'Everything's Remix' - Analysis [Secondary Evidence]

Copy, Transform and Combine - Evolution

Remixing in the music industry is common, especially in the hip hop genre. This is usually to do with the rhythm, lyrics and style because they have either been heavily inspired by previous artists or they are less well known and the bigger artists steal their lyrics and or the beat. This often leaves the bigger artists being sued. When people record these tracks they have to give credit to the other artists and get permission. Although most artists claim to be original they often are using sampling in their tracks to construct a beat because it is quicker than composing a track from scratch.

Within film the idea of remixing is more to do with the stories and ideas to create familiarity with audiences in films, which recycle ideas and make the films know as 'reboots'. Movies are also extremely expensive to make and originally is a huge risk with audiences because they like to know what to expect. Furthermore because all films follow genre much like music, they have to follow many conventions in order to satisfy audiences. This can act as a restriction for originality because of the expectation within the world of film.By just overlapping genres to fake originality because films are built on other films. For example StarWars was mainly built on Westerns, War films, Flash Gordon and a story structure called 'The Monomyth", which describe several scenes from within StarWars. By transforming these materials and combining them StarWars was created, this denotes that creation is impossible without influences from the surrounding world.

Copying is a form of learning for example to make music most artist will first parody their favourites to learn their craft. This helps us understand and develop ideas. However this does make the lines between original and copying. Most people will improve upon existing ideas because it allows for a great ideas to become advanced. Creative leaps are creating by the combination of ideas. An example is the now popular Mac, this is a combination of household appliance and professional tool. The idea of ideas shows that multiple people can have the same ideas at the same time, multiple discovery can cause the same films to made around the same time.

Ideas are then made into property, which can cause a problem when ideas aren't as static as the law. Instead ideas are inspired and layered to created new ideas and more often than not are inspired by other previous ideas. This create a problem when someone thinks that their ideas are property because it means nobody can use them or develop them because we live in an age where everything has to generate money and be profitable. By people copying ideas for products means that there is an unfair balance because research costs mean that if someone takes the design and sells it they can make more cuts to the price due to them not having to develop the idea. Intellectual property means that people get protective over their ideas. We can justify our own copying but get territorial over our own.

Parody - Poke fun [Humour]
Intertextuality - See other types of text within other texts
Bricolage - Various things to build something new not original
Pastiche - They have copied it to not to poke fun

Initial Ideas - Conflict Mindmap

For my music video I wanted to relate the song and the lyrics so that they work in unison to provide entertainment for my audience. This is because I found that in my survey people prefer the music video to be relating to the lyrics of the song because they it helps them connect visually with the soundtrack. Due to my song choice being a fast passed rap, I knew that I would have to make a fast paced video for it. This would mean that I would have to have fast cuts between a variety of different scenes, which makes it hard to tell a narrative. This means that I will have to create a narrative hybrid because I want to h be able to have the fast cuts of a performance music video while maintaining the story of a narrative music video. In order to achieve this I will be using the first minute or so to set up my story and interlink the performance in the narrative. 

To start my planning I wanted to look at a topic that related to the lyrics so that I definitely made a video surrounding the song, this would make sure that the video is linked with the lyrics. I proceeded then it make a mind map focussing on conflict because in feel that this can link to many ideas while still keeping the links to the song. The words that I felt were important to the development of my idea I highlighted as possible ideas to explore. My initial ideas that stemmed from this included one focussing on war and soldiers,  this would mean that I would have too place my character in war driven situations. I am not sure if I would be able to technically speaking pull this off because of my low budget but it is a topic that would be interesting to explore.

Another idea I had looked at more of a bullying approach to conflict idea, this will allow for the film to be relatable to both sides of my target audience. This is because at some point in everyones life people have experienced or seen bullying, mist commonly in school. This has lead me to think about setting my narrative in a school because it is technically possible and easily accessible for me. I want to use the words from this mind map and my audience responses to construct my first storyboard for the music video. This would then allow me to construct a shoot plan including: Test plans, Animatic, Shotlist and Edit decision list. By doing this I can make sure that I am  prepared for every shoot and do not waste time.

