I've been thinking of different elements I want in our music video.
One of the problems I think our group is faced with is the limited access to actors/actresses. I was thinking of different ways around this problem, and one of the ways around this problem is recreating actors within Adobe AfterEffects. For example:
This is a video of me in my kitchen twice. I recorded 2 videos of myself and over-layed them over each other and frame by frame cut around myself. I think this is a simple solution to the lack of actors and I think it also looks good, and contributes to the style we are aiming for.
Here is a tubechop of a music video where the same technique has been used:
The style of this video is similar to the style we want to recreate for our music video, and I think the recreated character will be a strong element for us to use.
As we don't want to include a narrative in our video and want to keep it abstract, we need something to keep the viewers attention. It is well-known amongst fans of The Smiths that the lyrics and the song arrangements in The Smith's music often conveys a lot of irony, for example songs like 'Rusholme Ruffians'. The song is melodically upbeat and joyous but lyrically deals with the subject of suicide. I thought it may be interesting to incorporate some kind of irony and juxtaposition into our music video to give our viewers something to notice and think about.
For the costume we have decided to go for a vintage theme to incorporate the 80's into our video but also incorporating the indie style. The clothes I have decided on are not only vintage but are also stylish with today's fashion, tying it in with the 21st century as opposed to completely trying to recreate the 80's. Here are some of the costumes...
A military Doc Marten style boot to recreate the 80's vibe. This makes connotations to the 80's as Doc Martens were very popular at the time, especially amongst the skinhead culture. Also our main character/band member already owns a pair of these boots so they will be easy to get hold of to use.
I am considering using loafers as they are a vintage style which has been recently brought back in to fashion today. It is also an indie look which will compliment our genre.
Cable Knit Jumpers/Cricket style jumpers are on indie trend, and Cable knit jumpers are also vintage so will create the older style we are aiming for. It will be easy to get hold of as our character already owns one.
Denim Shirts and Checked Shirts are a casual and vintage look which is also an indie trend. The smiths themselves also regularly wear shirts and blazers, so this is reassuring that it is a look that will compliment the 80's inspired style we are going for. Thick framed glasses (left) give the outfit the Morrissey 'Look'.
The vintage 'Geek' look will also add to the 80's vibe, with a blazer, dickie bow, black jeans and shirt paired with the thick framed glasses. This will also create irony in the video as he is very mischievous and troublesome, and this formal outfit would usually make connotations to being sensible and intelligent. The preppy look is also very fashionable this season so will appeal to the indie audience. I used www.lookbook.nu to find inspiration for the outfits. I found this inspiring as they are looks i can recreate with the clothes Jordan already owns.
This Feeder video is slightly abstract, and mostly performance based, which is typical of Feeder, and of other bands of the same rock/alternative genre.
The abstract feel of the video mostly comes from the opening sequence when an elephant walks into a room that looks slightly sci-fi. This creates a juxtaposition as it is not an image that relates to the norm. Then, as if like a space ship, a ladder drops down from the elephant and the band emerge. This relates to the sci-fi- like atmosphere, dark lighting and blue/green colours of the video. The band emerge one by one, dressed in typical rock band clothing and hair styles. The lead singer is holding a drinks cup that looks as if it was bought from a fast food restaurant, and the other two are eating what looks like hot dogs. This adds to their young rock band image, and also the strange abstract style of the video, as none of the action really adds up. As the music kicks in, it is no longer video action, but a montage of stills that are shown of the band in various action poses and with their food flying. This is unusual of a music video, especially as the images on screen don't seem to have much relevance to the song, although there is a correlation between the flashing images and the repetition of the word 'player'.
After the first chorus, when the verse comes in the song subdues slightly and the beat can clearly be heard. During this part of the song, there is an example of another still, however the singer can still be seen singing. This is an interesting and good use of effects to add to the abstract and almost super-natural feel of the video and the slow scoping of the image fits the calm part of the song. When the bridge/chorus kick back in again, there is an example of synchronised editing & action, with the images going back and forth, relating to the echoing repetition of the lyrics, and changing on the beat. The shots are short to drive the fast tempo of the song.
The lyrics in the song are not particuarly deep lyrics as the repeated lyrics, and lyrics most emphasised in the song are 'CD player' and 'lemon'. This is reflected in the video as it is not a particuarly deep video. I think that the video is just serving the purpose of a good, performance based rock video. The meaning of the video is not presented at all in the visuals, so the video has been created to show a good rock performance. This relates to Andrew Goodwin's idea of disjuncture.
