We discussed this question today in class and came up with a lot of interesting points on the subject. Initially a lot of us were on the fence about this, however after discussing it in depth I feel that creativity and knowledge are both needed to make something, such as a music video, and that they both feed into each other. Knowledge can inspire creativity as by learning new things you are thinking about them and thinking of how to put your own spin on them, however it can also be restricting as you may end up copying someone else's work instead of getting creative yourself.
Some people argue that by having knowledge of already existing products, such as music videos in this example, you will create something that fits with all the conventions of the pre-existing products and not strive to make them different, therefore not using all your creativity, however I believe that you can still be creative while sticking to conventions and it is all about making something that may have been done before exciting and engaging again to an audience.
It was also said that the most creative ideas are going to come from someone with no former knowledge of the subject as they are more likely to think of something completely new as their thoughts haven't been tainted with what other people have done. Yet I don't think this is true because even without going into specific research about music videos everyone has seen them, or seen films, or television programs, read books, seen plays, ect. and all of this it what helps you create your own ideas. So no one can pull an idea entirely out of the air, it is always going to be inspired by something they have seen or heard, even if they don't consciously know that is where it is coming from.
Personally I believe that there can be no such thing as 'too much knowledge' and that knowledge will only limit creativity if you let it.
In class we were given the task of rebranding the already well known band Bedouin Soundclash and coming up with a concept for one of their songs, we were given some information on the band, such as a press release about them, some photos including one of them live and promo shots, and also their wikipedia page. We also listened to a couple of their songs as well as the one we were coming up with a concept with as this gave us a wider knowledge of their 'sound' and we could make creative decisions based on this.
We started our creative process by brainstorming and mind mapping some ideas.
The first thing that we thought about was the genre of the band and from our own opinions and the package we were given we thought that they were a cross between Indie/mainstream and Reggae, this then led to us thinking of other bands like them as this would give us some context and we thought they sounded a lot like Mumford and Sons, King Charles, Madness and The Specials. We then discussed what type of audience these bands have and we thought it would be quite general so from about 16-30 and both genders though probably mainly male.
The next thing we thought of what initial reaction we got to the band and just generally what the music video could be like and we thought it would be a mixture of performance and narrative with an abstract, psychedelic feel.
We then started to think more deeply about the music video and thought it could be located in a park, pub, near the rail lines, desert, beach or Toronto as they are Canadian.
Lastly we thought about where we would market them, we thought they would play gigs like the Carling festivals (Reading and Leeds) as well as smaller gigs. We decided we would put a picture of the band on the album cover as they are all good looking and so this could increase the chance of sales, it is also a convention of their genre to have a picture of them on the cover.
For the cover of the album we wanted to link it back to them being Canadian as it could be a USP for them and a lot of English bands use the union flag whilst American bands have the stars and stripes so we decided to have the Canadian flag in the background but we coloured it in different colours to give in a weird/reggae vibe.
RavenFace describe themselves as Heavy Metal in genre and because of this their main target audience would be the sub-culture known as metal-heads although other sub cultures such as punks, emos', and rockers may listen to them as well.
As further research into this sub-culture of people I contacted Neil Taylor who is the head of the Uk Tribes website, a website solely dedicated to understanding the cultures and sub-cultures of today's British youth. The information collected on this website is done by actually talking to young people today and asking them questions, thus collecting really relevant and truthful information. There is a quiz that people can take which at the end then gives you a 'tribe' that, based on your and other peoples answers, you seem to belong to (I was a grunger with signs of mosher and skater!) Through emailwith Taylor I was allowed further access to the website, which has lots of helpful information on a lot of current sub cultures.
An enduring tribe consisting of those into metal, heavy rock and a bit of old school punk. Damnation, Download and the Carling (Reading and Leeds) festivals are popular destinations for members of this tribe – as are most opportunities for violent slam dancing in big, sweaty arenas.
About the tribe:
The Metalheads tribe generally sees more people coming and going than other tribes – appeal wanes for many quite quickly. Metalheads feel no need to justify themselves to others, and are generally a friendly badge-wearing bunch but they do have a tendency to hate Chavs and Townies, as well as generally frowning upon the musical tastes of the Emos and Indie Scenesters.
This tribe is keen on mixing up newer and older varieties of metal, punk and rock – so older classic metal bands like Pantera, Metallica and Killswitch Engage have currency as well as more recent, and more experimental, bands such as Cobalt and Converge.
