Analysis of Magazine Advertisement In Same Genre as Artist

This is a magazine advertisement of a Drum and Bass concert for Pendulum DJ Set and other artists, the majority in the Drum and Bass genre. This is a good advertisement because it uses a good colour scheme, lots of the colours that are used in this advertisement, you would find in a Drum and Bass advertisement. This is good that they have gone with the generic style but have put their own twist on it. The artists names are nice and clear which is what you want because you want the audience to see who is performing and also be able to try and tell what genre the advertisement is in.

In terms of layout of the magazine advertisement, where you put the text on the page is very important but most of all, I feel they have put the text in the right place on here. With the information which is on here, all of the relevant information is needed such as; when the DJ Set is, where it is, how much it is to get in, who is performing, how old you have to be, where you can buy the tickets from and the record companies label. I really like this magazine advertisement because it is very relevant to the genre of drum and bass and it would be good if we could produce something like this for our digipak.

The bits that we can take from this and implement on our magazine advertisement are;

1. The colour scheme - with this colour scheme we can consider it as one of the colour schemes that we could possibly use.
2. The text positioning - we can also consider where we are going to put our text and use this magazine advertisement as a basic guideline (even though this advertisement is for a DJ performance).
3. The information - in terms of the information on the page, we can take some good hints from this magazine advertisement, such as; the date of when the tour/album comes out, how much the tour/album costs, where the tour tickets/album can be bought from and put the record label on the album down the bottom somewhere to let the audience know what record company has produced it.

By Connor Nagle

Plan for Digipak

We have each thought of 2 ideas each for the digipak, this doesn't mean that we are going to use any of them but this is just our ideas of where we want to go with the digipak. In our final idea we will most likely combine aspects from all of our ideas to create a digipak that we feel really fits the music video and genre.

Connor's Ideas:
 

 

This was my first idea, I wanted to have that feeling of space and I thought that this picture was the right one that I was looking for because it suits the Drum and Bass genre, I have looked at loads of different covers in the genre and most of them seem to use a space theme or yellow/black. I then put the text over the image, I chose the text because I think that it goes with the genre and feel of the album, the album has a space feel to me. I think that the only couple of problems with this cover are that the texts are a bit far away from each other and the colour of the text should be changed as it isn't really easy to read and it should be in your face.

 

This of course isn't a professional cover but it is an idea that will be developed further if the group decide this is the one that we want to use.

This was my second idea, I thought this was a really nice image to use because I think that the space look suits the Drum and Bass genre, I love how the different colours merge and form a nice oval. The colours are nice because I think that they fit the genre and the space background adds a nice finishing touch. The text is pretty good on this one I feel because it is in the right style and in the right place on the image, the colours draw the audiences eyes into the middle where the text is.

This of course isn't a professional cover but it is an idea that will be developed further if the group decide this is the one that we want to use.

Reece's Ideas:

 

This design was inspired by the album cover for DJ Fresh's Kryptonite and drum and bass from the core, a compilation album by cosmic core like most drum and bass covers I kept to making the predominant colours, the stripes and text, as Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black).
 

For my second idea I decided to stick to the key colour scheme found in drum and bass videos which is Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (black). The image of the man is a stock image from a website but this will be replaced with and image of our artist if this design is used for the real thing. The image behind the man is a space nebula. I put this on the cover as to me the phrase "anyone out there" refers to asking if their is intelligent life in outer space.
 

Jack's Ideas:

This was my first idea for a digipak. My reasoning for this is because I wanted to have an image relating to the title 'Is Anyone Out There'. Therefore my idea was to have an open spaced area (such as a canyon or the open ocean), without any people or animals insight. I also wanted the image to seem as if it was coming from a first-person view, to echo the idea that the artist is in the location shouting 'Is Anyone Out There'.

This was my second idea for a digipak. This design was mainly made to follow the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key) layout that is often present with both Drum 'n' Bass digipaks and albums.


By Connor Nagle, Reece Field and Jack Fanchette

Lighting Notes

In our piece, we will be using both naturalistic and artificial lighting. When outside filming the majority of the lip-syncing scenes, we will be using the natural lighting available to us. This will be filmed during the daytime (as will the rest of the piece) so as to follow with our storyboard; we want to have daylight from the sun rather than using lights and lamps from outside at night time. For the scenes inside, we will be using both artificial lighting from room lights and lamps as well as light from the sun as there is a window in all of the rooms we will be filming in.

When filming outside, we will be using natural lighting as it gives enough light for the actor to be seen clearly from the camera. However we will not have much control over this aspect and will mainly be relying on the weather for that day in Braintree. However fortunately (according to weather reports) we will have a fair amount of sun which bodes well for our filming day as it matches to our storyboard. We will also need to film the outside shots relatively early in our filming schedule as the days are getting darker much earlier now; normally around 4-5 o'clock.


