A2 Music Video (A Grade)

 

• The music video has very key camera shots such as a close up on the face of who we assume is to be the main protagonist of the narrative of this music video
• The main narrative of the video seems to be following a teacher who is challenged by anxiety of a different mental disorder possibly schizophrenia and it shows the story of how he is troubled by it in everyday life and shows how he is able to overcome this darkness shrouded him and face it head on 
• One of the shots at the beginning of the music video shows a drunk whiskey bottle which could signify that the protagonist uses drinking as a way to escape from his nightmare 

• The lead singer of the band I do not feel matches the vibe of the song as it is quite and aggressive and strong song while the look of the main singer seems to be more suited for a pop band  
• The lip syncing however is very good from both the lead singer and the other musicians 
• I do feel the rest of the band does a better job of looking more the part for a metal/metal inspired song.

                                  

• The target audience this band seems to be trying to appeal to is definitely fans of the rock/metal genre of music 
• The costumes for the narrative section of the music video makes it very clear what role the protagonist is supposed to be throughout the video as it shows he is a teacher of some sort this is also given away by one of the setting they chose for the music video which was a school looking classroom  

• there are several jump cuts shown as he is walking to and from work this could be seen as the editors wanting to add a cool visual aesthetic of it could have been used to reflect the mental state of the protagonist as quite jumpy/paranoid or scared of something 
• I was not able to pick out any intertextual references throughout the music video 

• This section of the video clearly shows his paranoia, that he is deeply afraid of something so much so even when in work he cowers in fear and tries to hide away 
• I feel they did a good job trying to convey the story in this video and that what they went with was a solid idea 

This is America Music Video Analysis

 

Music videos

• This is the music video BATSH*T by LIL DARKIE it is a very concept based music video without narrative
• This was the first music video I believe to be published by the artist so you can see that the music video was not very high budget but did have some impressive elements such as a mix of 2D and 3D animation.
• The artist was not signed at this time so he was trying to reflect himself as a different type of artist who now wants to intertwine his music with his music videos 
• As from the end of 2020 he has had many more only animated music videos with various narratives/ideas showing which route he wants to label himself with as a very abstract quirky type of artist.
• In the music video you can see that he did not try to put up a special act as such as all he had were a few friends and limited locations but that mix with the animated elements showed that he was open up to changing the style of the video from one idea to another.

Evaluation of my Digipack design

 

The main feedback which I had received for the design for my digipack is that the text chosen for the titles and the track list could have been clearer which I agree with it was just difficult to find a font which expressed the kind of violent and angry theme I was going for.

Another item of feedback I received was that I could have added a spine for the digipack with the name of the Album and possibly another barcode on it.

Overall the feedback on the cover and the Digipack as a whole was very positive.

Analysis of Digipack

 

Andrew Goodwin - Music Video Conventions

 Andrew Goodwin believed that music videos had the following conventions:

A link between the lyrics and the visuals:

This is from the music video "The Box" where the lyrics are "imma 2020 president candidate" as the pictures shows Roddy Rich in the White House connoting that he is a presidential position or a candidate as the lyrics suggest. Roddy Rich's costume and props used in this shot are very similar to the actual podium of the White House, this is trying to connote that he is different and feels he thinks in a different way from other presidential candidates and he could believe that what America needs is someone who thinks differently.

A link between the music and the video:

This is from the music video "Feels like summer" by Childish Gambino the music very much matches the visuals for this song as it is very light hearted and warm and makes you feel as if you were listening to this in the summer. The colours used in the music video are also very warm and soft colours you'd expect to see in summer. 

Reflect the common features of the genres of music 

This is the music video for "LIL DARKIE" this music video is full of fighting and extreme violence which perfectly correlates with the extremely angry and grungy music. This is a metal/rap music video so the aesthetic expected would be violent colours dark themes and possibly violence. 

Intertextual references 

This image is from the music video "Redhead" By Cochise the picture used in this frame of the music video is from a famous manga series called Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Steel Ball Run. There are many more famous references to anime in his music and especially this one song. 

Notions of Looking and Voyeurism 

This image is from the music video for "WAP" by Cardi B this music video has plenty of scenes where the women are sexualised and put into varying costumes that would appeal more to a male audience rather than a female, many of Cardi B's music videos contain elements such as these.

Digipak front and Back cover

   Front Cover 

Back Cover 

 

Richard Dyer and Star image

Richard Dyer is an English academic who held a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King’s College London. He is the one responsible for coming up with the Star Image theory.

There are four areas of this theory that I will be looking at in this blog post:

Star construction 

• Richard Dyer believes that a star is not a real person. The star is constructed by the artist themselves, their record label and other businesses that can make money off them.
• A star is created through movies, music videos, magazines etc.
• The image of the star is created and how they are shown to the world is controlled. For example the way they dress, the way they speak, the messages they put out into the world are all constructed to capture the audience.
• A stars public persona is not necessarily how they would act in the privacy if their own home for example Katy Perry wears extra gent costumes in her music videos but might not necessarily wear these types of clothes regularly in private.

Star as a commodity 

• Richard Dyer believes that stars are produced to create a profit from their image and off their audience with merchandise such as t shirts, posters etc.
• Record labels will create similar stars as they know that their image will generate certain trends and patterns that will increase their own profit 
• This is why a lot of boy bands were made to be very similar as record labels recognised that their image sells and that they can create as many as they need to to produce more profit.

Star as an ideology 

• Stars will represent certain parts of their audience and create similar views to their audience this allows them to amass a large following of people believing in everything the star does and believing that everything they do they have a right to do it.
• As a result fans of the specific star will begin to copy their style of clothing and try to act in the same way as them.
• For example fans of Beyonce will share her views on women and how they are independent and shouldn't be controlled.

Paradox of the Star

• The star must be both ordinary and extraordinary
• This means that the person must have some section of as normal enough life where then fans can relate to the star on a more personal level but must also be different enough from an average person that they can be idolised by their fans 
• The star must be present but also absent 
• This means that the star must have mystery surrounding them so that it keeps the audience of that star interested in their lives at all times but must also be revealing in that the fans know something about the person their idolising.

Designing a Logo

When designing a logo you have to take into consideration on where the logo will be plastered, what the logo will represent and how efficient the logo is at showing off the band as a brand. Which the logo can then be used to sell the band/musician to potential audiences.

There are different types of logos which can better suit certain brands or companies they are referred to as:

Abstract Mark

Mascot Logo

Combination Mark 

Emblem logo

Letter mark 

Pictorial Mark

Wordmark