MUTEMATH

Album back cover

2010-05-13T11:58:00.001-07:00

cd cover

2010-05-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

2010-05-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

my evaluaion presentation is not very good quality!! grrrrr

Gina Evaluation

2010-05-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Year 13 Media Production Task

VIDEO!

2010-05-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

we think we have finally finished our music video, just waiting for it to go on youtube! but its taking ages...

Website!!!!

2010-04-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

This is our website the write up is in the evaluation...

Evaluation

2010-04-21T09:33:00.001-07:00

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I think that we managed to use, develop and even change some of the forms and conventions of our band for MuteMath. For instance we had to change some of the stereotypical mise en scene, for instance the costume and the props. We had to change the costume, as we didn't have any suits which the would be similar to what the band wares therefore we had to change to a modern take on it, jeans with a casual shirt, with converse trainers so it was a grunge style. We also had to change the key prop, which is MuteMaths retro style microphone, as we couldn't get one due to the cost of one and our college didn't own one. We made it as a narrative and performance video, which contrasts to the original one which was only a narrative film. We kept to the lyrics of the song to give us ideas, which then gave us a great narrative.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We have used similar images throughout the products to link them together as this would be done in reality. We used the same black and white format for our photos and for the album cover. This represents the spotlight in the video and a spotlight in general. The website is more white than black as it doesn't just involve the spotlight idea on it but other videos and things that the actual band have been up to, for instance the New york news, but we kept our band photos on it to keep with the spotlight them.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The main feedback we received was for the design of our website and other design features such as the Album covers and our blog. We did this by having polls on our blog so it would be easy for people to vote on our designs. We got a couple of people to look at the first rough cut of the video. They said that it looked good, but that the editing of the video could of been sharper with the lip sinking. They said that the website looks good and professional, but seemed a little bit over crowded. The Album cover also looked good as it was also done with Photoshop like the website. To gain more audience feedback we will also put our finished video on to YouTube. We eventually managed to gain some feedback as we finished the film, they said that the editing was fast and kept with the pace of the music, but the actual narritve was a bit hard to follow until the end.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used many different types of software, mainly Photoshop and adobe Premiere and also the blog, with lesser use of paint and Dreamweaver. We also use media hardware such as a digital camera, recordable camera and a tripod. We had many problems with the software as it would sometimes not work or we were unable to manipulate the software and use it to our full advantage. We used the software continuously during the project. With the blog we have been able to record our progress, by posting messages, adding pictures and also being able to upload videos. We used premiere to edit our film, the same as last year. We used some of the built in special affects to create our video and our backstage video. I used Photoshop to edit images and created our website design using it. At first, I found it hard to use as we were not told how to use by anyone, but I eventually got used to it.

We also managed to finally finish the video,but we cut it very fine to the deadline due to all the tecnological problems and casting issues. We used many affects which we didn't use last year. For example zooming into parts of the filming and the solorised affect which fitted into the theme of the song.

Website

2010-04-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

Gina and I have been trying to create our website for the band MuteMath. We have been using dream weaver, but we were having difficulties designing the actual website with that particular programme. We stopped using dream weaver as it was difficult to enter text, change layout of the pictures and the general layout its self as we used a table format. We then decided to change to photo shop, as it was a lot easier to change layout and to add special features which we found difficult in dream weaver, we also thought that dream weaver would be better to use if we were implementing the design into an actual website.

Changes and plan

2010-04-20T16:50:00.001-07:00

We have had to change the story board slightly in order to get the video finished in time. Although the ideas that we originally had were great, and would probably work better in the video, we just do not have the people, time or resources to shoot what we need to. There-fore we hope that the changes work in well with the rest of the narrative of the video.
The plan for the rest of the week is to film the final scenes later on today. This can be done during our period five lesson and obviously after school. Between the three of us we have plenty of frees to be doing the final editing, and finishing off the CD cover and website. We are aiming to finish the latter tomorrow morning as all that needs adding to them are pictures but as always, something is bound to go wrong which may delay us, but fingers crossed that everything will go to plan.
We are also writing our evaluations separately, and will then film each other for our evaluation and backstage video.
This will all be done by this Friday, we have no choice so again, fingers crossed that everything goes to plan and nothing holds us up or messes us about any more. :)

DVD Cover ideas

2010-03-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

Some ideas for the DVD cover is a complete black background with a spotlight on it, with a picture from the video and our makeshift font, with information on the back.
Another idea is to have the pictures from our website idea and to have them on the front of the cover, again with the information on the back.

stuff still to do

2010-03-31T05:51:00.000-07:00

We still have to add many clips as we are still filming, so as soon as we have the clips we adding it as we go. We still have to finish of the website home page for the band and the evaluation questions which will also need to be filmed and edited, which is going to take time to complete.

Change of cast

2010-03-31T05:37:00.000-07:00

We have had to re-shoot some of the video due to the change of the cast. Originally we had Piers as the geek in the early days of filming, but it has now changed to Lewis, a member of our media class. We also needed a drummer, our original one, Joelly is no longer able too, so I have had to replace her as the drummer. Gina is a guitarist and Charlotte is mostly behind the camera doing most of the filming. We still put in equal input about the direction of the video to see what is the better idea or the better shot. Luckily, both Adams are still able to film. We are continuing filming tonight and hopefully finishing the band shots.

Website pictures

2010-03-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

These are the pictures we are going to use on the website. They include pictures of te band, the video, performance shots and even some pictures that 'fans' have taken themselves. This is so the 'fans' and audience feel part of the band.

Backstage video editing cont.

2010-03-25T02:27:00.000-07:00

I have made a few adjustments to the backstage video, for instance, croping the clips and inserting it into random places with the spotlight song in the background. We will have the evaluations after the backstage footage.

2010-03-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

This is part of our editing, this shot is during the first band performance, when the geek meets the band.
This is part of the process of editing including some of the transitions we are going to be using.
Also it shows how much we have dont towards the editing so far. Some of these pictures are going to be used on our website which is going to be the final peice with our coursework. With this we are also doing a backstage video that will be part of our evaluation, also we are going to include some written text to go with it this is so we can explain most of the points that we miss out while speaking as we are going to do it sponteously (no script.) We did a backstage video for last years production piece which we may put on the blog as en example of our work. We choose to do a backstage video because when we did it last year, me and charlotte did the backstage video while filming and then did three intense days of editing.

Editing

2010-03-18T03:55:00.000-07:00

Today we started editing we also started the backstage footage as well as our main video. We still need to do more filming to fill in the gaps in the video, so we will be busy and hopefully get it all done by the deadline.

This is a picture of the backstage editing, with part of the resorce video, on the left, and the actual video its self on the right. I also inserted title slides in the the video like so:

HAHAHAHAHA - Filming day 4

2010-03-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

This is meant to be part of some filming that we did the other day. When watching it back we realised that Adam (lead singer) did this cheeky litle smile that kind of summed up the whole video and it was right at the end! should be able to put it up tomorrow or at least a picture of it:)

30 seconds to mars videos

2010-03-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

I have choosen to put these videos on the blog because, firstly there just really good videos the settings are amazing! If we had a limitless budet i wouldn' have minded filming somewhere like china! Also the shots used during the video are amazing. For example the second video is filmed in and around ice and ice burgs, to show the isolated surroundings it uses establishing shots that show the whole surroundings. This makes the band look tiny in comparison. This idea also fits in with the lyrics of the song.
I really like the beginning of the video shot in China. The High angle shot of the army before the song starts is a great use of framing that makes them look quite threatening but at the same time quite prestigous...

30 seconds to mars the kill

2010-03-10T10:16:00.000-08:00

30 seconds to mars

2010-03-10T10:11:00.000-08:00

More filming

2010-03-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, today we did some more filming. We included doing some shots of The geek and the girl he likes (ella.) We shot some different things that were not in the storyboard this was so we could add anything if we ran out of footage or song. These shots included, the geek and the girl finally talking to each other. We also did some shots of the lead singer pulling the geek up when he falls over.
We did experience some problems during todays filming however when we were not allowed to use the hall or music block for filming, we then had to use the sixth form centre. In the end this wasn't so bad as it turned out to be quite a large space that allowed us to get quite alot of filming done. More filming to come...

EVALUATION - how we will be doing it

2010-03-09T04:05:00.000-08:00

Our evaluation will be produced in two forms. One will be through blog posts, we will produce a write up in an answer to each of the questions. The other form will be through backstage videos with questions asked to each of us aswell as the actors. This will also be published on the blog once it is finished.

Filming!

2010-03-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

Monday evening, Charlotte did some filming of the main band member, the lead singer with the geek. The main shots filmed included lots of different vital CU's of the lead singer (Adam) and M2shots of the geek (Lewis) and the lead singer. Using the actual song in the background helped ensure that the lip sinking was in time. Charlotte designed a dolly this meant that we are now able to shoot footage that moved steadily along without having the problems of movement in the actual shot. This also meant that we could continually film the actors without stopping, we could then film a lot more than if we had started and stopped during different shot.
The setting used, included the hall this meant that the lighting could be controlled and that there was a wide amount of space to use. Props used during yesterdays filming included microphone and mic stands that were kindly supplied by the music block. More filming will continue tomorrow when the whole cast is scedualed to take part - fingers crossed.

