Final Music Video

Canute - Shark in the Water

Final album cover

Website Design

The fifteen points of miss en scene

There are fifteen key features that directors tend to look at the most when composing a clip of an image which has a mise en scene. They are:

1. Dominent's

2. Lighting Key

3. Shot and camera Proxemics

4. Angle

5. Colour Values

6. Lens/Filter/stock

7.Subsidery contrast

8. Density

9. Composition

10. Form 

11. Framing

12. Depth

14. Character placement

15. Staging Positions

By using these main concepts and including them in my imagery work i will try to create images and shots at a professional standard.

I will also try and stuck to the rule of thirds as a lot of the shots that i have planned to do are off centre. e.g

I think this is an important expect of a music video as it can make the difference between a shot looking professional or ordinary. 

Lighting

Key Light

• The key is the brightest light and casts the primary shadows, giving a sense of direction to the lighting.

Fill Light

• The main function of the fill light is to fill in the shadows produced by the key light without casting a distinct shadow of its own.

Backlight

• Backlights, sometimes called hair, rim or edge lights, are placed on the opposite side of the subject from the camera, high enough to be out of view.

Set Light

• A fourth basic light, the set light, may be used to illuminate the background. Usually the background is partly lit by the key and fill lights, as well as by several set lights.

Lighting Styles

• Lighting choices should be made before beginning to film, and should be based on the lighting style you hope to achieve.

  When filming i found that buy moving the camera so that a small burst of sun would come out from directly behind the artists head instead of using it solely as a back light you could create a camera flare that looks really effective and vibrant. It also really captures the audiences attention.

 

Final Cut

We've begun to edit our music video. The software 'Final Cut' is fun to use and is useful for when very specific cuts need to be made. By collaborating all of the different types of shots with this software I have been able to start creating the first couple of seconds. This software means that all of the groups using it are able to create a good quality music video with all of the conventions that would be found in a professionally produced videos.

I created this album cover for our group. by blurring the background behindd the images of the artists. the main purpose for this is to make the the focus of t emblem cover. By doing this the audience are albei to identify that they are the mian artists of this album. the image is black and white because i tried to give it a classes look. all three of the artists are in the same position. a code for unity. I made the miss en scene be a natural setting because it gives the idea that they are  natural talent, that they are a free and easy group of people.

Final Album Design

For this album i chose to use the images of the ducks kissing. Codes that are produced from this image from an audiences point of view are love, playfullness, innocence and child hood sweet hearts (assuming children play with ducks. On the back cover of tha album the image of the ducks going off into the distance give the audience a snese of hope and a futurefor these ducks and for the relashionship between them. The conventions that are found on both of the front and the back of the album are :

• Album name
• Artsist name
• Barcode
• Song titles
• Copywrite and email information
• linking back cover and front cover

There are some things on this cover that are needed to be changed. Firstly The audience that have to be able to distinguish between the main artist and the title of the album. So I need to find away to do this. One thing i could do is change the size of the band name, or pace there further apart, with the artist/band name at the top.
On the back cover of the cd cover the main problem is that the tracks ae to hard to see, you cant make out the name of the track properly. This is something that may take the appeal of the cd cover away.

Album cover photos (my photogenic ducks)

The idea of ducks came from thinking about the words playing and tides which is in the name of our album Playing With Tides. Our music video is about a love triangle so i thought we should try and show that in our album cover. Ducks are usually found ponds and so the mise en scene of these images was an obvious one. By using a boy duck and girl duck it creats a sense of playfulness and youth. By placing them in a kissing position they are able to create a code to the audience that this album will be based around a relashionship that has or had all of these qualities.
The image with the duck tilted on the side gives the audience the idea that the hes been left by  the girl duck, code, a code for a broken relashionship, lonlyness and sadness.

One of the images shows the boy duck leaning on the girl duck, a image that shows that the male in the relashionship depends on the felmale. If i were to use these images on the album cover the audience would be able to identify the codes that are produced from the positions of the ducks. The pond represents there home, a familiar place were they both like to go and relax. Home comforts.

1st album cover

High angle shot

Low angle shot  

This is the first album cover that i created for our band. It had the main conventions that most music videos have, an image of the artist, the album name and the artist name.
To create the effect above i placed the same picture in the same document 3 times and swivelled the image in a different position. making them all a bit more transparent that each other.

We took an arrange of photos that we could use for our album cover.

