Research into Grunge Genre

I will research into the grunge genre to learn several things. When planning our music video I want to make sure I use elements that our target audience can relate to. By analysing different grunge music videos I can pick up on traditional elements that are commonly used, for example the type of actors or locations. I will start by using the Internet to find lists from fans or from forums on the most popular grunge bands, it is likely I will be looking at music video from as late as the 1980's up until today. This is so I can see if there is any difference as well as get a wider understanding of what our target audience might expect. Here is a list taken from http://www.90srockers.com/top5.php which contains a list of the top 5 most voted grunge bands of all time. I will then take an example of each of these bands and analyse each one to see if there are any similar elements. I can then incorporate this into my own music video as this will help my target audience to relate to it and it will help the video to match the typical grunge conventions.

5. Soundgarden
4.Alice In Chains
3. Stone Temple Pilots
2. Pearl Jam
1. Nirvana

Our Finished 30 Second Production

Editing For Golden Earring - Radar Love

We spent the past week editing our footage we got for Radar Love. We followed our storyboard and made slight changes to the colour schemes. We wanted to keep the audience interested in the video, to do this we decided to change colour schemes and keep the shot and cuts different. To start off with, the bass drum and snare are in the bottom left and top right corners of the screen; both in black and white. We then introduce the bass guitar and the tambourine later on in the remaining corners, both have been unedited. This looks effective because of the contrast of the dark blue colours of the guitar and tambourine with the drum equipment. The hardest part we had with editing this was trying to match all four instruments in sync with the music and with each other instrument. We found it hard to make sure every instrument was in sync with the beat. For example, matching the tambourine to every bass drum beat, and eery off beat from the snare drum match both of these. The vocals were fairly easy to lip sync because they were pretty in sync already. We did not have to slow or speed up the footage so it matched the real vocals, which made thing a lot easier.

The Instruments And Timings In Radar Love

We needed to work out the timings of each instrument in Golden Earring - Radar Love, This was because when we came to editing it we needed to put them in order and synchronise it with the music. It helps us to know the timings of the instruments because when needed to storyboarded what instruments to be played first. It helped with our filming of the production and what order they needed to be shot. We did not record each shot when they played, we filmed each individual instrument all the way through and then we will piece it together when we start editing it.

Drums 00:00-00:31
Bass Guitar 00:05-00:31
Vocals, First Verse 00:24-00:26, Second Verse 00:29-00:31
Guitar 00:26-00:28

Filming for Golden Earring - Radar Love

We had three different sessions of when me and my partner recorded the different parts for Golden Earring - Radar Love. Both, me and my partner was limited with time and this is why we had to do three, one hour sessions. In the first session we recorded the drums, as this is running through the whole song we had to set up, get the equipment ready and then have several attempts at getting the perfect shots. In the second session we recorded the bass guitar which again we had to set up and film many different shots. The third session consisted of the vocals and guitar, this was quite hard because we have limited room because out location was being used by a class. However, we found a suitable room of which we could shoot several shots of the guitar, vocals and then both of them together. We have yet to put in on the Mac and start editing it, of which we should sart later this week.

Comparison To Media Text

Here are two screen shots taken from my own production and Adulthood. Both are of the same genre, British Drama and codes and conventions are similar. The codes and conventions of a British Drama usually focus on working class people, In both screenshots we see people who both have dressed similarly; dark clothes of which typical characters in British Dramas would be wearing. The cinematography is similar in both screenshot, both medium shots. This allows us to see how they both are wearing "hoodies" which to us show they want to hide their identity. This is quite common in British Dramas as their is normally drama revolving around many sensitive issues, such as; rape, drugs, neglect and various forms of violence. In both cases here they have been running from the authorities because of drug issues.

The mise-en-scéne also are the same. They both are located in urban areas which plays a key role in the common codes and conventions of British Drama narratives. As we can see they both are outside buildings with their hoods up, we instantly assume they are hiding something and have been doing something they want to hide. British Dramas cleverly do this and at the end of them it usually leaves a puzzle for the viewer and they want to find out more. Related to Roland Barthes "Enigma" code.  Our movie is similar to Adulthood in the fact that both main characters have issues with running from the authorities and dealing with lots of drug problems. They are both set in urban areas and both end with a puzzle, which leads the audience wanting to find out more about the character. Our own production match the codes and conventions of British Dramas quite well and this is what we was aiming for when we started our production.