The Internet plays an important part in the scene. Local or obscure bands are big among Metalheads, so an online community plays a vital role for talking and sharing music. As such, forums like ‘UK Metal Underground’ and the ‘Metal Hammer’ forum are popular destinations. As is file-sharing software like Limewire or Vuze.
You’ll mainly see them wearing black, though not exclusively. A black band t-shirt and blue pair of jeans would be the typical look of a Metalhead.
Tribe Icons:
Metallica, Dita Von Teese, Lemmy, Dani Filth, Five Finger Death Punch
Alternative Names: Moshers, Grungers, Rockers
This information will be very helpful for me when branding and marketing, especially the Media consumption and brands as this will show me where the best place to market RavenFace so that it reaches the audience.
The appearance of Ravenface is what you would expect from a hard rock or metalcore band. In a lot of photos they wear other bands t-shirts such as Bring me the Horizon. This is done by a lot of more known bands as it gives the band a chance to show off who has influenced them and so that the audience can relate to them. Also, if they have not listened to the band before they can tell they may like them by which bands are on the bands shirts.
As I Lay Dying, wearing band t-shirts.
They are also wearing a lot of black in their photos which is common of most more 'alternative' styles of music as the target audience is likely to wear black as well and therefore they are recognisable as this type of music. The clothes that they are wearing are modern and common in cliques like metal-heads, punks, rockers and emos, such as the black skinny jeans and long black jackets. They have also used accessorise like arm bands, bandannas and chains. Overall they look just like their target audience would dress.
A group of 'metal-heads'
They also all have the current hairstyles associated with these sub-genres of people, such as the heavy full fringes preferred by artists such as Oli Sykes (Bring me the Horizon) and Framing Hanley. Whilst others in the band support the long hair look like Matt Tuck (Bullet for my Valentine) and Children of Bodom.
Matt Tuck
Oli Sykes
Children of Bodom
Framing Hanley
We took all of this into account when choosing the actors we would get to represent ravenFace and I feel that we have done a good job as they all suit this type of genre.
Today in class we started to discuss music video concepts and the technical details of what would look better and we decided that if we were to do a fully performance video it might get a bit monotonous and we'd have to find a lot of different shots to keep it looking interesting. So then we started to think about a story narrative that we could slot in between the performance shots to break it up again.
After listening to the song a few times we thought about the idea of making a zombie music video as it goes well with the genre of music and the tone of the song. After discussing the idea of using zombies in our video we took a look at what other music videos have zombies in them.
Our Brainstorming in lesson time.
In I Hear You Calling by Gob zombies are used in a comedic, parody of the typical zombie-teen movie and it shows the band having a football match with the Zombies whilst zombie cheerleaders dance. As Gob are pop-punk this sort of fun and light take on zombies suits their video well but I feel that ours should be more serious and less jokey.
Another video is Love Like Woe by synthpop artist The Ready Set. Again the genre is very different RavenFace and for this reason the video concept probably wouldn't work especially well however what I like about this video is that the zombies are represented by glowing eyes and you do not really see the faces of them, this adds enigma and makes them seem more creepy. There are also some good shots toward the end of the video where the zombies are trying to get into the shed The Ready Set is performing in and the way they have been shot and edited creates a really good effect and could be something we try to recreate, whilst putting our own spin on it, in our video.
The Devil Wears Parada is more the same sort of genre as RavenFace and they also have a zombie themed music video to their song Escape. It is interesting the way that they slot in the zombie narrative with the performance narrative. It also starts with a news report which is something that we were considering in our lesson. In this video the zombies are quite classic, lumbering feeding on flesh and we see a lot of them, however they would have had a higher budget and a make-up designer to make them look authentic whereas we will not and if we attempt to show them like that it could end up looking very low budget and armature.
I think that this is a good concept to use but that we will have to be very careful with how we film and edit it if we want it to look professional.
As we have chosen RavenFace as our band I have decided to
look at what videos they already have to get a deeper understanding of their
current representation and how we could recreate this for our music video.
The spineless video starts with a shot of the band in the
distance and the camera is on ground level, focusing on a rock in the
foreground, this is the first time the audience sees the band but as they are
so far away and not in focus it creates a sense of enigma around them and makes
the audience want to see more.They have
also used a effect right at the beginning of the video where the shot is shown
in negative first and then flashes back into positive colour with the sound of
static which adds a level of disorientation as it flashes so quick. This idea
of disorientation is a common convention in music videos for the metal genre. As
this shot is shown there is a low humming sound which gradually gets louder and
then cuts out, simultaneously the shot flashes to black, this also adds some
confusion to the video and make the footage that follows seem more vicious and
bolder in contrast to the flash of black.
