These are my initial ideas come up with last lesson in my discussion with my partner Daryl last lesson.
This basically sums up everything I could think of about our genre and what we had to do in orde to make a good video within our chosen genre and all the questions I had to face and the decisions and ideas I had based around what I was presented with.
My peer assessment was carried out by Drew which was done in class. The feedback I received was very well observed, precise and truthful. I have taken what he has said on board and based on that I am improving my blogg in order to achieve my best.
He's mentioned that a lot of my blogs aren't complete yet and perhaps this is because I am spending too much time on one particular aspect or blog entry so if I am to do this I need to not take too long on the perfections and to just do what is required and go back and do the rest later.
He's also said that I need to watch my punctuation and grammar in some of my posts and perhaps a way to go about this is to write what I'd like to comment into a word document first and then edit and publish the post.
- Some attempt at the majority of posts.
- Some good presentation, the first music video analysis in poat 14.
- Some use of visual material.
EBI
- there are far too many unfinished posts here Luke. You have not been improving them or making sure that you complete them to the right standard as you go along. You have created an enormous lot of work for yourself.
- All posts except no 2 need improvement or need to be completed.
- You need to analyse in much more detail, think about cinematography, sound, editing, mise en scene and analyse under the 4 headings for each video.
- There are some posts that show information clearly coipied and pasted from the internet. This is plagiarism. You must improve this or we cannot enter your work and you will face serious sanctions within the school. Posts 15 and 17 show this.
- You must include more visual material.
- You must complete posts 19 and 20, the mark scheme requires audience research.
Below is a copy of my questionnaire which I have sent to all year 13's to recieve there feedback about my groups chosen genres of music and to gain ideas and inspiration for our own music video task.
And below it the feedback that I was able to find out for example I have chosen 6 responses three male and three female that stood out particularly for me.
And what I found was that of those asked 4/6 people brought the music they listened to on CD as shown in this screenshot: -
Also half of the people asked thought there was no difference between the two genres as shown in the feed analysis: -
I also what made these responses so interesting was the diversity of their age ranges and what kind of music they are into as shown in these two charts: -
This is an advert for Korn's new CD Unplugged which was out on the 5th of March according to the poster and not only does it revael the date of when the CD was released but when you can download it and when their premiere is.
It follows most conventions of a Metal/ Rock advertisement including associated colours like red, blue and black. They also have images of that band playing their instruments both on stage and off.
Another thing is that it's added their more well known songs of the album onto the advert to promote them and it's put at the bottom their website and the name of their producer Virgin Music to sort of say these are the people behind the music.
Opeth Heritage Advert: -
This is an advert to advertise the realse of Opeth's new alum Heritage Sponsored by HMV. You could call this a sort of example of synergy within the music advertising industery because Opeth may have not been able to advertise their album relase so HMV may have said they would pay for it if they get a cut of the marketing and to get their name on it and advertise their company.
Again the album art also follows the typical conventions of Rock music dull Brownish /Green background with a more lighter Red colour.And again we have the band being advertise as well.
Also typical about the avertisment is the fact that is again includes the relase date of the album and advertises it's well known tracks that feature on the album.
Howeaver they have advertised something new in this advert they mention you can buy a dvd with over 2 hours of bonus tracks and a documentary showing you the band in process of making the album.
The Academy is... Santi and Take to the Skys Advert: -
Now this advert by The Academy is... not only advertises the relase of their new album by it re advertises one of their older ones as well as if to say hay if your likeing the sound of our new one why not buy some of our older material as well.
Again typically including the album title and best featured tracks but unlike the Korn and Opeth averts there is no album art for their newly relased album which may seem unprofessional and unhelpfull but this advert does two things the others don't.
The first being ovious the advertisement of their older album to try and encorage new fans to buy threir older meterial and te second is really important to the sale of any album they include the dowload date which is the 12th of March this is crutial to the band because advertising the download date opens up a new consumer audience one that doesn't buy CD's but rather download it from Itunes or onto their phones and laptops so by doing this they are likely to make more money.
Sony renamed the record company Sony Music Entertainment (SME) on January 1, 1991, fulfilling the terms set under the 1988 buyout, which granted only a transitional license to the CBS trademark. The CBS Associated label was renamed Epic Associated. Also on January 1, 1991, to replace the CBS label, Sony reintroduced the Columbia label worldwide, which it previously held in the United States and Canada only, after it acquired the international rights to the trademark from EMI in 1990.
