This in an advertisement for the Prodigy's new album invaders must die; it consists of various energetic symbols along with the bands main logo, as well as a small amount of info at the bottom.
The mast head for this band is shown through an electric style text, in a faded black with the words prodigy a lot bigger than the. This emphasises the established name of the band and gives it a larger feeling title, as if it had been knighted in some respect. It’s based at the top of the page showing importance, and is but upon a crème like white which makes it stand out to the viewer.
The image below is of various triangles, circles and rectangles, almost looking like vents. As a whole the image looks a little like a window or containment of some kind that the album is breaking out of, emphasising power and importance. Another this image does for the band is represent their music, they are well know for creating up beat tracks that were and still are top of the rave lists for clubs and establishments, but unlike many of the artists in the same genre they have a slight oddity about them, shown through these strange collection of shapes. The artist’s album text is like its masthead only messier and more ecstatic, and with it in orange it creates a darkened, urban feel that represents the band roots. Other images that help associate the text with these meanings are the arrows; they are pointed in every direction showing signs of unorganisation, a common factor in the dancing styles the music tends to create.
Below this text is a release date, shown in the same font only a different colour, with it set upon the dark country landscape styled background it reminds me of the film 28 days later, where it was shown as a forthcoming end to society and establishment, something the band have done since day one. Also the main image looks like a sky ship; as if the band are overtaking the country or area the shot was based. As with the other magazine ads this one has small logos in each of the bottom corners, one for the record label, and in this case, the establishment selling the album.
I found this magazine advert for a chase and status tour that featured in many music based published products. It features the album art cover as well as the same style of text they used for it and other advertisements.
The image of the bulldog has become the most famous image associated with the band and has a lot of representation with their background. This type of canine was famously owned by many London based gangs and occupants, it shows the idea of a rural, urban up bringing and can be associated with the many acts that accompany the band on a number of tracks, especially Plan B. Because the music is fast paced and up beat, the image is juxtaposing the flow of their music, bulldogs aren’t the fastest of canines and they tend to waddle as well as dribble, this shows what type of influence the music can have. It represents the modern era of drinking, drug taking and raving, where most participants become slobbering messes that can’t walk to usual standards and are left with hangovers. A sense of stupidity is shown through the image, that maybe the artists hardly tried to make this music and that the people who listen to it rarely understand its complexion, and instead just see it as a beat to dance to.
As for the text and fonts used, capital letters are extremely common in advertisements, especially to electronic and drum and bass acts. This is because it demonstrates the importance of the tour, it shouts excitement and energy, and because the artist’s main names are the largest in size, it helps publicize their rise to acknowledgement. The colour yellow helps emphasis these effects by what the colour can most commonly be associated with, danger tapes, electricity and the sun all generate a sense of fun and enjoyment and with the bulldog image being monochromatic and it’s expressed further.
Other parts of the advert are the albums cover, shown very small because of the main image, and various information regarding where to get tickets and contact details. These are in a plain white text and are a lit smaller than the others; this makes it seem like subtext and also gets the viewer to want to look closer for an interest in the tour. Another image is the advertising label branding there work, which is once again very small. Where the text is most concentrated the image is faded in to black, helping viewers to read the information and aiding the stand out features above.
This is our final song choice for the music video. The plot consist of the artist Plan B (Ben Drew) receiving a video tape from his ex girlfriend, who filmed herself destroying his apartment, filling it with strangers, screwing his next door neighbour and putting his cat in the oven(alternate ending show her putting a book in the oven).
A lot of the video is filmed in a p.o.v perspective, firstly from the handheld cameras night vision view, and secondly the view from Plan B himself. Because the start of the video begins at night, you know that the content of it was very recent due to night vision. What the night vision mainly does is split up the two sides of the video, Plan B’s and his ex’s, and helps distinguish which characters path is being seen. Another great factor of the effect is that it shows the ex to be a sort of bad guy, because of the colours of night vision (shades of green) and the reflections of eyes and objects, it represents her as an evil figure, which in turn emphasises what she is doing to hurt the artist. None of the video uses slow motion unlike nearly all music videos these days, instead there is a p.o.v sequence that is speeded up to show the artists movements and rush. The rest of the camera work consists of a still shot that shows Plan B, chase and status all watching the tape from on top of a TV set, it helps to provide the audience with shots of the artists reactions, and also holds way for the subtitles that are present at the foot of the screen. Another shot that is present is one that shows the artist on his way home, it’s shown by having two to three different sequences quickly edited together to firstly express pace, and second to represent the dynamics of the lyrics within the track. Shots like this are often used to help maintain a protagonists state of mind and location (see Let You Go analysis), but not edited in this way, which helps signify the piece to be its own.
