Saturday, 15 October 2011

Artist Research 1 - Andrew Jobe

Part 1

Mumford and Sons first video was quite simple, their debut single was “Little Lion Man” was mainly just of the band playing their instruments. They’re shown in a room with hanging light bulbs and they don’t leave that room during the video. That suggests to me that it was a low budget video because they were a new band, but it may also be because Mumford and Sons have quite a laid back style to their music, and the video really fits in with what the band is, quite simplistic and chilled out.

As Mumford and Sons became more popular and a bigger name in music – for their niche market – they kept their videos as a chilled out style, but they did more with them and their was obviously more funding and a different idea of the band wanting to be portrayed. “The Cave” showed them performing their music while they were on Mopeds going through towns and cities, They also have more people in their videos and make them more of a production, but there is still instrumental shown in them.

Another one of their videos is “Winter Winds”, this is more of an upbeat video with a lot of things happening, even a small bit of fighting. Very much like all of the other videos it still shows instruments and the band playing, along which would be something that would have to be incorporated if I was to use a Mumford and Sons song as my song.

I wouldn’t say the band has changed that much over time, but they have only released one album which may be why I cannot see a change in them, their next album may allow me to recognise something different about the band.

In every video they have the band members playing their instruments, they also have laid back videos and often slow motion clips in the video, so if I was to choose one of their songs I would have to follow the pattern that they have already used on the songs that they’ve made videos for.

A different range of camera angles is more evident in the later music videos, I feel that is because they are more outdoor and action filled unlike the first video which is just the band members in a dimly lit room playing their instruments. They also seem to always wear Indie, or even farmer type clothing, this is something which is a trend throughout all of their videos, because that is the image that they’re trying to portray.

Also their videos seem to most of the time have dark rooms or darkly lit places in them, when they’re playing the instruments, I’m not sure what this is meant to signify, but it is something that I have noticed while studying the videos.

Part 2

Mumford and sons in all of the videos that I have looked at (Little Lion Man, The Cave, Winter Winds) all show the band wearing Indie clothes and dull colours, this is because it matches their laid back look and it fits the indie style of music that they aiming for in their niche market.

Also as I’ve acknowledged earlier I have noticed a trend through their videos that they’re always shown playing their instruments and singing, and it’s rarely a story told in the video, it’s normally just them singing, It would be interesting to challenge the conventions and relay a story through a video.
They use simple camera shots in their earlier videos, like in their debut single “Little Lion Man” the main camera angle is just a long shot of the band, which shows their whole body playing their instruments, Some close ups were used on the instruments (piano’s and guitars) and of the main singer singing. Also side on views of the band members, are used, but with darkened out faces.

Straight cut editing or continuity editing as it is sometimes known to create a sense of realism, so you can imagine being in the video, also it suggests the band are just like normal people which can raise popularity.

There is one of their videos, “The Cave” which seems to have a deep underlying meaning of poverty, this is portrayed in the video, and through the song lyrics.

What’s on an album cover?

Track names
Album Title
Band Name
Parental advisory if needed.
Picture of band or something related.
Barcode
Producer.
Record label


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