For filming inside, we will be using a mixture of natural lighting coming from the sunlight through a window and artificial lighting coming from a lamp. The bulk of the artificial lighting will not be used until later in the video as it will be used to make the scene(s) seem lighter, helping to emphasise the equilibrium made between the couple. We will also be using a selection of small, touch sensitive lamps that have different stages of brightness. This allows us to not only control where and when we need to use the lighting, but also how bright it is, allowing us some control over the mood of the shot; a brighter light would help to convey happiness in a shot, whereas a darker light would the shot a more cold and depressed feel.

For the natural lighting, in all of the scenes inside the house, there will be curtains allowing us to let through as much natural light as we need (hat is available to us). In the first scenes, the house will be slightly darker than it will be in later scenes (during the equilibrium.#

By Jack Fanchette

Ideas for Magazine Advertisement

I have been thinking of some ideas for our magazine advertisement and I have got some inspiration from some advertisements in different genres than what we were thinking of doing for our music video. I have 5 examples below of magazine advertisements that aren't in our genre but we can take some inspiration from them.

The first one is a magazine advertisement in the Progressive Rock genre and is from a well known group called Radiohead, this magazine advertisement is pretty different from what we are thinking but it shows us a different style, this can broaden our knowledge and understanding or music advertisements in a genre that is what we are not using.

 

The second one is a magazine advertisement in the Indie Rock/Dance-Punk genre and is from a reasonably well known group called Friendly Fires, this magazine advertisement isn't really far away from what we were originally thinking of doing for our advertisement because they do a few songs in a genre (Dance) that we were thinking about.

 

 

The third one is a magazine advertisement in the Hip-hop genre and is from a well known artist called Jay-Z, this magazine advertisement is sort of similar to what we were thinking because the artist is in a genre that we were considering (Hip-hop).

 

The fourth one is a magazine advertisement in the Rock genre and is from a well known group called Kasabian, this magazine advertisement is very different from what we are thinking but it shows us a different style, this can broaden our knowledge and understanding or music advertisements in a genre that is not a genre that we were considering or what we are using.

 

The fifth one is a magazine advertisement in the R&B/Soul/Grime/Drum and Bass genre and is from a well known artist called Plan B (stage name Strickland Banks), this magazine advertisement is pretty similar actually from what we are thinking as the artist does do some Drum and Bass songs.

 

By Connor Nagle

Budget

For our music video, we require a number of props, some of which we do not already possess and will therefore need to be bought. This will give an overview of the costs for making the music video so we are aware what to plan for when money is involved.

Lamp/Vase

In one scene there will be a lamp or vase that will be knocked over and broken by the man/singer. Because of this, we may need to get a lamp/vase which is fine to be broken; an item which none of us currently possess. We may also need to get more than one of these to prepare for the (rather high) possibility that it will take more than one take to achieve the right shot.

We have decided to spend around the £5 mark (give or take £1). An item that fits this budget would be the 'Clear Acrylic Cube Vase' we found on  Amazon.
However, to our luck, Reece has found and purchased a glass vase for 75p.

Catering

As part of the motivation for our actors, we have promised to feed them with take-away pizza. We have decided to go with Dominoes Pizza which will be around £25-£30 as we will be buying two pizzas. The specific orders however, we will deal with on the day.

http://www.dominos.co.uk/

I will also buy some soft drinks for the day in case our actors and group get thirsty. This should not exceed £5.

Bus

Our plan is to have Reece's mum drive him, Connor, Amy and Jamie to our base location in Braintree. I will meet them at the location myself. However if this does not go to plan and they cannot get a lift to the location, then our back-up plan is for them to get a bus from Chelmsford Bus Station to White Court through the 352 Sunday service. This service run at half past the hour every hour from 8:30 to 20:30. This bus costs £2.50 for a return to White Court from the bus station so altogether, the four of them would need £10 between themselves.

By Jack Fanchette

Initial Props Information

In our music video, we will have a number of props for aiding our narrative. Some of them will be used to help emphasise certain parts of the music video, whereas as some may be simply for decoration. The props for decoration however will all be put together to create a scene that mixes well rather than having objects that clash. This is to show that we have considered mise-en-scene in our piece rather than simply leaving it to the day and hoping that we come up with something that works.

Props We Planned To Use

Vase/Lamp

We are planning to use a vase/lamp in our music video as part of a scene depicting an argument between the man and the women. This vase/lamp will be knocked over by the man by accident while he is flailing his arms around with rage. This will be placed near the moment in the song when the beat changes to double time and the music 'drops'. This is to emphasise the change in pace of the song and the video.

