Analysis of Korn's Website

Korn are an American nu-metal band from California. Korn are similar to my artist, although they are slightly heavier than Pierce the Veil and The Perfect Fall.

I looked at Korn's website to get some inspiration for The Perfect Fall's website. 

Korn's website has a dark background which is seen on all pages. Moreover, the main focus of the page is the band logo at the top of the screen. Furthermore, the website is themed around their new album, 'Paradigm Shift', with the side panels featuring the album artwork. This is not only to promote their album, but to also attract their target audience as it is their album artwork. The name at the top and the album artwork on the initially draws the audience in and portrays the idea that Korn are an organic band as they are being sold on the music and their name rather than their looks.

The tabs at the top are quite conventional of artists websites. Home/News/Tours/Music/Photos/Videos/Store is quite common. However, as Korn are a world-famous band they have a page called 'Community' where other fans of Korn can interact and share ideas and videos. However, I will not use this feature in my website as The Perfect Fall are a new artist.

This website also includes a latest news/updates section on the homepage - for my artists website, I will not be using a news page and instead I will incorporate the news section into the homepage.

Music Video Tips

According to my teacher, this is how to make a successful music video:

• The essential idea of what we are doing is manufacturing a band for a song, and this will be that bands first release, and it's our job to make the video successful

• We will start with the image of the band, ensuring that their style is fit for the style of the song and that they will know how to play the instruments required so they can realistically mime the track. Then we can create a concept for the video that will blend well with the music.

•  The band we are creating obviously has no fanbase, so it is up to us to get them out there via various marketing techniques and digipacks.

•  The best type of music video contains three different strands: a performance element which the label think is vital as it acts as a fail save; a lip sync element (just simply singing in a situation with very few props); and lastly a narrative element (the story), which will be led by genre and style. The music video will then consist of constant cutting between these strands, keeping the video exciting and interesting.

• We were advised to make a 'Mood Film' or prezi involving a set of images or a simple video to create a short film to demonstrate the ideas for the final product to help clarify the idea and help identify any potential problems.

Prop List

Costume List

Shooting Schedule - Sunday

Shooting Schedule - Saturday

Photoshoot Edits

Lighting

Using outdoor, natural lighting is a typical convention of the Post-Hardcore Rock genre. In our music video we plan to use natural lighting for the performance element and parts of the narrative element. Although the use of natural lighting is used, it is often used to create dark colours so it is not confused with a pop song.

We were influenced by bands like My Chemical Romance, Sleeping With Sirens, All Time Low and Pierce the Veil when it came to lighting, here are some examples.

Pierce the Veil - "Bulls in the Bronx"

My Chemical Romance - "Welcome to the Black Parade"

All Time Low - "Time-Bomb"

Sleeping With Sirens - "Rodger Rabbit"

Audience Questionnaire

Here is my group's audience questionnaire, the following questions where asked:
1. What music do you like?
2. Do you like the Post Hard-core genre?
3. Who do you think the target audience should be?
4. What do you think of the narrative?
5. Would you watch the music video and why?
6. Do you have any other comments?

Here is some of the footage from our audience questionnaire.


For the questionnaire we asked 20 people who were aged from 17-20. There was a mix of male and female candidates in order to get a mixed gender response to see if the answers differentiated between genders.

1.What music do you like?

From this chart of the results from question one we are able to see that no one has mentioned the Post-Hardcore genre. This shows that we should be looking at a more diverse audience. As the most common answer was mainstream charts, which would not feature anything close to the Post-Hardcore genre. Several of the other answers given such as Pop and Soft Rock would fit into the mainstream charts, increasing that category's actual figure. 

2. Do you like the Post-Hardcore genre? 

As we had now found out we had asked a very "mainstream" audience we were not surprised to find out that 25% of the candidates had never heard of the genre, however a few people said that they would listen to it as it was "alternative, which is cool." This shows two things. The first thing being that we would be targeting this at an alternative audience and the second thing being that we may be able to get our music video to appeal to some of the mainstream audience as its "alternative." Although two people said they did like the Post-Hardcore genre 55% (13 people) did not as it was "too loud" or there was "too much screaming." However these were the answers I was expecting after I had realised we had asked a very mainstream audience which is anti Post-Hardcore.

