Wednesday, 12 May 2010
CD Cover Art and Magazine Advert
THis is my Cover Art for the Kid british CD, 'It's Not Just Black And White'. I chosen to have this title as it helps to reflect their music which often has upbeat, positive tones but upon listening or reading the lyrics can convey quite the opposite. The idea of using the Jack Flag (only called a Union Jack on the front of a ship)which is black and white with colour creeping in shows that simple things can change and that through darkness can come light, or colour showing that every thing is not always as it seems.
I decided to keep the theme of using the Jack Flag with the fading in colours as it is striking and eye catching. The page would leap out at the reader and grab their attention.
Evaluation
My music video is very different from the standard conventional music video which is often made with a large budget with a some what 'flash' video that is often used as a way or promotion for artists. The indie scene , the genre i have chose, strays slightly from this, being of a lower cost to produce with the emphasis being on the music and artist themselves.The representative nature of these videos normally focus the artists and reflects the songs lyrics, videos such as The Streets - Dry your eyes show this well with the artist being in almost every shot with the scenes reflecting the depressing feel and lyrics as well as my chosen band Kid British's video for Our House is Dad less.
This trend in Indie videos is often reproduced as they know that it is a working formula or a 'winning formula' as it were. Places such as Hollywood very rarely produce products that don't follow the specific genres 'winning formula' as they are less likely to take risks and can be fairly certain of a profit with the product being a success. In a way my video the 'indie scene winning formula' with the focus being on the artists and reflects the songs lyrics but also has a bit of a spin on it. The way i turned the video into a stop animation using Lego does go against this to some extent.
Stop animation have been around since before the first patented flip book by John Barnes in 1868. This progressed though many stages to the one we have to day.The motion picture, which is a collection of pictures that differ ever so slightly from each other and play in sequence so fast that the human eye is fool and can't keep up with the images and sees one fluid moving image.
The use of stop animation in music videos has been done before, Bedshaped by Keane for example and even more directly linked to my product is 'Fell in love with a girl' by the White Stripes which is a stop animation using Lego in a different but similar way from me. Hollywood producers would be less likely to produce these kind of videos as they are differ from the 'winning formula' and could prove to be too risky of a production for them. Smaller independent production companies on the other hand may be very warm to the idea of producing a video like this as it could be the next big thing. Another reason they may use this technique is that it can be made very cheaply. This is perfect for a very new group that can’t afford to spend a lot on a promotional video.
I find that the combination of the Lego Stop Animation go very well with the upbeat, cherry vibe of the song. The Lego is perfect for a younger audience as well as those who can reminisce on their earlier years. The bright bold colours only help add to the bright, happy feel of the song giving it a nice depth to the senses emphasising the feeling of joy. I uploaded the video on to the website youtube so that it can be accessed across the world. Site such as youtbe have done marvels for the promotion for a whole range of events and products getting the world to view them. Sony have used youtube for things such as their film ‘Untracable’ using this video to help its advertising be more appealing by creating an interactive element.
I just my research of other videos and magazines to help me decide how to make my video and what it should look like.I used movie like title scenes to allow the audience to know who the artist was and what the song was. I had a problem when the keyboard i was using didn't register the 'e' key and i didn't realise putting it into what i thought was the final product.After i asked a few people to watch the video for me they pointed it out and i was able to correct my mistake.
This trend in Indie videos is often reproduced as they know that it is a working formula or a 'winning formula' as it were. Places such as Hollywood very rarely produce products that don't follow the specific genres 'winning formula' as they are less likely to take risks and can be fairly certain of a profit with the product being a success. In a way my video the 'indie scene winning formula' with the focus being on the artists and reflects the songs lyrics but also has a bit of a spin on it. The way i turned the video into a stop animation using Lego does go against this to some extent.
Stop animation have been around since before the first patented flip book by John Barnes in 1868. This progressed though many stages to the one we have to day.The motion picture, which is a collection of pictures that differ ever so slightly from each other and play in sequence so fast that the human eye is fool and can't keep up with the images and sees one fluid moving image.
