Case Studies (same genre professional videos)

 

Aiden - Die Romantic

For my first case study of this years coursework project I have chosen to analyse a song called Die Romantic. It relates to my own ideas by genre, style, pace and band appearance.

Aiden is an American post-hardcore band from Seattle, Washington and founded in the spring of 2003 before the earlier of the current members are Wil Francis (vocals & guitar), Jake Davison (drums), Nick Wiggins (bass) and Angel Ibarra (Guitar) Wil originally thought bass but took over lead vocals when their previous vocalist left because of the spiritual differences.
http://artistwiki.com/aiden

This is a video about psychological problems of two people that hear voices in their heads telling them to commit suicide. One of them is a teenage girl who has an eating disorder and the other one is amiddle aged man who because of debts that are piling up on him decides to jump off a building. It shows the audience straight from the beginning some of the biggest most current problems in the society. It has been well thought trough and I would consider using some of the ideas in my own video as it is going to involve a death of a person as well. It has to be noted that the video is edited in such way that the audiences don't really see any characters dying, it is just lead to believe that this is what is going to happen next. I think it is a smart way of editing as to film the actual accident would involve a lot of hard acting which would be quite challenging to obtain.

This video is very complex as it has elements of performance a narrative and a concept. It cuts between scenes of the two characters and is showing how both stories are progressing but also at times cuts away to the band singing. Continuity is maintained all the way through. It adds the video a selling point as it is not often that the video is edited together between three different locations. I will try and use this technique in my own video, but I would only use 2 locations at once.

It has been intended to show psychological problems appear for a reason. A girl with an eating disorder is a teenager that believes that she is overweight that makes her make herself sick every time she eats. The singer is shown as illustrating her inner voice that what she’s doing is ok and that it is a romantic way to die.

The middle aged man is sitting on a roof of a skyscraper with a stack of papers in his hands looking depressed and lost the will to live, and then the singer appears and tells him that it is a good idea to jump. It connotes the problems with the society today as due to growing unemployment and divorce rates more and more people will be able to relate themselves to this video eventually.

The singer has a negative representation in this video as he is being portrait as the reason for downfalls of these people. However, I think it is appropriate in this video because of its style and purpose. It has been edited in this particular way to help the audience illustrate the lyrics with the action. It is very important for the music video to tell a story, which might not have reached the audiences by just simply listening to the track.
 

Close-ups are used a lot in this video to show the emotions of the characters at different stages. Lip synching to the lyrics is out some times as it’s being exaggerated to show the singer shouting in other characters ears. Eye line match is used when showing the singer and the other characters, this shows that what the singer is saying is important to the other characters. The storyboard of this video is organised in such way that it cuts between the 3 locations that way progressing the narrative.

All the band members wear lots of makeup to connote the genre of music. This style is very common to this genre of music as they tent to connote depression anger and aggression in their videos as well as music itsself.

 

Target audience for this video are teenagers as they are the ones that tend to listen to this particular genre of music and the way it’s been shot only increases the overall effect. Audiences are clearly targeted all the way through. It can seem to some as unsuitable for teenagers to watch as teenagers tend to be easily influenced and some of the people that will watch this video may develop some ideas for themselves, however, I disagree with this point as I believe that teenagers should have a mind of their own, and distinguish this as being just a music video and not a campaign of any kind. On the other hand as the target audiences are teenagers I would have liked seeing two teenage characters to target the population even more.
 

I have picked out some camera angles and shot types from this video as well as cutting between multiple locations. There are almost invisible transitions used in this video when cutting between locations, it is useful to ensure continuity is maintained trough out the video.

 

 

Nickelback - Gotta Be Somebody 

For my second case study I have chosen something completely different, but still potentionally very useful for my own music video ideas. This song is of a different genre and style then my own choice, however the shot types and the way it was edited is very much close to what I intent to do myself.

Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Hanna, Alberta. Since 1995 the band has included guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist and back-up vocalist Ryan Peake and bassist Mike Kroeger. The band's current drummer and percussionist is Daniel Adair who has been with the band since 2005, replacing drummer Ryan Vikedal who was with the band between 1998–2005. Nickelback's music is classed as hard rock^, post-grunge, and alternative rock. Nickelback is one of the most commercially successful Canadian groups, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, ranking as the 11th best selling music act of the 2000s, and is the 2nd best selling foreign act in the U.S. behind The Beatles for the 2000s Billboard ranks them the top Rock group of the decade and their hit song "How You Remind Me" was listed as the top Rock song of the decade as well as the 4th song of the decade. They were listed number 7 on the Billboard top artist of the decade list and they have 4 albums that were listed on the Billboard top albums of the decade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickelback 

This is a straight performance based video that was filmed in two different locations. This is a performance based video because all the way through the band is filmed performing and the locations and camera angles are the only things that change. It is a good idea as the performance and the band is made a focus point. It is unconventional decision for this genre of music. It puts the audiences in a calm mod and makes them listen to the song objectively, where as many other Rock videos try to illustrate the lyrics in vivid and bright colours, which may affect people in different ways, in this case this video has a major selling point because of the mood it creates.

