What is interesting to note about this video however, is that it isn't the original video that was created by the band but by a girl called Nanalew on YouTube.
However, Awolnation have created an original video for this, but it isn't available in Luxembourg and so I haven't been able to analyse the original one. The unofficial music video for Sail might "just" be Nanalew's own interpretation of the song and not what the band actually wanted to say with the lyrics. I have tried to contact Nanalew over the e-mail she has assigned on her YouTube channel. However, she hasn't replied yet and so I intend to update this post as soon as I get a response.
According to a website where a woman talks about the official music video, it sounds as if the original is completely different then this one. However, I did decide to make a note of it, since I believe that there are a lot of usefol elements in here, that could inspire Bronwen and me for our own music video.
The rain that is in the music video has a really good effect of depression and sadness, which could definitely also be useful in case we decide to go for a rock song.
The shallow field of focus of the raindrops on her hand can help to denote tears and sadness, and has a really good effect. Also the close-up of her face, as the central protagonist, shows that she is clearly outside in the rain, since her face and her clothes are wet.
There is a certain play with the male gaze theory, in this music video. First of all, it appeals to the male gaze theory, due to the clingy wet clothes and the choice of make-up for the central protagonist, such as the bright red lipstick. However, the unglamorous knithat and combat boots don't fit with the male gaze theory.
The first shot in the video suggests that the girl is the central protagonist or the victim. The rule of thirds is applied, since she is centered in the middle of the frame.
She isn't overly glamourous with heavy make-up but anyway there is a slight element of male gaze. Also, there are several shots of her where she is centrally framed in a mediumclose-up, which is what Goodwin would call star image, one of the 6 fearures of a music video.
The sepia effect in this shot, is often used to signify a flashback and her empty look in her eyes suggests that she is thinking of something.
The location in this video is key. The entire set-up of the instruments and the mic being attached to a cable makes it realistic. In case Bronwen and I would create a rock music vid we would try to get instruments out somewhere where we are filming in a location that you don't see everyday by walking down the street.
The editing changes quite dramatically all of a sudden when the beat drops to represent the change in pace in the track.
Panning accross photogrpahs is helping to establish the narrative. He is a cop, and one case might have horrorfied him so much that he became a slob and quit his job. Also the picture in the middle is of 3 family members. However, we don't see the mother so she might be dead. The mise-en-scene is telling the story in this vid.
In this video, there is a special effect, which you can also add using Final Cut Pro. It is called earthquake and it is a sonic wave coming out to emphasise the vibration from the song. It could be used when focusing on the base drum of the drum kit.
There is a used of letterboxing making the shot smaller. It becomes quite cinematric through the cinema widescreen. As the pace slows down, the takes are much longer. The use of long held non-diegetic string notes almost sounds like wind, creating drama.
Writing on the wall or using spray to write on the wall is a very good technique. The sentences "I'm afraid you asked for this" and "How Dare You" is also linking together with the lyrics. So when the singer sings these lyrics that's what you see on the wall. Using pictures as well creates realism.
The music video by Alan Walker for his song Faded is a great example of how important it is to do location scouting for our own Music Video. The genre for this song is EDM - Electronic Dance Music.
Throughout the music video we can see several
abandoned places. The location is also the main strength of this video and is the key feature that makes the music video special.
The video shows a young man roaming with his backpack
and a paper photograph of his home in his hand. He is in a completely
abandoned neighborhood with buildings that are destroyed. This connotes that a major destruction, maybe war, has hit the area and that he is now trying
to find the house that is on the picture. The lyrics keep saying “Where are you
now”, which connotes that he is looking for his parents or a friend. In this case the
lyrics therefore link together with the visual, (Andrew Goodwin theory on 6 features in a music video) which is what we would like to do for our music video.
As mentioned above, location is key in order to get a good music video. Bronwen and I intend to go location scouting during our summer holiday. We don't want to focus on one location but have a large variety. However, we both really liked this type of location and is possible might try to film our artist/band in such a location.
Furthermore in this video, the actor is using something like fireworks to light up the room that he is in. We think it would be a very good idea to either have elements of fire or fireworks in our music video.
The song Wannabe by Spice Girls came out in 1994 and was a major hit within the dance pop genre. The music video of the girl power band is a great example to analyse because it was the first girlband and video that marked a historic break because each of these girls had their own individual look and identity.
Boybands had always been individual characters signified through their style of clothing and personality. Whereas in the first videos of girlbands, the girls were non-individuated, meaning that they each wore the same clothing, same look (e.g. hair) and didn't portray their identity in the music video. A good contrasting example to the Spice Girls - Wannabe is the song Eternal flame by atomic kitten.
