Results of our Split Screen Test

Above is the final product of our split screen practice. The scenes we filmed were one of the couple together, two shot's of the couple without each other and a spare split screen space, which we have decided in our Music Video we may decided to show a performance scene such as the Artist with a guitar. This idea seems to have been successful as the audience have different views and perspectives on the relationship and what the Artist is singing about, the filler also bring back the performance and music to the audience, which is big in Indie Music Videos.

The park was where we decided to film this practice as we could use the park as a playful place for the couple, also a very lonely place; the natural setting is also helpful for us to gain an idea of the lighting and rural scenes.

Results of our Overlay Experiment

Below is the final product of our overlay experiment, for which we wanted to use the technique for our Music Video.

On Final Cut Pro when editing this we attempted to overlap the two shots on top of each other to create a scene of the past and the present being shown in the same shot; although this did not workout as expected, and the end product was unclear, fuzzy and unrealistic, meaning that the smooth transition and style for the past and present would not look professional.

To fix this we cut the separate clips both down the middle, discarding of the area we did not need, we then merged this together to create a sense that the both scenes are happening in the same place, but one in the past and one in the present. Due to the lyrics we know which of the scene this will be. Although it is not the smoothest of editing, we were not planning to do it in this way, so when we film are final music video we will keep the camera at the same height but move it slightly to the side so we have enough room to cut and merge; hopefully this will work well, if not we will keep this scene short so it is not obvious to the audience.

Analysis of Digi Packs 2

Artist: Arcade Fire
Album: The Suburbs
Location: In a neighbourhood by a house, possibly in a driveway or outside on the street; also the link to the title gives us the impression that the location is in the 'suburbs'.
Colours: The colours in this image seem to be light; the focus is blues and greens and browns, which links with the nature convention that Indie Artists use a lot.
Font: The font used for the Artist is a contrasting bright white colour, all in capital letters, the second word is slightly behind the first. Although the font is obvious it does not really take over the image as it is still quite small.
Editing: The editing on this image has giving the effect that it is a vintage image, with slightly brighter enhanced areas, which slightly look like a splodge in the image. This is done by changing the saturation.
Symbolism: The loneliness on the suburbs seems to be portrayed in this image as it has a lonely car on its own, with a typical suburban house.
Composition: The camera is just a straight forward shot looking through the car window, to the fence, and you can slightly see the house above it.
Lighting: Natural lighting seems to be used for this image, again giving a vintage image.
Props: The props used are a car and a house and fence, which links to the title and location more.

Artist: Nick Drake
Album: Byter Layter
Location: Empty room with the Artist centered in the middle with his guitar.
Colours: The image colours are slightly muted again but are darker, focusing on blues, black and browns. Then the frame, is in a contrasting bright blue, orange and red.
Font: The use of the font in the image;s frame creates a feeling of the frame showing and introducing the artist. The font is all in lowercase letter, but it has a slight retro feel to it.
Editing: The editing is an overlay of the frame, but also the image has a slight hue over it.
Symbolism: The frame shows that this is him, the artist and possibly the lighter frame in contrast with the darker image shows that the idea of him was more exciting than the reality.
Lighting: Dark and mysterious
Props: Chair and guitar are the only props present in this image. Again the natural wood, and the symbolism of indie with the guitar.
Mise-En-Scene: The artist seems to be wearing the classic indie clothes, which represents his genre very well.

Artist: James Vincent McMorrow
Album: Early in the Morning
Location: The location seems to be an English beach, which is empty.
Colours: The colours seem to be light natural colours, with the sand being a light cream and the hills and grass banks consisting of greens and browns. Font: The title and Artist is both fully in capital letters, the font is also the same size, although the artists name looks slightly bigger as it is elongated over the title. The Artist name is in black and the title in a light grey, which may suggest the artist is more important.
Editing: The overall image has a vintage feel over it, which is done by changing the saturation  of the overall image. The sides of the photograph have a black fade in, which also makes the image look slightly burnt at the edges, but helps to focus on the image and the individual in the middle.
Symbolism: Loneliness possibly.
Lighting: The lighting in this image is natural and bright, with fresh and soft aspects.
Mise-En-Scene: The costume is unclear in this image but the colours the man is wearing seem to be browns and blacks.

