Speed/Duration

Timing is an important part of my video as I want lots of the editing of the video to fit in with the changes in the song. I think this will allow me to use harsher cutting with editing rather than transitional.
Especially as I use real people I don't want it to look like they are moving abnormally quickly or slowly.

I tested out different speed percentages to see what would fit in with the music but not look too unreal.
With the speed at 200% it did not look right at all, and then the speed at 45% looked too slow; I settled at 120% as then she was moving quickly but not soo quickly that the audience would question whether it was real or not. 

Untitled from vicki robbins on Vimeo.

Magazine adverts

After looking at different CD advertisments I have found that most keep it quite simple with the images not distracting from the text showing when it is on sale etc etc. They also resemble the front of the album cover perhaps so that it is easily recognisable from the origonal advert.

For example - British Sea Power's Valhalla Dancehall's LP advert is just the front cover of the album with some reviews at the bottom of the page and details of the sale.
Learning from this I think I may use the image from the front of my digipak of the shoes, chaging around the text making it slightly more eye-grabbing; and maybe add some comments about the song.

Album Cover

Magazine Advert

Digipak Analysis

While creating my own digipak I thought it best to look back what other artists have used for their own; looking at my own CDs I discovered that not many artists use the cardboard case, usually opting for the jewel case. But I did find actually that two of my favourite albums used a digipak; MGMT - Ocacular Spectacular and Arcade Fire - The Suburbs.
Both look asthetically different; with the MGMT album using images of the two frontmen on a bright cover to draw attention. While Arcade Fires members feature nowhere on the sleeve and drawings of cars and trees being the main focus of the front cover with only the bands name featuring in small text in the top right corner.


Arcade Fire Front Cover

The front cover of this album is very simple but the audience can tell that it fits in with the theme of the album 'Suburbs' you can see the family type car with a big white house and tree behind the fence. These things are all stereotypical things that you would find in the Suburbs. The fact that this picture looks to be hand drawn, makes it look even more different from what you usually see when looking at album covers. Usually they are photos of the artists themselves so that it is more recognisable. Especially as the name of the band is written quite small in the top corner. This shows how they want the album to be recognised due to the music not necessarily the name or the cover.

MGMT Front Cover

MGMTs cover is also quite simple but they follow more of the regular conventions; band members are featured on the front with just straight shots of them. The name of the album is not on the cover but in the centre is the name of the band; in a font that even though in plain colours is still eye-catching due to the fact is it different from what you would normally expect. I think that even though the two men are the main image and take up the majority of the cover space; you are still drawn to look at the background because of the different colours that make up the sky and the sea - you even notice the tiny details such as the moon in the background, even thought it would be tiny if you were looking from a distance.

Hearts

As the song is about love I am going to draw on that and use different ways of making hearts to interject throughout the video. I think it will make the piece more abstract which is what I think the band and the song are.

I have thought of some that I am going to try and create. Many of the things that I am going to make or place them in are stereotypical things that a couple would do together or you would see on film them doing e.g. doing ot the beach, playing in the snow
1) heart made of footsteps in the snow
2) heart shaped balloon flying away
3) twigs in a shape of a heart pushed into the river
4) stones on a beach as the waves go back and leave them there
Another way I have seen which my friend enjoys doing is using the camera to spread the light. If it is dark and then there is just one light, such as a streetlamp or a car headlight, if you take a photo of it with the flash on and then move the camera in the shape you want while you take it, the light will spread make it look like the light was in that shape. However I think that this may be tricky and will take some practice as it doesn't work every time you try and making the heart shape in the air may not come out as expected making it look messy.

The Song

The song is 3.46 minutes long.
During the verses it is paced quite slowly with the fast underbeat; during the the chorus is is very fast paced as the backing starts to take over the vocals.
The first 15 seconds are of just synth noises with every 4 beats a stronger noise; I think that I will use this in my video and switch scenes then to make the cutting seem more edgy, stronger and abstract.
Lots of the song is just synth and noise with the vocals over the top there is not really a melody to follow. There is lots of beat repetitiion with the patterens reused throughout the song; I may use this to repeat different parts of the video - most likely to more abstract bits.

