Band Research (Tracks)

Now we know what track we are going to base our music promo on we can focus on researching the artists. The track 'Crash' was created by a band known as You Me At Six and does not already have a music video. We thought it would be a good idea to look at the band's other tracks to get an insight into how they put their music videos together and the types of techniques used in each.

We also felt this would benefit us as it would help us identify how the band dress and work together. It would also show us how they place themselves in the videos. This would give us ideas on how we should dress our characters in the music video and how we should position our band actors.

The first track looked at was;

You Me At Six- Finders Keepers

This music promo consists mainly of different shots of the band members. It shows many close ups of eash of the artists which gives the audiences a view on the band's dress sense (Smart Casual). When watching this particular video and others also by the band we found that there is a lot of focus on the lead singer in the shots. There are establishing shots of the band however the lighting has been arranged to put most of the focus on the lead singer standing at the front of the location used leaving the rest of the band in shadows almost. We think this is an effective technique to use and will consider using this in our music video. The lighting has been arranged effectively throughout the video, we particularly liked the way the video starts off dark and dull but then brightens up as more of the band are shown in the shot. This again is something we may consider using in our promo. Another technique we also liked in this video was the use of slow motion effects.

This video clearly follows Goodwin's theory point of meeting the demands of the record label as it provides numberous amounts of shots of the band performing. This video is not as narrative as we are hoping our video will be so we will be taking into consideration using some of the techniques we enjoyed from this video as well as creating a narrative style for our own.

You Me At Six - Underdog

Again this music promo uses the technique of arranging the lighting so that the band are playing in 'shadows' and there is no real focus on them yet. As soon as the lyrics start the band are brought into focus as the lights turn on and you are provided with an establishing shot of the band. Once again after this shot you are provided with a close up of the lead singer, similarly to the previous video we looked at. This again is following Goodwin's theory by meeting the demands of the record label. Once again we are beginning to get a real idea of how the band are dressed in their videos and how they position themselves as a band when they are performing with their instruments. This video is also more narrative as it is telling a short story which is something we will be including in our promo.

Another thing we also noticed from this video was that the age of the actors featured in it. They appear to be in the age group of the band's target audience of around 14-20 years old. This would mean that it allows the audience to be able to relate to the story being told in the promo. Because of this it would also mean that the actors may seem more appealing to the target audience. This is something we want to happen with our music promo so we will be asking people that are a similar age to us to appear in our video. This idea will help us appeal more to our audience and target them better as our audience will also include people of around the same age as us.

You Me At Six- No one does it better

This particular music promo goes for a slightly different approach to the two previous ones we have looked at. It does not include many shots of the band performing with their instruments but rather includes them more in the actual 'story' of the video this time. They may have done this to appeal even more to the audience and to meet the demans of the record label as you are still being provided with even more shots of the band members. This video again uses a lot of close ups of each band member. For this video they are also dressed slightly different. Instead of their usual 'smart casual' look they have gone for just 'casual'. This may be to express to the audience their many different styles of dress. They may not want their audience to get the impression that they dress the same all the time. This could express that they like to change their image now and again to appear 'different'. This could again be to keep the target audience interested in them. For our music promo it is important that we plan out how we want all of our actors to dress in order to look appealing to our own audience.

The pace of this song is fairly slow and mellow. There is a relationship between the visuals and the music. During the slow pace of the song there are slow edits and the motions used for the story of the video are also slow. For example the birds that fly across the screen are moving slowly and the actor in the shot with the bath is also doing the same. However when the song hits the chorus the shots speed up slightly to match the pace of the song. We think it would be a good idea for us to give ourselves the challenge of including a narrative style, meeting the record label demands and trying to create this music and visuals relationship for our own video. This will help us to gain more skill in filming and editing.

You Me At Six- Stay with me

We noticed that for the first two videos we looked at the band had used similar locations and lighting. However in this video the band has gone for a completely different kind of location. The band appear to be performing in a small field like location. This setting uses bright colours instead of the dull dark colours used in many of the band's other promos. As always the video uses lots (and lots and lots) of shots of the band members; meeting the demands of the record label and its audience. There is also a clear relationship between the music and the visuals. The pace of the song is fast which matches the quick paced shots that are used when the song hits the chorus.

This video seems to show many shots of the bands and their instruments which is something myself and my other group member really liked about this video. We want to consider using close up shots of our band actors and their instruments for our video. We thought this was an effective way to show them performing.

After viewing these tracks by our chosen artists, we have decided on the sorts of techniques we want to try to include in our music promo. The videos have helped us to come to the conclusion that we want to provide our audience with many shots of our band performing, this will make our video more appealing to them as we have realised that it is a good idea to use actors that are of similar age to ourselves and our target audience. These videos have also helped us identify that it is also an effective idea to ensure there is a good clear relationship between the visuals and music so that everything runs smoothly together at similar pace. The videos have also started to give us an idea on how the band shape themselves and the ways in which they dress. We will carry out some further research to get a clearer understanding of the band and how we should create our own.