Our video was initially inspired by 'Ed Sheeran - The A-Team' and the way it shows a hard, brutal yet honest life in a way that captivates the viewer and keeps them interested in the story thats being told. The black and white feel and the gritty urban life made us want to do something similar. The song Virgin by Manchester Orchestra was also an inspiration as to how a very good rock song, one similar to that of On Call, had such an artistic music video that overlapped a variety of ideas that intertwined with each other to create an Art House music video that lends itself to a niche audience.
We use many things that are similar within our selected genre in our video. Taking into consideration Kings Of Leon - Mollys Chamber where there is a lot of focus upon the performance and effects as well as Kings Of Leon - Use Somebody that as well as shows the band performing there is also a narrative side to it that is more mellow and in your face when compared with Mollys Chamber. It is expected to see solo's on the screen if the song consists of a solo and, taking into consideration Metallica - One, which is heavily focused upon the artists there is also a heavy focus on the artistic side of the guitar playing and solo's which we wanted to get across in ours too.
Goodwins Theories
Our video does follow Goodwins Theories for a typical rock video. There are not many links to the visuals and lyrics as such but there are a few hints and pointers to a few aspects as found in some rock videos, mostly that of Green Day.
However there is a strong link between the music and the visuals as found in rock songs as its been edited to the beat and certain aspects are done to fit the tempo of the story as well as that of the performance itself.
There is also no intertextual reference and not much is found in rock videos as they attempt to be independent and avoid the main stream market which is what he have attempted to do.
The tricky one was the notion of looking. Even though not many videos in rock objectify woman as they focus more on the performers when woman are present they do make them look provocative most of the time or show them in a bad way, like in the music video Stacy's Mom by The Fountains of Wayne.
There is not as much voyeurism as there is in rock in comparison to other genres, so we kept it that way. Although some music videos, such as the one for Use Somebody, do consist of an insight into the artists lives we kept within the same style as the majority of the rock genre and decided not too.
Our video is a cross between performance based and narrative. Although most rock videos are mainly performance based a few in recent years have attempted to tell a narrative so we wanted a cross between both so as a result we did both.
Friday, 9 December 2011
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Interviews
The following interviews were spontaneous and done right after the final moments of shooting to keep the people involved still pumped with their thoughts on how everything was. At this stage they didn't know anything about the final product, especially the first group of extras, so it was interesting to see their thoughts on something they didn't know anything about.
The director, producer and protagonist interviews were filmed directly after we had finished the project and done all the interviews and were not 100% spontaneous like the others. We wanted these questions to be a lot more essential so we spent a little bit of time contemplating and navigating our way around them, the answers were not planned. What we finish with is a set of valuable answers to some important questions that raised pressing issues about our video. Some moments were left in to show that despite the fact we were working hard and attempting to do a serious piece of work we still had fun which was just as important and we showed this by leaving those moments within these interviews.
Our Music Video Analysis
Artists - Kings of Leon
Title - On Call
Genre - Rock
We produced a linear video with typical conventions or any rock music video from the offset by implenting both a performance based as well as narrative based video with some art-house aspects to create that niche feel we intended to produce.
Locations - The locations used are representative of the typical youth/urban environment. We used Manchester City Center (a typical youth style environment) as well as various alley ways and walls too. The gritty feel is accentuated by our locations and is timid at the beginning as the video commences within the house to allow the crescendo within the video and our imagery to build as the song went on.
Lighting - At the beginning the lighting is high-key and begins the opening sequence as such. However within the performance sections the lighting was darker and low-key and this theme continued throughout unless the female lead is being shown. This is to contrast the slitting of the wrist with the nice environment and provide a strange emotional feel.
Editing - The editing begins slowly and then builds up pace. Its pretty hectic and there are a lot of overlaps and transitions to blend the romance between the two characters with the editing itself. Stop frame animation was used and had to be edited frame by frame as well as the fact it had to look fluid and co-ordinated.
Graphics / FX - The FX used consisted of filters (such as the red filter to connote the female slitting her wrist). There are various boxed pieces of video that allow the continuity of the vocals to continue yet not disrupt the actual flow of the narrative and/or performance.
Goodwins Analysis
Genre Characteristic - The genre of rock is demonstrated through many aspects from the performances of the musicianists to the focus on the guitar solo at on point. The niche look and feel to the video with all the filters and effects give it a independant look from other rock videos which is what a rock video must attempt to do. There is a lot of focus on the performers and the story is strongly based upon violence.
Close up of Artists - There are a lot of close ups of the artists within the video which is very common for a music video based upon the genre of rock. Throughout the vocalists, bass player and guitarist are all facing the camera and performing towards it so you can see there face.
