Props
There is very little use of props in my music video unless you could count a person as a prop... In this case I would need a few people who would be willing to lip-sync to my chosen track, only their lips would be shown, this is to give the video more of an artistic feel to it as they would be over-layed on the background so that there are multiple videos playing, both with a soft light effect in order to go with the soft theme of the song
Costume
Following on from the paragraph above, their would be no need to organise costumes as only lips would be shown, these however would be naturalistic, there fore no heavy make up such as bright red lipstick, this is in order to keep with the theme of nature
Lighting
This again links with both of the previous paragraphs, As I mentioned I want my video to have a naturalistic feel to it, so when filming outdoor scenes I have no intention to use excess lighting but in stead use natural light and then if it is needed, edit it after. For the lip-syncing scenes I will use soft lights so that the lips will stand out and look more '3D' - by this I mean I want them to have a slight shadow on them which would work similar to an outline
Above is the video for my first try at using a green screen with footage behind it. Firstly we began by filming a small piece of dialogue in front of a green screen, after importing this along with the music video clip I used 'Ultra Key' to remove the green colour from the background and then I used the 'Eight-point garbage matte' to decrease the background in the dialogue clip; This helped to remove some of the visible creases from the green-screen. Below the same process was used in the beginning but this time I had to match the track up with the movement of the lip-syncing and then for the background I selected various clips, slowed them down and reversed them to avoid using Adele.
Above you can see how the footage looks before ultra key is used, the green screen is still very visible, below is how it looks once the ultra key has selected green, this would be difficult if there was anything else in the piece of film that was also green, also you can slightly see around her hair there are still small pieces of green left visible, this is something I may have to consider when filming. I will have to ensure that the subject is not wearing any green clothing and appears easy to edit.
Here you can see how I changed the time settings to 30% and also reversed it after, Underneath it I have shown how I finished the video with a dip to black so that it didn't just stop, it had an ending to it.
Here is the finished video of Ellie lip-syncing to Rolling In The Deep
This task will help me when creating my music video because it has provided me with more knowledge on how to use the various effects in Adobe Premiere Pro, I am contemplating using lip-syncing in my video because the vocals aren't very clear so it may be difficult but if I decide that I want to in the future, at least I know how to do it and the best/easiest ways to go about doing it
To begin, I listened to the song,
with the lyrics in hand so I could familiarise myself with it as it was
not a song I had heard before, I added the song to the APP time line
which helped me see the length of the song. Once I had imported all the
clips I had, I watched them all to see if I could pick out any
lip-syncing, I found this extremely difficult to begin with but to help
out I dragged some of the clips and places them where I thought they
belonged and slowly edged them along till they slotted into the correct
place.
Once the lip-syncing
was out of the way I listened out for key things like the footsteps at
the beginning and then I matched this up with the picture, the rest of
the clips I had I put in places which I felt that worked, but i found
that I had gaps missing, to fill in these gaps I slowed some of the
clips down to 50% their speed and I also reversed some of the clips so I
would have a interesting effect that looked skill-full
I
have uploaded both my favourite section of my version and my full
edited version to You Tube, To watch them, simply click on the play
button
Here is the Full video:
And below is a 45 second clip which I would consider to be the best part because of my use of slow motion and reverse speed
Below is the original music video for Macklemore x Ryan Lewis - "Wings" as part of our editing challenge we were all given a few clips from the video with no audio and the song- so we had to match up any lip-syncing and make a creative and interesting video out of what we had (Later on we found out that not all of the clips were there so it was quite a difficult task)
In order to get more ideas for my music video I created a survey, Below are the responses I received
These questions were to establish who my feedback was from, from this i knew that i could recieve a range of different opinions.
From these questions I learnt that people would be focusing more on the dynamics of the song, which is good since the song I have chosen has very good dynamics. I can see that people would expect abstract images/ the band playing in the video, but since I can't have the band playing in mine, I think I will use abstract images, in a comment on this It was suggested that I use lights also.
These questions helped to build up some background knowledge about music videos and I found out that people still often watch them and they use YouTube to watch them on, This tells me that it would be a good idea to upload my video to you tube or browse YouTube for more Ideas when I am stuck.
These answers helped me a lot, the vocals in my chosen song are difficult to hear so it would be hard to find clips that could easily match up to them, so this means that I do not necessarily have to have relevant scenes in my video, and again I would not be able to have the artist in my video, I may however experiment with some lip-syncing.