In August 2004, Sony entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Bertelsmann by merging Sony Music and Bertelsmann music group (BMG) to Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
Below is the Sony BMG Music Entertainment logo -
Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann announced on August 5, 2008 that Sony agreed to acquire Bertelsmann's 50% stake in Sony BMG. Sony completed its acquisition of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the companies' joint venture on October 1, 2008. The company, once again named Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SME), became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation through its US subsidiary Sony Corporation of America.
Music Entertainment Inc logo -
Hear is a list of Sony Music artists that are also famous Metal artists -
- AC/DC
- Bullet for My Valentine
- Iron Maiden
- Slayer
EMI: -
EMI Music or simply EMI is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the "big four" record companies and a member of the RIAA & IFPI. EMI Group also has a major publishing arm.
Electric and Musical Industries Ltd was formed in March 1931 by the merger of the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company, with its "His Master's Voice" record label, firms that have a history extending back to the origins of recorded sound. The new vertically integrated company produced sound recordings as well as recording and playback equipment.
Electric and Musical Industries Ltd was formed in March 1931 by the merger of the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company, with its "His Master's Voice" record label, firms that have a history extending back to the origins of recorded sound. The new vertically integrated company produced sound recordings as well as recording and playback equipment.
Early in its life, the Gramophone Company established subsidiary operations in a number of other countries in the British Commonwealth, including India, Australia and New Zealand. Gramophone's (later EMI's) Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries dominated the popular music industries in those countries from the 1920s until the 1960s, when other locally owned labels (such as Festival Records) began to challenge the near monopoly of EMI.
However. to make it even more confusing, EMI retained the rights to the Columbia name in most other territories including the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It continued to operate the label with moderate success until 1972, when it was retired and replaced by the EMI Records imprint.
In 1990, following a series of major takeovers that saw CBS Records acquired by the Sony Corporation of Japan, EMI sold its remaining rights to the Columbia name to Sony and the label is now operated exclusively throughout the world by Sony Music Entertainment; except in Japan where the trade mark is owned by Columbia Music Entertainment.
In 1967, while shifting their pop and rock music roster to Columbia, EMI converted HMV solely to a classical music label exclusively. For the emerging progressive rock genre including Pink Floyd, who had debuted on Columbia, EMI established a new subsidiary label, Harvest Records two years later.
In 1971, Electric & Musical Industries changed its' name to EMI Ltd. and a year later EMI replaced the Columbia label with the EMI Records imprint. Two years later, The Gramophone Company subsidiary became EMI Records, Ltd as well, and in February 1979, EMI Ltd acquired United Artists Records and with it their subsidiary labels Liberty Records and Imperial Records.
Below is EMI's logo -
List of EMI artists -
- Black Sabbath
- Iron Maiden
- Korn
- 30 Seconds to Mars
Virgin records: -
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny Kravitz, The Smashing Pumpkins, Mike Oldfield, and more. It was later sold to Thorn EMI in 1992. Its American operations were merged with Capitol Records in 2007 to create the Capitol Music Group.
Virgin Records was sold by Branson to Thorn EMI in June 1992 for a reported US$1 billion (around £560 million), with a special non-competition clause that would prevent Branson from founding another recording company during the five years following the agreement. It now faces competition from Branson's new label: V2 Records. Branson sold Virgin Records to fund Virgin Atlantic Airways which at that time was coming under intense anti-competitive pressure from British Airways. (In 1993 BA settled a libel action brought by Branson, giving him £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline).
EMI international companies directly operate Virgin Records imprint divisions known as "Virgin Music" in many countries, including Germany, France, and the UK. Most of these markets previously operated standalone "Virgin Records" labels before being merged and consolidated into their national EMI companies in the early part of the twenty-first century when EMI Group businesses underwent drastic restructuring.
Below is Virgin Records logo -
List of Virgin Record atrtists -
- The Cult
- Placebo
- The Sex Pistols
- Suicidal Tendencies
- Switched
- You Me at Six
Features all of the old band members because this is their orgional album and as said previosly Slipknot are know for their elaborate costumes which they perform in both in their videos and on stage so I guess you could say the Mise en Scene could include these.
