Pre-existing videos

Winger Video Analysis

This promo video is by the band ‘Winger’ in which we chose to analyse to get a greater insight into what makes their video so successful. We chose this video because it looks the most professional out of the others we found, and thought that if we could take some of the methods used within this video we would do well – using these as an advantage. The only problem that we have is neither of us has really created a video before, so we would have to get used to new software in order to pull it off. We compared a few different programs to the way that ‘Winger’ made theirs and we found that the same effects were on Windows Movie Maker, which was perfect because all the computers at in sixth form had this software installed.

The video starts with the bands sponsor which is a small animation of a glass prism rotating with the record companies name on one side. Having the name of a record company on a video is a great way to show prestige and how successful the band is. If you’ve been signed by a record company you gain advertisement and have the foundations to start releasing albums. The shot then moves on to the bands name (Winger) which is in a dark red sharp font which in relation to their logo (their name is backed upon) could be seen as a shred or tear marks from a bird. Their name also gives a motif to the font, being called ‘Winger’ the idea of a winged animal comes to mind and this is backed up by their logo which has an eagle in the background. This is why the font has been chosen because now the audience can associate their logo, name and font with this band. This then fades away to reveal an image of the whole band sat together – in a medium shot. Most music videos we have seen have a large picture of the whole band in them, the reason? Simply, it shows everyone who takes part in creating the music and shows them all as equal. The image is saturated of its entire colour, leaving it in black and white. Black and white can sometimes make images look of a higher quality because you don’t have the unpleasant blending of colours that sometimes occur.

After a quick fade edit, the singer of the band is sat on his own (using another medium shot, perhaps to show that the band is quite relaxed and not so hot headed like other bands) and tells us about how they created their latest album and that their first song on the album was ‘Deal with the devil’. In this scene we are unsure of where this interview is actually taking place, all we have to go off is a brick wall, and a vase – I guess we can presume that it’s his house because of the way he is sat (clearly comfortable, and relaxed) and the vase on the side (rather homely). Whilst the interview is taking place, the track ‘Deal with the devil’ is being played quietly under his voice. The scene then changes to the band members practicing playing that song – as the music gets louder. This works pretty well and is interesting how they’ve done it. It keeps the entire video moving, almost makes the whole video flow. After about 8 seconds of the singer talking, different images and videos of the band members are shown with intervals of very quick fade edits. These videos were took in a house or practice facility of theirs, we know this because of what the mise-en-scene shows us, the large amps, pictures framed on the wall and playing in front of a window. Although the amps would be common of a studio the other two aren’t so we understand they are practicing for that song and that their playing in their own facility. Whilst they are playing we get short shorts of each and every band member, and we soon relate faces to what position they play in the band. We know this because of the iconography behind them and their instruments. We know who the bassist is because of the instrument we see him playing, same goes for the others. So, the members are introduced subtlety.

After the song finishes (which is in about 15 seconds from when the band starts playing – as It started more than 2/3rds through) the interview with the singer returns and another song is played quietly underneath (getting us prepared for the next song, keeping us interested). This is when the singer – being interviewed, goes on to talking about their second song ‘Stone cold killer’. The interview is shown for about 5 seconds and then the band take over and start playing to that song. This song seems more organised that the last and the scenes are more regular in the way that most the shots seem to be filmed within a studio or a dimmed practice room. This whole song is filmed using a red filter, which gives the idea that its part of a music video or that it was filmed in a studio, which adds to their professionalism. The red filter is also iconic of thought of blood also being red, as well as red being the natural colour for danger. Going more along the lines of blood, it works with the name of the song ‘Stone Cold Killer’ – which would be associated with killings and blood shed; it just helps to set the scene.

