Green screen.

Today we used the green screen. We also used a piece of green A3 paper a copy the same effect. All we needed was a camera and a willing volunteer. We filmed Beth in front of the paper. Once we had filmed what we wanted, we then uploaded the clip to premiere pro. Once we did that we uploaded a background picture and stretched it out to match the time of the clip. After that we selected 'video effects', then 'keying', then 'chroma key'. When the window popped up we selected the colour we wanted to delete and then used the sliders to delete the amount of shades of that colour until we could see no more green.  

Digipak Practise and Idea

This is just an idea I came up with as to how the front cover of our digipak may look and also the back. The superman logo will have to be redesigned though.

Redundancy and Entropy in Kings and Queens.

Through Kings and Queens the video has both mixed elements of redundancy and entropy. The fact that the main story of the music video is of a bunch of cyclists riding down a main city street is quite unusual. I think this is a good example of entropy in the music video as they are all wearing strange costumes too. However a band singing with instruments around them is probably not quite as entropic and would give quite a redundant feel.

Redundancy and Entropy

Redundancy- Redundancy is what is normal and most expected. For example a car driving down the street is a redundant image. It is a normal image we see day to day and can be quite boring.

Entropy- Entropy is what is much more unexpected and exciting. It's what happens when the weird and abnormal happens. For example a babies pram powered by rocket boosters driving down the street.

Goodwin's Framework for Analysis of Music Video

How does the visual respond to the audio?

The audio is quite an up tempo song and to make the visuals match the song, in the video they have included loads of shots and content to give it a busy atmosphere and match to something like what the listener pictures in their mind.

How is the structure of the song reflected in the visuals?

The song repeatedly cuts to the band on the side of a high building with the sun out giving it a sense of calmness and links well to the song as it slows down. Also for example when the boy on the bike and the car collide, the guitars suddenly stop. The lyrics say 'Heaven and Hell' repeatedly which shows the listener that there may be a life threatening situation in the video which could raise the question, heaven or hell?

How does the mode of address appear visually?

The mode of address it very much concentrated on the band having the star image in the video. It is very performance based.

Narrative and Performance

Does the music video contain a narrative? What percentage of the video is narrative and what percentage is performance?

I would say that the percentage of narrative to performance is 50/50. The video has a strong narrative and puts the idea across of rebellious behaviour. It is named ‘Kings and Queens’ which then lined up with the video of hundreds of teens and young adults on bikes makes the video seem to have a rebellious meaning to it. There are shots of people throwing and smashing things.

How does the video communicate the authenticity of the artist?

The performance element to the song shows the authenticity of the artist. They are very much performance based and concentrate on the star image. They like to use live audiences in parts of their songs which also bring out the star image element too.

Star Image

The star image is a very big part of this music video. Firstly it has the band on a much higher position to everyone else in the video. We find them on the side of a tall building with the sun shining on them. This brightens them up as if they are the most important people there. Also they are shown as silhouettes in most of the video which again blocks them out as if they are too important to be shown in relation to the other common people in the city.

Relationship of visuals to music and lyrics

Do the visuals illustrate or amplify the meanings present in the music?

I think that the visuals play a big part in emphasising the lyrics in the video. The load chaotic guitars in the main chorus of the song reflect the chaos of the bikes riding through the city. Also when the man is hit on the bike, the whole video slows down and a white horse comes from the distance. It adds a whole new meaning to the song.

Technical Aspects  

Are there any notable/ interesting uses of cinematography, mise en scene or editing?

There is an echo of an eagles cry right at the start which is visually replaced with a city scape. This emphasises the echo. Secondly there is the sun on the horizon and as the bikes start coming over the hill, the music builds up. It also builds as Leto gets closer to the mic. As the music builds often through the video there are bikes riding fast through the city. When the music slows down, the band and the sun are shown which sets a calm atmosphere again.

Generic Conventions and Iconography

Does the video challenge or fulfil your expectations of music videos in this genre?

I think that this does fulfil my expectations of music videos in this genre. It is very much to do with performance but also the way the video is presented with the shots and how the song is written, it makes the video seem how the audience listening to it would visualise it.

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is 'seeing the sound'. It is what we picture in our minds when we listen to a piece of music or audio.

Stop-Motion Animation!

To kick of my A2 blog I have experimented with stop-motion animation. Once a week in our class we have been exploring new creative experiments and digital techniques. We looked at lighting the first week and for this week we did stop motion animation. This is just an idea of what we were doing and what with, showing that you can animate almost anything.

Busted- What I go to School for.

This is a remake of Busted's 'What I go to school for'. The idea was to get us to lip-sync the lyrics and give us an experience of making a music video. We had to organise costumes, the classroom, and different cuts throughout the process to copy each frame from the original video. It was really good fun.