Pitch Feed Back

 With the completion of our pitch came some comments on ways we could improve or expand on our current ideas and some which praised our ideas. Here is some of the feedback we received:

•  The general idea should be expanded more as it is slightly underdeveloped. Consider a more interesting narrative.
• If filming on top of the Malvern Hills, we would need to consider weather conditions, getting equipment up the hills and also getting to the hills in the first place.
• Think about who will be driving when filming the vehicle shots.
• Revise target audience: Consider the JICNAR scale and its categories.
• The idea is fairly ambitious but would look very effective if done well.
• The idea sounds achievable with college equipment.
• Revise logistical arrangements (for example a drum kit may not be too difficult to transport in terms of our chosen location).
• Possibly add more action into the narrative.

Pitch Materials

Here is the Prezi we created for our ideas pitch:

Developing Ideas: Pitch on Prezi

Creativity: Stop Motion

The second way in which we tried to become more creative was we made a stop motion animation. We did this buy taking photographs with a stills camera  where the subject would move very little between each photo, we then put these together to make an animation. 

With this, we could create visuals where the person in the shot was seemingly levitating or rotating while sat down on the floor among others.

These creative ideas would later help us with the development of the music video. For example, they opened up possibilities of ways to create the video or parts of the video. It also gave us a general sense of what kinds of elements we would want to include in our video.

 I also think that our greater concentration on a narrative of sorts is because of the creative tasks that we had to undergo prior to our pitch.

Creativity: Benign Berliner Mood Board

In order to get some ideas for our music video we were asked to do something creative. Below is a mood board that we created of some of the images that came to mind when we listened to our chosen song:

Benign Berliner Moodboard on Prezi

Creativity- Ken Robinson

Creativity can be defined as an original idea with value. Ken Robinson said that 'if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original'. He also says that as we get older we lose the ability to be creative because we become less prepared to be wrong. In order to become more creative we need to be able to take risks in order to come up with original ideas.

Music Video Research: Killers 'When You Were Young'

In contrast to the two other music video I have analysed, this music video by The Killers, contains a much  wider variety of shots, angles and camera movements. This is because the other two music video were disjunctive and contained no real narrative. Whereas in this video, there is an almost film like narrative that needs this wide variety of cinematography to portray and show the story they are trying to tell.
 It seemed that whenever, the band were shown playing, the shots tended to be medium close ups. Along with the low lighting, this made it seem that they didn't want the whole attention to be centred around them but instead around the narrative.

Whenever the narrative was being shown, the cinematography then became more interesting therefore complimenting the story.

Obviously there is a lot of continuity in this music video because they wanted it to be like a film. There weren't any special transitions because I think they wanted the story to be the most important thing in this video so having any fancy editing techniques would mask the effect they are trying to give. I thinks this connotes that this band want to tell a story with their music and with this music video, they can make the general story of the lyrics and music into a visual narrative through the process of synaesthesia.



The setting of the story is by the looks of it somewhere in south America. The lighting reflects the mood of the story, when the couple are happy, the lighting is bright but when the woman finds out her husband has cheated on her the lighting goes a lot darker.

The setting when the band are playing is fairly plain and you cant see much of it, again connoting that they want the main focus to be on the narrative and not just the bands performance.

There doesn't appear to be any difference between choruses and verses but I think that's because there isn't a lot of change in the actual song between choruses and verses.

The narrative of the video is shown from start to finish, there is even footage playing before the music starts which i think shows how they think the telling of the narrative is very important.

Here the music hasn't even started

I think the image they are trying to present with this video, is that they make music with meaning and a narrative that is worth being told, and not just music that is meaningless and thin.

Overall, this music video is quite literal. This is because the story the lyrics are telling are what's being shown in the video for example, when the song says 'when you were young' it flashes back to the time when the couple are getting married.

However you could say that this music video is amplifying because it doesnt say in the lyrics anything about a couple in south America but they are using this image to 'amplify' the story that is being told by the lryics.

Music Video Research: Foals 'Cassius'

  Camera Shots, Angle, Movement and Composition


For the majority of the music video, most of the shots are fairly straight on mid shots. This is very similar to the Metronomy video as most of the shots in that were also mid shots. However there are also some close up shots and some mid to long shots. I think the use of mid shots connotes how they want it to be simplistic so its focused on them and not on things going on around them. This simplicity can also be seen in the angles of these shots as nearly all of them are straight on and also in the composition, as most of the time they are positioned very close to the centre of the screen. This can commonly be see in music videos of the same genre. 

However, I think the amount of shots and in particular jump cuts, give it a very fast pace, and therefore make it feel slightly odd and quirky.
The camera movements are also very limited as there are only a few quick pans during some shots. These quick pans reflect the speed of the music during those shots. 

Editing


The most obvious kinds of editing is the use of jump cuts. Jump cuts are used a lot all the way through the music video. As well as this, slow motion is also used quite a lot. I think the combination of these two editing techniques helps create a very quirky and edgy feel that is very common in music videos of the same genre such as the Metronomy music video. The transition of shots doesn't seem to be anything special, but instead just lets the other kinds of editing create the quirky feel.