Television

In the opening and closing scene, we will be using a flat screen television to showcase the music video on. It will also be used in the middle of the song to go with the lyrics "Is repetition a mission........"; the television will be turned on again/the channel will be changed to the music video again. This will be used to suggest that the man on the sofa is watching our music video on the television (this man is later revealed to be the same man in the music video). This prop will be located in front of the man on the sofa, in the corner of the room. Another prop related to this would be the tiered table it will stand upon; it will be on the top shelf.





Sofa

This prop will be used in four scenes; at the beginning when the television is turned on, in  the middle (to coincide with the lyrics "Is repetition a mission......"), at the end when the man turns off the television and in the middle when the couple are sitting with each other (representing the calm before the storm so to speak). It will either be creme, brown or black. This is so that it mixes well with the colour of the room.




Lamp

There will be a lamp in the room with the man when he's watching the television. This is not only to help create a more realistic feel to the room, but also to assist us in creating the right lighting for the room; this will allow us to get a better image from the camera which means that we can control what can be seen in the frame.

Rug

We may possibly put in a rug on the floor in the scenes when the man is watching the television on the sofa. This will largely depend on whether we can get one in the right colour though (preferably matching the colour of the sofa). However it is most likely that we will not use one, however if we do it would look similar to the image below.

By Jack Fanchette

Filming Schedule

Filming Schedule

By Reece Field

Anamatic Storyboard

Below is our animatic storyboard that we created, we created it using the post-it notes from the storyboard and edited it on iMovie.



By Reece Field and Jack Fanchette

Draft Shotlist

Shot List for Music Video by reecefieldmedia

By Reece Field

Storyboard

Below is our final written/drawn storyboard:

Reece Field (Did storyboard) and Connor Nagle (Took Pictures of storyboard)

Equipment Information

The equipment that we are using is a camera, a dolly and a tripod.

The camera is going to be used for the filming of every shot. It is a HD camera  so it will capture the footage in high definition, this therefore makes it look more professional. The camera is an essential piece of equipment because it is the device that will store and capture our music video.

The dolly is going to be used to do the shots where the camera needs to be steady but moving at the same time, we will use this a few times when doing the shots where the camera will need to be steady but moving. The camera will be steady because it will be on a tripod, to operate the dolly properly the camera needs to be attached to the tripod then attached to the dolly.









The tripod is going to be used to steady our shots, it will be used for all of the shots that we do. This is because we want all of our shots to be steady, the tripod also attaches to the dolly so it will be used on the dolly as well. The tripod is telescopic so that it can be adjusted to many heights allowing us to do a variety of shots with it all with them being steady at the same time.



By Connor Nagle

Initial Costumes Information

Man:

Black coat:

He will wear a black coat as for the majority of the music video he is viewed as the antagonist. Black is seen as a dark and sinister colour. it is the colour which is stereotypically seen being worn by an antagonist in a film.









White T shirt:

The white shirt is visible on the man when we don't have much of a gauge for his actions so we see him as an innocent character. This feeling if further reinforced when  we see him wearing the T-shirt towards the end of the video.





Dark blue or black jeans:

He will be wearing dark blue jeans to contrast to the woman's light blue jeans this is because he is viewed as the antagonist as his behaviour is for the majority of the spectrum compared to the woman's behaviour. Dark blue, like black, is a colour which represents power, something all antagonists seek to gain.






Trainers:

He wears trainers to represent his down to earth straight thinking attitude. These trainers will also be dark in colour to further reinforce the connotations of the colours of the majority of the clothes he is wearing.



Woman:

White top:

She wears a white top as white is associated with light, goodness, innocence and purity. These are the characteristics of the woman that we see in the music video as we see here as the victim throughout the video who only has one goal within the music video which is to mend what goes wrong in the video, as this is the nature of her character.










Light blue Jeans:

She wears light blue jeans as light blue is associated with healing, understanding and softness. These are also characteristics of the woman as her understanding compels her to mend what goes wrong in the video, as this is the nature of her character.

Light slip on shoes:

She wears light coloured slip on shoes to further reinforce the connotations of the colours of the clothes she is wearing.







By Reece Field

Ideas for Digipak

I have been thinking of some ideas for our digipak and I got some inspiration from some digipak's that already exist and they are in the Drum and Bass genre as well.

This first digipak idea is from the Drum and Bass/Dance artist DJ FRESH. I like this cover because it has nice colours that are blended in with a weird object (skull) in the middle of the cover, I think that it's funky colours go with the dance side of his genre and the skull is more on the drum and bass side.

This is the second digipak idea and it is from the group NERO who do a few different genres and one of them is Drum and Bass. I like the fact that they have a space feel to this cover, this is pretty common in drum and bass digipak designs because it has a futuristic feeling.

