This is the final animatic that we created on Final Cut. It is only a very rough cut as it is simply a guide of what we are going to follow for when we actually do some shooting. I have tried to add in some different fades at the beginnng and end of the aimatic as this is an idea we wish to use in our actual video.
Friday 30 December 2011
Animatic Video
This is the final animatic that we created on Final Cut. It is only a very rough cut as it is simply a guide of what we are going to follow for when we actually do some shooting. I have tried to add in some different fades at the beginnng and end of the aimatic as this is an idea we wish to use in our actual video.
Animatic
Before we start filimng the video we had to plan our ideas so as when we go up to London we are not standing around deciding what to do and also so we do not mess our model around and waste his time!
In order to plan the filming, we had to storyboard our ideas. We had to delegate roles within the group to make this happen. Jay and Adam offered to do the drawing of the story board as I am not artistic at all. Because they were doing the drawings, it was my job to edit them all into the right places using Final Cut, a programme that I have used once or twice before.
After Adam and Jay had finished drawing a particular scene, we took a picture of the frame, uploaded it to the computer and I tried to fit it in to the right place within the song.
The picture on the left, shows me using the Final Cut programme and composing the animatic, and the picture on the right shows Jay and Adam creating the story boards.
Below is a picture of all of the storyboards that we created. As you can see, there are a lot of different shots that we have decided on!
In order to plan the filming, we had to storyboard our ideas. We had to delegate roles within the group to make this happen. Jay and Adam offered to do the drawing of the story board as I am not artistic at all. Because they were doing the drawings, it was my job to edit them all into the right places using Final Cut, a programme that I have used once or twice before.
After Adam and Jay had finished drawing a particular scene, we took a picture of the frame, uploaded it to the computer and I tried to fit it in to the right place within the song.
The picture on the left, shows me using the Final Cut programme and composing the animatic, and the picture on the right shows Jay and Adam creating the story boards. Below is a picture of all of the storyboards that we created. As you can see, there are a lot of different shots that we have decided on!
Wednesday 14 December 2011
The London Eye
The other idea that we had was to do with the London Eye. These are the two shots we got of the wheel. The shot from the front of the wheel was taken because we had the idea of filming the wheel front on and then speeding the footage up. Also known as over cranking we felt that showing footage of the wheel in a sped up motion would look effective to use at some point within the video. The picture below is another of the London Eye from a different angel. We were walking along a bridge and saw the view between some buildings and thought it was a very picturesque shot. We also noticed how the sun was positioned and thought we could take advantage of the different angels of the sun on different landmarks within London.
Leake Street
On Wednesday 30th November me and my group went to London to seek out a few locations that we could use in our shoot. We went to a few of the obvious places being all along Southbank and The London Eye and had a few ideas with these locations, explained in the next post. This post however is about a street that runs underneath the tracks and platform of Waterloo Station. The street is called Leake Street. Many people may know this as the 'Banksy Tunnel'. The walls are decorated with graffiti initially created during the 'Cans Festival' organised by Banksy himself. The graffiti along Leake Street is tolerated by the authorities especially as there is a claim that it is a legal wall. Below is a board of pictures that we took when we went to Leake Street to show the types of art that can be found there as well as what the tunnel actually looks like.
As you can see, the tunnel is literally covered in graffiti. There is literally not one brick below head height that can be seen. As I have said above, the picture above shows what type of art can be found. This is because the street was originally for artists to leave their work for others to see, but as you can see from the picture, this concept has been abused, probably by youths that just want to go out spraying walls because they think it is legal. A lot of the original art has been destroyed by peoples 'tags' and other art, such as the smiley face and the grey face that you can see in the mood board. When we were walking around the street, we noticed how one of the bits of graffiti said 'Life'. This gave us the idea to possibly spray our own line on the wall and film it to use in our video. we would like to have the line 'what a life' on the wall.
As well as the covered walls, the street itself was fairly busy and this is what we wanted for some shots of the video. We did not want our performer to perform somewhere with no people around at all.
As you can see, the tunnel is literally covered in graffiti. There is literally not one brick below head height that can be seen. As I have said above, the picture above shows what type of art can be found. This is because the street was originally for artists to leave their work for others to see, but as you can see from the picture, this concept has been abused, probably by youths that just want to go out spraying walls because they think it is legal. A lot of the original art has been destroyed by peoples 'tags' and other art, such as the smiley face and the grey face that you can see in the mood board. When we were walking around the street, we noticed how one of the bits of graffiti said 'Life'. This gave us the idea to possibly spray our own line on the wall and film it to use in our video. we would like to have the line 'what a life' on the wall.
As well as the covered walls, the street itself was fairly busy and this is what we wanted for some shots of the video. We did not want our performer to perform somewhere with no people around at all.
Tuesday 29 November 2011
Effects That We Like
There are a number of effects that we liked that other programmes and music videos have used before. One main effect that we liked as a group was the splitting of the screen with two different shots. This is what the TV programme 24 use and is an effect that we would like to use in the video. It would be effective to use instead of using basic cuts all the time and different transitions. The idea was to use this effect to show our model in two different places but singing the same part of the song. Another idea that we quite liked, was to use the shot idea from below.
The shot shows FOUR different scenes that are divided over the screen. The shots that are shown above are of exactly the same thing, peoples feet, and in the scene, each person is tapping their feet in exactly the same way. This is an idea that we would like to use in our video. The vision that we have is to have our artist in four (or more) different locations, singing the exact part of the song and in the same position in the shot. This idea would work well as we could establish four different places that we would like to shoot, and then focus on one as the screen expands one quarter of the screen.In regards to editing, we like the idea of quick cutting when the pace of the song suddenly increases. This is shown in nearly all videos. The pictures below are from Oasis 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out'. I have already explained this in a previous post when analysing the video. The song speeds up in regards to the amount of beats. Because of this, there are rapid cuts between shots and within the space of about 5 seconds, there are a total of 10 shots.
As stated, this is an idea that we will definitely want incorporate into our video to add that extra bit of authenticity.
Monday 28 November 2011
Copyright Letter
It has been two weeks now since we have sent the permission letter to Sour Mash Records, and still have not heard a reply, so as a group we assumed that we were able to use the song. If we were unable to, then I'm positive we would have been contacted to advise us of this.
Wednesday 23 November 2011
Creating The Mp3
As stated in the previous post, creating the mp3 bar (below) was a lengthy frustrating process that eventually worked after failing many times to create the finished product.
To start, I had to use a programme called 'GarageBand'. The logo to this programme is on the right hand side of the screen. The programme allows you to edit audio pieces and add anything extra you may like such as pace, louder instruments and even cutting the song down. This is the interface of GarageBand.
