Podcast 3

This is our 3rd weekly podcast, that Kristian and I recorded together.

SR/KO

Script:

Last week we edited the sample scene and also updated our production schedule. We included which particular part we were going to film on each date and which cast should be present for the specific shoots.  

This week we will talk to all the band members and make sure that they each know what to do for the filming on Saturday the 29^th . Sophie is also going to finish the call sheet, so that we have shot directions for Saturday and also we intend to do a video that the band singer can watch so that he knows approximately how to perform.

MVid EG8: 30 Seconds To Mars - Up in the Air

WHAT WE DID USE: COLOR POWDER + FLICKERING BETWEEN SHOTS

With their 8 seconds long video, 30 Seconds To Mars, created quite an interesting set for their song Up In The Air. It is not the typical type of video with a narrative but more a music video with performance and other pictures that may have significance to the band.

Throughout the music video there isn't a narrative but more "random" pictures of a lot of different people such as a girl here on the left who is wearing a very simple grey strapless dress, with her hair up. The simplistic costumes pulls the focus on her colorful make-up and the background that included several small colorful dots. This is a reference to 30 Seconds To Mars

Digipak, which was probably done on purpose to establish a clear link between video and digipak in order to create a sense of branding. Also the name of their album is "Love Lust Faith + Dreams", which is what the 8 second long music video says with a female voice at around 30 seconds.

In the clip that I have screen recorded (see below), you can also see the fast paced sequence which was another element of this video that I really liked.

UPDATE I decided to include such a fast paced sequence in our music video for Throne. 

The color powder scene was something I immediately knew should be included in our music video, when I first saw this video. I have known this band for many years and seen this music video before, and so I decided to use this as another music video to analyse here on my blog. The color powder plays quite a big role in the music video and there is a big shot variety with close-up's, long-shots etc. 
This video is also the main inspiration for the color powder in our music video for Throne. 

MVid EG2: You Me At Six - Stay With Me

WHAT I LEARNED: IMPORTANCE OF THE VERISIMILITUDE OF THE BAND MEMBERS PLAYING THE INSTRUMENTS

Artist: You Me At Six
Release: 2010
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/youmeatsix/staywithme.html

This is You Me At Six music video for their track "Stay With Me". I decided to analyse this music video, because it is the same genre as Bring Me The Horizon. However at this time of the release (2010), the band wasn't so old yet and they didn't look much like BMTH. However, now the bands have grown to look a bit more alike and have similar looks. 

The one thing I wanted to comment on in this video was the mise-en-scene, in particular the location of the performance. Again, like Asking Alexandria video for "Here I Am", it is out on a field. However, there difference between Asking Alexandria's video and this one is that they  have achieved verisimilitude, by having cables in the guitars and bass guitar and also in the lead singer's microphone and the Amps. This is what we intend to do in our music video in the woods as well. There is also good verismilitude of playing, which is also an important feature of the music video. Not only does the lead singer have to lip-sync right they also have to play the instruments right. For a rock band that plays instruments everyday it may seem simple, but for a band that has been created by a group of media students where none of the band members play instruments it can be very difficult to achieve instrument verisimilitude. 

MVid EG 1: Asking Alexandria - Here I Am

WHAT WE DID: THIS IS ONE OF THE BANDS WHERE WE GOT OUR COSTUME INSPIRATION FROM!

Artist: Asking Alexandria
Release: 2016
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/askingalexandria/hereiam.html

This is Asking Alexandria music video for their track "Here I Am". I decided to analyse this music video as a genre specific music video, because they are the same genre as Bring Me The Horizon and are a bit similar to the band in terms of mise-en-scene in music videos and costume style. 

On the top left you can see a picture of the band members from BMTH, whereas below it you can see a picture of Asking Alexandria. The band's look a bit different now, with some of the band members from BMTH having shorter hair and a beard, which is what we have based our choice of costume and band members on. 

