All - Sample Scene Completed

Today we finally completed our sample scene that we'd been working on for the past fortnight or so. The quick excerpt includes a variety of shots we intend to use, as well as incorporting the two narratives of concept and performance throughout. For the final thing, we intend to shoot on the moorside as mentioned numerous times.

CO - Animatic completion

After much hardship and sorrow, I have finally completed our group's animatic, which demonstrates the different camera angles we'll use, who'll be in the video and more. The song is also included in the animatic, but only an excerpt because to cover the entire 4 minutes I would've had to spend time we didn't have on the flash document, so it is more of a summary of ideas.

Here it is.

SB - Performance Sample Scene Update

We didn't get to film yesterday due to band members not showing up to practice so we couldn't get the shots we needed for the performance. However we'll be filming next week and we'll have to get some filming done at the practice next week.

CO - Animatic

A shot from the Animatic, featuring a part of the performance.

 

 

      

I am currently working on an animatic storyboard for the group which documents some of our proposed camera shots, scenes and more. I am creating it using Adobe Flash CS3 Professional as opposed to other groups doing it by hand, as I believe it looks a lot more presentable as well as being able to include a lot of detail then export it as a movie to watch online. However, I do intend on putting a suitable amount of detail on it which means I am taking my time with it, so the finished thing can look as decent as possible.

SB - Plan of action

We intend to start experimenting with filming this month, and look for interesting locations, shot types. we also need to start experimenting with the gore and start choosing how the members are going to die and where they'll die. We are also planning to do a number of Sublime Transcendence vodcasts as a group on the metalcore genre and the progress of our idea and how it has changed, we'll also be doing podcasts together as a group, we intend to do them about progression in the week and any new ideas we have thought about or problems we will face during filming.

CO - Johnny Truant - Death Rides deconstruction

Johnny Truant was a British, Brighton-based metalcore band, formed in 2000 under the name Severance. The band recorded their debut release The Repercussions of a Badly Planned Suicide (which featured three remixed songs from their second demo) in 2002 which was released on Undergroove Records. Their second album, In the Library of Horrific Events was produced by Killswitch Engage guitarist, Adam Dutkiewicz. The band have toured the UK, Europe and Canada with the likes of Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Cancer Bats and Alexisonfire as well as playing Download Festival in 2005, 2006 and 2008. 

The song 'Death Rides' is from their 2008 album No Tears For The Creatures and was one of two singles released, as well as The Grotesque. It was directed by Adam Powell who has worked with bands of the genre including Architects and Gallows. The video is entirely performance narrative and focuses on each band member playing their instruments throughout, and follows a lot of codes and conventions.

The video begins with a quick tracking shot from behind the drummer, and all of the band are shown in a group/ML shot. The camera shot styles then begin varying from that point onwards, beginning with the focus on the vocalist as he begins screaming the lyrics for the song. A majority of the shots are done using a handheld camera as a lot of them are extremely shaky, as well as being fast-paced with quick editing. 

Vocalist Olly Mitchell, shot with a low angle.

A lot of shots follow the musicians as they perform, with quick zoom shots and techniques used throughout, and there are also a lot of different height angles, such as a lot of shots filmed from a very low angle, as pictured, making the band look intimidating which matches the aggressive nature of the song. The location for the video seems to be some sort of hangar or some large storage space, and is actually quite sparse, so the camera focuses primarily on the band instead of the location. There is an open door in the hangar and that provides the light source to the video, and there are often frequent lens flares and naturally brightened shots due to that. 

CO - Sample Scene Update

Today we had a long band practice due to the teacher's strike, meaning we could shoot some sample footage as well as rehearse our songs. Using an HD camera, Richard recorded various close-ups and group shots so we could include an idea of the performance narrative for our video pitch, in addition to some of the concept narrative we shot earlier. We practiced as usual and played Like A Match To An Arsonist, our recorded song. (nb we will have recently uploaded a newer version of the song, fully mastered, and this'll have to be taken into account when submitting the finished sample footage) so we can synchronise it with the playback already in the video and include shots of the band playing, intermittently inserted between shots of the concept narrative.