The use of stop animation in music videos has been done before, Bedshaped by Keane for example and even more directly linked to my product is 'Fell in love with a girl' by the White Stripes which is a stop animation using Lego in a different but similar way from me. Hollywood producers would be less likely to produce these kind of videos as they are differ from the 'winning formula' and could prove to be too risky of a production for them. Smaller independent production companies on the other hand may be very warm to the idea of producing a video like this as it could be the next big thing. Another reason they may use this technique is that it can be made very cheaply. This is perfect for a very new group that can’t afford to spend a lot on a promotional video.
I find that the combination of the Lego Stop Animation go very well with the upbeat, cherry vibe of the song. The Lego is perfect for a younger audience as well as those who can reminisce on their earlier years. The bright bold colours only help add to the bright, happy feel of the song giving it a nice depth to the senses emphasising the feeling of joy. I uploaded the video on to the website youtube so that it can be accessed across the world. Site such as youtbe have done marvels for the promotion for a whole range of events and products getting the world to view them. Sony have used youtube for things such as their film ‘Untracable’ using this video to help its advertising be more appealing by creating an interactive element.
I just my research of other videos and magazines to help me decide how to make my video and what it should look like.I used movie like title scenes to allow the audience to know who the artist was and what the song was. I had a problem when the keyboard i was using didn't register the 'e' key and i didn't realise putting it into what i thought was the final product.After i asked a few people to watch the video for me they pointed it out and i was able to correct my mistake.
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Problems i came across and how i delt with them
During thie project i have encountered problems with almost everything i set out to do.The first problem i had was trying to obtain the copywirght for the songs I originally wanted to use but after a few let downs and set backs i found a clause allowing me to use a song with out copywritght if it was for non-profit educational purposes.I found it difficult to settle upon an idea for the vidoe itself and it wasnt untill i saw a stop animation vidoe that i decided to give it a go.
Cast,Props and Location.
My cast was simply me and the lego people i was using.
My props list was fairly short, just a camera, computer with video editing software,a table,green table closth a two pound coin and lego.
My location was fairly simple too as it was my back room.
My props list was fairly short, just a camera, computer with video editing software,a table,green table closth a two pound coin and lego.
My location was fairly simple too as it was my back room.
Target Audience
MY target audience was initialy going to be aimed at the older teens and people who are interested in the inide subculture,alternative or experemental music and those who are open to try to listen to something new and different. Once i had decided to make a stop picture animation out of Lego i realised that hte colours that would be used would appeal more to the younger teens and even those who wither like lego, colours or even people who enjoy stop picture and can appreciate the time and effort that went into creating this music video.
Why have i chosen this?
The song i have chosen to make a video for is Elizabeth by Kid British. I chose this song for a few reasons.I can relate directly to it and the lyrics themselves are very clever leading you to belive in one thing and then revealing another entirley, almost in a postmodernist way.Kid British are a rather small group but they have a very appealing sense in music to me.They are and indie-alternative or experimental band who come out with some very clever lyrics.They also have a knack for making the listner feel the emotion behind thier songs by baing able to relate to them fairly easily.
I've chosen to make the music video using a stop motion animation out of Lego.I chose to do it in this way as it is something not often done.It allows me to use bright colours for the sceenery and the people themselves are yellow challeging the viewer to listen to the music more than judge the people who have made it. I got the idea of doing a stop motion animation from watch Tim Burtons The Nightmare Before Christmas and wondered how hard it would be to make one and how i could transfer that to a music video.After some research i found The White Stripes, Fell in Love With a Girl video.It is the same sort of idea but i changed it slightly as my artistic talents aren't good enough to create a vidoe excatly like that one. the way i have done this allows me to explore the use of the materials at hand to create a cheap but well rounded product.Something that would help to promote newer bands without having the troubles of finding a record label to sign them and getting the funds to creat a video.
I've chosen to make the music video using a stop motion animation out of Lego.I chose to do it in this way as it is something not often done.It allows me to use bright colours for the sceenery and the people themselves are yellow challeging the viewer to listen to the music more than judge the people who have made it. I got the idea of doing a stop motion animation from watch Tim Burtons The Nightmare Before Christmas and wondered how hard it would be to make one and how i could transfer that to a music video.After some research i found The White Stripes, Fell in Love With a Girl video.It is the same sort of idea but i changed it slightly as my artistic talents aren't good enough to create a vidoe excatly like that one. the way i have done this allows me to explore the use of the materials at hand to create a cheap but well rounded product.Something that would help to promote newer bands without having the troubles of finding a record label to sign them and getting the funds to creat a video.