In this music video the band members are all wearing tight black skinny jeans that are either ripped or not. Also 4 of them are wearing a black T-Shirt or black Tank Top with a V-Neck, whereas the drummer isn't wearing a T-Shirt at all. This little form of clothing also highlights their many tattoos to the audience, which is one of the common costume conventions of rock bands. Most of them also have long black hair, which links in well with Bring Me The Horizon's lead singer. Our costume has been inspired by a lot of bands but Asking Alexandria and BMTH themselves are definitely where our main inspiration has come from. 

Another thing that I liked about this video was the location. The location, as you can see above, for the performance was a wide field, with a view over some mountains. This is a good location, because it allowed the focus to be on the band. We intend to use the woods or a barn for our music video, but if we can't find that, a location like a field would also be a good option. 

However, one thing that this band hasn't done, which we intend to do, is to have cables of the instruments plugged into the guitars, bass guitar and our keyboard. Ofcourse we also intend to have a microphone with a cable, because we believe this would help to the contribution of achieving versimilitude. 

MVid EG7: Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball

The music video for Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball was released on September 9th 2013. 

The song debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number fifty, and later became Cyrus' first number-one single in the United States after the release of its controversial music video. It retained the peak position during the following week. 

Nine weeks later, the track returned to number one, and consequently had the largest gap between number-one sittings in Billboard Hot 100 history. 

As of January 2014, "Wrecking Ball" has sold three million copies in the United States. 

Internationally, the song charted strongly; it topped the charts in Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom, and charted in the top ten throughout much of Europe and Oceania.

Intertextuality: 

The video has been inspired by Sinead O'Connor's music video for her song Nothing Compares 2 U. 

There is some intertextuality to O'Connor's video in terms of the extreme close-up at the beginning, where they both sing. 

Post-feminism: 

As Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus also considers herself to be a post-feminist. A traditional feminist might see Wrecking Ball and Miley Cyrus as disgraceful and a sexual object because she is barely wearing any clothes. Other's might also argue that Miley might be exploited by her director Terry Richardson, allthough the people who know his work would argue that this is very normal for his work since he is involved in a lot of controversery music videos and photo shoots where the woman is exploited. However as the post-feminist she is, Cyrus believes that she is presenting the idea that she is free and  creating the art of music. 

Normative: 

Another point i wanted to comment on is her hair, since she is breaking the typical gender stereotype of females needing to have long hair and males having short hair. This again is a stereotype that has become a normative in society. This might also be the reason why it has been so difficult for Cyrus to break free from this stereotype and may be the reason for why she has gotten so much critiscism over the past few years. Through her hair she is being counter hegemonic, as she decides to ignore the restrictions of society hence breaking the gender stereotypes. 

Costume:

Her costume consisting of the white panties, white tank top and the black combat boots, exposes her body and in particular her strong arms. The arms are usually also seen as a gender stereotype of males having muscels and women having thinner arms. However, her arms are shown as muscular, which  would then be the stereotype of her being a lesbian, because she has short hair as well. Again, this is a  very stereotypical normative. However, the top is a form of crop top, which is also a feminine aspect of clothes and connotes that she is in some way mixing up the stereotypes and fighting against them.  

KO: Target Audience: BMTH (Magazine)

For audience research I will be looking at some magazines that have featured Bring me the Horizon. Then I will look at the genre for those magazines and that will help use determine who the target audience is for the band.

Bring me the Horizon have featured on the cover of AP (Alternative Press) many times. You can see from the photos that they have features in issue #248, #268, #299, #327, and more. By looking at APs Website I saw an article that was tilted "18 tattoos that will send chills down your spine". This tells me that the age range is centered at around 20 year old as they are the ones who generally get tattoos. Other bands that have featured on AP are such as "Twenty One Pilots", "Crown the Empire", and "Panic! At the disco".

BMTH have also been on the cover of Rock Sound a few times. Other bands that have featured on Rock Sound are bands such as "Twenty One Pilots", "Green Day", "30 Seconds to Mars".

Rock Sounds age range is slightly lower than AP as Rock Sound features some bands that arnt as heavy such as "30 Seconds to Mars". Although on there website there is mentions of alcohol which is 18+ in England. The age range of both magazines i would say is around 18 to late 20s, but AP focuses more on a heavy metal group. 