The character of the ex girlfriend is shown by the actress to be extremely cunning and vindictive. As she is destroying Plan B’s flat she often glances at the camera in a provoking, evil manner which suggests what the reasoning is for her acts and what her personality was like previously. One distinctive scene where we see her dark side at its height is after and during her sex with the neighbour. As he is thrusting into her she glares at the camera lens with a deep, vicious smirk, showing how far she is willing to go to hurt him emotionally. As she walks out the bathroom where her and the neighbour had sex, she holds up a condom filled with his sperm, and upgrades the smirk to a lip biting smile, further emphasising the scenes uncomfort and her malicious revenge tactics. Both chase and status at this point react by looking away in disgust.
As with the Let You Go and End Credits video, the setting for Pieces is the streets of London and its buildings. When chase and status film a video in these locations, they always have a certain grey and brown like darkness to them, it makes it look as if it’s set in a Victorian age with modern attachments. I believe they do this to represent the areas they were from as well as many of their collaborators roots. As for the setting of the recording studio, it has typical features on ones that exist in reality and would be surprised if that was the very one they recorded the track in. The performance room is blacked out and behind a thick sheet of sound proof glass, and as the delivery man gives them the tape he has to buzz the heavy set door for entry. This helps set the tone for the video and flows nicely with the beginning of the track. The mise en scene of the flat shows in certain aspects that its owner is an artist through the clothes she ruins, and the portrait on the wall, as well as the many CD’s. The flat also looks like it covers a large area so the cost would be high.
In nearly all of Chase&Status’s music videos, there is a theme of betrayal, sex, love, drugs and socialised representation, and Let You Go is no exception. The plot is linear, showing you a peak into in the life of the protagonist Patrick Chase (played by Glenn Carter), a talk show host who has parody like similarities to Jeremy Kyle. After finishing his show he spends his evening taking drugs, drinking, screwing prostitutes and causing destructive behaviour (crashes his car), then returning at the end of the video back in the dressing room of his show’s set, ready to start all over again. Like their hits such as Time, Pieces and Blind Faith, Chase&Status like to show what the public don’t see in certain people’s day to day lives, and they do it through the juxtaposition created by the flow of the music.
One thing about this video that makes stand out is camera work. When it starts there’s a great feel of realism with the shots used, they look like a chat show and represent it further with the heard dialogue over the top. To emphasise what’s happening in the video effects such as slow motion, close ups and dynamic camera movements, they express the energy in certain scenes and distinguish the subject matters at hand. One scene in particular that uses interesting camera work is near the end, after the protagonist has picked up the prostitute. He is shown drinking, smoking and taking drugs through a certain type of shot known as a Steadicam, the actor wears a special harness that makes sure the camera doesn’t shake and ruin the image, but this particular style of camerawork focuses on the actors face and shoulders, keeping them in the middle while the rest of the world moves around him. It expresses a sense of hallucination and out of mind due to its aggressive speed, and with the quick cuts and editing techniques it quickens the flow of the video for the scene.
Another thing the camera work does for this video is show the levels of power, class and importance in different characters. When the protagonists show begins to end the camera tilts vertically, putting the protagonists head in front of a bright light and above everyone else on the stage. This shows that he has an omnipotent like status in the show, and is in control over it, it also expresses that he is shown as being a good person, someone willing to help others when really it’s just a mask of deception. The same technique is used at the beginning and end of the video when he introduces the show; he permanently keeps repeating this pattern of hiding his true self.