Digi Pack CD Artwork

I researched into a selection of Digi Pack Artwork on coverdude.com and found a bunch of CD covers that will give us inspiration and ideas for our own cover as we are required to design our own.

Analysis of Digi Packs 1... An Artistic Approach

Artist: Bon Iver
Album: Bon Iver
Location: Outdoors by a lake, and possibly a mountainous area. Nature is forming around a small lake house centered in the 'watercolour' type painting of this scene. It seems silent and relaxing, with no sign of urban life.
Colours: The colours are slightly washed out due to the 'watercolour' feel. The image has natural, blue, green and browns; the neutral colours are contrasted slightly with a strong red colour, which creates a feeling the painting has peeled back slightly.
Font: No font features on the front cover, this lets the image be appreciated, like the nature and beauty is in this secluded place.
Editing: The use of the 'watercolour' has enhanced the creative and unique feel of Indie Artists Digi Packs and is a great example of an arty approach to it.
Symbolism: This reflects Bon Iver's music and soft voice perfectly.
Lighting: The lighting is natural and has a sense of the sun reflecting off the lake, which brightens the whole image and makes it look fresh.
Props/Mise-En-Scene: The only sign of life in this painting, is the small lake house.

Artist: Angus and Julia Stone
Album: A book like this
Location: Again the cover has an artistic feel to it due to the image of the three children in the outskirts of a town/village have been created in a pencil, or chalk and charcoal style. I find this image interesting as the choice the children can make is linked to the name of the album as it is like a story, should they explore life by going into the village or the forest; they have different pathways.
Colours: The colours are a monochrome, black & white, giving the impression that you create your own story and colour in your life.
Font: The font for the Title and Artist is the same but the artist is more prominent on the digi-pack as it is spread over the top of the cover, and the title is smaller but closer to the children, showing it links to them. The font is a fairy tale style, again in black.
Editing: No editing is really used, but the use of a piece of art as the cover is a typical indie convention.
Symbolism: The symbolism of Angus and Julia Stone's album cover seems to be that you write your own story and novel and you can pick and choose how you live your life, and how your book progresses.
Lighting: The whole image is slightly dark and mysterious, again giving the implication that you create your own colour.
Props: A sign is used to show the different ways in which your path can take you, and the kids toys enhances there age.
Mise-En-Scene: The costume seems to be fairy tale/storybook like, which links very well.

Artist: Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Album: Last smoke before the snow storm
Subject: The subject of this image is not clear although i can pick apart the parts and see that in the centre it is an image of the world, around it is illustrations of natural wonders of the world. Such as, flowers, waves, wood, shells and many more. The contrast of the image to the title is also visible.
Colours: The colours in this image are a mix match of muted colours, there seem to be pinks, blues, blacks, whites and creams, the mixture may represent the different areas or the world.
Font: The font of the Artists name seems to be in a basic font centered at the top. The title is in a smaller font again, all lowercase.
Editing: The editing is the about of different artistic illustrations overlay onto each other creating a collage type image.
Symbolism: The symbolism seems to be that the artist is singing about all the natural happenings of the world.
Lighting: The lighting is all produced by the colours used in the illustrations.
Props/Mise-En-Scene: There are not really props or mise-en-scene present in the whole image but there would be in the inspiration of the individual illustrated images.

 

Practise Filming...

We have decided to complete a 'pilot' for our final idea, in which we will practise the techniques, such as split screen, and overlay we have decided to use in our Music Video. We have picked Wednesday 26th October to complete this task, this is the perfect day to experiment as we have no other commitments on that day, meaning we have the time to gain the knowledge of how we will edit the Final Product. This in the end will hopefully save us time in our real filming.

