Monday 24 November 2014

Digipack Change to go with the new concept

 

 
I am writing to make it clear that the tone of my Digipack at the end of the piece will have subsequent change from its original plan, Obviously the old war theme wont work in the new context so I will be changing it to a Alt Rock themed album with a focus more on gloomy atmosphere and possibly including the concept of love somewhere
 
In terms of the actual visible differences on the album cover the new album cover will use more washed out greys and browns, My idea for the original of course wasn't so grim in its design, it simply had to connote war themes and I even considered the inclusion of the colour red to connote blood and danger. The grey and grim colouring of the new album cover is designed to reflect the depressive tone of the song and to make it clear to the target audience that there will not likely be any incredibly joyous songs on the album.


The Linkin Park Meteora album cover uses greys and browns in connection to a theme of rebellion

The Linkin Park Album 'Meteora' does in fact use a similar style, but the subject in the picture is seen to be rebellious whil I am intending to aim towards concepts like sadness and depression.
The Colours are not as prominent and while the visual is stunning there is an underlying tone of sadness and macabre
 
This album by 'The Offspring' has a similar tone to what im trying to achieve, the composition is intruiging and actually eye catching, the colours appear sombre and washed out and its quite depressive which matches the tone well.
 
This album cover from 'The Pretty Reckless' is possibly pushing the sombre mood too far and wouldn't fit my theme.
This Album Cover sadly is a way of illustrating how I dont want my album cover to turn out, this style is a little too dark and it actually looks more like it belongs in the heavier genres of rock, the clothing and the manner in which they are loitering also implies rebellion which my piece is sadly not about. The colours are interesting but I think the more subtle tones of 'The Offsprings' Album is closer to my tone.
 
 
 


Wednesday 19 November 2014

Props

A simplistic breakdown of the props I feel I need can be put in a short list

  • Empty Whiskey Bottle x2:
 For the fire scene two are required as their are two separate shots of the bottle falling and smashing, these bottles are required for the scene by the incinerator, they are feature in a slow motion break which should be visually stunning.
  • Band Equipment (Lead Guitar and Microphone acquired, Drum kit can be easily acquired)
The bands main equipment, the placement of the actual band on the stage will be made clear soon
  • Photograph (Has been taken and printed
Some Scenes may Require additional lighting so I have got lighting prepared in advance

Continuity concerns

In my original piece I had considerable concerns that the continuity could be seen an poor due the narrative scene with the fire at night being followed directly by a scene in the day time.

I have personally been given a strong set of ideas to counter this problem. Firstly, In order for this to work, it needs to be clear that the fire scene is chronologically implied to be before the church scene which takes place the next day when it is bright outside. The best way to show this is by having something in the fire scene change the physical appearance the main character in the next scene. Indicating that the fire scene recently happened in the narrative.

Strong suggestions Include:

  • Having the Main Character cut himself on the broken whiskey bottle shards
  • Having the Main Character burn himself while burning the photos
Both are highly valid and can easily be shot within the same film recording.

Monday 17 November 2014

Getting the colour to match the tone

In order for my piece to match the tone that I am looking for I have looked into changing scenes in after effects to achieve a more washed out effect.
 
Another Idea that I have been playing with has been the concept of having the main character isolated from the rest of the world through a color filter which would have to require the main character having a bright color on his person somewhere to identify him clearly.
 

Costume Design Concept


Friday 14 November 2014

Health and Safety: Incineration Scene

The Scene where my main character stands next to a large open fire has given me a number of concerns to think about, there are some serious health concerns to take into account here and I want to make sure that these concerns are adressed prior to shooting to avoid negligent accidents to happen.

1. Concerns with the Fire



In order for me to acheive the height of the flames that I need, we will need to use wood and kindling to raise the flame, if the flame is not high enough we have a small amount of petrol to try and raise the flames. there are of course a number of risks here but we will be taking the following measures to ensure that injury does not occur.

