Research into 'Bullet For My Valentine'

Research into Influences of music style

Music Video Research

This is 'Bullet For My Valentine's' brand new music video and it's EXACTLY what I'm aiming for myself with a narrative using the main band member and also a performance from the band themselves.

Research Into 'Bullet For My Valentine' in Magazines

This is a Prezi with pictures and text that analyse 'Bullet For My Valentine', from their outfits to their body language. This, I thought, would be useful for when I come to make my own digipak and could help guide me towards the photos I want to take to get a certain effect from the viewer.

Research into Music Theory

Research into Music Channels

What is a DIgipak?

Tracking an Artist Through Their Career

I chose Metallica because they are one of the greatest metal bands of all time, as many of their albums have been rated number one. So I thought as I will be making a metal music video, I should study the career of a successful Metal Band.

Research into music director

Analysis of Music Video

I chose to analyse the music video "Waking The Demon" by Bullet For My Valentine as it clearly lays out the narrative but also shows the band playing as it's their song and that's what the fans want.
The opening long shot sets the scene of an american high school and introduces the main character.
A cut is then used by the director in order to show the band and put a face to the global name of 'Bullet For My Valentine'. Unlike a TV show this is a regular convention, cutting between the story and the band and often helps pull the audience out of the story and allow them to relate it to their own lives. The video then outlines the underlying issue that the main character is up against, in this case, bullying.
The use of this issue and also showing the band suggests that some or all of the band members were bullied when they were in school.
The video shows the boy crossing days off a calendar throughout, this is significant as it shows you the progression of time and the corresponding bullying and its severity on that day. The video aims to make the audience empathise with this main character. The use of costume also helps this, by dressing him in a metal style it means that the intended audience; metal-heads, will respond to this and view the boy as their peer.
Towards the end of the video we see the boy getting ready to fight back. Distracting the bully's girlfriend so that he's alone in the woods. The video is cut to the calendar once again showing the words "FULL MOON" circled in red. This gives connotations of werewolves and blood, alluding to the eventual death of the bully by the boy who turned in to a werewolf on the last day of the month.
In the last part of the video we see a "Missing" sign with the bully's face on it and the main character walking towards his locker again. Another boy nudges the main character and proceeds to push him against the lockers. This time, instead of feeling sympathy for the main character, we see a close-up him cross the first day off the calendar and a short range walk past the camera smiling. The audience is now firmly rooting for this main character despite the terrible act he's committed.

Diary 26/11/12

I found this video for the effect I'll be using in my magazine advert.

Research into Digipaks

Researching on Google I found many digipaks, of all sizes (how many CD's it can hold) and colours.

I looked primarily at this digipak for SteelWing. They use a futuristic font to emphasise their Progressive Metal style. Their track listings are very eyecatching as the letters are predominantly Russian but if focused on can still be interpreted as English quite easily.

The front cover boasts a futuristic robot/soldier next to an alien. On the back it’s a zoomed image of this alien face. This could be a reference to the problems this band has had to overcome in their fight for fame and recognition and is very aesthetically pleasing for their intended audience and fans.

I also looked at this Oasis digipak.

The image of the guitar is artistic because it doesn't show all of it and it is suitable for the title of the cover because it says 'Acoustic'. The back is simple enough, and follows the colour scheme (sticking to 3 or 4 so it does not get too crowded) and it lists all the songs on the CD; this will be useful for a listener to choose which song they want to listen to first. Unfortunately, due to the camera angle I cannot see what it says on the inside, but I presume it includes either lyrics or band information.

This digipak layout is simple and calming due to its natural colours of brown, green, white and yellow. Even the CD itself is decorated, which shows they were thoughtful about the design, as it added additional information or just summarised in case you lost your cardboard digipak sleeve. The information on the left is I assume band information, however what is missing I think is a picture of the band to make it feel more personal, however they could have one on the back.

The front is very simple, because it only uses two colours however, it is very abstract which could highlight the bands individuality or type of music. It has an image of the band members which is good as it makes the digipak more personal to their fans.

From this analysis I understand to have a colour scheme that has a maximum of 3-4 colours and to have a good balance of text and images, as I do not want to crowd the small amount of space available in a digipak. Often less is more. 

Research into Music Videos that I admire

"Riot" by Bullet for My Valentine is the first music video I have chosen. This music video is good because of the way it sets the scene and shows the narrative but also includes performance. I chose to do this in my video as well. The camera settings used make the video look better because it shows a greater contrast between the white and black making the black more prominent and thus showing the true metal style, deriving from emo/gothic and biker fashion.

For these same reasons I also admire the following music video; "Waking the Demon" also by Bullet for My Valentine.

Analysis of CD magazine adverts

I thought it would be beneficial to research CD magazine adverts in order to get an idea of how to design mine. I noticed in each one that the artists name are always big and bold, some ratings from music magazines and lists of the albums top songs.

kings of Leon album advert

This advert for the kings of Leon album only by the night is very well informed as well as containing a memorable image of the band that will stick with anyone who sees it in a publication. The information included is useful and relevant such as the news that it has been released "OUT NOW" where it can be bought "PLAY.COM" and what songs are included "SEX ON FIRE, CRAWL AND USE SOMEBODY". The four band members faces split up and reconnected as a single face mixedwith that of an eagle is a very memorable image which doubtless also tells fans something about the style as well as being very eye capturing.

Dethklok cd advert

This magazine advert was published in several black metal magazines to advertise the release of the first metalocalypse dethklok cd. The name of the band and album is clearly visible at the top and some of the songs are listed at the bottom. This advert is instantly recognisable as an advertisement for dethklok as it makes use of the bands logo and mascot facebones a giant skull with several large horns.

As magazine adverts go this one is lax in design as it contains very little information such as critics reviews or a release date or even information about where to obtain the album. This could of course be intentional as it causes the audience of the advert to think about and remember it due to both it’s simplicity and lack of detail and it’s shock value. This type of advert would need to be carefully aimed at the target audience of metal fans presumably a lot of thought was put into what magazines it went into and where it was published.

Research into equipment choices

For taking pictures of the band for my digipak and magazine advertisement, I will be using a Canon 550D. This is because with the equipment in school I can attach remote flash lights to it and use a softbox, so the light isn't too bright or too dim.

When I record my music video I will be using the same Canon 550D camera and using a tripod to get steady shots. I feel this would be appropriate as then I can maintain the same quality images throughout for continuity purposes.

My post production equipment will be Adobe Photoshop CS3 for editing photographs and creating the magazine advertisement. However, for the footage of the music video I will be using a combination of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Sony Vegas Pro 11 and Adobe After Effects CS3. 

These high tech programmes will aid me in creating the best product available.

My only issue will be the cross compatibility between all these programs.

Research into music labels

Research into existing music labels on Prezi

Camera Settings Research

I asked my teacher to explain to me some various camera settings in order to have light behind my main actress obscuring most of her from shot.

INS. VIDEO HERE.

Possible location shooting 4

This is the last of the locations i shot around school today and i like it because its a wide open area of concrete. Should I set up a backdrop it could be the main recording location for the majority of my music video.

Possible location shooting 3: Alleyway

I need dark alleyways in my music video and this one; just outside my school, is one of the contenders.

Possible location shooting 2

In these shots i like the plain blue background but its corregated which adds texture.