 

This is the third digipak idea and is from the British Drum and Bass group Chase and Status. This is a group we were considering to use because they are in the right genre and are British. I like Chase and Status' album/digipak cover because it uses the conventional colours for drum and bass which are black/white and yellow, I don't really know why these colours are used but they are.



 

This is the fourth digipak idea and is from the Drum and Bass/Dubstep artist Stan SB and he is the artist that we have chosen to do our music video on. We chose Stan SB because he had the right song for us to make a music video from, it was in the right genre, the lyrics are excellent and the feeling is right.

 

This is the fifth digipak idea and is from the artist Example, one of his genres is Drum and Bass. This cover is a typical cover for drum and bass because it uses yellow and black. This cover is very simple yet I think it is very effective.

By Connor Nagle

Representation in Music Video

Music video will often show links to specific aspects of different cultures whether it be religion, gender, race, age, class, ethnicity or region. This particular aspect can be part of the narrative, reflecting on the artist view about it. These are a few examples of how these are represented in music videos:

Gender

Representation of gender in music videos will often attempt to challenge the stereotypical typical view that men are more dominant than women. This stereotype of often challenge by female singers, often solo artists such as Madonna or Christina Aguilera.
For example in Beyonce's 'Run The World (Girls)', all the women in the video are seen to be dominant through the use of Mise-en-Scene. They are scene to be wearing bright colours including gold and purple, colours often associated with royalty.

Religion

 



Representation of religion in music videos will often challenge different faiths and their beliefs. It can often cause some controversy between viewers depending on their beliefs or creeds, sometimes enough to become a main headline topic for society. Current affairs can also have am effect on representation in music videos if the affairs involve a religious group. The artists opinion on the affair can then be reflected in their music video.
An example of this representation could be Madonna's 'Like A Prayer', a video which involves adult themes taking place in a place of worship (presumably a Christian church). This challenges the religion by performing such act in a place solely for worship.

Age

Representation of age in music videos will often follow the stereotypical images of each age group. Teenagers will often be seen drinking, smoking and at raves/parties, whereas older people will normally be seen as being frail, lifeless and essentially immobile. However these stereotypes are sometimes challenged as well, depicting scenes of different age groups either switching their images or combining them.
An example of this could be Modestep's 'Sunlight'. In this video it shows three older people causes trouble on streets and eventually ending up at a concert surrounded by teenagers.



 

Ethnicity

 

 Representation of ethnicity in music videos in music video is often shown by having an ethnic minority in a music video. Depending on the style of music, the minority can differ. For example in  Hip-Hop music and Rap music, the videos predominantly contain black people rather than white people. This can often occur even with a white artist, such as Eminem.

 



 

Ethnicity will also often be shown in music videos through the use of tokenism; an ethnic minority in a music video. This could mean that in a video, there is only one coloured person or perhaps one white person. For example in Skrillex's 'Bangarang', there is only one black boy in the video, almost as if he is singled out in the video.


 

 

Jack Fanchette

Comparison of Music Video Findings

The content of music videos and the meaning behind them will often change depending on the style of music. For example a Rock video will often include some form of live concert depicting different situations in which the band plays the song (such as in the music video for 'Thunderstruck' by AC-DC).




A slightly heavier style of this, Heavy Metal, has similar traits. It will often not have much of a narrative and will mostly include the band performing most of the song, along with the vocalist lip syncing the lyrics. An example of this is Slipknot's 'Before I Forget' in which the band performs the song in a small room; similar to 'Thunderstruck' however they are playing by themselves rather than in a concert with a large audience.




Whereas in a Pop music video, there will often be clips including a large crowd of people at a party or similar event. However this is often related to the age group performing the song. For example, in Miley Cyrus' 'Party In The USA', the video involves a mass of teenagers in a empty desert-like location having a party. In between and during these clips it involves segments of the song being lip synced by Miley Cyrus.



A similar example of this could be Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night', depicting the artist and a group of teenagers at a party, but in a household rather than an outdoor location. It also involves sections of the song being lip synced clearly by the artist. This style normally uses close up of the artist when lip syncing so as to allow the viewer to see what the artist is saying. It is also used as a way to promote the artist with their image.




For styles like Drum 'n' Bass or Dubstep, there are not a large amount of music videos compared to other styles of music. The only exceptions are more mainstream artists from these genres such as Chase and Status (D'n'B) or Skrillex (Dubstep). In the videos created by the mainstream artist, there will often be a large amount of editing involved, possibly with green screen used. It may also have a point in the video when the dynamic of it shifts to coincide with the song's 'drop'.

For example, in Pendulum's 'Witchcraft', there is a large amount of CGI and special effects used throughout the video to create the final product.