Death Cab For Cutie Homepage

2010-03-09T03:43:00.001-08:00

http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/home - The 'Death Cab For Cutie' homepage is similar to the original homepage of MuteMath and the song we are doing. It sticks to several main, bold colours, black, white and orange with a few beige colours. There is also a very fifties feel to the homepage as well, there is a fifties microphone (which MuteMath use most of the time and also in the original 'Spotlight' video.), radio and TV on the page which fits in with the style of MuteMath. The layout of the homepage also resembles a fifties record cover with the 'paperbag' stlye of spikes at the top and at the bottom of the page and the circle in the centre.

Technology and equipment which we will be using

2010-03-04T01:30:00.000-08:00

There will be a number of technology that we will use to shoot our music video. The most important will be of course the camera. This is a small hand held camera so is easy to take with us on location. We have had experience with it before so there have not been many problems occurring. However we did experience difficulty with the disc used, at times it seems that it is not recording but this was over come by making sure we upload the disc properly before filming. Another piece of technology that we are using is not to do with the filming but with the album cover that we will be producing. To make the album cover, we will be using the software Photoshop. We have all had to learn how to use this and at the beginning this was quite difficult, but we practiced and are now ready to complete our album cover. A final piece of technology is the lighting, for which will occur both at the beginning and at the end. We hope to use the school spotlights for the end to create a performance feel to it. At the beginning when a spotlight appears over each of the band members, again we hope to use the school spotlights with the rest of the hall pitch black, this will create an illusion of professionalism.
When it comes to equipment this does not just mean technology, for instance, for one shot we will be panning round the main character but we do not want to do this hand held. So we came up with the idea of the dolly. One idea for this was that we would take the top off of the swivel chair and attach the tri-pod and camera to the bottom. We already new that the year previous this had been used so we were confident that it would work again. By using the dolly we will hopefully gain a smooth pan around the character.

Paramore: Misery Buisness

2010-02-25T02:15:00.000-08:00

Paramore reference

2010-02-25T02:04:00.000-08:00

Paramores Misery Buiness video is quite a stereotypical vdieo because it features some of the main conventions within music videos. Its similar to our video becasue it too is set in a school. This is because it appeals to the actual target audience, they are either at school or they have just been at school, in sixth form for example. Our audience is similer, this si also why our audience during the performance during the end of the video are also this age, they are teenagers at school.
Another key feature is the use of band motif and the logo situated around and in the video. for example during the shots of the band performing in a room the room focases around the word Riot! which is the name of the album. It also implies some rebellion within the genre which is stereotypical to the target audience. We also include this type of rebellion, we are implying that anyone can be confident and rebel against the label that they have been given within school e.g. Geek, Goth, Emo. I think our video really explores some of the ideas of stereotypical images and labels within media. with regard to visual representation we use the use of costume and props to reiterate the image further. We tried to include some visual links with the lyrics, this is similar to other bands within this genre bands such as People in Planes and Future in Forestry. For example we use a poster that says the lyrics within the song on it. This draws the readers eye towards it and makes then think about what the lyrics actually mean.

Website ideas

2010-02-25T01:33:00.000-08:00

We as a group have decided to produce an album cover and a website page in addition to our music video. Gina has already talked about our inspiration for the album cover, and it shouldn't be long before we put a picture of it on the blog. I am going to talk about how we have got ideas for the web page that we are going to do.
In preparation for producing our website page for our band we have looked at not only MuteMath's web page, but also similar bands to get an idea of the themes and conventions of these pages and how they link to the themes and convensions of the band and the genre of music.
The MuteMath website sticks with the colours that are usually displayed on MuteMath posters, album covers etc. This means that the audience recognise and associate the webpage automatically to MuteMath. We also looked at the People in Planes website, as we feel that their music is similar to that of MuteMaths. They have also stuck to the colour themes of the band. For our webpage we will be using the colours that we have chosen for our album cover; black, blues and neutrals. (The colours on our blog also represent the colour themes that we are using for our band).
People in Planes also includes the use of graphics on their webpage, where as MuteMaths does not. The graphics relate to the graphics which feature in some of their recent music video. For the band People in Planes, graphics are a constant feature when it comes to their music videos so they have obviously played on this when it came to designing their webpage. A constant feature for the band MuteMath is the style of picture they have. This involves the band either performing some unusual move or the band placed in an usual setting, overall the pictures are unique in their own way. This is featured on the band webpage, with the band members appearing to be running but almost like a spaceman's run (without gravity). We may also include a picture of the band.
We also found that another common feature on band websites, their recent song has been embeded, this is probably to keep fans informed about recent releases, we will also attempt this.
In addition, we found from the Linkin Park website, links to socia networks e.g. facebook and twitter. This would have been done as social networking is one of the most popular forms of communication in the 21st century, and also to attract the audience to use it.
By Charlotte

Existing album covers (inspiration)

2010-02-04T01:40:00.000-08:00

These are MuteMaths already existing album covers. We are taking some conventions and ideas from them as we think their image is an important part of the band.
Some of these conventions include quite dull, dark colours such as, greys, greens and blues. One of them is even black and white a feature which we have included in our video itself. There is also a shadowey tint included in them that could symbolise the reflection of the spotlight in our ideas for the album cover. We have also noticed that there is mostly something auirky featured within the cover. for example the band having TVs instead of heads is quite intersesting. This immediantly attracts the audience towards the band memebers as they also notice that something is wrong/ different about the picture. there album covers include some interesting voyerism in that as you look at the album covers it feels as if they are looking at you - if that makes sense. This is quite effective in attracting people to buy the album/ EP because they are immedianly interested in it. In our albm cover we have tried to use these similarities in that we have included the band jumping/ climbing out of a spotlight, this is a link to the video and the theme as the actual single is called 'Spotlight.'

Our music video in reference to the genre conventions.

2010-02-02T04:07:00.000-08:00

Our music video, is from the perspective of the alternative rock/indie genre. Whats that you may ask? Well below posts may explain the conventions of this but we are going to explain how our video fits this using different variations of Mise-en-scene.
To start a typical video within this genre has to include mainly in the research we have partaken a performance aspect as well as a narrative based aspect. In our Music video we have included both for example at the beginning you first see the band and the main character together, this is similer to he video by Paramore but they kept the character apart from the band whereas we put them together, a revolutionary idea maybe but we will let you decide when watching the video itself. This is the narrative itself, that the band helps the geek develop a personality. The performance part comes into the video during the end, this is when in effact the geek as been liberated, for want of a better word and now has the confidence to get up in front of an audience.
Camera angles: These are very important as they they are what the audience is looking through to understand and enjoy the video. We used quite alot of CU of the band memebers, this shows them lip sinking and acting to the lyrics of the song, this can show the relationship between lyrics and narrative. Also in the performance based part we included alot of LS showing of the band and the audience reaction towards them, this is present in lots of alternative rock music videos, also during live performances and as we are filming it like one it needs to have the live feel.

Animatic/ story board Planning

2010-01-28T03:02:00.000-08:00

Charlotte and Rachel drawing the story board.

Rachel drawing the storyboard.

Gina drawing the storyboard.

Mutemath merchandise

2010-01-27T06:02:00.001-08:00

This is a range of Mutemath merchandise including a poster, album, T-shirt and some other things to promote their new CD. This would give use some more ideas how to sell merchandise (if we were actually marketing our video and products.) The main things these product have in common is the image and also the text, from this we are able to see that the image and text is key to being recognisable and successful.

Poll results

2010-01-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

Our results for our polls are as followed:

40% of people thought that the second spotlight font is better than the other three, and half the people thought that the forth font was better than the rest. So these are the fonts we will most likely use due to popular demand and that the fonts alos fit in with the genre of music and also the narritve of the song.

Our music video explained Part one.

2010-01-21T01:33:00.001-08:00

The story behind our music video is not unheard of but we have tried to make as original as possible. It begains with a streotypical 'Geeky' looking boy in his room. The representation of this character is questionable as the definition of 'Geek' is not a fixed term. Everyboy has there own interpretation of what this term means. So with this in mind we developed a character that to all of us came across as a 'Geek'. We did this via props and costume. for example; in the bedroom we have PacMan posters and a simpsons duvet, with Starwars things dotted around. The geek himself has quite messy hair showing that he doesn't care too much about his apperance, which is part of the narrative itself. He has quite typical clothes, normal looking shirt, but the main part of the costume includes a pair of quite commical glasses.
The Geeks bedroom from our anamatic.

The Geek.

