My video-shot by shot

Opening titles- white writing on black card interloped with extreme close ups of girl's body parts. There is no music in the titles. In this order.

• MUTALATED MONSTER RECORDS PRESENTS (Shot of girl's eye)
• NOT SO PRETTY (Shot of girl's hair)
• MUSIC BY: ZOMBIE CYBORGS (Shot of girl's nose)
• VIDEO BY: RYAN TURNER (Shot of girls lips as she blows a kiss to the camera. Flash and music starts)

As I use alot of film influence in my video I looked at some videos that had titles at the start (Come to Daddy-Aphex Twin, Buddy Holly-Weezer). The style I wanted to use incooperates the hand written credits used by independent animation director Don Hertzfeldt and the white writing on a plain black background from movies like Kevin Smith's film Clerks (using a similer style to my opening titles),Tim Burton's short film Vincent (using this method for its end credits) and the 26 min surrealist short film Doppleherz (directed by Marilyn Manson).

1. A mid shot of a model posing for the frequent flash of the unseen camera. After 10 seconds, the camera begins to pull back and move to the side showing the model and photographer in a wide shot. The photographer finishes and the camera once again zooms into a mid shot of the model and follows her as she leaves the studio. The video is in black and white but the models dress is red (inspired by sin city). The model is also wearing make up. (This shot must last for 27 seconds making up the intro for the song).
    
   
    
2. First close up of artist (shot in profile) lip syncing song in a silhouette. (Similer to the video for Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars). THIS SHOT WILL BE A SINGLE SHOT OF THE ARTIST SINGING THE WHOLE SONG-  I WILL THEN EDIT THE RIGHT MOMENTS IN.
    
3. The camera is positioned outside the door of the studio. As the model exits the camera begins to follow her again as she confidently flirts with some men just outside the studio.
4. Mid-2-shot of the men ignoring the model
5. Mid wide shot as the model tries to get thier attention by flirting even more provocativley.
6. Again, a mid-2-shot shows that the men are not interested and just ignore her.
7. Close up of the model annoyed at being ignored.
8. Camera follows the model as she walks off annoyed.
9. Second shot of artist lip-syncing tack
10. The model walks into a crowded room. Mid-shot.
11. POV shot of the model looking around the room and sees a crowd of men.
12. Big close up. The model grins.
13. Third shot of artist.
14. Low angle shot of the model approaching the men.
15. Mid-2-shot of the model flirting with one of the men. The man ignores her and pushes her away.
16. Forth shot of artist
17. Close up as the model thinks what to do.
18. Mid-wide shot as the model starts dancing provocatevley to try and get the men to notice her.
19. Reverse shot of the men carrying on their conversation, still ignoring the model.
20. Fifth shot of artist.
21. Close up. Model looks really angry.
22. The model storms off.
23. The model goes in her bag. Mid shot.
24. Close up of model's bag as she reaches in and takes out some make up.
25. Extreme close up of model's hands removing the lid from eyeliner.
26. Extreme close up of model's eyes as she applies eyeliner.
27. Shot of guitarist in silhouette.
28. Extreme close up of model's lips as she applies lipstick (red-like her dress).
29. Second shot of guitarist.
30. Mid-wide shot as the camera follows the model as she walks back out into the crowded area (now wearing a very over the top amount of make up) and approaches the boys.
31. Wide shot as the model starts to dance in a slutty way and gets right up to the guys. All the guys still ignore her.
32. Sixth shot of artist.
33. mid-2-shot of the girl right in the face of one of the guys, licking her lips and blowing kisses to him. All the time he ignores her.
34. The model storms off enraged.
35. Mid shot of model (as though it's a point of view shot of her looking in the mirror). She angrily spreads her make up all over her face, making her look like a clown. She then messes up her hair, sticks her tongue out to the camera and walks out.

further digi pack research-nine inch nails: hesitation marks

The front cover for Hesitation Marks, is another example of the design style of Nine Inch Nails. It is a very simplistic cover useing only a few basic colours and patterns and the band and album name in small writing in the centre. The idea of this design is that the seemingly bare caseing is to ingruige the audience and make them focus in on it so that they can tell who it's by.