This video was intended to create a peaceful atmosphere wherever it is being shown as there are no special effects used. Lip synching was accurate throughout the video. This makes the lyrics and the band itself a focus point, it is common for this band, and however it is not so common for the genre of music. On the other hand, the close-ups of the band members and in particular the drummer make it more conventional in style.

 

This video has been filmed using close-ups almost all the way through, which is a good strategy as it creates a contact with the viewer and they are more likely to enjoy the video as well as pay more attention to the lyrics. I will try and use some of these techniques in my own video, even know in my case it would be focused on trying to pass on certain moods and create atmospheres, however at times it cuts to the long shots and panning to show other members of the band. This is used to make the video in keeping with the genre. My own video will also have some performance elements in it to make it conventional for the genre of music it belongs to, but also to reinforce the mood and atmosphere of the clip. It cuts between the locations a couple of times to make the video more interesting and once it even cuts to night time when the lyrics talk about the moonlight.

Target audience are 18-26 year olds. They are encouraged to buy this record through a long term sustained good performances of this band. They are well established and known all around the world, they do lots o tours to attract new fans, they have their own sustained style as they recognise that people like this.  

 

The Rasmus - October & April ft.

 Anette Olzon

 

 

My third case study is a video clip of a song performed by a band who's another song I am considering as a possibility to make a music video to.

The Rasmus are a Finnish rock band that formed in 1994 in Helsinki while the band members were still in upper comprehensive school.The original band members were Lauri Ylönen (lead singer/songwriter), Eero Heinonen (bass), Pauli Rantasalmi (guitar) and Jarno Lahti (drums). Jarno Lahti left the year after and was replaced by Janne Heiskanen in 1995. Heiskanen quit the band in 1998 and was soon replaced by Aki Hakala. The Rasmus has sold 4 millions albums worldwide, 400,000 in Finland alone. They have won numerous of awards both domestic and international.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rasmus 

 

The concept of the video is quite simple. It is meant to illustrate the lyrics and help to tell a story that would otherwise be hard to portray using just imagination. The lyrics talk about a love story that has not worked out most probably because of many personality clashes that have occurred. However the video is shot in such a way that it looks as if two completely different worlds are colliding. This way it is made interesting to watch as well as being useful in passing on the mood and the atmosphere that was intended by the lyrics. I will try to use these conceptual ideas in my own video wherever possible, as well as many of the special effects which I believe add character and personality to the video.

 

This video is both conceptual and performance based, it is performance based as a duet the actors’ lip-synch all the way through the song. The camera cuts between the two characters to create continuity, it important in this video especially because the camera together with the lyrics tell a story that was intended much better together then it would be understood by just listening to the song itself, as it tells the story of the two worlds that were never meant to cross. It is also fascinating special effects are used to exaggerate the effect and imagination of audiences. It is clear that the video was well thought through and that a lot of time was spent on preproduction of this video.

 

Audiences re targeted well because it was taken into account that in our century people watch music videos not just to listen to a song they expect to be impressed by a storyline, props, and special effects as it is all available digitally. The producer of this video has done it intelligently as there are only two characters used, however with a variety of camera angles, editing and special effects this video was really made into something really special and eye catching. They have also considered the cost of actors and decided to use just two and have compensated for it in post-production, which I will try to use as much as possible in my own video as this approach is much more cost efficient.
 

In this video there re different camera angles used, however it is all mainly shot in close-up to ensure continuity and lip-synching. Close-ups are important in this video as it is trying to show emotions of the characters.
 

This video is finished with a long two-shot of the two characters meeting, it is emphasized further with special effects as the darkness meets the light, connoting the power of their personalities colliding. It serves a great closing scene to the video as it ensures that the narrative idea flows according to begging-middle-end scheme, also illustrating the lyrics perfectly. I believe that having a timeline based narrative is important in any video as it makes the video easier to watch for the audience and they are more likely to make positive comments about it, and recommend that video to their friends and family, which is extremely important to the reputation of the band.
 

The male character is a main vocalist in the band. In this video he is dressed in conventional style dark clothes which is common to all gothic bands as well as this genre of music in general. However this concept is used slightly differently in this video, as the male character is shown as an evil, depressed and lost, whereas female character is presented as bright and positive character and these two extremes are contrasted throughout the video. This creates drama and generates more interest to the video, I find this technique to be very effective and will try and use elements of that in my own video as it is going to be relevant given the same genre and style of music.
 

The target audience for this video are teenagers to early 20's people who are interested in this specific style of music as it is quite emotional and deep, and people who listen to music mostly to fix their mood are much less likely to listen to this music. However, The Rasmus are a very well established band all over the world and they have fans of all age ranges and ethnic groups.