 'Rap God' which I think may be the best rap he's ever released (not the best song he's done but the best rapping). In 'Rap God' he is mainly just boasting like an obnoxious ass about how amazing he is at rapping; which would be annoying, if he weren't right.

Planning - Shot Ideas

Seeing as my video doesn't particularly need a narrative I have just drawn a few shot ideas rather than storyboarding. Instead of putting my crude little etchings on here I'm going to list a few of the shots and ideas in writing so as to not ruin my blog:

• I decided I'd get quite a lot of shots of my actor Gracie (who is transgendered and thus looks like a dude despite being mentally female) walking round abandoned places such as the few old factories and abandoned places in Kirkby whilst looking pretty vacant. I'll also get a few shots of her walking around town at night and in the rain.
• I'll use close-ups of her face looking serious as well as maybe one with her middle finger to the camera.
• There's a building site near my house that we used to go on and climb about on, we can break in and climb on there at night to get some cool idustrial shots
• We can use the chain link fence around the building site to look like a cage and use that shot to match the line "Come little fucker, can you let me out?" because "let me out" implies the artist is trapped or encaged within something.
• I'll use close ups and mid shots of her looking at the camera when it's raining showing her wet hair and clothes with a serious look on her face.
• For the line "followed by the vision of my God" I'm going to show the clouds and the sun because the sky connotes God and religion.
• Close ups of like moving worms and maggots and stuff that is 'angin'
• At the begining I'm going to have a picture of a perfect red apple and then at the end have it looking all gross.
• I'm going to get loads of shots of just normal things; I'm going to just film a busy road at night showing loads of cars.
• I'll get a bird's eye shot from a really high building like the big Westgate building thing in mansfield and film the town below .
• Shots down the Quarries including the running water in the little river thing. There's a little concrete shelter with grafitti everywhere, we could get a shot or two there of Gracie looking mysterious and sinister.
• Down the quarries there are some train tracks that we can get a few shots of Gracie on, just like walking about on them.
• POV Shots looking down on Gracie's feet walking around
• After feedback it was suggested that I just use few shots of my cat just doing cat stuff
• A blurred shot out of the bus window just showing the street, possibly when it's raining
• Sped up shots of people walking around, in groups eg. getting off of a train
• Feedback suggested I should only show the actor in blurred/unfocused shots, I may use this in a few shots to create more mystery around the actor.
• Something, like a glass or a window or something, smashing in slow motion
• Footage/ Stock footage of moths and other bugs
• A flickering light

 

Planning - Band Name Logo

After playing around on a few font sites such as Dafont, FontSquirrel and a couple others I have found some cool industrial fonts with which to write Broken chains.

This is a nice simple name logo thing that uses a stencil like design to create a bold, bulky logo

This is a cool creative name logo thing that also uses a stencil like design to create a bold logo however I feel this design looks more industrial as the writing is made to look worn and rusty. This is probably the font I'll be going with as it is may favourite of the 6 that i have found.

Planning - Ideas so far

Krank - KMFDM

Goodwin

One of the points in Goodwin's theory states music videos present genre characteristics. This video does this by showing the band members playing their instruments, representing the stage performances shown in a lot of other metal and industrial metal videos. Another way that this video fits Goodwin's theory is the fact that the lyrics are directly related to the video; for example after the lyrics say "With another motherfucking Dirty Bomb" an explosion graphic appears as a woman falls into frame. It also relates to the notion of looking a lot showing loads of screens. Finally, this video fits Goodwin's theory as there are frequent close-ups of the band members.

Mise en Scene

The video is mainly quite dark with high contrast, this has been done to show the dark side of Industrial metal however the video uses quite a lot of electric greens, I believe this has been done to make it really obvious that they are more electronic than regular metal music. There has been lots of fire and explosions used to show the destruction and anarchy that their music reflects. The video has a sort of digital feel to it; heavy use of screens, static, glitch art and pixelated images have been used to exaggerate the digital feel to make it obvious that they have a much more electronic sound than most metal artists. The outfits used in this video are like Skinhead style if it were crossbred with Cybergoth, I really like their style but it is not for me and would not suit my song by any means.

Camera

Fast, jolty camera movements reflect the high-speed, crazy, alternative music lifestyle that KMFDM presumably lead. Lots of weird camera movemnts (including a spinning zoom out) make the video feel disjointed and thus more exciting. Low angles of the artist performing make them seem more important. The direct address to the camera makes the video feel aimed at you when you watch it, it isn’t just a video, it’s like a video for you which makes the audience more attached to the artist..

Editing

This video is so heavily edited I don’t know where to start. Quick takes and short cuts and cutaways make the video faster and more extreme and thus more interesting to watch. CGI oh people riding on falling A-Bombs make the video even more violent and extreme. Flashes of the band name help the viewer remember the name and help the band get their name out more. Every sing shot or scene in this video is edited to a ridiculous extent, all to make the video cooler to their target audience.

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This video is sort of exempt from Archer's music video analysis as it shows no narrative whatsoever. I really like this video as it includes fast placed flashes between images and text like a lot of industrial videos do. I plan to use this technique in my video as my song is industrial sounding too, however my track (track 4) is far from industrial metal and is much more industrial rock/goth/darkwave.

In the lyrics they say “Krank it to 11!” this is a intersexual reference to the American Rock-Mockumentary ‘This is Spinal Tap’.