Upon opening this program it looked slightly difficult to use but after a bit of prompting and playing around, I finally got the hang of it. So, with this on the home screen, I located the song that I wanted, in this case, the extract of our model Jack performing. Once the song was dragged into the program, the next thing to start doing was to listen to the song and see what parts I wanted to cut down. The original audio that I ended up editing can also be found here on YouTube, and from this you are able to see how much of the video I have edited out. After establishing which parts of the audio that I wanted to take out, it was time to begin the process.
At the bottom of the screen in Garage Band, there are the icons to do with editing the selected item. The icon that I needed to use was the one with the scissors (icon is highlighted in blue on the right). After clicking on this, another window opens showing the song at a zoomed in level with the bars to show its volume, tempo and length. The bar looks like the one below;
From here, I simply clicked and dragged over the parts of the song that I didn't want and then pressed delete. This then meant that the song had huge gaps in it so the remaining audio had to be joined back together.
Above is a screen grab of the edited piece that I have used for the mp3. It is obviously a lot smaller than the picture above this one and I also deleted the long introduction just so we only had the audio piece there and no long blank spaces. To me, this edited piece sounded great so far. I decided that if I was to put this straight onto my blog via an mp3 bar, then it may not sound right due to there being an abrupt ending. The vast majority of songs these days finish with music playing, however there is a significant volume reduction to play the song out. This is the effect that I used to complete the editing process.
Towards the top of the page, there is a bar that says about track volume. This is what I wanted, and after clicking on this, a blue bar below my edited piece popped up. The blue bar represented the volume, and in order to change this, I simply had to click the blue bar underneath the part of the song that I wanted to change the volume for, and then drag down to create a 'slope' in the line.
The end of the song that had its volume changed can be found below. As you can see, there are blue bubbles along the blue line. This is where I clicked and dragged down in order to change the volume. After playing around a bit and listening to the ending a few times, the grab on the left shows the end of the song with the final chosen volume levels.
After saving the song, the process on Garage Band was now completed. All that was left to do was to send the song to iTunes. This was as easy as clicking the 'Share' on the tool bar at the top of the screen and selecting 'send song to iTunes'. The song was obviously then sent to iTunes, and it appeared in the playlist as normal.
I thought the process was then finished and that I could then simply add the song from iTunes straight onto my blog in an mp3 format, but I was informed that you had to host the song on an internet site. I had to do this because blogger required a link to access the song. After endless amounts of Google searches and talking to my teacher who explained a log winded way of hosting the song, I discovered that you can actually host the song via Google. Google has so many different things to it in addition to the regular 'Web, Images and Maps' searches. Under the 'more' tab on the Google tool bar, there is an option for Google Sites.
This is something that I have never seen or used myself, so like Garage Band, this was a whole new site for me to try and work with. I managed to find a blogger on the web who helps others with their blogging. The walk through of how to host a piece of audio of the web was easy
to follow and the process is shown below. The process that was required to host the song was fairly easy to follow. When Google sites had loaded I had to click the create icon to make a new page. After the new page was created and named I then had to make the page able to take and upload mp3 formatted files. To do this I had to add a new page to the site. The page that then comes up is the one that is on the right of the screen. I had to change the bit where it says 'Web Page' to 'File Cabinet'. This format then allows you to upload any files from the computer such as mp3 files and videos. So, after the format was changed, I simply clicked create and the page was made. The next step was to actu
ally add the file that I wanted to that page. This was as easy as following the on-screen instruction. I chose my file from iTunes (where it was placed after the editing) and added it.
Once the file was uploaded, all I had to do was to find the link of the song and add it to the HTML code that I already had to create the mp3 bar in blogger. To do this, I had to right click
where it says 'Download' and from the drop down menu, choose 'Copy Link'. This was the hard bit over of the editing and hosting the music file. It was the easiest way to host the music rather than having to possibly pay for an account on another music hosting website. After finding the HTML code on another blogger site, a site dedicated to help other bloggers such as myself, all I had to do was enter the copied link into the correct place and add it to my post. (The HTML code that I used is below)
To start, I had to use a programme called 'GarageBand'. The logo to this programme is on the right hand side of the screen. The programme allows you to edit audio pieces and add anything extra you may like such as pace, louder instruments and even cutting the song down. This is the interface of GarageBand.
Upon opening this program it looked slightly difficult to use but after a bit of prompting and playing around, I finally got the hang of it. So, with this on the home screen, I located the song that I wanted, in this case, the extract of our model Jack performing. Once the song was dragged into the program, the next thing to start doing was to listen to the song and see what parts I wanted to cut down. The original audio that I ended up editing can also be found here on YouTube, and from this you are able to see how much of the video I have edited out. After establishing which parts of the audio that I wanted to take out, it was time to begin the process.At the bottom of the screen in Garage Band, there are the icons to do with editing the selected item. The icon that I needed to use was the one with the scissors (icon is highlighted in blue on the right). After clicking on this, another window opens showing the song at a zoomed in level with the bars to show its volume, tempo and length. The bar looks like the one below;
From here, I simply clicked and dragged over the parts of the song that I didn't want and then pressed delete. This then meant that the song had huge gaps in it so the remaining audio had to be joined back together.
Above is a screen grab of the edited piece that I have used for the mp3. It is obviously a lot smaller than the picture above this one and I also deleted the long introduction just so we only had the audio piece there and no long blank spaces. To me, this edited piece sounded great so far. I decided that if I was to put this straight onto my blog via an mp3 bar, then it may not sound right due to there being an abrupt ending. The vast majority of songs these days finish with music playing, however there is a significant volume reduction to play the song out. This is the effect that I used to complete the editing process.Towards the top of the page, there is a bar that says about track volume. This is what I wanted, and after clicking on this, a blue bar below my edited piece popped up. The blue bar represented the volume, and in order to change this, I simply had to click the blue bar underneath the part of the song that I wanted to change the volume for, and then drag down to create a 'slope' in the line. The end of the song that had its volume changed can be found below. As you can see, there are blue bubbles along the blue line. This is where I clicked and dragged down in order to change the volume. After playing around a bit and listening to the ending a few times, the grab on the left shows the end of the song with the final chosen volume levels.After saving the song, the process on Garage Band was now completed. All that was left to do was to send the song to iTunes. This was as easy as clicking the 'Share' on the tool bar at the top of the screen and selecting 'send song to iTunes'. The song was obviously then sent to iTunes, and it appeared in the playlist as normal. I thought the process was then finished and that I could then simply add the song from iTunes straight onto my blog in an mp3 format, but I was informed that you had to host the song on an internet site. I had to do this because blogger required a link to access the song. After endless amounts of Google searches and talking to my teacher who explained a log winded way of hosting the song, I discovered that you can actually host the song via Google. Google has so many different things to it in addition to the regular 'Web, Images and Maps' searches. Under the 'more' tab on the Google tool bar, there is an option for Google Sites.