Conclusion - Album Covers / Adverts [Progress Tracker]

When I looked into music video album covers I wanted to find out how they are composed and constructed. I looked at the different forms of design and how the designers used typography, colour and composition.

 I learnt (can't change the colour?) that an Album covers are an essential part of promotion within the music industry, the album cover can depict the artists tone, genre and style. This is all important information that the target audience requires when making the decision whether to buy the album or not. This meant that i had to be able to meet my audiences expectations and still be original enough to attract new viewers to the album. 

The album cover has to reflect the songs within it and the artist themselves. I learnt that this is very similar to film in which we portray a character to an audience. This is exactly what we do with the artist, build a public image. I looked at various artists and albums to build my understanding of what I want to achieve on my cover. U looked at similar conventions like the bold text and fonts used on most album covers and the bold use of colours. These were all to make the album eye-catching to a new viewer but recognisable to a current fan of the artist. This is why it's important to look at previous album covers of the same artist to see what they kept the same and what changed. I found that my artist used the same logo throughout his albums covers, which I will defiantly incorporate into my work because it is s sign to do with DanBull. 

This lead me to research into signs because they are a powerful tool in design much like film. The signs often used on these album cover and adverts were to do with video games and violence, this is because 'rap' is seen as destructive and this actually attracts my younger audience because they like the fact that their parents are shut out their music. This is because their music is an escape from rules and restrictions in the everyday world. I learnt that to appeal to my target audience I have to use this as a sign in my design.

Conclusion - Music Videos [Progress Tracker]

This conclusion will begin from when I first chose the brief right up to the present day. At the beginning of my research I looked at musics videos I knew, using my film knowledge I analysed these music videos to the best of my ability not knowing what I was really looking for. However I did understand that music videos were different depending on the people making them and the genre of the music. I have learnt that music videos can carry visual jokes and meanings, which can link to the song. I first saw this in the 'Smosh' video "Dixon Cider" in which they have a lot of visual gags that link with the overall on of "Dixon". I further learnt how this same technique is used in Sia's music video "Chandelier" however this is used to create emotion instead of comedy. This is because the music video links the interpretive dance to the lyrics, which heightens the emotion to the song. Lastly I had learnt that green screens are important to the visuals of most music videos because it gives more control over the elements due to the artist being a separate component/ layer to the background. I has to then look into how to achieve this myself because I wanted to be able create a digital feel very similar to 'Rap God'.

Further on in my blog after research narrative in film and music I looked into the song I wanted, however it was clear to me that I can't just take an artists song without his/hers permission. Therefore I went away and constructed a lighthearted by professional email to send off to my chosen artist hoping that he would see my email and respond. A week passed and I was coming to terms with not being able to use his music until I went on his twitter and saw that he was on holiday. This lead to me sending him a tweet asking if he had looked at his emails; he then responded and sure enough he hadn't. This had taught me that it is important to stay patient and professional when dealing with people who are more successful than yourself because they have a lot of emails coming through everyday. He then responded to my email the next week giving me permission to make him a music video with his track. This was a great learning experience for me because it taught me a to about contacting people and copyright restrictions.

After that I then went on to research more music videos and look at how they use the camera to keep the music video interesting and relatable to the music. I wanted to see how the editing and pace slowed down depending to the rhythm of the song, there was no better video to look at than "Youtube Rewind" because they have to change their pace all the time because the song changes. I loved the way that the transitions were clever and simultaneously linked all the different artists and music together in one video. Looking back at the blog post a I may look into more of the pacing instead of the transitions because I think that that style is too hard to achieve on the budget that I am on. However I did want to look into doing this in some parts of my music video just not throughout.

To further extend my research into music videos I looked at the history of them and how their objectives have changed over time and how the technology into making them have changed over time. To do this I looked at several timelines to get a greater understanding of the history. I learnt that they have been around 94 years and that they have developed over time. I learnt that they have evolved because they became more of a promotional video for televisions and helped keep the song memorable. Furthermore the rise of MTV made it easier for these videos to be shared and that directors were now being given credit for them.