RM - Looking Into Metalcore Music Videos Summary - UPDATED

Whilst doing research into the Metalcore genre I decided to look at several music videos and deconstruct them. This allow me to pick up on the common conventions The videos I looked at and deconstructed were (Click on the title above each video to view the deconstruction):

Bullet For My Valentine - Your Betrayal

- Performance and Concept music video
- Band members introduced to audience one by one, edited to fit in with the track
- The majority of the focus is on the, in particular the lead vocalist, lip-syncing occurs
- Majority of the shots used in the performance are two shots or group shots
- Concept features two women performing one of the deadly sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride) anchored towards the end of the music video as these words appear on screen with the action
- Text is in red signifies blood



Motionless In White - Ghost In The Mirror

- Performance based music video
- Several locations have been used throughout the music video
- Religious aspect with the stain glass in one of the locations signifying a church
- Majority of the focus is on the lead vocalist
- Variety of shots used
- Group shots are used a lot, showing the entire band perform
- Shots have been quickly edited and to the beat
- Lip-syncing occurs




Killswitch Engage - My Curse

- Contains both performance and narrative aspects
- The performance aspect is in an unusual style of a flick-book format
- Focus in the performance aspect is on the lead vocalist
- Limited shot variation in the performance
- Narrative aspect includes different locations
- Narrative aspect features Propp's theory of a hero trying to obtain a prize
- The prize is in a wedding dress - reference to church and religious aspect
- In the narrative aspect there is a wide variation of shots
- Special effects are also used throughout the narrative - this bridging the gaps between the locations


Parkway Drive - Sleepwalker

- Concept music video with a small element of performance
- Special effects are used throughout the music video as the entire video is in black and white with the exception of red signifying blood.
- Fish-eye lenses are also used during the video
- Throughout the music video the majority of the shots are point of view, this leaves the video with a limited variation in shots
- Several jump cuts are used
- Fast paced editing is also used and matches the track



Meshuggah - Rational Gaze

- Entirely performance based
- Includes special effects throughout the music video e.g. blue tint, multi-layering, garbage matte and chroma key
- The majority of the focus is on the lead vocalist
- The band hardly appear on screen as a whole and not many two shots are included as well
- Editing has been done to the beat

All - Behind The Scenes Vid Update

During the time between Sunburnt in December recording a demo of their song "Like A Match To An Arsonist" to now (29th December) we have struggled to export the behind the scenes footage. There have been several reasons for were: whilst exporting the first time, somehow, the video had five minutes of complete darkness added on to the end, and towards the end of the month had several days off due to Jubilee Day and a training day. As well as the need to film and edit sample footage.
However the situation with the five minutes of complete darkness has now been resolved by simple re-exporting the footage.
Here is the behind the scenes footage of the Sunburnt In December recording "Like A Match To An Arsonist":

Here is the mastered track, this was completed on Sunday, 27 November 2011:

CO - Final decision on track

Today, Sunburnt In December (excluding Sam and myself) went back to the recording studio so we could finish mastering the track we were doing for our video; we initially were going to do Breaking Point by Parkway Drive if we could not get the track completed in time. However, this is obviously not the case any more as we totally completed work on Like A Match To An Arsonist earlier meaning we no longer have to worry about not finishing on time and ending up with a plan b.

RM - Research into Killswitch Engage

Killswich Engage are an American metalcore band. The band was formed after the disbandment of Overcast and Aftershock in 1999. The band's current line up consists of Howard Jones (vocals), Mike D'Antonio (bass), Joel Stroetzel and Adam Dutkiewicz (guitars), and Justin Foley (drums). At the time of this post the band have released five studio albums and on DVD. The band's five studio albums are: Killswitch Engage (2000), Alive or Just Breathing (2002), The End of Heartache (2004), As Daylight Dies (2006) and Killswitch Engage (2009). The band's one and only DVD released is titled (Set This) World Ablaze. The band are currently on Roadrunner Record's record label however their debut self-titled debut album was released on Ferret Music.
The band's debut album was self-titled was released in July 2000. The album had nine songs on accumulating to 36mins. In 2005 the album was re-released with a new cover as well as having four extra songs on which were part of a 1999 demo. These four extra songs made the album 44 mins long.

Alive or Just Breathing was the band's second album released in May 2002. This album was the last to feature Leach as the vocalist, who left the band due to family issues and depression. As well as this it is also the last album to feature Dutkiewicz on drums, after the production he switched onto guitar.This album is known for being one of the first albums to bring albums that has made mainstream into what it is today. According to Music Radar the album is listed as the 33rd greatest heavy metal album and also featured in IGN's list of 25 Greatest Metal Albums. The album consists of twelve songs lasting a total of 46 minutes. To add to this album there is meant to be a hidden thirteenth track which lasts nearly three minutes. In 2005 the album was re-released with a bonus disc with eight tracks.