3. What do you think the target audience should be? 

As there was so many different answers it was hard to put these answers into a graph or chart, the answers given by the candidates are listed below:

17+                Anyone who likes the music              20+               16-25              Older People

Early 20's                  30's                                       16 +                  17+                      13+

11+                          Anyone                                    12+                  18+                     18-40

20-30                        14+                                        16+ Male           13+                    17+

From these results we can see that people have a different idea as of when children/ young teenagers should be exposed to certain types of music. I was quite surprised to see that one of our candidates brought gender into target audience as it is not something I had thought about when thinking about the target audience, however, I think the candidate said this due to gender stereotype that girls like boy bands and artists such as Cody Simpson, Justin Bieber and 1 Direction. Looking at the results I think the target audience should be 16 and older as it is in the middle of different people's opinions. As well as this, as there is explicit language in some songs in the genre so small children should not be exposed to them, until a certain age.


4.What do you think of the narrative?

Although the majority of people  did not like the Post-Hardcore genre, over half of the candidates liked the idea of the narrative for the music video. With the information the candidates gave us we have seen what parts of the narrative the candidates liked and what they did not like. As a lot of the candidates liked the narrative my group and I would like to film our video in a way that the narrative will attract a mainstream audience for a Post-Hardcore song. This would then increase our audience for the video as it would be viewed by the mainstream audience. In order to do this I will be researching how to sell a alternative genre to a mainstream audience.

5. Would you watch the music video and why?

Although, the demand for watching the video is not that high, I am not overly worried as we asked a mainstream audience so the response we achieved was quite good, however I hope to increase the figure when attracting the mainstream market. I would be interested to see the results and feedback when these questions are asked to an alternative audience, which I will do in the near future.

The Cast

The Perfect Fall - The Band

My group and my self decided to use The Perfect Fall as their image suited the genre of Post- Hardcore. As well as this, they are an actual band, although they weren't using their own song or actually singing they were actually able to learn the songs on their instruments so it looked more realistic then them pretending to play them. Their combined skill and "look" fitted our idea perfectly, especially the performance element.

Bennie - The Lead Singer & Main Actor

Bennie fits his role perfectly in our music video. As Bennie is an actor as well as a singer he was the obvious choice when deciding which band member would be the actor. With his acting ability we were able to do close ups of his emotions as he would portray them correctly and realistically. As well as this, his overall style and personality fit the genre perfectly.

Gail - The Girlfriend

For this role we needed an actor who was attractive and who fit the genre. Gail, fitting all the criteria was an obvious choice. Her dark clothing, heavy dark makeup and her black her with purple and red highlights fitted into the typical conventions of an EMO girl.

John - The 'Other Man'

The other man would also need to be good looking so he appealed to the to the female target audience. John's style is similar to the rest of the bands, therefore it matches the song. John's 'EMO hair' and his lip pearcing makes him ideal for the part he is playing.

Rodrigo - The Bassist

We wanted to label one of the band members as a "bad boy" and a "rebel". Rodrigo was the perfect candidate as he had a "do what I want" attitude and has a rebellious sense of fashion e.g. the vest. Rodrigo's overall look and attitude fitted that of the music video as he was wearing band merchandise. We also wanted to do a look of close ups of Rodrigo as he was the very good looking one of the group which also fitted in with the bad boy reputation.

Serge - The Guitarist 

Serge's look fitted the genre due to his black guitar, dark clothing and emo hair. Serge's quirky personality became his identity within in the band, they all referred to him as the strange, wacky and weird one. 

Tristan - The Guitarist

Tristan is the opposite to the man with many words, when he does decide to say something it is completely of topic and seems very dopey. This is how I wanted portray him, the quiet one. His "emo hair" and his silent ways all fit into the emo category and the post hardcore genre.

Daniel - The Drummer

Daniel was a good choice as his personality, dark clothing, ear piercing and band merchandise fit into the genre and will appeal to the target audience.

All our actors dress the same, have similar personalities and and all like the same type of music. This will allow all the actors to blend in with the music video's genre.

Analysis of CD covers

Bulls in the Bronx, Pierce the Veil Music Video Analysis

"Bulls in the Bronx" music video by Pierce the Veil's contains several conventions of music videos in general as well as many conventions of post hard core rock videos

 

Firstly, it can be seen that there are many quick cuts to the beat of the song. This is conventional to music videos as it prevents the song from sounding disjointed. Moreover, in this music video there are constantly quick cuts to the beat, specifically in the beginning instrumental section and chorus. In fact the quick cuts are specifically noticeable during the performance elements of the song. This rymthmic editing, however, is seen throughout the video.

