Research and Planning: Pre-Production for E-Sting

Animation pre-production

Here is my story board

The Production schedule

Budgeting sheet

Location Recce

Location Release

Animation test

Before making the E-sting I made a test run on the table in my class room to see if it would work the results where a rough cut but they were successful.



Making the cassette

To design the cassette used in my E-sting I scanned the cassette into the computer and photo-shopped over the top of the original label, then I cut away the cassette and printed it off as a label to cover the existing one.

My finished Music Video

Here is my finished music video as my final short for BTEC Media:

Research and Planning into my music track

Track Chosen

My chosen track Jimi Hendrix Crosstown Traffic.


Song Analysis

Meanings and Imagery

Narrative
The songs narrative is that of a guy telling a promiscuous girl that he doesn't want her baggage in his life. He lives a high speed lifestyle that she wants to be a part of. This makes me think it might even be a semi autobiographical song of an event that took place in Jimi's life.

Genre style
The genre is psychedelic 60's rock.

Pace 

The Pace is really fast with a clear beat which will be fantastic to cut to.

Length
The track is 2 minutes 26 in length. Although short the idea for a music video I have is that of one tat would be complex enough to achieve the necessary grades.

Lyrics 

Researching the Artist

Clothing costumes

Hendrixes clothing choice was that of a sixties counterculture ( Hippie movement look). This was often associated with bright colors, embroidery, flairy bits and long hair.  This is was an unconventional fashion sense at the beginning of the 60's however by the end of the decade it was a popular look.

Tone of exiting videos

The tone of his existing videos are psychedelic with hints of a political undercurrent you can see in Crosstown traffic an urge for economic reform in the poverty of the city. However most of the videos are made post mortem using a mix of life gig footage and new footage not containing Jimi.

locations in existing videos

There is an eclectic mix of locations in Hendrix's "videos" the broad range covers concerts cities, studios, cars.

Concepts and Narratives

I feel the story of this song is that of a man bringing a girl into his life who is a known trouble maker, but only after becoming entangled does he realise shes much worse than he could have ever hoped to cope with.

Pre-Production

Synopsis

The story for my music video is a quirky affair between an Everyman and his obsessed stalker, when he realises she wants to dress him as a banana he attempts to escape with disastrous consequences.


Storyboards timelines

Recces

I took a recce around college to better prepare myself for the narrative shoot.

College shoot



Releases ( performers and locations )

Risk assessment

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX5tOX6vA-0
http://www.mortaljourney.com/main/wp-content/uploads/Hippies_Dancing.jpg
http://assets-s3.rollingstone.com/assets/images/list/2b1d08ea01d2714a82785574e1434b4dcbecbc53.jpg

Stop Motion Prototype test 2: ESting Demo Test

The Setup

During the Preproduction of our ESting I found myself at a loss of what to do between pre-production and the actual shooting of my short so I proposed a test run, where I shoot a crude version of the effect I wish to create just to make sure the effect is going to work on camera when it comes to making the short.

Design

The design for this short is in-consiquential because it is soley for the purpose of testing the effect. I used the cassette I had already planned to use for the esting, just without the prepared sticker labels. I also just used a bare table as all I wanted was the contrast of the logo.

Finished product


Overall I thought the animation looked really good for the 20 minuetes it took playing around with the camera. Although it was very rough around the edges it perfectly suited the look I was going for and made me feel confident about my actual shoot.

Research and Planning: Responding to the Brief

List three ways in which the ESting meets the requirements of the brief?

1. The soundtrack of the short is a mixture of two of the supplied E4 Esting tracks that you required to use to score your short.
2. I have shown symbolism of the E4 brand multiple times over the course of the Esting as per brief specifications.
3. I have researched and adapted the Mise-en-scene of the Esting to better suit the target audience of the short. I used things like the cassette, film reel, and vinyl record, to better suit the demographic of trendy young people, whose psycho-graphic has a peculiar love for analog media.

Have you needed to make any alterations to you're idea to fulfill the demands of the brief?

No I didn't need to make any alterations in name of the brief.

Have you had to consider any legal or health and saftey issues whilst in production?

During filming we did have a concern of health and safety however, it was shortly remedied as it was our only way to make the video and me and the cinematographer agreed it an acceptable risk. The risk was that the height of the shot required him to be perched on top of a pile of tables and chairs, staying dead still for the entire shoot for fear of shaking the camera.

How many people are in your team and what is your role?

Although I initially assumed I would be able to make the short on my own I needed to ask my friend to operate the camera for me after I had set up the shot and whilst I was animating the cassette.

When is the Pre-production, Production, and Post-production deadlines?