This is something that I have never seen or used myself, so like Garage Band, this was a whole new site for me to try and work with. I managed to find a blogger on the web who helps others with their blogging. The walk through of how to host a piece of audio of the web was easy
to follow and the process is shown below. The process that was required to host the song was fairly easy to follow. When Google sites had loaded I had to click the create icon to make a new page. After the new page was created and named I then had to make the page able to take and upload mp3 formatted files. To do this I had to add a new page to the site. The page that then comes up is the one that is on the right of the screen. I had to change the bit where it says 'Web Page' to 'File Cabinet'. This format then allows you to upload any files from the computer such as mp3 files and videos. So, after the format was changed, I simply clicked create and the page was made. The next step was to actually add the file that I wanted to that page. This was as easy as following the on-screen instruction. I chose my file from iTunes (where it was placed after the editing) and added it.Once the file was uploaded, all I had to do was to find the link of the song and add it to the HTML code that I already had to create the mp3 bar in blogger. To do this, I had to right click
where it says 'Download' and from the drop down menu, choose 'Copy Link'. This was the hard bit over of the editing and hosting the music file. It was the easiest way to host the music rather than having to possibly pay for an account on another music hosting website. After finding the HTML code on another blogger site, a site dedicated to help other bloggers such as myself, all I had to do was enter the copied link into the correct place and add it to my post. (The HTML code that I used is below)
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Who Are We Going To Use...?
When we started to story board our ideas to the music video, we realised that we didn't have a model to appear in the video. This again is another aspect of the research that we should have considered at the start of the video. It would be no good doing all the research to find that we didn't actually have an appropriate person to appear in our video. We contemplated over who we could use and different people we named but quickly decided against because they were not the sort of person to fit our genre of music.Jay then said how he knew of someone within his football team that could possibly appear in our video. The person Jay mentioned is a young, enthusiastic singer and guitarist and this is the sort of person that we are looking for. After a few searches on YouTube and watching a couple of his performances, Jay contacted him to which he agreed to help us out. Jack can be seen in the picture to the right.
A performance of his can be found as an mp3 below.
Creating the mp3 bar above was a lengthy process which is explained in this post.
Monday 14 November 2011
Copyright Letter
In order to use any song and produce a music video, there are hurdles that need to be addressed. The main thing was to seek permission to actually use the song from the copany that owns it. After thinking about this, it most definitely would have been better to have sent of this letter at the earliest stage possible, as in the same day that we had decided on the song to use. Instead, we carried on blogging about the chosen song and have done countless research into what we could do to produce the video. This has a potential to be catastrophic for our group. If the company that owns the song write back to us and for some reason do not allow us to use the song in our video, then the whole of our project so far would be pointless and we would have to revert back the beginning.
All well and said, Adam sent of a letter to the company. It took a while to do this. We initially thought that there would simply be an email address to send a quick email off to, but this was not the case. After seaching around, we found that the song was owned by a company founded and produced by Noel Gallagher himself. Adam tried to find the company's website, however as yet, there has not yet been an official site created. Instead, a simple Google search of the name produced us with a blogger page dedicated to the company and Noel Gallagher. The link to this website can be found here.
After a couple of more internet searches and scrolling down the page of the endless results Google gives you, one address kept popping up, so we decided to send a letter to that address. Adam typed out the letter and it can be seen below. The letter was then stuck in an envelope and sent off to the company, and we await a reply!
All well and said, Adam sent of a letter to the company. It took a while to do this. We initially thought that there would simply be an email address to send a quick email off to, but this was not the case. After seaching around, we found that the song was owned by a company founded and produced by Noel Gallagher himself. Adam tried to find the company's website, however as yet, there has not yet been an official site created. Instead, a simple Google search of the name produced us with a blogger page dedicated to the company and Noel Gallagher. The link to this website can be found here.
After a couple of more internet searches and scrolling down the page of the endless results Google gives you, one address kept popping up, so we decided to send a letter to that address. Adam typed out the letter and it can be seen below. The letter was then stuck in an envelope and sent off to the company, and we await a reply!
Thursday 10 November 2011
Location Shots
After establishing the song that we are going to produce a video to, the next thing was to decide on locations that we would want to be in our video. We could have filmed in local areas in woods, houses or town centers however a a group, we felt that local areas would take away authenticity of the video as people viewing it would identify the area and not believe it was a proper music video. We wanted to find a location that would be iconic and one that we know has been used in other videos as a central point of the video. Taking this into consideration, we felt that London would the most appropriate location to do our shoot. There are so many different locations in London that could work with our video, from the constant busy streets, to the quiet side alleys that are yet to be discovered by many people that venture up to London.
Southbank
An iconic location that could be used in our video is the famous London Southbank. It is always busy with people commuting to and from work, going out for day trips, and also with tourists. The riverside walkway also hosts a number of different famous landmarks such as The Houses of Parliament, The Mayor's Office, The London Eye and Tower Bridge, all of which are identifiable to the public as being London's tourist attractions. These places would be good to film for large crowds and also a different number of people as tourists from all over the world travel to see the different destinations.
Southbank
An iconic location that could be used in our video is the famous London Southbank. It is always busy with people commuting to and from work, going out for day trips, and also with tourists. The riverside walkway also hosts a number of different famous landmarks such as The Houses of Parliament, The Mayor's Office, The London Eye and Tower Bridge, all of which are identifiable to the public as being London's tourist attractions. These places would be good to film for large crowds and also a different number of people as tourists from all over the world travel to see the different destinations.
Wembley Way
Wembley Way would be another great place to film. We could have a long shot of the whole of the walkway and see the stadium in the background looking at the different people that are walking below. This would give a notion of looking sense as the audience can see what other people do with their lives and either relate or differentiate it to their own life. It would be ideal to shoot this location completely empty to show how life has not yet started (due to the time of day) and then a later shot of the walkway packed with people showing how quickly life develops and how the world becomes busy.
Wembley Way would be another great place to film. We could have a long shot of the whole of the walkway and see the stadium in the background looking at the different people that are walking below. This would give a notion of looking sense as the audience can see what other people do with their lives and either relate or differentiate it to their own life. It would be ideal to shoot this location completely empty to show how life has not yet started (due to the time of day) and then a later shot of the walkway packed with people showing how quickly life develops and how the world becomes busy.