As for the cinimtography the only shot is a mid shot of the band looking quite menicingly at you adopting the overall colour sceme typicall of Slipknot whcih is a dull Brown, Balck and Red.
Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast.
They have inculded the typical Iron Maiden grim depiction on the front of the album. And they've included some of the traditional colours fratured by Iron Maiden.
Bullet for My Valentine - The poison.
Includes the typical font styles and colour scemes of Bullet for My Valentine and the album art is very similar to their other albums.
But despite all these individual trates all three of these albums have similar conventions and things in common for instance -
They all include the authentic band litles / logos on the albums which is usual and widly used by all well know bands not only to let the fands know who's album it is and who's music they are listening to but it's a trake mark and a production/ company logo as well.
They are all rather dark and ominous for instance with The Number Of The Beast they are depicting both the grim reaper and the devil, in The poison there is a male figure looming over the woman the door frame and the woman seems to be encircled by what appears to be a blood splatter and in the Slipknot album is a picture of the whole band wearing their costumes which they usually perform in which are kind of creepy.
Most common Metal/ Rock music videos have the following similarities/ conventions: -
The performers are usually playing the following instruments (Drum kit, Electric guitar, Bass guitar vocals and possibly a keyboard sometimes) depending on the band you may have a Lead guitarist and then a Rhythm guitarist to support them.
In addition to its sound and lyrics a heavy metal band's "image" is expressed in albums, logos, stage sets, clothing and it's music videos.
Down-the-back long hair, according to Weinstein, is the "most crucial distinguishing feature of metal fashion." Originally adopted from the hippie subculture, by the 1980s and 1990s heavy metal hair "symbolised the hate, angst and disenchantment of a generation that seemingly never felt at home," according to journalist Nader Rahman. Long hair gave members of the metal community "the power they needed to rebel against nothing in general."
Many metal performers of the 1970s and 1980s used radically shaped and brightly coloured instruments to enhance their stage appearance. Fashion and personal style was especially important for glam metal bands of the era.
Performers typically wore long dyed hairspray-teased hair (hence the nickname, "hair metal"), makeup such as lipstick and eyeliner, gaudy clothing, including leopard-skin-printes, shirts or vests and tight denim, leather, or spandex pants and accessories such as headbands and jewellery.
The song is about the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 during the Crimean War, and is at least partially based upon Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and in this beautifully almost poster like shot is the last section of that poem and in doing this they seem to be trying to honor their memory similar to those of the First and Second world wars.
Below is the first and generally one of the last pictures of the whole band throughout the entire video at 0:08.
Also they shoot some butifully frame shots of the band members as well.
Bruce Dickinson (vocals): -
Nicko McBrain (Drummr): -
Steve Harris (Bass Guitar): -
Dave Murray (Lead guitar): -
Adrian Smith (Rhythm Guitar): -
Sound: -
The instrumental that they play at 0:15 actually sounds like horses galloping so conveniently the add a section of the old film with a line of cavelry galloping.
When Bruce sings the lyrics "The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath" at 0:55 two images contributing to thre lyrics are shown before this the frist when he sings the line at 0:53 and the second of the horses breath at 0:25.
Mise en scene: -
In the old film the second shot is of the front line of cavalry starting to charge at the Russians it then cuts to a shot of the Russians loading their cannons showing the two sides getting ready for the battle that is about to commence.
Another interesting use of mise en scene is this shot of Bruce when he sings "You fire your musket but I run you through". And due to the framing of it and the camera angle it's snag almost menacingly.
I thought this was a lovely shot of Dave and Adrian singing the backing vocals and not only that but the shot must have ben very well thought about and planned out.
As was this one of Bruce to add a bit of variety to the shots used in the vidoe it's also nice because the floor contrasts to what Bruce is wearing so it makes it an intresting shot.
Editing: -
There's a piece of very good editing as soon as you open the video up. The symbol of Iron Maiden has been edited so that it jumps up at you from the screen which I thought was very cleaver.
I think Iron Maiden used the old film as a trasition so that within the video they could get from shot to shot without difficulty because most of the old film clips are in instrumental part where if the audience just looked atthe band playing there instruments they might start switching off so they inserted it because it's both relivent and useful.