  • During the first test of the fire,all wood and kindling must be placed in the incinerator prior to ignition to reduce the risk of burns, If it is necessary to add more wood Flame Proof Gloves have been acquired for the addition of additional fuel.
  • If we are to add petroleum to the fire, we must do so before ignition of the incinerator as addition afterwards could risk a gas can explosion, in addition to this, minimal amounts of fuel are permitted to be added to the incinerator and this has been taken into account.
  • When the main character places the photo into the fire, the long coat that he will be wearing will be removed, this isnt too much of an issue as the scene takes place on a different day to the next and this wardrobe change is permitted for continuity. The removal of the long coat will reduce the risk of the long sleeves catching on the fire and causing harm when dropping the photograph into the flames.
2. Broken Glass


This scene also includes the breaking of two glass bottles by dropping them from waist height onto the bricked ground. Two bottles will need to be smashed as this scene is going to be shot twice from 2 different angles for a visual effect i'm constructing. Because of the broken glass being a factor, there are a number of ways to reduce risk from occuring in the form of actors or cameramen getting cut with small shards of glass from the subsequent breakage.



  • The actor will be wearing thick socks and shoes to prevent any glass shards from getting into his shoes or socks which could cause harm.
  • The broken glass will be immediatly swept up after the scene and will be placed in a bin provided to make sure that noone else on set stands in it and cuts themselves on it.

These are my key concerns so far for this scene but I will post another blog if I believe that there are other concerns to account for in the future

Shooting the Moving Sections

There are going to be moving scenes in my piece as seen in my previous Storyboard and Shot by Shot Breakdown which is good in varying the shots but it raises some concerns in the execution of the scene.


Firstly, Without a Stedicam the shots may come out shaky if we are not careful, because of this I have personally spoken to the Individual who will be holding the camera in that scene to see if they can keep it still, hopefully they can then keep it still enough that the mild shake left behind can be removed with Premiere Pro CS6's Warp Stabilizer tool which I have actually used before and can confirm that it is effective in altering certain shots to make them steadier.
 
 
Secondly, Because of where the moving scenes take place, which is next to a main road, There are some health and saftety concerns that need to be adressed, Essentially since the Cameraman will be moving backwards while holding the camera, there is a great worry that he may accidently drift into the main road. However in order to help prevent this, I have asked another friend to stand behind them with a hand on their shoulder to stop them walking into the road and also to press down into them to try and keep them from shaking.

Thursday 13 November 2014

Shooting Locations

In my piece it will feature a variety of Locations but they will mostly be between Suburban Areas (Main Characters Home/Incineration Scene) near the country , Durham City Centre and Walton Park (Redemption Scene at the end) and Durham Car Park (Suicide Implication Scene).

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Music Video Treatment


Music Video Treatment – ‘Castle of Glass’ by A Familiar Picture

The purpose of this writing will be to clarify exactly what I am doing and to make it clear to the audience and to myself. It will outline the basic concepts of my piece and allow me to express my reasoning for said piece.

The Piece itself focuses on the life of a young man who is implied to have recently fallen on hard times; this includes the loss of his wife/girlfriend, although the exact nature of the relationship is irrelevant, the ambiguity helps to connect the target audience to the main character by allowing them to exercise their own interpretation. As the video follows on there is a mood and tone shift from a dark and gloomy set of shots to lighter and more dulcet tones indicating the characters return to happiness in what is intended to be something of an emotional adventure.

The video will begin on a fade in to a moving shot through a high level car park in a slow and smooth forward fashion, Followed by a series of moving shots around the main character before returning to the moving shot through the car park, these shots will take place in succession and they will shift after one another, to the other. These series of shots will last for approximately 1:30, in the sections with the main character there are a series of shots to indicate he is in distress or saddened including a shot of a teardrop falling on his hand, a short section with blurry traffic sound indicating a slip from reality and a scene of the main character visibly gripping a guard rail tightly. Together these first few shots should appropriately express the characters distress and depression.

Following this is the first few lines of the song accompanied by the lead singer standing alone on a stage, hopefully the actor can dictate the lines with little feeling and emotion to begin with as it will help accompany the narrative theme just shown. For now the band will not be present but they will appear in due time. This section will last longer than most and will probably be 3-5 seconds in length.

