Audience Research

I have conducted some audience research from some of the students in my school, this will help me to receive their opinion for features I may possibly use for my media video and album cover. Below you can find students looking at the original video for 'Spit It Out' and looking at my album title samples. This will help me to produce work that it suitable and has been tailored by my audience to make it better.

Christmas Fun

As the term was drawing to an end for the Christmas break, the class decided to spend our last two lessons working together to recreate a loved Christmas hit. The song that we chose to do was 'Fairytale of New York' by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl. We chose this iconic song since it is a favourite by everyone, with a really distinctive sound and video. In the hour and a half that it took to create the video, we filmed around the school, created an album cover and edited it.

 

 

The video we created let us have some fun with editing without the stress of it being marked, this meant we had a bit more practice with editing. We created the video and made it as accurate to the original video as possible. This shows that the class can mimic a professional video and can use the limited resources that we had around the school.

 

We edited the video by making it black and white, this is because the original video is like this, the reason the video is in black and white is because it sets the mood for the depressing side of the video. This contrasts with the stereotypical emotions used in Christmas songs, which works with the style of song. We also attempted lip syncing but used a comical effect, this was partly because of the spontaneity of the video creation and also because it makes its funnier for Christmas. 

 

I hope you enjoy the video, and Merry Christmas!

Music Video Directors Research

I have decided to research into some music video directors, I am hoping to be influenced by some this will help me to come up with some good ideas to use in my video, this will help me to create a clever and imaginative video.

The first director I will look at is Paul Brown. I am choosing to research his work as he has worked with band 'Slipknot', and this is the band that I am going to produce a music video for. Brown is a graphic designer, photographer, music video & commercial director, having worked on many music videos in the past, in 2008 he worked with Heavy Metal band Slipknot for the video 'Psychosocial'. In my opinion this is a very good video, this is because the shots used are very effective and capture the meaning of the song. Brown uses a lot a fire and destruction in the video, tied in with an effective band performance. Brown has worked with other artists of similar genre to Slipknot meaning that he will be a major influence on my work. Brown stereotypically uses a band performance without a narrative, this is something I will consider, however I am likely to include a narrative in my video.

Another director I will look into is Hype Williams. Williams is a completely different director to Brown (genre-wise). This is because Williams ha worked with artists such as Kanye West and Busta Rhymes. Williams has been successful director in his time, winning awards such as Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year (1996) for Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check", the NAACP Image Award (1997), the 8th annual Music Video Production Association Award for Black Music Achievement (1997), MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video (1998) category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It", MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video (1999) for TLC's "No Scrubs", and the BET Award for Best Director (2006) for Kanye West's "Gold Digger".In 2006, Williams was honoured by MTV with its Video Vanguard Award, presented in honour of his achievements as a filmmaker. This success makes Williams a big influence on me because he is imaginative and creative, meaning that I may use some of his ideas in my music video.

Audience Research

I have done some audience research, this will help me to find out what my audience want to see in their favourite music videos. I have used 'Voki' to produce my research as I have never used this before and it will be fun to try it out. The audience research will help me pick an appropriate song for my audience which will make more suitable and appealing for them. I will ask a number of people to complete a Voki for me, this will enable me to find a range of opinions and will allow me to produce a video that people will enjoy.

Lyrics of the song

I have decided to post the lyrics of the song that I am going to do my music video on. The song is called 'Spit It Out' and it is by the Heavy Metal band 'Slipknot'. These are quite explicit in places but this is typical of the band and its genre. I feel that with this particular song I will be able to create a good, clear narrative and since its is a metal song I will include some band performance.



 

"Spit It Out"

Did you never gave a d*** in the first place?
Maybe it's time you had the tables turned
Cause in the interest of all involved I got the problem solved
And the verdict is guilty...

...Man nearly killed me
Steppin' where you fear to tread
Stop, drop and roll - you were dead from the git-go!!
Big mouth f****r, stupid c********r!
Are you scared of me now? Then you're dumber than I thought
Always is and never was
Foundation made of p*** and vinegar
Step to me, I'll smear ya - think I fear ya? Bullshit!
Just another dumb punk chompin' at this tit
Is there any way to break through the noise?
Was it something that I said that got you bent?
It's gotta be that way if you want it
Sanity, Literal Profanity hit me!

[2x]
Spit it out
All you wanna do is drag me down
All I wanna do is stamp you out

Maybe it's the way you gotta spread a lotta rumour fodder
Keepin' all your little spies and leavin' when you realise
Step up, fairy
I guess it's time to bury your a** with the chrome
Straight to the dome
You heard me right, b***h, I didn't stutter
If you know what's good - just shut up and beg, brother
Backstab - don't you know who you're dissin'?
Side swipe - we know the a** that you're kissin'!
Bigidy - bigidy b***h boy, halfway hauser
I don't hear s*** cause I keep gettin' louder
Come on, and get a face full o' tactic
Lippin' off hard, goin' home in a basket
You got no pull, no power, no nothin'
Now you start s**t? Well, ain't that somethin'?
Payoffs don't protect, and you can't hide if you want
But I'll find you - comin' up behind you!