The whole narrative focuses on how the geek is always overlooked by people. more importantly by the girl he likes. The scene where he is walking along the corridor behind her shows how shy he is and that he is embarressed. As the song goes on the character develops through the help of the band members as they are quite 'popular.' Its also quite ironic that the geek actually has a MuteMath poster in his bedroom and they turn up to help him and his self esteme.
The band memebers are represetated as the complete opposite to the geek. They are confident and this comes accross in there costumes and through the narrative. For example the band members hair, is instantly recogniseable as we took examples from everyday people walking in the street, it shows that they take care in their appearance. The clothes they wear include tight 'skinny' jeans and tight tops showing that they like being looked at and they are comfortable about themselves and their well established image. Also their body language reflects that of a confident group of people. Unlike the geek who has a weak and reserved personality showing isolation.
A band Member: the lead singer.

The location featured in our video includes the geeks bedroom mentioned above, the Performance part is being filmed in our school hall with spotlights on the different characters, this is so the audience can focas and be attracted to each character. The target audience may also be attracted as the age we targeted may still be at school, or older people will remember being at school, this helps the audience relate to the characters. The scene with the geek and the girl in it is also set in the school.
The performance part of the video in the school.

Effects and lighting: Due to the low budget we have been quite limited with use of these. However we were thinking of adding some animations if possiable, providing we have enough time during the editing process. These will include some writing moving around the characters head, similar to that included in the People in Planes video 'Pretty Buildings' which is on the blog. The use of the spotlights and the transition between some shots is crucial as it shows the geek being 'transported' to another part of the song. For example when he goes from getting his hair cut by other members to having his room and clothes changed.
The spotlight transition.
Animatic to come!

History of music video

2010-01-21T01:33:00.000-08:00

Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. They became popular in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1. The term 'music video' first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. Prior to that time, these works were described by various terms including 'filmed insert', 'promotional (promo) film/clip' or 'film clip'. Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film, which allows artists and bands to do basically anything they want in their music video. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action, or switch between different narratives, such as performance and a 'story' based ones.

In 1975, the band Queen ordered Bruce Gowers to make a promo video for their new single "Bohemian Rhapsody" to show it in Top Of The Pops; this is also notable for being entirely shot and edited on videotape. It's considered to be a groundbreaking video as it helped establish the visual language of the modern music video. Although critical reaction was initially mixed, especially in the US, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is often considered to be a masterpiece by Queen and one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

To watch the video click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VXc2eZtPN0

The Muppet's also did a take on the song where it involved all/most of the Muppet cast. They kept to the main narrative as in the video which gives it the similarity to the original video, it keeps the black background and the spotlights at the start which mirrors the original video. They even have some performance narrative in it, when 'animal' plays the drums.

To watch the clip click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

We are referencing parts of the video, epically the start, where the four of them stand in the darkness and the spotlight comes on. Instead of them standing close together we are having them standing apart with them playing their instruments. Also the general darkness of the video and having a performance at the end of our video.

Another reference to our original storyboard is the shopping centre part in our video. This is similar to the Avril Lavigne, 'complicated' video where they are creating mayhem in the shopping Mall. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGXYAJoDWCk

Other videos which follow our sort of narrative is Fall out boy's 'Dance Dance' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6MOKXm8x50) and also Bowling for soup's 'High school never ends' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IRs7e58dsY). These both show a character in the narrative starting as a geek and then turning out to be the protagonist of the video. For example both 'geek heroes' at the end get the girl, or become popular among their peers.

Last day to vote for the poll!

2010-01-21T01:27:00.000-08:00

Quick! last day to vote for your favourite band fonts! only 14 hours! :)

People in Planes - Pretty Buildings video analysis

2010-01-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is the video i analised, it has some similarities with our video. It also uses the spotlight idea (2:50) but in a different context. There is good character development without a strong narrative, there is no performance in this however which is different to ours.

Similar bands - People in Planes, video analaysis

2010-01-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

People in Planes – Pretty Buildings. Analaysis
♪ Genre Characteristics: Girl is wearing a typical hoody that will appeal to right aged audience. The colour scheme is dark and gloomy which also appeals to a younger audience. First meet the character who is a girl. Everything looks sad and the character is showing no emotion. Lots of quick and slow panning around the character making her centre of attention. She walks into a bare room, looks like she lives on her own. Quite young, teenager, Costume/ prop she is wearing a school bag on her back.
o Next story he is a man sitting on his own, quite depressing. Same colour dull mustered yellow. He is making something that is obviously quite important to him

♪ Relationship between lyrics and music: The girl at the beginning sits down and shows the camera her drawings of the ‘Pretty buildings’ she starts drawing, quite expressive, the lyrics are “dive into sleep... dream of pretty buildings” as she chucks something on to her bed. She then holds up a visual representation which shows how she is feeling, “ break this silence.” It then slowly zooms into the sign “telegraph your points of view, Sheppard me from silence.” The actual telegraph says “break this silence” “I don’t wanna feel this low again” moves from the sad animation to going through another window which is the start or the next story.
o This story starts with a single man, again sitting on his own completely isolated. Horrible miserable room that doesn’t really show any emotion like the character. “I ain’t gunna steal your flame again” “Let’s talk about it” he picks up a glass of what looks like whiskey meaning that he is really depressed about his life, especially as he is then looking up at maybe his family.
♪ Relationship between music and visuals:
♪ Beginning shot is an establishing shot of buildings in rain while, sombre piano music starts the song, sets the mood and lets the audience know what theme the video will have. Slow pan inwards to show windows. Moves to the quick zoom in, into a dark gloomy corridor. “I don’t wanna feel comes up on the telegraph which is also in the chorus and again explains how she feels. During this part of the song her drawings come alive and the actual building is alive in her picture. This part has black and white animation, that moves to the beat of the music, quite strange sequence, maybe what’s going on in her head? Another picture then comes up of her crying “TALK” comes up in really big writing but this doesn’t seem to help.
o Similar to beginning but this time the camera zooms into the cartoon window of the house again showing a different story, this then zooms into a LS that slowly zooms into a pan round that concentrates on the character. “I don’t wanna feel” you see the characters emotion on his face as he is using the scissors. The background has lots of pictures on it that he then looks at pained as if something is really the matter. It then goes to behind him as if the audience is really there , the ECU of his hands building his model is quite personal, it shows the care that he is putting into his, by the looks of it lives work. The animation then starts again with what looks snow in the background meaning its quite cold and un-feeling shot of him sitting on his own. Maybe his wife/ family left him because she didn’t like what he was building or that he spent all his time doing it instead of family time. It then goes to the rest of the animation which strangely enough cuts to include scissors which the man was using, could it even mean that he is so depressed he is thinking about violent things?
 After this shot it then quickly zooms into another window which again tells another story. This time there are two people maybe in a relationship, but they don’t look very happy. You have the LS showing both characters quite away from eash other, the distance between then could reflect the way they feel about each other. Also the man is stading up which makes him look like he is looking over the women (notion of looking.)
♪ CUs Etc. + image motifs
♪ Notion of looking: The audience feel as if they are looking in on the different characters stories, quite personal as they each have something they are hurting about but they are not telling anyone.
 The shot of the two people you have the notion of looking
♪ Intertextual references
♪ Performance + narrative based – very much narrative based, has each different story of each character, there isn’t any performance as you don’t get to see the actual band at all.
♪ Mise – En – Scene. The use of lighting is quite interesting, it’s very dark apart from one single bright light which shines in what the depressing people find is the most important parts of their lives.
o Costume: First girl is wearing a typical hoody. She is quite pretty but doesn’t look like she cares about that (long hair normal looking.) Second man is wearing simple clothes, a white top and an old red checked top, looks like he also doesn’t really care about his appearance. His hair is flat and quite geeky looking he also wears quite geeky rimmed glasses that are quite old fashioned.

Font ideas for the song title.

2010-01-14T03:14:00.000-08:00

Again these are the fonts we have chosen for the song title. They fit the 'spotlight' criteria that features in the song and the video itself. Again there will a poll where you can vote for your favourite font, again numbered 1 to 4 from the top.

MuteMath, Band fonts

2010-01-14T03:08:00.000-08:00

These are the fonts that we have chosen for the band. They are slightly geeky which fits in with our video and the band promotion. Please fill out the poll on the right of the blog. Fonts are numbered in order 1 to 4 just vote which one you prefer!

Change of Plans

2010-01-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

Due to difficulty we have decided to not to shoot at Queensgate but to shoot it at one of our homes. We will have the 'Geek' put on cloths and pan round him whilst seeing him put on cloths. We will also have to create a make-shift dolly to stick the camera on it. Our lead singer also came back from Australia so that means we don't need to re-shoot the parts we already have.

Poster and Album cover ideas contin.

2010-01-07T01:41:00.000-08:00

Our main idea is now to focus mainly on a still with the band from the video or to take a still photo and use it as our album/poster idea. One inspiration is from a previous Mutemath album cover where the bands faces are replaced with an actual spotlight.