The third album from Killswitch Engage, released in 2004. There were three singles to be released from this album "Rose Of Sharyn", "The End Of Heartache" and "A Bid Farewell". However the song "When Darkness Falls" appears on "Freddy vs. Jason" (2003) and "The End of Heartache" appears on the film soundtrack to Resident Evil: Apocalypse, this song also appears on the Guitar Hero: Van Halen game. It was also nominated for "Best Metal Performance" in the 47th Grammy Awards. "Breathe Life" is also used as a sample for Bullet for My Valentine's song ""My Fist, Your Mouth, Her Scars", this appears on the "All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)" single. The album consisted of twelve songs lasting for 43 minutes. Although in 2005 a special edition of the album was released adding an additional six tracks.

As Daylight Dies is the fourth album by the band, released in 2006, it is one of the band's highest selling albums to date with 500,000 copies sold in the US alone! The fist single to be released from this album was "My Curse" which appeared as a playable song on Guitar Hero III as well as a downloadable song on Rock Band (1 and 2). The band released a further three singles from this album entitled: "The Arms of Sorrow", "Holy Driver" and "This is Absolution". In 2007 a special edition of the album was released including four B-sides this included "Holy Driver" which was released as the third single. The album originally had eleven songs on it before the special edition which increased the number of tracks to fifteen. As well as this a special edition DVD was released with the first three single's music videos and the making of videos for "My Curse" and "The Arms Of Sorrow"

Killswitch Engage is the band's fifth studio album as well as being the band's second self-titled album. The album was originally released in 2009, with four singles being released from it. These singles are: "Reckoning", "Starting Over", "Take Me Away" and "Save Me". The original album had eleven tracks on with the total length being 38 minutes. However a special edition was also released on the same day with an extra four songs, three of them being live. As well as this a special edition dvd was released consisting of The Making of Documentary and exclusive band interviews.

CO - Camera angles and techniques

During our research we looked at a large number of videos of the genre so we could gain more knowledge of the conventions and codes of the style. Myself and Sam looked at one particular video, Before I Forget by cult American metal band SlipKnoT. It is the third single from their 2004 album Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses. It was listed as AOL's top metal song of the decade. "Before I Forget" borrows certain elements from a much older Slipknot song "Carve", which was recorded before their self titled album. The reason we researched the song was that the video has a lot of techniques and camera shots that we want to use in our video.
The video is famous because it is the first Slipknot video that shows glimpses of the member's faces, which is extremely critical because the band are famous for wearing masks on stage and in their music videos. The faces are shown in subtle ways, leaving a narrative enigma; there are shots of noses, eyes and mouths, as well as instruments and masks lying nearby. 

The band's masks cast aside for the video, leaving a narrative
enigma as to who's who and what they look like.

Instrument close-ups used intermittently. 

The parts from this video that we feel have influenced us and made us want to replicate in our video is the close-up shots of the instruments and the narrative enigma left as the camera never entirely focuses on the band members themselves, although we will all by in group shots near the end of the video. We won't shoot the whole performance for the video in this way, but we will use a few shot types like this and distribute them evenly to each member. 

All - Sample Scene Part 1

On Monday we recorded some footage for a sample scene for Sunburnt In December's "Like A Match To An Arsonist". After editing the footage during the week the sample scene is now finished. We are planning to film more footage on Wednesday 30th November, as the band have a band practice and the school is closed due to a strike. Allowing us to film as much footage as needed.

CO - Performance Sample Scenes

We have a Jubilee Day next Wednesday, which is actually the date of our regular band practices with Sunburnt In December; this means that instead of the normal 2 hours we usually have, we will be able to spend around 5 or more hours practicing, which means we can record footage of performance as we play Like A Match To An Arsonist at practice, as we can get miming right and include it in the sample footage. We will use two cameras to shoot HD footage and import it later next week.

SB - Talking To Actors

We've talked to the actors who are going to be in  the music video which consists of the band.
Sam - Vocals
Conor - Drums
Jem - Bass
Mitch - Guitar
Elliot - Guitar

We've talked to them about costume, and how we will be buying the costume. We've all decided it would be easier if we wore plains clothes on the shoot. White/black t - shirts this would mean we're more likely to have less continuity errors based around costume. We also discussed the idea with them and got positive feedback paired with minor criticisms which we've considered and changed our idea around e.g Jem driving a van on the moor... We discussed location as well and decided that the twelve apostles maybe a tad bit to far to walk with equipment for the performance but we decided on a location close to the cow and calf but out  of the way from the general public.

