Analysis of rock video 2

This music video is for Rope by Foo-Fighters, it follows the more traditional view for music videos in that it has a quite simple style and rely's upon the music to make the video great. It also uses background lighting to great effect, as it changes throughout the song along with the tempo of the music, this fully intergrates the mise-en-scene with the music. The music is of the rock genre, Foo Fighters are a very successful band in the rock industry. We can tell that the band is a rock band by looking at the way they dress they are all dressed in black which implys the slightly darker nature of the genre, also most of them have long hair which is a stereotype of "rockers". Added to this they all are playing instruments which is a necessity for any rock band as it cannot just rely upon one member of the band to carry them through their musical careers.

The music present here is lighter than their previous albums, this could be to make their music more accessable to a modern audience as rock music is much less popular recently as it used to be. However Foo Fighters are renowned for having great musical talent, their front man (Dave Grohl) was also the drummer in revolutionary band Nirvana. The music video fits this lighter style of music as the shots are not ridiculously fast paced but do still prevent viewer fatigue. There are also numerous shots of instruments showing the musical focus of the band and the video.

The editing here is mainly used in the parts when the colours change, this is a simple colour overlay that can be done on final cut express relatively easily. The continuity here is presented by the constant use of close ups of faces and instruments. All in all the video tells us a lot about the band and song in question, it tells us that it is lighter than previous songsand therefore the Foo Fighters are changing their style in order to keep up with the current times ad the ways in which the music industry is moving.

Analysis of rock video 1

This video for 30 seconds to mars' "Closer to the edge" incorporates shots from various shows they have sone around the world, this shows how their fans are an integral part of their bands success. Also the fact that some of the shots have titles that seem to be in the voice of the band makes the video so much more personal for the audience as the band has had a personal input to the video. Tracking shots are used to emphasise the movement that is happening in the performance. Mid shots are also used in order to create normality in the video, this imply's the bands rockstar lifestyles and creates a very admirable image of them.

The editing here is all in the use of shot cuts, most of the video is dominated by montage editing, this is dude to the fact that the music is very fast paced, however there are moments (like the introduction for instance) that the shots are more slow paced, this goes along with the pace of the music as with the "Foo Fighters" video for "Rope".

The mise-en-scene of both the video and the band is a very cool band that is very artistically expressive, this can be seen in the way they dress in the video, the frontman's pink mohawk particularly makes him stand out amongst the crowd. The video is also very bright due to the bright lighting that illuminates the stage, this connotes the upbeat nature of the song.

The Brief

Assessment 12/07 SJA

WWW:
- Great to see that you are up-to-date so far Cameron!! Yaaaayyyy! PLEASE KEEP THIS UP.
- Posts are generally visual - good effort to create contact sheets to demonstrate elements of an effective music video, and pics from the music video shoot to reflect on your role.
- Your reflective coments, analysis of 'The Fix' and www/ ebi comments show you have a clear sense of what elements make a good music video, and the need to think and plan carefully to ensure shot rotation, lighting and framing work together to create something that is visually spectacular

EBI:
- I think you could make the effort to include more pictures fromt he music video shoot - you also need to include the planning documents you created in your role as 'Lighting Engineer' - upload these
- Check your use of 'i / I' when referring to yourself in your written posts. never use a lower case 'i' - looks rushed and careless in year 13!
- I thought you made some really perceptive comments in your analysis of 'What Makes a Good Music Video' - good use of a contact sheet from 'The Fix' - but what about referring to other music videos from other genres too??

EFFORT: GD (make sure you upload lighting planning docs)

My progression going into Year 13

Going into year 13 I understand that I am going to have to put in A LOT more work in order to acheive the grade that I want, last year I dont feel that I took the work seriously enough in order for me to achieve a good grade. This year I plan to take the work a lot more seriously, I feel that I have already begun doing this by making my blog posts more visual, and by contributing more of myself in class.

Last year I feel that my film was good, it used a variety of shot types, and I think the fact that we took the time too go up to London really added another level to our film opening. I plan to replicate the variety of shots in my music video in order to avoid the dreaded viewer fatigue. Last year also increased my confidence in front of the camera and behind it, I am going to take this into next year and take advantage of these skills so that it really shows in my music video. Finally I know know that it is much easier to get blog posts out of the way early rather than leaving them to pile up, in short i plan to be more proficient in managing my own time.

My own music video

http://youtu.be/IRVxEoK5-VQ

WWW:
-The lip synching is on time which makes the music video look very professional.
-The use of lighting adds to the party element of the mise-en-scene as they are very bright colours.

EBI:
-A more varied use of shots would have reduced viewer fatigue to almost zero.
-If the song had been finished the video would have been a lot more comprehensive.

Reflecting on music video challenge

My job for our "In the Sun" remake was to do the lighting, i also supplied the guitar and the amp for our male character to use. Lighting was a very important in this video, as there are some very high contrast shots in terms of lighting, it also gave me a chance to improve my skills with the more technical aspects of the filming world.

WWW: -I managed to create contrast in the shots that needed to have contrast (for instance when "him" is by himself in the library.) Also i got to increase my skills with the technical aspects of the lighting/filming features of media, for instance i can now set up a key light and an overhead, this will definately help me when making my own music video. Finally I developed my skills at actually filming, i now know about the vital areas to filming any music video.

EBI: I feel that i was underprepared for this exercise, i made some mistakes in setting up the lights (fitting them to stands etc) however I suppose that this is the point of the exercise, to prepare me for later filming. Also I took too long to set up at some points, this help up the whole proceedings, therefore I will have to be faster in the future. Lastly I wanted to be more involved with my directing parts, however my lighting duties took up most of my time, so when I film my music video I will have to manage my time better.