Research Analysis
I talked with the band members of ODD and all their favourite band is Blink 182 and they say their music is along the lines of what theirs is. The band manager would also like their video to be along the lines of what has been seen in Andrew wk’s – ‘we want fun’, Blink 182’s ‘the rock show’ and several others. As these videos include skating, stunts and general mucking about.
I have analysed several current punk rock videos (placed in the research section of the DVD) and have realised the things which set the difference between them and other music videos on the market:
The common subjects in the videos I analysed included Skating (or other street sports e.g. Bmx-ing), Stunts or other things of a humorous nature, live shots of the band and of people moshing/dancing to the music.
From my questionnaire research I have though, discovered that most people would not like to see much other footage on the video other than the actual performance of the music this is because quite a bit of my research is from a slightly older audience and normally it is only younger 10-18 year olds which enjoy stunts and extreme sports. Although if possible I will add other clips in of the band out skating etc.
For my research I also focused on the way current videos were edited and made. The shots are very quickly changed, usually on every 1st 2nd or 4th beat of the music creating a montage of quick sequences of images and clips. I noticed the camera work involved panning, quick zooming from CU’s to MS/WS and shots from a variety of angles including CU’s of main vocals, guitar strings and bass strings, MS of drums from front and rear (focusing on drum action) and WS of the band from straight ahead and from a raised angle. The videos also included camera shooting from a low height looking up to give a height effect, but this was done by using a fish-eye lens and I will not have one of these at my disposal and therefore the shot would not look entirely correct.
Another couple of techniques I have seen in the videos I have researched have included the blending of two videos using super imposture and blue-screening. These facilities will not be available to me as it is very expensive. However I have noticed another technique used which is when the camera is put on a rail and moved around or past the band when recording, this gives the people watching a feeling of being there and walking around the band, rather than it just being an image on the screen.
Camera Angles
I have discussed with the band manager and the band members about what camera angles I will be using and have agreed on a total of 5 maybe 6 angles all of which are based on what had been researched from other music videos.
The camera angles are as follows
- A MS of the action on the drums from behind
- A CU, H+S or Ms of main vocals
- A CU of guitar strings
- A WS of the entire stage and band
- A CU of Bass strings
- A CU, H+S or MS of back up vocals
To help you visualise the camera angles better here is a rough drawing
Angle Sketches
Audio recording
The Audio for the video will have to be recorded separately to the video. This is mainly because simply the quality and levels of the sound will not be very good, but also because of the fact that I will be using several different recordings of the song and the audio recorded through the camcorder will be different for each shot.
To record the sound separately I will be using the recording studio at our school but as the facilities are not the best in the world, levelling the sound may be difficult.
After I get the audio recorded I will then ‘mould’ the video to the audio so that they are in sync with one another. This is essential for the video otherwise it will not work properly and make a poor production.
Video Analysis
The video includes only live footage and no other footage due to lack of time, conditions and resources. I previously had hoped to include some outdoor skating footage or other extreme sport into the video but recent weather and time to complete project has limited what I can do. The video was all recorded in one of the band member’s house, as my original plan to record in a hall or theatre wasn’t successful.
When I recorded the band, I tried to follow my angles as best as I could one at a time as I only had one camera so I could not record multiple angles simultaneously. If I had 6 or more cameras at my disposal, I would have set all the cameras up in positions and recorded video once all at the same time.
Once I got my footage I then transferred it to my pc via a fire-wire (DV) cable into a high resolution format. With this video, I then imported it into a video editing program on the computer appropriately named windows movie maker. Normally I would have used another program which would feature a multi source timeline which would enable me to quickly edit the footage by switching the angles on the fly rather than cutting and clipping which is what I had to do in windows movie maker.
In Windows movie maker, I added the pre-recorded music of the band (now named braking fast) to the timeline and then cut the video footage I had of the band to fit in time with the music. As you can see from some points in the video this was slightly unsuccessful. However could have been more of a success if I had recorded all the angles at once and used a programme with a multi source timeline.
When analysing the audio for the video I came up with the idea that the drums are the life of the video connoting to the beating of a mammals heart. So from this we decided that it would be a good idea for the drums to mean colour (life), Whenever the drums stopped in the video, the picture changed black and white (B&W). This is shown on the very beginning of the video and just past half way through.
Supporting account
My original target audience for my video was aimed at 16-21 year olds and from my research in that age range I discovered that most of them were male students who like listening to either punk/rock or some club – like music e.g. R+B, Rap and garage. Most of these people liked to watch music videos on a regular basis and on a TV music channel. However some people said they like to buy their bands DVDs and watch them, this would figure as the majority of the audience had a relatively high income for a student.
I decided on making a music video originally because it is becoming more and more popular to watch your band rather than listen to them on the radio etc. The media is currently going through a kind of evolution where radio has gone out and buying CD’s are in, but now music DVD’s and more digital music video channels are making the evolution move further and into the video world. This is comparable to that of the Mobile phone industry where now people have the ability to see who they are speaking to.
I have decided to distribute my video in several different ways; it has been put onto the internet in several different file-sizes/bit rates to give better quality pictures to people with faster internet. I have produced a DVD containing the music video. And also a VHS so that there is the possibility of television screening/broadcasting.
In my video as explained I have only included the performance of the music and no other footage such as an extreme sport etc. I am disappointed that this had to be done as the videos currently on the market aimed that this audience would include such things. However the video which are aimed the older audiences tends to focus on the band and the people dancing/moshing etc so this isn’t too bad.
Evaluation
I feel that my project has been successful to some extent, I have achieved my main target which is the main part but I have however failed in producing the best quality of productions due to sound recording limitations and also video recording, If I had all the money in the world, this would not have been an issue and I would have been able to complete my project much more successfully but as I did not have the facilities at my disposal the video has looked somewhat amateur.
The issues I have faced in the production of my video have included the dysfunction of some sound recording equipment giving us poor vocals and general levelling in the audio for the video. The lack of different locations/more footage due to time and facilities. And also the minor faults in the video timing due to the point of only having one camera to use making each recording slightly different and hard to cut and construct a video from.
If all of these problems has been solved I am confident I would have been able to produce a top quality production appealing to a greater audience and attracting more attention the band.