Preliminary Task - Piece

I had to upload through blogger alone as Youtube took it down as it was a breach of copyright regulations. 

vimeo squished it down a bit but here it is

A2 Preliminary Task Piece from Aaron Weir on Vimeo.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

This is by far the worst thing I have ever produced. We didn't get nearly enough footage to fill the one minute twenty-five seconds that we were supposed to film so we had to substitute in the original Britney Spears video making the narrative of it make no sense; One minute the main protaganist is Kirby and the next it is Britney. I think I have edited it quite well however I probably could have put more effort into matching the colour, brightness and contrast to the actual video but I couldn't remember how and wanted to get this done so that I could begin to focus on my actual A2 piece.

The final preliminary piece produced is pretty terrible but it could've been worse to be honest; however I'd be lying if I said I was happy with it.

Planning - Settings

To match the scenes of the video we are using a classroom and a school corridor.

 

We're using (what was previously known as) Trent Houseroom, now: Year 7 Base as our class room as there is a lot of space, a lot of light available, and it's rarely got a class in. This class is good because we can easily organise the tables in the way we need without getting told off. We can also use the computer at the front of the class so that we can watch the Britney video and put it on the big screen so we can actually see the video while we film it. We watch the clips and then film then immediately after.

 

We chose to use the corridor in the PE block as it is spacious and full of light. Although there is a lot of space there's is howver some pillars in the way that may be a problem when we try to re-enact the dance scenes. This is a good choice of setting as it is similar looking to the actual corridor used in the music video.

 

(this post will have pictures on, eventually)

Planning - Costumes

As we're only doing up to the scene and costume change at approximately 1:25 the only costumes we need to prepare are the school-themed ones, these are:

 

Britney is wearing a grey cardigan with a white crop top shirt, a short black skirt and a maroon coloured top/bra is also visible underneath her shirt. She has knee high grey socks and black, high-heeled creepers. Her hair is in pigtails, which have been done with little pink ribbons.

 

The female back-up dancers wear much the same however they are not wearing cardigans. Some of their knee high socks are black and other's are white.

 

The male back-up dancers are in white shirts, black blazers, black and blue striped ties (some are in maroon ties), sand coloured school trousers and school shoes however swome are in trainers. Some are also wearing weird grey trilbys/fedoras that make them look gay as fuck.

 

The teacher of the classroom at the begining of the music video is shown wearing a dark brown blazer and big round glasses to make her appear old despite her looking no older than 25 (no idea why they didn't get an actual teacher to play this part, or just someone actually old). She's wearing a white shirt and her hair is shoulder length and flicks up at the ends which along with the full fringe makes her look old and outdated

Planning - Story Board

Kirby produced a story board for our preliminary task using snapshots collected by Harry from the video to 'Baby One More Time - Britney Spears'

Baby One More Time - Applying Goodwin

Goodwin's theory applied to the 'Baby One More Time' Video

Goodwin's first point states music genres demonstrate genre characteristics. This is evident in the video for 'Baby One More Time'  as the ridiculous-looking, intricate dance routine reflects the pop genre as dance routines are often present in the videos of other pop songs.

Goodwin also points out that there is often a relationship between the lyrics and visuals however there are not many relations of visuals to the song, only in dance moves really, for example when there are lyrics to do with a broken heart they dance move will have them touching their hearts.

As Goodwin's theory states; the record label will require there to be lots of shots of the main artist. There are many shots of Britney throughout the video and whole time she is shown to be a school girl, with the matching uniform, but she stands out by wearing slightly different clothing, to make her stand out. For example she wears a grey cardigan over her shirt, but the other dancers and extras do not.

One of Goodwin's main points is the use of voyeurism and the notion of looking, both are very broad themes that almost every single music video contains. Voyeurism can be used to sell the artist's music through sex appeal. This has been done in the Britney video as she is wearing a deliciously revealing outfit. The notion of looking has also been used here as, although people in the video aren't looking at her that much, we are. We are drawn to her as she is the obvious star and because she is centred and at the front during the dance routine scenes.

Finally the intertextual reference point. Goodwin says video are often an intertextual reference to another piece of media such as a film or TV programme etc. however I feel this is not the case as it only seems to reference general school life rather than referencing another media text. The video, at the end turns out to be a day-dream; the editing shows this by using a faded effect, the edges of the screen go fogged. This is a popular effect used in the same context and in the context of TV programmes. This may be considered an intertextual reference however I don't think so.

Baby One More Time - Routine

 

Uncut version of the corridor dance routine

without cutaways and in between shots

Baby One More Time - Video

Listened to this well over 10 times today, love it

Baby One More Time - Lyrics

 Lyrics:

(Oh baby, baby)

(Oh baby, baby)

Oh baby, baby

How was I supposed to know

That somethin' wasn't right?

Oh baby, baby

I shouldn't have let you go

And now you're outta sight

Show me how you want it to be

Tell me baby 'cause I need to know now

Oh because

My loneliness is killin' me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time

Oh baby, baby

The reason I breathe is you

Now, boy you got me blinded

I bet you baby

There's nothing that I would not do, no

It's not the way I planned it

Show me how you want it to be

Tell me baby 'cause I need to know now

Oh because

My loneliness is killin' me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time

Oh baby baby, oh baby baby

Oh baby, baby

How was I supposed to know

Oh baby, baby

I shouldn't have let you go

I must confess that my lonliness is killing me now

Don't you know I still believe?

That you will be here and give me a sign

Hit me baby one more time

My loneliness is killin' me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time

I must confess that my lonliness is killing me now

Don't you know I still believe?

That you will be here and give me a sign

Hit me baby one more time