The band are shot in many different types of shot- mid shot, close up, low angle & high angle. With such a variety of shots, it is difficult to say whether they are being used to represent the band, or rather more just trying to fit the fast pace of the song with lots of random shots. However there are many close ups of the instruments, which draws attention to the music and the playing ability of the band, reinforcing the fact that this video is very performance based.
Intertexuality could be something sci-fi related, e.g star wars or star trek, with the setting and space ship references in the video. The narrative in the video is unconventional, with no story line or any sense to it. The video is mostly dominated by performance and lip-syncing, therefore it relates mostly to John Stewart's theory of a music video having the aesthetics of a TV commercial as there are many close-ups and the video seems to have the influence of sci-fi cinema.
The video is very typical of a lot of rock videos. The abstract feel relates to what we would like to incorporate into our video, and it is likely that we will also incorporate performance elements too.
I thought that rotoscoping might be a good idea to include because it is a (fairly) quick way of animating people, as there is already video to just draw on top of, we could possibly try to include it in some form or another. I think it reflects the old-ish style of what I think we're trying to do.
In this video, there is only one shot used for the entirety of the song, one long, gliding shot that follows Dev Hynes on his journey through London. This is used to show the progression of him from homeless person to what looks like some kind of superhero, complete with cape. This kind of long take is quite common in music videos by indie bands or musicians who often try to look as creative as possible with only subtle editing done digitally, going against the traditional conventions of a video for something like pop music.
These clips show evidence of synchronised action in the video, where in this case, the pace of movement in the shot goes with the pace of the music. In the first clip it is fairly slow, where as in the second it is faster to keep up with the song and create feelings of hope and excitement for the audience, which are then suddenly left unfulfilled by the negative ending.
Another point that can be made about the two clips is the use of mise-en-scene to reflect how the lead character is feeling. As the song starts, he is less well-dressed, and is walking down a back street, whereas in the second clip he looks much less like a homeless person, and is running through Piccadilly Circus.
This clip shows how digital effects are used to manipulate the video, in this example, various different signs shown throughout the video are digitally altered so that they show different messages to do with the video, instead of the usual shop signs and company logos. This is done subtly to look more realistic and more subliminal.
There are several characteristics of the indie genre that are evident in the music video, for instance, the unconventional style of editing i.e. only one take for the whole video, as well as the kind of quirky outfits and overall unprofessional, unrehearsed feel that many videos in the genre try to convey, possibly to seem more spontaneous and therefore creative.
It could be said that the video has some of the aesthetics of a TV commercial, though turned on their head slightly. For instance, the entire video is focused on the star, though the camera work is fairly shaky and Dev keeps walking around the shot. This could be to show how he is the main focus, though not in an egotistical way, purely because of his music. The mise-en-scene could show some elements of his life, such as the type of area in which he lives, busy, grey London.
There isn't a choreographed 'dance' though there are many people who are choreographed to appear at certain times, and do certain things to interact with Dev. This makes the video more impressive visually as everyone performs their roles within one take and in time with the song, so that Dev starts running at the right time with the music at the end.
Overall this is a fairly impressive, if low-key video that works well with the pacing of the song, I think that I could take some ideas from this in terms of how to fit a video with the intensity of the music.
This is a clear narrative and performance based music video with syncronised editing and action. The narrative is of the band posing as high school students in detention rebelling. This fits with the title, lyrics and meaning of the song, as it is based in a high school and the general image of 'rock n roll' is teenagers rebelling. This image fits with the 70s/80s brit rock sound and the band's image of being scruffy rockers, alongside their similar fanbase, meaning the video would appeal to the target audience. There is a clear intertexual reference of the movie 'Rock n Roll High School', about students having a disregard for education. The song was written for the movie and starred the band itself, as in the end they take over the school with the students. The editing is mainly off beat and there are no use of tracking dollies or gliding camera angles (which is probably due to the equiptment available at the time). The shots are neither short nor long and remain fairly basic throughout.
The mise en scene of the video clearly show the school scene from the beginning, as it begins with a school bell and the word 'detention' is marked across the door. The teacher wagging her finger at the 'students' shows that she is the one in charge, however the band go against this when they begin to break the rules as soon as she leaves the classroom, such as writing on the blackboard. The words 'Ramones Rule' is shown scrawled across the wall outside of the classroom in spray paint, adding to the bands teenage rebellion image, the subject of the song and the narrative of the film the song was soundtracked for, as The Ramones take over the school with the rebellious rocker students.
