Camera Angles

6.Long shot - I think this shot because it shows a full picture including props, location, mise-en-scene and the performer. However this type of shot is often used to set the scene so we may not need to use this very often, just once to set the scene.

Camera Angles

5. Low Canted Angle - This shot was taken with the intention to make the performer appear bigger and powerful, the opposite to the high canted angle. I do think this achieves this, however I don't like how you cannot see much of the performance or of the performers face.

Camera Angles

4. High Canted angle - We took this shot with the intention of trying to make the performer look smaller and inferior however I don't think this quite had the desired effect so will probably not be used in the video.

Camera Angles

3. Extreme close up - This shot obviously shows a very close up shot of emotion in the face but may work more effectively with extreme close up of an instrument being played .

Camera Angles

2. Close up - This shot works because you can see the emotion and I think this effective for a music video because the emotion of the performer tells a story along with the mood. I think we will use this shot fairly often but not as often as mid shot.

Camera Angles

As a group we practised for our video by testing out camera angles to find the ones which we felt were most effective. We then discussed which ones we thought worked particularly well and which ones we thought wouldn't be appropriate for our video.

1. Mid Shot - The shot allows us to see a full picture of the performer as she is taking up most of the shot but this is effective because we can see emotion as well as performance. This is a shot we will probably use most often to achieve what we are going for in our video.

Semiotics within our music video

After researching semiotics we realised it is going to be something we need to consider when filming and creating our music project.

As the band we are creating the music video for are considered to be an indie band we decided to follow conventions and suit the semiotics to this genre of music.

There will be an element of performance but not a live gig, most rock bands uses footage of live gigs with thousands of spectators but indie bands tend to use more intimate private performances often without any spectators at all.
Most indie bands write their own songs and play instruments so by including the band members playing their own instruments and singing will indicate this type of music.

Examples of bands which use semiotics in this way are :

• The Kooks - She moves in her own way
• The View
• Jamie T

Mise en scene -

Semiotics and mise en scene are very similar within music videos.

Mise en scene is used to describe how a scene is designed to look like it is intended to me. for example a school setting would have a desk chairs, a blackboard etc.

So for our music video we want to create a natural setting; somewhere where the band would chill and and practise their songs. we plan to acheive this through some of the props we use, e.g beer cans, instruments, as well as having every day clothing. This is why it is very similar to the semiotics for our music video because we will be taking into account the semiotics which we then build our mise en scene on.

Next Target

We have taken photos of different camera angles now and are currently in the process of uploading these onto our blogs so they will soon be accessible.

Conventions of a Music Video

Conventions are a set of generally accepted norms or criteria. All types of media carry there own set of conventions and music videos are no different. I researched the conventions of a music video and listed below are the most common and universal.

Lyrics: establish a general feeling/mood/sense of subject rather than a meaning
Music: tempo often drives the editing.
Genre: might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles.
Editing: the most common form is fast-cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing, so ensuring multiple viewing. Often enhancing the editing are digital effects, which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory·

• Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and music·
• Genres often have their own music style/iconography·
• Close-ups should always be included·
• Intertextual references are also popular

Semiotics in music videos

Semiotics is the study of signs and meanings. 3 areas of study are :
The sign – the picture, object, sound
The system into which signs are organised
The culture within which these signs operate

Semiotics is used alot within Media, and because of my project to produce a music video I found that researching how it was important to music promotion this would help me to produce a successful music video that uses semiotics effectively.
Semiotics plays a very important part within a music video. If we were to take away the music on a music video we should still be able to figure out the genre of music by the signs within the video such as, the location, lighting camera angles and mise en scene. Different music genres use different techniques which means they would use different signifiers. For example if a music video was bright and upbeat with the artist performing choreographed routines this would portray a pop genre whereas indie music videos tell more of a story in their videos.
Also another way of using semiotics is in the culture within these signs operate, if the video was set in a dark location, with the artist in dark clothing this may signify the sad tone of the song. So using semiotics proves to be an important part of music video to get across the genre and tone of the song itself.

Get Ahead OCR Media Blog

http://www.getaheadocrmedia.blogspot.com/

This is a link to the blog created by OCR which can help us to stay on track and query if we need to.

http://www.virtualmediastudies.com/

This is a link to an OCR media website, with information and media techniques and examples.

Next Target

By Thursday we have set ourself a task to be prepared for being able to experiment with camera angles, we will then either put ourselves infront or behind the camera, being a camera operator or the stand in- singer. This will be order to get ideas into how we will be able to use camera angles for our own music video.