Lyrics Analysis

The song that I have chosen do not have any lyrics however, the sound of the song is very dark and creepy so I will use this to create a horror film inspired video.

Skrillex – First of the Year (Equinox)

Structure: Narrative

Director: Tony Truand

Producer: HK Corp

Written By: Skrillex

Genre: Dubstep

The language for Skrillex’s, “First of the Year (Equinox)”, resembles a horror film in the themes that it has and the narrative. The structure of the video is completely narrative as it tells a story and has no performance aspects at all. This is conventional of the dubstep genre as dubstep artists don’t actually play instruments as it is mainly created on computers so showing any performance would be boring to watch and the videos wouldn’t be very popular. Most dubstep songs don’t have music videos as the genre is quite niche so the artists don’t have the funding to create music videos to promote their songs however Skrillex is a mainstream artist and is seen as the best dubstep artist so a lot of his songs have videos.

                The narrative of this video is a paedophile following a little girl into an abandoned warehouse with the suggested intention of sexual abuse however the girl turns out to be a demon that lures in and kills child molesters. The audience are unaware of this when the paedophile is following the girl so thy are concerned for the child and then the audience feel like there is some sort of karmic justice has been achieved which fulfils the uses and gratifications model as the audience feel anxiety and then have the anxiety relieved as the narrative progresses.

                The mise en scene of the video was effective as locations such as a playground help with the semiotics of the video to show that the male lead role is a paedophile and the other location is an abandoned warehouse which resembles a horror film. This is a convention of the dubstep genre as the songs often sound creepy due to the constant changes in pitch and unnatural sounds created. The shadow of the girl at the beginning of the video is similar to the shadow style of Nosferatu which works well with the horror film style that the video has. The Rohypnol bottle shows the audience that the paedophile has dark intentions and so the audience lose any empathy they might have had tor the man for the foreshadowed events. The video uses lots of low key lighting to create the horror film feel and it works well. At some points in the video the lighting is so low that the subjects look like silhouettes. I like this a lot and I will probably try to imitate this visual style for my own music video. Another style from this video that I liked and will try to replicate is the girls eyes, in the video she starts with regular eyes but when she leads the paedophile to the warehouse she has full black eyes. This is done with black sclera contact lenses and I plan to buy some to use in my video. The only noticeable colour in the video is red which symbolises danger and is used well to carry the creepy tone of the video. I don’t personally like this so I will avoid using it in my video. The moving dust creates a nice visual effect to show supernatural activity. It works well with the theme of the video as it allows the director to make the audience see more than he is showing which would be good for me as I don’t have a lot of money to create lots of practical effects. The part of the video when the paedophile is surrounded by old dolls is a convention of horror films. Specifically those of director, James Wan, who regularly makes horror films about Victorian style dolls. They represent all of the paedophiles previous victims, which is why some of the dolls look old and others look fairly modern: to show that he has been a paedophile for a long time. The demon hands that pull the paedophile back to the girl make a good effect and would be fairly easy to replicate so I might try to imitate the effect. The hands themselves are long and creepy looking, which helps to maintain the style of the horror film genre. There is one point in the video when high key lighting is used: at the end when the girl is adding to a tally chart to show that she has killed many paedophiles before this one which reinforces her role as the protagonist.

                There is a lot of technical editing and CGI in the video to help create the demon effect. The effects work well to create the horror film genre. I would be able to replicate these effects with Adobe After Effects if I chose to use these effects however I do not wish to create a CGI demon for my video. The other editing techniques in the video are mainly just cuts.

                The cinematography of the video is very varied. There are lots of close ups to show detail and emotions but there are also a lot of long shots to fit more into the shot. There were a lot of tracking shots so that the camera was moving, this is conventional of music videos as it makes the narrative seem faster and therefore the video becomes more exciting for the audience. At the beginning of the video when the girl is skipping towards the warehouse, there is a lot of empty space in the shots which the paedophile walks into to fill the shot making him look dominant. This is a convention of horror films so I will use this in my music video as it helps to make the video look scarier and creates anxiety for the audience.          

Enter Shikari – Aruing with thermometers

Structure: Narrative

Director: Raul Gonzo

Producer: Stefan Anderson

Written by: Enter Shikari

The language in the video for Enter Shikari’s, “Arguing with Thermometers”, is very socio-political driven. It is mainly narrative based however there are aspects of performance which makes the video more aesthetically pleasing as it breaks up the duration of the video more evenly. This is unconventional of the dubstep genre as the artist’s don’t tend to play physical instruments however as Enter Shikari are a mixed genre band (meaning they don’t stick to one genre), they use conventions from all of the used genres and they are mainly a rock band so it is usual for them to use features from the rock genre. Most dubstep songs do not have music videos as they are not popular enough to be in mainstream charts so they don’t have enough money to create music videos. The ones that do have videos mainly have a full narrative structure to tell a story.

                The narrative of the video is the band playing a 70’s style news team reporting on global warming. This matches the lyrics and the overall tone of the song as it focuses around global warming and the oil crisis.

                There are 3 levels of digesis in the video. Firstly, the video is in a bar with people who are watching the news on TV then the camera zooms into the TV when the digesis changes to the news studio. The third level of digesis is the band performing their instruments as the band. By using more than one level of digesis they have helped to break up the video which makes it less boring for the audience and therefore the audience will be more likely to share it on web2.0 or with their peers.