Digi Pack Elements

Due to the laid back and natural feel of our Genre we wanted to incorporate the feel of this onto our digi pack, and create a flow front the front cover to the back cover; additionally we will use the same style of font for the title of the album and the song list on the back cover. I found that the artwork for the album 'Big Echo' by The Morning Benders, flows from the front to the back which I found really appealing. Although the art is slightly different as the swimmers are entering the sea on the front and exiting on the back. This effect slightly adds to the start of the album and the end, which is a really interesting convention of an Indie digi pack which I liked also, the colours are linked to the type of tones we would like to incorporate in our digi pack, due to the muted blues and greens, representing nature.

Similar Music Video's and their Conventions

In this post I will talk about the Conventions we have decided to use in our Music Video, and similar Music Videos and Artists that have also used them. Most of the examples I will use are a good representation of the Indie Genre, although they all may have their individual sub-genre's.

Narrative within the Indie Genre
In many Indie Music Videos there are a combination of performance and narrative; the narrative is mostly filmed in a contrasting and dissimilar location the where the performance footage is based; an example of this is in One Night Only's 'Say you don't want it', where the narrative is in the city and is busy, and the performance is on the roof of the building, just outside the city, where it is free and empty.

To complete and apply this Convention of narrative theory to the music videos, I have found a narrative in the Indie Genre in which I can analyse and make sure we can attract the audience in the same way.

In Kate Nash's Music Video for 'Foundations' I found that the lyrics link to the action is the scene, such as when the lyrics ' and I know that I should let go, but I can't...' are sung the couple are holding hands until the words 'let go' are sung. This links to an aspect we were interested in applying as in our lyrics when the singer says 'go to sleep my love...' the female character of the relationship in the video will be laying on the bed and a close up of her eyes closing will be filmed. The narrative is represented as a casual, average day, in which our scene will be as firstly the average day of when they were together, and now when they are apart; the Artist 'Kate Nash' is singing to the camera, whilst getting on with her everyday life.

Editing Technique- Overlay
As we have decided to create an overlay of scene's in the middle of our Music Video to show the Artist
singing alone, and the overlay of a previous time when the characters spent their time together there happy.


Olly Murs song 'Dear Darlin' is a perfect example of when this is used, as he uses an identical location but overlays him and his ex-girlfriends past times and fun they have shared in that location whilst he is singing alone of the bed about losing her. From this video you can tell that this Music Video is effective as the similar narrative and love story can be represented by this technique and help the audience understand the emotions involved in the song, which links to the Artist himself. To complete this in the most professional way possible we would have to film twice in the same location, with the camera running throughout; after we would have to edit it on final cut pro, by cutting, overlaying and tweaking the opacity of the image to make it subtle and appear a memory.

Editing Technique- Filter/ Camera use
The effect we want to portray in our music video is that of a warm and comforting video, despise the narrative behind it. The hue we want to create it that alike the colours and hues in Ben Howard's video, 'Keep Your Head Up'.

The filter of this video creates a more exciting feel to the Music Video and draws the audience in to watch for the rest of the song.

Another convention of the music video we are using are the different Camera shots we will use, in which will make, what could be, a boring love story into something more eye-catching and emotional. This is used in the Music Video on the left when the character is sliding down the water slide, the worm view perspective, the handheld showing shots of the reaction shots whilst sliding down the hill, and the birds-eye view assist the video in having a more exciting aspect and captures the listeners attention.





Lip- Syncing
The use of lip-syncing was important for us as the narrative will be happening around the Artist through an overlay and the 'average day' happening around him; the song in which is being used diagetically.

The Artist Daughter uses this is their song 'Still' this was influential and a linking convention to our Music video as the use of the artists image being presented on the T.V and the narrative working around it reminded me of our Artist sitting and having the narrative around him. This is effective due to the creativity but the unhappy narrative explains and shows the audience the details.







