Due to numerous hours of trying to create the correct video for the band we came to a conclusion that our music video for The Crookes was going to be something very different, a video that could be seen as going against convention and a video that is both poetic and imaginative. Due to the huge inspiration from the Maccabees video 'Toothpaste kisses' we decided that the only way of giving the Crookes poetic and beautifully written song justice was to use imagery as a way of telling a story; a narrative to match the Crookes lyrics.
We began to collect our own personal photographs from our older generations, photographs which came from the 1950s; the era of which the band focus themselves on, by collecting photographs from our families, this again tied in with the theme of family roots and being British. The Crookes as mentioned previously got their band name from the road they were living on when the band formed, a very personal thing. We went against conventions for our video and felt that this was neccessary to give The Crookes justice; the main influence for our decision to do this was the Maccabees video 'Toothpaste Kisses'. We knew that this poetic and imagery based video was perfect for us. We went against the convention of using filmed footage and instead had our intire video consisting of animation, this made our video unique and perfect for our band. The video still evokes the style of the band, due to the 1950s photographs that we used, it gave the band added background- pop/indie band influenced by this era. Our track 'Chorus Of Fools' is about a relationship that is dying out and being reformed again; due to this we obviously wanted to portray this as our main theme and by doing this we wanted to use our photographs and animation to tell the story. Todorov is a Bulgarian structuralist, mainly concerned with linguistic who began to produce influential work on narrative from the 1960s onwards. I believe that his theory relates greatly to my video, Chorus of Fools by The Crookes. His theory consists of three parts Equilibrium, Dis-Equilibrium and New-Equilibrium. The Equilibrium is the normal state of the beginning of the text. My video has a clear beginning; the couple are introduced, their love for each other is made very clear by animations such as love hearts and doves. However, as we reach the middle of the song we see the ‘Dis-Equilibrium’ this is when we see a break up in the happy couples relationship. We made this clear by having animation of pictures torn up, rain and clouds (pathetic phallacy) and sad faces. There is then a clear ending ‘New-Equilibrium’ this is when the couple resolve their conflict and their love for each other is rekindled. This is again clearly reinforced by the animations that we used. I believe for these reasons Todorov narrative theory relates greatly to my video.
There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.- There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography. There is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in our music video. With the video consisting of animation and imagery the photographs and brush tools that we included in our video have a clear relationship with the lyrics. Throughout the video certain lyrics are represented by animated scenes to enhance the lyrics and create and relationship. Also a certain points in the video we have included words and text which reflect certain lyrics and again enhances the importance of the lyrics due to it holding the essence of the narrative.
There is also a clear relationship between the Music and the Visuals. At the beginning of the song the beat is slow and subtle and the imagery and animation that we used worked in relation to this. However as we reach the climax of the song the beat begins to increase and the track gets quicker in speed. Due to this we also enhanced the speed of our animation and also reversed particular parts of animation to show the dramatic change in the music and the visuals. Due to this change there is definitely a clear relationship between the music and the visuals in our music video for the Crookes, Chorus of Fools. Due to the obvious style of the band we knew that we had to portray them in a way to reinforce this style and attitude that the band already has in order to give them justice and to represent them correctly. We took note on the 50s era that the band has the huge influence of literature. Our video clearly incorporates this feeling and style and we did this on purpose. Throughout our video we kept to a certain style, our font was all the same, we kept to the sepia and greyscale theme and used photographs from the same era. Due to the band and the video having such a distinctive feel and style i knew that my ancillary texts would also have to carry this on-going theme.
(I have kept the same house style in my magazine article and used images and fonts that evoke the 1950s era. My digipak also consists of photographs which were used in my video and carrys the same style. I have continued using the same font, same sepia tone and overall theme of the band. I am aware of the importance of this as it is the main ways of promoting the band; if this was not done effectively then i may not be approaching my corect target audience. The combination of the main product and the ancillary texts has enabled me to develope the band further and really portray them the correct way. It gives the band added depth and gives them the chance to appeal to their target audience greater.)