They also had a second album cover for this album where they have an outside stage rather than the band. We can tell it's the same album due to the same font they use on both covers. This would be a good still idea as it's not directly taken from the video. If we where to focus on this image we would change how the band stands in the photo and remove the spotlight from their faces and place them somewhere else, e.g. behind the band for instance.

Another main inspiration throughout our project has been Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, as they use many spotlights throughout their music video. They used a still as their main single/album cover which works well as there wasn't any direct narrative in the video. It also works as it's memorable and is instantly recoginesed to be the bohemian rhapsody cover.

Another out there idea is to have a close up image of any type of light with an 'M' in it,like Metric Fantasies in the old type light bulbs surrounded in darkness. Instead of the bulb, use a spotlight instead but have an M on it. Similar to the Batman signal.

Conventions of a Rock music video

2010-01-07T01:27:00.000-08:00

The most obvious convention of a rock video is that they tend to be both narrative and performance based. The narrative tends to show a romance between the lead singer and a girl, action based or even some form of current affair. Whereas the performance tends to be just the band with an audience performing to them, or just themselves playing to the camera.
Another main aspect of conventions would be the band logo. This is sometimes shown in a music video so the audience knows who's video it is. It tends to be shown for only a few seconds in the video, but is still Identifiable by the fans of the artist/band. Mise en scene is also a key factor when it comes to the video as props, location and costume have to fit with the narrative and also the genre of the music.
In early rock and the 1960s, bands made many promo films for instance, The Beatles made a 'Hard Day's Night'. Many bands from other genres also made feature films, such as Cliff Richards 'Summer holiday'.

2010-01-05T03:40:00.000-08:00

Due to poor weather conditions we where unable to do any filming over Christmas. Due to snow on the last day, we didn't any camera's to film and our lead singer was in Australia. So the plan is to do as much filming asap. We will have to hope that Queensgate will allow us to do filming on another day. We have to find another lead singer and re-shoot the things we already have.

Director information

2009-12-17T03:00:00.001-08:00

The original director for Mutemath music videos is Nate Weaver. He brings a depth of mood and emotion to his videos. From music videos to live concerts to episodic web content, Nate has worked with the likes of: Green Day, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Against Me!, Missy Higgins, Tyler Hilton and David Crowder.

Our cast

2009-12-17T02:27:00.000-08:00

The Geek we managed to get Piers B

As the lead singer - Adam H

lead guitarist- Adam T

"popular girl" - Ella

Last nights filming review

2009-12-17T02:20:00.000-08:00

Filming went well, everyone was able to turn up and we got many of the first scenes shoot. We did the majority of the filming needed to be done in the music rooms, and it worked really well as it soon became dark, so we didn't need to waste time covering windows with paper. On the other hand we needed to move a lot of music equipment out of shot. we also wasted some time trying to find suitable speakers for the music which we eventually found 45 minutes in. We also received good news that we are able to film in queensgate on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of December so we will be able to get the shopping centre shots there rather than Huntingdon, which was our backup.

first day of shooting 16/12/09

2009-12-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

Today we will be filming some of the band close up shots. We were originally planning to shoot the majority of the performance scenes but we are unable to due to difficulty of band members turning up. Also Gina being ill today will also hold back same filming to a small extent, as we are unable to gain her views on the parts we are filming, but there is hope that she may be able to come in the evening.

Album cover ideas

2009-12-16T05:33:00.000-08:00

We will most likely use the same image from the poster for the album cover and vise versa. We will most likely use a shot from the video for our main image and use the pacman and space invaders posters in the video its self. We will discide what image we will use after we have done some filming.

Diary entry 6

2009-12-15T02:28:00.000-08:00

Today is our last day to make sure we have everything for filming tomorrow, and that includes the band members. So far we have three out of six people who have agreed to take part. Its not that people just won't do it, its that they have other commitments which means they are not able to do it. We are going to ask two more people today and hopefully they will help us to get some one else on board. Alothough the difficulty in finding the people to take part has been difficult, it has also allowed us time to find props. For example, we have has to sort out finding spotlights for the scene. We overcome this by deciding on using big torches which we will hold over them. We HOPE this will work. Today we are also going to make sure that we can block out all the light in the music room for the first few shots. We first see the band memebers in a dark room, and a spotlights appears over them when each part of the music starts i.e. when the guitar in the music starts the spotlight will appear over the guitarist ect. We think we'll be able to block the light out with the blinds and black paper with display boards in front of them. It should be possible but that is what we will find out later. Finally, we have sent an email to a manager at Queensgate, to ask permission to film there. We hope that the reply will not only say yes but allow us to film before opening hours. This will make it easier as we won't have to worry about other people messing around infront of the camera and messing the shots up. Like Gina has said, not every one has pulled their equal weight when it has come to the planning, making the work 10x harder for the others to do.
Stay tune for more diary entries :)

Gina

2009-12-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

Diary Entry.
Hopefully we have finished most of the planning, just got to film now yay. Has been hard work as organising is quite hard. Not everyone has done the same amount of work so ot yet again has been hard finding the time to fit everything in. We have now finished the animatic and are about to put it on the blog so everyone can see the ideas we have and whether they fit to the music...

Final planning hopefully!:)

2009-12-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

IMPORTANT:
Setting:
School shots - Music P2, hall and corridor.
Outside -
Geeks bedroom - Hopefully Charlotte's house
Hairdressers - Hopefully Charlotte's / Gina's house

Characters:
Geek: Piers
Singer: Adam
Bass: Josh???
Guitar: Adam T
Drummer: Jamie???
Girl: Ella
Audience: Anyone interested. People in H8.

Diary entry 5:

2009-12-09T03:10:00.000-08:00

Yesturday we carried on with the animatic of our story board. We were finally able to figure out how to add a zoom effect, which we found very useful. We have all taken it in turn to do the animatic. I think that we only need one more lesson to complete it. Filming has been put on hold till next we due to some commitment problems.

Diary Entry 4:

2009-12-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hiya, sorry it's been a long time since I last posted an entry, but been really busy with applying to Uni's. We're are finally starting our filming. Hope everything goes OK, there's not long left now till the Christmas holidays and as you can see from our shooting schedule, we have to get all the school shots filmed before we break up. We've been doing the animation today, putting the stills with the music and effects that we may be using. There were a few technical problems but that's not out of the ordinary, just made the process a bit longer. But it was good to see the pictures with the music, we were a bit apprehensive about whether it would all fit, but it's going good so far so fingers crossed :)Tomorrow we should hopefully finish it so it will then be posted on the blog :) Stay tune for more updates soon :)

Shooting Schedule

2009-11-25T02:27:00.000-08:00

Our shooting schedule beginning this week. We have kept the shots together where the same location has been used to make it easier. Also, we have kept week 5 free as that is CHRISTMAS week, but we may add a day in at the beginning but its not official yet.
(IF YOU DOUBLE CLICK ON THE IMAGE IT WILL ENLARGE SO THAT YOU CAN SEE IT IN DETAIL)

Poster Ideas

2009-11-24T03:39:00.000-08:00

As our music video focuses heavily on a geek, we have taken that theme into consideration for our ideas. Considering we shall have various Computer game posters I thought of an retro/arcade type of poster, such as Pacman or Space Invaders.

Taken from the arcade game screen and then modify it slightly, such as having Mute math and Spotlight instead of the status at the bottom of the screen. Then instead of the “ghost” having the band members instead.
The white dots on the black background also signify the spotlight in the video, or even some of the posters around the “geek’s” bed room will also link the poster with the video.

Another idea could be, instead of the Ghosts picture, character name /nickname have the band member’s pixel image name and then what they do within the band, E.g. Bob/ lead singer. Then Mute math at the top of the page with spotlight underneath. We could also interoperate the font from a Mute math poster which is already out there, or keep it with the retro font.

Instead of the Pacman idea we could change it to Space Invaders, for instance the green block could become the band and instead of the aliens replace them with letters and have the band name and song title there instead.
Or another idea we have had for the poster is to take a still from the video and put the band and song tile over the top of it to make it look like a poster which they have already released. Such as one of their current posters.

2009-11-18T06:44:00.000-08:00

This scene from the film school of rock is when Jack expains the song and the performance to the class. When he expalains the how the performance will start with a black stage and a beam of light, this is similar to our beginning of the music video, except that instead of a stage, it will be a black room. Also, Jack explains how each different band member will come into the song at different times, this will be the same for us except we will have the addition of the spotlights shinning down on each band member as they start.

2009-11-18T06:09:00.000-08:00

The School of rock another good example of a performance with an audience, it also uses some spotlights, not exactly the same as ours but still some usage. We have also taken some shot ideas of the band, like the CU to pan when Jack Black is playing the guitar. 0.18 - 0.32. Plus we really like it:)

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE

2009-11-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

Yay! Mr Green has kindly agreed to let us use the music block for our very dark room, and the hall for the performance based bit, i.e the finale at the end. He has also agreed to let us use the instruments more importantly the drums that we desperatly need. This means that we have basically now got most pf the most important props. A final prop list will be coming soon.

