My Band's Logo

My Music Video's Promotional Poster (Second "Draft")

My Music Video's Promotional Poster (First "Draft")

Record Label

I decided to use Roadrunner Records as the record label for my band because, although other labels focus on 'Rock' music, Roadrunner is one of the most successful 'Rock' labels; has similar bands on it; and I like the logo more than other labels'.

Times of Grace 'The Hymn of a Broken Man' Digipak Analysis

 

 

 

 

 

Thirty Seconds To Mars - 'This Is War' Promotional Poster Analysis

On this promotional poster for Thirty Seconds To Mars’ song, ‘This Is War’, the view of the band is from the perspective of a military-issue telescopic lens of some kind. The entire image has an overlaying image which has lots of very fine, faded black lines -- this is to make the lens’ perspective look more authentic. This is an effect that I more-than-likely will use on my poster, as mine will be military-themed as well.

As well as this, the poster has a solid-coloured bar across it. I have seen a lot of posters with these bars on them. The bar fills out the poster, and draws attention to the title of the song that the poster is promoting. I was already planning to put a bar across my poster.

Album Cover - Early Concept

 

 

This is an early design of my album cover. I decided against using this as the final design because the red colour of the guitar is too bright, thus not fitting with the genre. The brightness of the red also detracts from the rest of the image; and it connotates "life", which is the opposite of what I want the image to connotate.

Industry Research

Other record labels associated with ‘Rock’ music:

Atlantic Records

Best known for its recordings of 'Rock and Roll', 'Jazz', and 'Rhythm and Blues'.

Hollywood Records

Partially focusses on 'Rock' music.

DGC Records

Has a focus on 'Alternative Rock' music.

Vertigo Records

Focusses on 'Rock' genres such as: 'Hard Rock', 'Heavy Metal', 'Progressive Rock', et cetera.

Roadrunner Records Research

Roadrunner Records is an American Record Label which originated in the Netherlands. The label’s genres consist primarily of ‘Heavy Metal’, ‘Hard Rock’, and ‘Alternative’ genres. Therefore, I think that this label would be appropriate for my band and track.

‘Roadrunner Records is an American record label that concentrates primarily on heavy metal bands’.

Roadrunner Records is a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and is based in New York. The label was launched in 1980, in the Netherlands. Initially, Roadrunner’s initial business was importing North American ‘Metal’ band recordings into Europe.

The GazettE - 'DIM' Album Cover Analysis

On this album cover, the focal point is in the middle of the image, as the background isn’t quite as important. Thus, the vast majority of one’s attention is drawn to the focal point.

This cover shows a dark, cloudy sky, which I am thinking of doing on my album’s digipak. I am also considering having my album cover’s focal point in the centre of the cover.

Camera Techniques - "Heavy" Camera-Shake

I decided to use the "heavy" camera-shake technique that is used in the music video for ViViD's song, 'Across the Border', which I highlighted in my previous post. During the filming of the band performance, I used the technique when filming the close-ups of the lead guitarist, and the bassist, for the "heavier" parts of the song.

ViViD - 'Across the Border' Analysis

At the beginning of this music video, there are close-ups of each instrument as they are introduced to the song. The introduction to my track has a similar kind of introduction, in which the instruments are slowly introduced. I could have close-ups of the instruments in my video, as each one is introduced.

Also, during the guitar solo, there is heavy camera-shake -- this is used to imply that the radical sound and power of the solo is causing the Earth to shake. It would be interesting to use this technique in my video, during the “heavier” parts of the song.

Aside from the camera techniques, this video also uses a sandy location, like mine. When the focus is on the instruments, the background is faded out with darkness -- this is a nice effect. I would consider using this effect; however, I plan on filming the band performance part of my video in front of a dark background, thus eliminating the need to fade the background out.

Narrative Filming

Today’s film-shoot at Mablethorpe beach went relatively well. I managed to film enough for the video; however, we were restricted by the wind and the very cold temperature.

The wind kept blowing our bags over, and across the sand, which was distracting, annoying, and wasted our time as we had to stop it from blowing away every time the wind started to take it. On top of this, my actor was only wearing two layers of clothing, as he was in the military costume -- he was very, very cold because of this. I was wearing three thick layers, and was still cold. Me also being cold restricted me from thinking clearly and being able to move steadily with the camera.

Despite the problems that we encountered, I think that I have filmed enough for the video, and that the footage I have is decent -- not the best, but decent.

