All photos were taken on set and further edited and created by myself in Photoshop.
I chose this particular format because of the type of band "Acres of Life" is, this punk/screamer band is very contrasting and coarse which is why I chose very stark and blocked colours. The band is very much reliant on one another which is why I chose to use the bass drum as the front cover, this is a live band more reliant on instruments than each other therefore the focus of the front cover had to be the instruments (particularly the drum set because their songs featured the drums heavily). For the back cover, I chose to focus on the band members and specifically the lead singer. The colour theme of black white and red is particularly grabbing and embodying of the attitude the band upheld.
In preparation to shooting "Acres of Life" we had to evaluate the band purely on hearing their music and seeing their image - once we did this we could compare them to current bands, both mainstream and up-and-coming bands, to see how they were represented on screen and through mise-en-scene, sound, lighting and editing.
The first band we looked at was Ocean Avenue, they are a punk/alternative band that solely focuses on the 'band factor' in this music video. What really stuck out to us was the 'profile shot' of the singer and the 'back shot' where the camera is placed behind the band giving a completely new perpective on the band's image.
The second band we looked was My Chemical Romance, again this video is very focused on the band and also includes the strong narrative of the song. The set never changes but solely focuses on the band and also the strong lyrical orientated song. This music video is especially effective because of the simplistic but very effective set dressings such as the sand floor and the roaring fire (which in the end we tried to copy as strong strobe lights) the 'dirty' quality of the music video (in the sand, outside, not in a crisp studio) is also very effective and personifies the band's persona.
The last band we looked at was Green Day and their song, "American Idiot", whhat we really liked about this particular music video (the qualities we could manage within our 30 minute allowance) was the shot of both the monitor (screen) and the preformer himself. Green Day is a band that has only three members and camera shots/cuts are very evenly distributed between all three band members bringing an element of equality between the band and not showvenism. This reminded us that we had to focus on all elements of "Acres of Life" and not solely focus on the lead singer.
