MAXIMO PARK

Maximo park are a similar band to the future heads in genre and style.
VIDEO









http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqYkiZ4a1oQ
The video ‘questing, not coasting’ represented the band of ‘Maximo Park’, as a normal Indie band of this time period. The band members wore smart, well fitting clothes that all followed a similar style; only the guitarist presented himself slightly differently from the rest by showing some colour in his shirt. I hope to recreate this similarly dressed effect in my project, as it looks professional, and consistent, giving the band an identity as a unit. The band were also in a classic formation with the singer at the front, drummer at the back, and the guitarist and keyboard is in between them, but not directly behind the lead singer. The colours shown throughout the video contrasted boldly, for example the bands dress being mainly black and white. It made it seem as if there are two very distinct parts of the video, I also hope to imitate this obvious divide technique. The lead singers body language was very visual as well, it seemed to represent a lot of the lyrics and moods that the band were trying to convey, this technique would be good to replicate because of the way it involves the viewer and shows the bands commitment.
This video contained a number of close up shots and middle shots of the whole band, but seemed to alternate between the two. It started with an establishing shot, allowing the viewer to see the projector screen, and the bands outlines, which linked to the contrast of colours mentioned before. The video then went on to focus on the faces of the band and introduce them to the viewer, making them memorable; a technique I intend to use. Along with the variety of close up shots, the video used a lot of minor zoom in shots, this made it seem more dramatic and interesting to the viewer, just as I hope to represent my own work. The camera was also constantly moving in order to give the viewer a sense of involvement in the torrent of music, and made the video seem more dramatic to match the song. This contrasts with the end of the song when the camera stopped tracking and was stationary.
The editing is also used to draw the viewer in and make the video seem more dramatic, by using differing speeds. The editing definitely speeds up as the music get more dramatic, and slows down as the music gets calmer. It also seems to cycle through the members of the band, trying to show an even number of close ups of all of them. I will also attempt to do this in my project, but I do not intend to rely so heavily on performance. A particularly important aspect of this video is how it merged the background and the performance into fade shots, this bridges the gap between performance and what could be described as narrative. I intend to bridge this gap within my own project, as it is a convention in many indie music videos.
This video relied heavily on colour to get its messages across, and to link to the song. The colour of the images in the background related to the mood of the song, such as having a large mainly blue screen for the calmer more depressing part of the song, and a mainly golden screen to go along with the inspiring parts of the song. I intend to use colour in my video to show differences in sections and I will experiment with techniques such as this. Other than connecting the emotional responses of sound and colour the video linked very little to the lyrics, it occasionally showed minor links, such as showing a picture of the weather when it is mentioned. This lack of a specific link will allow me to branch out and show a range of techniques in my project.








DIGI-PACK

















The four panels of this music video have a constant running theme of solid emotional colours similar to those used in the adverts and the music video. The front of the pack is very meaningful, it shows an old star chart, possibly to make the band seem profound, but also shows that they are looking for inspiration from older music as well as modern music. The back of the Digi-pack also shows an artistic flare to the band by arranging the song titles in a way other than just a line. I hope to have an image or sequence of images that convey many meanings, whilst still in keeping with the style that the advert and video have set out like show here. The insert uses a striking combination of colours that differ slightly from the previous media shown, but its ambiguous shape, and sold colours could still be linked to the background from the music video.




ADVERT




















This advert links to the Digi-pack, because it uses the same name font and graphics as one of the panels. The dramatic and definite colours also link to the music videos use of colour. I hope to be able to have such a definite link in my project. The advert does not have any dates or information on it, this is to build up an heir of mystery surrounding the album, and also to get people to find out the information themselves, and thus feel more invested in the product, I may use this technique in my own work. The simplicity of the design is a convention that I have noticed within many of the products and videos I have studied. Many artist of this genre seem to use an art style that borders on minimalist whilst still intriguing the viewer with the possibility of depth and an over arching meaning, such as having the star chart and nothing else, or having a single picture that is reused. I also hope to emulate this in my designs for adverts, as well as Digi-pack panels to in keep with my genre, and also appease my target audience.