The first two shots are of the drummer, which may be
considered odd as often the drummer can be overlooked in music videos and other
promotional products as they tend to be at the back a lot, however here I think
it makes sense as the drums are loud in the part of the song, and as there are
no vocals it does not make sense to show the vocalist straight away. There are
then various shots of the band members which focus on them head banging, again
a common convention in a metal music video and one that we should use in
ours.As well as this there are a lot of
close-ups and extreme close-ups coupled with a lot of camera movement, which
adds urgency to the video and keeps it in pace with the fast music.
The vocalist is only clearly shown as such when the vocals
kick in and from here on a majority of the screen time is allocated to him,
something that is common in most music videos regardless of genre. It seems
after this to almost be a shot of the vocalist, then another band member and
then back to the vocalist. However in the first chorus, where there is a bit
more instrumental the time is divided more equally between all band members.
Although there are still a lot more close-ups on the vocalist.
We then get a lot more shots of various band members head
banging, when we use this in our piece it is important that we match it to the
beat as they have here, otherwise it could end up looking out of sync.
Sometime after this we get our first shot of the whole band
playing together head banging in chorus with each other. Personally I don’t
think we should use this in our video as it takes away the enigma and it may make
it look a bit comical.
There is a good effect used at 1:17 where the screen
vibrates in time with the guitar, this drives the impact of the guitar home and
makes it seem like it is vibrating the screen because it is so powerful, we
should look into using this effect at some time during our video.
Another thing I think we could do is best demonstrated at
1:24 where the vocalists reaches out toward the camera as he sings, this gives
the impression that he is singing straight to the audience and highlights the desperateness
of the song.
Also throughout the song the video zooms in and out in time
with the beat, again creating more disorientation, this is something we could
try although we must be sure to cut to the beat with this especially.
As we intend our video to be mainly performance based we needed to find
actors to portray the band RavenFace as the band themselves are unable to star
in the video. This is a big decision as the actors must look like they fit the
music they are 'playing' otherwise it will not look real. We also want to
represent the band in a way that they would be happy with and this means
getting the right actors. We decided to have a full male cast for the band as
the actual RavenFace are all male and also Metal is a stereotypically male
dominated genre and we wanted to keep in with the conventions.
We chose these actors as they all fit the stereotype of a metal band due to
their hair style and clothes although we can always change what they wear for
the video we wanted people who the clothing would look natural on and didn't
want the actors to feel uncomfortable with it.
After listening to all of RavenFace's songs as a group we discussed which one
would work best for us and what we thought we could make a really good music
video to. We decided to use their song This is Annihilation as we thought it
had the right pace and tone. Whilst all their songs are very good and we just preferred
the overall sound of This is Annihilation. We will email the band to try and
get the official lyrics from them so that we can start deconstructing them
however just from the music and pace we have already come up with a few music
video concepts that could work.
The album is also called This is Annihilation and so we thought RavenFace themselves must like the song a lot to name the album after it.
In earlier discussions we had come to the conclusion that Ed Sheeran has
been marketed in a certain way by his record label, The Warner Brothers,
however according to The Guardian Online this is not the case and this article
insinuates that Sheeran actually has a lot of creative power when it comes to
his marketing and branding. Yet this could all be propaganda.
We discussed what we thought about this in class and thought that if Sheeran
really did have control over his videos why would he have chosen to barely be
in them at all. Although some music videos do not star the artist this is not
common, especially for a singer songwriter like Sheeran and a debut music
video.
In class today we were looking at the ways in which music artists are branded and marketed and to do this we first started by looking at a Jaffa cake and discussing ways we would market and rebrand it.
We first started by looking at the aesthetics, texture and taste of the jaffa cake and decided on the name U.F.O (utterly fantastic orange) as we thought this incorporated the shape and taste of it as well as having a fun name that would stand out.
We then tried to work out what our target market would be and decided that it would most probably be in the C-D-E social-economic diamond group as they are quite cheep and not known for being very posh. Age wise we assumed that we would not have a specific target audience as anyone can eat them and everyone eats them. We briefly thought about colours we would use for branding, orange and green because they fit the alien and orange theme, and a slogan that would get people remembering our product.
We then started thinking about marketing and how we would get our product out there. We thought that a huge part would be by using social media such as having a Facebook page and a twitter feed. This is because a lot of people are on these medias and we could reach a lot of people for free. In addition we would put an advert on youtube. Then there are the more traditional ways of marketing products and these would be Billboards, Tv ads, promotions and competitions. Then we thought we could sponsor the TV show My Parents are Aliens as this fit in with the theme and as it is a very popular program we would influence a lot of people.