The lyrics reflect the mood and the narrative, providing an illustrative representation. The word 'rock' is repeated every few lines and the rock image of the band remains very clear, as they are playing guitar on the table, and wearing stereotypical rocker clothes such as leather. This reflects the genre along with the headbanging and lively performance action. Joey Ramone, the lead singer, lip syncs throughout and matches the lyrics with action. For instance, he writes 'I don't care about history' on the blackboard, and points at each word when he sings them, and when he mentions 'chicks', two girls are shown outside the classroom waving.
The only digital effects that are really used in the video is a section which seems to be stop motion of a drawing of a stereotypical angry teacher on the blackboard, drawn by Joey Ramone. This image is playful and fun, contrasting against the boring black and white of the board which shows the battle between teacher and student. It mirrors the feelings of the band and they're hatred towards the teacher in a comical way, ('I hate the teachers and the principal') making the viewer feel the same.
The video could be applied to John Stewart's theory that the music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial. This is because there are many close-ups of the band's faces and the mise en scene and action represents The Ramones image and lifestyle. There is little reference to the male gaze, apart from the line 'I just wanna get some chicks', matched with 'some chicks' outside of the classroom and a close up of one. This is probably because in the time of the video and song, things within the media tended to be a lot more tasteful.
We like the rebellious idea of this video, for our music video and the idea of not having a story to follow. This video includes stopmotion which we are also very interested in but the rest of the editing is fairly basic. I think most of our editing will be quite basic, but we will rely on after effects (filters etc) to give our video the interesting edge we are looking for.
This is one of my favourite videos at the moment. It was filmed entirely on an iPhone 4! It looks really good, and the editing is defiantly my style. Smooth and simple.
I found this whilst looking for stop motion scrabble, I like the way they have used the scrabble board, as it has a narrative and really captures the viewers attention. I like the way it portrays meaning and feelings through the game.
I have come up with a new idea for stop motion by using scrabble letters and creating words relevant to the song on the board. Each letter will be added to the beat.
I searched for some videos that had used stop motion with scrabble, and of course it had already been done (no surprise there!). Here are some of the video's i found.
Daft Punk Scrabble is my favourite of the three videos as it is more instant to go with the beat, rather than watching the letters move on to the board. However i prefer how the individual letters are instant in this video as opposed to whole words..
This video is really clever. The use of stopmotion is used as a convention throughout indie music videos. Therefore it is almost iconic. I think this is something we should look into doing for our music video.
I have come up with an idea for our audience profile. I think it would look effective to video a 360 degree view of our stereotypical audience which we will then add a profile to using after effects with their information and interests.
I feel after we have made our storyboard we will have a clearer idea of where our video is heading. At the moment we have lots of good ideas and I feel by looking at different ways of putting them together we will be able to plan a successful video.
I feel that as a group we now have a clearer idea of where our video is heading and the dedication we need to input. I think our feedback was successful and has allowed us to analyse our ideas, and also make plans for the pre production, production and post production. By creating the powerpoint for the pitch and finding relevant pictures for the ideas we have, i feel it has given us a better idea of where the video is heading. Overall i think that presenting our pitch has been very successful!
Today we presented our pitch to the rest of the group.
The feedback we received included;
'How are we going to create an 80's style through stop-motion?'
We decided that we will do this through through the mise en scene. We will use costumes from the vintage shop, and filters to create an 80's feel.
We do not want the video to be set in the 80's because we want the song to relate to this generation in 2010. By doing this we can relate to the audience which we are targeting for, which is 16-25.
Some members of the class asked whether it would be narrative based or performance based. We want our video to be mainly narrative/abstract based, because we think that this applies more to the indie genre, and it also makes it visually engaging.
Another thing we were asked is 'do you think you will have enough time to produce stop-motion and the rest of the video in a month ?'
We will make a schedule for our recording and photography so that we have plenty of time to edit everything. We will have to stick close our schedule in order to keep on top of things.
We had eleven people answer our ten questions for our market research. We tried to aim our questionairre at as many people that we knew liked The Smiths to make it easier for ourselves. Our average audience age was around 19, so not too disimilar from ourselves which helps us to make our video appeal to our target audience as we are a part of it. The majority of our audience like the indie genre, which is ideal as we want our video to have the abstract indie vibe to it. The main hobbies and interests amongst our audience were fashion and art based. By making our video visually interesting, we hope this will appeal to people with these interests. Six out of eleven people said they preferred concept based music videos. As this is just over half, we plan to add some narrative to our video as it seems to appeal nearly as much to our target audience. Stop-motion seemed to be a successful idea so we will continue to plan to incorporate this into our video, and almost all of our audience said they preferred abstract videos, which suits us as this is what we would like to do as it fits our genre. Over-all, our market research has helped us gain knowledge about our target audience and proved to us that our ideas (an abstract, conceptual Smiths video with use of stop-motion) will hopefully be successful among them.
