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Tuesday 30 November 2010

JB - PreNarrative to music videos

This is where in the opening to the music video, something happens that can often relate to the song, but it happens before the song is actually being played.

Examples of this is Smash Mouth - All Star where they are choosing one superhero to star in their video, but in the format as though this is actually taking place on the same day that the video is. In the prenarrative section to the music video Ben Stiller is actually in it.




Another example is Guns n Roses - Welcome to the Jungle where a bus pulls up by the main protagonist, which links to the song but is not actually part of the narrative, as it just sets the scene of the video. It could signify that the jungle is the city we live in, rather than the jungle as the tropics we know of.





Our idea to include this is where the car pulls up to the hotel and the guy gets out, which is when the narrative actually starts. We are doing this to include some diegetic sound in the video but also so the audience has the chance to see the place in which the song is going to be set.

JB - Performance-Concept-Narrative

Performance
A performance music video includes part or all of the band / individual performing the song the whole time. This can take place on a stage, or in a room on their own where it is clear no audience is involved.
This originated from rock bands who included performance in nearly all of their videos in the early days of music videos, rather than other genres of music.

An example of this is Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit



Concept
A concept video is where the video has no relation to the lyrics and no performance. Concept often includes either the vocalist in the band whose video is being produced, or a completely unknown figure.
Concept videos are often though of to be quirky and often 'wierd' for example The Pixies - Velouria is just a video of the band running over some rocks for 30 seconds, which then gets edited and slowed down to cover the whole of the song.



Narrative
A narrative video is a video that follows the lyrics of the song with what is happening in the video. For example Smash Mouth - All Star include narrative by the main protagonist running into a house in a fire to rescue someone, but it also has the lyrics 'with an L on her forhead' as shown in the video.

These three types of music videos are often linked in the same video, for example a narrative video at one section could then cut into a performance of the band, which could then cut back to a concept idea involving the main protagonist.

JB - Britney Spears - Hit me baby Music video remake

As a class we had to reconstruct the whole of Britney Spears - Hit me baby one more time in one day, by splitting into four groups and tackling one section each.

In preparation to this day of filming, we had to do multiple tasks which included:

  • create call sheets
  • denote what happens at each second in the music video
  • the lyrics for each specific event
  • Get props to be used
  • Book locations to be used
  • Organize all of the equipment to film it
The other media class in the year created a short documentary of the day, which had to be planned into who was going to find out what, while deciding who was going to blog the whole of the days events.

Ways in which we could have improved the days events would be to make sure that everybody knew what exactly they were going to do, rather than coming in on the decide saying 'what am i doing today', as this took up a lot of time which could have been used to film extra sections. 

We should have also done more than one shot for each lyric, as at times they were out of sync, which didn't look good when it was finished, compared to if we had more shots than was needed.

Here is the finished product!

JB - The Coursework Task

Our coursework task for A2 is to create a music video for an album track or a single dating back over 10 years. We also have to include a 'digipack' and an advertisement to go in a magazine.

We have to work in groups to do this and I am working with Alex Burke, whose blog address is http://www.alex-burke-musicvid.blogspot.com/

We will be splitting the blogload between us, by taking each section invidivually with our name next to who produced the blogpost, so we do equal amounts towards the production of our products.

The Doors - People are strange (music video idea 2) (j)

My second idea for The Doors - People are strange is a concept idea set in a hotel.

The main protagonist will pull up to the hotel in a car, with the weather being very dull and raining, to link in with the lyric 'faces come out of the rain'.

When he gets out of the car a farmer is walking past and the main protagonist puts up his hand in a friendly gesture, but the farmer comes right into his face and mimes 'people are strange'

When he gets to the hotel, the main protagonist is then waiting at reception when the reciptionist goes very close to his face miming 'people are strange', which is the main concept of our video.

He then walks to his bedroom and passes a bride who is clearly drunk and goes into his face and once again says 'people are strange'.

Once he gets into his bedroom, a cleaner walks in and walks straight up to him and mimes 'people are strange' again.

After this, he then heads to dinner where he sits down and the waiter comes right up to him and mimes 'people are strange'

He then looks around at different people, some of them with food filling their mouths and clearly try to say 'people are strange' to him again.

He then heads back to his room but on his way past a window a ghostly figure in the window mimes 'when your strange'

A video with the idea of a hotel is 30 Seconds to Mars - The Kill

JB - Doors-People are strange Idea 1

Concept idea.

My first idea was to have the main protagonist walking down a lonely dark street, but with digetic sound of footsteps as though he is being followed.

A chase then follows but the audience does not get to see who is following him, or if anyone actually is.

People on the street are looking at the main protagonist in a way that would signify that they are unsure of why he is running, which links to the lyrics people are strange.

The main protagonist will finally hit a dead end, with a slow panning shot to show the person behind him, but then it will turn out that there was nobody there at all and it was just him being paranoid.

JB - Doors: History

This is my research and a brief summary of The Doors background history.

  • The Doors are an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California 
  • The bands members were vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger
  • They got the name The Doors from Aldous Huxley's  book 'The Doors of Perception'.
  • RIAA say The Doors have sold over 32.5 million albums in the US alone, with 80-100 million albums worldwide
  • They had a record label with Elektra
  • 1967 was their breakthrough year with the single 'Light my Fire' becoming the first single for Elektra records to reach number 1 in the billboard hot 100 singles chart, selling over 1 million copies.
  • The Doors were seen as a very controversial band, due to Morrisons wild, poetic lyrics often having a lot of relevance to drugs
  • Their controvery later followed by Morrison being the first rock artist to be arrested by the police, following the incident in New Haven which he argued with a police officer then followed to belittle the police on stage as for why he was late

Sunday 28 November 2010

Coursework Pitch - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Morning Lights

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly are an Indie Rock band and my idea for this song is a concept idea of a teenager walking down a busy city street on his own in the morning. The concept is that nobody is taking any notice of anyone else at this time, as they are just focused on their own destination in life. This can be filmed by showing the contrast between business men and women and people that are having to live in the street, as thought the main protagonist is in the middle of these, so nobody takes any notice of him as he is not unique. At the end of the song he then wakes up and gets out of bed, then ticks off another day on his calender, as though its just one thing after another in life.

A problem with this idea would be the busy street in which it is filmed, and also having people take no notice of you if you are filming them.