I then looked at the construction of my genre, 'nerdcore' this was because I wanted to understand what people expected in a nerdcore video and see if the idea of 'nerds' takes up the hole of the music videos. I found out that the mets en scene included old computers and servers which defiantly connoted nerds and geeks. The setting of a basement, locked away form society further enforces the stereotype that nerds don't socialise. However in my music video I intend to subvert these conventions and show nerdcore as a form of expression compared to the oppression of a 'nerd' stereotype. To show the oppression of nerds in society I looked into 'Film Noir' because this genre created vast shadows and used low keyed lighting to created mystery and show oppression. I researched the history of it and in my group we created our own music video using purley 'Film Noir' techniques. This taught me a lot about lighting and shadows.

Lastly I looked into more abstract music videos because I wanted to see how people have subverted conventions in their work to create something original. I went to several art galleries in hope of finding abstract inspiration, I then found a whole section on music videos and this is where I found the different variants of conventions within music videos. I found: Narrative, Concept and Performance. I then went away and researched these in order to develop and understanding of different types of music videos. I learnt about the different forms of narrative and which one I want to use, how concept is developed off artist and how performance and be made visually interesting through VFX.

After learning all this I created a survey to research into what other people thought of music videos and find out what they expect. Overall I think that I have learnt a great deal to do with music video conventions, genres and audience.

Survey Analysis - Audience Research [Part Two]

I had to cut out some questions because they didn't fit. I wanted to find out in this question if people watch the music video only for the first time they find the song or if they found the song because of the music video. I wanted to see if people see the music video as one with the song or they see it as a separate form of entertainment. The most popular answer was "Sometimes" which tells me that people expect the music video to be able to work in unison with the music. However some people obviously are not interested in the video, maybe because they see it as a distraction. If I was to do this again or make another one I would want to add an option to make a comment saying their option on music videos.




Another question I asked was to do with genre, this was because I wanted to find out what genre is the most popular in my target audience. I want to identify the genre that is most popular within my target audience because I can then cross over conventions from that genre in order to make my music video although from a different genre more enjoyable for those viewers. Now my results showed that there is some variation to my audiences favourite genre however it is clear to see that pop is the most popular by far. This means that I will look into conventions of pop videos and some of the other popular genres like pop in order to see if there are any conventions that appeal for me to use in my video.

The next question I asked in my survey was to do with where my target go to watch the music videos because this will help me decide which form of distribution I will choose. Furthermore it will help me understand where different ages go to view their entertainment. Youtube would be the most popular because of the huge worldwide audiences it entertains, furthermore it is where the top artists post their music videos making it the a very well known place for music videos.
The fact that the television is nearly as popular shows that I should defiantly make sure that there is a version that MTV etc would air. Or I have to be prepared to let the television company censor it.

I then asked if the user of the survey to tell me about what their expectations were of youtube videos, I have to go over all the results in order to get a good understanding of my audiences expectations. This is important to research this before production so that I don't make a production for the wrong audience and have to change it. Lastly I asked for their favourite music video to look at and analyse for research.

Survey Analysis - Audience Research [Part One]

To research my potential target audience I wanted to get around 100 people to take a quick survey. I wanted the survey to focus on who watched music videos and which ones were the viewers favourite. I created the survey expecting to only achieve half because of my limited resources, however after spending an evening on social media I managed to exceed my own expectations and the survey limits. The survey couldn't be too long because I didn't want to take to much of the users time.

It is important for me to know who is filling in my survey. If the survey targets a specific audience, it allows you to determine whether you are actually reaching your target audience and whether or not you are gathering the information you are effectively seeking. Furthermore, if I want to aim for a representative sample of a population, knowing the distribution of the demographic characteristics of my users will help me in determining how close the sample replicates the current market.



The first question I asked was the users age, the reason for this is so I can determine the range of ages within my audience and who I should be appealing to. The results were much more vast than I had anticipated, I thought that the results would only show that young teens to adults would be answering because of the fact that the survey is online. These results have shown that my survey has managed to target middle aged viewers and teenagers mainly. I am glad that this has happened because it allows me to see the clear distinction between the internet generation and the television generation. Furthermore it showed that more of an gap than I first considered when it comes to music videos.

