Evaluation

The track for which I was making the music video was very unconventional and was an instrumental, and I took this into consideration when making it, being forced to avoid some of the conventions of music videos, such as performances and narratives, whilst taking advantage of others, such as the emphasis on looking and the idea of progress.

Many music videos feature a strong emphasis on looking, and this is something that in some ways comes about naturally when using a visual medium. When I was making my music video, I used a handheld shot for it’s entirety, to give the impression that it was through somebody else’s eyes. A music videos which also does this, albeit in different ways is Tom Waits’ “what’s he building?” a video which, other than also aiming to convey a “lo-fi” atmosphere, which was what I was trying to do when making my video, also has a strong emphasis on looking, with the camera appearing to track the view of somebody else, peering over fences and overall appearing to be from somebody elses viewpoint.

Although it essentially a very different video, the video for “red right hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is also a good example of using references to looking in a video to create a sense of suspicion and mystery, with the whole video being shot as if from the viewpoint of somebody hiding behind something, and having a voyeuristic quality.This video is also shot completely in black and white, which is something I did with my video as a way to convey an atmosphere.

As just mentioned, I was trying to achieve a “lo-fi” atmosphere when making the video, and this is another purpose of the handheld shots. While the Tom waits video mentioned above also does this to an extent, another which achieves a similar effect, although this time with a performance based video, is the Jim Jarmusch directed video for the Raconteurs’ “steady as she goes”, with the shots being intentionally shaky and blurry throughout.

There was a certain atmosphere I wanted to create in my music video. I wanted to create a feeling of suspicion and of being watched somehow, and I did this by filming partly in the woods, which are often associated with people hiding, and making the final video mainly in black and white, which gives the video an overall slightly more sinister quality. I also used low angle shots in certain places to give the impression of being intimidated. Speeding up the video when I was editing it also gave the impression of being in a hurry. This effect also served to emphasize the shakiness of the handheld camera shots, and gave the video more of a sense of progression, as it increases the speed at which the shot moves forwards. 

With the Digipak and magazine advert, I decided to link them very closely to the video, making them in black and white and blurring the images. I wanted to create a sense of movement in the images similar to that which I was aiming for in the video, and also focussed on the idea of having an explosion in the image to draw peoples attention, which is something that is often used in advertising. A good example of the use of an explosive image on a CD cover is the cover of the Jim Jones Revue’s “burn your house down”, which features a plain image of a house being blown up, with large red writing in a simple font denoting the band and album name. This has a large effect when the intended audience sees the album cover, and it is very successful despite being incredibly simple.

Another album cover I looked at due to his simple but effective design is the cover of the Kills album "no wow". It is quite different to my Digipak design, however the principle of using as little as possible to the best effect remains, and it successfully conveys a sinister atmosphere with it's blurry black and white photographs.

I wanted to achieve something similar with my Digipak, with a more vague image to fit in with the conceptual nature of both the track, with the explosion being a recurring theme on both the cover and inside the Digipak. I included a relatively small amount of information on both the magazine advert and the Digipak, reflecting the small amount of information provided in the song and in keeping with the “less is more” ideal. The magazine advert essentially includes the same themes as the Digipak, with the explosive images also appearing to draw the viewer in, in a similar way to a black hole. The predominant colour is also black, which suggests outer space, and reinforces the black hole idea. Overall, I wanted both the Digipak/Magazine advert and music video to come across like this.

The idea of simplicity is carried over from the name of the track, "hommage a trois", or "tribute to three". This prompted me to include a large number three in roman numerals on the cover, which overshadow the title of the track, written in very small letters above it. In the final drafts of both the digipak and magazine advertisement, the number became more blurred and stylized to become part of the explosion in the background.

When making the Digipak and magazine advertisement, I made extensive use of Adobe Photoshop, using it to edit images that I had taken so that they fitted in with my ideas, and I used the program final cut express to edit my music video.