Q2 Media Evaluation SLIDESHARE

This is the second question of the media analysis/evaluation, presented on slideshare:

MUSIC VIDEO

Here is the 'Human' music video by The Killers that we filmed.

I NEED FEEDBACK ON THIS VIDEO, IT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED AND ALSO BE REALLY HONEST! CRITICISM IS ACCEPTED!

What was good about it?

What was bad about it?

Does the video meet the desired genre (indie/alternative)?

What improvements do you suggest I should make?

Give it an honest rating out of 10!

 Enjoy! Or don't...

ARTWORK

The image is rather bad quality, most probably due to the screen-shotting. But here's the artwork in all its 6-sided glory!

     For the front cover, I decided to stick with a simple image of two band members standing on either side of the tree from the music video we made. The overall tone is sepia, with the intention to make the whole artwork seem old or vintage. However, the deletion of the eyes of every band member on this digi-pack was intended to imply that music isn't a feast for the eyes, but for the ears, emanating from the mouth and the instruments. This is why I shot a photo of the guitar in the tree; to direct the consumer's attention to the instrument's odd positioning to emphasise this message; It's not visual material, it's audio material. It's supposed to generate a feeling of confusion because it looks so eccentric in a normal background.

      I named the band The Project because that's what the whole media coursework is; a project. It's a monosyllabic title, like The Killers, because the band doesn't need a creative name if the music is the creative factor of the coursework as well as the artwork and the rest of the ancillary products.

   I titled it Days Out In Sepia because of the superficial reason; the sepia tone, and also the reason that every image in the digi-pack is outside, and in particular the 'Public Footpath' sign, the Ferris Wheel and the Castle being synonymous with going on a day out. The three squares of artwork that aren't there to serve any purpose other than to present and promote the album have been accompanied with lyrics from certain songs: the castle background is presented with the lyrics from the 9th track Castle; the band member without any eyes leaning against the tree is accompanied with lyrics from track 1, Sound Without Sight; and the footpath sign is shown along with lyrics from track 3 Human. 

    I named the record label Out of School Records because I had used the same title for a previous short film that I made as an extra-curricular activity, named Out of School Productions. It is intended to be sort of a running trademark with the labelling. The barcode adds a sense of authenticity to the album as well.

   The track names were all thought up on the spot as I inserted text boxes onto the back artwork. I had, the vast majority of the time, since revisiting the image that was took 2 years ago, been heavily considering this photo for the track-list background because of the space that the sky gives beside the ferris wheel. Enough to place the 10 songs of the track list in. I named a few particular songs from certain images in front of me: the song title Sound Without Sight was named that because of every band member being eyeless, with the intention to emphasise sound, not sight. Human was named that because we made the music video to the original song by The Killers, so a connection was prioritised. Lunar Park was named because of the theme park background to the track list, which is also called Lunar Park, so it suggests that this song will be made into a video, because of the visual representation of it, the same with the lyrics to songs accompanying other artwork. I also named track 5 Braggadocio because it was simply the title of the font I was using for almost the entire artwork. And finally, Castle was named that because of the inner square of artwork consisting of a castle in the distance, protruding from a post-modern, yet slightly pastoral setting.

   The vignette style of the artwork for the disc-holder was intended to match the subsequent insertion of the blank disc-holder image, eventually making it more transparent so that the background image can be seen, as well as the circular match between the background and the disc-holder.

     

    

Full Treatment

       The beginning of the storyboard centres on the lead singer and the band (the band begin playing their instruments through the intro, mid-shot of the band) as the camera cross-cuts between the two other separate narratives consisting of a woman in one and a man in the other. The woman is shown to be sleeping with a dishevelled look (birds-eye mid-shot), and the camera cross-cuts to the man, who is in a hospital corridor on a gurney (the orderlies push the gurney through the hall, the man is clearly upset and in pain, shot from a dolly effect) as the pre-lyric sequence plays through. The hospital is a metaphor for the mans 'pain' of living a bad life.