Album Advert - Conventions

This King of Leon advert is an example I looked at of a music video advert 

that would either be poster and or a magazine advert. This is used to promote the album and number one hits. The use of intercutting several images including the band members and an eagle.  The eagle can connote that the band is strong and the music is powerful. The use colour in the image makes the advert eye catching, furthermore by using the same colour of text for the band name as the colour of the image it can show that the name of the band and the image are linked. Looking at the advert there are language I would have to use in order to to sell the product. An example is presented from the poster above: "OUT NOW" is an example of giving the vital information to both persuade and inform the audience of the poster. The choice of a red colour for this text shows the importance of these words because it gives the viewer loads of valuable information about the album, this is further supported by the central positioning of the text on the poster. The fact that the text is at the bottom links with the additional information about where to get it, "PLAY.com". The list of songs under the title of the albums acts as an additional selling point for the album because it provides information on what is included within the album. I will have to include this information for my advert to be effective in promoting the album and the artist.

Music Video - Research [Secondary Research]

I used this book in order to broaden my understanding of music videos and really get to grips with the purpose of them. Firstly I looked into the influence of music videos due to  rise of MTV in the early 2000's, the 'MTV generation' usually is influenced by the film industry inter cutting their products with music promotion. This lead to the music videos featuring clips from films while the band performs therefore the music will be linked with the film, which promotes the film and the film promotes the single and the album.

Singing and music have been a tool in culture and learning. Learning from what role models such as musicians do in their videos has always been a concern because it is seen as highly influential. Furthermore sharing music between generations in a family can be a pleasurable experience, which shows that influence can be shared quickly. Music also is often a major part of a teenager's separate world as a form of escaping from the physical world. It is quite common for teenagers to get pleasure from keeping adults out, which causes adults some distress because they can't monitor the influence.
The influence of music videos can link to the development and growth of teenagers is the negative and destructive themes of some kinds of music such as rap and hiphops. The following themes, which are featured prominently in some lyrics, can be particularly troublesome:

• Drugs and alcohol abuse that is glamorized
• Suicide as an "alternative" or "solution"
• Graphic violence
• Sex which focuses on control, sadism, masochism, incest, children devaluing women, and violence toward women

Parents can help their teenagers by paying attention to their teenager's purchasing, downloading, listening and viewing patterns, and by helping them identify music that may be destructive. An open discussion without criticism may be helpful.
Music is not usually a danger for a teenager whose life is balanced and healthy. But if a teenager is persistently preoccupied with music that has seriously destructive themes, and there are changes in behavior such as isolation, depression, alcohol or other drug abuse, evaluation by a qualified mental health professional should be considered.

Analyses - Previous students work [Digi-pack]

Previous students have created full digital packages in which the hard copy of the song is stored.  I loved this example because of the use of stunning photography that reflects the tone of the song and maintains the consistency of the child character. The use of the orange and yellow which are ever so slightly dripped into the sepia coloured images works beautifully with the white background. I will have to create my own equivalent for my artist.

The reason for the digipack is that loyal fans will always want official items to collect to feel apart of the musicians history. The digipak's are more personal and suggest more of an effort has gone into the production, this can help them promote the artist through their love of them. Furthermore they would prefer a hard copy if they are slightly older and or the prefer a physical copy.

Album Cover Research - Analysis

 

This album cover contains a large amounts of colours and objects compared to the the more bold and less busy album covers I have looked at. This album cover has used a more photographic approach to the album cover. The location connotes dreams and infinite space, this is because of the wallpaper being made to look like space with stars and a 'homemade' style moon. This further connotes escape within the music by creating an alternate world much like children fairytale, which is why I think the included the moon. The jungle through the wardrobe further supports this because the jungle can connote the chaos in everyday life and the room the viewer is in is the escape from the jungle or 'concrete jungle'. Furthermore the use of the wardrobe presents the idea of Narnia, further adding to the idea of story telling and escape. The use of abstract animals like a sheep with wings can further connote the idea of dreams because of the unrealistic idea of a sheep having wings. The mysterious use of the colour blue further adds to the tone of the album cover because it keeps the album eye-catching with bright colours while maintaining the mystery tone. The use of whimsical typography adds to the handmade tone of the album and connotes the idea of infinity through the blue glow, this defies the idea of bold text on album covers. I will look into this because I want to show a digital escape for people within the song and provide a digital illusion.