Binary Opposition Urban and Nature
The use of the Binary Opposition will be used due to the contrast we will use of the Urban and natural setting. This convention is used in Ben Howard's 'Only Love' video.

We firstly see Howard riding his bike, at a low angle capturing the power and the sunlight through the tree's. A jump cut is then used to show an urban setting in which the cuts are in time to the beat of the song, this adds interest and the audience want to know where the character will end up, why and for what? This is a convention that we are going to use.

Music Video- Final Idea

The ideas that have been brought up throughout the process for our Music Video, would all have been very effective and create an interesting aspect to a typical 'love story'. The idea of the Omniscience we decided was not suitable for our Music Video, but instead we made the Artist the main character in which was involved in the break up himself, such as Olly Murs in the video ' Dear Darlin'. This will work well with our narrative as it will show the singer in the past and the present, and the audience will hopefully relate to the Artist.

Meeting 14/10/2013

In today's lesson we discussed about the different techniques we could use in our music video for 'I'll Lie Here' by Mike Dignam. We researched various music videos such as Daniel Powter's Bad Day where he uses a split screen effectively and presents the narrative through an omniscience where he is the narrator telling the story through lyrics. We also talked about the general narrative of the music video where we concluded that it will be a typical indie love story with a stereotypical boy and a girl involved.

Artist (Danny) in Test Costumes

Through our research as posted previously we decided to create the different looks ourselves, on our Artist and come to a conclusion of what works and what does not. These are Danny's own clothes which are useful as we did not have to purchase any ourselves, although the outfits may not be to his taste, he has styled his different items to create the Indie look. I believe all these looks have an Indie vibe about them, but linking to our real Artist, Mike Dignam, we need to find the appropriate one for his look.

























The skinny jeans in all of the images seem to work for the Indie look, and the plain black brogue/desert boot type shoes really suit and fit the style we are trying to recreate. The buttoned up shirt works, although I feel that the t-shirt under the shirt, may not work as well as just buttoned up, for example the Denim looking ombre Style on the right, which with the denim has an aspect of Mike Dignam's style. The Green Parka was something we found was popular in our research, although I do not feel Danny should wear this throughout the whole video, possibly just in some sections.

Possible Filming Locations... Indoor

Typical Male Bedroom

Due to the majority of our scenes being shot outside we wanted to take the opportunity to use the lyrics "I'll lie here" to shoot inside. The Narrator and Artist is male so we feel like a typical male mature bedroom would be a suitable setting, through this is also shows the music elements and organic sound of the song, such as the guitar in the room.

Photo Booth

We wanted to create a memory for the couple, so we decided to try and film in a photo booth to incorporate a happy scene for the when the couple were together; possibly taking silly photo's.

Indie Magazine Adverts

Possible Filming Locations... Outdoor

From our research we have decided that a successful and common convention of an Indie Music Video and Digi Pack, that the location incorporates a natural and vintage feel. We have decided to use this and film a lot of our scenes outside, we also wanted to use a slightly urban setting, which we are still using, but have toned it down slightly as the 'urban' settings we are using are not modern in anyway. The locations below are all easily accessible to us for filming; they are also close to our meeting place; which is helpful.

Newport Train Station 

Parker's Piece- Cambridge

Saffron Walden Common
















Cambridge City

Lastly for the Outdoor locations we wanted to use the more urban setting for some scenes in contrast to the rural areas when the couple were together, the busy scene portrays to the audience that a lot is happening and nothing is settled.

Music Video Techniques...Split Screen

An idea that was brainstormed in our group was a split screen edit, in which throughout the video the audience will see a variety of perspectives on the scene. Through our research we found that this can be shots of the location that the narrative is based on, where the music video was filmed and a personal perspective of the characters in the scene; also if it is a band performance, the camera can identify the different instruments used by using the split screen to focus on the individual band members. The idea of a split screen can effect to the music video that provides the listener, or audience with a better insight of the narrative, band and music video.