[2x]
Spit it out
All you wanna do is drag me down
All I wanna do is stamp you out

'Bout time I set this record straight
All the needle nose punchin' is makin' me irate
Sick o' my b*****n' fallin' on deaf ears
Where you gonna be in the next five years?
The crew and all the fools, and all the politics
Get your lips ready, gonna gag, gonna make you sick
You got d*** when they passed out the good stuff
Bam
Are you sick of me? Good enough - had enough

[8x]
F*** me! I'm all out of enemies!
F*** me! I'm all out of enemies!

[2x]
Spit it out
All you wanna do is drag me down
All I wanna do is stamp you out

Spit
Spit
Spit
Spit
Spit
Spit it out

Research into band

The band which I am going to create my music video for is the heavy metal band 'Slipknot'. Slipknot were a band that consisted of nine members: Sid Wilson, Paul Gray, Joey Jordison, Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn Crahan, Mick Thomson, and Corey Taylor. However, their bassist, Paul Gray, died in May 2010. This left them with just eight members, their previous bassist Donnie Steele was the band's touring bassist in 2011. In mid December 2013, drummer Joey Jordison left the band for unspecified personal reasons. Slipknot have released four studio albums and one compilation album, four video albums and one live album. The band has completed 5 tours, in addition to performing at various festivals including Download and Leeds and Reading Fest and their self made festival 'Knotfest'.

The band is known for its attention-grabbing image, the members wear matching uniforms, have unique masks respectively and have aliases which are simply numbers. The band are known for wearing masks and attention seeking make-up.

This is Slipknot at Download Festival 2009, with the late Paul Gray.

 

Slipknot is well known for its attention-grabbing image, aggressive music style, and energetic and chaotic live shows. Their videos include similar features, which I will incorporate into my video. Their videos typically include a band performance, which I will include in my video.

 

 

Textual Analysis (Slipknot)

I have analysed a video by the heavy metal band 'Slipknot', I have chosen to do an analysis on them because I will be making my music video for one of their songs. I will pinpoint key features in their videos for me to use in my video. This will help me to create a video that it relevant and appropriate to the band. The song I have chosen to analyse in 'Psychosocial', I feel that this particular song has a lot of key features within it, which will help me to create my music video.

 

 

Album Covers

I have decided to research into different artists album covers and will compare how much different they are depending on their genre. This will help me to create my album cover and make it suitable to the genre of my music video. Some features that I will look out for are colours, fonts and images included on the cover, this will help determine the genre of music.


Katy Perry is a female pop artist, she has designed her album cover with her in the centre of it, this is typical of a solo artists because it is used so that her fans know it is her album. She has used a lot of pink colours on the cover which is typical of a female artist as it is a stereotypical feminine colour, if I were to do make a music video for a female solo artist I would take this into consideration. Perry is also using sex appeal to sell her album by using a picture of her wearing very little, this is to attract male fans to her music, this is also because producers are selling her image as well as her music.

Slipknot is currently an eight-piece heavy metal band, they have shown the whole band on this album cover including previous member Paul Gray, who was the ninth member but passed away in 2010. Showing the whole band is typical of this genres characteristics and will be included in mine if I choose to base my video on a band such as Slipknot. Bright colours are not used in this cover, but dark, dull ones. This is a common feature in band such as Slipknot and other heavy metal bands. The album in called 'All Hope Is Gone', the shot shows a dark, miserable sky which uses pathetic fallacy to establish the mood, the black colour suggesting death and pain.

Eminem is a solo rap artist, and 'Recovery' was his seventh studio album. It was an album following up for from his previous one, 'Relapse', telling the story of how he returned to his addiction to drugs, where 'Recovery' tells us how he overcame this addiction. The album shows what is presumably the artist walking down a long empty road, suggesting the road to recovery. Being involved in drugs is a stereotypical part of the rap genre, so Eminem releasing an album based on leaving his addiction shows how he is breaking the conventions of a rap artist. This influences me to possibly break stereotypical conventions of genre characteristics when I produce my album.

Rihanna in a female R'n'B artist, this is her album 'LOUD', she has used a close photo of her face which is typical of the genre, especially female singers. There is a lot of red used in the picture, emphasising his lips, this is used for sex appeal, similar to the pop artists, It is also similar as it is using the cover to sell the artist as well as her music. The album cover is stereotypical of its genre as most covers of the same genre also feature the artist alone of the cover, when I create my album cover I may include this feature.

Textual Analysis (S.O.A.D)

I have analysed a music video by the band 'System of a Down' (S.O.A.D), this is because it is a similar genre to the video I will creates' genre. Doing this will help will to pick out key features that this genre will use, this means that when I produce my music video I can include some of these features, this means that I will be able to make a video that is fitting to the genre. 

I originally uploaded this video to YouTube, but for copyright reasons, I had to remove, so I uploaded it to Slideshare. 

History of the Music Video

I have researched about the history of the music video. The presentation will show the progress through technology and the popularity if music videos. It shows the importance of music videos to artist through the ages from the first motion picture with sound to TV channels dedicated to broadcasting music videos.

Textual analysis (Hadouken!)

For my research I have analysed a number of music videos. This will help me to create my music as it will give me inspiration and I will know what to do to make my video professional. The first video that I analysed was 'Parasite' by 5 piece band 'Hadouken!' They are a unique genre with many fans, this is why I wanted to analyse their video.