Editing Progress Vlog

Here is our vlog from today where we talk about the progress we have made with our editing:

Editing Practice

Today we practiced editing to the beat at the start of our music video. We wanted quite fast paced shots to match the pace of the song. We decided to use shots of the stairs as this helps to introduce the theme of escapism straight away, reinforcing our narrative. I like that the shots cut on the beat as this compliments the music and vice versa. As we haven't edited the rest of the music video, it is difficult to see whether we like the placements of these shots as we can't see them in context, at the moment it seems quite random and the jump from the close-up in Camden to the stair shots to the mid-shot in Brick Lane appears to be quite jarring. We are aiming to show this practice to some of our peers in order to gain feedback, this will help us understand what we could improve.

Here is our practice:

The War on Drugs - Under the Pressure

I found the lighting and editing techniques in this music video to be very interesting. The video is extremely simple, it is entirely performance based and includes minimal locations, typical of the indie genre. What it lacks in an interesting narrative, it makes up for with various interesting editing effects.

I like the layering effect of the shots pictured below as this helps to create a more fluid transition between shots, this is an idea that could work well within our video as we have many locations that need to be linked together. I also like the bright, unrealistic colour palette. As this deviates from the usual conventions of the indie genre, specifically, having a black and white colour palette, the music video is made to be more exciting and unique, making it more appealing to the audience.

The transluscent layered shots combined with a complimentary colour palette help to create the calm atmosphere that the song evokes. This shows how editing techniques can enhance a particular atmosphere. As we are now beginning to edit our music video, we will need to think about what effects could be used to enhance our themes of disorientation and hypnotism.

 

I particularly liked this shot as I like the lighting effects that have been used. The layered shots of different effects, such as small moving 'dots' of light and long horizontal rays of light that swipe across the frame, compliment each other as well as the calm, slow-paced song. The repetitive nature of the light's movements also reflects the repetitive aspect of the song, this creates a strong link between the music and the visual, linking back to Goodwin's theory.

Spiral Staircase Filming

Today we filmed in a car park on Oxford Street as it contained the spiral staircase that we needed for a particular shot. We went in the evening as this was a less busy time, allowing us to film more easily with little disruptions. We wanted to film the staircase as its spiral shape enforces the idea of 'hypnotism' linking the visuals of our music video to the lyrics of the song. The location also helped us to portray our narrative of escaping as the protagonist, played by me, can be seen desperately running up the stairs, the spiral aspect making it seem as though her hopes are in vain as the staircase appears to have no end. The majority of our shots from previous locations were purely shots of the artist lip-synching, this made it difficult to start editing the footage as we were unable to show the narrative and the progression of the video. Today's shoot was extremely successful and we now have many shots that will help to tell the story of our music video, hopefully we will be able to edit the footage soon. We have one more location left, the Capel Manor Maze, we are planning to finish filming by the end of the week.

On the left is a shot looking up the staircase, capturing its spiral structure. I like the disorientated look of the shot due to the difficulty in distinguishing whether it is looking upwards or downwards, this mirrors the confused mindset of the character. By making the audience feel disorientated, they will be able to empathise with the protagonist on a greater scale.







Here is our vlog from the shoot:

Finished Magazine Advert

Here is our finished magazine advert:

We cropped our chosen image so that it was portrait, conforming to the conventions of a magazine advert. We also added details such as our record company logo, purchase information and our website, further conforming to the conventions.

We used the same font that we used to write the album name on the front cover of our Digipak, called 'Atlantic Cruise', this was intentional as we wanted to create a stronger brand, creating a link between products adds fluidity and continuity. This 'trademark' helps to make our artist more recognisable and successful. We chose to write the artist's name 'NOVA' in a different font and we changed the perspective of the text so that it appeared to be written on the floor, this was to add to the atmosphere of the urban location and the idea of graffiti and road markings. The perspective also creates lines that lead the eye to the artist, emphasising the 'star image' despite not being able to see her face.

We chose to include a darker coloured banner across the bottom of the advert, inspired by the advert for Taylor Swift's 'Red'. This was to make it easier for the viewer to see the important information, such as release date. This makes the advert simple, with the message being communicated clearly, this makes the advert more appealing.

Inspired by many existing magazine adverts, we included an image of our Digipak front cover. This would help to familiarise the audience with our product, leading to more popularity and success. This also enforces the idea of the 'star image' and helps to create a link between the two products, solidifying the brand.

Magazine Advert Image Choices

Our initial idea for our magazine advert was to present the idea of duality, representing the two contrasting sides of our music video's protagonist - reckless yet sophisticated. This led to our first image choice:

Choice #1

We chose a close up shot of our artist to emphasise the idea of the 'star image', this also links to the front cover of our Digipak which is also a close-up shot. We experimented with the ideas of duality and a 'hidden identity' by editing the shot on Adobe Photoshop, overlaying a shot of graffiti from our Brick Lane location. We then erased most of the graffiti shot, just leaving a small section on the artist's face. We wanted to enhance the contrast between these two layered shots so we made the image of the artist black and white and left the graffiti in colour, this juxtaposition was to show the two sides of the protagonist. We also used a similar colour palette to our Digipak which also contained black and white images with one coloured section (the CD). We decided not to continue with this image as we felt that it was too similar to our Digipak, this would make the advert less unique and exciting for our audience, leading to less popularity.

