Current progress

The christmas break is approaching, and in terms of finished quality, animation completed I am behind schedule. By now I was hoping to have finished the whole starting sequence, from the opening establishing shot of the desert through to the character walking in through the streets. However at this point, although I have created all of the shots in this scene there are two that still need editing or finishing. I have completed both extreme long shots of the taxi leaving the city and entering the desert. I have also completed the scene where the cats are sitting on the wall and the scene in which the character enters the the taxi. Several other scenes I have began to create the basis for and the first steps of animation. However at this point I was expecting to have all of these scenes that I had started finished and have begun to start animating several of the other more complicated scenes. Our deadline announced today is 18th of January, which considering what I have left to complete is not alot of time. Over the holiday period Intend to have began at least 50% of the animation and have the majority completed. 

Rough Cut

This is first rough cut. This consists of the animation I have done so far joined with the storyboard/animatic to create a dual mixture of my final quality animation and my animatic.

So far I am very pleased with the product, it looks very much how I intended but I am concerned about how much animation I have left to do and the time left available.

Animating

Today I continued animating different sections of the video. Rather than animating the scenes in order, I chose to just pick particular scenes I wanted finish first. Once these were finshed I would begin layering them over the top of the animatic. This way it makes it easier to edit and I can see what needs to go where and how long each shot should be.

Starting the animation

This is shot2 of my animated music video ( see animatic )

This is the quality I expect my final piece to be, this scene is not finished but this again gives a feel as to how I want my final piece to look.

Animatic

This is my animatic for my animated music video. It consists of my storyboard images played in sequence with the soundtrack over the visuals. This gives a feel and a rough image of how I want my music video to look.

Storyboarding

This image here shows the character progression I have gone through to create the band members animated figures. The top image shows the draw characters in their first stage. The second shows my initial ideas for the first set location and my interpretation of that. The third is my first digital collaboration of the digital characters and the background. The fourth is simply the same as the image before but in colour as I have yet to choose how I wish my video to be saturated or desaturated.

After experimenting with my character designs I placed them into flash to draw digital counterparts, which would then be used in my animation. These came out looking like the following images above. The beginnings of my storyboard also began to take hold as I began to plan locations and further narrative structure. The music video will begin with the performers, Tom (singer) and Sam (guitarist) located on a lonely road through the desert. Both look into the camera and perform, this is to engage the audience and follow codes and conventions of performance based music videos. However with this one I intend to have a dual narrative and possibly subvert codes and conventions by merging the performance section of the animation into the narrative to create almost a mixed narrative and performance towards the end. I chose to locate the beginning of the animation on a desert road as it is a lonely, desolate place and it mirrors this stage of the narrative in which our main character in the narrative ( not a particular band member ) will be searching for love and at the beginning he is very alone. As the narrative continues he will eventually find it creating a stereotypical happy ending.

This is one screenshot from my storyboard which is nearing completion. Once completed I will take these still shots and create an animatic which will give a detailed impression of how I wish my final piece to look.

initial ideas for storyboard

After listening to the song several times I began listing how I thought the song felt and I began to produce initial ideas as to themes and subjects that should be portrayed in the narrative of my music video. I thought that as it is a common factor in most musical lyrics I think I shall include the theme of love/relationships. This would be further reinforced by the slow paced and lonely feel to the track I'm using. After more brainstorming of ideas I concluded this would be my focal theme. I already designed my initial character designs so I know the look and style of how I want the animation to be, this will follow a similar visual experience as the monkeehub animations. As the song sounds very soft and placid, and the title 'complacent' seems very fitting to this therefore I wish to create a similar tone in the music video. 

Conclusion for target audience

After analyzing my questionnaire results I have concluded my target audience. As my chosen song and band (  Complacent acoustic by Against Spoken Words ) are an indie band from Bucks I need target the appropriate audience. The audience Im aiming for is to be aged mainly under 19 although I am aware others older may listen to a similar style of music. I will aim more towards the male audience using correct props for the genre in the video and having a narrative that runs through.

Codes and conventions of music videos

Media Music Video Codes And Conventions Presentation

View more presentations from guest60af28.

This presentation was made by me and the two other students studying music videos. This is our research for all the codes and conventions of traditional music videos. Although Im creating an animated music video the codes and conventions of standard film music videos are crucial. From looking at these codes and conventions and those of animated music videos I have gained a larger insight into what I can do in my video.