By Jack Fanchette

Plot, Narrative and Rough Plan for Music Video

The plot and narrative for our video seems like a bit of a confusing one at first but once it is shown with the storyboard it all becomes clear. We have areas in the music video which we want the on screen visuals to reflect the song’s lyrics in parallel timing to each other.

Our music video starts with a man sitting down on a sofa and switching on a TV.

The next sequence of shots starts after 8 seconds and takes place as we zoom into the TV viewing the onscreen footage through our own TV screens, computer monitors or laptops ect. in this sequence of shots we see a couple arguing, similar to what happens in the video of Chase and Status's Time but without the domestic violence, at the end of this sequence we see the guy from the argument (the same person from the sofa shots at the start) walk out of the front door, with a match on action shot being used, and then walking down the street.

The above section ends after 22 seconds as we see the man walking down the road singing the song while alternating with a flashback which shows more of the argument which we saw at the start of the song.

In the instrumental which runs between 44 seconds and 1 minute all we see is this flashback which, itself, stops after 66 seconds. There is then a split screen sequence shown in real time which follows the instrumental it shows both the man and the woman siting against different walls. This sequence ends after 10 seconds where we see only the man on screen, standing up and heading back towards the house.

We then see an extreme close-up before a sequence of the man lip-syncing which alternates between real time (the present) and the past (the flashback) this carries on until 106 seconds in where past and present cross and the flashback is dropped from the narrative.

We then see the man breaking into his own house by climbing in through the window, walks past the girl who's still on the floor and sits down on the sofa where we then here the lyrics 'it's repetition it's a mission' before zooming into the TV and watching what the man would see.

This is where the artist (who is also the man) is shown acting like he's in a pop music video lip-syncing to the camera through to 154 seconds in where the woman comes into the room where the man is sitting where the man explains himself and they then sit on the sofa together.

After this, 181 seconds in, there is a quick fire flashback sequence which runs through till 203 seconds in where we then go back to watching the TV through till the end of the music video.

Reece Field.

Shotlist for Digipak

This is our shot list for the digipak, it shows where the pictures will go, how many pictures are needed, where the information will go, what actors are in the shot and other items on the panel.

Panel	No. Photos Needed	Actors in Shots	Mise in Photo  1	Mise in Photo 2	Other Items on Panel
Front Cover	1	None	Photo of Sun in Sky	N/A	Album Text, Artist Text
Back Cover	2	Man	Longshot of Man	Photo of Field	Song list, Company Logo
Outside Panel
Inside Panel 1	1	Man	Longshot of Infront of Wall	N/A	Artist Biography
Inside Panel 2
Disc Holding Panel	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	Image of Album Cover

Reece Field

Lip Syncing Video

This is our lip-syncing video to Watercolour by Pendulum, we think that we got our editing pretty much spot on in this and we hope to transfer our skills over to our actual music video. Obviously in this piece, the locations weren't really meant to be considered and mise-en-scene wasn't either. This is purely because this was just us practising our lip syncing and to know how to edit the clips in time with the audio. We did sort of consider locations a bit because it would have been boring if the same location was used for every shot.

As covered in a recent post, we used the song Watercolour by Pendulum because we all knew the song and the lyrics so therefore, it was a lot easier for us to lip sync the lyrics for the song in our lip sync practice video.



By Connor Nagle, Reece Field and Jack Fanchette.

Target Audience Brief

To find out what our target audience would be, we devised a questionnaire about music videos with a few questions on Drum 'n' Bass. We handed these questionnaires out to a selection of people of different ages, including but not limited to teenagers, adults and the elderly. We then took in these questionnaires, totalled the results up and finally analysed them.

From our questionnaire results, we found that our target audience are teenagers, specifically aged 16-20 year olds. I think this is because drum and bass is considered to be quite cool at the moment and people like tapping their foot every time the bass drum is hit. We are being pretty specific with our target market audience because even though it is targeted primarily at them, it doesn't mean that other markets won't like drum and bass. Therefore we are just trying to make sure the audience that we are targeting is the 16-20 year olds but it will be a bonus if there are other groups interested. We think also that we would like to target our music video mainly at boys because we feel they will get more into it than females and they are more likely to like the video.

This picture below shows boys who we expect to like our music video, this is because they fit into our age and gender type, also the clothes that they are wearing are similar to the ones that we will use in our music video.