This relates to another post I did about getting other interpretations for the song. I like to hear other peoples ideas and opinions about the song, so I found this video very useful indeed...
I think it's important to look at other videos by the artist we are covering to get inspiration. I know we are not copying them, but I think when looking at videos from The Smiths, we can see what style of music/video they use, and what we should aim to be like.
I looked at this video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naos7it_bl0 for inspiration.
Looking back at the video, there are a lot of cliches to an 'indie' genre music video now, however when it was directed, they were not so cliche. For example the fish eye camera effect used so comonly throughout this video.
Poet Simon Armitage interviews Morrissey on 3rd september 2010!
It's a bit like being on a date. It's not a blind date exactly; poet meets songwriter seems to be the general idea. But I've no idea if he knows who I am, and for all that I've stalked the man and his music over the years, I can't say with any confidence that I know who Morrisseyis either. Can anyone? So when the door opens and he strides into the room, neither of us seems sure of the protocol...
We decided to look on songmeanings.net to find out what others interpret the song to be. This has given us a lot of ideas to use in our music video. We can also use this information to create meaning within our video for the illustrative parts, which was an original worry to do.
After thinking about some ideas for our music video, we have decided that our video will be abstract and not a literal representation of the lyrics, however we would like to include some illustrative elements so the viewer can relate to the video and lyrics. An idea we came up with was to film a mouth lip syncing the word 'big mouth' and to incorporate stopmotion. We will analyse the lyrics to see if any other relevent stopmotion is possible.
To do this i sent a message around on facebook, as it made it easy to access our blog via links, and also is a very popular site, so I am almost positive the people i have sent it to will receive the message and hopefully answer our questionnaire. I posted links to youtube where they can familiarise themselves with the song before answering the questions.
I then asked for feedback to be left via comments on our blogpost, so that all our data is together making it easier to access.
This is the presentation we made to go with our pitch. We created key words on each slide which we then talked about with the rest of our media studies class. We found the presentation very useful as it prompted us to talk about the different aspects we were thinking of using, but also put an image behind our ideas.
I wanted to use 'Tubechop' to help explain what I'm talking about, but it's not working for this video. So I'm having to leave that out. I was not able to embed the video from youtube either, so here's the low quality version from dailymotion:
I have decided to analyse a music video by The Editors - 'Smokers outside the hospital doors'.
I have decided to analyse this music video for many reasons, one of those reasons is that I think that, although there is a storyline which runs throughout the video, the story perception can different to each person who views it.
This is similar to what I want to have in our music video, because I think that a great piece of art doesn't simply have one meaning, it can convey many meanings to many people.
Every time I watch this video, I notice something different, or depending on what mood I am in, I feel something different. This is something I want our music video to be. It's important to create a video that will can be repeated many times, like a novel, or a piece of music, without the audience getting tired of it.
I like how the video starts with birds singing, without the music, and the door opens with a girl coming out, what looks likes like a derelict building, which is of course the hospital. The colours of the video are faded to give a hint of grey, which I feel has been used many times before in similar bands. I like the use of faded colours, because it's been used so much before by other indie videos, such as 'The Kooks - always where I need to be' and 'Mumford & Sons - Winter Winds', I think it now relates to that genre of music.
In my opinion, the narrative starts to become clear when the young girl has escaped from the building, and the freedom is realised when the music starts playing. The video is performance and narrative based, which I'd like to consider for our music video. However, I prefer that actors be kept a minimum, including band members. I say this because I am a fan of simplicity.
I am a huge fan of the camera work in this video, the smooth pans, and sharp focus really makes the video look visually pleasing. I like in some clips the background is out of focus. This is something i'd like to include in our music video, because I think that it looks professional, and finishes off a shot. The main point of the narrative is that the young girl is running away. I really like how throughout the whole video she is running with the music. This carries on the pace of the song, and although it is just running, it's entertaining. The constant change of location also contributes to the entertainment and pace. The use of motion blur in editing adds to the pace and makes the shots piece together faster, yet retaining the smoothness.
I like the fact that the young girl runs across the water, which in my opinion could be controversial towards religions, as it holds religious connotations. I think because it's controversial, It makes it interesting. For example Madonna's 'Like a prayer' was very controversial with religion, which I find really interesting.