After doing this task with a Jaffa Cake we then started applying it to how we could brand and market our band. As our band already has a name, image and fanbase, their brand is really already done. We were given the option of rebranding our band however this could have annoyed the band as it is like saying they do not have the right image and so we decided that we would keep the brand they already have as it is a good one anyway.
Marketing would be the same, but a lot more focus on social media as this is a revolutionary way to get music out there and it has the bonus of being completely free. As well as facebook, twitter and myspace we would also market our band on youtube, reverbnation, soundcloud and other music sharing pages on the Internet.
Finally we looked at how a popular new singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeren, had been marketed. As EdSheeran doesn't fit the stereotypical singer/songwriter look in this society his record label told the director of the video, Emil Nava , that he shouldn't be seen in the video as people would judge his music on what he looked like not on the music himself. So in the video there are only flashes of Sheeran and close ups of him such as his feet stepping on a loop pedal or his hands as he plays guitar. This meant that people wouldn't base their first impressions of him on his looks but instead his voice and talent. The video was also filmed in black and white which kept details of him down.
Overall this lesson was really helpful and I learnt a lot about branding and marketing bands which will help me with my music video and ancillary tasks.
James Denton - Vocals
Billy Dowdall - Bass/Harsh Vocals
Rod Collins - Guitar
Dom Rodriguez - Drums
Jack Ormond-Prout - Guitar
Hometown-Blackpool
Record Label-Unsigned
Influenced by Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Lamb of God, Devildriver, 36 crazy fists, The Acacia Strain, White Chapel.
Ravenface are a Metal Band from Northern England. Founded by band front-man, James Denton in 2007 the band was joined by Dom Rodriguez (Drums) and Billy Dowdall (Bass), Ravenface was formed. After building a loyal following in their region, they expanded to gigs throughout the UK. The summer of 2007 saw the release of the first Ravenface EP ‘Isolation’. This debut EP accumulated over 10,000 downloads in its first year, despite being self released.
In late 2008, the band recruited William Rod Collins on guitar and Jack Ormound-Prout (Guitar) the following year. Thus completing the line up to the present day.
Their debut album ‘This is Annihilation’ was released in October 2010 to a great response by fans. Tracks were featured in UK metal magazines such as MetalHammer and Bizzare.
Kerrang! DJ Alex Baker said : “I think these guys are spot on - tight as hell, soaring guitar lines ! The longer I listened the more I liked them and I'd imagine they'd be great live too!“
Following a ground shaking performance at Hammerfest III in March, The band cannot wait to push forward and to keep building.
As part of our Ancillary tasks we have to create an album cover for our artist. As we are using a heavy metal band I have been doing some research into current bands albums covers and have found that they can be quite different to those by more ‘pop’ artists.
System of a Down.
System of a Down is a well know heavy metal band and this is the album cover for their debut album. Instead of featuring a picture of the band, as many album covers do, it instead shows a hand reaching up.
‘The cover artwork is from an anti-fascist, World War II-era poster designed by the artist John Heartfield for the Communist Party of Germany, which was contemporary with and directly against the Third Reich. The text on the original poster is: "5 fingers has a hand! With these 5 grab the enemy!" This slogan inspired part of the text contained on the back of the System of a Down album: "The hand has five fingers, capable and powerful, with the ability to destroy as well as create". Later, it is written in bold letters: "Open your eyes, open your mouths, close your hands and make a fist". (used later by Serj Tankian in the song "Uneducated Democracy")’-Wikipedia.
This shows that sometimes album covers can have political meanings behind them, these type of album covers are more popular with rock/metal artists. For example in addition to System of a Down’s there is also:
Rage against the Machine
They are a punk-rock/metal band known for its political messages in songs and this is shown in the cover art for their debut album. They have used an infamous photo of a monk setting himself on fire as part of a Vietnamese protest against their leader, Diem, who wanted to abolish the Buddhist religion including beliefs and practises.
The Murderdolls
They have used a picture of a devil doll on a hospital bed for their debut album and this is said to represent the current social obsession with plastic surgery and looking perfect. The doll is about to have surgery performed on it whilst the band watches from behind the glass.
