Plan for Focus Group
We will carry out the focus group discussion at school in a room where everyone will be able to hear the song clearly and be able to imagine ideas and inspiration from listening to it. We will carry out this discussion with about 15 people, so that we can get a wide range of results and feedback.
1. Listen to the track that we are going to make a video for – Kings of Leon – Be Somebody. Whilst listening to the song the group are going to make notes of ideas they have.
2. The group are going to discuss the ideas that they have and what they expect to see in a music video, one at a time and Sarah and I are going to make notes about everyone ideas.
3. We will then pitch the ideas that we have come up with so far (including showing pictures of locations, characters, certain props and we will explain the style that we are trying to achieve) and discuss with the focus group whether it is what they expect to see in an indie/rock music video.
4. We will then ask the focus group to draw a rough sketch of what they would expect the see on the front cover of the digipak from inspiration from the discussion.
5. Then each person will share the ideas that they have come up with in the group. By carrying out this research it allows us to keep the images and ideas that people have come up with in the group.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
SW A Collage of Album Covers
This Album Cover Moodboard shows a variety of different artists and bands of a similar genre to the Kings of Leon and therefore shows us different digipak's that have already been done before. From this, I can see that 6 out of 9 of the coverart's designs do not show an image of the band, they are more abstract images. Also from this range of digipak's i can see that some of the designs are cartoons.Tuesday, 29 September 2009
SC Technical Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2m49DoD71I
When analysing Air Traffic – Shooting Star, i realised that there are a vast amount of shots, much more than i had first anticipated. The average shot length was around 2seconds continually throughout. Air Traffic have a similar genre as the Kings of Leon so i felt it would be an effective and useful track to analyse, as many of the conventions for a video of this genre would be apparent in the music video for Air Traffic’s song shooting star.
The majority of the video is made up of performance shots, however does have a narrative running through. The performance shots often jump between close ups and midshots of each individual band member playing their instruments, and the lead singer has more shots than any of the other band members. The close ups make the music more powerful; it shows the passion that each band member has about the musical instruments they are playing. The performance shots are also made up of a slow pan around the room, moving round the outside of the band as they are all stood facing inwards whilst playing. This helps to establish where the band are playing, and shows the unity of the band all playing together and facing one and other.
All of the narrative is in slow motion, it consists of an initial establishing shot of a girl in a room (in which most of the narrative takes place) followed by many mid shots and long shots of different characters in the room. A bit into the video, objects start mysteriously rising in the background of the room (for example alarm clocks, lamps), there are also close ups of these objects, they then come smashing down where the band is performing. This helps to link the narrative with the performance.
This video has been extremely useful as i have learnt that it is made up of no less than 50% close up shots, which i will definitely have to take into account when creating our music video. The frequent slow pans of the band are also very effective and help to give the audience a full view of the band and the location in which they are performing in.
When analysing Air Traffic – Shooting Star, i realised that there are a vast amount of shots, much more than i had first anticipated. The average shot length was around 2seconds continually throughout. Air Traffic have a similar genre as the Kings of Leon so i felt it would be an effective and useful track to analyse, as many of the conventions for a video of this genre would be apparent in the music video for Air Traffic’s song shooting star.
The majority of the video is made up of performance shots, however does have a narrative running through. The performance shots often jump between close ups and midshots of each individual band member playing their instruments, and the lead singer has more shots than any of the other band members. The close ups make the music more powerful; it shows the passion that each band member has about the musical instruments they are playing. The performance shots are also made up of a slow pan around the room, moving round the outside of the band as they are all stood facing inwards whilst playing. This helps to establish where the band are playing, and shows the unity of the band all playing together and facing one and other.
All of the narrative is in slow motion, it consists of an initial establishing shot of a girl in a room (in which most of the narrative takes place) followed by many mid shots and long shots of different characters in the room. A bit into the video, objects start mysteriously rising in the background of the room (for example alarm clocks, lamps), there are also close ups of these objects, they then come smashing down where the band is performing. This helps to link the narrative with the performance.