And this was a very cleaver series of cuts to make sence of one of Bruces frestyles over two shot's the last of which is edited to mentain continuity.
Cinematography: -
Some really well thought of shots are in the opening of the video for instance this one at 0:34 is really carefully positioned and the lack of light makes it even more effective.
Another really good one it this one at 1:10 where the boy is coming out of the shop and the other 'cooler/ more normal' boys are just staring at him and the fact that they use a close up of the normal boys after it makes this one seem even more surreal.
Another I thought was very surreal was the image they shot at 1:25 of the boy putting some colourfull cereal into a bowl and then pouring some dirty tap water into it. Perhaps the reason they did this is to show that not every has white fluffy milk on their cereal but also because rock and metal are sort of about breaking away from the normality's of what people do so this may be a reflection of this concept by Slipknot.
Sound: -
The really effective use of sound was at 1:51 till 1:57 when the boys have thrown a brick through the Emo's window and to create the noise of this without the use of a sound effect the drummer lightly hits the symbols to make a sound similar to that of shattered glass falling on the flour.
Another good use of sound was at 2:03 when the lyrics are sang softer to show the change of mood and this is also shown by a cut away to a thunder storm which is also needed for continuity purposes because in the next section it's raining.
Another good use of sound was there was a brief note strummed from the bass guitarist at 3:15 to emphasize the rock going through the T.v to add dramatic effect and the fact that the bands name was on the screen is quite shocking really.
Mise en scene: -
A very quirky thing they've done with the Mise en Scene I though was in the opening where the band included black goats in quite a lot of their shots.
I thought this was a little Ironic because in the opening the boy is in a butchers and obviously cutting up meat and I thought is the goats trying to symbolise the meat being cut up in the butchers?
Editing: -
Straight away there's a good bit of continuity editing going on when the boy gets off the school bus because the boy on the bike comes across probubly to hide the boy waiting, it cuts to the boy getting off the bus and then it cuts to the boy contining to get off of te bus still moving forward to how that he's still moving off of the bus and the bus doors close to show passage of time.
Another good edit is the first section iside the shop where inbetween cuts to the band the boy walks up to the entrance of 'pete's meats, he's then inside walking up to the counter, he's then walking past the shelves and freezers which you can just about see on the left of the previous shot the man presumably pete looks at his as he walks in, he puts on he's apron and pete looks at him to show us where he is in relation to the shot and he has no ciggar to again show passage of time (either that or poor continuity editing).
And finally as mentioned before the last good piece of editin in this vidoe is the use of the storm as a cut away to introduce the rain sections.
Cinematography: -
A lot of close up's of the singer are used to emphasize lines of the song for instance a lot are used when Matt Tuck sings "Right now it's killing time"
They use a few establishing shots in the opening to show the viewer were they are performing.
And at brief intervals through out the video they cut to the band playing to maintain continuity and to avoide viewer fatigue of watching Matt sing but also some are used as cut aways in instrumentals because matt is only playing.
Sound: -
There isn't a use of Sound in this music video other than the lyrics of the song which are sang/ performed to by the band, artists, performers and producers (Bullet For My Valentine).
Mise en scene: -
An interesting use of Mise en Scene is at 0:46 where the Bridge before the Chorus contains the lyrics "Over the top, over the top" these lyrics are actually projected onto a screen probably to add emphasis to the lyrics as they are being snag and because the backing singers sing this particular section not the lead singer it adds a lot of emphasis to it.
Similar to this is the use of war like footage/ imagery which is used as part of the same projection to not only add colour to an otherwise colourless music video but it also enables the editor to cut to a shot as a cut away which not only connects and relates to the song/ the lyrics which are being sang but at the same time adds even more emphasis to the lyrics which are being sang during this cut away.
Examples of which are like this one at 0:54: -
This section at 1:03 - 1:07: -
(This one of the tank is my favourite because of the way it's shot the right hand of the screen has the main bulk of the tank the other half has the turret which fires in the one below).
And I thought this one was well shot the fact that the plain takes off of the screen almost.
