Research Task 13) Genre Research 1

"I'm like a virgin losing a child" - Manchester Orchestra's first album. (Genre: indie-rock)

The concept of this album looks very much like an event depicted from teenage years and such, with the pink overlay added, it is giving out the feeling of remeniscience - possibly the intended theme.

However, the setting is in a bedroom and looks as if a young woman is turning the tv on/off. Very simple but easily explained as it must reflect the music thus giving out a very insightful, spiritful and even a nostalgic feel as a whole.

Research Task 14) Genre Research 2

"Plans" is the fifth studio album by the band Death Cab for Cutie. The genre for this band are classified under indie-pop and alternative rock. Also a continuation, or sister album to Transatlanticism, the previous album.

From what it looks like, the background is slightly blurred, possibly a building and the foreground of a top of a tree, being the main focus as well as the typography "PLANS" being upfront yet striking. Vignette effect around the corners giving out a pessimisstic and dawny/autumnal vibe, also relaxing, generally giving off a mature, charismatic feel which may consistently excite those who like the band!

Ben Gibbard (leading frontman) has quoted (about the theme) "I don't think there's necessarily a story, but there's definitely a theme here. One of my favorite kind of dark jokes is, 'How do you make God laugh? You make a plan. Nobody ever makes a plan that they're gonna go out and get hit by a car. A plan almost always has a happy ending. Essentially, every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time. I really like the idea of a plan not being seen as having definite outcomes, but more like little wishes."

Overall, the album cover is relevant to my selected genre as "indie"; as there are rarely a photo of the band displayed; usually a photo like this with light coloured fonts - can be easily made for a low budget music video! (that was why I chose this particular album.)

Planning Task 3) Technical Tutorials

This is a screen shot from Final Cut Express.

In this lesson, the group had experimented with the green screen and lip syncing to a song and then used final cut express and played around with the edits. I learned overall how to use a green screen, as it brought up possible ideas of what I could do when I start creating a music video. I find Final Cut Express quite difficult technically, but when I started editing, it became easier the more I was comfortable with using the program.

Photoshop edits

After I had taken photos, I went onto Photoshop and created an example album cover, in some relation to the theme - I do like how it has formed with the head pattern, creating a trance look, not really in relation but it could be used in future ideas perhaps - sort of like the discography relevant to band Crystal Castles.

(THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT) <<<<<

This is the finished album cover design. Could be a possible design with the copied heads for a more alternate look.

Planning Task 4) Song Details

The song that the group will be using is "Blinding" by Florence & the Machine. We have decided to choose this song because she is linked into the chosen theme which is "indie" but she is classed under the genres such as indie-rock, alternative, soul, baroque pop and art-rock.

We have decided to use this song because it has mentions of snow white and the image of the tortured, distorted pale woman image and the song style is like being in a twisted dream state. (thus it being the season autumn, and the song focusing on "dreaming like the dead" and being "blinded") the warm colours and dying trees would be the perfect solution in creating the music video.

Planning Task 2) Roles

There are only two people in my group, and that is myself and Laura.

We will both be involved in this music video and we will most likely to be sharing the role of using the camera and taking part in the music video, and that we would be planning what goes in the video, by planning and creating storyboards. Also, we may be doing seperate roles as well - i.e. I may bring in the costume, whereas Laura may download the song, etc.

Planning Task 13) CD cover designs 2

In this lesson, we took advantage by using photography to give the audience an idea of what our future band will look like and to give an impression of what genre we fit in. These are a few example photos that we had taken.

Here are a few example photos; the positioning is suited to the chosen genre and its giving out a sense of independance and a slight edge (if used in photoshop) ... thus we have found inspiration from the likes of Florence and the machine (the intentional artist), Ellie Goulding, Soko and many more. Also, the facial expression is unreadable, which may give the impression that she may have an unhinging "vulnerability".

At this point, we were unsure of who to use as the main artist, so we had used this time to take solo photos of each other, in case we change our ideas. Another point is that we had discussed performing in a group, but that was dismissed as there are only two people in this group.

Analysis of 2 music videos

4 Sour - Hibi No Neiro

• The style/concept of this video is very contempory and modern as it is set out like a social networking website and there are many shots set out as people communiticating to each other via webcams - one example of which four people are taking photos of each other yet they are in different locations. What I like about this personally is that this is very simple to do if someone is making a low budget music video and this has given me another perspective of how to construct my own music video. Also, there were not many shots used as there was one main narrative running through the video. Overall, I quite liked the theme and the simplicity throughout.
  
• What I dislike about this video is that there was a background story, and I like individualistic, original music videos, it didn't give me the "wow" factor.
  

8 Pop Levi - Semi Babe

• Not what I had expected - the style is a little too simple for my liking, but it looks as if a lot of effort had gone into the making of the video. There are no cuts or edits used; just one long frame used of a few people playing instruments, which is giving the audience the sense of dullness, yet intriguing as something else may happen (which nothing did happen). The style is simple, but more work should've have gone in - e.g. use different settings, locations, costumes, and more singing as it was a really late duration - almost 3 minutes! And what disappointed me again was that the man in the red jacket sang "Semi babe" and went away! There were hardly any lyrics used and that is uncommon (unless it were a post-rock band performing, such as Sigur Rós, who are well known for their use of made up language "hopelandic" containing no lyrics throughout some songs to express a feeling or emotion) and because the no lyrics used in thisvideo, I was disappointed and bored of the whole narrative and the performance being plain.

Planning Task 1) Initial Ideas

Nina Ricci advert

The initial idea for our music video is that myself and Laura are going to use the song "Blinding" by Florence & the Machine, and this is influenced by the Nina Ricci advert with the autumnal colours and theme going through it, using washed out, distressed colours which could suggest that this is slightly twisted - also main focus is the apple (in relation to Snow White). It also has a red tint through out the advert.

Florence Welch - Singer for Florence and the Machine.

I have discovered that Florence is modelled to the likes of Kate Bush and Tori Amos, all having pale skin, red hair, and the performance in their music videos show a slight sense of bitterness and the representation of "the tortured, beautiful, twisted woman". Also in relation to "Ophelia" by Millais, a Pre-Raphelite painter. Their style of music is eclectic and very abstract in comparasion to the mainstream music that is out at the moment, not many people can get away with this impression if they do not have these features as of which these people have in common.

Kate Bush was recognised from the song "Wuthering Heights"

Tori Amos was known for the release of " Cornflake Girl". Inspired by Kate Bush, and then Florence from Tori Amos.

Research Task 19) Audience Research 2 (analysis)

So the results show that the RnB genre is the most popular genre, and Indie coming in second. Also, the results show that people prefer to watch music videos on TV rather than Youtube, which was unexpected. The bar graph indicates that 90% of people questioned watch music videos everyday and lastly it was 50/50 when we asked people what makes people watch music videos, resulting in abstract and performance.

Regardless of what the results show (that RnB is the most popular), my aim is to create a music video that isn't going to be stereotyped, degrading (e.g. professor green ft. lily allen, lots of girls dancing promiscuously) hopefully, this music video could be like an art piece, becoming very abstract and different to the typical music videos which are out at the moment!