This video has been extremely useful as i have learnt that it is made up of no less than 50% close up shots, which i will definitely have to take into account when creating our music video. The frequent slow pans of the band are also very effective and help to give the audience a full view of the band and the location in which they are performing in.
SW Technical Analysis - Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCZfJ5ai07U
I carried out a technical analysis of the Kings of Leon song 'Use Somebody'. This is the artist that we are going to create a music video for therefore I felt that it was invaluable for me to analyse videos that the band have done before. From doing this technical analysis I realised that there are many more shots than I previously noticed in a music video, especially in this 'Use Somebody' video. Many of the shots used were 1 second long therefore compacting many shots into the video. The only time where there are long camera shots are when there are close-ups of the lead-singer performing to the camera, which I felt emphasised the image of the lead singer when using this contrast between the many short clips and the long-clips of the close-up.
The video was set in many different locations and many establishing shots were used in the video. At the beginning of the video, quite a few different angled shots were used of the city at night, from a bird's eye-view which suggests that the rest of the video will be set in that location. Other locations that have been used are the band performing on stage. These shots are very useful, as we have decided to show our band performing on a stage at the end of our music video. The different shots that they used for showing the band playing live are mid-shots from a canted angle (sometimes looking up at a tilted angle) this suggests the quirkiness of the band and emphasises the creative lighting, which we could use when constructing our performance part of the music video. Allowing the audience to see the band playing their instruments in the music video shows how talented the band are.
The style and image of the video is also similar to how we want to picture our band as there are different shots used in colour and then clipping to a black and white shot. I thought that this contrasting clipping from the two shots would look tacky and not effective, however I have realised from this video that this style would be effective and would look great on screen, therefore it is an image that i would like to use in our music video. Many of the performance shots were shot in black and white and this really emphasised the bright lighting in the background and gives a quality finish of the final look.
This technical analysis has allowed me to look in more depth into the many different clips that are used in the video and to give me inspiration of a music video that has already been released and that has been successful, therefore allowing me to me positive in the ideas that we have come up with for our music video.
I carried out a technical analysis of the Kings of Leon song 'Use Somebody'. This is the artist that we are going to create a music video for therefore I felt that it was invaluable for me to analyse videos that the band have done before. From doing this technical analysis I realised that there are many more shots than I previously noticed in a music video, especially in this 'Use Somebody' video. Many of the shots used were 1 second long therefore compacting many shots into the video. The only time where there are long camera shots are when there are close-ups of the lead-singer performing to the camera, which I felt emphasised the image of the lead singer when using this contrast between the many short clips and the long-clips of the close-up.
The video was set in many different locations and many establishing shots were used in the video. At the beginning of the video, quite a few different angled shots were used of the city at night, from a bird's eye-view which suggests that the rest of the video will be set in that location. Other locations that have been used are the band performing on stage. These shots are very useful, as we have decided to show our band performing on a stage at the end of our music video. The different shots that they used for showing the band playing live are mid-shots from a canted angle (sometimes looking up at a tilted angle) this suggests the quirkiness of the band and emphasises the creative lighting, which we could use when constructing our performance part of the music video. Allowing the audience to see the band playing their instruments in the music video shows how talented the band are.
The style and image of the video is also similar to how we want to picture our band as there are different shots used in colour and then clipping to a black and white shot. I thought that this contrasting clipping from the two shots would look tacky and not effective, however I have realised from this video that this style would be effective and would look great on screen, therefore it is an image that i would like to use in our music video. Many of the performance shots were shot in black and white and this really emphasised the bright lighting in the background and gives a quality finish of the final look.
This technical analysis has allowed me to look in more depth into the many different clips that are used in the video and to give me inspiration of a music video that has already been released and that has been successful, therefore allowing me to me positive in the ideas that we have come up with for our music video.
SW & SC Evaluation of Brighton practice location reccie
The practice location reccie was extremely helpful and contributed huge amounts to the development of our ideas for our music video. We hadn't used the cameras in almost a year and it was a great way to familiarise ourselves with the equipment. To begin with it was clear that we had forgotten how to use the equipment most effectively, and after spending an hour working with it we both felt confident in being able to creatively position shots, taking into consideration the location and surroundings. We also discovered a variety of new techniques which we have not used before, for example the notion of looking - we created a shot in which the artists face was reflected in a pair of sunglasses.
