Album Cover Montage

Here are the album covers that I made notes on in the form of a lovely square montage:

Referencing

I have decided to edit together some bits of other bands videos, such as shots I like that I feel would add to our music video. I realise that some may be impossible to pull off or very hard, but we could attempt to do some similar things to create the same effects.

Music Video Referencing from Simon Cardy on Vimeo.

Band Layouts

As far as I'm concerned there are only two band layouts that we should choose between for our music video. Either the band playing together in a circle or in seperate rooms within the same location. Both offer the vocalist a lot of freedom and space to move and I believe a lot depends on what location we end up shooting at. Both of these videos display the two different setups I am decribing. Cancer Bats opt for the circular method in 'Hail Destroyer' and Every Time I Die choose to be isolated from eachother in 'Wanderlust'. I really also like the idea of the vocalist walking down the dark corridor in this video and discovering his fellow band members.

Spooky...

I knew we were on the right track as I just discovered the location in the video I just posted was one on our shortlist. We can't use it, however, as it is sadly way above our budget. Oh well, would have been nice...

Location Inpiration

In an ideal world the disused setting for this music video for 'This Years Most Open Heartbreak' by Funeral For a Friend would be perfect. I can't see us obtaining this, however, but we will look hard for something similar if at all possible.

Confined Spaces

I am personally a fan of music videos that cram the bands into small spaces which gives over the sense of claustrophobia and feels more personal with the audience. It also provides great opportunities for close ans interesting shots. A perfect example of this is the video for 'Writing on the Walls' by Underoath which also contains an intriguing narrative. All in all a splendid spread.

Analysing Performance

Here is the video for the single 'Always' by Architects. As this video is largely performance based I thought that we could gain some inspiration towards what our video will look like. I will pinpoint specific moments and also general techniques used.

• The majority of the shots are tight in on the instruments and range from CU to ECU.
• Another obvious point is that the band is putting in a lot of energy and effort to make it look convincing. The measures of this can be shown by the fact that the vocalist went through six red shirts on the shot due to excessive perspiration.
• There is much more focus on the instruments than the band members, apart from the vocalist as he is obviously using his mouth.
• When a specific instrument is prominent in the song it is often shown visually, this can be seen at 0:46 when the guitar is shown.
• Although the general editing pace of the video is fast, there are shots that break the speed such as the aformentioned one which shows a slow motion strum to match the drop in the track.
• During the breakdown the commences at 0:52 we see the band headbang in unison. This is a technique that we are likely to utilise at some point and is common to the genre.
• There are no absolutely still preformance shots in the video except for the long shot of the band. This has, however, been edited in post-production to give the impression that the room is shaking.
• The drums are the only instrument which has more than one angle taken of it. This may be due to the size of it and that there are many different elements including the main drums along with the pedals.
• An interesting moment in the video is the still frame of black that appears during a slight pause in the track. This occurs at 1:54.
• We could also attempt some microphone stunts in our video as in slow motion they look fairly epic. Examples of this are at 3:17 and the climax of the video at 4:03.

I believe that we can learn a lot from this video and that the types of shot we use will be very similar to the ones used here. We can also learn that if we put a lot of energy into the performance we can make it look genuine.

Favourite Videos

Here a selection of some of my favourite music videos that I believe will give great inspiration towards our music video.