Presentation

http://vimeo.com/50151285

Here is a link towards our presentation which was conducted in front of the class a few days ago, this is a summary of our initial idea and the aspects which we think we should implement within it, these aspects are shown as multiple shots taken from music videos, we discussed these ideas with the class and at the end were given a few questions from Sir in order to see if our idea (or at least the research we did towards the idea) was viable. Overall I feel as though the presentation went fairly well, there was no massive quarrels or misunderstandings between the group as to what we were pitching which meant we were fairly organized about the stuff we planned to show. I particuarly liked the part when Sean was discussing the various aspects and characteristics and conventions of the album covers as I feel this was done in a respectible amount of detail, I also feel as though discussing the aspects which should be implemented into the project was done well, I feel as though showing multiple shots from various music videos helped clarify that we completed our research in a very large and lucrative amount of detail and whenever we could bring forth our idea we could easily back it up with evidence of the conventions from the videos. However if I were to be critical then I feel as though we could have discussed or had more focus on the narrative of the piece, even though we did state an initial narrative we would like to include I think with more discussion as to the details of the narrative and especially links towards the album cover and the video it may have been more detailed as to what we would like to do within our project specifically.

Typicality of Album Covers

The album covers of alternative rock music can be very diverse, in terms of design they can notably be exceedingly different, with multiple different variations on design. These designs can alternate from an image of the band (a typical feature in some form), however there are many different ways the band members are featured, for instance in the Sum 41 cover for In Too Deep the design is very plain and simple, all that is shown is a very simple bold text and above that various images of the band members in different poses resembling a very ‘punk rock’ sense towards it, there is nothing else featured on the cover which makes it seem very simple but also arguably very bland and boring, it reflects the rebellious natures of youth very well though as it could potentially imply the laziness of youth and how they don’t care about how their cover looks or how they are received. Other ways the band can be featured within the album include Feeder for the album The Singles, in this it is not the band featured and instead is just a guitarist, all the album cover shows is an image of a guitarist jumping up playing his guitar with his face covered by the neck of the guitar, at the bottom there is very bold, white text stating “Feeder” and “The Singles”, the word “Feeder” is written in much more bold text than “The Singles” emphasizing the name of the band (and therefore the identity of the band) more than the name of the album as though the name of the band is more lucrative. The image of the man jumping up with his guitar is fairly simplistic but very effective and understandable since the album has a very joyous, uplifting feel but also a fairly dramatic and positive aspect around it meaning that the album cover reflects the mood and tone of album very well. In terms of artistry however I feel as though Feeder’s example is not very lucrative, it does indicate the mood and tone of the album but does lack a sense of analytical aspects around it whilst other alternative rock bands such as Linkin Park on their album cover entitled “Minutes to Midnight”, the imagery is very bold and not particularly graphic however it does transmit a mood towards it as the white background corresponds with the silhouette people shown at the bottom reflecting a sense that the people do not belong in this world which reflects a lot of the album tone since many of Linkin Park’s music is about the anger and aggression they feel towards isolation, I feel as though this album cover in particular clearly indicates isolation in a way which is very simplistic but still very effective and substantial, the text shown at the top of the album also reflects this, very black and bold writing stands out greatly and helps the band indicate the mood they’re trying to show as well as highlight the identity of the band. Other different album covers can delve from Madina Lake’s From Them, Through Us, To You, this album cover is much more artistic, the band is not featured at all instead there is a range of colours mainly focusing on yellow and green with a woman drawn in black in the middle with her finger directed to her mouth in a typical “hush” body language, there is mass imagery of flowers which does not necessarily reflect the mood of the album. There is an image of a seemingly old barn or farmhouse in the bottom right corner, this does not match with any of the other scenery. I suppose in a way it can therefore be seen to reflect the album in the sense that Madina Lake corresponds between multiple genres going from fairly heavy metal to typical pop rock, I feel this shows the diversity of the album and the light hearted tone of many of the songs, also the cover is very eye catching since it is so different from the usual which I personally feel may be a deliberate marketing ploy in order to possibly increase sales as seeing an image like this cover in the midst of a large amount of other CDs and album covers it is very likely that a general onlooker would be directed towards this type of cover. Interestingly enough the text again is very simple in this cover, not using a particularly flamboyant or outlandish font and again using white which could help indicate that some aspects of the album cover is still conforming to the genre even though the rest is completely diverse.