  

Furthermore, a convention of rock music videos is having a performance element and a narrative element. For this video, the narrative is that a boy sneaks into a girls house behind her father's back. They're in love and want to spend time together. He climbs up the side of her house and climbs through her window. They kiss and it fades to white and into a dream universe. They dance together in the dream wearing typical Spanish attire to match the use of Spanish guitar in the song. The girl pins her hair clip onto his shirt and then the 'bull' enters the dream and comes charging towards him. The bull is a metaphor for the girls father as the dream fades as the father enters the room and pushes the boy away from his daughter and starts shouting at him. Her father then chases the boy out of her room and down the stairs and through the house until he is out of the house completely. The girl gets angry at her father for chasing the boy out and shouts at him on the front porch. When the boy is running down the street away from the house he realises under his coat, the hair pin remains attached to his shirt. The video then fades to black as the song comes to a finish. 

Additional to this narrative element, there is also a performance element. This performance element mainly focuses on the instruments the band members are playing as well as the band members themselves. This shows that Pierce the Veil are and organic act because not only do they play their own instruments, but they're not being sold on their looks overall as the focus is on the music rather than their looks.

At the beginning of the video, there is a shot that fades from black of the boy riding his bike. 'Pierce the Veil', the name of the band fades in. There is then a cut to a shot of some flowers and the words 'starring in' fade in. The next shot is a shot of the girls house that pans down and the song title, 'Bulls in the Bronx', fades in. The song then starts as there is a cross-cut to the band playing their instruments. This shows that the band potentially sells themselves on their name as well as their music.

The genre of this song is post-hardcore rock, and it can be seen that the music video reflects that. This is because the performance element focuses equally on the lead singer as it does on the guitarist, bassist and drummer. Moreover, the performance element also focuses more on the instruments than the faces of the band members. This shows that the band is an organic act and fits with the genre of the song. Furthermore, the Spanish section of the song is reflected by the visuals with the use of the traditional Spanish dress as well as the traditional Spanish dance.

The star image of Pierce the Veil is emitted through this video. By this I mean that Pierce the Veil are being shown in a certain way to promote themselves and seem desirable to their audience. One example of this is that Tony Perry (guitarist) is wearing a 'Key Street' tank top. Key Street is Perry's self-owned clothing line and so through this video, he is promoting himself and his clothes. Furthermore, the tank tops that Tony Perry and drummer Mike Fuentes are wearing reveals their sleeve tattoos on their arms. It's very common for those in rock bands to have piercings and tattoos and so by revealing their tattoos allows the viewer to identify the genre and image the band are trying to project. Moreover, all the band members have some kind of piercing. Vic Fuentes, the lead singer, has a nose ring; Tony Perry has stretched ears and Mike Fuentes has also got stretched ears as well as a lip piercing.

Location Idea- The Graffiti Tunnel

Looking at the photos of the band, I have noticed how well they suited the graffiti tunnel on Leake Street.

As the tunnel is relatively close we started looking at the possibility of using it as the location of the performance element of the music video. As the tunnel is a minute walk from Waterloo Station it would be easy for the band members to get there. It would also mean that we would only have to take one car which would carry the equipment.  As the walk is so short from the parking it means we will easily be able to move the equipment. We have also taken into account that there may not be any parking spaces the day we we want to film. In this case, we are able to park on the other side of the road for 15 minutes, in which time we will be able to transport all the equipment to the tunnel. After this I will drive to a car park which is located 3 minutes away from this entrance to the tunnel.

This has allowed us to see how long we need to set aside for getting to the location.This time will be even shorter for our band members as the majority of them live much closer to Waterloo, then myself, Marc and Amy

Unfortunately, this location does not give us any natural light, which is conventional for Post-Hardcore music video. In order to balance this out we have made sure that sections of our music video will include natural light. As well as this, we have no access to electricity meaning  our lighting is restricted to the lights in the tunnel and our outdoor lighting kit, which probably will not be strong enough and will run out of battery before we finish filming. When we go to the photo shoot with our artist we will able to see whether the lighting in the tunnel will be sufficient for recording our music video  

All I Want, A Day To Remember Music Video Analysis

'A Day To Remember' are a similar band to 'Pierce the Veil' in their genre, target audience and star image. The music video I am going to analyse is All I Want by 'A Day to Remember':

This music video shares many of it's conventions with Pierce the Veil's music videos. Moreover, it also contains many conventions of music videos in general.