The trip gave us the opportunity to explore a number of new and versatile locations. Brighton is full of unique and exciting culture therefore giving us a wide variety of setting giving us ideas for our music video. The quaint cobbled streets were picturesque and reminded us of a familiar location in Tunbridge Wells - The Pantiles, which we now wish to used in our music video. We are also planning on using the Graffiti wall in Brighton which we did not know existed previous to the trip.
The locations we saw have helped us to develop our narrative as they gave us additional ideas which will now contribute to our music video and be a continual theme throughout. We had ideas such as the 'notion of looking', as this will emphasize the image of the band. We had this idea after walking down a back ally and our reflections were very prominent in the windows of an office block. We filmed this and it gave us inspiration to do something similar in our music video. We also had the idea to use our band members walking down a street in suits to show success and fame. We got this idea from walking down the quaint and pretty alleys with business men in suits walking through them. They seemed powerful and successful, and so fit the criteria that we want our band members to fit into at points in our video.
The trip gave us the opportunity to explore a number of new and versatile locations. Brighton is full of unique and exciting culture therefore giving us a wide variety of setting giving us ideas for our music video. The quaint cobbled streets were picturesque and reminded us of a familiar location in Tunbridge Wells - The Pantiles, which we now wish to used in our music video. We are also planning on using the Graffiti wall in Brighton which we did not know existed previous to the trip.
The locations we saw have helped us to develop our narrative as they gave us additional ideas which will now contribute to our music video and be a continual theme throughout. We had ideas such as the 'notion of looking', as this will emphasize the image of the band. We had this idea after walking down a back ally and our reflections were very prominent in the windows of an office block. We filmed this and it gave us inspiration to do something similar in our music video. We also had the idea to use our band members walking down a street in suits to show success and fame. We got this idea from walking down the quaint and pretty alleys with business men in suits walking through them. They seemed powerful and successful, and so fit the criteria that we want our band members to fit into at points in our video.
SC & SW Audience Research
The way that we are going to carry out meaningful audience research is through a focus group. We are carrying out this method as we think that a group discussion will help trigger ideas and creative thoughts in our sample audience (14-25) who are interested in the indie-rock genre. A huge advantage of carrying out focus group research, is the interaction that we can have with the sample audience. This will enable us to have a greater understanding of the ideas they are trying to portray and also the ideas they would expect to be in a video of this genre. However there are disadvantages, we will have to either tape or memorize the ideas that they are saying as a discussion could lead to many people talking at once, with a lot of ideas being put forward in a short amount of time. This could make it hard to evaluate, therefore we are overcoming this problem by allowing our sample group to brainstorm on ideas down on paper. Also they could be quite vague with answers and or copy their friends ideas. So we will also overcome this with them each having to write down ideas on paper.
1. We are going to play the track to our sample audience and whilst listening they will brainstorm ideas that they have.
2. We are going to pitch our ideas for the track that we have by passing around photographs of props, locations, and characters and see if the audience like/can enhance any of the ideas we already have through a discussion.
3. We will explain the style that we are trying to portray (black and white images, powerful, dramatic shots) and see if they agree with this style and therefore can give ideas for the digipak and advertisement as we will explain that the style have to be the same.
4. We will then give them 5minutes to brainstorm any extra inspiration that they have for the track on a piece of paper.
1. We are going to play the track to our sample audience and whilst listening they will brainstorm ideas that they have.
2. We are going to pitch our ideas for the track that we have by passing around photographs of props, locations, and characters and see if the audience like/can enhance any of the ideas we already have through a discussion.
3. We will explain the style that we are trying to portray (black and white images, powerful, dramatic shots) and see if they agree with this style and therefore can give ideas for the digipak and advertisement as we will explain that the style have to be the same.
4. We will then give them 5minutes to brainstorm any extra inspiration that they have for the track on a piece of paper.
Friday, 25 September 2009
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