2009-11-12T02:04:00.000-08:00

Shooting Script.
 Shot 1: Zooms out from ECU of Mutemath poster, (maybe MCU of geek if needed.)

 Shot 2: To MCU,

 Shot 3: Then starts to pan around geek’s bedroom,

 Shot 4: To MS/ OTS of geek sitting in front of the TV.

 Shot 5: Zoom into fuzzy TV which then goes to

 Shot 6: MLS of band in a black room showing background (Sometimes MCU if needed) Spotlight shines down on beginning guitar player and bassist as he claps the beat. Then the next spotlight shines down on the drummer and then the singer, as each of the different parts of the song start.

 Shot 7: CU of singer, singing second ahahahahah while moving backwards and forwards, towards and away from camera going from until he sings.

 Shot 8: Fourth ahahahahah Pan around to show singer in front of geek, 2 shot while the singer sings to the geek.

 Shot 9: Bridge to memory – fading, wobbly/ shaking shot

 Shot 10: Black and white two shot, the geek in corridor about to talk to pretty girl (back of head long hair etc.) she walks off and leaves him as he is about to talk to her. (2nd + 3rd line – verse.)

 Shot 11: First “I know” transition back to black room – again Bridge from memory effect (Shot 9)

 Shot 12: (ECU “I know” of singer singing to camera if time/needed)

 Shot 13: POV shot from geeks POV of the singer singing “what do you say x2”

 Shot 14: Quick pan round, with a quick zoom during gap between verse and chorus. (or normal shot transition if fits)

 Shot 15: Two shot of singer putting hand out and singing “just take a fall” with other hand into mic.

 Shot 16: OTS shot of singers slight head pulling the geek towards him

 Shot 17: Then the screen goes black to white or visa versa, like a spotlight editing effect.

 Shot 18: Lands in a hair dressers chair, OTS shot of the geek sitting in the chair, having his hair cut, with the band trying to teach him how to sing the ahahahahah, the bass player and the guitarist on either side taking it in turns to sing it. Then the main singer pops out behind the chair and sings “oh the spotlight is on.”

 Shot 19: Quick zoom into the mirror ECU of the geek in the mirror which then changes to ECU quickly zooming out of bedroom mirror. – OTS

 Shot 20: LS now in the geek’s room, with wardrobe open band pulling clothes out.

 Shot 21: M LS of Geek pulling one of his favourite T-shirts away from lead singer.

 Shot22: Mean while in the background the other band members are pulling things off his walls and off his shelves.

 Shot 23: CU of each of band members pulling stuff.

 Shot 24: ECU of geek despairing at his room being wrecked, “you’re gonna die to try what can’t be done”

 Shot 25: LS of band members grabbing him turning him around and around, getting more intense, the lead singer on the outside singing towards geek. /(OTS/ HA shot of band members going around him, the top of their heads him looking up at camera looking sad and worried./ fish eye of room him still in the middle.

 Shot 26: CU of lead singer singing to the camera quite angry intense. “Now is there nothing like the inside of you anywhere.”

 Shot 27: 2 shot (or other angle) like shot 15 putting hand out and singing “just take a fall”

 Shot 28: OTS shot of the geek putting his hand in the singers like shot 16.

 Shot 29: Spotlight transition like shot 17. (black – white)

 Shot 30: Queensgate, EL HA shot of geek and singer landing in the middle. (if loads if people do a blur of everyone)

 Shot 31: Same shot just the other band members come out and walk fast (to the beat) towards them from each corner/ side.

 Shot 32: LS of the band walking with geek in middle again if loads of people blur them. Singer singing “Oh the spotlight is on, yeah it’s on”

 Shot 33: Tracking in front and at the side of the band going into the shop, picking up out clothes and handing them to the geeks and going over to a changing room.

 Shot 34: LS of band from the side pushing him in the changing room.

 Shot 35: POV shot/ front shot of geek falling into changing room.

 Shot 36: CU of them shutting the curtains.

 Shot 37: sort of LS (of his whole body being in the centre leaning against the wall. “Because everyone would rather watch you fall.”

 Shot 38: Slow/ fast pan that matches beat. (If we can have a visual representation of “Were all in trouble” on the wall next to him, on a poster that camera just goes past.)

 Shot 39: From the pan MLS from an angle that shows band members throwing clothes in the changing room and the geek throwing them back out again. Till the second “And we all are, yeah” to the last “were all in trouble.”

 Shot 40: “just take a fall” MCU of curtain opening.

 Shot 41: “your one of us” panning up to match beat, from the geeks shoes up to his hair, now he is one of them and looks like one of the band members.

 Shot 42: “the spotlight is on” (If time the singer pulls geek through spotlight, like other shots etc.)

 Shot 43: “Ahahahahah” The geeks lands with the rest of the band and starts singing Ahahahahah on stage in front of crowd. (Land on stage either OTS shot from behind, looking over it shows audience.)

 Shot 44: (if shot 43 happens: slow/ quick pan of the band) LA shot from the side showing the geek singing down/ crouching to the audience.

 Shot 45: LS showing crowds top of their heads and hands, clapping etc. And showing the 5 band members. (Maybe glowing hands.)

 Shot 46: Quick pan on singer.

 Shot 47: Quick zoom into the drummer just before “Now your one of us”

 Shot 48: LS of the singing “Now you’re” and the geek singing “ahh” taking it in turns. Still have the band in the background doing stuff.

 Shot 49: second “now you’re, now you’re,” POV from the singer/ LA/ LS of audience playing along, singing having a good time.

 Shot 50: From third “now you’re on off us” LA shot of Bassist, switches to MS of Guitarist.

 Shot 51: MLS – LS – ELS, of the whole band and audience “oh the spotlight is on”

 Shot 52: MS of back of the head – to OTS shot of her walking towards the geek on stage, she now likes him. Shot of both of them, he leans and takes her hand, maybe pulls her through the spotlight (transition) or just goes black/ white at the end.
By Charlotte and Gina!!!

MuteMath Merchandise

2009-11-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

T-shirts, CDs, Posters and Hoodies are some of the most merchandise that MuteMath has to offer.

T-shirts are one of the most popular form of merchandise, they are also good for promoting the band. When people where them they are promoting them.

Diary Entry 3:

2009-11-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

YAY, Gina, Rachael and I have finally finished the storyboard. It to us a while but today victory was ours. Now all we have to do is transfere it to the storyboard. It was a good day yesturday, got a really good idea about how to end it. We started of with another idea but we were stuggling on how to fit it in, but then Gina came up with another really good idea, and it turned out that one flowed better with the other shots, and it also includes an idea that I had at the very beginning of this very long process. Glowing hands, that's all I'm saying :) It also means that we have more of a variety of shots.

2009-11-11T03:12:00.001-08:00

From the 21st second to the 28th is a slow zoom of Gary Barlow clapping and singing with a faint spotlight over him. This has inspired us for one of our shots, then cut to our drummer, and then to our crowd.

This has other shots included that we are thinking about using for the finale. as this also is a performance based peice infront of an audience, this is very similer to what we had in mind. Some of the shots show the audience's hands in the air, their dancing and having fun while the band plays. We want to include this in ours. we also got the idea of the CU of the drummer and other band members from this performance. Obviously our song will be quicker so the transistions and zooms will be quicker as to fit in with the song.

Diary Entry 2

2009-11-10T07:19:00.000-08:00

Today Gina, Rachel and I drew some more pictures on our storyboard. We are now up to the bridge. As Gina wrote in the last diary entry, we have already nearly finished the shooting script, we only have to make sure that the end of the song flows well and then that part of the planning process will finally be finished, HALLELUJAH! Who ever thought that creating a narrative for a song would be such a long and difficult process. Once the shooting script is finished we will be able to finish the storyboard, and then its on to filming.
Oh yeh, that remindes me of another part of the planning process we did today. We drew up a list of people who would be playing each part and the locations that we will be using. Adam and Jamie have very kindly agreed to take part, Adam will be the lead singer where as Jamie has volunteered as the drummer. We've got two other people in mind to play the parts of the guitarist and geek but as they havn't confirmed yet we better not say names. The location is just about sorted as well, for the dark room at the beginning of the video we hope to use one of the rooms in the music block, for the stage at the end of the video we hope to use the school hall. At least for these locations we won't have to travel far, I remember last year's media coursework when although the shooting was mostly in one location, it was not always the easiest place to get to. It was alright if we wanted to shoot straight after school coz Gina's mum was able to take us, but we were usually shooting till late and held her up a bit. This time tho, if we want to shoot straight after school it won't be so much of a problem.
We also talked about drawing up a rota for the filming. It was Gina's brilliant idea, (I know I said Gina and brilliant in the same sentence but it does happen occasionally). Basically, when one person is filming, another will be directing and the other will be either shooting the backstage video or taking backstage pictures. Then the next day, the roles will change and so on. We're doing this so that we all get an equal chance at everything.
Even tho we have done all this work today we've still got a lot more to do, geezze, I know what your thinking, how much more can there be? But trust me, there's a lot more, and that isn't even including the editing yet! But even tho it seems like I'm complaining a lot, I still enjoy it :) Still more diary entries to come about the progress :)

2009-11-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

MuteMath Music Video - Typical

2009-11-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

The video is set in mostly the same location throughout. This again is a similarity with other MuteMath music videos, which are again set in the same location throughout most of the video.

