Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's areas of interest include media aesthetics, critical theory and popular music. After studying at the University of Birmingham he received his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies.

Goodwin believes in six key features that can distinguish music video, these are;

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
• A relationship between the music and visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
• Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography.
• There should be numerous close-ups of the main artist or vocalist in a music video.
• Voyeurism is part of many music videos and plays a large role in some videos, especially towards females.
• There are likely to be many intertextual references such as links to films, TV texts or evenother music videos.

Song Choice

For my music video I have chosen to produce a video to the popular song, "TNT" by AC/DC. I have chosen this song because I think that the lyrics will be simple to lip sync to and there aren't many lyrics in the first place, therefore it makes it simple again. This song was selected from my songs in my iTunes library out of another hundred or so songs which were around 3 minutes and 30 seconds in length, plus I have begun work on what I think is a very creative, simple and effective idea for a a video.

Here is the song in question;

Green Screen Testing

I am thinking of using a green screen to shoot the vocalist performing some of the song which can then be edited to then cross cut with other scenes. Green screen footage is a typical convention of music videos and I think that by adding a few green screen shots it could add a certain aspect of professionalism to our music video as well as embracing typical conventions of music video.

Another reason why I wanted to use green screen was because I wanted to try my hand at something new and learn how this kind of videomaking and set up works. This provisional shoot was simply a testing session as I was advised that to get it right it takes a lot of work and a lot of fiddling with lighting set ups and the green screen itself to produce seamless shots that work perfectly with the Final Cut Express editing software.

So how did it go?

Well... with the use of a very knowledgeable school technician (Mr Phillips) myself and some other media students got the green screen set up and operating in a matter of minutes, to light the green screen two filler lights were were placed either side of the screen and then a key light was moved around to various places to try and get the best result. For the most part the screen lit very well, however the material of the screen was very creased and therefore this concluded in a slight problem with lighting it perfectly. We also placed green filters over all of the lights to produce a similar colour light to the screen (this is not the conventional way of lighting green screen) in order to try and rectify the crease problem.

After uploading the footage to Final Cut and having a play around with the software and footage I was unable to completely eliminate all of the green from the footage so the setup will change in a number of ways if I choose to use this technique;

• Iron the green screen in order to eliminate as many creases as possible and therefore help with the perfect lighting set up that we need.
• Use more lights to help produce a more even colour with less shadows and to make the subject itself a little brighter, which will also help in post-production.
• Dressing our subject has also become a very important point as now I realise the importance of the subjects clothing being very different to the green screen colour. This helps the software to cut out the subject and eliminate as much green as possible to make our new background seem more realistic, and cleaner.

In the picture above you can see how the screen was set up very clearly.

• In the bottom right you can see the right filler light, and opposite (just out of shot) is the left filler in a similar position.
• In the background to the right of the picture you can see a light on a heightened tripod, this was our key light.
• In the middle of the photo you can see the camera and tripod set-up, the tripod is an ex broadcasting tripod so is of an amazing quality, and to shoot we used a Sony HD camcorder.
• The television on the small table to the left of the photo is linked to the camera so once the basic screen was setup we could adjust the lights and be able to instantly verify whether the lighting adjustments had worked or not without having to keep referring back to the camera.
• Finally, to take the photos of our shoot I used a Canon DSLR camera, which is actually capable of shooting video is higher definition than the camcorder that used.

Ancillary Task: Websites

For this task I am looking at the website for the popular Australian Hip-Hop artist, 'Bliss n Eso'. The website is jam packed full of things such as news releases, merchandise and new album promotion.

Immediately as you enter the site the band is trying to promote and advertise their latest album, 'Running On Air' by embedding a picture of the album accompanied by a list of other well known featured artists that may help broaden the target audience for this artist. The template for the top of the site is also based on the album as it is simply a very zoomed in shot of the album cover, this gives it a more sophisticated and interesting look.

Beneath the album promotion we are then confronted with yet more album promotion, however in an unusual format and media form. The band has constructed a three part documentary series that goes behind the scenes of the construction of their new album. This has then been posted directly to the website.

Just below this is a list of upcoming gigs that they are playing and links to purchase tickets to see them perform live. Each gig shown with a separate promotional poster and date, as well as the venue and accompanying artists.

The final section of the homepage of the website consists of merchandise advertisement, more album promotion and also links to other external websites where you can view videos or access instant latest news from the band without having to keep checking back on the website, or you may even access information (such as on facebook) that isn't available through the website such as competitions to win merchandise of albums etc. The links to all of the merchandise are direct so you can purchase these things straight from the artist as well as the album.

If i wanted to take anything from this for my own website it would probably be the way they have promoted the album, matching the website theme to the album cover and i also really like the idea of a promotional video behind the album, however this would have to be slightly different in our case as we are presenting a single and not an album.

Ancillary Task: Digipaks

This is a the American band, 'Green Day's' third live album, released in 2005. It is seen by some other artists as quite a controversial album facing criticism from 'The Killers' frontman, Brandon Flowers for being cheap and in some ways anti-American.

I have chosen this digipak in particular as it is one that I own. This digipak is six sided and consists of a DVD and one CD, however there are no separate booklets or texts that you may usually expect to accompany a digipak (except for some credits on the back side of one of the fold outs).

As I said there isn't a great deal of accompanying artwork apart from a couple of very vague photos on the inside of the digipak and two photos on the back cover to accompany the track list which I believe are basically screen shots taken from the DVD.

For my digipak I think it would be nice to include some more artwork possibly than this one has done, however I like the layout and structure of this digipak and would also like to try and print the disc itself in a similar way as well as constructing the case from strong cardboard as is this digipak.

Previous Student Work

Artist: Paolo Nutini

Song: White Lies

Video By: Adam and Eddie

What did I like?

I thought the video was very well made, however I'm not particularly a fan of most music videos that are this slow. However, it has to be slow to fit the song so that was a good aspect where it fitted the song perfectly and i also really like the slow tracking and panning shots, they made for a very engaging edit and almost added a sense of emotion to the video emphasising on the songs emotion. I also really liked how all of the settings were completely original and all of the characters were dressed accordingly and the use of instruments in the video in sync with the instruments in the music was also nice to see.

What would I like to take from this video?

I think that the moving camera shots were brilliant and if possible i would like to include some of these in my final production. Where possible I would also like to use as many original settings as appropriate because I think that this adds an element of professionalism to the music video and makes it seem less 'school production-like'.

Previous Student Work

Artist: Beastie Boys

Song: "Triple Trouble"

Video By: "ThurstonBeastieBoys" (Adam, James and Josh)

What do I like about this video?

Well, quite a lot of things! The frequent use of action matches and the fast paced editing makes for a super flowy edit that also matches the music very well. I also like the way that they have taken advantage of a lot of the editing techniques that final cut offers as it makes the edit very interesting a give it a truly 'beastie boy' look. Moreover they have taken a lot of influence from beastie boys videos by using lots of performance and lots of close ups on each band member throughout the video.

The acting/singing from them is very similar to the Beastie Boys too plus they have used numerous locations to shoot their video which shows some good effort. The urban settings are also very similar to the Beastie Boys.

Shots in particular that I like include the very first shot that is sped up and the double james shot. I also admire the way that the edit is put together around the music.

What would I like to take from this?

Well, the seamless lip-syncing that they have managed to pull off, matched with the fast paced flowing edit that matches the music.