In our song 'Harms Way' by 'Waco Brothers' they use a few instruments. From What we can hear these are: Acoustic Guitar Electric Guitar Bass Guitar Drums
In our video we want to stray from having band shots as they are very over used and get boring quickly. Because of this the only instrument we are going to use is an acoustic guitar and also only for a small part of the video. This is because the dominate sound , apart from vocals, is the guitar and an acoustic guitar looks the part. the guitar we will use is not in perfect condition and has a couple stickers on it. This however dosent matter as it will go with the bands rough ready image and sound and their punk background.
This is the video for hurt by johnny cash, hurt is a cover of a nine inch nails song. It was one of his last songs recorded and his last video made shortly before his untimely death. It is one of the only country music videos i could find which is why i have posted it. Although it is mostly irrelevant to our video it being a very slow deppressing song and ours being a faster more upbeat song, however it is interesting to see a music video for a artist like this and im sure it will have influence on our video mainly from the flashback scenes of johnny cash younger with his more lively actions and setting.
The Waco Brothers describe themselves as a 'Hard Country group'.
Their sound, although has strong influence from , is different from normal country .
For example artists like johnny cash, June carter , Willie Nelson , Roger Alan Wade and Dolly Parton.
JOHNNY CASH & JUNE CARTER - JACKSON
WILLIE NELSON - ON THE ROAD AGAIN
ROGER ALAN WADE - BB GUN
These bands either have a smart respectable look or carry the 'hillbilly' look and sound however all also have a 'rebel streak' for lack of a better term. They are 'all american' and heroes and role models to many americans and people world wide alike. It is fairly calm acoustic music with minimal instruments with at the most a acoustic guitar , bass and gentle drums. The songs , like Waco brothers, are usually about hardship or having a good time.
Also waco brothers sound is similar to more modern sounding country rock groups like Kid Rock, Sheryl crow and Nickleback.
KID ROCK - ALL SUMMER LONG
Waco brothers also have a faster, wackier sound to them , this may be because a member was in early UK commercial punk band ' The Mekons' .
THE MEKONS - WHERE WERE YOU?
It seems to be that the convention of country , country rock and hard country music videos is not to have a music video at all with only a few songs having them. This makes it hard for us to get influence but also gives us an open leash to create something new and different.
From watching footage of Waco Brothers live the target Audience for Waco Brothers seems to be maily early 20's to middle age men but also strongly women and older and younger people too. They seem to have a very varied audience and fan base.
WACO BROTHERS - WRECK ON THE HIGHWAY (live)
Our video will be aimed at a large target audience without alienating anyone just like thier sound attempts to do. Also due to Waco Brothers fun loving slightly Wacky Nature we will make it different and hopefully make it stand out. Also to make up for the strong american themes and sounds associated with the genre we will include a scene of America particularilly a desert.
We all went round the class and assesed other groups blogs. This is the feedback we got from other groups. it became apparent that we have not carried out a lot of research into the band and their genre. We also got criticised for not going indepth enough about our final idea and need to go into more detail on most things. From our feedback we have decided to make a to-do list of all things to add to our blog by next week.
-Band Research -Genre Research -Target Audience of both Band and our Music Video -Another music video Analysis -Shot types -Mise En Scene , go into depth about clothes worn, setting, props etc. -Research into colours and lighting to use
And also we plan to get all of our props and backdrop finished and painted.
We watched a second student music video (S1-19 Arguments). We thought it was quite a good music video as there was a variety of things to watch and it had an easy to follow narrative. It had a good use of special effects, for example the use of black and white with the couples story, then back to normal when the band were rehearsing. It was a good contrast of coloring which made the video a bit more interesting. We liked the huge variety of camera angles and shots used. The one on the roundabout stands out a lot as it puts the camera in a point of view shot and puts the audience in the place of the girl then the boy. An unusual shot but effective. When the band is rehearsing the camera angle is mostly higher and tilted down upon the playing band. This makes the audience feel as if they are watching the performers but from a security camera or something. It feels a bit more personal. The lip sinking in the video was good and well rehearsed. It fitted to the time of the music which looked good. They created the story well so that it was not boring or unrealistic which was good. It was a believable story and it looked really well done.