Questionaire Results

These are the results from the questionnaires after 100 people answered it.

1: Gender    

   M = 58    F= 42

I tried to ask a similar amount of boys as to girls to get an even spread.

2:Age             

19 and below =40

20 -29= 27

30 - 39 = 12

40+=21

Again here I tried to get an even spread although I did see to ask more younger participants, this mainly due to the majority of my questionnaire work being based at college.

3:What type of music do you prefer

Metal=11

Rock=16

Indie=22

Pop=13

RnB=29

Hip Hop=19

Rap=18

Dance=21

other=27

Here participants were allowed to tick more than one box. The majority of answers here were well spread and a significant correlation wasn't clearly visible however it did appear slightly that the younger participants chose dance, rap and metal whilst older participants chose pop and rock.

4:When watching an animated music video what musical genre do you expect it to be on.

Metal=4

Rock=11

Indie=31

Pop=17

RnB=15

Hip Hop=15

Rap=26

Dance=29

other=35

Here again participants were allowed to tick more than one box. The majority of answers here were in indie and other categories followed by rap and dance music. 

4b:If it was that genre what props would you expect to see

........................................................................................................................

There are too many variations of answers to list them all here but most commonly ones written seemed to fit the stereotypical norms. If people chose hip hop and rap they'd expect to see props such as guns, money, cars, women, luxury items etc

Whilst people who expected to see metal and rock videos expected to see props such as guitars, rainy stormy weather, black hair, women and moody atmospheres. 

5:What effects do you like to see in animated music videos

....................................................................................................

Again here there were a variety of answers and no real correlation was visible.

6: What narrative style do you prefer in music videos

Dual Narrative=36

Narrative=32

Performance based=25

No Narrative =7

Here it was clear that the audience would prefer a music video with a narrative in it rather than a performance based video or one with no narrative what so ever.

6b: Give reasons for this choice

...................................................................................................

Here the majority of people stated that a narrative in the music video helped them stay engaged.

After gathering all these results and analyzing them I have come to some conclusions. It seems that out of the 22 people, who ticked indie in one of their preferred music boxes, 19 of them were in the age category of 19 and below. Females tended to prefer Pop, RnB, Dance and Indie music whilst boys usually answered Rock, Rap and Metal. Also of the 25 who preferred a performance based video 24 of them were in the age categories of 30 - 39 and 40+. After looking through all my results I am beginning to gather an idea as to who my target audience is to be. 

Questionaire

This is the questionnaire I gave out to gather more information research for making my music video.

1: Gender    

   M/F

2:Age             

19 and below             20 -29           30 - 39           40+

3:What type of music do you prefer

Metal         Rock       Indie          Pop         RnB           Hip Hop      Rap        Dance   other

4:When watching an animated music video what musical genre do you expect it to be on.

Metal         Rock       Indie          Pop         RnB           Hip Hop      Rap        Dance   other

4b:If it was that genre what props would you expect to see

........................................................................................................................

5:What effects do you like to see in animated music videos

....................................................................................................

6: What narrative style do you prefer in music videos

Narrative             Dual Narrative           No Narrative 

6b: Give reasons for this choice

...................................................................................................

Character designs

These are my initial character designs for the band members. I found these images of the band and created my charactures from them and what I know they look like. I'm particularly pleased with the ones of Tom ( singer ) and Sam ( guitarist ) which will be the main characters seen in the animation as these are the two playing the acoustic version however the other two will feature.

Here are my character designs for Tom and Sam. Tom is the singer who is at the front of the top picture in blue and is the character on the right of the bottom image. Sam with the guitar can be seen in the top picture as third from the front.

After showing these designs to friends, fans of the band and the band themselves, all the feedback has been positive and it has become clear that my designs do represent the band members in an accurate and positive way.

Initial ideas for Complacent music video

After listening to the acoustic version of Complacent which can be found on their myspace page :

www.myspace.com/againstspokenwords

I have decided to create an animation along a similar line of those created by Monkeehub, who created the animations for JCB song - Nizlopi and Radiohead's acoustic version of creep. I chose to make a animation in a similar style to these because I feel the general feel of the songs are similar. The similar natural singing styles and use of just a guitar for melodies, shows a correlation through these songs, also the use of flash animation software, used to create these Monkeehub animations, I feel very confident with using. I have no idea of a narrative yet to use in the animation but I will begin brainstorming ideas soon then create my initial storyboards.

