• Music videos use singer both as a narrator and as a character
• The singer often looks directly at the camera
The visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music.
'Amplification – occurs when videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning' - This is evident in our music video; we took the lyrics and interpreted our own meaning, and created a narrative around this.
Our opening shot is very striking. It also disorientates the viewer, as the blood from his nose appears to be defying gravity. We filmed the actor standing upright, and turned the camera on the tripod to achieve the unusual aspect to this shot as we wanted a shot that was instantly engaging to the audience. We got the idea of using blood from Rihanna’s music video for Russian Roulette, as it is shocking when it appears; we wanted a similar impact. The blood itself represents violence – you assume he has been fighting – and he appears to be lying down, hurt physically, and emotionally, which you can see from his sombre expression. There is also no movement in the shot, implying he is exhausted both physically and mentally. The audience immediately sympathises with the actor. This also creates a sense of intrigue, as the viewer wonders what will happen next. The close up nature of this shot reveals his emotions, and the dark lighting, paired with an increase in contrast added during the editing process, creates a dramatic shot. We used car head lamps to help light this shot, adding to the urban nature of the video. The hoodie our actor is wearing adds to the urban feel of our video, as hooded tops are a typical item of clothing worn by urban and alternative music fans; this therefore appeals to our target audience, as they can identify with the artist. This is a long shot, featuring cutaways, and throughout the shot the blood on his face slowly reverses into his nose. We did this to match the opening lyrics ‘When the blood dries in my veins’, and to add a twist to the narrative of the video. The slow pace of this shot, paired with the 'fade in and out' transitions placed between shots, matches the opening part of the track, which is sad and gentle, but hopeful, and builds up as the track progresses.
This close up of the artist reveals his emotions – he is clearly anguished and in despair. Close ups also encourage a relationship and identification with the artist, allowing intimacy between the artist and audience, as well as ensuring 'star status' is achieved, promoting sales of the artists music. The dramatic lighting emphasises the shadows, making this shot powerful; the dark shadows around his eyes particularly highlight his suffering. He is also smoking, and the smoke coming from his mouth adds an aesthetically pleasing element to the shot, as well as being something
typical of an urban/hip hip/alternative music video. Rihanna’s video for Wait Your Turn features the artist smoking, as does Plan B’s video for Stay Too Long. Our actor is looking straight into the camera, directly involving the viewer; they can clearly read his emotions and therefore indentify with the artist. This helps with audience engagement, and attachment to the artist and music. His short hair adds to the rap/urban artist look we gave the actor, as cropped hair is common in this genre of music.
We decided to follow convention and include shots of our actor singing the lyrics to the camera. This is evident in almost every music video in existence. We filmed in the tunnel in Waterloo, and included graffiti in the misé-en-scene to link to the urban/alternative genre of music. We used a fish-eye lens for this section of filming, as we wanted some unusual effects in our video, to add a unique aspect and ‘wow’ the audience. Use of a fish-eye lens is also evident in Chase and Status and Plan B’s video for the song Pieces – this inspired our fish-eye footage. Experimenting with the fish-eye also meant we got some interesting footage we did not plan to get, but ended up using, such as out-of-focus car headlights. We asked our actor to sing the lyrics passionately, and gesture with his hands the way hip hop/urban artists generally do, to apply convention to our video.
These shots are overlays. We filmed these shots in Hackney, East London, a rougher part of London, and coincidently, where our artist Plan B is from. The first image is a medium shot of the actor under a street lamp, to add to the urban feel we want in our video, and to match the genre of music. The street lamp creates vivid and unusual lighting, and creates shadows on his face, giving him a haunted look, which we really liked. The second image is a long shot under the same street lamp, from a different angle; we overlaid a shot of the ex-couple kissing to show his is what he is remembering. In the first overlay, he is looking upwards, standing still, suggesting he is reflecting on past memories of the girl he loved and lost. The overlay of out of focus car headlights, which we filmed by standing on a traffic island in the middle of Hackney Road, adds to the urban genre of video we have created, and makes the shot more visually interesting. It also links to our use of overlays to convey memories and flashbacks. Filming at night is effective because it adds to the intensity of lighting in almost all of our footage, and conveys the artist’s torment, as he is wandering the city late at night, unable to sleep.