Another black fade edit and the interview returns about him talking about how they write the songs and about the composition. This scene is exactly the same as before, in the way that it’s laid out. However, I suppose this works because there is no movement or changing in seen to cause interruption. This then equates to another song, which uses some unusual effects of the band members over lapping whilst they play. This effect looks and feels great with the song their playing, this again makes it look like a top music video and adds some complexity to the otherwise simple music video. The way that the scenes are put together with the overlapping gives the idea of unity and brotherhood, with the band working together to create this music. Whereas, if it were just the band members playing in their own scene (like the first video) we may be under the impression that they are just solo artists creating a track, but because we see them playing in the same seen we understand that they work together to create their music and this reinforced the idea that they are actually a band and not just 4 or 5 people playing at the same time. At the end of this song they use another fade edit – this seems to be their edit of choice but it’s simple and it works. Other edits we have seen on other software packages (used to create videos), including swirl edits and box and grain edits would have been unnecessary and would have ‘cheapened’ the video.

The interview continues for about 5 seconds introducing their last song on their album, which is then played until the end of the video. This song also looks like a complete music video partly because of the way that the vocals are flawless and that in most scenes they are in a darkroom surrounded by amps (which are iconic of the genre they play which is hard rock). Just after the music video finishes, their name appears once more so that they aren’t forgotten – this is the same as the scene we see at the beginning of the music video just after the record company logo is shown. The main idea behind creating a promo video is to stand out and be something different. If you don’t, you won’t likely stand out to these record companies and therefore won’t get a deal.

This promo video works really well, the shots and scenes aren’t too long that they bore you, they are just right. Another thing they do to give who their appealing to a greater taste of the band and the music is to play a few of their songs. A general song lasts approximately 3 minutes (beginning to end) and this promo video last for just over 3 minutes and they play three songs. The idea of using the last few seconds of a song works because we get to hear a variety of different tracks instead of just one full one. This will give the record company a greater insight to the band and the variety in their songs, that they don’t all sound the same. It also shows that they are good at what they do. The quick fade edits give the rest of the video the momentum to flow as well as the background music being played constantly. There is a lot we can take from this video to get ours looking so professional.

Brainstorm

As part of our research into the promo video, we decided, after watching and discussing pre-existing promo videos, to produce a brainstorm of ideas for our own music promo video. We looked for generic codes and conventions within the promo videos we watched, which we can use and apply to our own promo music video. These included iconography, types of shot's used, clothing, camera style and many more factor's which make a music promo video. Our brainstorm is below:

First of all, we looked at the style of camera. This is made up of the shot's used, the style in which still's are taken, the editing and the zoom used on particular shot's. We concluded that overall the shot's we majorly built up with still shots, with quick cut edits, and some more iratic shot's with quick cut edits. There were the occasional cross fade edit's, and some other shot's, but these were the primary shot's and edit's used. Slides were also used quite effectively to display information about the band's. An interesting edit was implemented in one of the videos, which was a fade into black and white from normal colour.

A generic convention used was switching between an interview with band members to shot's of the band in a recording studio, or to live footage of the band playing. This seemed to work very well. The opening sequence of the video often started off with the band logo on the screen, and then a number of slides with information about the band on, I.E date, recording studio name, name of the band etc, basic information a reocrd company might want/need to know. Sometimes this convention was implemented at the end of the videos too.

Secondly we looked at what effects certain conventions have apun their target audience. This will help us greatly when we create our's, as connecting to the audience and gratifying them is the main aim of producing one of these text's.

After looking at the style and feel of the video we decided to look at the iconography of the video's. Iconography is very important in any media text as it creates a sub-concious opinion of the text in the audiences mind. Choosing objects, clothing and locations is a very important tasks as they must coincide with the target audiences beliefs and values. With this in mind we looked for generic codes and conventions within the promo videos we analysed and documented the re-occuring conventions. These were : Guitars, Amps, Drums, Mics, Studio equipment, Jeans, T-shirts and occasionally alcohol and ciggarettes. These iconic images and objects will be included in our promo video.

A generic convention which we picked up on was the use of slided at the start and end of the videos. By this we mean a screen with block colour, with writing on it, which normally had information about the band, such as the band name, band member's etc. Some slides at the start of the video had quotes about the band. The slides at the end of videos was normally when they plan to release their album or when they are doing gigs etc.

A convention used in nearly every music promo video was having the bands music playing in the background, which quietened down a lot when the band members were being interviewed, and was made very loud when they cut into studio and live shot's.

Quite a few videos has images of the band cuting in at points as well.