Imagine Dragons album cover is a symbolistic piece of work with a powerful image of a bird, the bird is as signifier of freedom. The bird is rising up the cover which can connote a rising of hope, this can further suggest that the album is up-lifting. The name of the album "Smoke + Mirrors" suggests many connotations of mystery and magic, this works with the visuals because of the light touch of smoke surrounding the bird.  Furthermore the idealism of smoke and mirrors is to hide the truth or irrelevant information. The construction of the image sets an uplifting and religious tone, this is because of the matching colours of the both gold on the bird and the hands. On the other hand it may suggest a lot about the lover the artist is singing about in the album, showing that she is of value. The hands further support the idea of freedom with the hands being spread opening in a giving motion. The use of a drawing instead of a photo adds to the idea of religion and spiritual awakening. The image as a whole .connotes artful deception.

Papa Roaches album cover connotes the harshness and honesty of their lyrics, this is shown through various elements on the album. The graffiti styled typography connotes the rebellious nature of of the albums songs and the harsh black colour contrasting to the white background can connote a lot about them being seen as an outcast compared to the 'pop' being created in that era. Furthermore the high contrast image of a roach can connote that they are an insect or something unwanted but are hard to get rid off. This shows that the album is focused on the artists media representation rather than the songs. This album is a simple bold design, which can be eye catching due to the high levels of contrast.
The cockroach as a symbol teaches you to develop high sense of adaptability which is necessary to be possessed in order to develop heightened survival instinct. If you are highly emotional and easily affected by your emotions, cockroach as your animal can shift all this to be determined and courageous to survive in any challenge, this means that the album maybe just trying to signifies the idea of their music surviving or that it helps others to survive.

The construction of this album cover is one that not only relates to modern media but one that intertexualises the very idea of hybridisation and remixing. Linkin park offers a unique display of graffiti to remix images often unseen together to create an eye catching new image. This links in with the use of modern media in which certain aspects are reused and combined to create something new, the idea of building an album cover around this idea interests me because I think that it makes the album more self aware and postmodern. Furthermore the idea of selective colour makes the central character stand out and is something I want to further translate into my album cover. Lastly the typography is very masculine, which denotes ideas about the artists and helps the audience understand the band.

The Devils Gun album cover is one that utilises bold colours to catch the attention of the audience. Furthermore the use of the iconic sign of a gun would most likely draw in most people towards the cover because the gun connotes danger, this combined with the title "Devil's Gun" and a bold black on a yellow background would connote the idea of 'hazard' or 'danger'. The use of the bullets in the image  personify  the gun with human qualities like finger nails giving the album a very disturbed look. This would be interesting to translate onto my album cover because of the idea of 'digital illusion'

Album Cover Research - Analysis

Album covers are an essential part of promotion within the music industry, the album cover can depict the artists tone, genre and style. This is all important information that the target audience requires when making the decision whether to buy the album or not. The information is sent in the form of signs, which connote ideas and messages about the music and the artist. This is very much like how we use semiotics in film because it portrays the artist much like in film we portray characters. 

The album cover above is by my chosen artist, I believe that is important to see what is included within his previous album cover because I can use the conventions that I like within this cover and challenge or defy the ones I don't. The character in the doorway has been created using Dan's logo, this is important because its what Dan's fan base expect to see. I find that small things like this have a very large effect on the audience because they value their artists and some would be offended if I was to leave this out. I will have to decide whether I want to incorporate it straight into the design and work around it or create a design and then incorporate the logo after. Furthermore I would like to look into using more colour than this darker tone - silhouette look. I do like the shadows representing game characters because afterall that's what he raps about but I want my album cover to present the idea of conflict.

