PLANNING: Artist's Website Analysis

Front Page of the website.

Here is the front page of the website for the artist Florence and the Machine. Straight away the audience is presented with a huge image of the artist against a black background. The image of the artist is deliberately shown to promote herself to whoever visits the webpage. I initially didn't really know what the artist actually looked like until I visited the website itself. Now, after seeing the front page, I know exactly who Florence and the Machine is and what they look like, and this is what their aim is. The huge image of the artist on the front page of the website is there to basically show who she is and who Florence and the Machine is. Against the black background, the artist really stands out with the reflection of her showing both sides of her face as well as the back of her head. This is so we can see what she looks like from every angle. Its a very cleverly thought out image to present/promote the brand, of which it is artist them self. 

To the left of the front page, there is a music video of her latest song, Shake it Out. The main reason this is shown there is to yet again promote the music video as it is one of the first things people will see when they first visit the site. The main reason it is there is so her latest content is shown directly to the audience, thus advertising her music and herself. To the top right of the front page, there is a little button which says "Click for Main Site". This tells me that the objective of the front page is to just promote the artist and her music to the audience, and do nothing more. This is because if you want to find out more, then you can visit the homepage of the website where there will be much more info.

Home Page of the website.

Moving on to the main page of the website and straight away we can see there is a menu of links to navigate around the site. This was not evident on the front page of the website as its soul purpose was to just promote the artist and her latest music, which is why there was an option to continue to the full site if you wanted to know more. The fact that there are links such as Media, Video, Gallery and Live show that the artist is trying to give their fans as much content of them as possible with various ways of accessing it. Yet again on the homepage we can see a large image of the artist so we know who she is and what she looks like as an audience. We can also see News and Blog section which is trying to show the audience the latest information about the artist. This can include news telling the audience about her latest album releases or tours she may be going on. This is yet again trying advertise herself and her work.

As soon as you go on the main page of the website, one of the artists music videos automatically begin playing. I personally find this very annoying as, if I want to watch a video, I would go and search for what I want to watch, then view it. However, the reason the music video automatically plays when you go onto the home page is because the artist is trying to share her music with you. By automatically playing, I as the audience am forced to scroll down and pause it. However even doing this is giving the artist attention from me which is what they want, as I will at least see the name of the song playing while I'm pausing the video, thus advertising the artist's music. If I don't do nothing about the video, the music will just play until it is done, which in a way is the artist forcing their music upon me. The fact that the music video is placed at the very bottom of the homepage is very clever, as it allows me to see all the other content they have on that webpage before I get to the video. This is a very good method in which to show her content as much as possible to any person visiting the Florence and the Machine website.

Florence and the Machine Website

PLANNING: Analysis of Original Music Video

Currently, there is no official music video for the song, Howl by Florence and the Machine. This may be because the song had already seen success in the music charts. A music video's main purpose is to promote the artist as well as the song. Yet, this song was able to get over 2.3 million views on Youtube with just her album cover for people to look at while the song is being played.

I believe that a music video was not created as the artist felt it was unnecessary to create a music video if the song itself has already become a hit. When my group first mentioned to use this song in our music video, I had no idea what the song was. But until I actually heard the track, I instantly recognised what song it was as I had heard it before (even though I didn't know the name of it). Florence and the Machine is not an artist I personally listen to, however, the fact that I had heard this song multiple times before even though I do not listen to the artist's music at all shows how mainstream this song is.

However, a music video may not have been created for this song as the artist may of thought there is nothing extra they can show on screen that the artist hasn't made the audience visualise in their heads while listening to this song. The fact that you can listen to the song with such powerful lyrics alone shows that a music video may not capture the concept they were trying to perceive, as everyone can relate to the emotions the artist is trying to convey in the lyrics.

Planning - Abney Park

Today Nick visited Abney Park (one of our potential locations) on behalf of the group and took some photos, which you can view below.

Planning - Visiting Potential Locations

Yesterday, Nick, Mustafa and Poppy (Charon could not attend in this instance as she had work commitments) visited two potential filming locations. Originally, the plan was to meet at Highgate and have a look around Parkland Walk, before heading to Abney Park. However, Queen's Wood was close-by so we went there first. We really liked the feel of this location and could potentially look even better at night or dawn. Afterwards, we had a look through Parkland Walk, which is a a 4.5 mile walkway. Whilst it was enjoyable, we weren't as inspired by this location compared to the woodland, but we will definitely consider filming a few shots here, possibly for the running scenes.

Below you can see a quick video slideshow that Nick created from the photos he took.

Planning - Analysis of Influential Music Videos

During the planning stage we have been looking at many music videos from female vocalists similar to the original artist of our song choice. We have blogged about some of these before, but here is my shortlist of videos that have influenced us, along with explanations of what kind of ideas we have taken away from them.

First of all, we talked about incorporating a forest/woodland setting very early on in our planning. I went on to research videos from female artists that have used this kind of setting before, and shared my findings with my group via Facebook, which included videos from Kate Bush, Leona Lewis, and iamamiwhoami.

But my favourite that I found has to be Don't Leave Home by Dido. The cuts in this video are fast-paced, which contrast with the song's slower tempo. This works well in giving the video a quick and snappy feel which flows from one scene to the next. In our video, we will want to replicate this kind of editing, including the use of slow motion and jump cuts. The mise-en-scène is of a high standard for all four videos, but particularly that of Don't Leave Home as you can tell that a lot of thought and planning has been put into it. The shadowy lighting, costume, and props such as candles, are what we hope to replicate for our own video.  In our music video, we will definitely be attempting to show a contrast between night and day, which can be seen in three out of these four videos. All four of the performers can also be seen wearing some form of dress, which we are considering for Poppy's costume. Below, you can watch a video compilation I edited together outlining these, as well as other, features that I found particularly effective.



As part of the mise-en-scène and artist image, we have also been looking at make-up inspired by artist Bat for Lashes, particularly from her video Daniel...

Poppy's make-up experimentation

We will be adapting this by possibly using food colouring (although we're worried this might not come off easily) or watercolour paint (we'll have to make sure to apply it carefully). We'll be sure to use mid-shots, as shown in the original music video, as well as close-ups, for the scenes with this style of make-up. Poppy has additionally been experimenting with her own make-up, as shown on the right.

Finally, as we blogged about before, we were inspired by the music video for Imogen Heap's Lifeline (as well as Lovesick by Emily Osment, although this style looks much harder to reproduce and heavily edited). In addition to the concept of projecting footage onto the artist, we would again use a mixture of mid-shots and close-ups, as any wider angles wouldn't be as effective.

A few sequences from the Lovesick music video:

 

 

Finally, Alex Winston's music video for Velvet Elvis was one that stuck out for me ever since the beginning of my research. The editing in it is fast-paced, in-time with the track, and really exciting to watch. During the chorus (which portrays Andrew Goodwin's theory through repetitive elements), the speed of Winston's body movements are obviously edited in places, with her lip-syncing not being affected at all. This inspired me into suggesting the following idea to our group: we take our chosen music track, slow it down by half, and then film a base track of lip-syncing to it. Afterwards, once we edit, we will take the footage and double the speed up, meaning the lip syncing will be in time with the track whilst the performer's movements will be abnormally fast! I think this could be a really interested effect, and so I briefly tested it out by recording myself lip-syncing and following the aforementioned steps (unfortunately, there is no way that I will allow this video to see the light of day, sorry!) The result was pretty creepy, especially at one point where I suddenly got up out of my chair. I feel this editing effect will be fitting for our music video and we plan on implementing this in the setting of Abney Park's chapel.