CK: Digipak and Print Analysis

HB: Digipak and Print Analysis - Mumford and Sons

Digipak and Print Analysis 

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More

                             

CK: Technical Analysis - Ditmas, Mumford and Sons

• To summarise I would say:
• It is interesting to note the difference in the proportion of narrative shots to performance shots, I have highlighted the performance shots for comparison. At the start of the track there is a greater number of performance based shots, however to the end of the sequence that I analysed it shifted so that there were more narrative based tracks, this is largely due to the development of the story in the song, and so it was necessary to have more narrative based shots in order to drive the story forwards. This is something we could think about in our production.
• The use of different camera techniques in the narrative based shots and the performance based shots is very effective in helping to differentiate between the two. The steadicam in the narrative shots helps to give a sense of immediacy to the piece, and reflects the action on screen, whereas the fast tracking shots in the performance based sequences reflects the upbeat tempo of the song and the band's passion for performance. It is interesting to note that the camera was moving at all times, which reflects the energy of the song, we will try to emulate this movement in our final production. 
• The cutting rate of the sequence is very useful to note, although this song has a much faster tempo than the song used in our production, it is still relevant to our track to note the speed of the cuts. The majority of the cuts in this song last no more than two seconds, which means we will have to get a lot of footage in order to have enough for the number of cuts we will have to make.

Stills

This screenshot shows the opening shot of the piece, which conforms to the folk rock genre with the mise en scene of a field and a horse.

This too conforms to the trademarks of the genre, with the ECU of this man's eye's accentuating his wisdom and power. He looks determined, and the juxtaposition between this shot and the shot of the horse in the field show's the horse as the target.

This screenshot shows the band all facing each other in almost a 'band practice' like fashion. This gives the piece a sense of intimacy and legitimacy, and it would be interesting to experiment with this in our final production.

Marcus Mumford is given prevalence in the performance based clips as he is the lead singer.

Whenever there is a drum fill in the piece, shots of the drummer are shown so that we associate the sound with the drummer's playing, we could experiment with this kind of thing in our final production.

Close ups of the artists playing their instruments accentuate their talent, which is part of Dyer's star image.

HB: Technical Analysis - The Paper Kites

Technical Analysis

The Paper Kites - Bloom

• This video was both narrative and performance based which is the same style my group want to emulate in our own video. This has been very helpful to see the cutting rate of each part and ideas on how to inter-cut the two together. 
• The cutting rate was fast although there was one longer shot of the artists. However, the camera was continuously moving throughout this (stedicam shot) which kept the video moving forward with the song.
• Furthermore, there were no completely still shots throughout the whole video, even if they didn't pan or track, for example,  the camera was always moving slightly.
• The colour of the video is also similar to the effect we hope to achieve, I noticed yellows and greens were prominent tones throughout. 
• The costumes were also typical to the genre (flannel shirts/simple colours)
• The instruments played a key role to the video (iconography), there were many close ups of just the instruments being played, this is something we will be able to take forward into our video but it is crucial to ensure we get musicians to play them to maintain authenticity. 
• The performance aspect of the video was also done in a way we may be able to consider since we don't have a budget or any access to a stage etc. This was filmed outside with the musicians sat round a tree together. This creates a sense of intimacy and also highlights the rural location which is typical of the folk genre.

Stills

Iconography - Typical folk instrument (Banjo). It is interesting that this has been framed as a close up of only an instrument as I had previously only pictured long and mid shots of a full band playing to this is something different to consider.

 

I like the colour of this shot, greens and yellows are the colours I have noticed most throughout the video. This is something I will keep in mind when experimenting with filters on our footage.

There's use of the rule of thirds in this shot to keep the narrative clear. The string, which is an integral element of the narrative, occupies all of the thirds and in order to draw the same amount of attention to her, the girl remains in the centre.

 

 

This shot has also followed the rule of thirds where the musician occupies the left third and the instrument is in the centre. This reinforces the iconography of the instruments and by having this and the artist lip sync the lyrics it creates a clear difference between the narrative and performance aspects of the video.

These stills show how the musicians were positioned round a tree where the camera stedicamed around it. This showed how even though it was a long cut (19 seconds) the camera was constantly moving. I have also noticed that there are different amounts of lighting used for the performance and narrative aspects. This further reinforces the difference between the two, however, due to the location being the same they intercut together very smoothly. Moreover, Dyers paradox of being simultaneously present an absent can be applied here as there is never more than one member of the band breaking the 4th wall by use of first person mode of address at one time.

In this still the camera is positioned behind the actor which gives the video a more voyeuristic feel.

Group: Brighton Stills

CK: Brighton - Reflection

• I would say that overall we used our time spent in Brighton very well
• Although we were not planning on using Brighton as one of our locations for the final production, it was extremely useful to practice many of the techniques that will be necessary in our final production.
• Firstly, we were able to use the track and dolly very effectively, and we found that shots involving camera movement were much more effective that shots in which we used the tripod, which will be useful in our final production
• Also, we were able to try our hand at some lip syncing, which turned out to be a lot harder than we first anticipated. Our problem was that the performer in our video wasn't belting it out enough, therefore it was blatantly obvious that he wasn't actually singing. For our final production we will have to make sure that we are putting 100% effort into our lip syncing.
• As well as this, it was useful to practice the timing of the cuts in post production. We found that it was extremely effective to make cuts on the beat of the song, which was quite difficult in places as we hadn't thought about this in the filming process. This means that when we next film we will be able to bear this in mind and plan ahead during filming.
• It was also interesting to experiment with colour grading in post production, as we were aiming to give a folky/ vintage look to our piece, however we found that this was extremely difficult, if not impossible using the software which we usually use to edit our production. Therefore we asked our media technician for advice and he suggested a different piece of software, which will be extremely useful in our final production. 

Group: Brighton - Music Video Practice