The inside continues the simplistic design features of the album. It features the same simple image inside from two angles and the disc has very little art work and a simple coulour and pattern. Under the disc is the same image again from two more angles.

The inside booklet is similer to the front cover with the simplistic use of two dulled colours (orange and brown) and the Nine Inch Nailes logo in the corner. The inside is just black with white writing.

The back is similer to the front cover. Same colours. Same style pattern. Same style text.

Final Video Idea

My final video idea involves combining elements from two of my original ideas. I will make a video in mostly black and white, with the occasional dash of a single colour (in my case, red). This style was inspired my movies like Schindler's List and Sin City. I like this style as it makes the little colour stand out and look more significant, which I think will go well with my black and white video. I also like the way that black and white filming looks and the red will go with my video challenging the male gaze theory (red has connotations of being provocative). The video is going to be a narrative in which an attention-seeking model struts around a public place trying to get some attention, only to find that everyone is ignoring her. Despite her best efforts to get noticed, no one even looks in her direction. The model becomes annoyed and storms off because no one noticed her. Throughout the video, there will also be a silohuette of somebody singing the song, merging the narrative and performance style of music videos.

Ideas for my video

Song Name: not so pretty

My band name: Zombie Cyborgs

• The song's lyrics say We love you anyhow, But you're not so pretty now. So to match the video's lyrics I thought of doing an idea about a model or pop star walking around expecting attention but getting ignored, interwoven with someone performing the song. I want to shoot the video in a way that parodies and challenges the male gaze theory. By having evryone ignoring the stereotypical pop star rather than focusing on her. The model/pop star gets annoyed that nobody gives her any attention and storms off.
• I like the idea of movie parodies in music videos. I really like the idea of doing an old, black and white horror movie parody. I thought of maybe having a bunch of horror style monsters chase after the stereotypical girl who dies in the horror films. One video I like with this in is the video for the song Vincent Price by Deep Purple.
• Another movie style I could parody in my video is teen comedy/drama. This genre always have a slutty cheerleader and a jock, whom I could parody using ideas similer to the first idea.

Prodigy Digi pack analysis

The packaging for the album Invaders Must Die by the British rave/dance punk trio The Prodigy uses various methods of design in order to acheve it's purpose of catching the buyer's eye and persuading them to buy it.

• Simplistic colour scheme- The album uses mostly black, white and grey. The only bright colour is vibrant orange, that is intentionally placed into the dull colour scheme by the art designer so that it stands out and catches your eye. This colour scheme is effective and works well. I like the idea of using one colour with black and white and may use this on my cover.
• The album uses various symbol. The graffiti style writing and street setting show the target audience and the spider symbolises danger and agression.
• There is an image on the inner sleeve of the band in order to sell them and thier image.

I think that the album packaging is very effective at selling the product and band because of it's simple design and colour scheme

The digipack also links to some of the video's for singles from the album. The video for the song Invaders Must Die is shot in black and white but uses coulour for fire to make the albums logo of a spider show up more. This links the video with the artwork on the album

Music video directors research 2: Samuel Bayer

New York director, visual artist and cinematographer Samuel Bayer has made some of the most memorable music videos of the past 20 years. I could use influence from some of these.



In addition to my main story, I wanted to show my singer in a different colour template. I thought of using sepia, after seeing this video, which I love. I love the way that sepia tone looks and think it would suit my song and genre. Another video that looks like this is Bayer's first video, Smells Like
 Teen Spirit by Nirvana.
 

I like the idea of a story of one individual going through heartache and lonlieness, and so could also take inspiration from Bayer's video for the Green Day song Jesus of Surburbia, which has a dramatic look to it by using film style camera shots and editing, like a mini film.

Album covers research

The covers of albums and digipacks are the most immediate form of advertising that the band/artist has. It catches the buyers eye and makes them want to look closer and buy the disc. Some are simplistic. American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails often use simplistic images for thier album covers.

Some bands, however, use images of themselves on thier album covers and present themselves in a way that matches the mood of the band style or album/song style.