The pre-production deadline was the 15th of November, I had finished and shot the short by the 22nd however production could have gone on until the 29th. I have until the 6th to finish my post production however I am almost done and could be by the 29th.

Styles, Conventions and Techniques of the Music Video.

In-concert and "as live" footage.

This is normally as simple as a recording of the Band / Artist performing on stage. These are normally quite cheap to produce. I's a good way for marketing the band as it shows the audience who they are buying into, however this might turn some people off as they don't like who they see onscreen.



Narrative and interpretive.
This is the definitive convention of music videos. It normally interprets for makes some reading of the lyrics in a song. but how the video looks might be a polarization, reach, or a more literal adaptation of the lyrics. They might have little to do with most of the lyrics but sometimes take liberties on the story.


Surrealist / Absurdist
Surreal videos go against all conventions, It's often known to be connected with surrealist art, like the works of Salvador Dali or Freda Kahlo. Like these artists work, the band aim to subvert the understanding of he audience. This sculpture by Dali is meant to be interpreted as promiscuous sexuality, but looks really weird.
Here's a great example of surrealism in music videos, Pink Floyds Another brick in the wall.



Impressionism
Impressionist music videos are a different art style to surrealism. They are generally a more cantered artistic view to things bu at the same time extending the meaning of the lyrics. The bands these kinds of music videos generally appeal to a quite alternative and often a little pretentious.


Intertextuality: Synergy, Allusion, Pastiche and Homage

Synergy is he combination of one product over many different media platforms, like tv, film, advertising, records, and video games.

Aluision is a rough hint about that the music video in question may have some inspiration from another text. That can be applied to all of the music videos below.

Parody is a use of existing material re-imagined in a comical way making fun of he source material..
Eminem makes fun of dozens of celebrities and media texts in one go, from Star Trek to Rain Man



Pastiche is a use of existing technique to do you're own thing making something in the style of something that used to be but not remaking it. In this video Lady gaga pastiches Tarantino movies using much of the iconography associated but still doing her own thing.



Homage is similar to pastiche but is more about trying to replicate the source material out of love or respect.
This homage to Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo is a brilliant.



Animation
Sometimes cartoons look cool and can be a better interpretation of the lyrics.
This is a great if not terrifying example from pearl Jam from cartoon legend Todd Mcfarline.




Lip sync Miming and Playback
Syncing peoples lips to the music can be used to generate different responces from the audience. A great example is

Editing

Post-production is really important when making your video. The editing is awesome in seven nation army.



Cutting to beat
Cutting to beat is a great way of generating a rythem to the video electric six use it to a huge success at the beginning of their music video for "Danger! High Voltage".




Post Production Effects

Special effects can be implemented to make a music video more entertaining . Deadmau5 uses some excellent cgi in his video for professional greifers.





Split Screen 
Putting a split screen in a video can used to sections of film together at the same time. Doo-wop plays too videos side beside however Billie Jean stops and starts multiple clips together to generate effect.




Chroma Key

Chroma key or green screen is a technique used to install an artificial background into shot.
Cage the elephant use a green screen background in their video to generate the effects of old school movies where it was cheaper to impersonate a car driving in a studio.
 



Camera Movements
Camera movements are used in fatboy slims video to help cover the actor changes of Christopher Walken. Its a remarkable success and glides seamlessly with his dancing.



Camera Angles and Shot types


Mis-en-scene 

Mise-en-scene is everything in front of the camera and how it can be manipulated to convey meaning. Bonnie Tyler uses plenty of it in her video for total eclipse of the heart. No I don't think it makes any sense either.




Refferences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcOxhH8N3Bo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U631FGnXDXY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6QKqFPRZSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr2Bc5qMhE4

The Purpose of Music Videos

Introduction
The music video has become a staple of modern popular culture.
Music films started during the 30's with early talkie films. Singin in the Rain homage's these movies.


Over the 60's came the Scopitone a music video that projected short 16mm videos to accompany songs being played.



Around this time people also began recording live performances of gigs to be played on televsion, things like this and top of the pops were common.



Then in the 70's Queen redefined music with Bohemian Rhapsody, the first conventional music video. The rest is history.




Promotion of the Artist, The Song and Directors

The promotion of the artist is to make the Singer / Band more commercial being able to sell them to any audience. Video promotion is one of the best ways to get an album or single noticed. A great example would be the video for Blondie Atomic. Blondie is promoted in this video by background posters advertising the band.
Advantage

• Promotes the artists so you can sell all their product

Disadvantage

• Sometimes an artist with a particular iconography doesn't do a song the right justice.

The promotion of a song rather than a singer is just as important. In the video Deadmau5 for Ghosts N Stuff the iconography for the artist is hardly shown. instead it follows a non singing narrative that still entertains the audience and spreads the song. Deadmau5 is promoted in his video by the iconography of the reoccurring Mau5 Head his trademark mask

Advantages

• Makes the track more money. 