These answered have told me that i need to make a video that is entertaining enough to keep the audience watching but not too complicated to take away from the song itself, and to also use clips that can cut to the beat of the song for a good effect.
In tidays lesson we were learning how to edit using Adobe Premier Pro with some short clips filmed by the year below for their preliminary task, below is the process.
On opening APP we were told not to change any of the original settings and once it had opened we had to change it, To make this process easier, we were asked
to change our workspace to "Editing (CS5.5)". This provided us with a better
layout which would make everything easier to edit
Next, we had to import the short clips that we would be using by going to 'File'...'Import'.. and selecting the folder containing the clips
once all the clips were in APP we could watch them on a small scale individually and select which ones we would use, If you double click on the clip, it will appear in the larger left viewing window, in this you can mark in/out the section from the clip that you wish to use.
Once you have your clip selected, you will be able to drag either the video or the audio only, or even both if you wished, this is good because it allows you to add audio over the top after without it interfering with sound already in the clip
Here's a picture of me in the editing process!
You are able to add titles by selecting 'Title' at the top of the window which then takes you to another window, allowing you to enter text and change fonts and colours. If you wish to add effects you can go into a tab on the left which will give you a drop down menu of various effects you can use, on my video I gave the music (which I chose to be the Godfather theme tune) a fade in and out (I used 'constant power') so that it did not interfere with the dialogue in the clip, below is my final video, with music added, In the next post I will include the video, but with simple titles which I created.
I found this video on youtube when searching for ideas, I really like the concept of it, it is similar to the style I want to have in my video (Abstract) I like the use of the ink in the water and this is something I think i might include in my videos, I like the use of it being in black and white however I don't think i'll have mine in black and white but i may wash the colour out slightly
I like the use of ink in this one too, I like how it is overlaid with the clip of the sky, It is very similar to something I want to do as well, I am interested in using slow motion for my video
Here is a graph to show the intensity/dynamics of my chosen song, from this i can see that there are many different changes in the song, this means that there are plenty of oppurtunities to 'cut to the beat' the song sunds very experimental and there are a lot of different noises in it mixed with melodic vocals, the song fades out in the end so i can still have a calm ending
She makes the sound the sea makes, knee-deep in the North Sea [8x]
I feel like this song is definately about his struggle to sleep and remembering how his mother would 'calm him down' My initial thoughts about the first line was that the song may have been about some sort of drug trip, but reading into it a bit more i think they may be a reference to sleeping tablets, dissolving on his tongue which cause him to 'count sheep' in an attempt to help him sleep. I feel that the first verse if a memory of his mum and how he misses her helping him sleep and how they used to spoon as he started to sleep. 'Pulse to pulse, now shush' also reoresents his mother putting him to sleep or how they would lay together. 'She makes the souns the sound the sea makes' is a direct memory from the singer, it is him telling us exactly what his mother used to do- because of this line i would like to give my video a sea theme The 2nd verse is a bit obscure and at first impressions it doesnt seem to fit, however it may show that she might have been ill 'you're so thin' and that he was taking care of her, the use of 'gold' here suggests that she might be wearing a wedding ring, 'one, two, three, four, hush' would be the last thing she says to him before he sleeps and so it is the last line in the last verse. The dynamics and tone of the song give the impression that they are replicating the behaviour of the sea as sometime its peaceful and calm and other times it is rough and fast paced, towards the end of the song it starts to calm down, this reflects him going to sleep and finally feeling at ease when he has his mother by his side
I thought it would be a good idea to tweet Gus-Unger Hamillton, The keyboardist for Alt-J, just to try and find out what the initial interpretation for the song was
Here is the song on sound-cloud;
On this track, Alt-J have commented the meaning behind the song and I thought it was such a nice meaning and I wouldn't have known if they didn't say because it is a personal thing, here it is (Read in reverse);
"Alt-J frontman Joe Newman recalls in this song a childhood bedtime ritual where his mum would lull him to sleep by making ocean noises.
Many fans have interpreted the line "two tabs on your tongue" to be about acid, but that is not the case. Newman explained to NME that he, "imagined a pill that you could take that would dissolve a memory of someone."
The song ends with the lyric "knee-deep on the North Sea," which is a reference to jazz outfit Portico Quartet's Mercury Prize-nominated debut album. Newman explained to NME: "The title song ("Knee-Deep in the North Sea" ) is the best song of the noughties. They were such a huge influence."