Filming Schedule

Narrative Opening/Ending: Tuesday 4^th December 2012 (4/12/2012) [DONE]

Narrative: Wednesday 5^th December 2012 (5/12/2012) [DONE]

Band Performance: Monday 10^th December 2012 (10/12/2012) [DONE]

Band Performance: Tuesday 11^th December 2012 (11/12/2012) [DONE]

Band Performance: Wednesday 12^th December 2012 (12/12/2012) [DONE]

Royz - 'Noah' Highlight

 

Once again, we see a dirty-looking room in a music video, ‘Noah’, of this genre. This time, the room looks to be that of the inside of a possibly-abandoned-warehouse, or a large garage/shed. The light, again, is entering the room through large windows. Other than that light, the room is rather dark -- this has been the case for the vast majority of the dirty-looking rooms that have been used in the music videos I have seen thus far.

Narrative Location Weather Forecast

 

Here (above) is a screen-shot of the BBC weather forecast for Wednesday, 5th December, in Mablethorpe, which is when and where I am planning to film the majority of the narrative for my music video.

Music Video - Filming Locations

I will be filming the narrative opening and ending in my Grandmother's living room. I have chosen this location as it doesn't look too modern, but it doesn't look too old-fashioned either; it is neutral -- this is good because I want the room to visually refer to the lyrics, 'I'm just a simple man', in the song, and also to represent the emotional after-effects that the war had on the man in the narrative of the video.

For the band performance, I will be filming in the theatre at my school; I have been given permission to do so. The theatre stage lighting, and a stage. However, I want the band performance to be in a dark, and somehwhat shrouded place, and the theatre has a light-brown floor, lilac curtains, and a black and white stage. This means that I will have to be as careful as I can when filming, but also that I will have to create the "shrouded" effect, digitally, in post-production.

To film the majority of the narrative for my music video, I will be going to a location similar to that of the beach in the video for 'Chizuru', by The GazettE. The beach that I am planning to film at is the Mablethorpe beach.

The GazettE - 'Cassis' Analysis

This music video begins with the rhythm and acoustic guitarist, Aoi, playing his acoustic guitar, with an old-looking stone wall behind him. After the acoustic intro, we see the band standing together on a field. They then turn from each other and walk off in different directions -- this could be a visual metaphor for a man’s heart “breaking” due to his separation from the woman whom he loves. After separating, each band member goes to a different place in and around what we assume to be a mansion, but not together. Thus, they are still separated. The old-looking mansion in the video could represent the man’s love for the woman; he’s loved her for a long time. However, later in the video, the band are performing together in a different room -- with this room being the performance room, the implication could be that they are together in spirit. Finally, the video ends with all of the band members standing together on the field, again; the heart was pieced back together. However, the band then begins to walk toward the camera, and, consequentially, away from the mansion. Them walking away from the mansion could imply that the heart has “moved on”, and is no longer longing to be “reunited” with the heart of the woman, or something of the like.

Some of the lyrics in ‘Cassis’ are, ‘I will walk together’; this further implies that each band member represents a piece of the man’s heart, as the lyrics do not mean “I will walk together with you”, but they mean “I will walk with my heart fully pieced together”. The lexical choice of ‘together’ is implying “whole”, not “with companions”.

In conclusion, the music video is very well “thought out”, and is a complex extended metaphor to the point at which each of the band members represent something.

Planning - Actors

These are the actors I chose for my music video. My reasons for choosing these actors is because they all, at least somewhat, play musical instruments that are typically used in 'Rock' bands and music. As well as this, the lead vocalist has long hair, and the lead guitarist has longer-than-average hair, and long hair is very common for members of 'Rock' bands to have.

The actor I chose for the part of the soldier (for the narrative) has performed in theatre and has had experience with acting.

Music Video Idea - Transitional Effect

One of the ideas that I have for my music video is to zoom into one of the eye pupils of the character in the narrative, and use that as a transition to the next shot, which would be one of the band’s performance. I’m planning to have the band performing in a dark room, so, the eye pupil should match the darkness of the room.

The effect that I am planning to do is similar to the zoom through the hole in the wall, near the beginning of Staind’s music video for their song, ‘Outside’

and the zoom into the man’s eye, near the beginning of the music video for Creed’s song, ‘My Sacrifice’.

Camera-Choice

To film my music video, I will be using the Canon EOS 7D. This is an 18.0-effective megapixel APS-C crop CMOS digital single-lens reflex camera. The 7D is capable of recording video at 1080p quality and of recording video at 24, 30, and 60-frames-per-second.

I own this camera, and have been using it for some time, now. I have a lot of experience with using it, and feel very confident about filming my music video with it.