OCR Get Ahead

We looked at the OCR Get Ahead media blog for our own research and planning. We looked at "The Vixens" blog and their music video. This helped us to understand what sort of research and planning we will need to do in order to have good coursework and a decent music video. Their blog showed excellent evidence of the different sorts of planning they did for their music video, such as; costumes, make up, location, story boarding and who they want in their video.

A lot of planning went into their storyboard and this would have helped them as guidelines for their editing and recording. I will make sure that i make a storyboard that I can effectively use for when I am planning my music video.

Throughout their music video we can see many example of editing and the amount of time they must have spent editing. Because of such good editing it creates a perfect flow to their video, their lip syncing is almost perfect and this is something I will need to make sure I try to perfect. They also use many different colour themes in their video such as; black and white and sepia tones. I think this is to illustrate their idea of "The Seven Deadly Sins"

Asking Permission For Our Chosen Song

We needed to ask permission to use our chosen song. As the band has disbanded it was hard to find who owned the rights to the song. After doing some research I found that Kurt Cobain, (the lead singer to Nirvana who committed suicide) did have the rights, but they were recently passed to his wife who owns the rights. I then found an e-mail address that I will ask for permission. Here is a screenshot of the e-mail I sent. 

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

We choose this song for many different reasons. We believe we can create an excellent video for it with good shots of performance and have some narrative with it. The video consists of many shots of each band member and how the crowd is reacting to the music. It is very stereotypical to the type of music and when i compare this to Alien Ant Farm we can see there are many similarities. For one reason it seems their audiences are the same, they both are older teenagers that want to rebel, be very active and cause anarchy. There are many shots from the audiences point of view of mostly the Kurt Cobain, the lead singer. This agin shows how their is connection between the band and the fans through the music. There are only a few shots of the bassist and on them includes a shot from the side of the bassist that shows Kurt and the audience.  A shot that powerfully shows how the audience has a love for the band and its music.

Another similarity to Alien Ant Farm's Smooth Criminal video is that they are both all performance and there isn't any narrative to the video. However there are many intertextual references in the video.  One example is that they are in a high school gym, we can see this by the way there are benches around the room and because of the basketball hoops and cheerleaders. From this we interpret that the audience is mostly older teenagers, very similiar to Alien Ant Farms audience.

Choosing A Song For Our Main Task

Me and my partner Graham first of all decided to a song from the Metal genre, however after analysing many different artists and music videos we decided we didn't want to. This is because many of the videos looked out of our reach to film, simply because we didn't have the equipment or the other recourses such as a willing band and the budget. We decided to a rock song "Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit" because we began to have brilliant ideas for narrative and performance shots.

Choosing a Song For Our Main Task

I have been looking into different rock music for a suitable song for my main task. I want to a rock/metal/grunge or other sub-genres because i believe it should be interesting and fun. I also have some friends which would be able to help me out as well as having equipment such as guitars, drum kit and amps. I found this song which I believe should be fun to do, I especially like the instruments but I am uncertain of the vocals and I am not sure how I could create a video to match the song.

Possible Song for our Main Task

Me and my partner decided to open our options for what song we would choose for our main task. We found this song by Foo Fighters that we really liked. When looking at the video we liked many different elements, such as the editing and the different types of shots. There are many quick cuts between the band and different narrative clips. I really like the way the band are outside with the sun setting in the background. I believe the use of different shots and random nature clips make the video very interesting. However, although it may be possible to film a performance part to this song, but me and my partner are stuck for ideas for the narrative. This is because this video has no real message and there are many different clips.  We like the way this video has been edited so there are many cuts from the random clips, to the lead singer or to the rest of the band. In our own music video we would love to have a shot like the one used in this video, were the band is almost silhouetted against the sunset.