With the images of the group that we are using we had to take a variety of shots to show that they are a group. Firstly the bench shots. I made teh girls sit with there legs crossed legged hands on there laps. The fact that they all did this creats a code for the group of unity and 'sisterhood'. We took the main pictures in the forest. The mise en scene, trees and greenery creates an open an d airy space. a code for freedom  and liberty. There facial expressions show that they are thinking of something, maybe a memory or something that has happened in the past.

Their dress code is sophisticated and casual.   

Album info and Tech to use

ALBUM MATHS!
the height and width of a normal album cover is usually:

14.2 cm X 12.4 cm
5 9/16 in. X 4 7/8 in

This means that when designing my Album the image and all of the contents of the album cover will have to fit within this size. 

The main software that will use to edit all of my cover will be Adobe Photoshop, its a professional piece of software that enables you to edit very specifically i.e. allowing you to edit only curtain things such as eye pupils or hair.

Initial designs

These are a few drawn sketches of an initial album.











Obviously for out album cover we have to include the main conventions that one would find on there. This include Album name, artist name picture of artist.

Creating our own album cover

For Our album cover we will need to experiment with a variety of shots in a variety of places. These shots will have to include, extreme close up, close up, high angle, low angle, point of view over the shoulder etc...

I have experimented with some of these shots with some friends to see how they could work when i take the pictures of the 'artists' in the real shoot. I have analysed some album covers that there are and am aware of all of  the use of codes and the obvious conventions that they hold.

I found that album art had become a very important in the process of buying the music that is out today. For example itunes. Just by looking at my own itunes I can pinpoint several album covers that stick out to me. But which would the audience find the most attractive?

Filming

Yesterday we filmed our music video within london and managed to get all of the shots that we needed. All of the members got involved with the making the video and we all have appeared within it. We did add a few more shots than we intended and we plan to add them into our music video.

The next thing to do now is to upload all of the footage that we have filmed on to the editing stations that we now have and begin cutting and editing them. we have stuck to the original narrative plan that we mention in our group blog.

We will be using the editing software Final cut express to edit all of our clips together to make a video.

Getting personal with the equiptment

A day before the shoot i thought i would get some practice in with the equipment so that i would be able to save time when we were actually filming our video. Firstly i had to discover how you altered the height of the tripod.

Firstly i had to try and find out how to make the legs of the tripod longer so that we could take shots from different angles and heights. I discovered that by moving the two caps that rested on the legs up, i would be able to make two of the separate parts of the leg longer. 

I then decided to attach my camera to the stand to see if the bolt that attaches the tech to the stand wasn't faulty

Once I attached the camera to the Tripod I changed the height to all of the three positions that were available to this particular stand

Equipment needed

The equipment that is needed for the shoot is as follows:

- HD Xacti Camera 1920x1080

- Canon SLR

- Tripod

Images of us during the shoot of both the the set and the cameras being use will have to be taken as evidence of everyone using the equipment.

We have estimated the shoot to take roughly 3 - 4 hours

We have filmed some parts of the video already and are in the midst of editing them together.  In several of the shots the videoing is very shoddy and the lip sync cant really be done because of the groups lack of knowledge of the lyrics.

(Oh oh)
Sometimes I get my head in a dilly
Feeling so lost, ticking you off
Now boy, you know me well
Said, I’m that kinda feelling
That kind of soft, that kind of silly
But when I’m in doubt, I open my mouth
And words come out, words come out like
baby, there’s a shark in the water
There’s something underneath my bed
Oh, please believe I said
baby, there’s a shark in the water
I caught them barking at the moon
Better be soon
High in the sky, the song that I’m singing
A sweet little lie, I cry wolf, cry
Rabbit out the hat, so that’s why I’m bringing
Some tricks up my sleeve, for noticing me
I wouldn’t cause you any harm, I just want you in my arms
I can’t help, I can’t help myself
baby, there’s a shark in the water
There’s something underneath my bed
Oh, please believe I said
Baby, there’s a shark in the water
I caught them barking at the moon
Better be soon
(Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do ,do)
(Better be soon)
(Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do x2)
Right is right
Rules are rules
This is more like April fool
I’m just winding you up, oh
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Please don’t make too much of it
It ain’t that serious, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Baby, there’s a shark in the water
There’s something underneath my bed
Oh, please believe I said
Baby, there’s a shark in the water
I caught them barking at the moon
You better get here soon
Baby, there’s a shark in the water
Baby, there’s a shark in the water
Baby, there’s a shark in the water
I caught them barking at the moon
Better be soon 

Whilst filming our video, we decided film each member of the band singing the same paragraphs. This way when we edited the main video we would be able to cut on any word or beat we liked. It meant that it gave us more options on who to cut to at curtain points of the song.