Shot List

Home
-Getting ready in room - mascara-close up, lip gloss, shoes
-Looking at a photo frame then putting it upside down on a table
-Picking up coat and leaving
-Using sparklers
-Pushing the rose petal heart off the table - shot from both the side and behind
Tombland
- Waiting at the bus stop and checking the time, before getting up and leaving - from the front, behind and then a facial close-up
- Going to telephone box and then storming out
- Running up the hill away from it all
Beach
-Picking up rocks to make the heart
-Throwing things into the ocean
-Walking along the shoreline
-Aerial shot of the heart
Bridge
-Making the twig heart before pushing it into the river
-Reading the letter before throwing that into the river as well - behind close-up
-Shot of the letter floating under the bridge and away
Chaplefield Gardens
-Sitting on the bench and letting the balloon float away
-Follow the balloon as it floats off into the trees
Miscellaneous
-Cars on the motorway
-Snow heart
-Light heart

Location Moodboard



These are some of the locations I think I would like to use for my video; the areas are quite busy so I will have to take that into consideration as I had planned to make sure that the girl in the video was always alone to emphasize the fact that she has been left. I also want to film my video while it is dark and hopefully raining; so the places will look slightly different. I chose them as they have the slightly old look and there are lots of over hanging trees to make it look darker and slightly eerie; if I filmed in the city centre then there would be lots of bright lights and shops and restaurants distracting from the girl in the video.  

Location, Location, Location...

For my video I want to film in quite dark and dreary.  I want to film some of it in a bus stop so I think one of the best ones to use would be in Tombland, Norwich as there are lots of big trees hanging over it making it slightly darker and more depressing.
Another place I want featured in my video is a restaurant/cafe I want it so the girl is walking along the street and then sees them; so one place I could use is somewhere on St. Benedicts street, maybe the Pizza Express as it is quite a busy street and the restaurant has a big window that I could film through.
I also want to film things during the day, to show the different times of year, maybe using the rain and sun together with the way the character is dressed to show how time has gone by. For places to film during the day I have been thinking about different parks and the beach.

Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles is an experimental electronic music band from the province of Ontario consisting of producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. Crystal Castles are known for their chaotic live shows and their low-fi melancholic home productions. To listen to Crystal Castles "is to be cast adrift in a vortex of deafening pain without a safety net. You get the feeling you could do anything in the world, but that 'anything' would ultimately mean nothing. Crystal Castles marks a nuanced emotional territory that dance music never covered before.

Storylines

From my audience research I can tell that most people think that the storyline to the video is one of the most important things. However Crystal Castle videos generally don't have strorylines that run through, they are more abstract pieces, so I need to find a balance between the two.

Some artists are known for their videos having storylines that link directly to the song for example, Plan B's current album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks tells the story of his alter ego, Strickland Banks, each video continues from the previous telling the rise and fall of Strickland. Its something Plan B then himself brings to stage, always dressing in costume.
Another artist famous for their story telling is Lady Gaga; each of her videos is an entirely new story, each of them like a mini movie on their own. They get people talking about how outlandish she is, which is what the aim of music videos are, to get people noticed.
Some videos imitate the lyrics to a tee; for example Just Jacks song The Day I Died - it told the story of a man on the last day of his life the video follows on the lyrics and tells the story with James Nesbitt featuring as the

Tim Pope

Tim Pope directed 37of The Cures music videos including 'Friday I'm in Love' and 'Close to Me', he is one of the most famous music video directors of all time. Known to be innovative and constantly changing.
During a talk with Eugine Richansky he told us how Tim never actually listened to a song before coming up with an idea for a video and just based it on whatever was in his head at that moment.
Tim is quoted saying for each Cure album "I’d make maybe four videos – two would be classics, one ok and the last one absolute rubbish.”
His videos were always different for example
In The Cure video 'In Between Days' the whole video was shot using a camera strapped to a shopping trolley and the band playing in one room. This was something that had never been done before and was completly different to the videos of that time which were normally big budget pieces. It paved the way for a new type of smaller budget videos that meant more imaginative ways to attract an audience had to be made.   