Song meaning (taken from songmeanings.com) - -this song deals with escapism, Olympic airways refers to a greek Air Company (greece is Yannis' home Country) -An aviary for today is a reference to earth (the cage of an aviary being earth's atmosphere) -An aviary far from home is about leaving earth and finding life elsewhere in the universe. -dissapear and re-appear is a description of planes weaving in an out of clouds.
(from 0 seconds to 52 seconds)
At the beginning of the video Yannis jumps onto a mattress held by his friends, it has been slowed down to illustrate the pace of the introduction. From this i can make connotations to Yannis trying to escape or go home, as a mattress is a very personal household object, and gives us our place or room with in a home. As his friends are holding the mattress we make connotations to Yannis wanting security from the friends he has left behind. It then cuts to a handheld shot of the sky through the trees of a forest, from this we can make connotations that Yannis is trying to escape as forests are very free and natural, we often assosciate the outdoors as a place you can go to 'clear your head'.
It then cuts to shots of the forest where the band are sitting down and there are lots of objects and mess on the floor. This establishes the band and creates a performance based theme to the video, as the band are playing their instruments, the only unusual aspect of this is the forest setting. There are minimal headshots of the band, focussing mainly on the instruments being played for instance a foot on the drum pedal, or strumming a guitar, this creates an indie theme, as most indie music uses lots of traditional instruments rather than computer editing. Fast pace editing is used in time with the beat of the song to create pace and movement.
The video then cuts to a man riding a tricycle through a field which creates a more abstract theme, as it has no real relation to the song, however looking deeper into it we could make connotations that he is looking for comfort similar to the comforts you receive as a child. It then quickly cuts to a man sitting in a field with the camera looking through the grass, this gives the audience an overlooking perspective, as if they are in the scene looking through the grass themselves. As the man is alone in what we can connote to be a field, we can make connotations to escapism, and that the boy is homesick and wants to reflect on the memories.
The clips of the instruments being played is then repeated, creating more performance based shots, and creating continuity. The pianist is playing whilst holding an orange creating a quirky image, and also reflecting the natural theme of the video.
There is then a shot of a man staring through the reed, from this we can make connotations that he is looking for something or that he is feeling lost, which relate back to the connotations of homesickness which I discovered on songmeanings.com. It then cuts again to instrumentals, with Yannis playing the guitar, however there is no lip syncing used. It then cuts to a group of people, two of which are holding hands, the lyrics with this clip are "if only we could move away, from here", this makes connotations to them wanting to escape or go home, and we can make connotations from the friends holding hands that they want to find love and comfort.
(from 1.04 to 1.07)
Here Yannis sings along to the song, however the lipsyncing is not in time with the song, making connotations to him singing along to the song, or that his mind is somewhere else making him feel very slow and relaxed, almost as if he misses home so much that he cannot be bothered.
(from 1.12 to 1.15)
Here the man covers himself up which look like he is trying to escape to be on his own, and get away from his reality. The next shot (0.16 to 0.18) is of a man alone peddling the tricycle but not moving. There is then a fast cut and another man appears and pushes him, this breaks the continuity creating a visually interesting shot. We can also make connotations that the man is helpless with out his friends and needs them and their comfort in order to move forward.
(1.22 to 1.25) Here the band are with a group of people and they are all lip syncing, i think this looks really effective, and interesting as the band is made up of boys, yet there are both boys and girls in singing, it looks very interesting as there is a lot to look at.
I like the fast pace editting in the video, and the seemingly random scenes/shots make the video very interesting and visually appealing. I also like the outdoor setting and feel it compliments the indie genre with the natural colours.
The music video for Sledgehammer obviously uses stop-motion animation almost exclusively throughout the video, with what is shown in the animation usually literally corresponding to what is said in the lyrics, for instance in the video above, a steam train or an airplane when Peter Gabriel sings about them. This shows elements of an illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals, yet also is an example of disjuncture, where the sexual connotations of the song are completely ignored in favour of a literal representation of what is said.
For nearly the entirety of the video, the camera is fixed in a close up on Peter Gabriel's face to show the stop-motion animation of his face as he lip syncs to the song and various things interact with and manipulate his face. He could be have been shown on camera as much as he was to bridge the gap between conventional music videos at the time and this more artistic, abstract style of video, in order to avoid alienating the audience. At the time this use of technical ideas would have been seen as very innovative and creative as no one had successfully attempted to create a music video on this scale before.