                The main digesis of the video is the band dressed as 70’s style news reporters giving reports about current social and political issues such as global warming. The channel they work for is Channel 4 which is known for being left wing in agenda which shows the ideology of the video is left wing and being against the use of fossil fuels. The drummer is the weatherman using his drum sticks to point to the weather icons which appears as being humorous. The band use lots of 70’s style news room iconography to create and maintain verisimilitude throughout the video. This makes the video more effective in portraying the intended meaning which is that global warming should be taken more seriously but it is thought of as not important.

                The mise en scene of the video was effective as it used a lot of conventions of stereotypical 1970’s news teams. This helped to create the narrative of the video. The video goes against Bordwell and Thompson’s theory as they say that what the audience sees are the important bits of the story and they don’t see non diegetic material or inferred events however in the video the audience see the camera men, an autocue and the screen managers. The burning band logo creates a juxtaposition to the songs meaning as it is probably burning oil or gas to stay alight however, the image works well aesthetically which according to Michael Shore’s stle over substance theory is more important.

                The editing of the video is fast paced, which is conventional of music videos as it keeps the audience interested. It also matched the pace of the song as it is upbeat and has a high tempo. If the song was slower the editing would be expected to be slower too, to match the beat of the song. I liked the POV jump cut into the TV set at the beginning of the video as it changed the digesis from a man watching the news to actually being the news. I think that I will attempt this method in my video as I plan on doing something similar towards the end of my video.

                The cinematography in the video is nearly all the same. Medium close ups and long shots are used throughout the video to show the artists performing. Conventionally for performance, close ups would be used to convey emotion however the structure of this video is mainly narrative so these shots are used to aid the narrative style and help the verisimilitude of a news team.

Chosen Song

The song that I have chosen to create a promotional campaign including a music video and two ancillary texts is called Titanium by iBenji. The genre of this song is dubstep which is a relatively modern development in the EDM (electronic dance music) industry so conventions for music videos of this genre are still being created as there aren't a lot of dubstep music videos. There isn't a music video for the song that I have chosen which is good because it means that I have more room to be creative with my product and create a unique and individual product. One of my initial ideas for my music video is to direct the video in a similar fashion to a horror film by using mise en scene, editing and taking inspiration from both horror film directors such as Rob Zombie and Alfred Hitchcock and also from director of music videos that have an auteur style to create gritty/ edgy music videos such as Wolf Haley.

1 minute music video remake

I have chosen which brief I want to follow - an original music video. Currently I am remaking the Busted video because this is the task given. Within college the choice of recreating a music video is very popular among the A2 students. I feel that the difficulty in recreating a music video is a drawback to going along that route however i think that the fun had while creating my video will outweigh the negative aspects. I already have an idea for the song that I will choose and the narrative of my music video. I know a few people that are thinking of opting out of doing music videos to do documentaries and film trailers but i think that i'd rather try to do a music video.

choosing a brief

I have chosen which brief I want to follow - an original music video. Currently I am remaking the Busted video because this is the task given. Within college the choice of recreating a music video is very popular among the A2 students. I feel that the difficulty in recreating a music video is a drawback to going along that route however i think that the fun had while creating my video will outweigh the negative aspects. I already have an idea for the song that I will choose and the narrative of my music video. I know a few people that are thinking of opting out of doing music videos to do documentaries and film trailers but i think that i'd rather try to do a music video.

creating a story board

Here you can see the story board that I made. There is a total of 30 shots for 1:00 worth of the video. Each shot details the mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound. We have casted parts amongst the group and looked at the props we have available. We have got our old school ties to wear for the filming. Our first day of filming was not very successful due to factor such as not having enough time to set up the scene and lighting and then make sure it had all been put away for the next lesson. We also had problems with the camera. We have around 2-3 days to get all the filming done and provide time for editing before our deadline which is the 26th June. My group cannot extend this date as that date is when we show the videos to our class. This is not looking achievable at the present.

Remaking a music video

Watch the Video Below. You may notice that this sound is out of sync with the video in this clip however unfortunately this is the only video available on YouTube of it. When creating my story board I used other videos on separate music websites however I can't post a link to them because I am currently in college and they block just about every single website going on their intranet. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD6aKVWW-K0&feature=player_embedded
As part of my preliminary task I am remaking 1:00 of a music video. It has taken us 2 lessons searching on YouTube and through our minds to a find music video that we could agree to recreate as well as be achievable and not impossible. When searching you have to think about the availability you have to the number of people you would need to be in the video, the mise-en-scene and scenery and the amount of time that you have to recreate the video. I know that other groups in my class had the same difficulty in trying to find a music video to recreate. My group has chosen to re make Busted’s Video ‘What I go to school for’ because we feel that the mise - en -scene is easy to recreate as we have a college with fantastic facilities and you can't beat a bit of busted. The video is old fashioned but still has the classical school vibe. After looking in detail at the cinematography and editing there is nothing too difficult to recreate. As my group has not used the software we will use to edit the video before it will save us time. The major benefit to choosing this music video is that we don't have to spend time outside of college trying to recreate something. We all have 3 other A2 subjects to juggle along with driving lessons. I feel that after the summer, my attitudes towards the task will be more focused but right now I am lacking motivation having just finished 9 AS exams.