The style of the mise-en-scene is not a typical setting, with quite unusual props and features added to it, this would link with the song as it's about breaking out of the `typical`. The dark background means that the bright and colourful props and features stand out, drawing the audience’s attention to these. The costume is very much the MuteMath style, the smart casual suites. This helps the audience recognise them almost instantly. The lights which are displayed as a backdrop at the back of the setting flash in time with the beat, adding to the excitement of the video. When it comes to the positioning of the band members, the lead singer is at the forefront of the group throughout the video, as the lead singer he is the one that the audience are going to focus on the most, so therefore it makes sense for him to be positioned at the front.

There are a very little variety of camera angles used in this video. At the beginning, there is an extreme close up of the bassist starting the song, the camera then zooms out to reveal the rest of the set at a medium long shot. The camera then stays stationary throughout the rest of the video, with the two exceptions, one near the beginning when the camera zooms back inwards to a medium shot for the next scene, this involves the lead singer positioned alone with a white background and paint, the camera then zooms back out again to the medium long shot like before including all the band members in the set. The only other time the camera moves/changes is when the camera pans upwards to a high angle shot lasting approximately 20 seconds.

The lack or variety or camera angles are made up largely with the editing. There are sections which have been sped up and others which have been slowed down. The whole video has been shot with the actions being done forwards and the lyrics being spoken backwards, so during the editing process, they would have reversed the footage to create the effect shown in the video. This effect can also be seen in the video of `The Scientist` by the band Coldplay. It is a common effect used as although it can take a long time to film, the finished effect adds interest to the video, especially when the video largely is performance based and without it, can become quite boring. Also the movement is all in time with the video, which works well with the reverse effect.

Overall there are many consistencies between this MuteMath music video and other MuteMath music videos, for example, the fact that the video is very performance based. The use of the reverse effect is a good use as without it, the video may have been very boring due to there being next to no narrative.

2009-11-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAtXKS9ZxvM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAtXKS9ZxvM

2009-11-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

Pitch Presentation, Imogen Heap and MutMath.

PItch Presentation

See more presentations by GinaNic | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

2009-11-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

About the label, Warner Brothers record label.

History
Warner Bros. Records opened for business on March 19, 1958, above the film studio's machine shop at 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California. Prompting the label's creation was when Warner Bros. Pictures contract actor Tab Hunter scored a #1 hit in 1957 with "Young Love" for Dot Records. To Warners' chagrin, reporters were primarily asking about the hit record, instead of Hunter's latest Warner movie. The company quickly signed Hunter to the newly formed record division, and while his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate the success that he had with Dot, the fledgling Warner Bros. Records was nonetheless successful.
In 1960, the company signed the Everly Brothers (which were previously on Cadence Records) with the first ever million-dollar contract in history. The same year, they also released two albums by Bob Newhart, which both won Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. In 1963, Warner Bros. Records purchased Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise Records—the acquisition proved very lucrative, as Reprise remains in the WBR fold to this day. In 1964, the label negotiated with Disques Vogue for the right to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US, beginning with "Downtown." Eight years later, in 1972, Dionne Warwick was brought to the label after leaving Scepter Records in a deal that was the biggest contract at the time for a female artist. Warwick's five years at Warners would greatly pale in comparison to her tenure at Scepter, both personally and professionally.
In 1967, Warner Bros. (including WBR) was sold for $85 million to Seven Arts Productions and renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Two years later, the company was sold to Kinney National Company (later renamed Warner Communications.) In 1971, Warner Communications established WEA; the pooling together of Warner Bros. Records, Elektra and Atlantic, to form a larger umbrella for its music entities under which they could operate. In 1990, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. In 1991, WEA was renamed Warner Music. In 2000, Time Warner merged with AOL creating AOL Time Warner. Finally, in March 2004, a group of private investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought the Warner Music Group from Time Warner. Today Warner Bros. Records remains one of Warner Music Group's most dominant labels, having exactly 121 artists on the label. WMG enjoys a royalty-free license from Time Warner for the use of Warner Bros. trademarks; this could be revoked if WMG becomes under control of a major motion picture studio.
American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi was appointed to vice president of A&R in 2008.

Warner Brothers Record Labels is a very popular label it promotes bands and artists such as: Adam Sandler
Alanis Morissette
Arctic monkeys
Amour for sleep
Avenged Sevenfold
Craig David
Damian Rice
Daniel Powter
Eric Clapton
Enya
Goo Goo dolls
Green day
HIM
Madonna
Meg and Dia
Metallica
Muse
Mute Math
My chemical romance
Oasis
R.E.M
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Stevie Nicks
Taking Back Sunday
The Raconteurs
The subways
The Used
The Veronica
The White Stripes

For each artist it has a main page that directs the audience to the artists/ bands actual website, it also directs them to a myspace, facebook or Twitter page, so the audience can feel that they are in touch with their favourite famous people. The label boasts many famous bands old and new which appeals to the older and younger artist.
The record label website itself has a Blog, Video bank, Live Feed, Street network, Store and a Mobile link. These are all things that appeal to a modern audience thats used to comunicating using wireless technology. This means that they can keep in touch with band news and keep up to date with the latest updates surrounding the band. As Warner brothers is a well known brand it makes it easier to promote bands for different audiences. It also means that as its a gollomate company they have lots of money to spend on promotion, they are a very big company. But they best known for their films, big films such as Harry Potter amang others which means they also own the rights to comercial space surrounding their films making it easier to monopalise the music market.

2009-11-09T06:31:00.000-08:00

How MuteMath are represented.

MuteMath's record label is Warner Brothers records.

In January 2006, the band set out on a tour in support of their self-titled debut album. It was independently released in response to Warner Music Group's indecision on what to do with Mute Math resulting in a marketing stalemate and the threat of the whole project getting shelved. So by late 2005, Teleprompt filed suit against Warner Music requesting Mute Math to be released from their contract while Teleprompt would proceed to promote and sell Mute Math’s self-titled debut on its own. (see Teleprompt Controversy for more details).
Cover of the live DVD Flesh and Bones Electric Fun, released March 2007.The special edition of the album was only available as a "tour-only" release until it hit the Internet on Teleprompt's online store, selling more than 10,000 copies in its first month. Mute Math landed on the covers of Billboard and Pollstar[1] being featured in Alternative Press[2], Paste[3], and Spin[4] as well as on the MTV News program 'You Hear It First'[5]. The group continued to tour vigorously, playing shows to crowds of thousands at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Van's Warped Tour, V Festival, CMJ Music Marathon in New York City, and Voodoo Music Experience in their hometown of New Orleans.
After months of legal wrangling with parent label Warner Bros. Records, Teleprompt settled litigation out of court in August 2006 with a re-negotiated contract with Warner.
WBR re-released the band's debut album Mute Math on September 26, 2006. The fully remastered album features reworked tracks from their Reset EP[6] and a bonus limited-edition live EP. The album debuted at #17 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.[7]
The band returned to the road in early 2007 with opening dates for The Fray & Wolfmother in various cities and a brief headlining tour in Europe. Flesh And Bones Electric Fun, an exclusive live DVD was released on March 20, 2007 with an accompanying 43-city North American tour that ran through the first of May.

Diary Entry 1

2009-11-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

HEHE! Charlotte and I have been working very hard over the last few weeks trying to come up with good ideas for our video - no seriously we were but we got stuck about half way through the song as to what we were going to do, we had a solid narrative but nothing followed that. After a couple of days we were getting fed up, frustrated that we suddenly couldnt think of anything. Yesterday Charlotte and I were doing the media in the morning when all of a sudden after days of miserable nothing it all came flooding out, literally like a apiphanie. I started off with a good setting then Charlotte came up with shots and we both did about half the song in twenty minutes! quickly I opened word and started typing everything we had so we didnt forget anything we would desperatly need later on, as its me i usually have a good idea but then cant remember five minutes after. we did the first verse and chorus in this short time. Then it was lunch... i had coffee it was either a mistake or a blessing cause once again i was quite hyper and unforunatly for my group wanted to get ideas out as quick as possible while trying to explain what i meant in my head to them. Eventually we had a good idea about what was going on taking ideas from everyone and putting them together meant that we could finish most of the rest of the song. We recorded it on the shooting script which we have now near enough finished and then we recorded it on the storyboard with little drawings. Lucky ly the song we have choosen is the kind of song that you canlisten to over and over again and not get sick of it cause we must have magenged to get through listening to it about one hundred times in the last two days. - more diary entries to come about the progress:)

Location Pictures - Queensgate

2009-11-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Queensgate shopping centre which we plan to use as location for a section of the song. Here, the band will be seen arriving after jumping into the spotlight from the geek's bedroom. If there are a lot of people, then we will blur them to centre the attention on the band. First there will be an areal shot like the top middle picture or the bottom left picture. This will then change to a long shot of the band walking towards the camera like the top left picture or the middle middle picture. We decided on a shopping centre as part of our music video narrative, we have the band members changing the geek's image, the shopping centre will be where they change his style of clothes. We chose Queensgate as it is close to us so is easy for us to get to.