In some ways, the music video could be seen to have the aesthetics of a TV commercial. In this video there are many close-ups on the star's face, in fact his face is at the centre of almost every shot in the video. His face is also well lit to distinguish him from the background elements. Sometimes he is obscured by the background, though the effect still usually allows him to be the centre of the audience's attention.
The clip above shows a carefully choreographed dance sequence, possibly intended to enhance both the artist's performance and the visualisation of the video. Until now the video has been focused on Peter Gabriel's face, so this sequence provides a break to that, but stays along similar lines. However this is on a much grander scale, with extras and furniture all being involved in what could be seen as the big finishing sequence, like the climax of a film or the big number in a musical. It could also be argued that technically the entire video is a carefully choreographed sequence due to the planning involved in all of the other stop-motion animation.
The video shows elements of Peter Gabriel acting as the Electronic shaman. He controls the visuals with his voice and the words he sings, for instance the steam train and airplane (as previously mentioned) appear as he sings about them, as do many other elements in the video. The different scenes each flow almost seamlessly into each other like a stream of consciousness. It could be said that he was using these abstract visual elements as innuendo for the real meaning of the song, as many of them have sexual connotations.
This video uses many techniques that may go against standard pop music videos, but it is much more original and visually satisfying for it. Stop-motion is a time-consuming process, but it could be end up paying off in our own coursework if done right.
This is a Moodboard for our chosen song: The Smiths - Big Mouth Strikes Again
We chose this song as it fits the indie genre well and we would like to revive the 80's song with a new video. It fits the indie genre, as we can take influence from vintage objects and styles, we can also include artistic/quirky features which compliments the indie style.
click to enlarge.
The moodboard features images of the band, so that we can take influence from their style and the way they are dressed (e.g. Ray Bans, Denim Jackets). It gives us an idea of what props would be appropriate such as vinyls and cigerettes to give it an 80's vibe, yet at the same time create something modern. We also thought about the scene, and agreed that the genre reminds us of being outdoors. I have also created a Smiths inspired template for the blog.
I have also created a mixpod for the smiths songs for inspiration
I like how this video has no performance in it at all, it's just simply a man riding a bike.
I'm not entirely sure what I like so much about this video, it might simply be it's simplicity. This video gives me lots of ideas to use in our own music video.
This music video is an example of off beat editing which incorporates long length gliding shots to match the floaty and magical sound of the music, and the grainy sparkly artistic filters in the visuals. The action also is slightly in slow motion, adding to the dreamy and floaty feel of the song. The unusual style of the video reflects the 80s alternative genre of the music. The digital effects mirror the lyrics of the song with it's dreamy, slightly, trippy feeling. Whether you interpretate the song as meaning 'high' as a result of drug use or metaphorically- as a result of feeling happy, both meanings fit the magical atmosphere of the video.
The mise en scene mirror the lyrics of the song and the whole idea of being 'high' as the lead singer often sings to the sky with his arms up high, and there are multiple low angle shots of the band throughout, to establish them being 'high'. The video is set in the sky, up in the clouds, also relating to the lyrics and corrolates to the sparkly golden colours in the video, connotating heaven which relates to the interpretation of the song being about happiness.
The video is not abstract in the sense that it features the band and the lead singer, Robert Smith, lip syncs in many shots of the video. He often makes visual connections to the lyrics he sings in an illustrative way, with the words 'sticky as lips, as licky as trips, I can't lick that far, but when you pout, the way you shout out loud' and his appropriate hand and facial gestures and the special effects of a long lizard-like tongue.
There are repeated images which could be seen as being symbolised motifs throughout the video and these are kites and clouds, symbolising the concept of being high, matching the floaty atmosphere of the song and creating amplified meaning between lyrics and visuals. The kite could relate to the common saying 'high as a kite', relating to drug use but the clouds could also connotate having your 'head in the clouds' which relates more to happiness however they could both be intertwined to relate to a general trippy feeling. There is not a clear narrative throughout the sound, which also relates to this as nothing is ordered and clear, it is just a series of shots of the same kind setting and action.
There is performance in the video of the rest of the band with their instruments, which is typical of the genre. Also typical of the genre, there are no references to voyeurism or looking, which is more typical of a pop genre. It could be seen that intertexual references could include storybooks, as that is what sprang to mind for me with the colours and especially Robert Smith flying attatched to a kite. It gives the video a fantasy feel which mirrors the atmosphere of the song, and the 'high' concept of the lyrics.
THE SMITHS - THERE IS A LIGHT THAT WILL NEVER GO OUT.