Tube Stations
Tube stations are tricky locations to shoot in. There are so many across London that would benefit us and our video. One of our ideas for the video is to have our artist/actor singing with his guitar in a tube station watching life as it goes by. Although this could be a good idea, we have to appreciate that filming anything on the TFL (Transport For London) is very tricky due to the previous terrorist attacks. As a group, the only way we could decide on over coming this, should a tube station happen to appear in out video, and we are asked to move on, the best thing to do is plead ignorance and say we are students merrily filming some footage for our Media A-Level and we were unaware of the restrictions of filming in tube stations. The idea of the tube station, again can be used to show people moving about their everyday life and would show an audience the different types of people that live in the world.
Tube stations are tricky locations to shoot in. There are so many across London that would benefit us and our video. One of our ideas for the video is to have our artist/actor singing with his guitar in a tube station watching life as it goes by. Although this could be a good idea, we have to appreciate that filming anything on the TFL (Transport For London) is very tricky due to the previous terrorist attacks. As a group, the only way we could decide on over coming this, should a tube station happen to appear in out video, and we are asked to move on, the best thing to do is plead ignorance and say we are students merrily filming some footage for our Media A-Level and we were unaware of the restrictions of filming in tube stations. The idea of the tube station, again can be used to show people moving about their everyday life and would show an audience the different types of people that live in the world.
Hyde Park
Another location that sprung to mind to appear in our music video was Hyde Park. As Christmas is just around the corner - only 5 weeks away - we thought that we could take this to our advantage and use the famous Christmas market and fair in our video. We were told by our teacher that a few students from a different school used this same location and produced a high graded finished product. As a group, we felt that the different colourful lights would have a good effect with the right camera work, and that again, there would be hundreds or even thousands of people walking around the fair going on the different rides and buying different items that are on sale. The idea was to have our artist walking around the fair watching the people on the rides and walking around and see how people enjoy their lives. It would also be good to have our artist in a neutral position as he observes a different variety of people as they pass him.
Obviously the ideas above are only rough ideas that are potential locations for filming. When we go up to London to shoot -thats even if we defenitly choose to go to London- then when travelling around, we may find areas that we feel would look good in the video and set up a camera and start filming. If later we chose not to use that part of the film, then it can easily be edited out.
Tuesday 1 November 2011
Noel Gallagher To Bring Out Music Video!
When the song was originally decided upon, there was no proper music video released for the song. All that was on the internet were videos that contained lyrics and some live performances of Noel Gallagher performing the song, as you can see from the video bar on the side of the screen.
This has now changed. When searching on the internet, Adam, who is in my group, came across an article on the Sun Newspaper's website reporting of a video that was to be released to Gallagher's 'What A Life' song. The article can be found here. Now that a video has been released, it will probably be played more over the music channels meaning it will become more contemporary. Originally we wanted to stay away from the contemporary music, however as a group we feel that we can still produce a video to the song to a good standard.
The video can be found below.
The video is 8 minutes long and has a story line to it. The video picks up from another song by Gallagher called 'The Death of You and Me'. The video followed a waitress in her life, and his What A Life song takes on from this. This psychedelic video features actor and comedian Russell Brand as he portrays an evil being whom tries to poison the waitress from the video 'The Death of You and Me'. She acts as the protagonist until Noel Gallagher appears to save her from two females. The video is notable for including snippets of a reworked version of 'The Death of You and Me', causing speculation that it has been taken from Gallagher's second solo album.
This has now changed. When searching on the internet, Adam, who is in my group, came across an article on the Sun Newspaper's website reporting of a video that was to be released to Gallagher's 'What A Life' song. The article can be found here. Now that a video has been released, it will probably be played more over the music channels meaning it will become more contemporary. Originally we wanted to stay away from the contemporary music, however as a group we feel that we can still produce a video to the song to a good standard.
The video can be found below.
The video is 8 minutes long and has a story line to it. The video picks up from another song by Gallagher called 'The Death of You and Me'. The video followed a waitress in her life, and his What A Life song takes on from this. This psychedelic video features actor and comedian Russell Brand as he portrays an evil being whom tries to poison the waitress from the video 'The Death of You and Me'. She acts as the protagonist until Noel Gallagher appears to save her from two females. The video is notable for including snippets of a reworked version of 'The Death of You and Me', causing speculation that it has been taken from Gallagher's second solo album.
(taken from Wikipedia)
Second Video Analysis
As part of my research for my video, it is vital to look at other videos that share the genre of the music my group are going to use. This is so as we can see how a music video is filmed to this particular type of music, and also to see if there are any ideas that we could use that would look professional in our own video. So, within the group we each looked at a music video that is from the same genre of music as our own and analysed it. Now, I found it difficult to pick a song to analyse because there are so many different artists to choose from, and then you have to sift thorough their songs to analyse one. I finally settled on 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' by Oasis. I felt that this was an appropriate band to analyse seeing as the song that we are producing a video to is by the lead singer of the band. The video can be found below.
The video begins with someone striking a match. As you can see from the video, the striking of the match happens exactly as the music begins. Although at this point in the video this visual has no meaning to the viewer, it becomes apparent later why this was used. The next shot in the video is a visual of the main vocalist of the song, Liam Gallagher. This would have been included so as to identify the band to the viewer. The shot then quickly changes to an empty street with someone with their back to the camera. Th
e screen has black side bars that create the impression of a television. The idea that you as a viewer or the band themselves are looking at this person through 'a TV screen' creates a notion of looking as we look upon what this person is going to do. The shot that follows is again, of Liam Gallagher. This time the shot is a close up of him as he begins to perform the song. This idea of having a close up of the artist singing the opening line is a technique that my group wanted to use to establish who was singing the song and to start the video off.
Just from the first few seconds of the video, you can already tell that it is going to be a mixture of a performance and narrative video. You can tell this as you have already seen the singer, and another person in a completely different place to the performance of the song who has nothing to do with the band. As the opening line of the song is sung, the camera moves around the artist from right to left. This shot causes it to become more interesting that simply have a still shot of the artists face. The whole time that the camera is moving, the artist, Liam Gallagher is staring straight in the same position the whole time. Another thing that I noticed when watching this video, was how Liam Gallagher is chewing gum throughout.
This shows how the laid back, casual, not caring attitude that a stereotypical rock artist is supposed to have. This is not an idea that we have thought about incorporating into our own video, however it is an idea that could be worked upon. The song continues and the shots switch between the girl in the street (with the TV screen look) and the band. When the band is on the screen, it should be noted that the camera is hardly ever in one position with the whole band in the shot. Instead, the angles of the shot change and the camera is constantly moving slowly from one side to another as it establishes what is happening within the room.