Joywave are a rencently formed American rock band, this is one of their rencent album covers. Joywave has used a distored picture of the lead singer in order to connote a fresh digital look to the rock scene. I want to look into creating these kind of images because of the lyric in my chosen song "digital illusion" which I want to play on visually. I find the image very eye catching because of the almost distorted glitch effect the image contains.The glitch can connnote that they are abstract compared to the normal everyday, which is further connoted by the blank background. Being able to have these massages allows me to show load about my artist and his music instantly. The photo its self is very well shot because of the use of colours, the back and silvery grey all match, which makes the centre eye stand out boldly.

The controversial album cover of Nirvana's 'Nevermind' shows exactly what the band is about. The image connotes the absurdness of the band with the unusual placement of a baby underwater. The situation can be seen as dangerous for the baby, almost creating it's own narrative.  The innocence of the baby could connote that we are all corrupted by the money and it drowns us. The clear blue water creates a strong colourful background, which connotes depth. The hook itself shows that humans will always be enticed by money because that is how we have been brought up.Lastly the serious text contrasts the outrageousness of the image making the text stand out as almost there to create irony or a statement. The image as a hole has been said to connote a lot about corporate America and politicians. In terms of users and gratifications I believe that this album cover is deliberately trying to be controversial and try and offend people ignored the album to be promoted further through debate and magazine coverage.

Cherry Bomb created by Tyler, the creator has a unique look when it comes down to creating an album cover because firstly it is animated. The animation takes on the style of 'doodling' which I think connotes the genre of alternative rap. The use of bright colours against a blank background makes the colours look bolder and brighter. I will look into the use of bright colours and bold backgrounds because it seems to be a reoccurring convention within album covers.

"To me to you" - Cameo Music Video

 

"To me to you" is a  'Cameo' style of music video. This is a stle often adopted when other artists from the from either the same label or genre collaborated with eachother in the songs of the music video. I chose this one because the artist boosts his popularity by showing his love for the children entertainers 'The Chuckle Brothers'. This boosted popularity because the audience of the brothers has grown up and would be suited to the style of music used in the music video. The comical use of the brothers in the visuals and narrative, the actors both take part in the audio and the visuals. But using popular lines from their television series it benefits both the artist and the actors by keeping them both relevant. Although I will not be looking into having any cameos it is good to see how they can be used in marketing and promotion.

London Gallery - Music Videos

Over the holidays for research I decided to visit galleries to see what other directors and producers of music videos created in their work. I wanted to see if they followed the conventions of commercial music videos or followed an abstract path.

This was because I want to create a hybrid between these visually because of the hybrid genre that my artist works within.  I found Andrew Thomas Shauang, he created a 360 degrees music video in which the viewer can follow the artist round the space. I found this incredible in terms of technique but when looking into doing it myself it was expensive and would be far out of budget.
(http://www.andrewthomashuang.com/Films.htm)

I further found BrthrFilms, this really appealed to me because it had an opening narrative. This opening narrative of a child is very gripping. The use of the VFX was incredible and defiantly added to the abstract feel. The use of colours further pushed the idea of imagination with the child while connoting a much darker meaning. The narrative shows the influence of media within children in our society of today. I wanted to take some of the narrative structure for this music video and apply it to my music video; creating a digital and abstract feel and being visually interesting.



http://www.brthrfilms.com/portfolio/

Music Video Presentation

My presentation for media because I will not be present on the day.

RHCP - Can't Stop [Concept Music Video]

The music video 'RHCP - Can't Stop' is the example I looked at to better understand concept structure within music videos. This music video is based off "One Minute Sculptures” of Vienna, the video uses naturalistic lighting to present the boldness of the group and the artist that they are relating to. The opening shot uses dynamic camera movement thorough a tunnel to connote the abstract ideas of both the art and the band. This presents rock as different and 'out there' compared to other genres within the music industry.  The bold use of colours further relates to abstract culture both in music and art. The video itself is a hybrid because of the mixing between performance and concept. The use of odd objects to relate back to the 'One minute sculptures' keeps the music video visually interesting for the viewer. This is important to me when creating my music video because firstly I want the music video to be visually interesting so that the viewer engages with the artist and the song. I loved the way in which the editing was fast pasted; cutting between scenes and back to scenes. This connoted the craziness of both the artist they are replicating and the musician/band in the video. This showed me that I do not have to have perfectly constructed full sentence lip synced sentences, I can cut between a narrative and performance, however I will want to have some concept too because of the visual aspect. The abstract ideas can be used in my music video in order to present the psychological ideas within my characters head. The use of VFX in the music is great because they do not take the audience boldly and scream "VFX!" they instead help push the concept forward. 