For example, the line "Baby there's a shark in the water' between each word we will be able to change person singing it, a common convention of the music video. I don't feel it would be right to hnd out specific parts to the artists because each will be singing the song so will have much more of a variety of footage if they all sing the same dialogue .

Location Location Location

Gilbert Street

 St. Christopher's Place

Location

• London Bond Street
• St Christophers Place
• Gilbert Street

St Christophers place 

• This will be used for the Pan of the artists walking down the street, past small boutique shops and stools, full of colour to create a vibrant setting as this is how we want the artist to be seen.

Brook Street

• This will be the location for several shots including the match cut, match on action, edium and close up shots. as well as several establishing shots.

Bond Street

• Only a few shots will take place here such as establishing, pan and defocusing

recently

Over the past week i have been collecting images of costume and venues that me and my group will use in out music video. 

The clash Album cover and post modernism

  

Conventionally it is traditional includes album name, artists name image of the artist.
Rock image


code:

Rebellion

youthful

aggression

costume is predictable

In motion shot gives the band a sense of movement and energy

Black and white imagery give the image a sincerity and classic look as well as a sense of conviction

The 'London Calling' is a jeux de position in itself. It contrasts with the image. The wacky font, cartoonish in appearance really stands out. This is what would grab an audience if it was in a shop.

The album cover is a homage of Elvis Presleys's first album. Making it Post Modern as the idea has already occurred.  The one difference i would say makes them stand out form each other is the aggression and the joy. The clashes action shot very aggressive. Smashing a guitar is nowadays somewhat of a convention of a heavy rock band. Its releases the idea of power, excitement and anger. In comparison is Elvis Presley's image. Just from his facial expressions we see happiness, excitement and his joy for music. Comparing them both, the Lay out maybe the same but the images represent (in my opinion as the audience) completely different things.

 

Music artists websites seem to have several main conventions. 

• Name of the artist
• Links to other parts of the website
• Videos of their latest track
• A chance to sign up to the website
• Latest news and blogs
• Images of Artist
• Picture of the album

These are several things that i know know i must follow when making my website, however looking at the these sites there does seem to be some conventions that have been followed and some that haven't. 

Firstly there is no Picture of Paolo Nutini's album  or himself on his website, neither is there one one VV browns, there is however, a picture of Plan B's  album on the left hand side. 

Each on the above websites have a link to different parts of the site. VV Browns gives the audience a chance to look a her blog, as does Paolo's and so does Plan B's. I will follow these obvious conventions.  All three websites are completely different. Each trying to create their own individual Websites. This is something that I will need to do. I will have to create a website that will market my band in a way that represents there genre, (Alternative/Indie/Pop) and also give the chance for the audience to view more material that has been produced for the band, such as creating links for their twitter, Facebook and blogger pages, as well as links for their merchandise. I will will also have to keep giving the audience a chance to Buy the Album or single and or Listen to the single through various links. 

Star image

All artist have a star image that they use to pre-mote them selves. This helps the audience to be able to identify what kind of artist they are and the genre of music they create. 

Artist usually have a marketing strategy that they use to attract audiences. An example of this would be Lady Gaga's very eclectic fashions styles. In Our artists case, her hair seems to be the same style in all pictures that are taken of her. This gives the audience something that they would be able to identify about her. 

Her Style of fashion is similar in each picture above. It comes across as 80's retro/indie. The bright colours give her a positive and fun look, none of the facial expressions that she shows are moody or defensive, all are very welcoming and fun. Within all of her images she represents herself as all of these things linking them through intertextuality using the same types of poses, facial expressions and movements in her images and music videos. In most of the images she has created a sexy and sultry persona for herself by using these  key features of her body. 

Functions and Meanings of music and editing

"Edits in a music video come far more quickly than that of a music video... Music Video editing bears a far greater responsibility for many elements than does a classic hollywood film editing" - Carol Vernallis

Their are lots of very short, quick edits in music video. These build up a montage and very often tell a story of the video. It progresses the narrative. This can be seen in music videos such as Lady Gaga's 'Telephone'.

By using quick cuts and edits, montages are formed that can introduced the audience to many things such as, introducing the Mise - en - scene.
Throughout this music video many different types of codes and conventions that are commonly used can be identified.
Lady Gagas's telephone video is a perfect example of this.