Digipaks - Key Elements

Name of Band/Artist/Album  - Crystal Castles
Track Listing   - Not in Love ft Robert Smith, Not in Love
Bonus Material -
Pictures of Band/Artist -
Colour/Style to fit with the genre of the band - Blues, Blacks, Silver
Unfolds revealing pictures/text  -
Space for CD -

What to do now...

After a while of not being able to access my blog due to county restrictions I am now back online with an edited audience research video that I will be uploading shortly:)

 Now I have chosen my song - Not in Love - Crystal Castles ft Robert Smith; I am now in the process of coming up with the idea for the video. As I discovered with my audience research a storyline for the video is one of the most important aspects.

Song Choices

I am now not certain that I would like to do the Best Coast song that I initially liked so I looked for some other options but then I have a few options of which songs I could choose to do for the video.
I did not know which one I wanted to do most so I put it to a vote in my class these are the results.

Broken Records - A Promise - 2
Marina and The Diamonds - Rootless - 0
Manchester Orchestra - Shake It Out - 1
Crystal Castles ft. Robert Smith - Not In Love - 6
Best Coast - When I'm with You - 3

It is obvious that 'Not in Love' was the one people preferred, I chose the newer version with Robert Smith on vocals rather than the album one with Alice Glass as I felt that the male vocals came through more strongly and put across the story more which would be more beneficial to my video as the storyline is a vital part.

What to do next...

I need to edit my audience research and then look m,ore closely into what I am going to do in the video; maybe even change song choice if I can not find a good idea for my current song choice.

Initial idea

My initial idea is to do a music video. The song I am thinking about using at the moment is Best Coasts - When I'm With You. I have chosen this song as it is not very well known but the band is up and coming so people may start to know who they are but not necessarily have any preconceived ideas about what the video would be like if the band had completed it themselves. The target audience for my video will be people that love music especially indie laid back ones that have a slight poppy edge.

10 characteristics of my target audience

1) 16-25 year old
2) likes music that not many people have heard of
3) likes going to music festivals and gigs
4) individual
5) spends the majority of their money on music things
6) likes most genres of music - maybe not pop/r&b
7) enjoys going out and socialising
8) regularly buys NME
9) downloads music regularly
10) listens to music at every opportunity

5 things I will do this year...5 things I will not do this year...

I will not leave everything to the last week
I will not just do boring written blog posts
I will not take the easy option for everything
I will not just make things up as I go along
I will not forget about things

I will make a detailed plan of what I need to do and dates I have to have completed it by
I will research more into background
I will update my blog regularly
I will use creative and innovative things on my blog
I will do more audience research

Music Video Analysis

Buddy Holly - Weezer

This video uses clips from the television show Happy Days and incorporates them into the video to make it look like they were part of the show themselves. I think that this works very well as unless you knew you would assume it was all one thing; when they transition from the clips to the video they use doubles and show the back of them to make it look like it was the same person from the show. Happy Days is a very recognisable and iconic show and the fact that Weezer made themselves part of the video made this a very recognisable video and therefore made the song popular as well which is what the video is there for. Spike Jonze directed this video and it is now on many best music video lists. At the beginning it features short credits to make it seem more realistic as the Happy Days show; this sets it apart from other videos as it is usually not the norm to have credits at either the end or beginning.


Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

http://new.music.yahoo.com/singleVideo/?vid=157418610

This video has become iconic due to its simplicity; it was the bands most famous song empasized by the video. It featured lead singer Richard Ashcroft walking down a busy London street singing the song not caring about who he bumped into; letting nothing get in his way. The idea was taken from an earlier video by Massive Attack for their song 'Unfinished Sympathy' which was similar but featured a Los Angeles street. Ashcroft starts walking when the instrumental develops which makes it a bigger start. At the end the rest of the band start following behind him and this creates the start to their next video 'The Drugs Don't Work'

Planning for Planning

If I am choosing to do a music video for my A2 project I need to have researched and looked at a lot of music videos so I build off them to create my own. I also need to decide whether I am making a video that has a narrative to it; if so I specifically need to look into videos with narratives.

After I have chosen my song I need to look at the bands music video style as well as the lyrics for the chosen song.