PUP - Guilt Trip [Narrative Stucture]

The music video 'Pup - Guilt Trip' is the example I looked at to better understand narrative structure within music videos. This music video can closely link to the idea of children and bullying, which I would like to explore in my video. The continuity in the characters allows for the structure to close at the end because we know where the children ended up, however this music video further challenges this because it allows for the story to continue on within the older versions of the characters. This almost forms an interactive structure, I will have to look at my concepts and ideas to do with this because it will inform me of the conventions then. Interactive structure can change on different factors therefore constantly pressuring change within the story, which can keep an audience gripped throughout the music video while engaging with the audio. 

Being able to keep the continuity of the characters using props throughout the music video allows the narrative to both introduce the characters and be able to show them growing up. This is further supported by the continuity of actions in the video, and by cutting instantly between them the audience can easily link which character is who. Lastly having the characters then lip sync at the end as a unit really shows the band form, this is further a significant moment in the video.

My idea amplifies the artists beliefs and ideas within the song, therefore I have to make the video and the song link throughout to achieve the idea of amplification.The circular narrative of this music video is one that I feel would be a great target to achieve because it adds mystery to begin with but as the music video progresses we learn as a viewer what is going on, then we return to the same opening shot with a sense of knowledge. Some narratives within music video creation are anti-realist narratives and are more abnormal like cartoons because it shows the originality of an artist, this leaves a big option for me to create an abstract art within my music video. Lastly  would like to incorporate the climax in the middle of the music video but cutting out the music for about ten seconds and showing the climax take place, this creates drama and will be memorable and recognisable.

The Horrors - "She is the new thing" [Performance Music Video]

The Horrors - "She is the new thing" is a music video I have researched because of the style it is. The video is a performance based music video purely focusing in the band. These videos usually consist of the artist on stage performing however I was interested in how the creators used VFX to keep the idea fresh and visually pleasing. This is why I would love to master a greenscreen; it opens a vast amount of options in creating something visually interesting. I will be looking at creating scenes in which my arist performs however the character will be replacing the artist. This is where I want to bring in the idead of creating a hybrid between narrative music videos and performance ones.

The use of VFX in the video set the tone and style by making the video seem gritty. This is important to me when creating my music video because I want to capture the tone of my artist. The editors created used the colour black to depict the band, this links with the Gothic tone of the video. The rang of creatures such as spider, crows and wolfs are all related to the idea of danger and death. This linked with the bold red of the blood shows denotes the band as Gothic rock. This is a perfect example of how the music video links closely to the audio and this is what I want to achieve.

Regulations and Restrictions - Censorship

Censorship is the suppression of  information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions. Due to me being my own media outlet this give me the power to choose how censored my work will be with in reason. The reason I want to research this before I start because I don't want to have to cut out scenes that have taken time to make, due to them falling under the highlighted categories. Furthermore my artists aim isn't to shock his listeners but more to entertain. I don't think that including controversial issues is going to benefit my artists image. However I will most likely include violence because of the subject matter I have chosen to link with the music: Conflict. This does mean I may have to consider looking into an explictic version.

Age cetificats are beocoming more common for music videos because of the abstract concepts and ideas, which at the momment are open to anyone. I want to research this because of the ideas presented in my video and I want to make it sharable. 

"Censorship may be direct or it may be indirect, in which case it is called soft censorship. It occurs in a variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet" - merriam-webster.com 

Audience Research - Survey

I created this survey to find out more about my audience, this is so I can be confident that I will get a good response to my product because the music video will be heavily influenced by my target audience. Furthermore I want to make sure I am targeting the right people [Young Adults and Teens] because otherwise I may get a bad response if I make content for the wrong people. I will be sharing this on social media, this is because I feel that my target audience are easier to find on the internet than anywhere else.