This idea, I feel will be a good edition and aspect to our Music Video as the love narrative could be shown through the personal perspective of the male and female of relationship, which the narrative is based upon. The different emotions and feeling of the relationship, and the breakup will be expressed through this editing technique.

Here are some examples of other Artists, although not Indie, where the split screen has been used-

The Narrative of Daniel Powters' Bad Day, is similar to the music video in which we would like to create as it is based upon a break-up. The cross cutting shows the couple, now split, getting on with their lives after the break-up day in and day out; what effect it has had on them and how they feel emotionally. The questions asked by the audience, such as 'how' and 'why' are answered due to this technique also; initially you can see that the couple are not happy without each other. The singer is acting as the God Figure, as he is not the character involved in the relationship but is in some of the same locations of the character, although they cannot hear him, this is a convention of Omniscience.

Michael Jackson's song Billie Jean, again is not in the Indie Genre, and is not initially about a break-up but it is about lust and a girl. The screen split in this video is used by using props, in this case, a lamp post to separate the two different scenes in the narrative. This is a different way in which we can use the split screen idea, as we can shown the couple in the same location at different times, but have them on the same scene, and split them with an object, such as a tree, lamp post or a wall.

Outdoors/ Guitar/ Urban-Natural

John Mayer's Video, 'Queen of California' contains all three of these factors which we are interested in using within our video, we know we want to incorporate the outdoors and the guitar; an idea of binary opposition and a contrast of an urban-natural setting is an idea we liked. As you can see on this Music video the guitar features at the start, and as he is walking through the streets it changes to walking through a forest; his outfit and accessorizes change throughout this also, which I found very exciting and fun.

Mise En Scene... Male/Artist Costume Ideas

Danny is playing the role of the main character and the Artist, Mike Dignam. His image throughout will be important in our music video and photo's for our Digi Pack.

In order for him to look authentic our group has started to look into different clothing ideas' for our chosen Indie Artist, with this in mind, the clothes he wears are an important factor of this image. Indie/ Indie Acoustic artists wear a laid-back and effortless look which may have come from a selection of vintage shops, such as Rokit and Beyond Retro. Our group decided to look at ASOS, Urban Outfitters Renewal section and the international fashion social site, LookBook. Below is a selection of looks our group has found to express and present the style in which our Artist will be dressed.

Danny will definitely be wearing the typical Indie Style such as this outfit establishes on the left. The dark jeans such as these are a brilliant base trouser to work with and style; the black vans are also a casual aspect of the typical indie style. The buttoned up shirt is a stereotypical item of clothing for and Indie artist to wear, so we will be sure to use this. We used the different items on the clothing website, such as ASOS, to create the perfect look for our Artist; due to the full outfit not being right or working for our Genre.


We have decided to stick with the colour palette as being quite earthy with clothes that represents the natural and casual of aspect of Indie, such as: navy's, dark green, grey, black and blue's.





Another outfit my group put together is the one on the left, again this establishes the colour palette that we believed was appropriate for the Genre. As you can see layering is a big part of the Indie image, through the use of tee-shirts, shirts, jumpers and coats; a specific and very popular item that is worn is the Parka Jacket. The skinny jean and baggy top look is also worn quite a lot in the indie scene, along with brogues or desert boots for the footwear.

Due to us using the Artist, Mike Dignam, we wanted to make sure we kept his personal style as this is very important for his look, and his fans. Through the research I see that he wears a lot of denim, a short sleeved t-shirt or rolled up sleeved, buttoned up shirt. A guitar is also going to feature in the Music Video so we want the style of the outfit to match the style of the music, and acoustic feel of the Indie Genre.

Magazine Advert

Along with a music video and a digi pack our group need to create a Magazine Advert to promote our Artist ( Mike Dignam) and his music. As a group we have started researching into similar genres and artists to our Artist, and their adverts, we will look into more depth at this when we start planning and designing our advert. We want it to portray the personality and music of the Artist, whilst giving the information that is needed to help promote Dignam.