All - shooting of sample footage

We have spend Monday's lesson shooting sample footage for our media video so that our teacher has a rough idea of what we are going to do for the actual thing. We focused mainly on the concept narrative because we viewed it as more important and it was also easier today considering that we didn't have the band at ready disposal or the instruments required etc. At this moment in time we are importing the sample footage into iMovie which we will then import in turn to Final Cut Express and we will then start editing it from there.

CO - Influences/techniques for the video

A band member being dragged through the forest.

I have recently come across another video that has ideal influences and ideas that we could try and replicate in our video, which focuses on both conceptual narrative and performance. The band in question is Leeds-based hardcore band Pulled Apart By Horses, and the song being Back To The F*ck Yeah. The basic narrative is the band playing in a forest normally up until they are pulled dramatically by an unseen force and dragged around their location, then escape and return to their instruments where they start playing again.

I believe that this is an important style to try and implement into our video; the location principally as it is a dark part of the country; we could shoot the performance of our video in a forest rather than in open moorland but we'll decide that as a group later. Obviously this video is comedic and doesn't focus on seriousness whereas our video will be slightly more downbeat and earnest, yet aspect such as the location and performance will be similar. It also continues the narrative enigma of the thing attacking them in the video, as our video will do as well; except obviously with a few flashes of fangs and fur rather than totally nothing.

Here is the video embedded below; please excuse the expletives.

Convetions of magazine adverts

Magazine adverts are regularly placed to advertise a certain band or artist's forthcoming product, such as an album, a single, a digipak or a special edition disc or something similar. The other group picked out a list of common conventions concerning the layout of a magazine advert;

• The artist's name is generally the most noticeable on the magazine advert to attract the attention of the reader straight away.
• The single or album's name is also very visible in the advertisement. 
• Web address - the band's advertisement will often include urls to their Facebook website, possibly their MySpace (although MySpace is declining rapidly in popularity due to websites like Facebook and Twitter taking all their traffic). The web addresses will also detail the record label and normally a ticket website where tickets for tours and gigs can be purchased. 
• There is also sometimes an image of the band in plain view, however this is not always the case as sometimes an abstract design or something similar is shown instead. 
• In a similar style, the theme of the band or the theme of the album will be echoed in the magazine advert, for example the advert for Blink 182's new album, Neighborhoods; the album's lyrical content details some suburban-themed ideas, reflective in the advert. 
• In another form of social networking is the use of #hashtags on the microblogging website to attract attention to the band through letting other users of the website see it on their timeline. 

A Twitter user hashtagging deathcore band The Acacia Strain in a tweet
whilst also hashtagging an emotion and mentioning COD. 

• There may also be a shot of the product in its physical form rather than just the album art in a production shot that shows the reader the detail of the album or single or EP. 
• Similarly to the above point, if there isn't a photo of its physical form then there will more than likely be a picture of the album artwork accompanying the text.
• The poster or advert might also depict the name of a single that's been released prior to the whole album so that readers know something they're getting. 
• There is always a release date for the product on the magazine article, either that or if the album has already been released, "Out Now".

Conventions of Digipak CD packaging

Today we studied in small groups the brief history, conventions and the uses of the digipak style of CD packaging, which we are making for our CD as part of the coursework. As a group, we took a few notes on the package style, here are some of them;

Isis's Wavering Radiant, in digipak form, complete with
elaborate album art, track listing and more illustrations
inside the booklet. 

• The digipak style was created as a more environmentally-minded alternative to the jewel case, which was and still is dominant, yet is dying out along with CD sales.
• It is made using a material similar to cardboard, called paperboard, which is more flexible and houses a tray in the middle for the CD(s).
• They replaced jewel cases in a minor way as the material was brittle and often shattered in important places such as the teeth that held the CD hub and the two plastic hinges that kept the case together.
• Digipaks often depict the band's name and the title of the album/ep on the front, and on the spine of the sleeve. The spine also normally shows a catalogue number that the record company issue every product with, and their logo.
• The song's lyrics are typically printed on the inside of the digipak, on one of the interior panels, although they are occasionally printed on a booklet inside if the CD comes with one.
• On the back panel of the digipak, the details include the track listing again (although it might be less detailed than the version on the interior panels), the personnel of the band or artist, e.g who played what instrument, who composed it, who mixed and engineered and produced it.
• There is normally album art on the front cover of the digipak and it regularly coheres all the way through the product, with art on the booklet (if there is one), the interior sleeves and occasionally even the CD.
• The digipak can be a certain edition, such as a version of an album that has a special series of songs on it, e.g Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams CD which has a sticker from the record company he's signed with stating that it is a special edition, and also another one saying that it features bonus tracks only available in the UK. 