Conventions of a music Video
Genre: The genre of the music itself is very important as it normaly depends on what kind of theme the video will have.Metal for instance would have a very fast paced video often with quite dark coloured themes and pop would often have quite bright colours and a cheery feel to it by slower scenes.
The song im using was indie/alternative and quite a cheer disposition to it so the bright colours that come with the leg help to add to this and give an all round theme of happines.As it is more of an experimental genre i felt quite comfortable doing more of an experemental video and felt that it could work quite nicely together.
Lyrics:This helps to difine the tone of the music and is something that must be looked at as it could help decide wether to do a narrative style video (making a story out of the lyrics) or a live performance etc. They help to set the tone and the mood of the music and could also influence the video itself e.g. pace, colour themes (dark lyrics often result in dark colour themes).The way the lyrics are sung also plays a very important part as the different speeds,tones and pitches could be used in the concepts of the video.
Music:The music itself often plays a key part in the video as the faster the tempo and music is often result in faster cuts and editing.
The song has quite a slow rhythem so my video could be quite relaxed.However there are parts where the pace picks up so i had to adjust the style slightly but for the most part it was fairly easy to use slower scenes that went with the music and didnt feel like they took anything away from the music itself.
Cinematography: what camera angles are used etc.
At first i thought that doing a stop animation would give me an awful lot of freedom as far as camera angles are involved but it turnedd out not to be so, as i found out. The way that i could only moveing each thing slightly meant the camera had to remain perfectly still other wise it would look as if everything was moving when it wanst meant to.There was a scene where i experimented with haveing some high areial shots but unfourtantly it didnt work out as well as i hoped.
Mise-en-scene: This includes everything that the audience sees.This adds to the music often giving an artists interpritation, a narative that reflects the lyrics or a live performance.
As far as Mise-en-scene goes there wasn't an awful lot in my video apart for the narrative.I used lego for the stop animation and created my interpritaition of the narrative thats in the song/lyrics.
Editing: Adds to the feel or theme of the music and allows for special effects, secene changes etc to be added to create the final product.
I didn't have much editing to do apart from fitting all the pictures together. I decided against using any fade ins or outs etc as it would take away from the stop animaiton.
Intertextuallity: This is where there are hidden messages,use of symbolism or refferences to other things inside the video that not all of the audience may notice or pick up on.
The one real main theme in this video to a certain degree and time is deception.We are lead to believe that when they say 'Elizabeth' they are relation to a woman but in fact they are talkiung about money and Queen Elizabeth on it.
The song im using was indie/alternative and quite a cheer disposition to it so the bright colours that come with the leg help to add to this and give an all round theme of happines.As it is more of an experimental genre i felt quite comfortable doing more of an experemental video and felt that it could work quite nicely together.
Lyrics:This helps to difine the tone of the music and is something that must be looked at as it could help decide wether to do a narrative style video (making a story out of the lyrics) or a live performance etc. They help to set the tone and the mood of the music and could also influence the video itself e.g. pace, colour themes (dark lyrics often result in dark colour themes).The way the lyrics are sung also plays a very important part as the different speeds,tones and pitches could be used in the concepts of the video.
Music:The music itself often plays a key part in the video as the faster the tempo and music is often result in faster cuts and editing.
The song has quite a slow rhythem so my video could be quite relaxed.However there are parts where the pace picks up so i had to adjust the style slightly but for the most part it was fairly easy to use slower scenes that went with the music and didnt feel like they took anything away from the music itself.
Cinematography: what camera angles are used etc.
At first i thought that doing a stop animation would give me an awful lot of freedom as far as camera angles are involved but it turnedd out not to be so, as i found out. The way that i could only moveing each thing slightly meant the camera had to remain perfectly still other wise it would look as if everything was moving when it wanst meant to.There was a scene where i experimented with haveing some high areial shots but unfourtantly it didnt work out as well as i hoped.
Mise-en-scene: This includes everything that the audience sees.This adds to the music often giving an artists interpritation, a narative that reflects the lyrics or a live performance.
As far as Mise-en-scene goes there wasn't an awful lot in my video apart for the narrative.I used lego for the stop animation and created my interpritaition of the narrative thats in the song/lyrics.
Editing: Adds to the feel or theme of the music and allows for special effects, secene changes etc to be added to create the final product.
