Beck - Loser Editing

Alternative/Indie Rock Band Timeline

I have created a timeline listing the years that popular indie rock bands formed. This reveals the time indie rock began (1970) and lets me view the most popular years for indie rock bands to start out. From the 1970's to the 1990's some really famous bands formed which brought a lot of attention to the  alternative indie rock scene such as Joy Division, Sonic Youth, The Smiths and Nirvana. I found that as the years went by, less and less majour label indie bands were formed however the indie rock genre is still extremely popular today. This is because more indie rock bands are being signed to indie lables; maintaining the importance of the music and the fans, not the money.

Audience Research

 

 

The focus group helped me to gather information related to the creation of my music video. The videos I asked were:

1. Where do you watch music videos the most? Why is this?
2. Has a music video ever influenced you to buy an album or to listen to more of the band's music?
3. What is your favourite style of video (i.e. narrative, performance and abstract)?
4. Do you feel it is necessary for a music video to feature teh artist/band in the video? Do you think it makes a difference?
5. Do you think that a music video needs to be shot well for the song to be a success?
6. What do you think is more important, the song lyrics or teh msuci video? Therefore should a music video focus on the meaning of the song or can it have a completely different meaning and still be good
7. Do you expect indie rock videos to follow conventions or to break them?

Band Promotional Videos

The Beatles featured in their own film A Hard Day's Night which both promoted their singles featuring on the album but also attracted a large audience as it was the first film to feature band members. It acted as a mock documentary which created realism as the film used real fans to  appear in scene where the band are running away from them or performing songs such as 'A Hard Day's Night', 'I Should Have Known Better', 'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You'.

The trailer fulfills its purpose of entertaining and informing the audience through the use of the non-diegetic sound. A voice over is used to describe the plot of the film whilst non-diegetic snippets from a range of their songs from the album A Hard Day's Night are also played but much quieter; this is so the audience can hear the voice over whilst recognising some of their hit songs. To entertain the audience and persuade them to watch the film, some clips from the film use the original diegetic sound, this way the audience are able to get a taste of the comedic genre of the film. In terms of editing,text is displayed more frequently towards the end to emphasise what the narrator is saying and bring attention to them for example a good review.

'The Young Ones' is a British musical released in 1961 featuring the singer Cliff Richard. Richard plays a character named Nicholas 'Nicky' Back which is very different to The Beatles films (A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Let It Be') as Cliff Richard isn't playing himself but a different character. This appeals to a wide audience as both fans of Cliff Richard and fans of musicals can enjoy it.

The Monkees starred in the TV show 'The Monkees' which helped increase the band's popularity.

Music Video Timeline

Song lyrics: Analysed

My music video's inspiration is very focused on the lyrics. Many of my shots will relate to the lyrics as I found from my blog poll that this is a desired concept from a music video. The lyrics have strong meaning which will help reinforce my music video narrative and allow me to add creative touches through editing. 

Song Lyric Timings

Genre History and Conventions Analysis

Initial Ideas

Lyric Storyboard

Music Video Analysis 1

The music video ‘Wonderwall’ by the band Oasis uses editing effectively as the whole video is black and white to create a solemn mood through the dark contrast between black and white. This refers to the abstract narrative of the video which uses an artistic style to appeal to the target audience. Another technique used in terms of editing is adding a bright colour to certain objects in the video such as props including a guitar which changes from bright blue to bright green to bright yellow and a hat which stays blue. These colours draw attention to the objects which is done to show their importance; the hat belongs to a sad clown, blue connotes sadness which could be connected to the mood of the clown. Also, instruments used in the video is a formal convention to reflect it is a music video; this way the video is making sure the audience’s attention is drawn to the guitar. Other uses of editing include fades from the clown character to the band which adds a dreamy effect along with the non-diegetic sound of the violins playing. Flash effects are also used to give the impression of an old camera taking a photograph which reinforces the vintage artistic style created from the old black and white effect. Other elements of editing seen in the video vary from a kaleidoscope effect of each different key part of the narrative including the clown, each different band member, dancers and instruments and a cross cutting effect where the lead singer’s face is visible on top of other clips to ensure the main attraction in the video being the lead singer. The large amount of editing effects are almost used ironically; this is because the black and white effect implies that the video is going to be very basic relating back to former music videos from the 60's. However, this is not the case as many psychedelic and abstract effects are which surprise the audience, breaking formal conventions. Some parts of the video have a slow motion effect which reinforce the dreamy mood of the video; instruments such as cellos and violins are used which also add a wistful tone to the soundtrack and the video.

The cinematography includes many close ups on the band members faces, especially when vocals are being used to emphasises the performance aspect of the video. A close up is also used on a musician’s hand playing the cello and guitar to reflect the genre of music and the type of media. As an audience, we expect to see the band playing instruments to create realism and relate to the stereotypes of musicians. Throughout the video a slow pan is used to present the whole band members and allow the audience to see them during the video to follow formal conventions.

 

Mise en scene is also powerful in the video as seen through props; a record player is seen many times during the video and is used to make it seem the song track is playing from it; adding to the vintage tone of the video. The video is shot in a large, bare room against a white wall to reinforce the intense emotions portrayed through the editing and lighting. Next, an important character in the video is a clown; the costume makes this obvious to the audience as for the big shoes, large check suit, big bow tie and the traditional clown face paint. Clowns connote joy and happiness as they are always joking around, however this contrasts with the serious tone of the song to imply that maybe even the people who are always expected to be happy can still feel sadness.

Finally, for most of the track, the sound of the song is diegetic due to the performance element of the video except for the montage edits where the song is played over a sequence of images. At the start and end of the video the diegetic sound of the clown’s footsteps becomes louder and the audience can hear the sound of the record player being set up; this builds tension because of the suspense before the music begins to play.