        As the song actually begins (cross-cut to the band) the lead singer is shown in front of the microphone (lead singer begins singing from a mid-shot) and starts the song. As he is singing, the narratives switch to a phone falling off the hook in the same room as the sleeping woman, who is woken by it (camera cross-cuts to the woman jolting awake and has a confused facial expression) and gets up to look (camera cross-cuts to the woman walking drearily to the hanging phone, from a side-shot). The phone dropping off the hook and needing to be replaced is a metaphor for the woman's uneventful life and she yearns for a 'replacement' in life. The woman replaces the phone after listening to the other end of the line, where the lead singer is singing. Upon hearing the music from the phone (close-up of the woman's eyes widening and immediately starts smiling, pulling a sticker with the image of an upturned smile from her face, cross-cutted into a mid-shot), she puts the phone on the hook, which this time doesn't fall off. With the odd look of a smile but with a frown, the woman leaves her room and sets off down a road to an undisclosed location (a dolly shot follows the woman walking out with a frown and smiling, but remaining in an excited state). The lead singer is then shown singing for a few seconds (mid-shot, side-shot of the singer performing). 

         This then switches to the mans narrative (from a side shot). After hearing the singing, the man gets off of the gurney (brief side shot of the man suddenly getting up, smiles and jumps off the gurney, with a brief panning shot as he walks). The narrative switches back to the woman for a few seconds to show her frown disappearing (shown from 4 different shots. Mid-shot of her face, high angle of her hands feeling her eyebrows, extreme close-up of the fingers peeling off the stickers, then a high angle of the woman with a happy face), allowing her face to express a smile. The narrative cross-cuts to the band (mid-shot), then returns to the woman (she becomes excited and sticks her arms up in the air, high angle).
       Turning back to the mans narrative, he is walking through the hospital corridors (dolly shot follows him), notices a set of signs with 'sadness','devotion' and 'dancer' on them (he stops and stares for a second, from a mid-shot, then carries on walking), implying that he leaves his human emotions behind and heads for a better alternative. (Showing elated expressions from a long shot) The man walks out of the hospital and begins towards an undisclosed location. Cross-cuts to the lead singer (close up, shown from the side, the singer wraps his fingers around the microphone), then to one of the other band members (playing whatever instrument they have, shown from a mid-shot).
      Returning to the woman's narrative, where she stops outside a forest (the woman runs towards the forest, then stands still just outside, shown from a long shot), which then cross-cuts to a long-shot of the man, who has also entered the forest, from a different entrance (the man walks slowly, the camera follows him as though he is following the camera, sustained long-shot to establish the forest and the man looking around). The story then shows an unused gurney and then a hanging telephone/unused mobile etc to symbolise the abandonment of the average human life (?) (quick cross-cuts to the gurney and the phone).
     The man and the woman are then shown as they are about to enter (split-screen of both people to show that they're not actually next to each other, shown from a mid-shot) a large clearing (long shot of both people entering the clearing from a distance apart), as the narrative quickly changes to show empty streets (from a long-shot for both frames, to emphasise the emptiness) where no people are. (an establishing shot of) The clearing shows the band performing in the background and a large crowd of people who run towards the man and the woman (from a side shot run by a dolly or panning shot), who are shown (from a side shot) noticing each other for the first time. The singer is shown performing (mid-shot) again, with (a cross-cut mid-shot of) the man and the woman throwing their arms in the air and expressing excitement and an elated mood. We once again see the band performing (from a long shot) to imply that the video/song is almost over. The band (from a sustained long shot, no cross-cutting) performs until the end of the video, where just before the very end, the man, the woman and the crowd are shown all together (in either an establishing or a long shot). The video ends.

TO SEE THE STORYBOARDED VIDEO, PLEASE VISIT;  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFwCWb00GGM