 

By Jack Fanchette and Connor Nagle

Research into Chosen Artist

Stan SB (aka. Stanley Stevenson Byrne) is a young pop/drum and bass/dubstep Singer songwriter with a cool new way of expressing music, mainly through the dance music medium. Stan SB has very recently changed his name to Fox Stevenson but we are going to stick with his old name because that is the name he used to do the song Flat Foot Face. With around 16,000 subscribers on YouTube and around 600,000 views on YouTube, he is a small yet high flying new artist with plenty to offer. Equipped with an awesome drummer (Stephen Heselton), an amazing guitarist (Timothy Reid) and an arsenal of beautiful synths, the army of three are ready for business. Flat Foot Face is his best song in terms of views on YouTube, racking in over 150,000 views on it's own which is not far off a third of all of his views on YouTube. With huge drums, brilliant bass sounds, incredible synth-lines and tremendous vocals, Stan SB will hook you in an instant and he is not someone to miss out on. Stan SB is an artist that is not really well known in respect to some of the bigger dum and bass artists but Stan SB in unique and we hope our music video is good enough to be used as his first music video for one of his most popular songs "Flat Foot Face" on YouTube.

This video below is his song Flat Foot Face and we feel it is a very good song to make a music video for because it has the right lyrics and we wanted to do a video for an artist that isn't really well known. The lyrics in this music video are very effective because the lyrics create a basis to create a music video from and this song is a very good example of that.



By Connor Nagle

Contacting Record Company for Use of Song

 This is our message to SubSphere records, we had to message them on YouTube because their website has been down for about a month now and we needeed to get through to them in some way and this was the only alternative. We tried to make the message as polite as possible but we also wanted them to respond so we put "Please reply as a matter of urgency".

 

 

By Connor Nagle, Reece Field and Jack Fanchette

Lip Syncing Practice - Chosen Video and Reasons Why We Are Doing It

Lip Syncing is the movement of lips to a pre recorded song to give the appearance that the person who is performing is the one who is singing.

The song that we chose to do our lip syncing practice on was Pendulum - Watercolour. The reason why we chose this song is because it is in the same sort of genre (D&B) that we want to do for our final music video. This song incorporates quite a lot of good shots and fast cuts in it which we hope to incorporate into our final music video to fit in with the D&B genre. The song in it's-self we thought is a good song and is a song that we all knew. This helped with being able to lip sync in time because it is easier if you know the lyrics of a song before you attempt to lip sync to it, especially if it is in front of a camera.

We thought that our lip syncing practice actually went better than expected but we have also realised now that the editing of the music video is going to take a long time because it took us a little while to even edit the lip syncing practice and that was pretty simple. We will need to allow enough time to edit the actual music video as it will take a long time to do and this has given us an insight into that.



By Connor Nagle

Our Favourite Music Videos and Why

Connor Nagle - Waiting all night - Rudimental

This is my favourite music video because I love how real the video is and it also relates to the lyrics well. The narrative is really good and is a life story of a BMX champion and actor Kurt Yaeger, who lost his lower leg in a motorcycle accident in 2006. This video is also inspired by the 2012 paralympic games in London and this video also links in with their other singles which are Not Giving In and Feel The Love and they are about overcoming struggles so they shot the piece in a home video style to fit in.

The shots are pretty simplistic but they are emphasised by the realistic element of the whole narrative which forms a good music video in this instance in my opinion. There is good use of clothing throughout to make it fit in with the narrative that they are going for. The settings are very realistic because the first one is in a hospital with the man laying on the bed, the second is at a skate park where he is trying to find his feet again after the fatal accident that ruined his career and the third one is where they are cycling through a storm drain in America. There is quite fast paced editing in this music video and this goes along with the song and fast beat of the song.




Jack Fanchette - Destabilise - Enter Shikari

This is my favourite music video because of how the editing is done. It is also well done from being in such a simple location (a warehouse). The album the song was eventually released on (A Flash Flood Of Colour) was all about the singers views on how our economy and politics has changed since the band's first album 'Take to the Skies' (2007).

The whole video consists of the band performing by themselves in what appears to be an abandoned warehouse. There is not much of a narrative in the video so it mainly relies on the shots used, the editing and the accuracy of the lip syncing. In my opinion, I believe these aspects were executed brilliantly. The editing is used to emphasise certain points in the video and the song (e.g. the start of the chorus). It also helps to relate to the album itself; there are many parts in the video where the colouring dramatically changes, relating to the album name 'Flash Flood Of Colour'.




Reece Field - Needing Getting - Ok Go

This is my favourite music video because I like the song but mostly because it is fascinating to watch and I like the way that it all flows. I am a fan of most of Ok Go music videos for this reason. There is no narrative shown in this video, like in many other Ok Go music videos. But just look at how clever this music video is, how many artists have a car playing their song. Their work is in a league of its own in the way that it is poles apart from anything your mainstream band, group or artist would do.

In Needing/Getting in particular the attention to detail is phenomenal. There is an endless list of things that could go wrong in this music video and yet nothing does. It is its complexity, diversity and originality which, in my opinion, make this the most entertaining music video in the world.