Sample Scene 1

This is a practice video/sample scene that Kristian and I filmed with the band on the 16th in order to get some footage for our sample scene and try out different locations. We also wanted to try out different positions for the band members, in order to see who would fit the different instruments best and ofcourse fit and get the role of the leadsinger. 

Despite using social media to advertise and having auditions, it has been quite a challenge to find people who can play an instrument and who wanted to take part in the project. Therefore, we decided to go for 5 people, who we thought, looked suitable for the role, with some change in costume for the real filming ofcourse. 

Since this was only a practice, we didn't have all 5 band members there, we didn't have all the instruments either and we didn't spend time on doing make-up since we wanted to focus on the set-up first. Also, not all members knew the lyrics, which means that it was hard to focus a lot on lip-syncing when I edited this. 

I did however, try to use two different video effects. First of all, i wanted to see how it would look with the video effect, but it was also quite sunny that day and so the outside scenes wouldn't have been suitable for the actual real footage, since the mood is supposed to be quite depressing and the weather should link with the mood. If it does turn out to be sunny on all the days we are filming, Kristian has quite a lot of experience with editing so that it still looks dark outside, since this was the case for his film opening at AS-Level.

Podcast 2

This is the 2nd podcast that Kristian created on his own. In this he is talking about how we finished the auditions and how we did the practice shoot.




KO

BV: Metalcore Branding on Social Media

I went on to YouTube and Facebook and selected some bands similar to Bring Me The Horizon, taking screenshots. This will help us get an idea/inspiration for our own branding. 

SLEEPING WITH SIRENS:

A DAY TO REMEMBER

YOU ME AT SIX

BRING ME THE HORIZON

KO: Metalcore Branding on Social Media

To interact with audiences bands now have their own Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. To get an idea of what colors, fonts and styles where used im looking at different bands in the same genre.

Bring Me the Horizon:

What can be seen in both of YouTube and Twitter homepage is that black is used for both of the profile banners. The banners also have to logo but the Twitter logo is to the right and almost invisible along with some text in the center that says "THAT´S THE SPIRIT" That is equally as visible as the Logo.

On the YouTube homepage the logo is in the center of the banner and instead of being barely visible it is white on the black background.

The YouTube page has a link to BMTHs Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud and iTunes. The Twitter only has a link to the website.

Both the pages have a photo of the band but there are some differences. The Twitter Photo has the band sitting in what looks like a cinema.The singer is siting in the center frame while the other band members sit scattered around. Some are wearing hoodies and they all look serious. The photo is also black and white.

The YouTube photo looks very different to the Twitter Photo. The YouTube Photo has the band sitting together looking at the camera. The main singer is still in the center but the other band member are sitting right next to him. The photo is also not in black and white but instead has a light blue background. The Band are also wearing different clothes as they are wearing T-Shirts or jumpers.

Linkin Park:

 Linkin Park has a different style then BMTH. First both the YouTube and Twitter banner and profile picture are the same. Instead of having the band for the profile picture its just the logo with no text.

The banner has the logo in the center with band name underneath. In the background there is a picture of what look to be a music soundboard that is out of focus.





The Twitter also has a link to their website just like BMTH did. On the YouTube page they have a link to their website, Google +, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Linkin Park has related channels on its YouTube

page. The related channels are other artist they have worked with and also their label company.

Alice in Chains:

 Alice in chains properly has the most different banner and profile picture out of the 3 examples. The YouTube banner has the band standing in what looks to be a car park or something of the sort. The band members all have long hair and are wearing black clothes. The main singer is looking at the camera while the rest of the band is looking straight ahead.

The profile picture looks a lot more different. Some have short hair and the picture isn't as dark. They are also wearing brighter clothes and jeans. They are also in different positions.

The Twitter profile picture is in the same location as the YouTube profile picture but the band is placed differently.

The Twitter banner is very different as it is a white background with the name of the band in all caps written along in black so it really stands out.