When the band is in shot, the camera switches from each band member in turn and some of the shots have close ups of the instruments that are being played
. This shows to the viewer each of the band members contribution to the song. As already said, the video cuts between a performance of the song and a narrative to go with it. The performance of the song is as though Oasis are directly singing the song to the girl withing the video. The girl is walking down an empty street with very little life and blanked out billboards. The lyrics that accompany this are 'stop crying your heart out' - also the name of the song. To an on looker, this would connotate that the girl in the video is possibly depressed and lonely, and the song is trying to almost cheer her up and get her thinking positive again. This is shown in the second verse of the song. At 1 min 25 secs of the video, the song breaks into the swing of it and the drums are played loudly with a continuous rhythm. The drum is beaten around 11-13 times in the space of 5 seconds, to which there is a cut for every beat (as shown with the picture below) 
This is a definite convention that all music videos follow, and one that we will use. By this I mean cutting to the beat of the song, and should there be a fast paced bit within the song, then it would be ideal to have quick editing with lots of different shots to fill the beats. This is done to show a lot of different things but with only a small space of time. The viewer has enough time with this video to see that the girl is lonely, and is obviously in a petrol station and has payed for some fuel.
The video now changes, as does the song. The song picks up a bit of pace and a few more instruments are heard and with a louder tune too. Songs increase in volume after the first few lines are sung to show that the middle of the song has been reached and the main message is being conveyed. The lyrics change from the depressing 'stop crying your heart out' to 'get up, come on'. This is more motivational language, and the visuals match this. In the beginning, the billboards that the girl passes are all turned off, and now that she has perked up after hearing these words, not only is she smiling and
looking to the sky, but all of the boards are turned on and displaying images of clouds. After this is seen, the match that appeared at the start of the song is seen being lit again, followed by shots of the girl walking away from the petrol station holding a full petrol canister. It then becomes apparent what the girl intends to do (setting alight to something - we later learn that it is herself) and therefore shows the depressing side of the song.
The video begins with someone striking a match. As you can see from the video, the striking of the match happens exactly as the music begins. Although at this point in the video this visual has no meaning to the viewer, it becomes apparent later why this was used. The next shot in the video is a visual of the main vocalist of the song, Liam Gallagher. This would have been included so as to identify the band to the viewer. The shot then quickly changes to an empty street with someone with their back to the camera. Th
e screen has black side bars that create the impression of a television. The idea that you as a viewer or the band themselves are looking at this person through 'a TV screen' creates a notion of looking as we look upon what this person is going to do. The shot that follows is again, of Liam Gallagher. This time the shot is a close up of him as he begins to perform the song. This idea of having a close up of the artist singing the opening line is a technique that my group wanted to use to establish who was singing the song and to start the video off.Just from the first few seconds of the video, you can already tell that it is going to be a mixture of a performance and narrative video. You can tell this as you have already seen the singer, and another person in a completely different place to the performance of the song who has nothing to do with the band. As the opening line of the song is sung, the camera moves around the artist from right to left. This shot causes it to become more interesting that simply have a still shot of the artists face. The whole time that the camera is moving, the artist, Liam Gallagher is staring straight in the same position the whole time. Another thing that I noticed when watching this video, was how Liam Gallagher is chewing gum throughout.
This shows how the laid back, casual, not caring attitude that a stereotypical rock artist is supposed to have. This is not an idea that we have thought about incorporating into our own video, however it is an idea that could be worked upon. The song continues and the shots switch between the girl in the street (with the TV screen look) and the band. When the band is on the screen, it should be noted that the camera is hardly ever in one position with the whole band in the shot. Instead, the angles of the shot change and the camera is constantly moving slowly from one side to another as it establishes what is happening within the room.When the band is in shot, the camera switches from each band member in turn and some of the shots have close ups of the instruments that are being played
. This shows to the viewer each of the band members contribution to the song. As already said, the video cuts between a performance of the song and a narrative to go with it. The performance of the song is as though Oasis are directly singing the song to the girl withing the video. The girl is walking down an empty street with very little life and blanked out billboards. The lyrics that accompany this are 'stop crying your heart out' - also the name of the song. To an on looker, this would connotate that the girl in the video is possibly depressed and lonely, and the song is trying to almost cheer her up and get her thinking positive again. This is shown in the second verse of the song. At 1 min 25 secs of the video, the song breaks into the swing of it and the drums are played loudly with a continuous rhythm. The drum is beaten around 11-13 times in the space of 5 seconds, to which there is a cut for every beat (as shown with the picture below) 
This is a definite convention that all music videos follow, and one that we will use. By this I mean cutting to the beat of the song, and should there be a fast paced bit within the song, then it would be ideal to have quick editing with lots of different shots to fill the beats. This is done to show a lot of different things but with only a small space of time. The viewer has enough time with this video to see that the girl is lonely, and is obviously in a petrol station and has payed for some fuel.The video now changes, as does the song. The song picks up a bit of pace and a few more instruments are heard and with a louder tune too. Songs increase in volume after the first few lines are sung to show that the middle of the song has been reached and the main message is being conveyed. The lyrics change from the depressing 'stop crying your heart out' to 'get up, come on'. This is more motivational language, and the visuals match this. In the beginning, the billboards that the girl passes are all turned off, and now that she has perked up after hearing these words, not only is she smiling and
looking to the sky, but all of the boards are turned on and displaying images of clouds. After this is seen, the match that appeared at the start of the song is seen being lit again, followed by shots of the girl walking away from the petrol station holding a full petrol canister. It then becomes apparent what the girl intends to do (setting alight to something - we later learn that it is herself) and therefore shows the depressing side of the song.
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Target Audience
The next thing to do after deciding on the song was to start thinking of our target audience. This is an important part of creating all music videos, films and TV programmes otherwise you wont get the viewings. The artist of the song, Noel Gallagher - according to Wikipedia - is considered as a Rock, BritPop, Alternative Rock and Psychedelic Rock artist.
After establishing the genre of music that we had chosen to produce a music video to, it was time to research who our video would be aimed at. To do this I went onto the UK Tribes website that allows you to see what 'group' different people in society fit in to. Upon visiting the website, I found a group called 'Alternative'. After reading the description of this, it is clear that the people that are categorized into this group is who I need to be aiming my music video at. Below is the description given, straight from the UK Tribes website.
Below are a couple of mood boards illustrating the types of brands and media that people of the alternative culture are in to.
Below is a small table showing the media consumption for the average person in the alternative group.
As you can see, the average Alternative 'member' relies quite heavily on the media for entertainment. The table clearly shows how Alternative people enjoy heavy usage of Internet, TV, Magazines and Radio. If people were not interested in Radio, TV or the Internet, then there would be no point in creating the video. Obviously all music videos are filmed to accompany a particular song, and this is then played out to the public via certain TV channels. So what would be the point in making a music video to people who barely watch TV? As well as this, music videos appear all over the internet and compete to get the most amount of 'hits' - most views - so again, making a music video to someone who does not use the internet often would also, to me, seem non-beneficial.