RM - A Brief History of Music Videos

During the 1980s music videos came into the limelight after the channel MTV was setup basing the channel around the medium. The first music video MTV showed was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. Although this was not the first station to show music videos the first one was BBC. The long-running British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, this meant a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week.

However music videos have nearly been in existent for a hundred years but were called several different names including talkies, Screen Songs, Promotional clips and Musical films.
Although modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of the accompanying single and album.

During the 2000s lo-fi videos started being made. Lo-fi is made with minimal budgets and not much shot variation. The most common lo-fi music video is called a one-shot where the entire video is one shot. The reason for these types of music video becoming what it is known for today was due to the shift towards internet broadcasting and a rise in popularity for user-generated video sites with YouTube being the leader in the market. Artists including R.E.M. and Tom Jones have had lo-fi music videos for their singles.

RM - Copyright Issues

As two of the members of Sunburnt In December are actually in the production group Sublime Transcendence, there is obviously no need for an email to be sent to them asking for permission to use the song "Like A Match To An Arsonist" for our coursework task.

CO/RM/SB - A2 Vid 2012 Treatment

Our treatment for this year's coursework.

A2 Video 2012 - Sublime Transcendence

CO - Ideal video style for shooting

Whilst searching for new music a couple of weeks ago, I found this video for "Caves" by American progressive/technical metal band Elitist. The video for this song is extremely simplistic yet pretty effective at the same time; it depicts the band playing on a hilltop in what looks like their hometown of Arizona; the scenery is bleak and desert-like with only a few parts of vegetation and I thought about how similar this is to our idea for the performance narrative aspect of our chosen music video idea as well. Obviously the scenery would be different as we'd be playing on a moor rather than in an arid area but the similarities outweigh the differences; both videos, the actual one by Elitist and our proposed ones feature similar shot types, camera angles and more.

This video is famous in the underground metal world already, even though it is only a year old, for the close up shots of the instruments, most notably the amount of string sway and the way the drumsticks bend in the video, as shown to the left. The bass pedals of the drummer's setup are also shown a lot, which is another convention in metal videos due to the style of drumming being interesting enough to show. Because there is no concept narrative to the video, the focus as previously mentioned is almost all on the instruments and the vocalist, as this brand of metal
principally focuses on technicity and the fluidity of the playing

We would aim to replicate this style of video in this way, except we would be using a small amount of makeup for each member seeing as we're supposedly in limbo after being attacked on the moor. However, during all performance of our video, the shot style and editing techniques would be similar to Caves' style as well.

Here is the video:

CO - Influences/techniques on our band and on the track

Architects' debut album, Nightmares.

As a band of five people, we all have different influences when it comes down to making our music, however we all share similarities in taste and ideas as well. Obviously we are all fans of the metal genre hence why our music sounds the way it does, but there is a little more to our influences than just that. Bands that influence myself the most include Architects (mostly their more technical early stuff, around Nightmares-era). Their approach to amazing-sounding yet technically outstanding brand of metalcore/tech-metal influenced myself when writing my bands songs; as much as I would've loved to include their complex rhythm changes and time signatures, I felt that it would be too challenging for both myself and the guitarists in my band so I stuck to Architects' approach to chord dynamics and tonal styles. All of the members of Sunburnt In December enjoy this style of music and it influences us when writing.

A drum kit fitted with a double bass pedal.

Dwelling on the conventions and instruments of metalcore, we also as a band make sure that our rhythm section is powerful while one of the guitars is doing the lead work; we accomplish this by ensuring most, if not every note played on bass and guitar is accompanied by a beat on the bass drum, and seeing as this is regularly fast, we include the use of a double-bass pedal when drumming. In addition, all metalcore bands do this as it is integral to making the song sound powerful; examples include The Devil Wears Prada, Bring Me The Horizon, August Burns Red and Parkway Drive to name a few of a vast amount of bands.

However, although as a band we take influence from a lot of contemporary musicians, we also play in the style sometimes of bigger older bands, such as Metallica; our songs often have fast, rhythmic yet simple passages that are akin to Metallica's mid-career stuff (and none of that Lou Reed garbage.) Similarly, bands like Nirvana and Pixies also have an influence on our approach to songwriting due to the way the instruments are set out.

Guitar tapping on an 8-string.

