Basic storyboard

Chosen Song for music video

I will Follow you into the dark - Death Cab for Cutie

Skills Developement

Previous to starting my media course I’d taken photography at GSCE level for 2 years so I already had a basic idea of photo editing on Photoshop  along with this I also practice digital drawing at home so It meant that I learnt a large amount of Photoshop from doing that before I’d even started the course. But because of this I thought my product of doing the college magazine would turn out better than it did but it helped show me weaknesses which I could then develop and improve throughout the year. Originally my photo for the college magazine could have been taken with a better background which didn’t require me to use a banner on the side to make text easier to read. Later on in the course I learnt a lot more about taking photos that aren’t just physically appealing but suit their purpose for example I learnt how to make differences in the type of camera shot, the lighting needed and the models chosen to make it so photos work for different magazines. At the time I thought my digital skills were quite strong at the beginning of the course but throughout the year I’ve learnt a lot about lighting, shots and how to manage the digital technology to make the product more appealing. This is especially shown when I compare the college magazine to my rock music magazine. Another skill I learnt through my course was using conventions in my products to help them fit their purpose which after doing several drafts for my rock music magazine I finally got up to a standard of fitting conventions I was happy with which made it turn out more successful than if I’d try to do it at the beginning of the year. 
Not only did I become more practised with using technology to help in my work I was also able to improve on my research before beginning the actual product, the research I did was key to how much information I could use to improve my own magazine. I wasn’t very good at analysing magazine covers at the beginning of the year and it’s still something I’m not very strong at but I’ve still improved quite a large amount compared to when I first started as I’ve learnt more of the terminology but I still get some of the terms muddled up sometimes. I struggled a bit with the research as it was something I didn’t enjoy doing very much at first but once I got the hang of it then I didn’t mind it as much but I much preferred being able to work on the product itself because it allowed me to be creative. Although I started using different ways of producing my research towards the end of the year which made it more enjoyable for example ‘Prezi’s which made it feel like I wasn’t just writing large blocks of plain text. I take a lot of creative courses on side to media so being able to produce pieces of work on Photoshop fit in well with skills I’d already learned from other courses making it something I find a lot easier. As I tend to be better at producing images and pieces of work similar to that than I am writing as it’s never been a strong point of mine. Being able to choose what genre also helped me because it meant I could include bands and other things which I personally liked making it less of a task and more enjoyable. I struggled a bit with choosing fonts at the beginning of the task because of the large amount and it was hard to choose the right ones which I thought suited their purpose but I started to get the hang of it by the end of the year. 
I struggled with planning quite a bit as I prefer just being able to start on the product straight away and experiment on what works with it that way so I wasn’t very good with planning in advance at first. The planning did help me a lot as it helped me reduce the amount of choices I had for my work so I could focus on what I needed to get done for a final piece to be produced but it’s still something I don’t particularly like to do.  Meanwhile the production of the tasks turned out better then I planned when it concerned my music magazine. I originally had the problem of not being able to get the right colour scheme for my photos, the first shoot I did turned out too yellowy because of the lighting and the second was too dark because I tried to use a spotlight. In the end I managed to get it right with taking the photos in natural sunlight so it was lit well but I wish I’d used red extensions in my front cover models hair instead of blue so it’d suit the colour scheme more. 
But overall my main improvement has been to my writing as when I first started the course I struggled to be able to analyse anything and although I’m still not very strong at it now I can now analyse things a lot easier and know what to write about them but I need to relearn some more of the terminology as by the end of the year there were terms I kept forgetting. I did get some audience feedback at the beginning when I did my college magazine but by the end I was more confident getting feedback using different methods for example questionnaires and videos recording student feedback, I could have done some more for audience feedback but I never did which is something I wish I’d done better . My skills using Photoshop developed as well but my main problem was getting photos and fonts that suited the product, which granted I improved on a bit compared to the beginning of the year but I still have room for more improvement to do with these aspects of designing final products.  

Textual Analysis of 3 videos

Although this video doesn't follow my genre of 'Indie music' because its more of a jazz genre but the style of animation is very interesting and it still follows the conventions of indie videos partially. Due to the fact indie music videos are in commonly black and white, the animation in this video is mostly in black and white with the exception of some red and yellow. The red represents desire and sin, this is shown because its normally only featured when the character is committing some form of sin or is desiring something/someone, for example red is featured when he tries to murder the dog or its also used when the women is involved as she represents lust. Along with this red has connotations of hell and sin so its used when the character falls into hell. The red helps develop the narrative as it makes it more understandable to the audience where the character has ended up because of the lyrics and the connotations of red connecting to the devil. Along with this the use of red helps continue the narrative by having the woman in red and the theme of it continues with the dog who in the the lyrics is said to be left by her father to guard her. So when the red is used to show he's in hell and its shown its the devils hound, the audience can make the connection of she's the devils daughter which goes back to her representing sin. Along with this Yellow is used to show the windows on the building emphasising the idea of it being at night.

The cinematography is kept largely to a an extreme long shot as it allows for more of the location to be shown which helps develope the narrative, along with this it shows the wind blowing through the trees on the night which gives the idea to the audience that he's doing something he shouldn't due to the connotations that people shouldn't be out at night as its unsafe. Along with this it also shows the size difference between the man and the building the woman is trapped in which emphasises the level of the task he's willing to commit for her. The videos also uses some extreme close ups mainly being on the woman as well  but on the most part its kept to extreme long shots.