In the video above, the girlband, Atomic Kitten, doesn't show any individual character's or a different look. All three of them are wearing a similar white jumpsuit, have the same length and style of hair and a similar make-up consisting of a bright glittery lip gloss and mascara.
Despite the videos being so different from one another, there is one similarity between them, which is that they both contain features of male gaze (Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory). The glamorous look and amount of skin shown of the Atomic Kitten girls and the fixation of the female body in both videos through the medium close-ups in there, are the features of male gaze theory.
Another reason why I decided to comment on girlbands is because Bronwen and I considered to create a minivid of a girlband. Due to this, we wanted to identify the different key features that are in a girlband video.
When comparing the video from the girl power band Little Mix that brought out the pop song Wings from 2012 or their song Hair, which was released in 2016 or the Spice Girl's video, there are a lot of similarities.
First of all, there are bright colours included in both music videos. The girls wear bright clothes, have coloured hair and the background has patterns such as flowers, which makes it even brighter and highlights the girl's faces. The mise-en-scene of the blue, pink, neon yellow and other colors highlight the typical "girlpower" slogan.
Furthermore, the location of an empty airport or hangar is often used in music videos. It is also used for the music video Up in the air by 30 seconds to Mars.
When decorated with a specific trait from that group, such as the British flag, since the members of Little Mix are all from Britain, it already takes your eyes of the hangar, focusing on the singers and dancers.
In case that Bronwen and I, create a music video with a song from a girlpower band, we will be using a lot of colors in terms of mise-en-scene especially putting a focus on colorful costumes.
Furthermore, we indtend to create and choreography, a dance routine , which is one of the 6 features of a music video according to Andrew Goodwin's theory of the specific genre characteristic. I know some dancers from the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, which is the Luxemburgish music conservatorium, that offers classes in dance and singing and that also teaches music. I intend to contact those people, once Bronwen and I have set on a group pitch and our final idea.
Lastly, Bronwen and I want to go location scouting in a butterfly garden and use colour powder in our music video, that you use for the famous colour runs here in Luxembourg.
Today I analyzed a song called BAGBOY by PIXIES.The genre of this song is alternative rock and/or indie.
I found that this music video was very unusual, because there wasn't a link between the lyrics and what I saw in the video. Most of the videos I watch have a clear link between what you see and the lyrics. The character that we are seeing is a young boy and is not the one delivering the words. Also, the band isn't shown throughout the whole music video, which means that the video is based on a concept rather then the perfromance by the band.
Alternative rock or Indie lyrics tend to address topics of social conceren, such as drug use, depression, suicide and environmentalism.
The indie genre, often uses the hand-held camera is cheaper and it helps to signify realism during the video. Several hand-held tracking shots are being used throughout the music video to make clear who the central protagonist is. Bronwen and I have also been thinking about to have some hand-held camera when doing our music video specificially for the purpose of creating realism
The Pixies are a band that started out in the 1980s. This means that they nowadays might not appeal to a youthful audience as much as they did back then in the 80s. However, their music video for BAGBOY is using the colourful smoke to appeal to a new youthful audience and make them want to watch their music video as well as their target audience who are now in their 40s. At the beginning, you would think that the video isn't appealing to the female gaze, because the main character is not glamourous or very good looking.
However, later in the music video, there are some bright colors involved in the baloon scene and the bathtub, which appeals to a female audience.
UPDATE: Good use of color, which is interesting because typically a genre specific convention of the rock genre is that it is quite dark.
The boy fits with the band, since indie and rock is not based on glamour, so it makes more sense using someone less glamourous. The boy connotes the young version of the PIXIES. So the shot of his forehead with the Pixies in the beginning, is a representation of the lead singer, Black Francis.
Several tracking shots are being used throughout the music video to make clear who the central protagonist is.
One clear thing that I immediately noticed when starting to analyse music videos is that most of the time, their is the name of the band and of the song that is portrayed in some way. In the case of the BAGBOY music video, the central protagonist has "PIXIES" written on his forehead and then there are big capital letters in the middle of a playground of the name of the song. Like most other music videos we intend to
have the title of the song and the name of the band/artist in our video. However, we don't want to do it by using a font but make it more creative such as the case for BAGBOY by writing the band's name on a forehead.
Aerial shot -An aerial shot usually taken from a helicopter, often used at the beginning of a film to establish setting and movement.
Close-up -A camera shot taken at a very short distance to show the character's emotion, concentrates the attention and puts the audience in a priviledged position.