Sum 41's In Too Deep cover as referred to in the blog clearly the cover is very simplistic, not utilizing much of an artistic style and simply just features the members of the band doing various poses with the name of the band and name of the song underneath.

Feeder's The singles album cover as referred to in the blog, clearly this is also very simplistic using only one image of the a band member however clearly an artistic perspective has been used in some respect, again simple bold text is used.

Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight as referred to in the blog is very simple also, however I feel as though an artistic perspective has been much more focused on and I feel as though it has much more analystical qualities about it and can be linked towards the reflective nature of the album, the text again is very bold and clear and indeed the full cover only uses the colours of black and white.

Madina Lake's From Them, Through Us, To You as referred to in the blog is much more artistic and within the seemingly typical and simple approaches to album covers, this one highlights the diversity of the genre and how the only feature which seems to be the same and not change very much is the text since it is always so simple and still uses only one colour and that colour being white.

A very quick summary of many of the album covers as used in our presentation which we conducted highlighting what we would like to acheive with this project.

Themes

Themes of the narrative often focus on isolation, glorifying teenage characteristics and typical behaviour namely drinking alcohol, drug use and sex. The isolation of youth is often link towards drug use or loneliness, this is shown through many videos which have a simple narrative of a young teenager showing to not have many friends, feel severely depressed but at the same time this can often resort to the teenager rebelling against authority in some way which is typically glorified. Other themes which seem to be shown can be the freedom of youth, this can be linked towards a rebellious nature of youth, a party atmosphere all of which is seen within a very positive light, the party atmosphere can be characterised by teenagers all grouped together dancing, possibly taking drugs, etc. Therefore it would be more useful for us to emphasize both the isolation aspect and also the party aspect as this conforms to the alternative rock genre. A summary of the themes can be seen on the above image.

Inspiration/Things to implement from research

Here is some of the inspirations circulated around our idea, considering we are planning on making a video which will circulate around alternative rock, there are multiple aspects which would subsequently have to be considered in order to fit into the genre. After researching we found that it is important to include a live performance which is cross cut throughout with a narrative. The live performance can be seen within either an isolated environment such as Numb by Linkin Park or in front of a audience such as In Too Deep by Sum 41. Within our project we feel as though it would possibly be better to have a live audience within a party, this is due to the fact that a live audience reflects a more powerful party atmosphere which is often synonymous with alternative rock music, if we choose to delve into the themes of isolation then it may be better to have a performance more isolated however as shown within videos such as Lyla by Oasis there can still be a crowd whilst still utilizing the themes of isolation. In terms of shots the only typical shots which appear to be used are side angled close up shots of the singer performing the song as well as multiple extreme close up shots of the instruments being played at the beginning of the song, then as song progresses the close up shots become normal close up shots which are all quickly edited throughout and then become mid shots and then finally a long shot, within the mid shot there is often a simple shot of the musician with his specified instrument, then later on the entire band as a whole can be seen performing the song. In terms of location the areas used are often very urban such as shots of streets, stores, etc, this means that in our project it would be useful for us to include these types of shots in very urban areas at some point in order to fit into the genre. The mise en scene is typically very diverse, apart from the location, the mise en scene particularly in terms of clothes can be very difficult to link directly to the genre as almost every band or singer will have their own style and fashion, generally however since that a lot of the focus of the videos and the accompanying songs on youth and youth culture then a lot of the fashion and clothes will link a great deal towards the fashion of youth, this means that very often the clothes shown will be a simple t shirt and jeans or will be jeans and something slightly more plain and bold depending on the seriousness of the song. A more party atmosphere would typically associate more with the general t shirt and light jeans whilst more serious songs will much more darker and bold clothes. Also other features which can be seen can be the name of the band being shown at some point in the video, for instance Sick of You as shown on the board has the name used on the drums within the video.