The above picture shows the type of people that fit into the category of 'Alternative'. The picture was taken at Reading Music Festival, which is exactly the festival where Noel Gallagher would most likely play at. They normally dress in clothes such as skinny jeans and anything else that shops like TOPMAN or Urban Outfitters sell.
Rock Music: developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the US and UK. Musically, rock has centered around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Like pop-music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. An example of a rock band is The Beetles, on the right hand side.
- Alternative Rock: a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became popular in the 1990s.
Alternative rock consists of various sub-genres that have emerged from independent music - shortened to indie music - scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, BritPop, Gothic rock, Indie pop, and Indie rock. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style or ethos of punk rock, which laid he groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s. An example of an alternative rock band, is The Goo Goo Dolls, shown on the left hand side.
- BritPop Music: a sub-genre of alternative rock that originated in the UK. BritPop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s. An example of a BritPop music band, is Blur. a picture of their album cover is shown on the right.
- Psychedelic Rock: a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replic
ate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in the US and the UK. An example of a psychedelic rock band is that of Pink Floyd, as shown in the picture to the left.
After establishing the genre of music that we had chosen to produce a music video to, it was time to research who our video would be aimed at. To do this I went onto the UK Tribes website that allows you to see what 'group' different people in society fit in to. Upon visiting the website, I found a group called 'Alternative'. After reading the description of this, it is clear that the people that are categorized into this group is who I need to be aiming my music video at. Below is the description given, straight from the UK Tribes website.
Members of the Alternative tribes are vaguely rebellious but don’t yet have a specific focus to rally against (their parents may well have helped shape their Alternative views, in fact). However, they are likely to conform with peers. While open-minded about music and fashion they are wary of the Mainstream tribes and determined to be different – together.
Alternative Tribes are predominantly made up of white working and middle class kids. It seems a huge proportion of teens in the UK have a hankering for something a bit different, and Alternative brands that have achieved massive traction include Converse and Vans. Kufiyas also feature heavily.
All Tribes within the Alternative segment are passionate about music, and their friendship groups, tastes and activities are largely defined online. Peer influence is a huge part of the Alternative scene, though new trends usually emerge outside the segment. The best way to reach these kids is through niche magazines and social media.
Young Alts is the gateway Tribe to the Alternative and Leading Edge scenes and is a massive group who snap up all kinds of media and accessories as they ape their elders. Metalheads and Skaters are much more rigid Tribes, adopting teens early and keeping them until their mid-twenties in small, fiercely loyal friendship groups. Both scenes are fluid about fashion but fanatical about their core preoccupations: rock music and skating. Emos and Scene Kids are heavily over-lapping tribes with Goth-derived fashion sense and US-led rock music tastes, although Emo kids are interested in angst while Scene Kids are more concerned with socialising and building massive online presences. Apart from Gamers, Scene Kids are the Tribe most glued to their computers, making the Alternative market the most-web facing of the segments.
The final category, Gamers, are truly unusual in that their online profiles and pastimes have assumed more importance than real-world socialising. They are a globalised Tribe with eclectic and influential taste in games, music and film, but no real need for fashion.
Alternative Tribes are predominantly made up of white working and middle class kids. It seems a huge proportion of teens in the UK have a hankering for something a bit different, and Alternative brands that have achieved massive traction include Converse and Vans. Kufiyas also feature heavily.
All Tribes within the Alternative segment are passionate about music, and their friendship groups, tastes and activities are largely defined online. Peer influence is a huge part of the Alternative scene, though new trends usually emerge outside the segment. The best way to reach these kids is through niche magazines and social media.
Young Alts is the gateway Tribe to the Alternative and Leading Edge scenes and is a massive group who snap up all kinds of media and accessories as they ape their elders. Metalheads and Skaters are much more rigid Tribes, adopting teens early and keeping them until their mid-twenties in small, fiercely loyal friendship groups. Both scenes are fluid about fashion but fanatical about their core preoccupations: rock music and skating. Emos and Scene Kids are heavily over-lapping tribes with Goth-derived fashion sense and US-led rock music tastes, although Emo kids are interested in angst while Scene Kids are more concerned with socialising and building massive online presences. Apart from Gamers, Scene Kids are the Tribe most glued to their computers, making the Alternative market the most-web facing of the segments.
The final category, Gamers, are truly unusual in that their online profiles and pastimes have assumed more importance than real-world socialising. They are a globalised Tribe with eclectic and influential taste in games, music and film, but no real need for fashion.
Below are a couple of mood boards illustrating the types of brands and media that people of the alternative culture are in to.
Below is a small table showing the media consumption for the average person in the alternative group.
As you can see, the average Alternative 'member' relies quite heavily on the media for entertainment. The table clearly shows how Alternative people enjoy heavy usage of Internet, TV, Magazines and Radio. If people were not interested in Radio, TV or the Internet, then there would be no point in creating the video. Obviously all music videos are filmed to accompany a particular song, and this is then played out to the public via certain TV channels. So what would be the point in making a music video to people who barely watch TV? As well as this, music videos appear all over the internet and compete to get the most amount of 'hits' - most views - so again, making a music video to someone who does not use the internet often would also, to me, seem non-beneficial.The above picture shows the type of people that fit into the category of 'Alternative'. The picture was taken at Reading Music Festival, which is exactly the festival where Noel Gallagher would most likely play at. They normally dress in clothes such as skinny jeans and anything else that shops like TOPMAN or Urban Outfitters sell.
Thursday 29 September 2011
Song Decided
As you saw from the previous post, the song that my group have decided on using is called AKA... What A Life by ex Oasis band member Noel Gallagher. On the right hand side of the screen, you should see a video bar containing the song that we have chosen and related videos. The song can also be heard below.
Music Playlist at MixPod.com
Below is a rolling scroll bar of the lyrics to the song. They are simple lyrics and could be interpreted in a few different ways.
Lyrics | Noel Gallagher lyrics - AKA... What A Life lyrics
As a group, we listened to the song over and over again and took notes on paper of ideas that came into our head. The ideas a can be found below.
Music Playlist at MixPod.com
Below is a rolling scroll bar of the lyrics to the song. They are simple lyrics and could be interpreted in a few different ways.
Lyrics | Noel Gallagher lyrics - AKA... What A Life lyrics
As a group, we listened to the song over and over again and took notes on paper of ideas that came into our head. The ideas a can be found below.
Wednesday 28 September 2011
What Song?
Within my group there was a number of different songs that we looked at, both contemporary and fairly 'hidden' songs. By hidden I mean songs that are not really that well known. This was the type of song that we wanted to pick so as our audience would not be bored with the song due to it already being released, and also so as to introduce a 'new' song to their playlists.