Establishing shot -The first shot of a new scene which is meant to give a general impression rather than specific information.
Extreme close-up - A camera shot showing a character's intimate feelings or thinking. This puts the audience in an intimate relationship. It can also be used for dramatic effect.
Long-shot -A camera shot taken at a relatively great distance from the subject and permitting a broad view of a scene.
Master shot -A wide shot that covers the entire action of a scene.
Medium close-up - A camera shot focusing on the importance on the emotions and objects but also keeping a sense of the surroundings and action.
Mid-shot -A camera shot in which the subject is in the middle distance. This situates the character in an immediate surrounding showing emotions. Over-the-shoulder shot -A camera shot taken from behind a person looking at someone else. This focuses the audience attention on one character. Point-of-view shot -A camera shot where the audience sees the situation from the character's position and can often be placed in the character's shoes. Two-shot -A camera shot of two people framed similarly to a mid-shot; this is often used to provide a comparison between the two characters.
Wide-shot -A camera shot taken at a great distance which is used to set up a location. Bird's eye view -A shot looking directly down on the subject. This can be used to establish an overall shot of a scene or to emphasise the insignificance of the subjects. Very often used for battle scenes.
Canted angle -A canted angle also known as the "Dutch angle" is when the camera is tilted. This is usually good for illustrating imbalance, transition or instability. It can also suggest a bizarre environment or psychological state. Effects such as blurring can contribute to this.
Eye level shot -A neutral shot where the camera is positioned as though it is a human observing a scene. The actor's heads are on level with the focus. High angle -A camera shot showing the subject from above. This suggests character's weakness, vulnerability, insignificance or isolation and being looked down upon; the audience is in a powerful position.
Low angle -A camera shot showing the subject from below. This suggests character's strength, powerfulness or dominance that makes them threatening and being baked up too; the audience is in a weak position.
Rat's eye view -Often used to show the view of a child or pet. The audience is in a weak position.
Worm's eye view - A shot looking up from the ground. This shows strength and dominance and can be used to show the view of a child or pet.
Crane shot -A crane shot is achieved by a camera mounted on a platform, which is connected to a mechanical arm that can lift the platform up, bring it down or move it laterally across space.
Dolly shot -A shot in which the camera is mounted on a cart which travels towards or away from the subject.
Hand-held camera -A technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a base.
Pan shot -A camera movement technique that involves moving the camera horizontally to the right or left.
Reverse zoom -A reverse zoom is when the camera moves so that the subject appears the same size while the background size changes.
Steadicam -A mechanism for steadying a hand-held camera, consisting of an arm to which the camera is attached to.
Tilt shot -A camera movement technique that involves moving the camera vertically to the right or left. Tracking shot -A shot in which the camera is mounted on a cart that travels along tracks from side to side. Zoom -Zooming means altering the focal length of the lens to give the illusion of moving closer to the subject.
Deep focus -A camera technique which allows all distance planes to remain clearly in focus, from a close-up range to infinity.
Focus pull - A camera technique where you change focus during a shot. This means adjusting the focus from one subject to another.
Framing -This refers to the way a shot is composed and the manner in which subjects and objects are surrounded by the boundaries of the film image.
Rule of thirds -The rule of thirds is when the frame can be divided into three horizontal and three vertical sections and therefore, where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect makes an ideal location for the more important parts of the picture that need to be focused on.
Shallow focus -A technique in which one part of the image is in focus while the rest is out of focus.
Editing:
Match on action -Connecting two shots together in which a character finishes off an action in the second shot that was started in the first shot.
Crosscutting -A technique where the camera cuts away from one action to another action in order to establish action occurring at the same time in two different places. This is also known as parallel editing and is often used to dramatically build tension and suspense in chase scenes or two compare two different scenes.
Cutaway - A shot that interrupts a continuously-filmed action by briefly inserting another related action, object or person, followed by a cutback to the original shot. This is often used to break up a sequence, ease the transition from one shot to the next, to provide additional information or to hint at an impending change.
Dissolve - A transition effect in which one video clip or image gradually fades out while another image simultaneously replaces the original one.
Ellipsis - A term that refers to periods of time that have been left out of the narrative. The ellipsis is marked by editing transitions, which signifies that something has been elided.
Eyeline match -A cut between two shots that creates the illusion of the character (in the first shot) looking at an object (in the second shot).
Fade-in - A terms used to describe a transition effect where the image slowly appears on screen. Fade-out - A term used to describe a transition effect where the image slowly disappears into a black. This usually indicates the end of a scene or film.