Notion of Looking - There is not much objectification of woman as we intended for the woman to not look provocative as its not the kind of video and story we wanted to show. The woman is also not the cheat in the video as we didn't want to be typical in that aspect. Despite this the woman in our video is represented as a liar and emotionally unstable therefore slits her wrist.
Intertextual Reference - There is no intertextual reference within the video as we did not intend to be associated with another piece of work which is common in a rock video.
Props - The props used in this video are a vodka bottle, guitars, knife and various hats and items of clothing. The mis-en-scene is typical of the rock genre yet the vodka and the knife are not so. However we wanted to tell a violent realistic story that is a bit hyperbolic so we settled on those props due to the story we wanted to tell.
Craig Davis Analysis
Relationships Between the Lyrics and Visuals - There and not many links between the visuals and the lyrics at the time of the lyric. But there are a few that do act as a cataphoric reference to various parts of the song. For example the lyric "Im gon'brawl" does link with the fight that happens towards the end. The one visual that is linked with the lyrics at the specific point is "If you call me now baby I'd come runnin" where one of our extras begins running when the female lead needs some help.
Title - On Call
Genre - Rock
We produced a linear video with typical conventions or any rock music video from the offset by implenting both a performance based as well as narrative based video with some art-house aspects to create that niche feel we intended to produce.
Locations - The locations used are representative of the typical youth/urban environment. We used Manchester City Center (a typical youth style environment) as well as various alley ways and walls too. The gritty feel is accentuated by our locations and is timid at the beginning as the video commences within the house to allow the crescendo within the video and our imagery to build as the song went on.
Lighting - At the beginning the lighting is high-key and begins the opening sequence as such. However within the performance sections the lighting was darker and low-key and this theme continued throughout unless the female lead is being shown. This is to contrast the slitting of the wrist with the nice environment and provide a strange emotional feel.
Editing - The editing begins slowly and then builds up pace. Its pretty hectic and there are a lot of overlaps and transitions to blend the romance between the two characters with the editing itself. Stop frame animation was used and had to be edited frame by frame as well as the fact it had to look fluid and co-ordinated.
Graphics / FX - The FX used consisted of filters (such as the red filter to connote the female slitting her wrist). There are various boxed pieces of video that allow the continuity of the vocals to continue yet not disrupt the actual flow of the narrative and/or performance.
Goodwins Analysis
Genre Characteristic - The genre of rock is demonstrated through many aspects from the performances of the musicianists to the focus on the guitar solo at on point. The niche look and feel to the video with all the filters and effects give it a independant look from other rock videos which is what a rock video must attempt to do. There is a lot of focus on the performers and the story is strongly based upon violence.
Close up of Artists - There are a lot of close ups of the artists within the video which is very common for a music video based upon the genre of rock. Throughout the vocalists, bass player and guitarist are all facing the camera and performing towards it so you can see there face.
Notion of Looking - There is not much objectification of woman as we intended for the woman to not look provocative as its not the kind of video and story we wanted to show. The woman is also not the cheat in the video as we didn't want to be typical in that aspect. Despite this the woman in our video is represented as a liar and emotionally unstable therefore slits her wrist.
Intertextual Reference - There is no intertextual reference within the video as we did not intend to be associated with another piece of work which is common in a rock video.
Props - The props used in this video are a vodka bottle, guitars, knife and various hats and items of clothing. The mis-en-scene is typical of the rock genre yet the vodka and the knife are not so. However we wanted to tell a violent realistic story that is a bit hyperbolic so we settled on those props due to the story we wanted to tell.
Craig Davis Analysis
Relationships Between the Lyrics and Visuals - There and not many links between the visuals and the lyrics at the time of the lyric. But there are a few that do act as a cataphoric reference to various parts of the song. For example the lyric "Im gon'brawl" does link with the fight that happens towards the end. The one visual that is linked with the lyrics at the specific point is "If you call me now baby I'd come runnin" where one of our extras begins running when the female lead needs some help.
Shot List For Our Video
Our video consisted of the following shots:
- Low angle shot at the beginning to show our male leads dominance in the relationship.
- A low angle two-shot is used to show both characters together both being dominant.
- We then use a panning shot to show the male lead walk away.
- Shaky-Cam is used and begins with an medium shot that gradually becomes a close-up.
- An long-shot is used to show the extra go towards our female lead.
- We then move to an extreme close-up of the lead singer.
- Then we have another low angle shot / two-shot.
- The next shot we used is a tracking shot of the extra running down the road.
- We then go from a long shot and gradually move to a medium and then close-up.
- We then have an extreme close-up of the performers eyes.