I didn't have much editing to do apart from fitting all the pictures together. I decided against using any fade ins or outs etc as it would take away from the stop animaiton.
Intertextuallity: This is where there are hidden messages,use of symbolism or refferences to other things inside the video that not all of the audience may notice or pick up on.
The one real main theme in this video to a certain degree and time is deception.We are lead to believe that when they say 'Elizabeth' they are relation to a woman but in fact they are talkiung about money and Queen Elizabeth on it.
Production company
Standard production companies are in charge of developing and actual production of a project.In this sense they are in charge of creating the music video, developing the idea than making the ideas into a final music video ready to be shown.
My production company, Warped_Mind Inc is a company that i have created. It specificly targets more heavy metal and Industrial style musics but have a section called the warped_Mind Inc LEGO MANZ EDITION, designed to promote all new and up comming bands with cheap easy to produce stop animation videos to help feed new acts into the music industry and to help them get a foot hold in the dog eat dog industry.
My production company, Warped_Mind Inc is a company that i have created. It specificly targets more heavy metal and Industrial style musics but have a section called the warped_Mind Inc LEGO MANZ EDITION, designed to promote all new and up comming bands with cheap easy to produce stop animation videos to help feed new acts into the music industry and to help them get a foot hold in the dog eat dog industry.
Initial Ideas
As my blog will show i had originally planned to use a different song but due to not being able to get copywright permission (i found the clause after this happened a few times) i had to change my plans.I chose to do a Kid British song and after brain storming about their songs and which one i thought would go well to a video i settled on 'Elizabeth' for a few reasons, the main two being how up beat the song is and the second is the way you think its about a girl and then you find out they are talking about money.So with my song decided i took about thinking of what i should do.I was thinking of a narrative with actual people and even had a few videos and pictures of the chorus acted out by a few of my friends to see how it would play out.After a while of thinking over what i could do, film in Perry Street etc I was the music video of Fell in love with a girl by the White Strips on TV and decided to do my own stop animation Lego video. I started but listening to the song over and over again and reading the lyrics along with it. After a while i did a short brain storm around the lyrics writing basic ideas for scenes etc.I then went ahead to draw up a storyboard which is included here. Before i made the video i played around with the idea of how to do the stop animation and tested the process out to find how many pictures i need to take per second and scene to make it flow reasonably well etc.
History of the Music Video
The first so called music video came around in 1894 but not in the form that we know them as today.When Edward B. Masen and Joe Stern thought of a perfect way to promote the sales of their song 'The Little Lost Child' they played the music live to a projection of still images and a rather blurry animation of kittens. This was the first so called 'Music video' and with the arrival of the first sound films in 1926 more music videos or short musical films started to appear.In 1926 - 1930 vitaphone shorts ( produced by Warner Bros) made musical short films .The vidoes were often featured bands, vocalists or dancers etc. Alot more like the music videos we are acustomed to seeing today.Walt Disney soon began to base short animated cartoons around music (his silly symphonies).But many of the so called music videos were only short promotinal peices
In 1960–1967 different types of 'visual jukeboxes' started to appear all over the world offering the first world wide music video entertainment system.
Later manny Pittson began to pre-record the music audio and went on set getting th artists to lip sync so that he could merge the two together.Most music vidoes were taken of them on stage or in the studio and shoots taken at different locations were to add a veriety to this.
One of the first so called 'performance clips' was by by the pop ban The Animals making a promotional film of their hit song 'House of the Rising Sun'.It was full color and of a good quality compared to what had been seen before on a music video.It contained the band lip-syncing to the song as the moved around the specialy built stage.
In 1967–1973 the promotional video became even more popular with people such as Bob Dlyan broke away from the traditional style of the performance or the narrative and instead had himself silently holding up keys words of the songs lyrics in an back alley way.This was filmed by D. A. Pennebaker and featured in Pennebaker's Dylan film documentary Don't Look Back.
The first Television programe in the UK to play music videos was the long running BBC show Top Of The Pops or TOTP for short in the 1970s.Althought the BBC placed strict restrictions on playing 'outsourced' videos so it was perfect for publacity as if people liked the song they heard and the video they saw they would go out and buy it in the hope that the TOTP would play it again.