Graphic match -A transitional technique in which there is a cut between two shot that are joined, matched or linked by visual or metaphorical parallelism or similarities. Jump cut -A jump cut is a transition between two shots which appears to "jump" due to the way the shots are framed in relation to each other.
Long take - An uninterrupted shot in a film, which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. Long takes are often accomplished through the use of a dolly or steadicam shot.
Parallel editing - When you see what happens on two different locations, such as a male and female both waking up in a ROM-COM. Reverse shot -A shot photographed from the opposite side of a subject to provide a different perspective.
Short take - Very short takes within a film.
Shot - The images which are recorded continuously from the time where the camera starts to the time where the camera stops. It basically is an unedited, uncut strip of a film.
Slow Motion - The action of showing film or playing back video more slowly than it was recorded, so that the action appears slower than in real life.
Superimposition - The placement of an image or video on top of an already-existing image or video.
Wipe - When one shot is progressively replaced by another shot in a geometric pattern. Sounds:
Ambient sound - The background sound(s), which are present in a scene or location. Common ambient sounds include: wind, water, birds, crowds, office noises, traffic, etc.
Audio Bridge - A sound, dialogue or sound effect in one scene that continues over into a new image or shot. Diegetic sound -The diegetic sound is the sound whose source is visible on screen or implied to be present by the action of the film. E.g. voices of characters, sounds made by objects (animals - bird's twitching) or music represented as coming from instruments in the story space etc.
Non-diegetic sound -The non-diegetic sound is is the sound whose source is neither visible on screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. E.g. narrator's commentary, sound effects adds for dramatic effect, mood music etc. It is therefore represented as coming from a source outside story space.
Voice-over -A voice-over is the voice of an unseen narrator speaking. However it can also be the voice of a visible character expressing unspoken thoughts e.g. Bridget Jones's Diary - Film opening analysis.
Semiotics:
Anchorage: When you apply multiple signifiers to make the preffered reading clear. Binary opposition - Any mutually exclusive pair form a binary opposition such as good/evil, happy/sad. When these are placed together we can say that they are juxtaposed. Connotation - The symbolic meanings of the factual details we denote. E.g. The word "rose" signifies passion. Denotation - Denotation is a description of what we see or hear.
Iconic signs - Iconic signs are where the signifier represents the signified. E.g. A picture.
Indexical signs - Indexical signs are very closely related to the concept they signify. E.g. A tin of catfood signifies the catfood inside.
Intertextuality - Meaning of one text is tied to another, earlier text, e.g. to fully understand Scary Movie you'd need to have seen Scream.
Narrative Enigma - Mysterious elements within a text form a narrative enigma.
Polysemic - When a sign is polysemic, it means that it is carrying lots of meanings at the same time.
Sign - The smallest unit of meaning. Anything that can be used to communicate.
Signifier - A signifier is a single detail that we pick out, which we think has a symbolic meaning, which is then the signified.
Signified - The concept that a signifier refers to.
Symbolic signs (arbitary signs) - Signs that do not have an obvious relationship with the signified, meaning that they can keep changing. E.g. A dove signifying peace. Target audience - The audience that the text is targeted at. E.g. Teenagers, adults, specific age group.
Titles:
Ident - A short visual image that works as a logo (e.g. production companies in a film).
Font - The type and style of writing chosen for text.
Hi my name is Sophie and welcome to my A2 media blog, which will be dedicated to my A2-Level Media Studies. Last year, I created a film opening in a group of 3 for the AS-Level Course. This is the film opening we created called "Cross-Cut":
My skillset developed a lot throught the year; I became more detailed on how to write posts, I learned a lot about the different technologies that we used to film our film opening and I discovered a whole new interest of mine that I did not know existed. I enjoyed blogging a lot during the AS year and this year I am sure that it will be even better at it and develop further. If you have any interest for visiting my AS Media Studies blog, just use this link. This year I am back with one of my group members from last year, Bronwen Vaughan, and we will be attacking the year by creating our own Music Video, Website and Digipak. My ambition for this year, is to complete my coursework and exam with a good grade and improve on my weaknesses from last year. I intend to work more on my evaluation questionsand do more research into genre and audience. In general, I want to create and produce a really good coursework that Bronwen and I will both be proud of. There are 5 key lessons/things that Bronwen and I decided to do differently this year compared to last year:
Start earlier with our coursework
Do more location scouting
Do more research into genre and audience
Use more technology and get to know the camera better e.g. focus pull
Plan it more out with the use of storyboards, call sheets etc.
