Audience Research

Record label research

Warner Bros

Established- 1958 with no traceable origins in Berliner Gramophone or Columbia Phonography.

Related companies: Warner Music Group, Atlantic Records, Rhino Entertainment and Independent label group.

Epitaph Records

Established 1993 owned by Bret Gurewitz, Is known for taking on music in the rock genre from soft rock to Heavy metal.

Works in close relation with Adam Dutkiewicz a guitarist from killswitch engage (band) who has been managing and promoting bands for epitaph.

Metalbladerecords

Established 1982 by Brian Slagel who now owns metal blade that is one of the biggest metal scene record labels.

Owns big artists like As i lay dying and Amon Amath

Theory Three (Carol Vernalis)

Carol vernalis made a theory or an observation of music videos in relation to the shots and methods used in Hollywood style films.

She went on to highlight how certain film rules like the 180 degree rule is sometimes ignored in a music video but is always stuck to in a Film.

She showed there is a vast amount of different angles used in a music video when compared to a film as the continuity is not needed in the music video.

Her main point is that Continuity editing rules do not need to be applied when filming a music video.

Theory 2 (Andrew Goodwin)

Andrew Goodwin had 3 main theory's. These fall into three categories which are...

Illustration

Lyrics- the video illustrates the literal meaning of the lyrics

Band Image- Illustrates the artist in the way that the distributor wishes.

Music- adds meaning to the music by showing images in time with the beat of the music.

Dis juncture

Lyrics- Images do not appear to have any relevance to the story being shown.

Music- images are off beat and not in relation to the music

Band Image- is not shown or is shown in a way that they would not look normally

Amplification

Lyrics- a narrative or story is created in accordance to the lyrics

Music- Cuts can be off and on the beat to emphasize a certain point

Band Image- Band can take on a role within the video playing certain characters in the story they are creating

Theory one (bordwell and Thompson)

The first thought was that to make a good music video there should be rhythmic editing, this basically means that the video should be cut to the beat, meaning that shots should change in time with the music.

Spatial editing is something that is thought about which basically means that it is possible to edit without thinking about continuity. An artist can be shown in one place and then a totally different place without the viewer questioning it.

There is also graphic editing which envolves using pictoral elements in mis-en-scene and cinematography, this means using shots that are very illustrated shots.

Temporal editing means that when you are editing without any relation to time for example it could be daytime in one shot and then night in the next.

Rock video (As Blood Runs Black)

This video is a low budget Rock video as there is no story line going along with this video. There are many close ups and medium shots used from a low angle, this is to give the viewer the illusion of seeing them on a stage. This is effective for the viewer as it keeps them aspiring to the musicians due to ther etalent.

The editing similar to that of hey there delilah has been made to make the viewer entertained by splitting up the screen to show a bunch of different shots. It gives more action than there really is.

The setting that has been chosen is very effective as later in the piece there is a lot of lighting effects used making the scene visually interesting, it has a certain appeal nearer the end due to this fact. The performers are dressed in pretty normal clothes and havent seemed to have linked themselves to any stereotype, they do not have long hair and statement making clothing on they all look pretty normal.

The Performance is a bit lacking in certain areas for example the lead guiatarist seems uneasy when headbangin in time with everyone else and doesnt look very easy with the style of movement. Other than that all performance is effective as the performers seem to really get into the music.

Pop Video Analysis

Cinematography

This video doesnt have many complicated shots used, it mostly consists of establishing shots and close ups of differrent areas, for example there is a close up of the singer with a guitar singing towards the camera. There are a few extreme close ups of things that are added into the boxs that the video is split up into.

Mise-en-scene

The people in the video are all dressed in costume of average people living a normal life, this is so that when mixed with the lyrics it is shown as a love story between two normal people. The setting for the video is in a city for the girl who is away from her lover and a plain house for the singer. This is to keep focus on the singer.

Editing

The editing is good as it makes a pretty boring story into an interesting watchable piece by the way of splitting up the shots into 3 seperate boxes with each box showing different things going on. This is effective as it makes the viewer want to watch the piece to see what is going on in the individual boxes. The use of different shots in each box makes it effective as there is more than just the one thing going on in the video making it more interesting.

Performance

As far as performance goes there is not that much going on except for the fact that the guitarist is performing the song that he has made. The woman just does a lot of waiting around and walking. There is one part where the singer sings to the camera as if it is his girlfriend, this is effective as it involves the audience.

CD cover analysis (Horizons-Parkway drive)

The Parkway drive Album cover is in direct relation to the name of the album as it is the picture of a horizon which is the name of the album. The album is very simple when compared to other albums, this is good because there is not much being revealed to the viewer of the album cover meaning that someone will want to find out more about the music. Typical to the Metal genre the artist is not shown this is good because it means the audience will haveto either have to be more inquisitive or go to a gig to see what the artist looks like. The bands name is bigger than that of the album name so that it is obvious which band you are listening to.

CD Cover Analysis (Fortress)

Protest the hero have chosen to go with an abstract artwork that doesnt seem to have much link with there image but as a big link with there music as they are making abstract music. There album cover ahs there name at the bottom and then totally random images to plant a question i the viewers mind. The album artwork is very interesting but very hard to make sense of. This means that the album will generate an interest to people as they will be interested in finding out what the albu is about.

CD Cover analysis (The End of Heartache)

The way that this album cover is set out is typical of a metal style album cover. There is a lighter colour that is being shown coming through the darkness, This is used to portray good and evil which is a very frequent topic throughout metal. The bands name is in capital letters at the top of the page, This is done to make it obvious which band is on the album. In the bottom right hand corner there is the bands album that is in a drastically smaller font than that of the bands name, the writing is put into a pretty font which makes the album name look appealing. The picture that the album is based on relates to the name of the album with the picture of a heart with spikes in it.

Conventions of a Rock Video

-guitarists
-basists
-singer
-action
-small story line
-fast paced editing
-head banging
-lead singer is generally not playing an instrument
-people in the band have rock and roll lifestyle, piercings tattoos etc

My mood board is based on the genre of heavy metal and shows a few of the things that are associated to metal music. I have pictures like that of the download dog which links in with metal through the download festival, i have different instruments to show the element of there being a band behind the music. I also have pictures of a mosh pit and that of a tattooed person to show some of the points that are involved in metal music.

brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with;

A cover for it's release.

A magazine advertisement.

The people in my group are Will Hayden abd Hayley Cahill