Features of the genre.

Features of the rock genre:

-Band shots
 This is a staple of the genre and has been present in videos since The Rolling Stones. It gives the feel that the viewer is at the gig they are playing.


- Instrument shots
 Also a staple, usually shown in close ups. Common shots include down the neck of the guitar or the singer's mouth.

- Satire
 A fairly recent addition to the genre. Shared with punk, a lot of bands like the idea of not taking themselves overly seriously and poking at both themselves and others. This can lead to a very nice tone to a video and sometimes make it very funny. Blink-182 and Sum-41 are notable examples of this.

- Frequent and timed edits.
 Usually to keep the flow of the song and video in sync the shot changes will match the pace of the song, usually changing on the beat.

 - Rock songs sometimes make use of fades in and out either at the start or end of the video. sometimes if it works in context it can be used mid song.

 - Settings
Rock videos like to vary their settings quite a lot. Not to the extremes that metal take it, like churches or pirate ships, but unusual nonetheless. Examples include Paramore's 'Decode', set in a forest.

 - Sexualisation
Many videos of the genre make use of attractive women in sexualised context. Obviously this is purely for the sex appeal and to draw some kind of male audience.


 - Costume
Costume for a rock video tends to consist of plain clothing. The costume is either incredibly innocuous or very extreme. Take Blink-182 in contrast to kiss for example

 

 

 

Camera work - These can vary alot. Most bands like to have many low angle shots, to make them look important, especially on the lead singer. Whilst sometimes high angle shots show the entire band to get the exact opposite across. On occasions bands don't like to overplay themselves, preferring to not been idolised.

 



Music Video planning / Initial thoughts

For this project we are being tasked to create a full length music video for an unsigned band. To do this we obviously needed to pick a band and a song, we figured a good starting place would be www.unsigned.com since it is a website taht compiles a large number of bands with no record label into one place. we came to this website with an open mind regarding genre of music as whatever music we picked, we would then do extensive research into the style. This research will include famou musicians in this genre, some of the conventions of music videos of that genre, and some of the history of the videos of this genre. In the end we decided to choose Rock, since a lot of videos from this genre tend to be very light hearted and comical. This would play to our strengths as writers because we tend to like comedic themes.

We finally picked a song, from a band called 'Scar' called 'As long as you know'. We decided to choose this one because it is simple, catchy and light hearted. The simplicity of the song is a godsend as it gives us an immense amount of creative freedom story-wise, shot wise and editing wise. The tone of the song can allow the video to swing both ways, both serious and light hearted.

Link to the song:
http://www.unsigned.com/scar

 

To get a load of early ideas we sat down as a group and took it in turns to listen to the song properly for the first time. While before we had briefly given it a listen, we hadn't been paying attention to the lyrics or general tone of the song. Whilst one person in the group listened to the song we had them recount and details or themes they thought suited the music to allow us to get their very first impression. We felt this would be important as we want to connect with what the majority of the audience will think of the first time they hear the song. Hopefully this will create some kind of familiar feeling image for the audience and be easy to relate to.

 

 

For the most part our thoughts about the songs were split almost 50/50 in a lot of aspects. We all decided that it should follow some kind of narrative, instead of being primarily band shots, however Elliott and i felt it should be disjunctured from the song lyrics while Becky and Eddie felt that it should be illustrative. We all agreed there should be some kind of female character that is the focal point of the story, however some of us thought we shouldn't have a serious tone while some of us did. Overall it came down to a group decision to piece together the best ideas from everyone to get initial ideas for a storyboard.

Audience Questionnare

QUESTIONS TO ASK AUDIENCE MEMBERS

1.       What type of video do you prefer eg. Amplification,

 

 

 

2.       Do you prefer funny or serious videos? What is your given reason for this answer, Tick one box.                                                                       

 

                                                                                    Why?

 

              Entertaining                        Serious                   

3.       Bowl of the soup video ( 1985), what were your first impressions after watching this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38xNqZvBJI

 

4.       Play a 30 seconds clip of what scars song, if you had to guess what genre of band this is what would it be, and why?

 

 

5.       What mood/feeling would you say that this song gives off? Tick one of the boxes

Emotional                  Cheerful                Depressed                  Happy

6.       What do you not like within a music video?

 

7.       Describe the attire of a typical Geek/thug/emo/jock/stoner character?

 

Geek-

Thug-

Emo-

Jock-

Stoner-

 

 

8.       Can you name some of the stereotypes within a rock video.

 

9.       How do you tend to watch music videos? Tick one of the boxes

 

     Online eg Youtube          Ipod                     Music channels                Phone                

 

 

 

     Other

 

 

 

 

 

10.What is your favourite music video OF ALL TIME !!!!!!!