Mise-en-Scene
The costumes of the band never change from the plain and simple clothes they are wearing at the start of the video and the set never changes from the grey background either. The combination of these two things give a simplistic feel possibly because they think making the music is the most important thing.

However, if you look at the props used, a completely different feel is given, seeing as the props used are hearts on strings and various tablets and pills. This connotes something is slightly wrong amongst the normality that the other things are connoting.

Andrew Goodwin:

The main way the visuals respond to the music is that the shot changes or there is a jump cut along with the beat of the music.
The different parts of the music like the verses and choruses, have no real difference between them, which shows this music video maybe goes against what Andrew Goodwin said about music videos. However I do think that the visuals emerge from the music. I think because the music is slightly quirky and strange, then an odd music video is required.
This music video doesn't follow any narrative at all really as most things that happen are completely random, which means that this is a disjunctive music video as none of the things going on in the video relate to the lyrics. However, I think it would be difficult to make this music anything another than disjunctive due to the amount of variation in lyrics and lack of sense or narrative in the lyrics.
The kind of image this band is presenting definitely fits in with other music videos they have done as they all the similar strange and quirky feel to them which I think is also typical to music videos of other bands of the same genre.

The main notable type of editing is the jump cut which is used frequently throughout the whole video which connote a  slightly strange and odd feel which I think is definitely a motif of this genre of music.
The most significant shot type in this video is the medium close-up, which is pretty much the only shot used. I think this connotes quite the opposite of the jump cuts as this connotes a feel of simplicity.This is also complimented by the mise en scene because the set is just a grey background that never changes, and their clothes are fairly plain and also don't change. However, these may just be simple and plain so there actions can be seen more clearly .

Andrew Goodwin: Metronomy

Andrew Goodwin, a  music video director, stated a music video is "...a clip that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which music is made visual, in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual associations".




How do the visuals respond to the music?

• The verses, choruses and bridges in the Metronomy video are punctuated by various transitional effects as we follow the bouncing ball around the house, such as quick pans.
• The main way the sounds of the song have been made visual is with the bouncing ball that follows the lyrics of the song along. Although it is a very simple idea, it translates the beat of the song into the visuals which is how the video responds to the song. The ball also bounces around the set which further enforces this point.

To what extent does it follow a narrative?

• Generally the video does not follow a narrative, however there are several places (in the verses) where we are shown part of the 'story' through literal still images like in the shot below. Again, this shows the video is visualising the song and therefore staying true to Andrew Goodwin's thesis.

What kind of image is the star presenting?

• The lyrics of this song are generally to do with real life issues (relationships) and I think this is reflected in the video itself. For example, the ordinary clothing that each of the band is wearing represent a 'real life' image - complimenting the song.

Is the video literal, disjunctive or amplifying?

•  The video is mostly disjunctive. As for the most part, there is no real narrative and the bouncing ball and lyrics combination has no link to the lyrics of the song or hide any underlying meaning. Despite this, however, as we have already seen above there are some quite literal parts of the video which would make this a illustrative video as well as a disjunctive one.

Sven E Carlsson

 "One of the most common methods of analysis is to break up the music video into black and white boxes. Almost everything is then perceived as opposites - trash or art, commerce or creativity, male or female, naturalism or anti-realism"

Music video research: Metronomy

The first music video that I decided to analyse was 'A Thing For Me' by Metronomy

 The type of camera shot used throughout the video tends to stay the same as medium close-up shots are seen in the majority of the video such as in the screen shots below. These shots are common in videos from smaller bands like Metronomy as they often involve the band playing which means there are less close-ups and more wider shots. I think this shows a certain level of simplicity which seems to to be common for bands of this genre.

 The camera angles in the music video don't vary much. For most of the shots, the angle is very level like in the above screen shots. However, there are some quick upside down shots which give the video quite a quirky and edgy feel, which is definitely something seen a lot in this genre of music.

 The video contains quite a lot of camera movement. Mainly, there is a lot of camera shake from the use of a  hand-held camera and also in some shots there are quick pans which are used to switch from scene to scene. I think these camera movements add to the authenticity of the video because it adds a sense of realism to it which again is a common theme in indie music videos.
 Although, there are also many shots which have a steady pan or zoom which go against the hand held shots but I think they do add to the idea of simplicity.

The main kind of editing in this music video is the ball that follows the words across the screen. This also follows the several transitions of shots; for example the white ceiling at 1:41 morphs into a drum in the next shot. This is known as a graphic match as both the ceiling and the drum skin are of the same colour so the transition here is both smooth and relevant. This type of editing is quite clever shows how indie music videos go for these clever editing transitions to achieve the quirky feel that many music videos of this genre go for.

 One part of the mise-en-scene in this video is the costumes. I think because the costumes overall are fairly plain and ordinary, there is again a feeling of realism and authenticity. However, I think the setting in which it is filmed, gives a quirky feeling. Both of the things are common in this genre of music.