This one at 1:19 was good to: -
And the last good one was this one at 1:33 of the bombing run: -
Editing: -
The best editing in the video has to be the cutting because it sems so effortless and it's like the shot you were looking at would naturally link to and be shown before the next one. Some of the best examples of this that I saw are as follows: -
The best editing throughout the entire video was this entire sction early on in the video which started at 0:08 and ended at 0:24 I chose thid dsection simply because I thought it was well timed to the music and the cutting was very cleaver and carefully thought of.
Cinematography: -
The opening has some really nice shots in it for instance this close up of the drummer hitting the symbol at 0:25 reflects that Metal is really dirty and the performers are so passionate that they don't mind what conditions they perform in weather it be dirt or rain as they perform in later on in the video.
Another beautifully filmed shot was this close up at 0:47 of the cups that get shattered right at the end of the video them put back together again to symbolize hat not everything about metal is breaking stuff.
The last really good use of Cinematography comes right at the end of the video where the last image we see is a mike on the floor which is the sort of symbol of Asking Alexandria.
Sound: -
The best use of sound other than the sound of the band singing the lyrics is the use of editing software to make the singers voices deeper. However there are some good uses of timing that coincide with the music to create effect.
For instance at 0:33 the drummer is hitting the snare drum and the light bulbs on this interesting looking lamp are flashing it time with it to create this sort of rushing fast paced feeling.
Then at 1:16 after the opening but before there main head banging rage section immediately after there's this shot of the glass of water bouncing around indicating that this is getting progressively more violent, ground pounding and angry.
And finally this at 2:00 because something Asking Alexandria always do in their music is that either halfway or three quarters of the way through they put in a lighter, sadder more emotional section in and it just so happens that the lamp goes really bright before they sing this section almost lifting, inspiring and overall lightening the mode of the music this is the contrasted my the really dark and scarier ending where again the music is changed but this time has a more techno feel to it then it returns to metal again.
Mise en scene: -
The first most crucial decision made by the person in charge of Mise en Scene in theis music video is the costume and the look of the set where the video was shot.
As seen from this screen shot the band is dressed in similar clothing and the set fits in with the dark colour scheme and again dirty black instruments and playing in the rain all of which are complementary of the music genre.
Another important decision they would have had to make is how to vary the types of shot used at certain points in the video.
For instance to emphasize lines like this one hear: -
For the line "Oh my God".
And finally the close up's of the objects that need to be shtterd: -
Editing: -
Some of the est editing in The Final Episode has to be the cutting because most of the cutting is t shot the movement of te objects which get shatterd and to shotw this they usually do a mix of close up's and mid shots of the band cut to a close up of an object before it's shatterd and go back to the band performing.
For example there's a lovely one which is right at the begining starting at 0:19 with a close up osf the glass of water when it's still -
It then cut’s back into a mid shot of the Bass and Rhythm guitarists bouncing up and down getting ready to rock out. Then it goes into a really well framed shot of the Drummer doing something that almost looks mystical.
Then comes a close up of him hitting ths symbols. Then the cutting get's quicker because the oppening music is relly quick because we briefly see a blured shot of the band then the Bassist jumping, then it cuts back to the drummer, then a close up of the symbols being hit again. We then see a shot of the Rhythem gutarist fliping his guitar around him head rocking on it and then doing a dramatic popular metalic pose of him holding the cord.
We then get shown this shot of the lamp right at the begining of the video and also for the first time it's lit up as well at 0:33 -
This is also in time for the drummer section which is a mid shot, it then goes into another shot of the band playing, then it's a mid shot of the lead singer singing in the centre of the shot with the band playing in the background. Then it get's intresting because it then show's the frist high tilted down arieal shot of the video and they only use these for the lead singer it then zooms out for the net one, then it goes into another blury one of the guitarists, then it's a mid shot showing the whole band head banging.
Then we are shown another close up of the cup's of tea before they get shatterd showing us that everything started of fine but gradually as time went on there started to be friction between them and then finally they get to breaking point.
But the best editing in the video has to be the montages used at the end used to repair the objects that have been shattered. They probably filmed this separately to the performance and just added it into the video in the editing process probably using either Final cut or Imovie.
This one the one of the cup of tea was my favourite -
Cinematography: -
Linkin Park always have the band performing at some point in their videos so most of the best shot images are of the band members anyway but for this particular video they are simply performing it rather than making a music video to go with it.