Firstly, it can be seen that the video contains many quick cuts to the beat of the song. This is specifically in the band performance element of the video. This is a convention of all music videos as without it the song would sound disjointed. This rhythmic editing is seen throughout the video.

Moreover, it is conventional of rock videos to have a narrative element and a performance element. At first glance it appears that there is no narrative element to this video. However, it could be argued that the various other people singing the song in the video, who are from other bands such as Bring Me The Horizon, Fall Out Boy, Trivium, Pierce the Veil and Parkway Drive, are in fact the narrative. Some would argue that the narrative is that all the other bands are coming together to sing the song and work together to achieve their aims as bands to stay strong for their fans ("keep your hopes up high and your head down low" or "mend the hearts of everyone who feels alone"). 

Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil actually makes and appearance in this video. This shows that the genre of Pierce the Veil and A Day To Remember are similar (Post-Hardcore)

Furthermore, the performance element to this song is a massive part of the video. It can be argued that the whole video is performance in fact. It can be seen that the performance elements that are of A Day To Remember mainly focus on the instruments, intending to sell themselves on their music rather than their looks. This also suggest that A Day To Remember are an organic act as they play their own instruments rather than getting other people to do it. This also suggests that the main focus is the music.

Moreover, the star image of A Day To Remember is being clearly portrayed in this video. The drummer, Alex Shelnutt, is wearing a tank top and so his tattoos are exposed. Neil Westfall, the guitarist, also has his tattoos exposed and has his ear stretched. This portrays them in a similar light to Pierce the Veil as tattoos and piercings are conventional of rock music and rebellion. This makes them desirable to their audience. Additionally, Jeremy McKinnon, the lead singer, has his ears stretched. Therefore it can be seen that the star image of A Day To Remember is similar to that of Pierce the Veil.

At the beginning of the video, there is a shot that fades in from black of one of the posters on the wall with 'A Day To Remember' written on it. There is then a cut to another poster with the bands name on it. There is then another cut to another poster, again with 'A Day To Remember' written on it. The next shot is one of a microphone on the floor. Much like the Pierce the Veil video for 'Bulls in the Bronx', this could possibly show that the band sells themselves on their name and what is associated with it, ie their music, rather than what they look like. This suggests that this band is an organic act. Alternatively, this could mean that they sell themselves on their name and star image, suggesting that they're a synthetic act.

Similar to Pierce the Veil, this song is also of the post-hardcore genre. This music video reflects that. This can be seen by the performance part of the video as the focus is equally on the lead singer, guitarists, drummer and bassist. Moreover, there is also a major focus on the instruments. This shows that 'A Day To Remember' are an organic act.

Lastly, the reason I chose this video is not only because A Day To Remember are a band of the same genre as Pierce the Veil, but they also use an animation element in this video. i fins this particularly interesting and I would like to use a similar type of animation in the making of my music video. The animation adds a sense of emphasis on certain parts of the song, and not only does it look amazing, but it also makes the video 100% more interesting. The type of animation used, moreover, projects the genre of the song into the viewers head as the pictures and lyrics being animated are related to the genre. For example, when the drummer is drumming, animation comes up to emphasise this. This also projects the lyrics into the viewers mind as they're animated on screen. This is the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics.

photoshoot

Earlier this week Amy and myself went into London to meet all the band and do a photo shoot with them to help create their star image. However we may do another shoot in the future to make their image more obvious. Here are all the images taken on the band.

For the photo shoot we used three locations. Jubilee Gardens, South Bank Skate park and the graffiti tunnel on Leak Street. Putting the band in different locations allowed us to see what enviroments the band fitted best according to their look and their genre of music.

Wr chose these locations as we thought the genre would fit the settings. However the photos take at the park made the band resemble One Direction so we decided not to film there. The graffiti tunnel and skate park had a rock and rebellious feel to them so it fitted our band and genre perfectly.

We wanted to make the band seem organic so we told them to bring their instruments (obviously not the drum kit) so the audience could see that everything was about the music.

Animatic Feedback

In the process of making the animatic we made several changes to the storyboard in order to improve the quality of the video.

Whilst creating the animatic we realised we needed to add more shots as what we have done was not enough to fill up the whole music video.

In the animatic we added the improvements to the storyboard I mentioned in my Storyboard Feedback post. This allowed us to develop the star image of The Perfect Fall as the lead singer uses his break up and turns it into the song he needs to start a successful band.