1981-1991 was when the music video first hit the mainstream with the USAs channel MTV played music videos for 24 hours a day.By the mid-1980's the music video become a popular and essential part in promoting music.With the invention of better and easier ways of recording the amount of types, styles and vidoes for music just kept growing support by the likes of Madonna and Adam and the Ants.
1992-2004 directors star to realise that there is room for creativity in the music video scene and begin to experiment with music videos and form the begining of the auteur's medium.MTV also started to expand to a more world wide scale bringin out more channels such as MTV India, MTV Latin America and even MTV2 which was design to show more alternative and older videos.
2005 - preasent the internet started to have videos appearing on them and with the videos so did the music videos.The first on the net were from people who recorded them directly off the TV and changed the format to make the quality better on the internet comming mainly from IRC based web groups.iFilm soon came along in 1997 which was a website that contained short videos including music videos. Napster was around during 1999-2001 but as it was a file sharing wite it was soon taken down but was used to help spread music vidoes.
2005 saw tha arrival of YouTube, one of the worlds biggest user video uploaded content site.IOnternet sites such as YouTube are vital in promotions of music videos as they are fast,simple and easy to use often being spread 'viraly'. Allowing people to upload videos also gives people the oppertunity of posting their version or even their own songs giving themself some free promotion which can help them on the road to stardom.
In 1960–1967 different types of 'visual jukeboxes' started to appear all over the world offering the first world wide music video entertainment system.
Later manny Pittson began to pre-record the music audio and went on set getting th artists to lip sync so that he could merge the two together.Most music vidoes were taken of them on stage or in the studio and shoots taken at different locations were to add a veriety to this.
One of the first so called 'performance clips' was by by the pop ban The Animals making a promotional film of their hit song 'House of the Rising Sun'.It was full color and of a good quality compared to what had been seen before on a music video.It contained the band lip-syncing to the song as the moved around the specialy built stage.
In 1967–1973 the promotional video became even more popular with people such as Bob Dlyan broke away from the traditional style of the performance or the narrative and instead had himself silently holding up keys words of the songs lyrics in an back alley way.This was filmed by D. A. Pennebaker and featured in Pennebaker's Dylan film documentary Don't Look Back.
The first Television programe in the UK to play music videos was the long running BBC show Top Of The Pops or TOTP for short in the 1970s.Althought the BBC placed strict restrictions on playing 'outsourced' videos so it was perfect for publacity as if people liked the song they heard and the video they saw they would go out and buy it in the hope that the TOTP would play it again.
1981-1991 was when the music video first hit the mainstream with the USAs channel MTV played music videos for 24 hours a day.By the mid-1980's the music video become a popular and essential part in promoting music.With the invention of better and easier ways of recording the amount of types, styles and vidoes for music just kept growing support by the likes of Madonna and Adam and the Ants.
1992-2004 directors star to realise that there is room for creativity in the music video scene and begin to experiment with music videos and form the begining of the auteur's medium.MTV also started to expand to a more world wide scale bringin out more channels such as MTV India, MTV Latin America and even MTV2 which was design to show more alternative and older videos.
2005 - preasent the internet started to have videos appearing on them and with the videos so did the music videos.The first on the net were from people who recorded them directly off the TV and changed the format to make the quality better on the internet comming mainly from IRC based web groups.iFilm soon came along in 1997 which was a website that contained short videos including music videos. Napster was around during 1999-2001 but as it was a file sharing wite it was soon taken down but was used to help spread music vidoes.
2005 saw tha arrival of YouTube, one of the worlds biggest user video uploaded content site.IOnternet sites such as YouTube are vital in promotions of music videos as they are fast,simple and easy to use often being spread 'viraly'. Allowing people to upload videos also gives people the oppertunity of posting their version or even their own songs giving themself some free promotion which can help them on the road to stardom.
Friday, 29 January 2010
Part Update.
Well after some reconsidering and problems with Copywright i have decided to redo my project. I have done some research into Music and Music videos as well as what people look for in music videos and added my onwn ideas and visions i had for it aswell. I have chosen to use the song 'Elizabeth' by 'Kid British'. I have decided to do this song as it is an alternative indie sort of song that quite a lot of people seem to like. It has a happy feel to it and is quite misleading until towards the end of the song which i like as i can play on it. I am going to do a stopmotion animation to make the video as it isn't often done and seems like it would fit the music being quite colourful.
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