Disadvantage

• Sells the artist short making them less viewed in the media.

Directors might go out of their way to gain experience or promote themselves in the industry as well. These videos often indulge the directors creative liberties as much as the performers. Here is one by Spike Jonze acclaimed director for Her. This is styled after the kind of handy-cam antics used in Jackass. Spike Jonze promotes himself as a filmmaker by dressing the Jackass cast as Pandas to run amok, this is a classic mark of his work.
Advantages

• Promotes directors ability to make films.

Disadvantages

• Video might be to director centric and will override the musical talent of the band.

Producers strategies

Producers or Bands / Artists use music videos to promote bands in different ways. Since each band wants a different image its appropriate for their genre of music.

Major Label
Major Label music videos are generally big budget videos aimed to sell their band or perform by playing on television as much as possible. These are the heavyweights of the music industry and a video with these guys is going to be saturated on all audio and visual outlets. A great example is Johnny Cash hurt who is labelled under Columbia. Cash Stars in this video, this how he promotes himself.
Advantage

• High quality video
• Promotion

Disadvantages

• Suffocates everything that isn't a major label 

Independent Label
Independent music labels that are looking to sell bands generally have smaller budgets than Major music labels. My example here is a small French label called Record Maker founded in 2000. One of their Artists Kavinsky after gaining notoriety for getting his song Nightcall in the cult 2011 movie Drive. He got the chance to make a music video promoting his single Protovision. Kavinsky promotes himself under the Alias of the ghost driver a musical alias ( similar to Ziggy Stardust) this character is his iconography along with the Ferrari testarossa his characters car.
Advantage

• Some budget for videos.

Disadvantage

• Limited distrbution.

Self Produced 
Some times an artist or band who hasn't yet been signed to a label. This means their range of resources for their music video is generally much shorter than band that is signed to a label be it Independent or Major
This is the Protomens music video for their song "Will of One" from before they got signed to the independent label Sound Machine. Note that they have to make do with limited technology. The Protomen dress themselves up for their performances in a diesel punk homage to Megaman, the band promote themselves through their recognizable iconography through the video.
Advantage

• Complete creative freedom

Disadvantage

• Saturation of others looking for fame 
• no money.

Art Statement

Some bands / Artists choose a less conventional approach to their music videos with a degree of creativity that although great to watch they generally promote the artist less but still accompany the song in an abstract way that works. Daft punks Around the World video keeps to the beat but has no discernible narrative using the performers shown as living instruments. Daft punk promote themselves through their artistic kink to their video, they don't actually appear or promote their music as such just make a hugely memorable video.

Advantages

• Unrestrained creativity leads to new exciting things.

Disadvantages

• Major labels might try to censor bands and restrain them form less palatable artistic videos

Extension of Income

When a Band or Artist get played on the radio, the artist should receive royalties for the selling of their product. If the performer wants a music video as well in theory he should receive royalties both when the video is shown and when the song is played on the radio.

Although it cannot be calculated precisely what songs are gonna sell well, companies will buy popular music videos in advance to saturate the market with them. This can be used to better promote the band as more money can help increase the production value of the video, therefore help sell a better product.

Extension of Outlets and Platforms

The media has dozens of outlets that could promote a song, music video or band It's important that the right one is linked to the product shown. There are Television channels like MTV hits, Viva and 4 music for showing music videos. Along with these you have the Internet revenue and distribution though sales.

With the ever growing amount of media outlets there is more scope and range for new artists and more obscure musicians too seep through the cracks, less used websites like Vimeo are perfect for new unknown bands to become famous as there isn't as heavy major label influence as things like Youtube and music television channels.

Synergy

Synergy or is when a product that is sold also sells other products through licencing deals. This is a mutual benefit as the subsidiary products generally pay to the main product. This doubles the exposure of both products meaning that more people see it.

A great example of this would be the synergy of The Austin Powers movie franchise and Madonna in her video for beautiful stranger. This is a conjunction between Universal studios and Maverick/Warner Brothers. It was hugely successful winning the MTV award for Best Video from a film, Helping to promote both Madonnas song and the new Austin Powers movie "The Spy who Shagged Me".  The song also Appear in the films soundtrack. This helps promote both the Madonna and the Movie as they are both being shown in one another allotted space in the media.




Conclusion

In the world of viral videos, YouTube  and Vines. Short videos with catchy music that can easily be consumed on an media device like phones and tablets. This isn't a thing that's going away any time soon, last year Gangnam Style made nearly 2 million dollars in you tube advertisements alone.