The piece has distinctive editing as well as camera work. Near the end of the video we see a small montage of different parts of his day, that when edited with his present place give the watcher a huge burst of energy and information, much like to what the protagonist is feeling. It also shows him becoming tired and showing signs of the abuse he is giving to his body once the montage ends. The editing also has a good relative rhythmic flow to the music, when it speeds up, shots become more dynamic or slower for a juxtaposition styled scene, this helps firstly to set different atmospheres for the piece, and secondly to illustrate what it is that the artist wants the viewer to think towards their track.
Glenn Carter gives a great Jeremy Kyle like performance as Patrick Chase. He is seen as very punctual and upper class whilst hosting his show through his tones and dialects, as well as the certain attitude and body language he expresses when talking or insulting his guests. In the rest of the video we don’t here him speak which could show a connotation of the disguise he uses to protect his outer work lifestyle. There is a sense of reality to his performance, in that when he takes drugs, drinks and rear ends the prostitute it looks believable, tired eyes and a heavy face show the signs of exhaustion.
The setting and mise en scene for the video relates firstly to its subject and to the artist. Chase and Status and both from around areas of London and use its night scene in many of their videos. As for the chat show set, we see how the audience sits like in reality, and how you can always see the cameras and crew members filming the guests as the host wanders around. Typical hospital like waiting chairs are used to replicate what they do on Trisha ECT... And they are set out in a way that represents the guest characters relationships with each other.
With the beginning of the video starting out with a small, dialogue only scene it sets the mood for the rest which is dominated by the song. In this scene we see the lead singer of the Streets (Mike Skinner) on the phone to his girlfriend (the album A Grand Don't Come For Free is based on a relationship between the protagonist and a girl called Simone). When he loses signal on his phone and receives the text C U IN DA CORNER, it foreshadows certain lyrics within the song. Once the music starts you realise that it is set at a modern day wedding (in 2004, elements such as smoking inside and drug use are not as common or illegal today), and follows Mike Skinners evening there.
Within the video there is a lot of interesting camerawork and editing, including slow motion shots, Point of View and medium mounted tracking sequences. When listening to the lyrics of the song, you believe that it should be based within a club/pub type location (lyrics like bar lady, bouncer ECT...). The video itself can be quite uneasy at times, like when the protagonist snorts cocaine in the toilets with his girlfriend blowing a friend in the next cubical. Shots like this have a certain sense of reality to them, and reveal parts of today's society that you don’t want to see, and the music on top helps set the mood for these events. Effects used like P.O.V help illustrate the condition the protagonist is going through, the messy camera movement and use of awkward zooms and tracking help show his uneasy and high state. Another way that this is shown is in the dialogue, not every word is spoken on camera, and they slowly get less and less spoken as the song continues.
With the setting being a wedding, we see lots of mise en scene and lighting that reflects the look and feel of the occasion, lots of whites and crèmes help make the setting look realistic and professional. As the video comes to an end the lights change to a varied selection of flashing colours such as red, blue and green, this shows the change in the protagonists state and the feel of the video, representing what the drugs he has taken have done to his mind. The steadicam technique is also used in this part of the video, focusing on the protagonist face and emphasising the acts he commences. This particular effect gives the video a surreal feel, and has the actor staying still while the world moves around him, a lot like the effects of drugs and drink.
As the video comes to an end we see another selection of dialogue become heard, it consists of fighting, swearing and shouting, it then fades out with the last shot being of the protagonist lying on the floor bleeding. This helps tie up loose ends in the style of the video and gives the impression that maybe the protagonist wasn’t initially wanted at the celebration.
Discussing my choices with the rest of the group, we came to an agreement to use Pieces by Chase&Status ft Plan B.
Thursday 15 September 2011
After choocsing my top 10 songs that I would like to go forward with, as a group we decided to all choose 5 and compare the choices to finalise a decision. My five choices are:
1 - Blinded by the lights - The Streets 2 - street Life - Chase & Status 3 - Breathe - The Prodigy 4 - Pieces - Chase & Status Ft Plan B 5 - Gold Dust (flux pavilion remix) - DJ Fresh
I chose Pieces by Chase&Status as number one because of the layout of the song, and how it will be easier to create a video with a good story as well as looking visually good. Also Heavy by Chase&Status and the Flux Pavillion remix of Gold Dust are without an existing video, so I put the original Gold Dust video up.