Chosen band and song

As I wanted to create an animated music video I researched into what genre of music videos are animated. When researching all the codes and conventions of animated music videos I decided to use a song in the genre of indie, acoustic or alternative as from my research these seem the best types to animate.

For my animated music video I have been in contact with a local band which I know and are willing to let me create their video and are willing to perform in it. The band, Against Spoken Words, are an upbeat indie/rock band from Buckinghamshire that create upbeat indie and acoustic songs. I have chosen to use the acoustic version of their song 'complacent' which can be found on their myspace.

www.myspace.com/againstspokenwords

Codes and conventions of animated music videos

After analyzing all these music videos it has become clear that like all music videos, animated music videos follow a generic set of codes and conventions fitting the intended genre and creating an atmosphere intended by the director. From these videos I have found a list of factors that are common in all the animated videos.

• Very little or no diagetic sound, audio dominated by the music track.
• Either very few shots often with one lasting the majority of the video or shots similar to those of a normal music video.
• Mise en scene is used strongly mainly with props, often relating the the narrative of the story and lyrics.
• The visual narrative of the videos often includes a journey.
• Editing is always matched to the visuals, with fast paced editing for fast paced music and slower editing for slow music.

I will have to consider all these factors when story-boarding and animating my video.

Oren Lavie - Her morning elegance

Band/Artist: Oren Lavie

Record Label: A quarter past wonderfull

Music Genre: Acoustic/alternative/indie

Video director: Oren Lavie

Notes:

Camera: Long shot, Birds eye view ( aerial ), close ups to establish mood/detail

limited variation of shot types

Sound: music track, no diegetic sound, only audio from the track

Editing: slow smooth paced, shot lengths very long,

long shot lengths allow narrative to unfold

Mise en scene : Bedroom props, bed, clothes, pillows used for clouds, socks for fish etc

all bedroom items, white connoting purity/innocence

Narrative: A dream, surreal settings, a journey through a dream, through enviroments

Genre: Alternative, soft rock, pop

This is Oren Lavie's music video for their song her morning elegance. This animated video unlike many animated videos using flash or maya animations has used stop frame.

Apart from some close ups at the beginning ( see 0:08) and one at the end, the majority of camera angles used in the video are long shots from a birds eye view overhead the main characters bed with one shot lasting almost the whole video. These shots give the audience a view of the characters actions throughout whilst see 'seems' to travel and the background environment changes. This sense that the character stays centralized although she moves and appears to travel creates the main focus for the viewer and creates a sense of continuity throughout the animation. This style of minimal shots and shot types gives this video its own unique feel although it is seen in similar animated music videos for example the JCB song by Nizlopi and Radiohead's acoustic version of creep. This has no ambient or added sound at all, just the music track, which seems to be a very similar occurring factor and convention in music videos. The sound, as in all music videos I have analyzed so far, runs parallel to the editing with slow paced visuals to match the smooth calming music, especially in this case. The editing is used well to match the sound throughout where the pace changes and the director has successfully matched the audio to the video so that it is smooth and flowing. This seems to be a crucial convention throughout all forms of music videos as it links what is seen visually to the audio creating continuity, flow and a sense of professionalism often linking the narrative and creating an appropriate mood to the context of the video. Editing in this video is fairly consistent and paced similar to the narrative. As this is a stop-frame animation the video is made by taking hundreds of photos one after another and moving the subject slightly after each one, then when played together at a high frame rate it appears moving. By using this technique the director has alot more control over the editing and certain tasks become alot easier. Mise en scene is used in this piece alot through props to create a certain atmosphere. Household items, especially items found in the bedroom are used to create the settings in this video. Socks are used to create fish (2:34), Pillows to create clouds (0:59) and shirts to create birds (2:10) . This use of bedroom items to create the enviroment further reinforces the atmosphere of the piece and continues to express the fact this is a surreal dream and she is still in her room. The mise en scene has been used in conjunction with the narrative of the song to create a visual narrative that matches so for example at (1:13) when the lyrics say "She looks at the rain as it pours", the visuals then show her looking out a window with the lighting further reinforcing that it is stormy. The good factors of this form of animation are that because they are pictures you can really get a sense of realism from the animation..