2009-11-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

A transition idea for the memory sequence. . . what i've been trying to explain! :) The transisition when he gets kicked by the horse, from 0.14 - 0.22. the water mark effect fade might be used in the transition from when he remembers about the girl.

The Story Board and Shooting Script

2009-11-05T04:25:00.000-08:00

Our first draft of the story board was disgarded as we found that we had missed alot of shots out and some of our ideas had changed. So we decided that before the second storyboard would be drawn we would complete the shooting script. In this we included every shot that would be used. But starting off was slow as we found that we didn't have many ideas. However, once one great idea was put forward we found that more great ideas were being put forward and it wasn't long before we had completed the shooting script. From this we were able to draw the completed storyboard.

costume for the `Geek`

2009-10-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

The geek glasses here will help the audience recognise that he is a geek. They may also symbolise that he is a shy character, hiding behind his big glasses. He is the character with the main focus on him. The narrative follows him in his transformation from shy geek, to confident popular kid.

We want the hair to be curly/frizzy. Again this will help the audience recognise that he is a geek. This will change towards the end of the song as his image transforms.

Here are some effects that we may use for the video

2009-10-22T01:26:00.000-07:00

The style of clothing, smart casual, is the costume we will be using for the band members

The effect here uses an outline and contrast effect, the image looks more defined.

The image here uses a paintbrush effect to make the image look as though it has been drawn or sketched. This may work for the beginning as the narrative may start of with the `Geek` characters drawing the band, then the pictures sort of become reality.

This image uses a gravel effect. It is a good effect as it doesn't distort the image too much. This is only an idea though and we may find when editing that it doesn't fit with the rest of the video.

2009-10-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

Some setting ideas and other pictures

2009-10-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

Colour ideas-

Common colours we see thought out our images are black, red, gold and occasionally silver. I looked at the old style theater posters by Vaudeville, and eventually found a modern poster based on this style which fits in with our colour scheme perfectly. As you can see it is a rather dark poster with a small joke. it has the main colours of black and red but has various dark er golds and yellowish colours. i also added some effects on the picture using Adobe photoshop which works rather well. I used the spot healing brush tool to adjust a variety of things such as the font and used the poster edges tool to make the poster bolder.

(original to the right, adjusted one on the left.)

2009-10-19T02:04:00.000-07:00

Mood Board: Some ideas that surround our video, font, images etc and other ideas such as costume that are all indie rock style.

Mise-en-scene

2009-10-15T02:26:00.000-07:00

Props which we will need for the music video include stereotypical thinks which are connected to the Rock genre, such as the electric and base guitars,drums and also the microphone, which our band will need. To keep with the bands usual costume we will need to dress our "band" in Mutemaths style. For example, the suits they wear, skinny ties but also wearing converse shows. We will also need to use a large stage and/or club to film in which we would be able to also use lights over the band.

For costume design we are going to try and keep it to Mutemaths style as possible. Their style is based on the Teddy boy style of clothing where young men would wear clothes inspired by the styles of the Edwardian period. The style started in London in the 1950s and rapidly spread across the UK, soon becoming strongly associated with American rock and roll. To modernise this style, bands such as Mutemath, have added and taken away from the "Teddy" style. For instance they sometimes wear "drainpipe" trousers and the brogues shoes, but sometimes replace them with skinny jeans and converse style trainers to add the essence of the punk genre, as well as the 50s rock n roll.

Mutemath Moodboard

2009-10-14T12:04:00.001-07:00

Mutemath Genre Characteristics

2009-10-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

New wave – The new wave was originated and introduced in 1976 in Great Britain by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren as an alternative label for what was also being called `Punk`. The term referred to Avant-garde French New wave film movements of the 1960s. The label of the New Wave was soon picked up by British punk frenzies such as `Sniffin Glue` and then soon after, the professional music press. For a period of time in 1976 and 1977 the two terms were interchangeable. But by the end of 1977, the term `New Wave` had replaced `Punk` as the definition for new underground music in the UK and had emerged as a movement in its own rights by 1979, incorporating aspects of mod subculture, electronic music, disco and punk. During the 1980s, the US’s New Wave became a catch-all term that applied to new British style music acts and in particular, general synth pop acts. The 1990s and 2000s has seen rivals and a number of acts that have been influenced by a variety of New Wave styles. The regional scenes of New Wave are Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, UK, US and Yugoslavia.

Electronic Rock – Electronic rock is also commonly known as electro-rock, digital rock or synth-rock. It is the combination of electronic music with traditional rock music. The main idea of development of Electronic Rock would be the utilisation of new digital technologies in the recording, writing and live production of rock music. The main cultural origins of Electronic Rock are mid 1990s New York and Manchester.

Christian Rock – Christian Rock is a form of rock music played by bands whose members are Christians. The lyrics are largely based on matters concerned with the concept of Christian faith. The Christian Rock genre is most popular in the US, although world wide popularity is common with some bands.

Psychedelic Rock – Psychedelic Rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic cultures. It is also influenced by attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering of psychedelic drugs. Among British and US garage and folk rock bands during the mid 1960s was when psychedelic rock emerged. It bridged the transformation from early blues based rock to progressive rock, art rock, experimental pop, hard rock and eventually heavy metal. The culture origins of Psychedelic Rock are the mid 1960s UK and US.

Post Rock – Post Rock is the genre of alternative rock. It is characterised by the use of musical instruments that are commonly associated with rock music but using rhythms, harmonies, melodies, timbre and chord progression that is not normally associated with that of rock traditions. Although Post Rock is rooted in the Indie or Underground scenes of the 1980s and 90s, the style often bears little familiarity musically with that of Indie Rock. The mainstream popularity of Post Rock has been limited highest in the early 000s, but has steadily been increasing since 2006. The cultural origins of this style of music is late 1980s early 90s in Canada, the US and the UK. The regional scenes of the Post Rock genre are Montreal, Iceland, Chicago, Louisville and Glasgow.-]

By Charlotte :)

2009-10-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts of the video.

♪http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry6GAwDCI2I - Spotlight music video.
Some pictures from the video, very much performance based not much of a narrative. Quite a random theme that appeals to audience, weird things going on in the back of the car. Quite Indie clothing and the band are completly performing to the camera i.e. audience. The edits fit the beat of the song which is quite fast and there is a MCL of the boot of the car so you can see the whole band as play and get their instruments. In our video we are going to have a strong narrative throughout that fits with the lyrics unlike the video at the moment which only fits in with the music and the beat. This type of video shows how something can be made in a small budget and doesnt have to have loads included in it to be appealing depending on the audience, obviously if it was can R+B audience this would be very different and have a massive budget.

By Gina and Charlotte

2009-10-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Some typical pictures of MuteMath: By Gina

2009-10-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

MuteMath Official website analysis.

♪The website features all the typical things a normal band website would include. Mutemath has the logo along the top so its the first thing the audience will see.
♪Its colour scheme is mostly green and natural colours. That feature on the album cover, EP and other mechanise.
♪There are links to other pages about Muetmath like FaceBook and MySpace. Which let the audience have easy access to other promotional parts of the band.
♪The whole website is designed to inform fans and appeal to any potential fans.
♪It also features a blog which lets fans know exactly what the band is doing and makes them feel as if they are a special fan to the band makes the page feel more personal.
♪Something that makes it different is that Fans can order DVDs, CDs and posters etc. From all over the world.

2009-10-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Queens' Bohemian Rhapsody has a lot of ideas, which we would be able to use for our Mutemath video, "Spotlight". For instance, the video starts with the four members of Queen standing all in black with a grayish/white background. It then goes all black and spotlights shine from above to reveal each members face and shoulders. It then cuts to the band in white suits, making the video partly performance based. It shows the lead singer with the bass guitarist in the background, and when there is a guitar solo it cuts to the lead guitarist.After about two minutes two and a half in then goes back to the over the head spot light of the band. Within this part of the clip there are many singular shots of each member and just as many of the group. This would work for our video as there are four members of Mutemath and also consists of a lead singer, bass guitarist, electric guitarist and drummer. At the end of the video it goes back to the performance narrative and the band finishes the song.