By Connor Nagle, Jack Fanchette and Reece Field.

Music Video Brief

Our brief is to produce a promotional package for the release of an album and it needs to include;

• A Music Promo Video (60%)
• A digipak for the albums release (20%)
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (20%)

Music videos are show reels that can often be played with certain songs. Not all songs use music videos as it is up to the artist if they should wish to have one. Often, a music video will include the artist themselves lip-syncing to their track, whilst becoming part of a narrative specific to the video; this narrative will often have links to the song and its lyrics. It will also often include a number of actors to help portray the narrative, depending on the contents of the music video.

(Party In The USA music video)

For example, in Miley Cyrus’ song ‘Party in the USA’, there is not much of a storyline/narrative as the song is based around partying. Therefore there are a large amount of teenagers in the video doing just that; this has been done to help get across the message from the song, assuming that the message is somewhere along the lines of partying.

 
(Gangnam Style music video)

Music videos are also used to promote the artist as well as the song. This can be because something in the video causes some form of controversy with the viewers. This is often the case when something in the music video challenges societies outlooks on religion/creed, race or gender. In some cases, an artist or song can become successful and popular simply through their video (for example, Gangnam Style by PSY).

By Jack Fanchette

Questionnaire Analysis

This questionnaire was put online and also given out to people of different ages.

1. What is your gender?

• Female
• Male

This question just gives us a general idea of what genders the people were who answered the questionnaire.

2. What is your age?

• Under 16
• 16-20
• 21-24
• 25-29
• 30-34
• 35-39
• 40-44
• 45-49
• Over 50

The main group that answered the questionnaires were 16-20 yr olds and they were the people who also said they had heard drum and bass. This age group gave us an outline what sort of target audience to go for when making our own music video.

3. What is your current occupation? (open question)

• Tesco
• Asdas
• Student
• Retail Assistant
• Retail
• Cleaner
• Teacher
• Governor

This question gives us an outline of what sort of occupation someone is in and how this can affect their music/video genre preference.

4. What is your favourite music genre? (open question)

• Eighties
• Pop
• Drum & Bass
• Rock
• Dubstep
• Indie
• Singer/Songwriter
• Metal
• Hip-hop

This question gives us a really good idea on what genre of music people like, this is good because then we know what genre people of that target audience like and therefore our video can be sort of tailor made to fit in with the desired target audience.

5. Do you only listen to music from that genre?

• Yes
• No

This question gives us a really good idea whether people just listen to the sort of music genres they listed above, we want people who are open to listen to drum and bass and not just think its rubbish because of one song or music video. Most people said that they don't only listen to the genre of music that they listed which is good.

6. What are your 3 favourite music videos and why? (open question)

Music videos:

• Lazy song
• Wake me up when September ends
• Don't you worry child
• Still into you
• Closer
• Fun
• Nightmare
• Stand up and run
• A.M.E.R.I.C.A
• Club Tropicana
• Stay
• Like an prayer
• Lucky
• Mercy
• Seven Days
• Waiting all night
• End credits
• Gangnam style
• Thriller
• In the Navy
• The pretender
• Destabilise
• Banquet
• Its my life
• Teenage Dirtbag
• Radioactive
• Busy
• Need U 100%
• Jack
• So what
• Left behind
• Raise your glass
• Emergency
• Poker face
• This is war
• Sail
• Bounce
• Goodbye Mr A

Why?

Good editing
Simple but effective
Funny
Good video
Good narrative
Entertaining
Cool
Interesting
Funky
Emotional
Realistic
Good shots
True story
Different
Good costumes
Colourful
Dramatic
Good locations

This is a very good question because this gives us as a group a massive idea on what music videos people like and why they like them. We will have to consider including nearly all of the things they mentioned to properly entertain and keep our target audience watching our music video. Some of the music videos listed above are really good, mainly because they have a good narrative and we have found that it is really vital to have a good narrative to have a good and understandable music video, no matter what the genre is.

7. Do you watch any music channels?

• Yes
• No

This question gave us an idea on if the respondents watch any music videos, we wanted to know if they watched any music channels because most music channels show music videos instead of just listening to a song.

8. If so what music channels do you watch? (open question)

• MTV
• Kerrang
• Viva
• Magic
• 4Music
• Scuzz

This question tells us the music channels our respondents watch, most of them are channels which mainly play pop/drum and bass/dance/hip-hop and one of them shows rock/hardcore rock, we like the fact that the majority of ones chosen show drum and bass videos because then that means people have heard drum and bass as it isn't the biggest of genres but is definitely starting to make a come through. This leads us onto the next question;

9. Have you ever listened to drum and bass music?

• Yes
• No

Most of our respondents have heard drum and bass which is quite pleasing, our respondents were mainly in our age group of 16-18 and therefore drum and bass is played a lot on the radio channels that our age group listen too but we asked the older people and they didn't seem to know about it really which was a bit weird as it used to be very popular.