Creating the animatic was very useful for my group and I as it showed us that we had to create new shots as well as move shots around so they made more sense. It also gave us a rough idea of how the music video look as we got to see the planned visuals with the music. This allowed us to test what visuals worked against the music and what did not.

The anamatic of our music video

Here is the anamtic of our music video,it is the story board cut into time with the music

The Timeline Of "One Hundred Sleepless Nights"

Time	Shot description
0:00-0:05	Two shot of long shot of lead singer and Gail walking together
0:05-0:01	Two shot at eye line level of two characters sitting on a bench, long shot of them being happy together
0:01-0:02	Two shot of couple holding hands and being happy together in long shot showing scenery around them and then they kiss. Shows that they are happy together- which is the narrative we want to get across straight away to the audience.
0:02-0:06	Close up of band member playing his guitar when the music starts at high tempo.
0:06- 0:10	Lead singer practising playing his guitar
0:10- 0:17	Close ups of the couple sitting together on the sofa with Gail on her phone and seems uncomfortable and disinterested. She looks at him and sees that he is too busy with his music that he is not giving her any interest.
0:18-0:24	Gail walking away, getting off the sofa and leaving the lead singer
0:24- 0:26	Tracking shot of Gail (camera behind) of her leaving through the door
0:26- 0:29	John meets and bumps into Gail
0:29- 0:32	Over the shoulder shot match on action between John and Gail speaking and meeting
0:33-0:38	Two shot of John with Gail, we can see they are happy together
0:38- 0:43	Cross cut to Bennie on his own walking on a street with his guitar case
0:43- 0:46	Bennie in his bed- sleeping alone emphasises that they are not together anymore
0:46- 0:50	Cross cut to Bennie walking up to the setup of the performance/band with no-one there
0:51- 0:53	Bennie puts his guitar case down in an extreme long shot showing empty guitars and drums on his own
0:53- 0:55	Close up of Bennie starting to sing into the camera
0:56- 1:00	Cut to the band appear along with Bennie, shows Bennie has reacted by forming a band and writing this song
1:00- 1:03	Close up of drummer playing the drums
1:04- 1:05	Showing the first guitarist jumping while playing the guitar
1:06-1:11	Cut to the bassist in a long shot- showing off his image
1:12-1:13	Lead singer singing into the camera in a medium close up
1:13-1:15	Cross cut of Bennie (lead singer) walking into Gails house
1:16- 1:20	Bennie approaching Gail’s sofa and sitting down  with match on action
1:21- 1:22	Over the shoulder shot of close up of gail crying, shes telling the lead singer that he is leaving him
1:22-1:24	Bennie reaction to Gail telling her shes leaving him- close up showing his facial expressions of being angry
1:25: 1:28	Bennie leaving Gails house
1:28-1:34	Extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing
1:34-1:36	Bennie looking moody walking in a long shot which will also pan across
1:36: 1:41	John and Gail being happy sitting at a table
1:41-1:45	Bennie putting his guitar case down in anger1:45
1:45- 1:47	Close up of Bennie
1:47-1:51	Extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing

1:51- 1:55	First Guitarist playing/rocking out to the song
1:56- 2:00	Second guitarist playing/rocking out to the song
2:00-2:06	John and Gail walking along the street together
2:06- 2:11	Bennie walking across the street towards them
2:12- 2:17	Cross cut to extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing
2:18- 2:23	Long shot of the member of the band playing the bass
2:23- 2:29	Close up of the drummer
2:29-2:39	Medium shot of guitarist
2:39-2:43	Close up of drums in a low angle
2:44-2:49	John and Gail lean in
2:49-2:51	Bennie runs and stops them from kissing
2:51-2:53	Bennie pushes John against a wall in anger
2:53-2:55	John retaliates an pushes Bennie to the floor
2:55-3:01	Gail comes into the shot feeling awkward
3:01-3:06	Extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing
3:06-3:13	Bennie walking backwards watching John and Gail walk away
3:13- 3:18	Bennie turns round to watch them leave
3:18- 3:21	Medium shot of Bennie walking away with Gail and John walking away together in the background
3:21-3:25	Medium close up of John and Gail walking away together
3:25-3:30	Medium long shot of bass player
3:30- 3:31	Close up of lead singer
3:31-3:33	Guitarist playing while moving
3:34-3:37	Medium shot of drummer playing
3:38-3:38	Long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing