Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Digipack analysis (Daniel)
Digipack - Eminem Recovery (Me)
This is the 2010 album by Eminem. It is called Recovery because of the previous album, Relapse, expressed his love for drugs such as Valium. This must be him trying to come off drugs. Personally I think it would have been logical to call this album; Rehab, and call his next album Recovery because that seems to be the usual steps in order to come off drugs but Eminem has skipped this step. If you look at the actual title at the top of the album cover the O in Recovery is a Swiss cross (Like on a swiss army knife or a first aid kit) implying it is a healing process. The image is of Eminem walking along a deserted road with no buildings or parked cars. It looks abandonned. This must be implying that it is 'The Long Road to Recovery' as the old saying goes.
Monday, 27 June 2011
Magazine Advert Analysis (Daniel)
Gorillaz a band known for their use of cartoon avatars in their music videos and live performances, her their cartoon style translates well in magazine adverts as they are able to use bright colors and bold fonts to not only catch the reader eye but also to make them instantly recognizable.this is an advert for their 2010 album Plastic Beach. It feature a very minimalist design and the page in not packed with pictures, text and general information. Also the advert does not feature any of the bands recognizable avatars, which are often featured in adverts and album covers as well as other promotional material. The advert does not feature any quotes from critics about the quality of the music which is often featured to add more interest and make more people buy their product. This may have not been included as this is not their fist album and the band already has an established fan base who know the band and the quality of the music and therefore will already have an interest in the album and do not need much persuasion.
Album Cover and poster (Me)
This is the third album by Jay-Z named The Blueprint. That is the reason for the name "Blueprint 3". The 3 vertical lines are there to represent the number of the album and behind is the instruments used to create the album. Te name of the artist is on the top and the name of the album and release date is on the bottom. The date is bigger than the album name so it must mean that the date is pretty significant. The record label is small at the bottom. It is significant because it is still on the advert but it doesn't really matter who the record label is because people are interested in the artist, not the publisher. It would be a useless poster if the artist was not mentioned so that is pretty significant.
Lipsync (Me)
This is my lipsync. To start with I had to dance in front of the camera like a moron while miming the song that was playing in the background. This meant that when it came to syncing the Audio with the video, I had something to line up.
For the video editing I used Final Cut. I had to first locate the video I had taken and the mp3 version o the song that was going over the top to put them both in the timeline. After I did this I viewed the audio waveform of the video.
The way I lined them up was by finding the start of the lyrics and putting a marker on that part of the track. I then did the same with the video I had taken. This is why playing the audio track in the background was a good idea.
After putting a marker on both places I had to line them both up.
I used the blade tool (pressing the B tool to activate slicing and dicing mode) to shorten the clips so I could interweave the videos and have multiple shots in one video. After putting a cut where I wanted it I pressed the C key to close cutting mode. I then deleted the sections that I had cut around and then it was done.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
My Opie
This is my Opie thingy. To make this I had to take a photograph of myself and then use various tools in Photoshop (Elements, not the proper photoshop) to cartoonize myself. I used several layers, too.
As you can see I have two layer 0's. This is because whenever you are photoshopping an image you should always make a backup copy in case a mistake is made that can't be put right.
I made a new layer using the CMD+Shift+N shortcut and then used the magnetic lasso tool (or as I call it, the Shandy Glass tool) to highlight my face to fill it with a single shade of my skin colour.
After highlighting my face (with difficulty, it liked my hair a lot and kept jumping into it and messing it up), I used the Eyedrop tool to highlight a shade of my face.
I made sure I was on the new layer and then used the Paint Can tool to fill it with my one-tone face colour.
I then went onto Edit, Stroke (Outline) Selection.
I set the width to five pixels and clicked OK and then that part was finished. I then did the hair, ears, neck and tshirt in the same way.
I did the ears with a big black dot with a small white dot in the middle using the pencil tool.
The background was done by making a layer just above the real picture and underneath the cartoon features and fill layer in blue.
Friday, 17 June 2011
9 Frame Analysis (Daniel)
9 frame analysis
View more presentations from DannySmith88
Shot one- This shot establishes the narrative of the music video it also works as a meat shot showing a close up of band members. This also seems an odd shot to begin the video's narrative with as it seems more appropriate to finish the video with.
Shot two- Here a medium long shot show another band member, this shot also works as a meat shot. This shot is in deep focus so that the focus of the shot is on the band members and not on the wreckage .
Shot three- A close-up shot is used here and another clear example of a meat shot. This shot blends narrative with performance, as the artist is singing the lyrics of the song and walks throughout a dusty desert environment. This shot also show the performer without the cuts and bruises he acquired in the car accident suggesting that this took place before that event.
Shot four- In this shot the narrative reflects the lyrics, as an over the shoulder shot reveals a woman, who is being described in the lyrics of the song.
Shot five- A long shot then shows a band member as he plays a guitar, here the video blends narrative and performance. He is performing in the same location as the other character, which is different to most music videos as they are usually shown performing in a studio location or a more abstract location.
