Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Risk Assessment and Safety Measures

During filming risks will be present. Some of these are:

  • Loose wires or mise-en-scene provide unwanted tripping hazards for actors and/or the production team. To prevent this we could move all objects out of the way unless they are needed, and also tie any loose cables/wires up to maximise safety. This is also the case with heavy objects such as a piano or a drum kit. To avoid these objects falling on actors or crew we can make sure they are kept clear of unless they are needed.
  • As we are in a theatre, the floor will be quite slippery, which could cause crew and/or actors to slip and injure themselves. To avoid injury, we can ensure that shoes are worn at all time and that if any surface is slippery at all then we need to clean it up and make sure that it is safe to work on, especially for the production team and the camera operator. We will inspect the condition of the surfaces when deciding which locations we will use in our video.
  • If lights shining on the stage are too bright, then the person in the light may be susceptible to being blinded and therefore may damage their eyes or vision. Before we start to even 'dry run' through the shots, we need to make sure that the lights (if used) are at a safe brightness and that our actors will not be in danger of being blinded.
  • This is also the case with volumes of instruments. If we allow the musicians featuring in our music video then we can ensure greater control of volume with little adjustment needed throughout. This makes sure that the instruments do no exceed a safe volume level and therefore do not put anyone at risk of damaging their hearing.

Friday, 19 June 2009

Marmaduke Duke - 'Duke Pandemonium' CD Cover Analysis

Duke Pandemonium, the debut album from Marmaduke Duke, released in 2009 features a front cover which could be said to dazzle your eyes. The cover features many different colours of the spectrum in small chequered squares to bring across vibrance on the part of the band. This is the underlayer to a black and white circle in the left quadrant of the cover. The white writing stands out, as it features on a large black background, and the font is quite classy and elegant. This could also say that the act may dress higher class on some of their videos, in their stage costume or act in general. This cover definitely attracts the eye, which is what a band would want in attracting an audience.

"Rubber Lover" by Marmaduke Duke Video Analysis

The music video for Marmaduke Duke's 'Rubber Lover' is an animated narrative video featuring a man with yellow eyes and a bird character of approximately the same build. They are playing poker or some sort of card game against a pig-looking character in a club/pub surrounded by women dancing in bikinis and very raunchy costume in time with the music. Although we don't see the other characters until 2 lines into the first verse at around 32 seconds. The camera pans around the room during the introduction and start of the first verse with what we depict as medium shots or medium-close up shots of the environment and the female dancers. The title 'Rubber Lover' is presumably an innuendo for sexual activity. There is a wide range of shots such as over the shoulder shots, close ups of the characters during their card game, which shows in detail the expressions and 'poker faces' of the characters. When the chorus comes in after our main character turns over a queen of hearts, the camera moves into the suit symbol and shows another dimension, which our two main characters; the man and his bird; are somehow transported to. It seems like some sort of fantasy world. When the verse comes back in the camera pans around the bird in the fantasy world and on the beat we see the characters in the club again at the table playing cards. After the final chorus when the main character is back in the fantasy world we fade back into 'reality' in the club and the creature he played cards with has disappeared and in the corner we see the bird with another man, who we assume is a friend of his.

Slipknot CD Cover Analysis

This is the Album cover for Slipknot's self titled debut album from 1999. This album features the song "Spit it Out" which i analysed for one of my videos. The album cover as you can see features nine men; all of whom make up this band, and because they are all in the middle they instantly attract your attention. The band logo at the top is smaller because it would draw you away from the actual artists. The band are wearing masks and red/orange jumpsuits, which is infact their act and how their fans see them. It is their 'act'. This is how we see them in their performance shots of the video for most songs on the album which did make videos; including 'Spit It Out'. I assume the idea was to advertise them 'raw' and how we should expect to see them so we have a good image of what the videos will look like. The dark colours and intimidating stage costume also gives an insight into their style of music; heavy metal.

'Spit It Out' - Slipknot Video Analysis

  • Tracking Shot behind the drummer of his body to start with
  • Camera cuts to torso and face of drummer riding tricycle to white door with two little girls holding hands in the frame. The camera cuts to medium-long shot of the door frame and the little girls standing in it.
  • Camera uses match-on-action to show little girls change into two other band members with a quick white fade out then back in lasting about and music starts (editing on the beat). They are dressed the same as the girls and standing the same as them, perhaps showing another side of the girls?
  • Cuts to the vocalist in a close up shot of him singing as the lyrics start to come in - Lip Syncing
  • Cuts to each band member using medium-close ups or close-ups of them playing their instruments and headbanging in time with the music. The speed of cuts is in time with the drum beat, which relates to the genre of heavy metal (fast paced and energetic)
  • Cuts to crowd to show reaction and liveliness of band
  • Fast paced camera shots show the energy produced by the band and support the genre of music the video is for. If the music was any slower there would be too much contrast between the pacing of the camera shots and the speed of music and it would not be aesthetically pleasing to a viewer.
  • As the song ends and the music cuts out we have diagetic music and it cuts back to the drummer riding the tricycle from the beginning shots to keep the continuity going (As this is also the establishing shot of the video) because the tricycle was the first focus and it is the last in the videos.