Above is a slide-show containing the artists we looked at. After much discussion and deliberation with our teacher, it was agreed that the songs we looked at by these artists were far too contemporary and a few of the songs had only just been released! Because of this, we had to go back to the drawing board and really begin to think about the song that we wanted to create a video for. When online, a member of my group, Jay Wood, went onto the Soccer AM website, (click here for the page he later found) claiming that they post songs weekly. It was only when he found one that we all agreed on and all liked that we credited him for his finding. Below is a brief presentation of how we have done some of our research.
Music Playlist at MixPod.com
Above is a slide-show containing the artists we looked at. After much discussion and deliberation with our teacher, it was agreed that the songs we looked at by these artists were far too contemporary and a few of the songs had only just been released! Because of this, we had to go back to the drawing board and really begin to think about the song that we wanted to create a video for. When online, a member of my group, Jay Wood, went onto the Soccer AM website, (click here for the page he later found) claiming that they post songs weekly. It was only when he found one that we all agreed on and all liked that we credited him for his finding. Below is a brief presentation of how we have done some of our research.
Media Research and Analysis on Prezi
Below is a file containing the songs we looked at by each of the artists.
Music Playlist at MixPod.com
Saturday 24 September 2011
Group
After analysing music videos as individuals, it was time to get ourselves into groups. This was the hardest part of the course so far as with only a handful of people in the class, I wanted to pick a group with people that;
After some discussion, it was decided and agreed that my group would be:
The two in my group both share the same taste of music and are good friends and would feel comfortable working with each other in order to create the music video.
- I would get on with and be able to work with for the rest of the year, and
- Someone or people that share the same similar taste in music to myself.
After some discussion, it was decided and agreed that my group would be:
The two in my group both share the same taste of music and are good friends and would feel comfortable working with each other in order to create the music video.
Thursday 22 September 2011
Further Video Analysis + Research
After analysing Eminem's Stan, I proceeded to look at further songs. I looked at the type of music and artists that I am interested in as that is the genre of music I would like to make a video to. The artists I looked at were Irish band, The Script, and Plan B. The Plan B video I chose to analyse and look at was one produced by a student form a previous year. The video was one that received a high mark and I wanted to see how they managed to do this by looking at different aspects of the video and compare it with the original. The video made by the students is below.
As you can see, the video is Chase & Status ft. Plan B End Credits. The original can be found here. I noticed a number of things with the video which could be useful for me to use in my own video in order to gain the high marks:
Here are some things I took note of when looking at this video:
Here are some of the things that I liked when looking at this video:
As you can see, the video is Chase & Status ft. Plan B End Credits. The original can be found here. I noticed a number of things with the video which could be useful for me to use in my own video in order to gain the high marks:
- The video was similar to the original
- Low key lighting has been used - lots of oranges and warmer colours
- Camera lens = fish eye. This gives a good effect rather than just using a standard lens
- Consistent cut on main guitar strum
- Consistent cutting to first shot (keeps cutting to him laying on the floor)
- Some narrative, some performance
- Filmed at night
- Lots of overlays used
- Same sort of setting throughout
- Cuts to the beat near the climax of the song.
- Mise-en-scene fits with genre of music
Here are some things I took note of when looking at this video:
- Some narrative, some performance
- Desaturated
- Slow motion (under cranking)
- Main focal character is foregrounded and in focus, the background is out of focus
- A mixture of outside and inside settings
- Cuts are not consistent with the beat as it is more of a story like video
- Some parts are in colour - flashbacks? Look like they are filmed on home video camera
Here are some of the things that I liked when looking at this video:
- Mini story. The video opens with a girl writing to her mum and dad - could easily be mistaken for a film?
- Desaturated bits of the artist
- Some singing along with the song
- Some narrative, some performance
- Effective lens flares used/taken advantage of from the sun
- Close ups of the artist performing
- Warm colours in intimate scenes
- Overlays used consistently
- Some of the video cuts when a new line of the song is sung, and some to the beat
As you can see from the analysis above I have highlighted two attributes that kept popping up throughout the videos. The main bits highlighted which I would consider to include into my video is the desaturated parts, and also, how some bits are in narrative and some are in performance. These attributes look effective within the videos as they break up the video so as the narrative part does not get too boring, and the performance part is added to show the artist and further promote the song.
Friday 1 July 2011
Stan Music Video
The music video that I am going to analyse is EMINEM's video Stan featuring Dido. The story of the song is a fictional story about a man named Stanley Mitchell who claims to be Eminem's biggest fan and throughout the song Stan becomes obsessed with Eminem. The first three verses are delivered by Eminem as Stan while the fourth verse is Eminem attempting to reply to Stan's letters, only to realise that he had already heard about Stan's death on the news. As already stated, the song features Dido who sings the chorus of the song, and she also appears in the video as Stan's pregnant girlfriend of which he abuses and later kills her. The song is from the genre of hip hop music. The rapping within the song performed by Eminem places it within this category. Rapping is a typical characteristic in hip hop music. The chorus of the song, or the main part that Dido is heard singing in the song is actually taken from one of Dido's own tracks called 'Thank You". A link to this video can be found here.
Below is the short version of Stan.
There have been two versions of the video for this song. A long version which is around 8 minutes long, and the version above which is just over 6. The video is more of a small film which has been remembered by many people. The lyrics are somewhat powerful as the character Stan explains his obsession for Eminem and also how he is going to kill his girlfriend. To see the lyrics to this song, click here. (Below is the analysis for the shorter version)
There are many ways within the video where the visuals and lyrics collaborate and 'make sense' when shown/heard together. This is apparent in the first couple of lines in the song when Dido is heard singing 'the morning raindrops on my window' and 'even if I could it would all be grey'. To coincide with these lyrics, there are indeed raindrops heard and seen through a window due to there being a storm outside the house in which Stan and Dido are in. The storm is evident through the thunder and lightning heard and seen as the room lights up
with a flash. This use of pathetic fallacy has been done to show how dark and dingy the house is and also reflects the mood and persona of the lead character, Stan. The next line stated was 'even if I could it would all be grey'. Although the colour grey isn't specifically seen on the screen at this time, there are other dark neutral colours that present the audience with a creepy and dark house with little atmosphere. The movement of the camera at the beginning of the song shows the camera possible being on a crane as it goes from a low angle shot to eye line level with a window. This gives the audience a notion of looking into the lives of the people within the house. There is a lot of camera movement throughout the video that will be analysed later on.
The next most obvious visual that coincides with the lyrics is when Stan is writing a letter to Eminem. The sound of a pencil is heard against paper and Stan is in fact seen writing a letter with a pencil and pap
er. Another obvious link between the lyrics and the visuals is again, in the chorus when Dido sings 'but your picture on the wall'. This line is is usually always accompanied with either and establishing shot of the room in which Stan resides and writes his letters, revealing the hundreds of posters that he has up of Eminem, or the shot is a close up of the posters and the camera pans across the room's wall showing all of the posters at a closer view, as shown with the screen grab on the left hand side. These are just a few of the matching visuals and lyrics in the video. Generally because the video is a narrative, it is more than likely that what you hear within the music is what you are going to see should you watch the video.