This returns us to the narrative section where the main character is standing in front of a large fire, the scene is set at night so that the glow of the fire appears ominous on the main character and almost sombre to reflect his mood (5 Second shot), from a POV shot the main character can be seen dropping a photograph of his Partner (Level of Relationship is not highly explained but is not required) into an incinerator fire, the shot is continued with the photograph being seen to be dropped from a side perspective, after the photo has been burned the main character drinks from whiskey bottle he has in his hand and slumps it’s to his waist level loosely, a quick shot of the bottle swinging down to his waist helps to punctuate the main character loose and intoxicated nature which together when shot quickly in sequence will last approximately 5 seconds. after a short singing part by the bands lead singer on stage for 14 seconds we return to the main characters grip on the bottle visibly getting weak, as the band ups the tempo in a short scene where the emphasis is on the guitar playing strumming more harshly for 3 seconds , we quickly return to seeing the bottle drop and get smashed from two different angles in slow motion which I believe will be quite visually impressive especially when accompanied straight after by a strong band section with heavy use of guitars.

Moving on, this scene is followed by a moving shot of the main character walking down a side walk from an over the shoulder shot and a front facing medium length shot with the character walking towards the screen lasting in total 10 seconds, I have made it clear in my intention that there will be something to bridge these two scenes, the strongest of which will be a scar, cut or burn that the main character has sustained in the previous scene. In this scene the main character walks past a church with disinterest or care, in a deeper meaning this helps promote the sombre tone but its key meaning is supposed to represent the main characters situation, and how little the concept of death bothers him in relation to the implied preparation for suicide in the first scenes, the camera stops halfway when it reaches the gates and pans up the building, showing the height of the church.  Immediately following this is another section with the band lasting 6 seconds but it then leads to another scene, in which the main character walks carelessly past a homeless man from the front in an upwards facing ground shot for 3 seconds, indicating aggression from the main character, as the main character walks on in a tracking shot that walks in front of him facing towards his face and body for another 3 seconds, the homeless man in the background is blurred out to indicate a lack of caring from the main character in his current depressive state.

There is a quite long section with the band directly after this which is essentially the band playing out the end of a chorus, it’s a series of shots starting with the lead singer, moving onto the guitarist and then onto the drummer then ending on the lead singer again, this quick succession of shots will mostly be medium shots which will in total last 11 seconds.

What follows after these scenes is what I refer to as the ‘Emotional Redemption’ of the character, emotional scenes from a park bench show the main character sitting contemplating and gripping his leg to show frustration from a POV Shot, he is however interrupted by a female character seen walking up to him from a medium shot with low length focus set on the camera, she extends her arm to him in a friendly gesture and leads him away from the bench in a side medium shot, this scene will be done with a short set of mid-range shots and POV’s of the two characters looking at each other. This is followed by a short section of the band playing. But immediately returns to the two of them walking to a large rocky structure on a sunset, the implication of which is to show the main character the beauty he has been missing in his life. As they are looking over the sunset, their hands come together in unity and he lightly squeezes her hand slowly, this is seen from a shot from behind but it moves to a smooth tracking shot where it ends at where there hands meet.

Finally, the scene returns to where the piece started, the main character simply walks away from the railing in slow motion, and the scene fades out, at this point background noise of cars and people can be heard much more strongly indicating a return to reality proper.

 

Shot by Shot Breakdown of Piece


Cut from 00:00 – 00:10 off the original song to better time the Introduction

00:00 – 00:05 Fade in Camera in a moving shot through a car park in a straight line

00:05 – 00:10 Camera slowly moves up from ground level to the characters waist in a close up shot.

00:10 – 00:15 Camera Returns to continue previous motion shot. Still moving through car park.

00:15 – 00:20 Camera continues to move up past the characters waist to see the back of their head and a city view past them which is blurred slightly.

00:20 – 00:25 Camera still moves through the car park for another 5 seconds

00:25 – 00:30 Side shot Main characters hand can be seen on a railing gripping it tightly.

00:30 – 00:35 The Camera continues on with the moving shot through the car park for another 5 seconds

00:35 – 00:40 Droplets of water can be seen falling on the main characters hand, indicating tear drops, the shot is a close up.

00:40 – 00:50 Camera moves round a corner to reveal the main character standing at a distance still moving in a smooth fashion.