In this clip of the video there is a very fast pace of editing, creating a very quirky image which compliments the indie genre as it is creative. It disorientates the audience with its use of camera shots, and uses a combination of short shots, it allows the reader to feel they are over looking the sleeping man, Morrisey, making connotations to him dreaming.
Here the clip illustrates the lyrics as it talks about driving in cars, as there is a clip of a car crash we can make negative connotations which contrasts with the cheerful rhythm of the song. The use of tracking dollies are then used to create the movement which makes connotations to a car journey, which allows us to feel we are taking a journey through the song, as if we are being told a story. There is an antic like filter over the shots and it is black and white, which could make connotations to dreaming or remembering as it is common to dream in black and white. Also because he is outside of the house and he is "welcome no more" it makes connotations to being left, or doing something wrong, leaving him on the outside of their house, representing their trust.
The lyrics are then, again, illustrated by the video, using "and then a double decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side, is such a heavenly way to die" synced with a clip of a double decker bus and then changing to a boy and a girl hugging and kissing on the grass, creates the subject of the song which is love and loneliness. We can then make connotations that the song is about regret and love loss.
This clip makes connotations to the boy thinking about the girl, and the orange filter on the screen makes connotations to fire. montage editing is then used with clips of a burning car, which makes connotations to the girl dying in a car crash, and that it may have been the boys fault and he is feeling guilty that she died, when it should have been him. This creates a clear narrative, as the lyrics are illustrated with the video. The video is abstract as it does not feature the artist, however it does resemble the song lyrics.
As the editing is very fast pace it is hard to fit the lyrics to the story in one viewing which a very quirky and artistic looking video, as it all looks fairly random. However once you grasp the illustrations, they help you to understand the meaning of the song. This supports Steve Archers theory that the video has a strong relationship between the lyrics and the performance. In this clip the montage of shots creates connotations that the boy wants to go out and take his mind off of things, however it will always be in the back of his mind as he is feeling the guilt and sadness of what has happened. It uses Andrew Goodwin's theory of illustration with lyrics, but it also amplifies the orange fire like filter, which represents morrisey's thoughts.
The video uses the televised bard, so uses on screen images, as opposed to personal ones of himself. In the last 54 seconds the shots are fairly repetitive and editing is very fast, it summarises the car crash and the thoughts going through morrisey's head. "there is a light that will never go out" is repeated numerously, which emphasises the fact that Morrisey cannot get the thought of her out of his head. The fast pace editing could represent his frustration, it uses a montage of cuts which could represent the fast pace of his thoughts. The shots and editing techniques create a very quirky and unusual video, which you have to concentrate on to understand and realise the correlation between the images and the lyrics.
When shooting our version of 1min 14 secs Busted's 'What I Go To School For' video, we had to complete several tasks beforehand, in order to be properly prepared for it. First of all we actually had to watch the video to know what to do, here is the video:
After watching the video, some of the group wrote a prop list in order to know what props to bring in for when we would film our version. These included items such as guitars and things for costumes like ties and shirts, so that the video would look like the original as much as it could.
Some of us also completed a risk assessment based on what we saw in the video, to see how potentially dangerous any of the activites would be, as shown below:
We then made a storyboard so that we would know the order of the shots and what shots needed to be filmed, in order to have the correct footage to edit later and eventually make a video that would be very similar to the actual Busted video. The group split into smaller groups and separated the length of the video into sections so we could get it drawn faster.
Afterwards, we practised lip syncing to help us get used to it before filming the actual video, we each took it in turns to mime the entire section of the song we would be using so that it could be easily edited.
We didn't do any rehearsals before the day of filming as we had no time, and we decided to bring in all our own props and costumes.
Production
The class split into two groups so we could film quicker, one did exterior shots and the other filmed interior shots. Seeing as I brought a costume in, I had to be an extra in the crowd scenes as we needed as many people as possible to pretend to be crowd, though we only had around five people, which obviously isn't as many as there were in the actual video.
Our group managed to finish the exterior shots in just under one lesson, which was quite good considering how there were several people that all needed to be directed. The other group took longer however, so our group helped them the next lesson. I was ill though, so I wasn't there to do that. Overall, the footage seemed to work quite well, despite the fact that the band changed members in the exterior shots.
Post-Production
We tried to edit the music video on Jack's Macbook, but getting the video files on there took almost an entire lesson due to technical issues. It was important to match the video up with the sound so that the lip syncing worked well. To begin with there were some problems as a whole section was out of time, but we soon sorted that out. Overall, the final video ended up working quite well.