The Front of the Green Day cover shows the band in black and white. This connotes the depressing lyrics and music throughout. The back also features Green, to make you think of the band.

 

 

Most album covers grab the audience using iconic, controvesial, shocking and memorable images. The idea of the album art is to make you remember it.

 

 One of the most famous album covers ever is the front cover for Nevermind by Nirvana, which features a naked baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a fishing line. The cover is about politics and greed (showing how money is something everyone will want/ use money as bait for people/ people can be bought ect) and at the same time, the idea of a naked baby caused some people to find the cover controvesial



 

 

 

Although The Simpsons seemed to like it

 

 

The cover for Green Day's American Idiot album stands out and sticks in your head because of the minimal colour. It uses only 3 bold colours (black, white and red) to make it eyecatching. During the albums production and tours, the lead singer would be mainly just in these three colours (usually all black, with a white or red tie) and the albums bold image of a heart shaped granade connotes the concept album's fictional love story interwoven the political lyrics in the album.

 



Media theories that I could incoorperate into my video

Andrew Goodwin's theory

Which says that most video's show six main characteristics.

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
   (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.
   (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
   (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

An example of this in my genre is:

1. The band are shown frequently
2. The camera and editing match the genre and music of the video.
3. Lots of girls in the video-voyerism

I could incoorperate this theory into my video because I could relate the point about the video matching the lyrics with points 5 & 6 in the theory. I could also (because of the lyrics- We love you anyhow, But you're not so pretty now) perhaps challenge or parody the fifth point of the theory.


Laura Muvley Male Gaze Theory

Muvley is a feminist film theorist who created the film and music video theory the male gaze. The theory states that in many films and videos, women are often portrayed in two ways, 'voyeuristic', for example seeing women as 'whores' and 'fetishistic' seeing women as Madonnas. Muvley believes that film audiences have to `view` characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.  There are 3 parts of the male gaze-
Men looking at women-
Men tend to look at women's curves, this is the idea that men tend to look at other parts of a women's bodies and not their eyes. Which is why the camera in films also focus on other parts of the women's bodies.
Women looking at themselves-
Women are made to look at themselves in a negative way, thinking that personality does not matter and that its all about how they look and their appearances. It triggers women's self esteem and leads to women aspiring to be like women in the media such as Katie Price.
Women looking at women-
Women generally compare themselves to other women, which is why women are perceived in such a bad way in the media. In particular models, who are giving off the impression to women that they need to be 6ft tall and really skinny.
This theory can apply to most forms of media, from Mainstream film franchises (James Bond, Transformers) to music videos of all genres.

An example of this theory in my genre:

This video speaks for itself. The band are surrounded by pretty girls wearing not much and shown in a sexual way.

The lyrics of my song (which I have posted) mean that I could incoorperate this theory and/or challenge it because of the meaning to the lyrics. I could challenge the theory and conventions of it in my video or just incoorperate the theory itself.


Dyer's star theroy.
Richard Dyer believes that there pop performers and pop stars are two different things. Pop performers may or may not be famous and just perform music, whilst pop stars are images constructed by record companies and bands in order to sell thier records. Pop Stars are often made of gimmicks and either stereotypical or quirky stage personas that feature in thier live performances and music videos. The artists songs, look, style and video's are often tailored to fit the attitudes and styles of thier fanbase and target audience. These images can be stereotypes (e.g most pop stars end up looking like the "popular kids" in American high school movies) or quirky and weird, which fits a lot of genres (Lady GaGa-pop, David Bowie-rock, Marilyn Manson-metal, Wednesday 13-Horror Punk/metal). Several other ways for the company to sell is buy selling the private lives of celebs in gossip magazines and creating controversial bands (when Mary Whitehouse tried to ban Alice Cooper in the UK, his album went to number 1- apparently he sent flowers to Mary Whitehouse)
These artists sometimes create thier own image as a way of breaking from the normal conventions (mostly like Marilyn Manson, Wednesday 13 and Alice Cooper), but all artists who do this also know that it will sell thier music. This idea of having a specially designed and specific image can be either good or bad, as some artists will have good songs with important messages and meaningful lyrics, but at the same time some just produce the record company product of meaningless garbage to pander to the fans.