Development of Planning

Its clear through research and analysis of different Indie videos, that certain shots, editing and types of mise-en-scene would suit our video perfectly. 

One of the ideas that came through recently was split screening, by having the artist telling the story on one side and having the protagonist and the narrative on the other side. This has been used in a number of indie videos and in addition they use narrative as well. 

Another idea is to contrast Urban and Natural, by reflecting his feelings and the mood of the song. This is used in Jason Mraz's song 'I'm yours' which is a great example of the convention working well, by showing the bad and good things in his life (Binary Opposition). 

Another idea that we have come up with for our video is a 'God figure' (http://aimeekmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/omniscience-god-figure-idea.html) , this has also been used in a number of genres and a countless number of videos. Daniel Powters 'Bad Day' is an example where the artist plays a godly figure and narrates the story. 'Divine intervention' is also a possibility as it would mean the godly figure has a part to play in the story and not just a narrative role. The 'godly figure' also works well with the split-screen as seen in the 'Bad Day' video.

Lyrics Analysis

The Artist will be the omnipotent Narrative.

Digi Pack

To assist our music video our group must create a Digi Pack for our Artist as well, which should not be much of a challenge as the Indie Genre as we have seen so far has a slightly Artistic and interesting style to it, which will be exciting to do but we can be very create about it also. The Digi Pack is an important platform for the Artist to use as it connects them with the audience further. This will need to include: a front cover, a back cover, spine, a disc cover, inlays and all the necessary legal words.

Music Video Techniques... Omniscience/ God Figure Idea

An idea that our group has had for our Music Video is the effect of Omniscience or a God Like Figure; which is a Micro-Element of Music Videos and Media Studies. Omniscience means 'having total knowledge' of the situation, therefore in the scenes of a music video the omniscient narrator will know what is going on in the narrative and tell the story through the lyrics of the song.

We will use this in our Music Video by having the singer as the narrator of the narrative but the characters involved will act like he is not there. An example of a Music Video that uses this is 'Bad Day' where the singer Daniel Powter is the narrator of the love story.

One of the main features we liked about this Music Video is editing technique of the cut between the narrative and the performance in the same location. This consisted of the singer and the characters on the same train but the editing of the video made it seem as if the narrator is singing non diagetically, but from the audience's point of view they are aware that the lyrics are relating to the couple and the situation.

To address this in our music video, we will include this at the start of the song where the lyrics say 'Go to sleep my love, I'll watch over us'. This will help us introduce the idea of the narrator being separated
from the narrative of the video by showing he has the knowledge of the story through the lyrics and use of lip syncing.

Audience Survey Results

Our group conducted an online survey on survey monkey in order to gather responses from the public via the internet as it seems that Web 2.0 is widely used by all ages these days. Due to the majority of our friends also using social networking sites, we had an advantage as we can post our survey onto Facebook or 'tweet' it on Twitter, which then our friends ,as our desired average age, can hopefully respond to our questionnaire.

1. What is your age?

2. What type of music do you listen to?

3. If Indie, what is your favourite sub-genre?












4. If you don't like Indie music, why?
- Production-wise, it's too basic. I prefer my music more mechanical, and more computerised- and I prefer it not to make pretenses about being "real".
- Boring
- I find it boring.

5.How often do you listen to music?

6. How often do you attend gigs?













7. How often do you stream music online?













8. Where do you get your music from?

















From looking at the results, it is clear that the average ages of people who listen to general music is from 15-24, in which the majority of this sample enjoy listening to the Indie genre. The age range of people that generally listen to music also correlates to the demographic research, therefore meaning that this is our target audience, especially as our demographics explain for Mike and similar artists that the target range is mainly teenage girls and young adults. Considering that the majority of people that we asked download and buy their music from Itunes or CD's, we will have to make sure our digipak will be worth buying therefore providing some bonus features such as a concert live song or a music video on the album might be a good idea.