Here is the image of the side angled close up shot taken from Linkin Park's Numb video, a typical feature shot of the live performance in an alternative rock video.

As explained, whilst the song progresses the shots alternate between extreme close ups to mid shots and then to a long shot featuring the band, this again was taken from Linkin Park's Numb video. This long shot also emphasizes a more isolated environment than what is shown in other videos, this will be due to the dark nature of the song and the seriousness it is trying to portray.

This shot is taken from the video for Lyla by Oasis, clearly a similar shot of the main singer in the live performance is utilized.

This shot is taken from Sum 41's In Too Deep video and can obviously be differentiated between itself and the Numb video by Linkin Park, the dark, bold clothing is replaced by a simple t shirt and jeans and in reference to the light hearted nature of the song in comparison to Numb there are much more bright colours and a live performance in front of an audience reflecting a more party atmosphere.

Evidently from this image taken from Sick of You by Cake there are often urban scenery throughout alternative videos, images of shops, stores (such as this) are very common and should be implemented in order to conform to the genre in some way.

As stated before, multiple shots of the live performance progress from extreme close up shots of instruments, towards typically people playing the instruments to then finally the whole band being shown in the live performance, this type of shot would be implemented at the begining of the video (or at least the beginning of the live performance section of the video.)

This type of shot would be used directly after the previous image, evidently this type of mid shot does not highlight the full band and instead would progress to looking like the Numb long shot (shown above) where the whole band can be seen performing.

As said, other features which appear to be shown include images of the song title (or indeed the band's name/logo) can be seen in the video, this taken from Cake's Sick of You song appears on the drum, this type of feature may be useful to implement in order to prove that we have conformed to the genre.

Oasis - Definately Maybe

After searching through multiple different album covers I have come to the conclusion that one of my favourites is ultimately the album cover shown above I.E Definately Maybe by the band Oasis, they're an indie rock/Britpop band whose music is generally about being young and being free, throughout the image there are images of the band members in different positions which generally are associated with being a teenager or being a young adult, I think this cleverly links directly to the target audience, the positions sat include a simple image of someone laying on the floor to a member of the band watching TV, as well as someone just standing and sitting in the background and a man playing the guitar on his couch. All this is very typical scenerey of teenagers and young adults, combined with the music it helps emphasize a glorified image of youth culture, although most of the scenery is very typical and fits into a realistic setting, there is some imagery which reflects more of the psychology of a teenager and a young adult, the repeatedly shown alcoholic drinks help reflect youth culture whilst the large globe shown at the top of the ceiling is much more surreal and I feel helps show the idea that youths and teens feel like conquering the world, therefore both the realstic ideolgies are shown as well as the psychology of teens and youths. The yellow, grainy colour is very synonomous with the 90s (the time the album was released) and helps reflect the freedom but also the dreary and grained life experiences of the time. There can be seen a potrait of a seemingly infamous figure, this helps highlight the heroism and hero-worship characteristics of teenagers and how music typically allows them to delve into escapism, the fact that every person shown within the cover appears to be relaxing gives the sense of a relaxed nature towards the album whilst the text appears very sporadic, personally I don't like the text shown at the top of the album, I feel as though it does not neccessarily fit with the rest of the imagery shown as very old fashioned writing does not usually match with the characteristics of teenagers and young adults however I do think this may have been deliberate in order to contribute and emphasize more towards the surreal nature of the cover. The band's logo can be seen very clearly in bold at the top left of the cover which helps the logo 'stand out' thereby allowing the identity of the band to be very clear, the black and white look of the logo does subvert the look of the album quite unusually, with a band's first official album it would be expected that the logo would be a similar design to the album as the band is very young and may want to use a similar design of the logo and the album. However clearly the black and white, bold logo does not reflect the yellow, grainy look of the album, this in turn makes the logo 'stand out' far more lucratively than what it would otherwise which would overall help increase the identity of the band so that whenever the band's album is physically picked up their eyes may be drawn to the logo as it is so different and coresponds very well with the album image.