Choice #2

After abandoning the first image, we found two interesting shots from our Brick Lane location, overlaying the two on Photoshop and changing the opacity to create a 'ghostly' figure on the left. This continued our idea of showing two sides of our protagonist. The 'ghost' figure also alludes to the protagonist's deteriorating mental state. We liked the bold colour palette of these shots as this would make the magazine advert more eye-catching. After looking at existing adverts, it became clear that the majority are portrait, this meant that our image was not suitable as it was landscape.

Choice #3 (chosen)

We finally decided to use this shot as it contained the bright colour palette that we liked from our previous image choice and could also be cropped easily to make it portrait. We found that this image was the most suitable as it represents the main theme of our music video - escapism, due to the artist being pictured walking away from the camera. We felt that the perspective of the shot, as the viewer looks down into the alleyway, makes the image more enticing as the audience is 'drawn in', this would make our advert more eye-catching and, therefore, more successful.

Arctic Monkeys Magazine Advert - Subverting Conventions

The advert for Arctic Monkeys' 'AM' subverts the majority of the conventions of an album advertisement. Whilst it contains typical information, such as the artist's name, album name, release date and record company logo, it lacks other elements, such as social media information, reviews or phrases like 'featuring the single...'. The advert is incredibly simplistic due to the monochrome colour palette, limited text, simple font and simple artwork.

However, its simple style helps to make it stand out. The white text on black background allows it to be read easily. The lack of additional text also helps to make the advert stand out as the key information (release date and album name) can be seen more clearly, this would make the information easier for the audience to remember, therefore, making the artist and album more well known, leading to more success.

The large amount of open space on the advert gives it a calm atmosphere, this makes it more enticing to potential buyers. The sound wave design also evokes a feeling of serenity and openness. This image also links to the album title 'AM' as the wave is called an 'amplitude modulation' or 'AM', this conforms to the advert convention of having visuals that link to the album name.

The advert does not contain an image of the band, subverting the idea of the 'star image', however this is typical of the indie genre. The fact that the band name 'Arctic Monkeys' is in a different, and larger, font (their logo) to the rest of the text on the advert suggests that the name is the most important feature, this conforms to the idea of the 'star image' as the advert is enforcing the band's brand.

Magazine Advert Analysis

I decided to analyse two existing magazine adverts so that I could identify the key features, hopefully providing inspiration for our own advert. I chose two adverts, one from the indie genre and one from the pop genre. I wanted to see if there were any differences between the two genres. As our song, 'Hypnotic' by Zella Day, is described as 'indie pop', we will need to include elements from these two genres.

Indie Advert:



Pop Advert:



By looking at the two adverts, it is clear that they share many of the same elements, such as an image of the artist, important marketing information, visual links to album title and clear, legible text. The main difference between the two is the serious tone of the indie advert, compared to the brighter (although not in colour palette, but in theme) pop advert. I think that a pop-style advert is better suited to our album as our music video contains a bright colour palette as a result of certain locations, such as Brick Lane, this will evoke a happier atmosphere. However, we will also incorporate the main conventions of magazine adverts, that are seen across all genres.

Magazine Adverts

I looked at existing magazine adverts in order to look at the conventions of, not only adverts, but of the different genres.

General conventions include:

• Large font – album name and artist name
• Focus on artist (close ups) - this is mainly seen in the pop genre
• Indie focus less on artist and more on mise-en-scene
• ‘Out Now’ – release date, iTunes
• Website link / Social media information
• Artist logo and record company logo
• Reviews
• Cd options (Cd, Deluxe CD, Vinyl, Digital)
• Dark colours
• Visual link to album title (e.g. 'Red' (Taylor Swift) – red font, ‘Lungs’ (Florence and the Machine) - picture of lungs, ‘Lights’ (Ellie Goulding) - picture of lights, ‘Day & Age’ (The Killers) - picture of sun)
• Image overlaps text
• Name of song on front – no 1 single
• QR code
• Font style links to genre
• Record company
• Bonus tracks
• Extra DVD
• 'Limited edition'
• 'Debut album'

Indie Adverts:

        

Pop Adverts:

        

Indie Rock Adverts:

    

By looking at these adverts, I have discovered that pop adverts serve to emphasise the artist and promote their brand, this is shown through close-up shots of the artist, as well as an image of the Digipak being included (as seen in Rihanna's 'Loud' and Taylor Swift's 'Red'). The indie genre, with the exception of the 'indie rock' sub-genre, also has this convention. Due to this, I think that our group should include an image of our artist on our advert.

Creating a 'Star Image'

I found the music video for HAIM's 'Forever' to be very inspirational. The video's shots are predominantly of the artists, identifying them as the most important element of the video. The emphasis on the artists helps to make them more memorable and recognisable, creating a 'star image'. This video is very similar to our music video, as we have also mostly included shots of our artist.

We want to ensure that we include many close-up shots of our artist in order to conform to Andrew Goodwin's music video theory that states that close-ups help to create a 'star image'. By making our artist a 'star', she will be more recognisable and, therefore, more popular and successful.

 Our video is currently more performance-based as we are yet to complete filming in some of our locations, such as the Capel Manor Maze. So, at the moment, our narrative isn't very clear. HAIM's video has also shown me that, despite being performance based, a narrative or idea can still be conveyed. This has made me less anxious about not having an obvious narrative in our music video.