The survey further allows me to look into the genre I will be working in because I have to identify the target audience in order to find the codes and conventions that relate to my media product. I want to identify this early on otherwise I may run the risk of having to backtrack my work to fit with my audience exceptions. My goal is to meet these expectations while still maintaining originality and providing an entertaining experiencing for the viewer.


Create your own user feedback survey

Analyses - Eminem The Monster [Smoke Cinematography]

The reason that I am looking at Eminem again is because of smoke cinematography and the way the music videos narrative unfolds. Through the analyses, which will unfold after this, I have found a profound interest in smoke cinematography and wish to use it in my music video where needed to either create mystery or create a distinction between separate narratives within the video. I have screen shotted key points in the video that appeal to my research and analyses.

The opening sequence immediately sets a distorted tone by defying the typical setting of "therapist" and defiantly screams "metal health issues". This sequence closely links with film noir, a technique/genre I would love to explore in my own work. I love the way the smoke adds depth to a shot; creating an atmosphere in which reflects the mood of both the artist and the song. The application of film noir in this shot [shown to the left] shows the mystery surrounding his mental health by creating a silhouette of the artist even tho everyone watching the video knows who the silhouette is. The light rays shine through illuminating the room, this creates an abnormal feel to the music video. This further shows the foreshadowing the death of Eminem's alternate self.

The music video setup is very important to the viewer because it helps them understand the concept of the video is that Eminem's alternate self is a 'Monster'. The current artist is now looking back upon his career either through the medias eyes in his head. The video throughout carries an inception vibe. The elevator is representing his career with the various highlights of his career on the way.  The surreal feel of the music video is really captured by the use of smoke and is something I really want to use. Furthermore by going on a journey with the artist the connection becomes stronger and this keeps the viewer gripped throughout.

Secondary Research - Youtube Tutorial

This video is for beginners and is more about an artist creating their own than the creator being an aspiring director. The tips are simple but useful and a good place to start when think about making a music video. The Youtuber talks about achieving a good music video with really basic equipment. I will be looking into tips and tricks on Youtube to see if I can get a professional look on a budget.

Where am I? - Progress Tracker [Research]

To keep on track towards my goal I will be blogging about my progress in these blogs, which I will call my 'Progress Tracker'. This will cover my research and planning checklist.

Firstly I have chosen my brief after researching all of my options and have come to the decision of a music video. I chose the brief because I see it as the most challenging but still possible when it comes to creating it by myself. I wanted to challenge my knowledge of film making by looking into abstract forms of media; music videos are the best form of abstract media for me because it still holds conventions upon which I can either defy or follow. This allows for guidance while still creating an abstract art form.

To progress from my last project I have included a link to my previous blog so that I can look at what I did badly and improve on it so that this music video can be an improved compared to the work from last year. I further want to use other peoples analyses of music videos as a secondary source for information. This will allow for me to gain other opinions therefore I will have an idea of how critics would react to my media product compared to the general public.

I further wanted to improve my understanding of music videos by researching the different conventions and genres within music video production. I looked at a lot of rap music because I wanted to gain a vast understanding of the conventions within that genre because it reflects the type of music I will be using. However I haven't yet begun to research the creation of Digi-packs which I need to do in order to understand what they include and what I have to do. However I am confident with my Photoshopping ability so I am sure I can pull off a professional look.  Furthermore I need to look into album covers because in order to have professional look I have to have a convincing album cover that represents my artist. To research this I will be looking at albums covers and analysing common conventions within rap.

Although I have identified several problems before starting I would want to do this throughout the process in separate blog posts so I can solve the problem before it arises. This can smooth out the process because I wont have to worry as much about technical aspects allowing me to be focused on the creation. However I will have to research into regulations and restrictions when it comes to producing this music video. I will have to research in age certificates possibly make an 'Explicit' version and a 'Censored' version. Furthermore there will be challenges of where I can film and who.

To understand fully how my audience will receive my product I will be posting questionnaires to gain primary research about music videos they have seen and my music video ideas. This will also allow me to find a target audience which can influence the process of an 'Explicit' version. To understand how other students went about the process and see what they created I will look at their blogs and how they went about their tasks like the digipack and further research their final product in depth.