In regards to the editing of the video, it does not appear that the cuts match the beat of the song as in the case of many other music videos. This may not be the case because the video could be seen as a mini film and cutting every few seconds to the beat would mean that the story line in would become dysfunctional and confusing with too many cuts and shots appearing. Because this video is more of a small film, the shots and cuts are more consistent and the editing is at a steady pace allowing the audience to take in what is happening. There are a variety of shots and editing techniques throughout the video that work well to establish
the story line. One of the opening scenes sees Dido walking to the bathroom. When she is sitting on the toilet, the camera moves down by use of a crane (possible special effects) to show Stan underneath her in a different room. The movement into the dark room below reiterates to the audience that thought of something being wrong with the house or the people in side. The lack of colour throughout the video shows how dull the lead characters life is within the video.
The video finds numerous ways to try and promote the track. The constant referral to the artist by use of images and lyrics gives the audience a strong visualization of the artist. In this instance, Eminem, or Slim, is referred to a lot throughout the video as the story behind it explores the main characters obsession with the artist. It should also be noted that the characters name in the video is Stan, one of many nicknames that has been given to Eminem over his performing years, further relating this song to the artist. The use of images has also been used effectively in order to sell the track.The image above is of Stan looking into a mirror in his room only to be greeted by the reflection of who he wants to be like, Eminem. The constant appearance of Eminem throughout the video shows how the deranged character is constantly thinking about his idol and how he has mentally replaced his girlfriend. Other visuals such as when Stan places the photograph of Eminem over his own girlfriend also helps sell the record as it shows to the audience who the artist is and possibly to show how popular they would like the song to become.
The video for Stan is similar to some of Eminem's other videos in regards to the colours and language used. For instance, his video 'When I'm Gone', found here is another famous track by the artist with an iconic video. The reason this video is so similar to Stan is due to the colour scheme used. The
consistency of the colour green is a colour that appears throughout a few of Eminem's videos. The colour was also a recurring one in the film 8 Mile in which he starred. A snapshot from the 8 Mile film can be seen on the left hand side of the screen. As you can see, the picture has the same sort of colours in as the Stan video, further supporting that the colours used are popular ones that are iconic with the artist.
Below is the short version of Stan.
There have been two versions of the video for this song. A long version which is around 8 minutes long, and the version above which is just over 6. The video is more of a small film which has been remembered by many people. The lyrics are somewhat powerful as the character Stan explains his obsession for Eminem and also how he is going to kill his girlfriend. To see the lyrics to this song, click here. (Below is the analysis for the shorter version)
There are many ways within the video where the visuals and lyrics collaborate and 'make sense' when shown/heard together. This is apparent in the first couple of lines in the song when Dido is heard singing 'the morning raindrops on my window' and 'even if I could it would all be grey'. To coincide with these lyrics, there are indeed raindrops heard and seen through a window due to there being a storm outside the house in which Stan and Dido are in. The storm is evident through the thunder and lightning heard and seen as the room lights up
with a flash. This use of pathetic fallacy has been done to show how dark and dingy the house is and also reflects the mood and persona of the lead character, Stan. The next line stated was 'even if I could it would all be grey'. Although the colour grey isn't specifically seen on the screen at this time, there are other dark neutral colours that present the audience with a creepy and dark house with little atmosphere. The movement of the camera at the beginning of the song shows the camera possible being on a crane as it goes from a low angle shot to eye line level with a window. This gives the audience a notion of looking into the lives of the people within the house. There is a lot of camera movement throughout the video that will be analysed later on.The next most obvious visual that coincides with the lyrics is when Stan is writing a letter to Eminem. The sound of a pencil is heard against paper and Stan is in fact seen writing a letter with a pencil and pap
er. Another obvious link between the lyrics and the visuals is again, in the chorus when Dido sings 'but your picture on the wall'. This line is is usually always accompanied with either and establishing shot of the room in which Stan resides and writes his letters, revealing the hundreds of posters that he has up of Eminem, or the shot is a close up of the posters and the camera pans across the room's wall showing all of the posters at a closer view, as shown with the screen grab on the left hand side. These are just a few of the matching visuals and lyrics in the video. Generally because the video is a narrative, it is more than likely that what you hear within the music is what you are going to see should you watch the video.In regards to the editing of the video, it does not appear that the cuts match the beat of the song as in the case of many other music videos. This may not be the case because the video could be seen as a mini film and cutting every few seconds to the beat would mean that the story line in would become dysfunctional and confusing with too many cuts and shots appearing. Because this video is more of a small film, the shots and cuts are more consistent and the editing is at a steady pace allowing the audience to take in what is happening. There are a variety of shots and editing techniques throughout the video that work well to establish
the story line. One of the opening scenes sees Dido walking to the bathroom. When she is sitting on the toilet, the camera moves down by use of a crane (possible special effects) to show Stan underneath her in a different room. The movement into the dark room below reiterates to the audience that thought of something being wrong with the house or the people in side. The lack of colour throughout the video shows how dull the lead characters life is within the video.The video finds numerous ways to try and promote the track. The constant referral to the artist by use of images and lyrics gives the audience a strong visualization of the artist. In this instance, Eminem, or Slim, is referred to a lot throughout the video as the story behind it explores the main characters obsession with the artist. It should also be noted that the characters name in the video is Stan, one of many nicknames that has been given to Eminem over his performing years, further relating this song to the artist. The use of images has also been used effectively in order to sell the track.The image above is of Stan looking into a mirror in his room only to be greeted by the reflection of who he wants to be like, Eminem. The constant appearance of Eminem throughout the video shows how the deranged character is constantly thinking about his idol and how he has mentally replaced his girlfriend. Other visuals such as when Stan places the photograph of Eminem over his own girlfriend also helps sell the record as it shows to the audience who the artist is and possibly to show how popular they would like the song to become.
The video for Stan is similar to some of Eminem's other videos in regards to the colours and language used. For instance, his video 'When I'm Gone', found here is another famous track by the artist with an iconic video. The reason this video is so similar to Stan is due to the colour scheme used. The
consistency of the colour green is a colour that appears throughout a few of Eminem's videos. The colour was also a recurring one in the film 8 Mile in which he starred. A snapshot from the 8 Mile film can be seen on the left hand side of the screen. As you can see, the picture has the same sort of colours in as the Stan video, further supporting that the colours used are popular ones that are iconic with the artist.
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