00:50 – 01:00 Side shot mid range. Of the main character tilting his head up, he begins to turn around

01:00 – 01:30 The Camera continues to move towards the main character however the main character has now turned around slightly, as the camera moves on, he casually turns back to where he was looking and moves closer to the rail, as the camera continues to move right up to him, it moves over him into the bright light, the bright light shines brightly and moves into another scene.

01:30 – 01:48 in the other scene the Lead singer begins to sing the first few lines of the song

01:48 – 01:53 Character can be seen from behind with a fire being in front of him.

01:53 – 01:58 Character goes to POV and sees a picture of a couple, one of the persons in the picture is the main character. He extends his arm over the fire to drop the picture.

01:58 – 02:02 from the side he can be seen dropping it in the fire and drinking from the whiskey bottle. Then dropping it down to his waist

2:02 – 2:05 Close up of waist level shot shows his arm coming back down harshly with the camera being close to the whiskey bottle, the grasp on it is light.

2:05 - 2:19 return to the Lead singer on the stage

2:19 2:22 from the waist shot the main character can be seen struggling to hold the bottle

2:22- 2:25 Quick moment of the band upping the harsh tempo

2:25 – 2:28 Glass bottle smashes at the feet of the main character slowly

2:28 2:36 – Band Plays out half of the next lyric line. Camera work is quick moving to indicate strong rhythm

2:36 – 2:38 Moving over the shoulder shot of the main character walking down a side walk.

2:38 – 2:46 Changes to front facing shot which then rotates around him and stops at a set of gravestones while he continues onwards

2:46 2:52 – Band continues to play

2:52 – 2:55 Main character walks past a homeless man from over the shoulder

2:55 – 2:58 The Main character is seen walking from the front, the homeless man can be seen in the background.

2:58 – 3:01 The Homeless man blinks lightly and then closes his eyes from a side shot close up shot.

3:01 - 3:12 Returns to the band playing with the singer at the forefront elongating a note, Rapid shots change between the band as the tempo of the guitar increases.

3:12 - 3:17  Main character sits on a park bench and runs his hands through his hair

3:17 - 3:23 Band plays once more with special focus to the lead guitarist.

3:23- 3:25 Main Character Grips his hand tightly over his leg from a close up side shot.

3:25 - 3:34 Return to the band with the Lead singer taking the key focus in a mid range frontal shot.

3:34 - 3:41 Female character walks in toward the main character, the shot is a mid ground level shot and the focus is set to the foreground, while she is blurred in the background walking towards the main character.

3:44 - 3:48 Lead singer continues song section with an enthusiastic shot of the drummer

3:48 - 3:58 POV shot looking down on Male character from the POV of the Female character, Then a switch to the other side with the Male POV of the Female. Then a close up side shot of the female character extending her arm and hand to the male character.

3:58 - 4:02 Return to the band briefly to say another line of the song.

4:02 - 4:09 Main character and Female character walk up to a rocky structure and look over the town, with a nice sunset scene.

4:09 - 4:13 Final Band piece with the lead singer taking center stage to strongly sing last note

4:13 - 4:18 Close up shot of the two characters hands coming together then the camera moves up and fades into the final scene.

4:18 - 4:25 Main character shot reminiscent of original few shots on tall building, he turns and slowly walks away from the railing towards the camera to a fade out/Main character walks to the side and out of shot. Faint car sounds and people can be heard.







 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Music Video Idea Progression

My concepts for this piece are coming together well and I am definitely coming to a stage where I can plan out a strong series of shots and establish a narrative structure. Expect a more detailed post soon.

Monday 10 November 2014

Style of the Shots

Narrative Scenes

In the Narrative scenes the main character will have a wide variety of shots used and they will differ between the two main moods in the piece.

NEGATIVE SECTION

In the section where the shots are indicating a gloomy and depressed interpretation of reality the shots will designed to artistically show corruption and a general sense of gloom. As a result the shots will include darker imagery, a less diverse color scheme and shots of the main character in a somber mood.

POSITIVE SECTION

In the positive section of the piece the colors used will be brightened to indicate rejuvenation and the embracing of life by the main character. The imagery will be lighter and smoother, shots will be much cleaner and less shaky.

New Media Concept Simple form - A Journey To Find Meaning

The new concept that I have come up with after discussion with my teacher follows the story of a man finding meaning in his life after a depressive time.

1. Music Video Begins -  Main character is seen standing on top of a large structure, the bleak setting gives the audience the impression that he is about to jump off of it and end his life, this scene however cuts to a different scene before such an action takes place.

2. The Main character begins a slow moving journey through a suburban street, the area is in something of a desolate and worn down area. He then begins a journey through a series of depressingly bleak areas.

3. Intersected is sections with the band playing as usual on a stage area.

4. The main character eventually experiences as complete change with his perception of reality to a more positive outlook by seeing parts of the world that are much brighter and cheerier.

5. Main character is seen once again standing at the original point, he walks away from it and moves to a much brighter scene.

Friday 7 November 2014

Planning the Music video after the change in concept

I have replanned the key themes for my piece in a simple mindmap, it is a rough outline of some of the major changes that have occured from shifting the focus of my piece.

Thursday 6 November 2014

Linkin Park Album Analysis- Living things

Linkin Park Living Things Digipack Analysis
 
 
Name of Album: Living Things
Release Date:  20/06/2012
Band: Linkin Park
Front Cover
 
 
The Front cover of the album is strangely ominous yet also very visually powerful, the sharp red colouring on the eyes and chin of the character really stand out in the centre of the piece, the crumbling effect on the character itself is also very interesting. What it could possibly signify is something akin to a personal shell or inner being. The Typography of the title is bold and stunning with its subheading slighlty smaller indicating that more importance is on the band name being seen rather than the album title, this isnt really an issue here because the front cover is quite abstract and easily definable among other albums covers in my opinion.
 
Back Cover
 
The back of the CD Cover is reminiscent of the themes and colours shown on the front cover, however the colour red is omitted, this less visually stunning image is however less concerning as some may think, it would be fair to assume that at this point the person viewing the album has already found and picked up the CD being drawn to the front. the back serves its purpose clearly and shows the songs listed on the back, I know from personal experience that the special edition of the CD comes with a live tour DVD so this could be something to think about.
 
Inside CD
 
The Inside of the CD casing contains a lyric book, this is one of the few decent pictures of it that I have managed to find, but the lyric book follows this style, its a series of beautiful paintings with the lyrics placed over it in white making it stand out on the background. I have checked and this is the actual inside, my confusion for this is that the piece inside doesnt appear to match the exterior of the CD, however, it will admit it is quite stunning. I am strongly considering using this idea for my piece by underlaying a beautiful picture, to avoid copyright infringement I will most likely take a photograph and edit it.


I have gotten some strong inspiration from this piece here, I especially like the Front Cover and Inner CD Casing.

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Overhaul on Media Video Concept

After having a large number of concerns with the actual original concept I proposed I have decided to reconstruct my music video. The concept will be up shortly.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Linkin Park Castle of Glass Video Analysis



00:00 - First of all this quote is good in setting the tone of the piece as it tells the audience immediately that the story isn't going to be happy. Its also good in telling the audience that the story is feasible and relevant to them keeping them invested.

(NOTE: There is a filter it seems over the footage to give the shadows more prominence in the scene, this can be seen especially when the boy turns the handle on the door.)

00:00 - 1:08 - This scene still hits me pretty hard, The story is clear and understandably tragic in the implication, the undulated and constant tone adds to this sense of tension and slowly builds as the young boy's sadness does making a strong link.

1:28 - This piece uses slow motion well both at the start and especially here, it just gives everything a smooth tragic feel that really helps the story. 

1:29 - 1:48 - This is a brilliant concept as there is a seamless connection between the two scenes, the blank expression on the singers face also keeps the tone well and doesnt detract from the overall story.

1:49 - 1:51 - The sharp jump from the character is interesting but its good in that it helps promote this disassociation from society for the death of what I presume to be his parent.

1:52 - 2:00 - The way that the walls fade away is brilliant as it keeps the whole piece together, the narrative and the band exist as one in a sense, they occupy a similar space, it almost like a metaphor, that behind the walls of this broken home at the death of the parent these emotions (the song) truly lie.

2:04 - The music is more directly connected to the narrative, the soft beats of the boys hand for me seems similar

2:09 Good shot which gives the band a strong unity.

2:24 The way in which the band plays out the tempo is incredibly exhilarating in connection to the visual effect and they play out their most powerful notes on screen for all to see, empowering the audience.

2:42 The band continues this poweful playing of their instruments, it keeps this adrenaline flowing and the audience stays invested because of it.

3;05 - 3:15 This entire sequence is beautiful, especially the guitarist whose harsh riff shocks the scene into slow motion, and as the rain and glass fall the band all plays as one, the expressions are powerful and its incredibly exciting.

Sadly I cant comment on a large portion of this video because half of the video was used as advertising for Medal of Honor which sadly detracts from the theme quite a bit, it should also be noted that the ending of this piece notably at 4:07 is quite interesting as it shows a sort of loop in the theme, similar to the video for Nickelback's 'Savin Me'. It gives a possible interpretation to the story and it gives the piece a bit of a return to an equilibrium which is in some way similar to Todorov's Theory of Narrative.

I really like the effects used in this piece but I lack the resources to achieve something so spectacular, I am however fond of the grainy effect when the band is playing in the rain and the real power behind the way that they play, it just really gives me a strong idea of how a band is to work together in a music video. The narrative story for this piece is powerful in some aspects and it really shows me how you can visually depict personal conflictions of emotions through expression and tone.

Nickelback Savin Me Video Analysis

In order to get the desired concept style right on my video, I believe that it would certainly be worth while analysing a video in the respective genre closer to the themes I am trying to reflect. I believe that the music video for 'Savin me' by Nickelback is quite similar to what I am trying to achieve and so I have decided to break down the video into what it does well and explore possible concepts to include in my piece. The full video can be seen below with analysis following...



00:00 - 00:25 : I'm incredibly fond of the ambient opening this piece has, it quite slow yet dramatic and it gives the piece a cinematic feel which is very enjoyable

(Point of Notice: I have noticed immediately that there is a slightly dull colouring presented in the piece, it seems like the footage has been dulled and darkened slightly with colour editing to set the tone and I must say its incredibly effective in representing a dingy and lifeless city.)

00:30 - 00:35 : Aside from the brief moment of action, I've noticed that the camera is shaking slightly, it appears loose and seems to be handheld or edited somehow, the effect this gives is interesting as it connotes a shaky disposition in the original character we first see, then being passed onto the new character. In a narrative sense this would appear to be the main character inheriting a sense of unease and a troubled mind.


00:36: The band is first shown, not too much time is spent in waiting to show the band which when put immediately after the first shots seems to be indicating to the audience that the band members are trying to connote some sense of sadness of their own. A feat which could make the audience empathetic and emotionally invested, which is helped by the depressed stances in the dark building shown by the band. The shaky camera is also maintained from the previous shots which connects the band and the main character from the narrative and keeps the theme flowing.


00:50 - 1;10 - The shaky camera work here is incredibly prominent, more so than before, it really grounds in the confusion of the main character.

1:12 - A strain on the main character is evident and his clear stress is carried through well.

1;24 - First use of the timer effect, its interesting to say the least and quite a powerful concept but I'm not entirely sure how I would work any truly powerful special effect like this into my piece.

1:25 - 1:35 - The stronger lines of the chorus have a real urgency here that the band be seen singing them, they usually tend to pick up on the end of a line or the beginning of one and never seem to stick around for more than an average of 5 seconds.

1:35 - 2:00 From here we see a continuation of the main character walking around, he seems more panicked than before and his acting comes across well in presenting his panic.

2:00 - 2:05 This is a very powerful shot in my opinion, the sheer shake of the camera and the way in which the main character bolts is very powerful in showing him peak in worry.

2:14 This section features an incredibly powerful POV shot, giving the audience an intimate view of the characters panic through the rapid movement of his head.

2:19 The angle in which the camera shakes tilts is powerful and accompanies the tempo brilliantly. it really assists the strong guitar sound and powerful drum beat of the song.

(I've started to notice that this piece is dominated by the narrative more than the band, even the band doesn't have instruments, which is interesting but the piece just gets away with doing this because of the strong camera work and special effects telling an engaging and gripping story.)

2:37 about 5/8's into the song is when we really start to see the tragedy peak, from here the tone is about to change to one of acceptance and is powerful and intriguing.

2:50 - 2;54 When the old woman dies in the ambulance I've noticed that the guitar riff is perfectly in sync with her death, it stands as a marker of the tragedy and sorrow felt by the main character having witnessed that and the sharpness of the note can be said to be representative of the characters emotions reaching a 'breaking point'.

3:10 - 3:15 The smile on the characters face is the first indication of his redemption and it really brightens the mood in connection to the song changing its tone slightly to one of recovery.

3:55 - 4:06 The slow fade of the song and the switch back to the ambiance is quite powerful in explaining the characters unburdening and his return to normality. its also interesting in replicating the opening of the video as well, giving the story an ongoing approach and showing the audience that this gift keeps going from one to another.

Conclusion

What I like about this video is that there's a really strong narrative focus, its an interesting story and it has interesting twists and turns which keep it engaging. The filtering of the colours is powerful and it gives the city setting that much more of an edge in creating a dark soulless environment which represents the characters inner strife.

The camera work is superb in replicating the emotion of the character, his feelings and physical strife is reflected in the use of POV shots and shaky camera workings, where I'm questionable on this video however is in the band, between the main character and them, the band just seems too out of place, it isn't clear exactly what their purpose is and if they are a higher representation of power in the story it doesn't come across well. They work well as a simple connector for scenes but they lack any real part in the story and as a result they break up the sequencing while giving nothing to the overall story.

What I am going to take from this is the effective use of certain camera angles and filters and the general means to making a powerful and engaging story, I'm sure another video can do the band segment more engaging. all in all I think the video is still quite enjoyable and its no wonder the song is one of the bands highest grossing.




Brand Identity - Linkin Park

Linkin Park is an interesting case study for brand identity. The band itself has undergone a dramatic change in both its style and its actual music in recent years, originally designed as a rap group, the band has slowly drifted into having a strong footing in the Alt Rock genre.
 

The band originally began with intentions to rap their socks off!
 

The band itself began with the intention of joining in on the rap genre, such as with bands like Jay-Z and such which were becoming incredibly popular with their songs like 'Encore'. In moving with the trend of the time the band then moved into the Alt Rock Genre with songs like 'Numb' and 'In the End' and there was a subsequent marketing change.

In recent years The band will usually be seen with one of two logos, either a sharp texted font or a minamalistic logo featured prominently on their CD Covers
linkin park logo wallpaper
Full Title uses sparsely
Frequently used logo for CD Cover
Sometimes they are used together
 
 The use of the logo is especially effective because its so simple that its easy to remember, the logo isnt even that cryptic as the symbols spell 'L' and 'P' for the bands full title and can be easily figured out. I also think the striking edges and sharp contrast make it an excellent logo to remember.

The band itself has a interesting variety of 'characters'.
 The band itself has something of a classic Heirarchy to it, its reminiscent of the Rock/Alt Rock Genre the lead singer (Chester Bennington) is prominently shown to be the leader of the whole band. The usual style shown off by the band is a black casual look. While this band consists of 6 Members (2 Guitarists, 2 Singers a Drummer and a Bass Guitar) My band will most likely feature 3-4 members due to constraints with equipment and will most likely have a lead singer, 1/2 Guitarists and a Drummer.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Brand Identity - Good Charlotte

GOOD CHARLOTTE
The Bands Frequently Recurring logo
Good Charlotte is a highly prominent band in the pop punk and alternative rock genre that was formed in 1995. As for their style, they maintain there use of dark colours in both their outfits but they also frequent in either songs about life problems with a strong rhythmic pulse, examples inlcude songs like 'The River' and 'The Anthem', two of their most famous and highest grossing songs which both feature themes about depressive love.

The band uses rebellious clothing in dark colours frequently
Good Charlotte has a strong band identity that expands throughout all of their products by having them all feature depressive tones. for example...

... in a number of their albums either the colouring is dim and dingy or the concept is dark in nature. It should also be noted that the band always uses the same font, and always curves the text to a significant degree. It makes it stand out quite prominently and would give them the edge on a store shelf because of it.

This is a good example of a key flow between each album, there is a real promotion of a brand identity and the audience will likely be able to see what the songs will be like simply from the tones on the CD. the Dark tones of the bands actual appearance is easily found in their products as well