The video is 'Come Fi Di Youth' by 'The King Blues'. The song is anti racist , specifically the BNP and the video attempts to show this. The video starts showing a street , the sun is setting as it becomes night. there is a man (singer in the band) looking around at the street. It then quickly changes to a shot of him walking into a room. a couple of other people are putting cans of spray paint into a bag. the walls are plain painted but covered in posters that are anti war and anti BNP , This gives the viewer a feeling of what the band are about and is a way to give the band a set image and reputation. Their are many guitars in the room , this shows the band is very musically orientated and not for glamour or show like many bands attempt to look in their videos. The singer is passionately singing the song while sitting on the sofa as the other people continue to pack up various objects like plastic bags and spray paint. The camera keeps showing posters and newspaper cuttings on the walls, They are all strongly political, for example one reads 'Anarchist Mob In Tesco Terror' and another 'Mayday Mayhem' . this again is giving and supporting the bands open politics and showing viewers exactly what their political views are. The room looks like an average flat and it is very beleivable that it is infact their real home as they seem very comfortable in their surroundings. The band hood up and leave the flat carrying their bags full of graff equipment. The band walk through london suburbs at night the singer still singing the words and the other two just walking behind. They walk past a shop and the singer takes an apple from a rack outside, this looks at a glance like he has stole an apple but then he puts a coin down, this shows the band are relaxed and casual but also not bad people .They carry on walking past construction sites and scaffolding. For a short while the walk turns to a run as they go through a building site with some graffiti up in places , one is a non finished piece reading 'isreal st'... this again aligns the band with the leftist politics. They run past a building and their is large shadows of themselves projected up on the wall, maybe this is to give the impression that although there is only 3 of them that is enough to make a big change. so song slows and gets more minimal with only a up beat guitar strumming slowly and the singing, this is in contrast to the video where the people are now running through a feild. The band stop and start unpacking their spraypaint. They also pull up bandana's over their faces. It is then that you see some graffiti on a wall , it is a swastika , the music basically stops when this happens.this again reafirms they are anti racist and the silence gives a sense of importance to the moment. The band then start lobbing paint bombs at the graffiti and the drums come in matching the throws and giving a powerful affect. The band then swiftly remove stencils and spray baint over the nazi graff. This shows that although the band are wiling to break the law and spray paint they are not bad people as it were. The band then run and you can see they sprayed a very colourfull artistic piece including both a dove and the earth. The song ends and cuts to a CCTV style view of the graffiti as a jogger runs past and glances but pays little attention to the graffiti.
Unlike most music videos the band are not portrayed as glamourous or even particularily charasmatic. the flat at the start is very basic and in comparison to videos by other bands is very modest. They portray themselves as being very normal and nothing special. The actions and movements of the singer are very passionate and aggressive as if he is very serious about the song and this side of life. this contradicts other videos by the band that are very bright and happy with the singer being less aggressive and more bouncy.
The band also are very plainly dressed and mostly in black but not in a goth way but more in a black bloc way. They are wearing t-shirts of a few punk bands , 'Moral Dilema' and 'GBH' this gives an example of music that the band are into, also it may be similar to bands that fans are into creating a sort of unity between fans and band. Later on in the video when the band go out they pull up hoods, hoods are notorious in the media as being worn by young 'hooligans' the band seem to reject this stereotype as they , although are doing graffitti , are supporting racial unity and rejecting hatred and violence.
The camera angles in the video are all mid/close-mid/long shots. They dont use extreme close ups of the band. Various shots of the environment are cut in with shots of the band from usually the same level but sometimes slightly lower. At points the camera tracks them and follows them. The shot changes are very regular not showing one thing for very long, this matches the rush of the video as the band try to carry out something deemed illegal without getting caught.
Overall the video portrays the almost vigilante/robin hood style theme of people committing a crime for good. Also it carries across the idea of unity and that the band are just people.
We watched a student music video (T2-54 Riot Radio). We thought it was a good music video but it got a bit repetitive after about a minute of the same thing. They used good effects in the video which linked with the music and to the beat really well, it made the video look a lot more professional. We liked the jumpy parts of the video and when it skipped quickly to another shot as again it related to the beat of the music which gave a really good effect. The lip sinking was really good and looked realistic, as was the playing of the instruments in time with the music and it looks a lot like they are actually playing the music. We liked the variety of camera angles used in the music video. Especially the low angle looking up at the band playing. We liked the different speeds of footage used. It gave a good fast effect like the pace of the music. They didn't dwell on one image too long they made quick snappy scene change cutting from bit to bit which was good as it looked interesting. We were a bit confused about the guy running round in the orange waist coat and we didn't understand the story or meaning behind it. We like the kind of sureal feeling tot he video, in the way that you don't ever really get a clear view of the musicians. Its only ever their close up side of face or distant view. Which was quite effective. They used a great variety of shots and from lots of different angles which we liked. But overall we give the video a 7/10.
We are emailing the band 'Waco Brothers' who sing 'Harms way,' so that we can hopefully get hold of the lyrics. Fingers crossed they will email back, or else we will have to listen very hard to the lyrics for hours on end figuring out the lyrics for our character to mouth to the music whilst we are filming. We are getting hold of them via there myspace page.
These Images are some of the scenes we are considering recreating DIY style in our music video. Because the band is american we are using scenes that look american. Also the desert fits in with the country music sound in the song.