lyrics to my track

You like to open it up and wide
Then you let everyone come inside
There's always something you've got to hide
So you lied, and you lied, and you lied

Make sure you grab everything that you need
You've got a hole that you've got to feed
Keep tryin' to fill it all up with your greed
But it bleeds, and it bleeds, and it bleeds

Well go take a little more
We'll scrape you off the floor
We love you anyhow
But you're not so pretty now

A great big superstar
Is what you think you are
We love you anyhow
But you're not so pretty now

Nobody burns quite as bright
Well goddamn, maybe you're right
There's always battles there for you to fight
And you might, you might, you just might

Well there is something I gotta say
There is a price you're gonna pay
Try as hard as you can to stay
You're just fading, and fading, and fading the fuck away

Well go take a little more
We'll scrape you off the floor
We love you anyhow
But you're not so pretty now

A great big superstar
Is what you think you are
We love you anyhow
But you're not so pretty now

Better turn the lights down low
The cracks begin to show
We love you anyhow
But you're not so pretty now

And soon you will be gone
And we will all move on
You never mattered anyhow
And you're not so pretty now

questionaire feedback

For the video Longview by Green Day

 How does the video represent the genre?

• The use of dark colours matches the overall mood
• A lot of rolling shots and camera movement, low key lighting, almost sepia tone
• Emphasis on dark, grimy looking picture.

Do you think the video fits the music? Why/Why not?

• No narrative, but the way the band is presented fits the music.
• Yes. As the music switches from a casual beat to fast paced chords, the setting switches from a living room to a studio.
• Yes
• The singer is alone when the music is slower and quieter, when it picks up, the band are shown together

Do you think the video presents the theme and message of the the lyrics? Why/Why not?

• No real narrative.
• Yes. The rebel sits around even though his mum tells him to get a job.
• Life's better sitting around making music.

Has the director created a video that represents/sells the band’s image and style?
How effective is this?

• Yes. You see how the band acts when playing.
• The video sells the band because of how involved they are in the video.
• Lifestyle shown fits the grunge/punk genre.

Does the video incorporate any media theories?

• Goodwin's theory

Are there any media theories that would be useful for this genre? Why/Why not?

• Maybe Dyer Theory? Use more props to include genre make the theme deeper

What do you think the video does well?

• Shows the attitude and image of the band.
• Uses lighting and shadows to put emphasis on the singer.
• I like the attitude in the video
• Shows thier style

Where do you think the video could improve? What would you change in the video and why?

• More exiting, eyecatching
• More locations.
• More in depth narrative

 

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

 

1. How does the video represent the genre?
2. Do you think the video fits the music? Why/Why not?
3. Do you think the video presents the theme and message of the the lyrics? Why/Why not?
4. Has the director created a video that represents/sells the band’s image and style?
5. How effective is this?
6. Does the video incorporate any media theories?
7. Are there any media theories that would be useful for this genre? Why/Why not?
8. What do you think the video does well?
9. Where do you think the video could improve?
10. What would you change in the video and why?

influences and ideas from other videos

In my video I want to focus on the story telling aspects of music videos rather than the performance aspect.
One video that influenced my decicion to do this was the video for Jesus of Suburbia by Green day. The video features little clips of the band performing on TV but is mostly set out from the point of view of a character the band called St Jimmy. It shows this character as a punky outsider who hates authority and spends his drug fuelled days at parties and having sex. It shows his life with the rest of the punk outsiders. The idea of showing the story of a character relating to the lyrics intrigues me.

I like the idea of using siluhettes in music videos as a kind of post-modernist pastiche. The idea of using shadows hides the artists away and if I add a story, shows you that the artist is not part of the story but is instead a seperate part from it. The video for Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars does this better than other videos.



Intertextuality is also a thing I wanted to include into my video. Using movie/TV influences is something that alot of artists do.