The following is a survey that I have created in order to gain more information on what I could create for my music video, I hope that I will gain a range of results so that I can make my video more appealing to my target audience http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H5XB3DN
In order to advertise music by Alt-J i need to ensure that i know the correct audience for them, to do this i am going to research the demographic and psychographic information
Demographic: This is quantitative data, this includes thing such as;
Total size
Gender
Geographic distribution
Age
Household composition
Education level
Psychographic: this is qualitative data, this includes things such as:
4) Director of video? John Hardwick feat. Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead)
5) What genre of music does this fall into? Alternative/Indie
6) Is there a relationship between lyrics and visuals in the song? I think in some ways the lyrics could be linked to the visuals, To me, the song is about a man with a partner, during a night out at a bar,
he and another pretty girl exchange some words. "my friend fancies
you, what a way to begin it all"... and then, of course, they end up in
bed together, the next morning, before the girl wakes up and the lights in the room go
on, the man ducks out, "quick let's leave before the lights come on...
so that you don't have to see what you've done."- the video hints that perhaps these people had a one night stand, only the female felt more than the male and craves for the affection but becomes suicidal and psychotic when she does not get it.
7) Is there a relationship between the music and the visuals? Slightly, there are often cuts in time with the music which help to emphasis the plot
8) What is the importance of the artist in the visuals? The artist is not included in the video until the end where Matt Helders (Drummer) is scene walking under the woman when she drops her shoes which indicates that this is going to happen again as she is trapped in an infinite loop of obsession
9) Is there any voyeurism in the video? No
10) Does the video have any intertextuality?
11) What is the mixture in the video between performance and narrative? The whole video is narrative as it is telling a story about a woman with a need for affection and her struggles while trying to receive it from a man who is not interested in her, it is then revealed to us at the end how this is a recurring thing for her. There is no performance from the band, this is common in many of the older music videos from Arctic Monkeys.
In his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory Andrew Goodwin points out characteristics and features that can be found in music videos
1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (E.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for a boy/girl and, aspiration in hip-hop)
2)There is a relationship between music and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
3)There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music (Either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
4)The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5)There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatments of the female body.
6)There are often intertextual reference (to films, Tv programs, other music videos etc).
In our research we have been looking at various music videos as a way to promote an artist, below are some of my favourite music videos.
Alt-J - Fitzpleasure, Breezeblocks
I picked these 2 videos as they are both intriguing to watch, 'Fitzpleasure' confuses the audience in a disturbing manner which makes you want to watch it more, this is a good way to promote the artist as they often want to explore reasons for this, 'Breezeblocks' is my favourite out of the two because I feel that it shows a dramatic story just by playing the clip backwards, it also creates suspense as you want to know how it all started, I also like how the song is in time with various movements that are included in the clip, this is something i would like to experiment with when creating my own music video
Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down, Fluorescent Adolescent
I picked these videos as they both tell a story which makes the audience want to watch the video, 'When the sun goes down' is my favourite of the two because I feel that the story is more relevant to the song which helps the audience have a more emotional connection with both the song and the video, I also like how each lyric is relevant to the playing scene so the song becomes more of a narration, 'Fluorescent Adolescent' also tells a story, but this time more irrelevant to the lyrics which in my opinion makes it more interesting because it makes you look for some sort of link, I like how the band members are used in this video as the clowns and I feel that this also helps to promote the band as having a fun, laid back side, i like the idea of creating a fun-themed video
The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
I picked this video as another one of my favourites because I like the look of stop animation, I feel that it is a very creative method to use, I also like how the Lego is used to show the band members and this clearly shows that skill and time have been put into making this video, by showing the band members i feel that this promotes the band well, however it's still somewhat irrelevant to the lyrics
Bon Iver - Wash, Holocene
I absolutely love all of the videos by Bon Iver because I feel that they somehow make us appreciate nature with a mellow tone and calm imagery. I like 'wash' because it is a continuous take and I feel that this makes the video appear somewhat realistic and yet you are captivated and have to watch on, Despite it still being slightly irrelevant to lyrics, out of these two videos my favourite is 'Holocene' because it tells a story and I feel that it really captures the beauty of nature with an element of fun. Both videos often have moments where sections are in time with a beat, but also ones which aren't in time, which i feel is a good technique to use as it allows time for us to focus of both the song being played and the film being used, I feel that if a song has a good video it is more likely to be remembered than one that doesn't so this makes it a very good way to promote an artist
South By Southwest (SXSW) 2013 Keynote Speech in Full
In a recent lesson we were shown this video of Dave Grohl expressing his opinion on music, and being one of the most famous and successful musicians alive, He has a lot to say