2009-10-06T04:25:00.000-07:00

Lyrics for Mutemaths "Spotlight"

Into = 0.25
(Ahh ahh, ahh ahh) =0.37

You got a whole lot left to say now = 0.41

You knocked all your wind out = 0.47

You just tried too hard and you froze = 0.55

I know, I know = 1.01

What to say, what to say = 1.07

Just take the fall = 1.11

You're one of us = 1.14

The spotlight is on = 1.16

(Ahh ahh) = 1.21

Oh the spotlight is on, oh = 1.28

You know the one thing you're fighting to hold=1.33

Will be the one thing you've got to let go = 1.40

And when you feel the wall cannot be burned = 1.44

You're gonna die to try what can't be done = 1.47

Gonna stay stay out but you don't care = 1.51

Now is there nothing like the inside of you anywhere = 1.54

Oh just take the fall = 1.58

You're one of us = 2.02

The spotlight is on = 2.05

(Ahh ahh) = 2.08

Oh the spotlight is on, yeah it's on = 2.15

gap = 2.28

Because everyone would rather watch you fall= 2.33
And we all are, yeah = 2.37

And we all are, yeah = 2.39

Just take a fall = 2.42
You're one of us = 2.46

The spotlight is on = 2.49

(Ahh ahh) = 2.51

Oh the spotlight is on = 2.54

(Just take the fall) = 2.58

Now you're one of us = 3.00
Now you're, now you're, now you're, now you're one of us = 3.06

Now you're, now you're, now you're one of us = 3.11

Oh the spotlight is on = 3.13

(Ahh ahh) = 3.20

By Charlotte and Gina:)

2009-10-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

Alternative rock, new wave, electro rock, Christian rock, psychedelic rock and post rock with ambient vocals

Similar artists: The Black Ghosts, People in Planes, Stereophonics, Anberlin, Amber Pacific, Friendly Fires, Incubus, Paramore.

Target audience: People who like “pop” rock music. Not too heavy, feel good uplifting music. Probably Teenage, young adult audience due to the new wave feel. Both female and male orientated due to the lyrics that can appeal to everyone. As they were featured on the Twilight soundtrack they also appeal to people who are fans of that.

By Gina

2009-10-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

MuteMath:

A Grammy Award nominated American rock band from New Orleans that formed in 2003. Their music consists of many elements such as alternative rock, new wave, electro rock, Christian rock, psychedelic rock, and post-rock with ambient vocals. The group consists of Paul Meany on Rhodes piano, bass, keytar, keyboards, samples, vocals, and more recently, guitar; Darren King on drums, samples, and programming; Greg Hill on guitar, piano, vocals, and sometimes using his floor pedals as an instrument; and Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas on bass guitar, upright bass, and bass drum.
How they formed - They started out though in 2001 as a long distance collaboration between Paul Meany in New Orleans Louisiana and Darren King in Springfield Missouri. They had previously known each other from Meany’s previous Christian Group `Earthsuit`. They began by King sending Meany demo CDs, Meany was impressed and with permission from King added some of his own ideas to the CDs. Darren King then moved to New Orleans to replace the drummer of Earthsuit which eventually ended and both Darren King and Paul Meany started out as the bad `Math`. Guitarist Greg Hill then joined the band and soon after they decided to leave their current manager and go on a new venture and do things on their own. After hearing that `Math` was already being used as a name for another band, they changed their band name to `Mute Math`. They used Social Networking sites like My Space to spread word of their group. Their music consists of many elements. Each element has its own history and background.

By Charlotte

2009-10-06T04:12:00.000-07:00

Imogen Heap - say goodnight and go video analysis. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9athUdhH40

Genre Characteristics: Electronica, Alternative, Indie, Pop, Rock, Ambient. Quite quirky costume that matches, hair style. Weird props that are influenced by the electronic parts of the song. Lots of LS, MLS, MCUs and CUs of the artist herself performing to the song and the lyrics. Quite girly lyrics and backdrop, appeals to female audience.

Relationship between lyrics + visuals: Quite childish, starts off as black and white, story about a love story but has modern lyrics. "Why do you have to be so cute?" actually singing it to someone. "You’re taking everything off" her hand gestures show clothes coming off. "Flicking through the TV, relaxed and reclining and you think your alone" she’s in the TV as she is talking to him, he’s not alone cause she’s still talking to him. "Come stay with me" little dolls of her and the man she loves dancing in a miniature house. She stops and he winds her up like a doll, wants to hear what she has to say. Quite realistic "but then the heating may be down again" showing a cute storyline but then the money side comes in to it.

Relationship between music and visuals: music quite slow to begin with, edits and shots reflect this, so does her acting as it gets faster her hand gestures get faster. And panning and zoom also gets faster and slower parts of the song.

Close ups Etc. + image motifs: lots of CUs of her miming the lyrics and acting to them showing how she feels * closing eyes etc. CUs of the various toys and fading into the middle part of the song between the toys, little house and other strange things makes it seem like a dream world. Image motifs, its imogen heaps motif to have mad hair, strange costume as this fits to her type of music. Always has strange backdrops (headlock video completely white background) Juxtaposition between the backdrop of the dirty room, looks quite horrible and the fairy lights, candles and costume. In the little dolls house it has imogen heap and the guy she likes in the house in a replica of the room she’s in herself.

Notion of looking: Man looking through his TV at her. Not really male gaze as this would contradict the lyrics of being an innocent child like love story. POV shots of the ECU of toys makes it feel quite intimidating and like your actually there.
Notion of looking into the dolls house.

Intertextual references: reminds me of Cinderella and other such childish love stories. But a modern twist to it. Juxtaposition again between the dress/ costume whole mise-en-scene compared to the modern lyrics.

P.B., N.B., and C.B.: Performance and narrative based. As she is very much performing in front of a camera, she’s always performing while telling the story (narrative) the story is between her and the man she loves who she is performing to through the TV.
By Gina

2009-10-06T04:08:00.001-07:00

The lyrics and timings for "Closing In" by Imogen Heap.
Intro = 0.17
I can't wait = 0.21
To be with you = 0.24
No I just can't sit still, = 0.28
Are we there yet? = 0.33
Takes me back,(x3) = 0.37
I remember = 0.41
Such a magical place = 0.46
It was all you... = 0.51
Closing in = 0.54
I hope that you make it = 0.59
Closing in = 1.02
I hope that you find your way = 1.09
(gap = 1.25)
Frame by frame, = 1.29
Red speed ahead = 1.34
A city dissolving, = 1.38
The threat of your love in the headlights = 1.42
Is it safe now? = 1.45
Will your arms be open? = 1.50
I just have to kiss you, = 1.53
Try and stop me = 1.58
Closing in = 2.01
I hope that you make it = 2.06
Closing in = 2.11
I hope that you find your way = 2.16
Closing in = 2.19
It’s all that I want in the whole world = 2.24
Closing in = 2.27
Please be there, please be there = 2.32
What are you like? = 2.37
Where did you get to? = 2.41
No word no nothing = 2.45
You didn't hold me, for any longer = 2.51
Did you walk for the fear of love? = 2.55
Or don't you believe enough? = 2.59
Well I'll cover both of us = 3.02
You can leave that to me! = 3.08
(gap= 3.41)
Closing in = 3.42
I hope that you make it = 3.47
Closing in = 3.50
I hope that you find your way = 3.58
Closing in...closing in... = 4.09
Gap = 4.42
By Gina and Charlotte:)

2009-10-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

Electronica, Alternative, Indie, Pop, Rock, Ambient
Similar artists: Zoe Keating, Jon Hopkins, Kate, A Final Frenzy, Florence and the Machine. Target audience: according to the website, albums and other merchandise, she appeals to teenagers, young adults but mainly females. We can tell this also by the lyrics as she mainly sings about relationships from the female’s point of view. The technical parts of the songs (the electronic sounds) appeal to a modern audience who like the type of music. She is also part of the MySpace and other such communication website scene, which lets her appeal to a wider audience. For example she has a lot of friends on her MySpace which mean she can promote to all sorts of audiences.

2009-10-01T02:29:00.000-07:00

Imogen Heap:
Imogen Heap (born 9 December 1977 in the London Borough of Havering) is a Grammy nominated English singer and songwriter from Romford, Havering. She is known for her work as part of Frou Frou and for her 2006 solo record Speak for yourself, which she wrote, produced and mixed. In 2006, Heap was nominated for two Grammy Awards. She has produced three solo albums, the latest of which is 2009's Ellipse which was an immediate North American chart success. She first started out in a band called Frou Frou. But she wasn’t really part of the band, her live performances were classed as unmissable and her profile grew. Critics commented on how her voice sounded the same in the performances, with the help of piano she perform the songs she had written for the first album. Her music was then featured on the popular program The O.C. and then released on the soundtrack her fan base increased.