The animation itself is designed to have a comical effect due to the way the characters are designed for example the man is designed with thin spindley legs and arms which add to the idea of him being a crook due to the connotations of bad characters being quite thin which is shown in a lot of cartoons. Along with this the song is always shown to be panting but it makes it seem like he's smiling at the same time which to the audience gives the idea of it being a big joke to him.

The genre of this music video fits into the indie genre more then the previous text studied but instead of following the idea of the video being in black and white, this animation does the opposite. All the parts of the scenes are made using bright colours which all have individual textures making it more appealing for the audience to look at. By using the wide variety of colours in allows for certain aspects of backgrounds and props to be exaggerated and unrealistic making them suit the idea of the creature travelling round the world to find a girl. But another convention of this genre I've noticed is that they tend to be slow paced which is shown in this video throughout it which also emphasises the idea of being lonely due to everything being dragged out. The cinematography on this text is quite varied but still follows the idea of using alot of long shots which Ive noticed is common in music videos involving animation. Which is used to help show the development in story more because of the space it allows in the shot which could perhaps shows changes of scenery etc. The use of close ups in this video is used to give the idea of depression from the creature, the camera shots change a lot with this video as it allows for them to show different types of moods to the audience as the creatures design itself doesn't show emotions using facial features. two of the shots in particular show the passage of time, the first one is a long shot of the cabin which shows the night spinning into day and vise versa which gives the impression of routine because of nothing in the surroundings changing other than the sky. Whilst the other shot is an extreme close up of the creatures bag showing more stickers of locations fading onto his bag as he walks which represents him travelling all over the world. The editing of the video is mainly cuts and doesn't really involves anything else which is common in animation videos. When the the female creature is involved red tends to be used as it has connotations of love, even the creature itself is red which connects to the idea that he loves this creature. Along with this birds are shown flying into a red sunset showing the shape of a heart once again representing the female creature.

The entire narrative is about this creature being lonely and travelling around the world to find love and in the end finding the creature he was originally with which is shown by the ripped photo it holds in the beginning of the video. The narrative is largely demonstrated by the props drawn in the video. For example he's shown to be missing someone by the idea of it holding a ripped photo, this is continued by the patches on the bag showing him travelling, with the birds forming a love heart into the direction the other creature is when he finally finds it and they match the photos up again. The scenes at the beginning and end of the creature eating alone first and then by end it shows the same actions but with him eating with the other creature which is the resolution of the narrative. The idea of a fantasy world in which this video is set would be appealing to audiences because its a unique world which makes the narrative absorb the viewer, along with this the colours and textures used make everything look abstract creating an unusual look to all of the characters

This videos cinematography is kept to one single frame, because its done with stop motion photography on a whiteboard its kept to a long shot with continuous editing. This breaks conventions slightly because indie music videos normally include close ups in the cinematography of their videos. The narrative of the actual video is that of someone dreaming of finding love and it shows multiple scenes related to finding love including that of modern day romance of buying each other gifts to show love as represented by the signs drawn on the buildings with one saying 'buy' and the opposition saying 'love' giving the idea to its audience that as a mass population (shown by the idea its over a city) we believe in artificial romance that must be purchased, but on the other hand it also shows the scene represented in the bible with Adam and Eve with Eve succumbing to listening to the snake into taking the heart representing love in its earliest forms, which the snake could also have connotations the negative . Along with this the scene in which the lone man is left besides an igloo, the blues and purples are used to give the idea of it being colds due to their  connotations with ice and being cold colours, this helps represent the idea of him being isolated and alone. But to combat this it also continues the narrative to his quest of searching for love which is shown with the heart attached to the arrow he is firing representing him searching. Like a lot of music videos following this genre it is largely in black and white but it sill features colour occasionally which helps highlight particular items of importance to the narrative or to make the background more appealing to look at with the plain character standing out in front of the vivid colours. towards the end of the video it completely breaks the convention of indie videos being dark or black and white by having colourful drawings all over the frames, which all move and combine with each other, this is to represent the man finding love and the positive feelings on love. Bright colours often have connotations to happiness and other positive feelings. This is to show a resolution in the narrative of the music video. This makes it more appealing to the audience as it shows a happy ending to the overall narrative which tends to be more successful. 

The Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

- a website homepage for the band 
- a cover for its release as part of a digipack (cd/dvd package)
- a magazine advert for the digipak (cd/dvd package)

Conventions

Music video Conventions:

Camera shots:

Close ups are used to emphasise the use of words and emotions in the songs whilst longs shots, close ups and mid shots also are common. These are so it can shows the artist, location and props more. Camera movement tends to largely follows the band or artist, using tilts, pans, track and cran shots.

Editing:

Jump cuts are largely used in music videos to allow quick change from location but fades are also commonly used as a change from the cuts.

Lighting:

 A lot of music videos are black and white which helps emphasise the mood and another use of lighting in music videos is using artificial lighting to create an atmosphere or put the artist in an enhanced look.

Music conventions in Indie/Rock:

• ·         Black and white is common
• ·         Dark locations
• ·         Use of extreme close ups or long shots
• ·         Some special effects
• ·         Fast paced
• ·         The artist or band tends to be shown throughout the video.

30 second story board - Boy & Bear - Big man

I wanted to do a music video experimenting with animation so I tried to find one which would only use a quite simple style. But in order to match the genre of music I wanted to do, this was as close as I could find, I want to use an acoustic style indie song in my music video. So I did some of the beginning of the music video in a storyboard presentation.