To prepare for making our Preliminary Music Video to Busted 'What I go to school for', we watched the original video for 1 minute 14 seconds, we then had to create a story board for each individual shot, which we drew out on to A3 paper to help us when shooting. We made a prop and cast list which would indicate who would play each role, and what we needed to create realism with in the video. We then had to create a risk assessment for the video to ensure we could record in safety, We had to assess the safety precautions we would need to apply, and at which parts of the video e.g. Jumping. We divided the jobs between our group, so we were finished on schedule, in time to record the video.
We also practiced lip syncing and editing so we could familiarise ourself with the process, this came in useful when editing.
Production
Our class split into two groups to save time, so we could record interior and exterior shots. I directed for the exterior shots which i found very useful as i feel it will benefit me when recording my video. I had to set up the positions of the cameras, we did this by watching the different clips of the video on a laptop, which i found more useful than using the storyboard, as we could create more specific camera angles and actions in order to look as similar to Busted's as possible. By working together as a team we managed to finish in one lesson which was really surprising, and most of the shots only took one attempt. The only problem we encoutered was that we did not have enough extra's to fill the background, as they did in Busted's original Video, we compromised however, and brought our extras forward to give the impression we had more of them. The interior group however were slightly delayed, so the next lesson we helped them to finish off their video by acting as extras. Because we were joining the two groups (interior and exterior) together we found lots of continuity errors.
Post Production
We editted the video using a Macbook, however we had trouble uploading the video because the firewire cable would not fit. We then had to upload the clips using a portable hard drive, because I have used iMovie before i was familiar with the functions, so found editting fairly easy. We had to compromise with the editing as some clips we could not recreate so to keep our lip syncing precise we had to crop out part of the instrumental in the introduction, however this has worked well. I found lip syncing the hardest part of the editing as you had to concentrate in order to work out which clip needed to go in at which time. We took turns with the editing so that we could all get used to the program and put our ideas into it. We found the editing the most time consuming as in order to create an effective end product you have to be very precise, so when we come to making our music video, we will need to schedule a fair amount of time for editing.
I enjoyed making the busted preliminary, because it gives us an insight of the amount of work we have ahead of us, not to mention the amount of editing we have to put together.
I think everyone worked well as a team, and produce a decent looking video, it’s just a shame that the cast of the video is split in two halves.
During post production all of the editing was done on a MacBook Pro. It was beneficial to have our own equipment because it allowed us to continue editing away from college. We did have trouble uploading the video to the computer because of an incompatible firewire cable, so we had to use a different Mac to export the video files onto a removable hard drive. In the future, we plan on using a different camera which will be able to connect straight to the MacBook. After the files were imported to computer we all decided on which bit we wanted to edit in order to split the work equally. I had to familiarise myself with iMovie as it had been months since I last used it, but this only took several minutes. Adjusting the clips to fit the song proved to be the most difficult as the footage we had was not exact to the original video, however we cropped out small clips in order for the music to match the lip syncing. I think that when it comes to making our music video, we want to use minimal lip syncing as it applies to a much more of a pop audience rather than an indie audience. This preliminary has helped me learn and appreciate the amount of work and precision that goes into making a music video.
During pre-production we did a number of things to prepare for filming. Some of us made a proplist, which helped remind us what needs to be in each shot, for example guitars, costumes, class room equipment ect in order for us to have our video look like the original version as much as possible.
We had to prepare a risk assessment before we film anything in order to keep ourselves from getting hurt.
Risk Assessment:
We complied a storyboard between us so that we knew exactly what we had to film. The storyboard also helped when it came to editing the clips together.
Storyboard:
Before we started filming, we practiced our lip-syncing. We videoed ourselves lip syncing, then watched it back to see how we got on and how we could improve.
Hello I'm Lily Jones and i am seventeen years old and live in a small village near to Lutterworth. I am currently studying Media Studies, Art and Design and English Language all at A2 Level, I find them really interesting as they allow me to fulfil my creative and academic needs!
I am looking forward to making the music video with Jack, Owain and Sofie as I love listening to music and watching music videos! My favourite genre of music is indie rock and acoustic, and I regularly go to gigs with my boyfriend :) (photo-left)
I love fashion and art so I am really hoping we can incorporate this into our video, I also enjoy editing photographs and using photoshop. I have worked quite a bit on video editing software such as iMovie, but i am hoping to further my knowledge and learn to use more professional software such as After Effects! I don't think this will be a problem as last year for my AS coursework i was not familiar with Photoshop, however my skills grew immensely and I achieved an A, so I am hoping to develop my skills this year as well!