After last years work on magazines I am confident in understanding the style of advertisement needed for this genre. Here are some examples:
The ad's just scream out energy and power, its almost as if you can feel the music through the page. This is because of the boldness of the text, the light & dark variations and contrasts, and tyhe shapes of lightning, speakers and so on. Like the Prodigy ad, I shall concentrate on making it a little odd and 'arty', this is too make the reader view the ad for longer and to add a sense of noir to the piece.
To create the products at hand I will need to pick a certain type of music, this so I can catergorise certain aspects and features. With the Linkin park digipak, you can see that they aren't a pop group or blues singers, but that they are dark rock and hip hop based, this is becasue the album artwort reflects their music. The genre I shall be looking at is drum&bass, artists include the Prodigy, Pendulem and Chase and Status. What I like about this genre is the way in which it can feel mellow or dynamic, and that themes for the videos are virtually limitless, as is the artwork and advertisements. An example of a classic drum and bass piece :
This video is one of my all time favourites and the way in which it is shot is fascinating. The one thing I believe a video made for a song like this needs is energy, I have noticed a couple of pieces that lack the dynamics in the video that are also in the song, and like this No Good, it should get people on their feet.
This Digipak is an example of what my final product will look like. What I like about Digipaks is that they have an artistic nature, thatb the artist can futher the message in their music through it. It is also the modern day vinyl case, most CD's or DVD's with cases like this are limited edition and have more worth in currency and personality.
My place in humanity is located through the title Jarrod Harvey, with the basic occupation of being an 18 year old student from York.
Within this project I shall be creating a music video that advertises its artist’s work, within my chosen group we shall choose a suitable piece of music that enables us to make a video that fits and shows the music for what it is. Since the main goal for music videos is to create money due to its place in the industry, elements of typical music videos shall be included to help the viewers distinguish whether or not to cash out on the track. The video shall also be completely different from its original (if it has one) to ensure our creative intentions clearly, our study on music videos and research around the same genres will enable us to produce something exclusive.
The reason for this project is simple; it is put to us by the examining board and is imprinted on the curricular. If we had a choice of projects to decide from, e.g. printed publications, other advertisements or web designs, I will stick with the music video due to my interest in the industry as well as motion pictures.
This blogging site I choose due to the ways in which you can edit the pages and the many possibilities it holds, also I have use the site before so learning its techniques won’t be a problem. Another reason for my choice is because it is one of the most known sites, enabling my blog for further interest by viewers.
The project itself shouldn’t be too much of a difficult task when it comes to time structure. I have created other pieces before that have taken a month to make, and others that took 24hrs, so the time it will take to make this one entirely depends on the group’s communication, skill and effort. My nearest guess would be around three days to shoot the footage, three to four weeks of editing and another week for preparation, not including a few hours to set it up in YouTube and other places to ensure it is seen.
Due to my knowledge on the subject of music videos, finding locations and actors should not be a problem. I can travel independently around the area to scout for good locations, and I can say that the footage will definitely not be shot on the college grounds; this is to ensure itself as an independent and original piece. The research for the video will consist of the basics, internet/books/magazines/DVDs to gain full understanding of how our genre is placed in the industry. We will also use physical research such as interviews and questionnaires giving us an insight to our target audience and what they would expect. The locations for the piece will be decided to fit our time schedule, availability and style, finding these will be a joint effort within the group. As for actors myself and others know people who are interested in the art so finding the appropriate people should not be too difficult, also it is only a music video and not many are needed, plus people from within the group shall also contribute. There are many ways to get the video out there, from YouTube and other sites, to showing people in person through DVDs or filed copies. All of which will give me information for the evaluation.
I hope the project works out as it will give me great insight into how a music video helps the product as well as introducing me to more information on the industry and film technology itself. What the project will do for me personally is let me express my skills on filming, I have a passion for the subject and it is the perfect scenario to help me show what I can do. To ensure the piece goes as intended there will have to be a lot of planning beforehand as well as the work itself being productive ensuring no time is wasted and no faults occur.
