EVALUATION
The brief was to create a music video for any artist (signed or unsigned) and to complete 2 ancillary tasks from a list of three (create a cover for the digipack, poster for the digipack, website for the band). The music video along with the ancillary tasks was to promote the band and the song.
Music videos don’t have much storyline to them; the videos merely show what the lyrics are saying. As the song I chose had no lyrics, I was to create a storyline or meaning to portray. Before I began to think of a story/meaning for my music video, I researched the band The XX. This helped me because it gave me background information on the band as well as the style of music videos.
This is a print screen from The XX’s song, Basic Space. It’s dark and works with the song well because of the abstract style. I wanted to keep this style for my video.
The Kills also have quite different and weird videos as well. Both artists influence my work.
From this I decided to go down a different route, rather than keep to the classic upbeat storyline that is feature in the majority of music videos now-a-days. I wanted to create something that would shock people, maybe scare them a little.
My video is quite similar to The XX’s other videos because of how different and unique it is. Yet at the same time it’s different as it still tells a story of fear.
In my video, I used the horse to represent fear which the man is running from. He isn’t actually being chased; fear doesn’t take a form, it’s all in the mind. To show this, I had the horse in black and white, like it’s a memory. In the beginning scenes of my music video, the man’s lying down, staring at the sky. I wanted to have the end at the beginning, as if he had been running away and collapsed where we (the audience) finds him.
My video is quite fast paced, even though most of it is in slow motion, because of the sharp cuts and angles, it creates a faster pace. Each clip was carefully cut to even sizes, depending on which section they featured in. so in the beginning clips, the zooming into the face were all the same length, as well as the sharp flashbacks, which had to be 0.3 seconds long. The song itself isn’t fast, the band are notorious for their slow paced music. But the song featured heavy beats, which I used to my advantage by making them the cuts in the clips. Making the video more abstract and almost hard hitting. I think the pacing of the music video fits well with the song. Any other song and it would work; because of the heavy beats and weird guitar sounds, the fast paced video and the slow paced music works perfectly.
A generic convention used in music videos is the story. With no lyrics I had no pre-made story to base the video around. Creating one from scratch was the hardest part of the video because it was such an open song, as in most storylines would work with it. Another is the cast, there is no band performing; there is no reference to the band at all. Normally the band or artist would be shown in the video, to keep the viewer aware of whom they are listening too. Also the artist influences the audience a lot. I decided not to feature any band members as they would seem out of place.
The camera was running along with the subject in a few clips, a convention used in music videos. It creates a sense of involvement with the viewer, as if they are also running. Also the edits to the beat of the music is a convention.
This video doesn’t represent anyone, I think. It would appeal to the older teenagers, 16+ all the way to 40-45. Creative people would enjoy the video more because they could understand the story and the beauty of the video. This would attract them
.
To edit this piece together, I used Video Pad. As well as that I file converter (Pyramid File Converter) because my clips were in an unworkable format. Both these new media technologies were new to me, and from this video I have learnt a great deal from them. For the ancillary tasks, I used Photoshop to change the photos used in the digipack cover and the poster.
The ancillary tasks also sell the band because it is where you see the singers. It also backs up the style of the video, thus showing what style of music the band are. For the digipack cover, I merged a few pictures of a horse in negative and black and white together on Photoshop. The song titles are in different fonts and sizes, keeping to the abstract theme. I included the normal small print as well (record label, copyright laws). Middle panel, I used a photo of the band and lyrics from a song on the album. I kept the horse theme by having the horse photo in the top and bottom panels, either side of the band photo.
Keeping the colours cold, it represents the style of the band and shows that they are no ordinary band.
The poster is the same idea as the digipack, its has the same pictures and the title of the album is centred and big, so it would be easily spotted. Also reviews by news papers and companies to promote the album, influencing people to purchase it.
I feel this music video fulfils the functions of a music video. It represents the bands music, with it being so individual and almost needing its own genre. Although my video doesn’t show the `singers ` or anyone who seems to be part of the band, I find that in itself it is a piece of art; with the storyline and the song. I think it would feature on any music channel because you couldn’t class the song as one specific genre. It would work well on MTV and Kerrang, as well as a dance channel (because it doesn’t have lyrics).
I’ve showed people my video, who hasn’t heard of the band before. A few said they would listen to other songs by this band again because it’s different. Others have said that the video grows on you, the more you watch it the more you like it. Some people didn’t understand the story in it. They didn’t get what was happening and why till I explained it. It is a music video you have to watch over and over to get a full understanding of it.
All in all, I think my video works well with the song I chose and really captures the unique sound of the band. I don’t think I would change anything, if I had the chance. The only thing that worries me is the quality the filming came out like, but it’s not a major issue.
