Video Analysis - Other A2 projects

In todays lesson i decided to look at other people's videos that they have posted onto www.youtube.com. This was enjoyable as i was interested to see what conventions they applied and how creative they were etc.

The first few videos we looked at i didn't think were too succesful in the ideas they had and thought that they werent very creative with their filming. They mainly used shots that i had seen and used myself in filming before. They didn't use many technical devices such as rewinding or quit cuts etc. However they did use some. For example, they cut to the time and date on a plain black background. They then cut back to footage of the storyline.

Another music video that i watched had included writing the bands name with the song title and album at the bottom left of the screen. I think that i will have to include this in my video as i think it makes it obvious that its going to be a musci video straight away. Another convention that they applied was the cuts to the band and then back to the "story" of the video. They also used some interesting shots. For example, they use a mid shot of a man making a movement. They then show the same shot of him making the movement exept this time they use a close up of him doing this.

This lesson we also started writing what ambitions and creative techniques we could use in our music video. I wrote down a little about having a storyline through out the video, so that we switch between shots of the band playing the song and actors acting out the storyline. We also talked a little about being technically competent and how we use certain effects in our music video, such as rewinding certain clips quickly or making quick cuts to add effect. Finally we talked about being ambitious and creative, so having a storyline to the song is one way that we could be creative. We have also started being creative by making our own music for this video.

Filming and creative techniques

In todays lesson we were told to go away and shoot a short film based around a certain theme. The theme we were given was suspicion which meant we had to use techniques to portray this. This meant that the objective of todays lesson was to learn more about specific techniques used in the industry.

In our film we had Ben, Aqib and Alex acting and me filming. We started off with a two shot of Ben and Aqib which shows their bond as friends is strong. We film them walking through a corridor talking about things that went missing in the sixth form recently. We then used a point of view shot of Ben to look at Alex who was mysteriously wondering around looking at a bag on top of a locker. Alex then goes to grab something from a bag and we see an over the shoulder shot of Alex looking over at Ben. We then see Aqib run in and head butt Alex. After this we show a mid shot of Alex on the floor. We then rotate the camera to create a dizzy feel which adds to the fact that he is knocked out.

Once we did this we went back to class to edit anything that needed editing and tidy things up. Once we did this we walked around the class and looked at other peoples videos which were interesting to watch. It was good to see different ideas, however i didn't really learn much as i have seen all these techniques used before in films etc.

I found todays lesson enjoyable and this definatly got me thinking about kind of techniques to use in my music video.

Mind map

Band research - kasabian

Kasabian are a British Indie Rock band that formed in Countesthorpe, Leicestershire in 1999.Originally comprising vocalist Tom Meighan, guitarist and keyboardist Christopher Karloff, guitarist and backing vocalist Sergio Pizzorno, bassist Chris Edwards and drummer Ash Hannis, the band have released three studio albums – Kasabian (2004), Empire (2006) and West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (2009). I listen to some of kasabian's music and am very interested in what they do with their music. They are a unique band and i think that i could take elements of their videos and music and use them to improve our band and the video.