Analysis of music video - Ghost town - The Specials.

The specials are a moderately well known band from Coventry. The single that i will be analysing is 'Ghost Town'. 

The video focuses on the band all driving in one car, around an empty city, which fits with the title of the song. And we get a lot of shots looking at the band in the car, singing along to the lyrics of the song. In 'the specials' other music videos, they aim to promote themselves via live performance videos. I think this is primarily the aim with the ghost town music video, even though it is not live performance. 

There is a clear message the music video sends out. 'Ghost Town' (The title of the song), usally means empty town. This may be to convey the themes of urban decay, unemployment and violence in the inner cities.The music video also allows the audience to view it in a voyeuristic way as the band are viweing the ghost town in a car. 

the music and visuals have a clear link. The black and white interface of the video conveys the theme of emptyness and depression. The cuts of the camera shots occur when the beat to the music drops or changes, this directly links to the music and visuals.

The music video goes by the 'normal' music video conventions. The promotional factor in the music video is done well, there are constant close ups of the artists as the song is being played. The outfits the the band are wearing are typical to that of the people during the 80's. The music video suggests that the 80's was the time period.  

Westlife - Singles Cover Research.

  

The well known Irish boy band Westlife have released many singles. In most of the cover of the singles track releases, they use the same font to promote the band. Also on the covers there is always the band themselves. This can only help promote the single and the band, it also maybe effective when the single is being sold of the shelves. The shot of the band is always a medium shot of all 5 members, with a plain background in most cases. I think this will help me and me group decided how we want our cover to look, as plain simple and straight to the point will look professional and creative.

Analysis of music video - Sum 41 - With me.

Sum 41 are a band form Canada, more specifically for Ajax, Ontario. The band was formed in 1996 and currently has 4 members with Deryck Whibley as the lead vocalist. They are a 'rock' genre based group in general as they produce music which fits in to all rock group category's such as; Punk rock, Pop rock, Alternative rock etc. I will be analysing the music video of their highly popular 'With Me'.

The music video to 'With Me' was released first on the MySpace social networking site on Feburary 28th, 2007. The shooting of the video took place in Toronto, Canada.

The music video is set in an old fashioned house. During the video there are shots of various people showing thier past. The music video consistantly cuts back to the band's live performance, in what looks like the living room in the house. The Band are mainly shown during the chorus. This is purley a promotional factor for the Band.

The main focus of the video is basically a love story. Its' inside meaning shows how in a couple both people rely on each other live. This is shown in the first verse line 5, the lyric 'Cause it's true, I am nothing without you' shows that he means 'my life is not worth living without you'. The theme of 'love' is conveyed throughout the music video in the lyrics. This shows a clear match between visulas and lyrics. The music video is also very voyeuristic by the fact that, the audience are looking into how a traditional couple of any age, rely on each other. 

Specfic codes and conventions are also kept during the video. Close ups of the band 'performing live' are ever present. This ensures the band are promoted by the music video. The Iconography to the music video is also genre specific. Music and visuals are also linked. As soon as the beat drops in the song, the shot snaps on to the band and the live performance.

Evaluation of Preliminary task.

To get the A2 Media group an experience of editing, camera work and general videography. The 2 day workshop was less focused on the quality and standard of the music video, it was focused on developing our skills with camera work and editing. Before making a top music video the basic technical elements must have been adhered. We were given a song (Annie Lennox - A Whiter Shade Of Pale). We were taught some of the codes and conventions of a music video. We were first aught about Goodwin's analysis:

• a link between the lyrics and visuals
• a link between the music and visuals
• genre specific iconography
• close ups of the artist(s)
• voyeurism
• intertextuality

The first day of the workshop was more focused on planning and researching aspects for our music video. Our group; brainstormed ideas, listed the props and  people we needed, created a storyboard and began filming near the end of the day. The second day was mainly focused of filming and editing our footage. Again we received the basic knowledge on editing, it was also valuable experience for editing. 

One of the things that i gained from the 2 days is the ability to work well in a group. I realized that to complete this coursework of producing a music video, the work your group puts in is invaluable. If i were to complete this coursework on my own then the work load would be too much of struggle to apprehend. Therefore working as a part of a group will make our work more creative and technical, also we could get more work done in less time. 


As well as learning about all the basics of videography, i also learnt about the technical side of it. i.e framing and taking a shot, contrasting the lighting etc. I also learnt from a part of the pre-liminary task, to label all tapes that have recorded footage on, otherwise they may get recorded over. 


We also had a substantial editing lesson. I edited part of our video on Final Cut Express. As imagined, the editing software was hard to get used to, but after learning the main shortcuts and getting a general feel to the editing software, i managed to edit the video quite well. It was helpful to learn the basics of Final Cut Express as this is the software we will use to edit our A2 music video. 


To conclude, i feel that taking part in the Preliminary task benefitted me in many different ways. I grasped some basic but vital knowledge on how to shoot and edit a music video. These are all skills that i aim to take in to produce my A2 music video. Although i still have room to improve, i can say that the skills i have with editing and videography at this moment in time are substantially good. 


Our final Preliminary task video:

Our chosen song: Stay with me.

We decided to choose the song 'Stay With Me' by You Me At Six. The song in total is 3:12 in duration. This is ideal to make a music video to. We aim to apply all the concepts of Goodwin's analysis to our video. You Me At Six are an Pop/Punk or and Alternative Rock genre of band. The band is well known and well liked within our group and is one of the sole reasons why we picked the song.

The song 'Stay With Me' was recorded in 2009 and released on 5th September 2010. The song also sends out a strong message about relationships and love. We could convey this theme in our video.


The lyrics to the song:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/stay-with-me-lyrics-you-me-at-six.html