The GazettE - 'Reila' Highlight

I really like the use of focus in the music video for the song, ‘Reila’, by The GazettE. Throughout the guitar solo, specifically, the shot constantly changes from in-focus to out-of-focus. However, this is not entirely (possibly not at all) done by using the camera lens’ focus tool. It looks as though the blurriness was achieved with the use of a post-production editing package. Adobe After Effects’ ‘Blur’ tools could have been used.

This effect is a simple effect, and easy to achieve, but it looks very nice and adds “texture” to shots.

(Skip to '3:10' for the guitar solo; finishes at '4:20')

Music Video Ideas

When listening to my track, I think of war, and war veterans speaking of their experiences on the “front lines”. The intro to my track sounds a lot like a helicopter, as well; reinforcing the imagery of war. The lyrics sound like the sort of things that a war veteran would say when describing his/her personal feelings during their time at war.

Taking the war-orientated lyrics into consideration, I have decided to make a music video with a war-themed narrative.

Thirty Seconds To Mars' music video for their song, 'This Is War', is very similar to the idea that I have for my music video. Also, the music video for 'Hero of War', by Rise Against, is very similar to my idea.

The use of slow-motion, in 'This Is War', is something that I would very much like to replicate in my music video as it allows for certain, significant emotions and expressions to be conveyed effectively. This, combined with the cinematic way in which 'Hero of War' is shot, is how I want my music video to be.

The GazettE - 'The Invisible Wall' Inter-Textual Reference

In The GazettE’s music video for ‘The Invisible Wall’ (left screen-shot), they include an inter-textual reference to ‘Kill Bill’ (right screen-shot). This is executed through their use of a traditional Japanese sliding door, blue “colour correction”, and a silhouette created by the lighting and the door. The GazettE’s music video is heavily influenced by traditional Japanese culture - they are also a Japanese band - whilst ‘Kill Bill’ is also influenced by this and even focuses on Japanese fighting styles and techniques. So, the inter-textual reference is relevant and makes sense.

Skillet - 'Awake' Cover Analysis

This album cover is both relevant, and effective. The album is called, ‘Awake’, and so, the image on the cover is that of a person, whom we assume to be male, whose head is wrapped up as though he has just had surgery performed on his head, or as though he has been wrapped up as an Egyptian Mummy would be -- this interpretation in itself is relevant as one of the songs on this album is called, ‘Monster’, and an Egyptian Mummy is often portrayed as being a monster in horror genres of media. The man’s entire head is wrapped up, except his left eye, which has purposefully been left unwrapped so that one can see his eye as it is wide open, thus referring to the album title, ‘Awake’.

Overall, it is perhaps implied that the man was thought to be dead, and has made somewhat of a miraculous recovery.

SCANDAL - 'Shunkan Sentimental' Visual Effects Analysis

In my music video, I want to include some interesting visual effects. One of the main ideas that I had was to add sparks coming off of the strings of the guitar(s) as it is being played. I then noticed that the effect that I wanted to use had been used rather nicely in SCANDAL’s music video for their song, ‘Shunkan Sentimental’. Similarly to this effect, there is a pulsating energy wave effect which protrudes from the drums as the drummer hits a significant beat.

As well as this, the way in which the lighting is used in this video, and the exaggeration of said ‘lighting’, is very “eye-pleasing” and looks very professional. I will definitely consider using lighting effects such as the ones used in this video, in my music video.

Another interesting effect that I have been considering using in my video is the light trail following the hand(s) of the guitarist(s). This effect was also used in ‘Shunkan Sentimental’, and is used in a way that somewhat resembles a katana slash implication effect, often used in anime, cartoons, and films.


Also, once again we see the dirty-looking room with tall windows as the setting. This could be to visually portray the distortion of the guitars, as a lot of guitarists refer to nice distortion sounds as “dirty”.

In conclusion, I will certainly be referring to this music video for visual effects inspiration, although I will not be replicating all of the visual effects used in this video.

Use of Narrative

Generally, in most of the ‘Alternative Rock’ music videos that I have watched, the majority of the screen-time is taken up by the band performance. In quite a few videos, there isn’t any narrative at all, thus leaving the music and the physical playing of instruments to tell the implied story. The lack of visual narrative is intentional, and done deliberately to direct the viewer(s) attention to the band’s playing of their instruments. In the music video for ‘Blue Flame’, by Alice Nine, the editing focuses on the band, and their instruments.

This is done to allow the instruments, and the music to influence the creations of mental images in the viewer(s) -- songs of this genre, generally, have a lot of emotion in them, thus making it easy to do this. A good example of a music video that completely lets the band’s performance tell the story would be MoNoLith’s video for their song, ‘Byakuya’.