The genre of this music is alternative/pop and the slow paced visuals and naive but sweet narrative mirror the feel of the music. This kind of narrative is something the director has used very effectively in here creating a video that will resonate with audience when they watch it.

Radiohead - Creep acoustic

Band/Artist: Radiohead

Record Label: XL TBD

Music Genre: Rock/experimental rock/alternative

Video director: Laith Bahrani (a.k.a 'Monkeehub)

Notes:

Camera:

This piece uses a remarkable technique by only using one camera shot throughout the whole video, this being a long shot.

Sound:

no added diegetic or non diegetic sound

only audio track can be heard

Editing:

extremely long shot, action on screen matched the pace of the music

quickening when fast and slow when slow.

Mise en scene:

animated props include, office supplies/equipment, additional background characters, buildings, cityscape

Narrative:

sad, dull, dark,

Genre:

acoustic, rock, indie, alternative

This is Radiohead's music video for their acoustic version of creep. This animated video was made by Monkeehub the animation studio that also made the animated music video for Nizlopi's song - JCB song.

Monkeehub have created their own particular style of animation which is clear through both these videos.

This animation  has used a very unique style by using only one shot through the whole video which is a long shot. Just like the JCB song it centralizes the main character drawing attention to them whilst other narratives unfold around them. This style gives the audience a view of the characters singing throughout whilst the background environment changes allowing this sense that the characters stay centralized and don't change creating the main focus for the viewer and creating a sense of continuity throughout the animation. This style of minimal shots and shot types gives this video its own unique feel. Most music videos have very little ambient sound, and this one has none just the music audio. The sound again as in all most successful music videos runs parallel to the editing with slow paced visuals to match the smooth calming music and fast visuals during faster changes in the musical sequence. The editing is used well to match the sound from 2:50 to 3:37 where the pace changes and the director has successfully matched the audio to the video so that it is smooth and flowing. Also editing has been used with mise en scene and the SFX animation to create an X-ray style effect throughout the video, making the props appear layer by layer, seen on the character at 1:41, this draws the audiences attention to key aspects of the mise en scene which in turn link with the narrative of the audio lyrics and help create the interesting changes in the characters environment. The mise en scene has been used in conjunction with the narrative of the song to create visual stimulants to keep the viewers engaged. The narrative of the song lyrics don't particularly fit the narrative of the video as the do so much in JCB song but the overall depressing/sad feel of the song is definately mirrored in the dark and dull colours of this video and the characters dark actions eg. jumping out a window. The SFX is very high quality and follows the style of hand drawn characters ,smilier to the JCB song, rather than complex 3D images and textures, this is possibly due to the fact they are made by the same animation studio and this seems to be their house style. 

The genre of music this band produces is rock and alternative but this version here is there acoustic version of it creating a mellower feel, more suited to animated videos. The slow paced visuals and dark/depressing environment mirror the feel of the music. This kind of narrative is something The director has very effectively used this kind of narrative in here to create a video that will resonate with the viewers when the watch it.

Nizlopi - JCB Song

Band/Artist: Nizlopi

Record Label: FDM records

Music Genre: Acoustic/Folk/Hip hop

Video director: Laith Bahrani (a.k.a 'Monkeehub)

Notes:

Camera:

0:01 mid-long shot, character marginalized connoting inferiority, pan used

0:11 close up zooms in, in conjunction with transitions changes to the pages of the book

0:17 book changed to long shot of characters in vehicle, centralized to draw audiences attention

1:40 long shot changed angle

2:09 reverts back to long shot used at 0:17

3:51 Extreme long shot used to show characters leaving

Sound:

Diegetic sounds of office at start, diegetic sounds of engine when narrative begins

from then on no added sound except the musical track itself

Editing:

Long shot lengths, matching slow paced music of the narrative

change in pace of action on screen as pace of music changes

Mise en scene:

Animated props include, vehicles, background countryside landscape, fantasy creatures robots, dinosaurs, extra characters

all these props convey a naive feel to the video which works in conjunction with the narrative and animation style to create an innocent, childlike feel to the video.

Narrative:

Naive, positive, happy, cliche, simply, upbeat, moral, slow paced

Genre:

indie, acoustic, folk,

This is the music video for Nizlopi's JCB song. This animated video initially was ment just as an animation but after the video got extremely popluar the song was released as a single and became a hit very fast.