This is a flashback/memory of the artist. He is remembering sitting with the girl he loved in a kebab shop, eating chips, like a normal couple would do. Further shots show them laughing, kissing and talking. We only showed short cuts to hint at a narrative, as we did not want to spend a long time explaining a story as this could bore our audience. We initially kept the colours of this shot as vivid as they were when we filmed it, keeping the naturally bright lighting from the kebab shop. However, it was difficult to distinguish between these shots and other shots of our actor on his own in the kebab shop, reflecting, so we reduced the saturation levels on editing program Final Cut Express, and added a slight vignette to the shot. This instantly heightened the clarity of our narrative, and makes it obvious that these shots were flashbacks.
These two shots are from the flashbacks the artist has to kissing his ex-girlfriend. We lit the scene with red fairy lights, and a red lampshade, to cast a red/pink tinge over the footage. This red lighting conveys the passion, love and intensity of their relationship before it ended. We used close ups of faces, and other shots from this footage show hands on necks, fingers entwined, and the couple looking into each others eyes, to illustrate the intimacy of the couple. We wanted a clear contrast between this cosy, close, intimate environment, and the other footage shot in the tunnel and derelict room, which show anger, despair, regret and loneliness; we did this mostly through lighting. We also employed lots of hand-held camera movement in these scenes, and high and low angles, as we wanted to convey the movement and infatuation between the couple. This added some contrast to a lot of the other footage, which is usually level with the actors. Filming hand-held without a tripod gives a more natural look to the filming, as if the camera is moving with the couple, involving the viewer. The camera movement also links to the pace of the music, as by the time we use this footage, there is a lot more movement in the actors and camera to match the increased beat and pace of the song. We used out-of-focus footage of the couple kissing, as we were inspired by Glassjaw’s video for Ape Dos Mil, where they use a similar effect for intimate footage of a couple. We used the same location to film our actor's aggressive reaction to losing his girlfriend and seeing her with another man. The intense red light conveys his anger. The camera wildly follows him as he lashes out; and the cuts are lightening fast to fit the pace of the music.
The front cover of our Digipak was created using Photoshop. The main photograph is taken under a street lamp, linking to the urban genre of the music. The shadows created by the street lamp are dramatic, and make the cover particularly eye-catching. The background of the cover is a photograph I took in Leake St tunnel, of graffiti on the walls - graffiti links to the gritty, urban style we wanted in our video. We chose a fish-eye photo to overlay with the main image as this ties in with the fish-eye shots used in our music video, and therefore helps create a brand which our target audience can recognise. The image of the actor also links to a shot in the music video, emphasising the 'brand'. The font we used is subtle, yet effective, as it is quite small and a thin font, but we think that larger, bold fonts can look tacky and unprofessional. The font we chose is the same font used in our Digipak magazine advertisement, as this adds to the brand we are creating. We believe the vivd cover and overall design of our digipak will grab our target audiences attention instantly if it was on a shelf in a record store.
This was part of our inspiration - the artwork for the Deftones album 'Saturday Night Wrist' which uses overlays and vibrant colours. Plan B's debut album also features the artist on the cover, like we have done. This can be viewed in this blog.
This is our back cover, and the inside left sleeve image. The photograph worked for the back cover because the ground area provided space for a tracklisting, and it didnt have quite enough impact to be used as a front cover image. We followed conventions of CD covers and added a barcode, record label logo, and website information. On the sleeve image, we applied convention and included sleeve notes typical of an existing album. The tunnel is a location from the video, appearing on both images, and the graffiti in both links to the genre of the music video, adding to the impact of the 'brand' on the target audience. The font we used for the designs was the same font used on part of our Digipak magazine advertisement, helping to create a coherent house style across our three products, ensuring our brand is impactful.
Our magazine advertisement features the same photograph from the front of the Digipak; this helps emphasise our brand, and therefore its more recognisable with our target audience. The image features overlays, like our video and Digipak artwork, helping to maintain a cogent house style, which the target audience will recognise, promoting the artist effectively, meaning more profit will be made. We observed the conventions of existing magazine Digipak adverts, and saw that as well as record label logos, the logo of a record store such as HMV or Play.com has their logo placed on the advert, so potential buyers see where it is available, increasing profit for the record store owners. We also included quotes from reviews of the album, as this is something often done in adverts; many potential buyers from the target audience will trust and respect the comments from critics in music magazines, e-zines and newspapers, and so adding these to the advert increases sales.
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