Changes to the group

During the process of making the music video we came across some problems within the group dynamics. We felt that we couldn't work as a group of 3 because two of us had very different ideas to the other person and we felt we would make better products if the group separated and worked on their own cut and ancillary texts for the rest of the coursework project. Me and Mary are working together and Chris is working on his own. We have filmed most of the footage as a group of 3 but the editing and post production process will be done with Me and Mary working on one cut and Chris working on an alternative one. Personally i think it could be quite interesting to see what Chris' final cut turns out like using the same band and song and footage but just different ideas and creativity.

Mary's Blog - http://mary-jenner-musicvid.blogspot.com/


Chris' Blog - http://chris-lawrence-musicvid.blogspot.com/

Rough cut 15/03/11 and Audience Feedback

[Click on the video to go to youtube to have the opportunity to watch it in HD quality.]


Feedback.

• In one of the bridge shots there is someone walking behind Emily and it diesn't look right.
• Cutting to the beat sometimes works but in other places it's out of time.
• The black screen transition slows the pace of the video down quite a bit. Maybe use a fade or a cross fade instead.
• The very fast cutting to the beat is sometimes overused.
• We could maybe repeat a certain shot a 1 specific drum beat or guitar note.
• Some people said that the flashing and flickering effect that is on the performance footage is sometimes really off putting. To over come this we could possibly use stills instead or try using a strobing effect from Final Cut Express.
• Maybe swap the shot where Emily is touching the photos of the back of the bedroom door with when she is packing her bag.
• There is a small camera shake when Emily walks out of the gate.
• Make sure we stick to the pace of the song and what's on screen reflects what is happening within the music.
• The fast paced editing with the drum fill works really well.
• The argument could be slowed down because it is in the slower part of the song and near the beginning of the music video.

Kanye West - All Of The Lights

• This is slightly a little bit off topic from the music video but i still think this is quite a interesting and valid post.
• The music video for Kanye West's song 'All Of The Lights' was released the other day (February 19th 2011) and as I was watching it for the first time i thought of quite a few valid points that could be taken from it to do with music videos in general and also the music video for 'Confessions' that i'm currently working on. 

• The video is directed by Hype Williams who is an American music video and film director who is very successful and produces mainly rap and hip-hop videos. He also wrote West's short film 'Runaway' has also been a huge success and boosted Kanye's career even further. Many critics thought that Kanye West's career was over after the events at the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards but his latest album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' (released in November 2010) has proved them wrong and it has been a massive success and West has risen back up in peoples estimations.

• Personally i think the form and structure of the song 'All Of The Lights' is similar to 'Confessions' in the way it builds up and the big crescendo towards the chorus and the way that the pace flows really well throughout the whole song and the difference of the beginning to the end of the song. 

• Carol Vernallis talks about this in her book "Experiencing Music Video". She looks at the way certain things happen at different points in the video and the structure of the song reflecting the structure of the music video. Vernallis also talks about how there is a rhythm to the video that is created through what is on screen and using different shots and also how it's edited in the post production.

• I think Kanye West uses the theory that Carol talks about really well in this video. From start to finish it flows really well and what is on screen visually reflects what is happening in the music and it builds up to the crescendo at appropriate moments. The chorus is very different to what the verse is like and this is also very well reflecting through the music video.

• Hype Williams has used a flashing effect in the video which I think works really well and makes very good use of cutting to the beat which is very effective. Me and Mary have decided to use fast paced editing within our video especially during the fast moving chorus'. During the editing stage we were a little bit sceptical about using it and questioned whether people would or would not like it but when I saw this video I thought it would work and I actually think it's really effective in reflecting the nature of the song and also creating shot variation so it's more interesting for people to watch.

• A layering effect has also been used as well which we are using within our video. This creates a good intertextual link to our video and it's good to see that the effect can be used across generes even though they are totally different songs musically.

• In places i think it can be a slightly bit inappropriate with Rihanna not wearing much clothing but this is used so it appeals to a male audience using the male gaze theory and it is fairly stereotypical for a music video of that genre. There is a very big use of strobing all the way throughout the video which i think works quite well because it helps it to make the video flow and it also matches the pace of the music. At the beginning of the video there is a warning for people with photosensitive epilepsy because of this, and the video has had to be banned from airing on some TV channels worldwide. 
• It seems whatever West does he always seems to cause controversy and disorder in some way but I guess that's how you become 'individual' and get recognised for being different and making people think. 

LM / MJ - Magazine Advertisement.

• To create the magazine advert we looked in a couple of editions of 'NME' and also 'Kerrang' to see real examples of digipak adverts and other general album adverts that were from the genre that we were working in (alternative rock and post-hardcore) and so we could also get some inspiration. 

• We have decided as a group that 'Kerrang' and 'NME' would advertise our digipak and that the target audience for both the band themselves and music video that we made would definitely buy these music magazine as opposed to others such as 'Q' and 'Mojo' etc. 

Backgrounds:

• We decided that either of these images would create a good magazine advertisement background.

• From looking at existing adverts (in 'Kerrang' and 'NME') and CD covers by 'We Are The Ocean', we noticed that most were very graphical like and not just photos, so we decided the picture of Emily under the bridge would work well. This was chosen rather than the brick/ wall image because it had a bit more depth as opposed to just a boring brick wall which was quite plain and it also links to the genre of music that we were working with. 
• We didn't want it too link too much to the music video because the advert was selling the digipak album  and not just the music video. We took this on the digital SLR camera during the music video shoot.

The Digipak Album

• We have decided as a group that the digipak that we are producing is going to be a live album with an extra bonus  special edition music video for 'Confessions'. 

• The original idea was going to include actual live tracks that we would download the audio from youtube off but after doing some research we found that not all of the tracks had very good audio quality and it would be pointless including them on the digipak. 

• After much discussion we have finally decided that the digipak will be quite a simple gatefold layout with one sleeve for the audio cd and the other sleeve for the dvd with the music video and special edition bonus documentary and behind the scenes photos.

Characters

Location

Costume