The elements that are most obvious in our songs come from metalcore but also has elements from deathcore too, which is obviously a fusion genre, similar to metalcore, which combines elements of death metal and hardcore; noticeable aspects in our stuff include the long, drawn out breakdown is reminiscent of deathcore bands like The Acacia Strain or Emmure (the latter band is disputable as Emmure, whilst retaining one or two good songs, often duplicate their material very frequently, as their songs all sound the same and are normally just breakdowns that last two minutes and have lyrics with them. Also, the members are pillocks and have recently kicked out their only really talented member). A noticeable (from a musician's standpoint) feature of our songs that relate it to deathcore is the dissonance chord halfway through (Where two notes, normally only one note from each other, are played together creating a harsh-yet-heavy sounding chord). This is noticeable in our song, Like a Match To An Arsonist. Still continuing with the guitars, a highlight that could be related to metalcore and deathcore is the use of tapping in the breakdown, a concept where the string is sounded with the finger pressing a fret on the neckboard rather than plucking the string and fretting it with your other hand; a lot of metalcore bands use this technique. Another feature is that the lyrical content is similar to that used in the two aforementioned genres, dealing with matters of religion and faith, a topic regularly voiced in metal.

RM - Research into bands of the genre - Meshuggah

Meshuggah are a metal band from Sweden, formed in 1987, at this time the line-up was Fredrik Thordendal (Guitar), Jens Kidman (Vocals), Johan Sjögren (Guitar), Per Sjögren (Drums) and Jörgen Lindmark (Bass). However Kidman soon left the band and started the band Calipash.

In 1988 Sjögren left Meshuggah and guitarist Jonas Lindberg took his place in the band. Although later on Thordendal found Calipash’s music more in line with what he wanted to do and so left the band, as well as leaving the band Thordendal took the band's name Meshuggah. From then on Calipash were known as Meshuggah. However after the newly re-formed group Torbjörn Granström, one of the founding members of Calipash left the band.

In 1989 Meshuggah's line up consisted of Fredrik Thordendal (Guitar and Vocals), Jens Kidman (Guitar and Vocals), Niclas Lundgren (Drums) and Peter Nordin (Bass). During this year the band released their debut EP entitled "Psykisk Testbild". However later this year Lundgren decided to leave the band. Tomas Haake replaced Lundgren in 1990 before the band recorded their debut LP entitled ""Contradictions Collapse" which was release in 1991. During this period the band had been signed to Nuclear Blast, a German record company.

Drummer Tomas Haake

At the end of 1992 and the beginning of 1993 the vocalist and guiartist (at the time), Kidman, decided to relive his guitar duties and consenrate on his vocals. This left the responsiblities for guitar to Mårten Hagström. This new line-up recorded the EP "None" in 1994 as well as "Selfcaged", which was a demo for the band's upcoming album “Destroy Erase Improve" this album was released in 1995. "Selfcaged was released in 1994. However Peter Nordin left the band due to personal reasons and illness which he suffered throughout the start of 1995. Gustaf Hielm replaced Nordin in the 1998 after being a session member for two years.

The band recorded their next albym in May 1998 and was released in November the same year, the album was called "Chaosphere". Chaosphere, showed a faster and more aggressive Meshuggah. Three years later the band released a collection of rare tracks entitled "Rare Trax". The album consisted of demos and impossible-to-find recordings.
The band's next album was entitled "Nothing", it was released in August 2002 and it showed a Meshuggah focusing more on groove and a lower/growlier production. The band continued to promote the album until Hielm parted with the band. After the departure of Hielm the band entered the studio to record the 21 minute song later to be named “I”. With Gustav now no longer in the band, Meshuggah needed to find a new bassplayer the band recruited Dick Lövgren. In 2005 the band released “Catch Thirtythree", this new album was very guitar driven. The band's next album "obZen" was released in 2008.


Meshuggah Discography

Albums:

Contradictions Collapse (1991)

Destroy Erase Improve (1995)

Chaosphere (1998)

Nothing (2002)

Catch Thirtythree (2005)

obZen (2008)

______________________________________________________

Compilation albums:

Rare Trax (2001)

Extended plays:

Psykisk Testbild (1989)

None (1994)

Selfcaged (1995)

The True Human Design (1997)

I (2004)

CO - Research on djent

An ESP/LTD SC 608b Steven Carpenter (guitarist of Deftones)
guitar. Note the eight strings for maximum depth of tones,
as this style of guitar is used a lot in the genre.