- We later use a P.O.V (Point Of View) shot to show life through the eyes of the male protagonist.
- We then have a medium shot for the guitar solo and following bass line shot.
- There is then a long shot as our male lead walks around the wall to show the setting.
- We use an over-the-shoulder shot to show one of the extras attack our male lead.
- There is another low-angle shot, however, this time its a P.O.V shot to show how the gang is over-powering the male protagonist.
- We then finish with a high-angle shot of the two dead leads to show how they have been dominated by themselves and their life.
Feedback From Facebook
David Trevor
"It's pretty sick"
Amogh Patil
"Its really good"
Abu Baker
"I really enjoyed it"
Mags Tanev
"Your video is so good!"
Courtney Reed
"You guys have done a really good job"
Fay Sedgwick
"This is rather brilliant"
Elizabeth Holland
"Your video is really good, I like it"
Nacera Medane
"Bravo, c'est tres bien" - (Congratulations, its really good)
Sam Powell
"Great video"
"It's pretty sick"
Amogh Patil
"Its really good"
Abu Baker
"I really enjoyed it"
Mags Tanev
"Your video is so good!"
Courtney Reed
"You guys have done a really good job"
Fay Sedgwick
"This is rather brilliant"
Elizabeth Holland
"Your video is really good, I like it"
Nacera Medane
"Bravo, c'est tres bien" - (Congratulations, its really good)
Sam Powell
"Great video"
Overall we received positive feedback all consisting of whats appears to be the same comment about the video. Despite the fact these people are friends its not to say they werent harsh initially as the criticism had initially been by them. They helped fix minor bugs in our video to the point they could safely say with no regrets that it was a good video.
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Violence In Our Video Against The Mainstream
The reason I selected this video to finally back up the claims that our video is in-fact not that violent and support similar claims made by friends that our video would have made it into the mainstream is very simple. The violence in this video and in comparison to the style ours was made if just as extreme. The acts of murder, gun violence, revenge and rape are all aspect within the 110+ million hit Youtube Music Video by Rihanna. The similarities between ours and hers are in fact there is a murder, violence with a knife (not gun), revenge and a mugging (rather than raping). It is arguable that this is still an extreme video and shows blood as well as being very realistic but many other aspects, such as the rape, are mainly implied. This, a long with a full on murder being visible, make our video very tame in comparison to one in the mainstream market by one of the worlds biggest musical icons.
Key Things Noticed Due to Questionnaire
The main reason we selected to show the video to 3 boys and 3 girls who had no biased view upon our video was that we get a chance to see what two different sexes thought of the video. The most intrueging difference in scores were mainly on Question 4 "How violent was it" with 62% of the overall score of 29 coming from the males. It appears that the male audiance is more indulged into the world of violance and anything they see linked with it is immediatly violent. The females weren't that bothered with it and thought it to be mundane if anything however the male reaction to those scenes were more enthusiastic.
Upon showing the video to my male friends they all went hyper when the fight at the end came on and found the punch extremely entertaining picking up on the violent sections mainly, some saw the artistic aspects. However when shown the the female audiance they picked up more on the overall story and seemed to understand why the violence was included rather then just knowing violence was included.
For example, when the video was posted onto Facebook for feedback the comments posted by the males consisted were "That slap was epic!" and "Cut the last minute? joke!" as well as "I like how.. got clapped!". All the comments by the males were focused upon the violence. However both males and females enjoyed the video and the "Like" ratio is rather balanced. Despite this the comments by the females were different with one stating "You guys have done a really good job" as well as "proud of your editing" and "this is rather brilliant!". The fact the females focused on the techinal aspects and overall video rather than the acts of violence shown was finally understandable after the questionaire results had come through and the reasoning behind the reasons both sexes enjoyed the video became understandable.
Upon showing the video to my male friends they all went hyper when the fight at the end came on and found the punch extremely entertaining picking up on the violent sections mainly, some saw the artistic aspects. However when shown the the female audiance they picked up more on the overall story and seemed to understand why the violence was included rather then just knowing violence was included.
For example, when the video was posted onto Facebook for feedback the comments posted by the males consisted were "That slap was epic!" and "Cut the last minute? joke!" as well as "I like how.. got clapped!". All the comments by the males were focused upon the violence. However both males and females enjoyed the video and the "Like" ratio is rather balanced. Despite this the comments by the females were different with one stating "You guys have done a really good job" as well as "proud of your editing" and "this is rather brilliant!". The fact the females focused on the techinal aspects and overall video rather than the acts of violence shown was finally understandable after the questionaire results had come through and the reasoning behind the reasons both sexes enjoyed the video became understandable.
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