The majority of camera angles used in the video are long shots tracking the characters and their journey. These shots give the audience a view of the characters singing throughout whilst the background environment changes. This sense that the characters stay centralized and don't change much creates the main focus for the viewer and creates a sense of continuity throughout the animation. This style of minimal shots and shot types gives this video its own unique feel. Like most music videos this has very little ambient sound, with only the brief engine sound at the start and the office environment sounds before that. The engine sound then creates a smooth sound bridge into the beginning of the track. The sound then runs parallel to the editing with slow paced visuals to match the smooth calming music. The editing is used well to match the sound from 2:42 to 3:15 where the pace changes and the director has successfully matched the audio to the video so that it is smooth and flowing. Also editing has been used with mise en scene to create limited colour throughout the video mixing black and white imagery with colour to draw audiences attention to key aspects of the mise en scene which in turn link with the narrative of the audio lyrics. This use of limited colour is seen clearly in 1:49 and throughout the video with the truck in yellow. The mise en scene has been used in conjunction with the narrative of the song to create a visual narrative that matches so they included the appropriate props to create the feeling of a surreal fantasy world. The SFX is very high quality and follows the style of hand drawn characters rather than complex 3D images and textures. This style of hand drawn characters and creatures connects with the narrative and music creating a naive yet peaceful feel.


The genre of this music is alternative/acoustic and the narrative is something the director has used very effectively in here creating a video that will resonate with audience when they watch it. Also slow paced visuals and naive but sweet narrative mirror the feel of the music. All this makes this video a very enjoyable watch.

Genre's of music

A music genre is a categorical construct which helps to identify musical sounds as being of a particular pace,style and meaning. This category and type of music can help it be distinguished from other types of music. Here are some examples of the main genre's of music:

Classical
Rock
Pop
Hip Hop or Rap
Jazz
Indie
Dance
Alternative

These can then be separated into sub genres for example dance music can be separated into trance, euphoria, hardcore and techno. These sub genres further help the audience to identify what they are listening to and help to create stereotypes around each genre. As I am creating an animated music video I need to identify the genre of music which is most likely to create a video like this. 

Choosing my brief

Music is a huge interest of mine as is animation. In our AS media coursework I took the role of creating the animated title sequence, this is due to my previous experience and success in the digital art field. When making this opening I had to create continuity and flowing through the extract by making the audio run parallel to what's on screen, running fast paced editing with fast music and slow paced editing with slow music. This was achieved very successfully in our groups final piece and was a key point to creating its atmosphere.

After reading through the possible briefs and analyzing my skill-set I have narrowed down my choices to the music video task and the short film/animation. I made this decision due to my skill-sets of what I'm interested in. I think that the skills I have learnt through my AS media project will help me in this project for example; creating a link in the extract between the pace of editing and pace of music. I feel strongly to create a music video because I'm in contact with a local band that would be willing to not only let me use their song but have agreed to appear in it. But then I also feel I would struggle alot less if I made a short animation which I feel is my strongest attribute. 

Final Decision

After careful deliberation I have chosen to do a slight cross-over and create an animated music video. This way I can do something that both interests me and that fits my strongest attributes.

I will research into the codes and conventions and the genre of music videos and in particular animated music videos. I intend to choose my song before I start researching so I can find songs of a similar pace/genre and analyze their music videos. After and during this research I will develop my initial ideas and decide what sort of narrative I wish to create. Because I have chosen the music video brief I also have to smaller objectives to do. These will be :

• a cover for its release on DVD
• a magazine advertisement for the DVD

I think I will be able to cope with these fine as well because I am confident with Adobe Photoshop which will probably be the software I use to create these smaller briefs. 

Possible Briefs

Today we were given the list of possible tasks to undertake for our individual A2 coursework.

These were :

Brief 1 :

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, no longer than five minutes duration

Brief 2 :

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer

Brief 3 : 

An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two TV advertisements

Brief 4 :

A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a TV trailer

Brief 5 :

A selection of materials related to an original children's TV drama, to include the title sequence to the TV programme

Brief 6 :

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animation or a combination of both

Each brief also has a number of smaller objectives to be completed. These range from cover designs for the film cases, magazine advertisements, radio adverts and web pops. My task over the next week is to pick my objective based on my interests and skill set.