The term "djent" is loosely used to categorize a subgenre of metal which employs a specific type of note played on guitar. This note is played very fast (staccato) and often in a variety of rhythms. The rhythms played on guitar are usually very fast, in a specific pattern and settings on the amps often set to a medium-high gain setting. Because of the low notes that are often used in djent, the guitars used by bands are often seven or eight string, with thick and low gauges on each string to maximise the depth and tone of each note, and downtuned to a large extent. The genre can also be played on a more conventional six-string guitar, although contrastingly guitars with as many as 10 strings can be used.

Meshuggah

The genre was arguably birthed by Swedish metal band Meshuggah, who formed in 1987 and are most famous for their songs Bleed, Perpetual Black Second, Rational Gaze and Stengah. Stengah itself is extremely noticeable and famous in the metal for such characterization of the djent tone, even with the opening being phonetically transcribed with "djent djent, djent djent djent, djeeeeeennnnnnnntttttt." However, the band are most renowned for their song Soul Burn, where the genre was pretty much born.

Periphery

Since its inception in the mid 1990's (when Meshuggah started to get noticed) djent has evolved, mainly by becoming even more technically proficient due its fusion with other genres, mainly progressive metal. Bands like Periphery have pioneered the genre by creating an extremely unique mix of djent tones, fast picking, fractured drum patterns, guitar tapping, and a unique mix of clean and aggressive vocals and more, although the latter is more recent due to the addition of a new vocalist. Other bands around today to employ the microgenre in their sound include TesseracT, Animals As Leaders, Structures, Volumes, Born of Osiris, Textures, Cloudkicker, Bulb, Veil of Maya, SiKth and more. It may be worth noting that the man behind Bulb is the guitarist of Periphery and "Bulb" is his one-man project that he did before he founded Periphery and still does today. Similarly, Cloudkicker is a one-man band who has put out around 3 albums and some EPs, writes all the music himself and releases it for free; because of the size of the genre, very few bands have been able to find a lot of mainstream success as it is a very underground scene at the moment.

CO - Importing videos from recording

We began uploading the footage we recorded on Sunday to iMovie HD today, which as a whole was successful. However, because we used two different cameras, the first one we used recorded in .MPG format rather than the universally accepted .M4A. This means that only half of the footage we shot on Sunday was able to actually be imported into the iMac, but we have begun working on editing the takes we have anyway, and once we find a solution to converting .MPG to .M4A then we can upload that too and simply insert it between takes already on the timeline.

CO - Tracking updates for song

Today we began work on tracking our song, Like a Match to an Arsonist at a studio based in the nearby area. We successfully completed the majority of the drums, the bass, both guitars and vocals. However, we will need to go back in a few weeks to the get the track totally completed and getting the mastering finished and the mixing done. The song so far is everything we'd hoped for minus a few details, but these can be adjusted when we go back to the studio; examples of tweaks and altercations needed include a tuning of Mitch's (clean vocalist) vocals to a small degree, an increased tone on some of my drums (primarily the bass drum) and some of the guitars synchronisation, because the guitars in the breakdown don't quite match up to each other giving it an unwanted delayed effect, though this is only small it still needs fixing. Anyway, here's a link to our song on SoundCloud, a link to our song on BandCamp and the YouTube video for it.  





In addition to recording the song, Richard also came to the studio to record a lot of footage detailing the processes of recording, as a kind of behind-the-scenes of what was going on. He recorded tracking of the instruments and a quick interview with each band member, and the footage will be uploaded to the Macs on Monday the 6th. 

SB - Sunburnt In December Studio Update

We have now set a date this week to go the recording studio nearby where we will be recording our best song, Like a Match to an Arsonist. We will be recording on Sunday 6^th of November all day, and we will then be given a CD with the raw track on, which we will listen to and decide if there’s anything we want to change and then head back on a separate date to the track mastered. 

CO - Discussion with actors/band for video

Our band discussed plans about the video shoot after practice today. Sam and I talked about the location the time and date and the equipment that would be used for the video shoot. We clarified some points with the guys in the band, and came to the agreement that the shooting for the performance would be done in a certain part of Ilkley Moor, and shooting for the performance would take place as soon as we had an .mp3 file of our totally finished and professionally mastered song. Without it, we would have no playback for the performance part of the video meaning we could not mime the instruments properly. Contrastingly though, we will be able to shoot the narrative concept of our video whenever because it doesn't require playback, and as a group, Sam and I discussed when we could do this, which needs to be soon as long as correct planning is done.