The process of creating the animation in our music video was a very big challenge for us. Having never used Adobe Premiere Pro before, using it to create our whole music video was bith very challenging and demanding. However, once we got the grips with the basics we started to develop our initial ideas and made full use of the software. I believe that our development in skills is achknowledgable in our video; this is evident in the transitions from section to section and this is what may let our video down. However, i loved how much we got out of this project as not only did we develop our skills we also devloped our ideas and without this challenge of using this software this may not have been done. The editing of our music video was very demanding and time consuming, however the hard work payed off in the end! As you can see the animation is smooth and fluent and this is what we wanted, again being inspired by the Maccabees video 'Toothpaste kisses'.
Due to The Crookes being a young, unsigned band with the pop/indie vibe that they carry i knew that they would have a strong target audience. I believe that the target audience for The Crookes would people aged between 15-30 who have an interest in bands. Due to their 'folk and indie' vibes that the band have i believe that this would also be a strong target audience for the band. I know that knowing your target audience is very important when making a music video and portraying the band. The video has to match the style and theme of the band and their track. This is why we found that using photographs from the 1950s and the sepia tone would be most affective, it works great in combination with the track and should therefore appeal to the bands target audience. To make sure that this was put across i created a small survey to ask my audience wether they thought i did a good job and wether they thought my video was affective.
The feedback that i collected from my survey of my music video was very positive. I was very pleased with how my video turned out after months of hard work and knowing that it appeals to its target audience makes it worth while. Athough we had lots of creative ideas i knew that they had to appeal to the audience and match the style of the band. My feedback has proved that this was done as all the people in my survey believed that the animation was the strongest part of our video. We knew that this would be a risk due to it going strongly against conventions of a music video but the risk paid off. Although all of my feedback was positive, due to me and my group making the video there are still parts that i feel could be improved or adjusted to make it that little bit better. Due to the success of the animation i would love to develop on this, as our skills on Adobe Premiere Pro have devloped we now feel more confident with the programme and therefore i would love to add to the animition that already exsists.
I have learnt that audience feedback is very important, it is a goood way in communicating with your audience, it is positive to know what works well and what can be improved, it gives you direction and makes the hard work pay off.
There were many media technologies that i used in tis project, and most of them i had never used before. By using new media technologies and software i was learning and developing my skills throughout the project. As we came to the last few weeks i felt very confident with the media technologies, ecspecially Adobe Premiere. When using Adobe Premiere Pro i used many defferent effects to create the animation that i wanted. I have listed these in my earlier post. However i also used any other media technoligies when completing this project. I used social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace to develop research of the band as they our connected to both these sites, as well as Twitter. Due to The Crookes touring whilst we were completing this project we had to gather secondary research to connect with the band and by using the social networking sites this was made possible. I also used their MySpace page as a way to gather background information aswell as everyday information about the band. Their site includes track demos, touring dates, their own blog including their thoughts; their activities and their song lyrics, other peoples comments and views of the band, images and photographs of the band and other web links. MySpace was very good in letting us connect with the band and really understand them, or how they want to be portrayed to their audience. I also used Hotmail to email and cumminicate with band again emailing was the best way to cummunicate due to their busy touring scheduele. Ialso used List FM and YouTube to hear their tracks and see the band at gigs again all developing and expanding my knowledge of the band. I also used everyday sites such as google, wikipedia and survey monkey. I have also used NING and Blogger to display my work and i have loved blogging! As mentoned earlier Adobe Premiere Pro was my biggest source of digital technologies however Photoshop also played a vital role in my project. Using this as a way of cutting/ cropping and generally editing my photographs was very important.
I have enjoyed the creativity and freedom that this project has given me and have loved using so many different media technologies. Although using animatio throughout my music video was very time-consuming, demaning and challenging i believed it has payed off and our vdeo is very unique and unconventional which i believe acts perfectly in line with The Crookes. I believe the inspiration that we had from the Maccabees video is very evident, yet we devloped and changed their ideas to make them our own and to match the genre and style of our music band opposed to The Maccabees. This project has enabled me to develop numerous amounts of skills. It has given me the chance to work in a group; enabling me to sit back and take charge when neccassary. It has also developed my skills of certain technologies and has made me feel much more confident to use certain programmes to their full potential. The project has also enabled me to enhance my research and development skills. Using various different social networking sites as well as technology has made me interested in this field of work. I love how creative and inspired this has made me and enabled me to be, my love of visual creativy has worked well in this project and i love how i got to use this. Overall i am very happy with how my music video turned out as well as my pre production work. I Hope i have given The Crookes the justice that they deserve.