The beginning of the video is opened by a montage of en scene shots, all of a prison. Focusing on the barbed wire a code for a dangerous enclosed space. a desolate place. Like the common convention the film title name of the artist and the video appear, making a reference to contemporary hollywood films, preferably action, with the non diegetic beat very low and basey. As we are introduce to montage, Diegetic music is being played of police sirens. A common convention of an action film, parallel this are a variety of establishing shots of the City and the jail. As we are introduced to the star of the video, (GAGA) she is shown in a very perogative and sexual outfit made of clack leather. She escorted to her cell but two female guards, of who would resemble, in the public eye, stereotypical female jail cops.
As they walk the small sounds that are made seem to make a huge impact on the scene. The foot steps of the beat are heightened, the sounds of flesh on metal, the costumes worn by the jail birds are all references to sex and the enticing of sex to the audience. The audience are made well aware of this from the very beginning, As gaga is walking down the row between these women we are put into her shoes in a point of view shot. All the time titles are appearing making the audience aware that they are not watching just a music video but a short film. As she is stripped of her clothes we are shown an establishing shot of the courtyard and the residents of the jail within it. Within this scene allot of product placement is used for brands such as Virgin Media, and Coke Cola. All the way through these scenes the regular quick cutting of shots is still used, but not as much as when the music comes in, following the style of a classic hollywood film rather than that of a main mise n stream music video. The narrative continues of gaga simply getting into the routine of prison life. The colors through out are vibrant making curtain features such as there red lips and hair alot more saturated than the Mise-en-scene around the, grey , blacks and whites etc. The costume of all of the character is the opening sequence are all very sexual and sultry.

Once gaga picks up the phone the narrative and the music become involved with each other. and obviously from the moment the music starts the music video editing and special effects really start to appear. For example on the lyrics "What, what did you say honey your breaking up on me!" A action loop occurs. The medium shot repeats the section and distorts her body movement as if she were the telephone line breaking up.  The Convention of a dace routine within a music video finally makes an appearance. A shot of the Girls and gaga dancing in the same row that we were shown at the beginning of ten video.
The dance routine is a of shots from pan to close up and medium. It also is edited to make it look like the a CCTV Camera. We then see a montage of shots of Lady gaga in Warning tape doing sever poses. This reverts back and forth for a few shots. Eventually she is released from person and we are introduced to her counter part, Beyonce. In this short clip we intertextuality has been used making reference to Velma and Louise. Sexual content is used in this scene between them with Beyonce feeding gaga a phallic food of sorts. The We are introduced to a second narrative that is associated with Beyonce's character , i the scene where Beyonce is talking to her 'lover' the narrative cuts to gaga in the kitchen where more postmodern intertextuality is used. The ingredients that she is putting into the food is listed in the screen like a video game referencing to things like 'Big Mommas Kitchen', a game played on Nintendo DS. These techniques make the audience aware that they are watching a a short film, the produces what the audience to be reminded of this constantly. The entire way through the video the clips cut back and forth to different scenes. All of these clips have Sexy, tight costumes. This seems to be the main theme of the video. Towards the end, a clip of gaga in a magazine type split scene. Again a form of intertextuality that remind the audience that they are watching a music video.

Advances in the Music Industry

Changes in the music industry are very common. It is consistently changing to fit the needs of the audience.  

The arctic monkeys started the internet revolution by using viral advertising to their advantage. By using the Social networking site myspace, they managed to distribute their music to many different types of audiences, making their music known.  Another artist that did this was Lilly Allen. After thousands of followers on myspace, she accumulated enough press that enable her to to number one.

The internet has made it available for everyone to download music through sites such as 'Napstar' and 'I Tunes'. Gnarls Barklys 'Crazy' was the longest running number one in the official download chart running 11 consecutive weeks, and became 3the first number one in the charts to become number 1 simply through down loading.
Although the internet has helped various artist expand the sale of their music and helped independent labels  and their artists become more popular, the internet has become a big problem for the BIG 4. EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal have experienced huge decreases in sales for music down to illegal download through sites such as Lime Wire and through torrents. Although this has effected the main companies the industry has found a new way to use this to their advantage. By creating more videos for songs, artists upload their videos onto youtube and Vevo, advertising themselves for free, meaning that people can send their videos and music to friends via Facebook and twitter, meaning a higher demand for gig tickets and merchandise therefore making the money up that they would have lost through illegal downloading.

Many artists are trying new ways to pre - mote themselves and the internet is always coming up with new ways to do this.

Myspace - Myspace has become a platform where unsigned artist have the chance to showcase their talents by uploading MP3 versions of there own music. It works as both a blogging site and a social networking site allowing other social networkers on the same network to follow and talk to each other, meaning that this specific site has become a main contender for Viral Advertising. It allows the user to customise their own page to fit their genre of music which makes it easier for the audience to identify what kind of music they are listening to, and can update followers on Gig information and picture/video updates.