10. Do you like drum and bass music?

• Yes
• No

There were mixed opinions on drum and bass, some people like it and some people don't like it, the majority were people that liked it which is good for us.

By Connor Nagle

Questionnaire Answers

We conducted a questionnaire to ask people about what sort of music they like and if they know of or have heard of drum and bass. We did a paper copy and an online copy and there were 27 respondents.

This here shows the answers that were given by the respondents:

1. What is your gender?

• Female - 16
• Male - 11

2. What is your age?

• Under 16 - 0
• 16-20 - 23
• 21-24 - 0
• 25-29 - 0
• 30-34 - 1
• 35-39 - 0
• 40-44 - 1
• 45-49 - 1
• Over 50 - 1

3. What is your current occupation? (open question)

•  Tesco
• Asdas
• Student -20
• Retail Assistant
• Retail
• Cleaner
• Teacher
• Governor

4. What is your favourite music genre? (open question)

• Eighties
• Pop - 4
• Drum & Bass - 4
• Rock - 8
• Dubstep - 2
• Indie -3
• Singer/Songwriter - 2
• Metal
• Hip-hop - 2

5. Do you only listen to music from that genre?

• Yes - 4
• No - 23

6. What are your 3 favourite music videos and why? (open question)

Music videos:

• Lazy song
• Wake me up when September ends
• Don't you worry child
• Still into you
• Closer
• Fun
• Nightmare
• Stand up and run
• A.M.E.R.I.C.A
• Club Tropicana
• Stay
• Like an prayer
• Lucky
• Mercy
• Seven Days
• Waiting all night
• End credits
• Gangnam style
• Thriller
• In the Navy
• The pretender
• Destabilise
• Banquet
• Its my life
• Teenage dirtbag
• Radioactive
• Busy
• Need U 100%
• Jack
• So what
• Left behind
• Raise your glass
• Emergency
• Poker face
• This is war
• Sail
• Bounce
• Goodbye Mr A

Why?

Good editing
Simple but effective
Funny
Good video
Good narrative
Entertaining
Cool
Interesting
Funky
Emotional
Realistic
Good shots
True story
Different
Good costumes
Colourful
Dramatic
Good locations

7. Do you watch any music channels?

• Yes - 13
• No - 14

8. If so what music channels do you watch? (open question)

• MTV - 3
• Kerrang - 2
• Viva - 2
• Magic
• 4Music - 3
• Scuzz - 2

9. Have you ever listened to drum and bass music?

• Yes - 20
• No - 7

10. Do you like drum and bass music?

• Yes - 17
• No - 10

By Connor Nagle, Jack Fanchette and Reece Field

Music Video Conventions

These are the typical conventions found in music videos of these genres and we have picked these genres to do the conventions on because these are all of the genres we were considering for our music video.

Pop:

• Lip-syncing
• Fast, creative cuts
• Mostly narrative based
• The video normally links to the narrative
• People dancing
• Colourful
• Lots of close ups of the artist
• Relationship

I feel this is a good video because it is so simple yet represents a pop video pretty well.

Rap:

• Women
• Women in revealing clothing
• Violence
• Gangs
• Accessories/bling
• Clear display of emotions
• Variety of camera angles and mainly closeups/medium shots
• Sex/drugs
• Editing cuts between narrative and performance
• Lyrics a massive influence on video

I feel this is a good video in the category of rap and I have chosen this video in particular to represent rap in this instance.

Drum and Bass:

• Fast cuts
• Colourful
• Shots of artist/band
• Lyrical links
• Fast paced editing
• Party vibe

I feel this is a good video to represent D&B because it has most of the generic conventions found in D&B videos.

Rock:

• Use of black and white
• Realistic
• Stage performance
• The construction of verisimilitude
• Cuts a lot between performance and narrative
• Deep topic/a bit depressing
• Quite fast editing

This is an alright video but is very typical to the Rock genre and this is a very well known song.

By Connor Nagle and Jack Fanchette

Questionnaire

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

We did an online copy of this questionnaire which we made people aware of by sending out emails to target groups as well as posting the survey on Facebook and Twitter. As well as this we did a paper based copy to get the most respondents answering our questionnaire.

By Reece Field

Audience Mood Board

This is a mood board that we have made to show what the audience/people are like who listen to drum and bass music, we have a variety of different pictures to give a good overview of these people.

 



By Reece Field, Jack Fanchette and Connor Nagle