One of my favorite example of intertextuality is the video Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy) by Rob Zombie, which uses costume and sets influenced by the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange. In addition to this, Zombie himself also uses the Kubrick stare, a favorite shot of Stanley Kubrick in which a character is shown in close up with thier head tilted down but thier eyes looking up into the camera.


Sometimes Intertextuality in videos uses actual existing footage. The video for the Wednesday 13 song I Walked With A Zombie uses footage from the George A Romero zombie film Night of the Living Dead. The film is in the public domain, which means that the band could use it without paying royalties.

The horror inspired videos influences me to make a video with influences on old horror films. One of the most recent videos that has inspired this old horror idea is the video for the recent Deep Purple song Vincent Price, named after and inspired by the famous horror actor of the same name. The video (shot in black and white) parodies several classic horror films, including Frankenstien, the mummy and the Vincent Price movies House of Wax & House on Haunted Hill as well as having an actor dressed in Vincent Price attire and complete with a Price like moustache.

I love the frequent use of old horror cliches and have a soft spot for anything shot in (mostly) black and white. The editing suits the music, especially during the guitar solo/pole dance scene. This also uses Goodwin's theroy points- video matches genre, lyrics and music- voyeristic representations of the woman in the video and, of course, intertexuality.

subgenre research: grunge/punk

Some punk/grunge viedo's like to use fast editing and a frequently moving camera in order to connote the energy of the genre and artists. The distorted images that come as a result of this camera/editing style sthow the instability of drug, sex and alcahol fuelled punk culture and lifestyles


Most early punk acts had no video at all, and instead just filmed themselves in a studio performing the song. This was to show that punk was different, punk didn't need gimmicks and flashy videos to find it's audience. Instead it used pure emotion and attitude.


Most video's in the punk genre from the 70's to 90' used very basic prodution equipment and quality in order to capture punk's attitude towards not caring and many video's feature bands/artists in thier normal clothes, presenting themselves as they are with no gimmicks.



More recently, punk has become a more sophistocated and artistic genre. The music values are better and the videos more proffessional. This is due to the pop punk genre, taking punk as a basic model and adding the production styles and video production of pop. This often shows the break in conventions of traditional punk using theatrical style instead of punks no frills style. bands often change from one to the other overtime. For example, Green Day went from stuff like the video above to stuff like this:


The way the style of both the band and videos have changed overtime is dramatic. The band seem to have mature whilst keeping thier lyrical style.

Many modern bands who use punk and alternative styles still use the quick cuts and fast paced editing/camera, whilst also telling stories. Some even include intertextuality. The video for I'm Not Okay (I Promise) by American Alternative rock band My Chemical Romance is shot and edited in the form of a trailer for a teen comedy-drama film.

Britney video evaluation

My preliminary task was to re shoot and edit the video to Hit me baby one more time. I failed and had to do my best with the footage and crap editing software after I lost some of the footage (I must remember to make duplicate copies in future). Here is what I managed to scrape together and an evaluation of all the problems and how best to fix them when making my own video.
The first problem that my group and I had was that we were not thorough in our planning stage. This meant that we had to use different locations and cast members and had not given ourselves enough time to reshoot scenes we had already done, resulting in terrible continuity. In future to prevent this I intend to make more detailed plans and shooting scripts as well as giving myself more time in order to do reshoots and make sure that my location is readily available in advance.
Another problem was that, due to my carelessness and bad planning, I lost some of the footage. Only a few seconds worth, but it makes all the difference. As it was too late to reshoot, I had to juggle the footage I had around a bit in order to make something that slightly resembled the original video using footage more than once or putting it in the wrong place. When i do my own music video, I will make sure that I shoot everything more than once and make duplicate copies of the footage to make sure that this dose not happen again.
I also need to aquire better editing software because I have had to use windows movie maker, which is not the best editing software in the world. Happily, I now have better editing software that I am learning how to use.
In my group, because of our poor planning, we wasted a lot of time. In my own music video work I am going to make detailed plans and try to follow them as best as i can in order to use and manage my time  better.

All together, I think the video is the best I could do with the bad mistakes that I made. After watching it back I realize my mistakes and will address them in order to make my next music video project look more professional and less of a bad job with stupid mistakes that I made.