However not all rock/metal bands use political pictures , a lot of bands use their band logo as album covers and this can be seen used by,
Avenged Sevenfold
Pennywise,
Aerosmith
In addition many bands also like to use photos or pictures which are often of a slightly disturbing nature to entice an audience, this can be seen on the covers of,
Lamb of God
Black Label Society
Canibal Corpse.
However some metal bands do use the more common album cover idea of having a band picture, but the are often taken in creepy or abandoned looking locations ad can also include lots of other things as well as a picture of the band such as Black Veil Brides, who mix a picture of themselves with superimposed images of fire and burning buildings.
Lostprophets also do this with lightning.
Seether use a picture of themselves for their album Careless Whisper however through use of mise-en-scene, such as the way they have been positioned in frame, the pose they are pulling and the outfits they are wearing it is clear that they are a rock or metal band.
After choosing to use Raven-Face we had to contact them to make sure they would allow us copyright so that we can make a music video to their songs and upload it onto Youtube. Kaya emailed them via facebook to ask them for permission,
Kaya Brenna Parsons.
Hi Raven-face. i am a current media student and for our A2 coursework we have to make a music video. It would be amazing if you would allow my group and i to use one of your songs. We are not sure which song to use yet but if you agree we would keep you updated. Thanks very much and have a good weekend.
RAVEN-FACE - Official Band Page
Yeah of course, no problem.
This was really great news as it means we can now get started on really thinking about our music video and start putting all our ideas into practise.
After doing a lot of research into possible artists that we could use to make a music video for we managed to narrow our choices down to three, these were.
Fake the Attack
We liked the idea of using Fake the Attack as they were quite upbeat and their songs had a good tempo which we would be able to match editing to, as its female fronted we also thought it would have been easier getting actors for it as we could have used people in our group and that would make filming easier. However we did think that they had a bit of an American sound and we were more interested in making a video for an English band. We also thought we would have to make a performance and story narrative video and this could have been complicated to put together.
Horns Become Halos.
We liked the overall sound of this band as they sounded very professional and had some interesting lyrics that we could make a music video to. As their songs fit well into the rock genre we knew we could use the codes and conventions that we had researched to make the video look better. However, like Fake the Attack the vocals were a bit American pop-rock and we thought we would have trouble finding people who fitted the part of that sound. They also have quite long songs with a lot of instrumental parts, which would have made filming a bit more tricky.
Raven-Face.
In the end we decided to go with the band Raven-Face over the others as they had a heavier sound and we thought that this would be interesting to make a video for, it would allow us to use some different camera angles and effects which will make the video more enjoyable to watch. They also have the right amount of lyrics and instrumental parts to their songs which will make filming easier. Overall we just thought that we could make a better music video using their music over the other bands.
One of the biggest directors of Metal and Rock music videos is Tony Petrossian, he’s directed such videos like Before I Forget by Slipknot and The Beast and the Harlot-Avenged Sevenfold. He has also directed videos for many other well renowned metal and heavy rock bands such as Seether, Slayer, Bullet for my Valentine and Three Days Grace, to name just a few.
Before I forget is a purely performance video, and Petrossian has used a lot of close-ups and extreme close ups focusing on the band members playing their instruments, such as the beginning shot of Mick Thomson with his guitar and Corey’s microphone.
Throughout the whole video there are no clear shots of the member’s faces, with the clearest being Corey while he sings, this helps to create enigma. The focus on their instruments emphasises their image as rock musicians that focus on the music rather than what they look like.
The mise-en-scene is hugely contrasting, with all the band members wearing black and the location being very light and white. This contrast is played up by the way that Petrossian shows shots of them wearing studded bracelets and boots and showing their tattoos and then shows the location that they are performing in.
In Scream Aim Fire by Bullet for my Valentine Petrossian has once again used a lot of close ups throughout the video, especially during the introduction where there are many close ups on Matt Tuck as he headbangs whilst playing guitar.
As with Before I Forget jump cuts are used a lot, so that the visuals match the pace of the music. However in this video there is more focus on the location as there are some shots of them playing in what appears to be a warehouse, instead of the contrast created in the previous video this time the location adds to the image of Bullet for my Valentine by showing them performing in a dirty and run down area.
As with Slipknot the band members of Bullet are also wearing all black with some of them wearing things like chains and studs which are accessories often worn by the people who listen to metal, showing the band wearing the same kind of clothes as their target audience would improve the bands popularity as their audience would instantly recognise them.
So although there are lots of differences between the two videos there are also similarities and doing research into them has given me a much better idea of the codes and conventions of a rock or metal music video and will help me when it comes to deciding on our mise-en-scene.