In this video, there are a lot of close-up and extreme close-up shots of the vocalists’ faces, and the instrument-players playing their respective instruments. The close-ups are used to show the emotional expressions on the band members’ faces -- it is from these shots that the viewer(s) interpret the meaning of the song. The GazettE’s, ‘The Invisible Wall’ music video is another example of this lack of narrative.

Although, in this video, visual images have been used to help convey the meaning of the song. They are subtle, and sometimes combined with the band’s performance, but, they are there. This is therefore another technique of conveying a meaning via means other than narrative-use; subtly combining the band’s performance with visual images that help the viewer(s) to understand the implied story, or to help them interpret the song and video in their own way.

With this being said, the narrative is not useless, nor is it insignificant or weak. For example, in The GazettE’s other video, for their song, ‘Guren’; the narrative is very powerful. It is common in music videos of this genre for the narrative to be powerful, because the band’s performance usually has the majority of the screen-time.

One is relatively easily able to interpret that in the video for ‘Guren’, The GazettE’s lead singer, Ruki, is singing from a woman’s perspective, and is singing about the miscarriage of a baby. The narrative of the music video is both powerful and effective as it successfully conveys the overall implication of the song. The young girl inside the red-painted room represents the baby in the womb; whilst the gradual whitening of the room represents the baby dying, and ultimately, the baby’s death by the end of the video, at which point the room has been painted white and the girl is wearing a white dress rather than a red dress. On top of all this, the band’s performance takes place inside the same room as the narrative.

Overall, ‘Alternative Rock’ music videos, and its variant genres, focus more on the band’s performance and their playing of instruments than the actual narrative, however, the performance in itself serves as somewhat of a narrative, whilst the actual narrative is generally very effective and powerful. The point of this is that songs of these genres don’t need extensive, or very much, narrative at all and that the music speaks for itself.

Metallica - 'One' Highlight

I quite like the fading transition from the band performance to the narrative of the music video for ‘One’, by Metallica. Usually, the fading transition is used in film to imply that a somewhat extended amount of time has gone by, however, in this video, the fading transitions are more of a theme than an implication of time passing by as the fading continues as the music begins to increase its pace. At the point in the video that this screen-shot is at, the song is at a fast, low-pitched strumming section -- my track has a lot of this.

Alice Nine - 'Blue Flame' Highlight

The location/set used for the band performance in Alice Nine’s music video for their song, ‘Blue Flame’ appeals to me as the track that I have chosen has quite a “Grungy”, and “dirty” sound, and this set looks quite dirty. The set is an empty room with damp-looking grey walls; the room looks derelict and abandoned. Tall windows let the outside light from the Sun in.

The GazettE - 'The Invisible Wall' Highlight

I find the use of silhouettes in the music video for ‘The Invisible Wall’, by The GazettE, to be rather interesting. In this case, they had the guitarist standing on the other side of some traditional Japanese sliding doors, and added red lighting. They most likely did this to make reference to their nationalities culture, as The GazettE is a Japanese ‘Rock’ band. However, this is an interesting concept, and I could use silhouettes in my music video, but use something other than Japanese sliding doors.

Red - 'End of Silence' Cover Analysis

This album cover is rather interesting. As with a lot of album covers, this one matches the title of the album itself. Being titled, ‘End of Silence’, the cover shows a man - actually the lead singer of the band, Michael Barnes - with his mouth wide open, implying that he’s screaming. The cover does not show the upper-half of his head, but instead leaving the focus on his open mouth to emphasise the implication that he’s screaming. On top of that, there is an overlaying texture on the cover, which adds somewhat of a cracked glass effect; this effect gives the impression that the man’s screaming is breaking the glass, which in itself implies that he is trapped and is breaking free. Furthermore, there is a strong red ‘colour correction’ and tint on the cover. The colour, red, is often associated with danger, which adds the implication that this trapped man may be dangerous.

The band, Red, are a Christian ‘Rock’ band, and generally have religious-orientated lyrics, however left to one’s own interpretation. With the added knowledge of the band’s religious standing, one may then begin to wonder if the implication of the trapped man being dangerous is actually an implication that he is only dangerous to evil.

Aside from the implication of danger, the predominant red colour scheme of the cover also refers to the band’s name, Red.

Applying Goodwin's Theory

Welcome to 'A2'

1. 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 digipak for the album’s release;

a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

In ‘A2’ Media, I will be researching a wide range of music videos which are related to the genre of my selected track (‘Alternate Rock’). Once I have done an adequate amount of research, I will be directing and producing my own ‘Alternate Rock’ music video for my selected track. Along with the video, I will be creating a promotional package consisting of a digipak, and a poster, for the band.

My track: listen to ‘for Richard’ on Audioboo