Shot six- Here a medium long shot which also serves as also serves as a meat shot . In this shot we see the same man who has been walking for most of the video in a car with his friends. In this shot it becomes apparent that these events have taken place before the car accident. This shot help to advance the narrative a great deal.
Shot seven- A long shot pulls out from the car which been driving so that the audience is able to see the full impact of the explosion, this fills in another gap in the narrative.
Shot eight- Here a close up shot shows a musician as he plays a guitar, these types of shots break up the video so that the audience does not get bored or sick of it. They are also used so they are able to get many shots of the whole band.
Shot nine- In this shot the backdrop which has been seen in most of the video and was quite obviously not real, it moves away as though it was a feel reel. The performer remains on screen and reaches out arms as though to try and keep hold of the viewer.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Eminem - Real Slim Shady (Me)
In this music video there isn't really any synesthesia. No things jump in on certain changes in the music although the sound effects are mimicked by the people in the video. An example is at 1:15; there is a scoffing sound put in and there is a guy pretending to stuff something into his mouth. Another time he is in a fast food place and he spits in someone's onion rings. This is the same technique as the other, it is just a sound that has been put in and has been cleverly synched into the exact right moment in the video. This is why it might not be considered synesthesia, because it is lip-synching too.
The performance is quite funny. The narrative is related the the video where it isn't based in the mental hospital. He is there a lot of the time in the video and i think the only time it fits is the bit at the start where the nurse (Eminem dressed as a woman) says "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?" and all the mentals stand up except for him. He does mention he may have a couple of screws loose but he doesn't really mention in the lyrics that he is in the hospital. The video cuts off to different scenes like the factory where he is being mass produced. This is because he is saying:
"And there's a million of us just like me
who cuss like me; who just don't give a fuck like me
who dress like me; walk, talk and act like meand just might be the next best thing but not quite me!"
This means that although people mimic him in every way, he is still unique. He portrays himself as a bit of a nut job in the music video and part way through he dresses up like a superhero and attacks a group of people and sits on someone's face. This supports the theory that he is a bit mental! Although I am not sure if it is meant to be serious because I haven't ever heard anyone saying that Eminem is insane so the video could have been some sort of parody.
The camera work in the video is normally a medium/close, low angle, shot of him sitting down somewhere with a lot going on in the background, normally what he is talking about in the lyrics. The clips normally stay on for a few seconds but a lot goes on in the time they are shown.
The things he wears in the video is the straight jacket type thing in the hospital, the superhero costume and his normal gear; white tshirt and jogging bottoms.
Shot Count
There are cuts every couple of seconds and the longest I have noticed a shot lasting for is about 4 seconds. Altogether I counted 140 shots in the 4.28 video which means on average there should be a cut every 1.9 seconds. A lot of the shots were duplicates though so there were only about 5 places it was shot and just took different parts of each to do make the music video. I think that since it is a fast paced song it suited the fast moving video. Also I think that most of the videos in rap genres will be fast paced with a lot of cuts because that is the style of it.
Most of the shots used were Medium/Close up shots because it normally shows him from his waist and upwards.
The only creative editing techniques I have noticed is fades between certain shots. Other than that I cannot see any.
Hollywood Undead - Young (Me)
When the music video starts it shows a room full of TVs with someones face on (wearing a mask). This reminds me of the TV show, Chuck, where a man gets the ability to memorise every secret held by the US government by watching a series of encoded images (I am mentioning this because the original room is full of TVs). It keeps flashing between this room and a chinese man (looks like he is like the emperor of China demanding war or something). Behind him is a picture of a grenade. This reminds my of the Nazis (Hitler with a nazi flag behind him).
The screen is shaking as the two images switch between each other, becoming more and more distorted. This makes me think of nuclear warfare (Mentioned in the lyrics, "Born in this world as it all falls apart").
The next part is some pretty cool special effects because the room keeps morphing into different shapes and then it does a closeup, high-angled shot, looking up at one of the singers as he starts to sing.
You can see straight away that the music genre is meant to be a bit gothic (Scene to be precise) because of the severe dark colours with a few bright parts standing out. This shot lasts for about half a second and then moves through about 5 different shots in the next couple of seconds.
Throughout the music video there are clips of different flags that could be terrorist groups. They don't even last a second (This freeze frame was extremely difficult to take because it kept going past it) but the viewer is well aware that it has flashed up.
From 1:03 to 1:05 it has a load of random images that flash up and then someone's eye going a bit crazy. I am SURE that this must be a reference to Chuck because that's what it's about. This is quite surprising really because Chuck isn't the type of show I would imagine Hollywood Undead to watch because it's a bit geeky (I still love it though).
From this point there are images that flash up every few seconds for the rest of the video. They aren't to do with anything in particular. They are just random like advertisements that you would see on a billboard.
When the video gets to 3:00 it shows a full view of all the images that have been shown in the video and some of them flash.
Towards the end of the video you see the group walk into a big building and then they charge into an office where the chinese man is and they beat him up and carry him away... Why? I do not know.
Monday, 13 June 2011
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