RM - Parkway Drive Breaking Point Lyrics

As we have two plans for a song to use for our music video (Parkway Drive's Breaking Point and Sunburnt In December's Like A Match To An Arsonist) the group and band members need to be clear on the lyrics of the song and the timings. Here is the post for Parkway Drive's Breaking Point with the timings of lines.


Lyrics [Time]
Black plagues, line a fading sky. [0:36]
A dying world stripped to the bone,
Intoxicated by the madness. [0:44]
Blood weeps from open wounds.

And still the fires rage, [0:48]
Consumed, now chaos reigns.
Our pride dissolved,
The rise and fall,
The breaking point,
Burned and crossed. [0:58]
Lost,
Now immune to all the carnage, [1:05]
We turn upon ourselves.

Within these times of desperation, [1:13]
We are the virus that has infected, [1:18]
To its last.

Nothing is sacred,
Nothing shall be saved, [1:28]
No one shall be spared the horror,
That has yet to come. [1:38]
Destroy and discard, [1:44]
This is all that we know.
Blackened flesh, blistered, [1:51]
Hangs from skeletal frames
Stalking this arid wasteland, [1:58]
Our minds immune to change.

The shreds of morality, [2:04]
Fall by the wayside,
As we are left to ponder, [2:10]
These black box revelations.

In these days to come, [2:18]
In this,
Our final hour,
We will witness the true depths to which,
Humanity can sink. [2:29]
Humanity can sink. [2:41]
We will learn, [3:00]
To suffer.
We will learn, [3:07]
To fail.
And before long, [3:20]
We will beg for the end.

And still the fires rage, [3:25]
Consumed, now chaos reigns.
Our pride dissolved,
The rise and fall. [3:31]
The breaking point,
Burned and crossed [3:36]

A Brief History of Parkway Drive

Parkway Drive are an Australian metalcore band, formed in Byron Bay in the year 2002. Blasting out of Byron, almost as an affront to the serenity of their surrounds, Parkway Drive quickly established themselves as the most formidable force Australian heavy hardcore had ever seen, here's their brief history.

2002 - The band begin as a five piece, with the lineup of Winston McCall on vocals, Luke Kilpatrick on guitar, Ben Gordon on drums and Brett Lagg on base. Their name is taken from the address of the band's first rehearsal area that the drummer owned in Parkway Drive, Byron Bay. The band quickly enlisted Jeff Ling, another local surfer (all of Parkway are surfers and spend a lot of their time away from the band doing this pastime) and began playing shows around their local area.



2003 - The band start recording demos with other bands around the area, principally I Killed The Prom Queen, another local metal band that Parkway were friends with, and they recorded a split EP with them, I Killed the Prom Queen/ Parkway Drive: Split EP and they begin playing more shows once they gain slightly more recognition.



2004 - The band record their first proper EP, entitled Don't Close Your Eyes. It is the first issue from the band and was somewhat of a collector's item, before it was re-issued in 2006, but the latter contained a few more tracks, such as the ones found on their EP with IKTPQ.



2005 - Parkway Drive release their debut album, Killing with a Smile, through Resist Records. It was produced byAdam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage and written by Parkway Drive, while some guest vocals were included. The band also released a video for the single "Smoke 'Em If Ya Got 'Em". It was received very well in Australia's metal scene and established a foothold for the band in the metal market, and began playing tours around the area. Around this time, Parkway started playing more and more shows with more high-profile bands, such as The Acacia Strain and Suicide Silence.



2007 - In early March, the band unveiled two new songs, The Sirens' Song and Carrion, which feature on the then-unreleased album, Horizons. The band began previewing more songs from the forthcoming album on a tour they did in August and October. Once Horizons came out, it was critically acclaimed by both critics and fans alike and was awarded high reviews in the local magazines of the area, and indeed worldwide because Parkway had made a huge global impact by now. In May 2009, Parkway Drive announced that they would be releasing a live DVD and an Australian tour was also announced with August Burns Red and Architects in support of it. Horizons is to date their best selling release, with the album reaching multi-platinum status in Europe.



2010 - Deep Blue - In March 23rd, Parkway began recording the follow-up to Horizons, Deep Blue. It is somewhat of a concept album, detailing the life of a man who is trying to find the truth in a corrupt, decaying city, and it has been dubbed as their heaviest record to date. According to a blog posted on 8 April 2010, Parkway Drive were half finished with rhythm guitars, bass and vocals for the upcoming untitled album. On 17 April 2010, Parkway Drive officially announced that they finished recording the forthcoming album, and added a studio diary video to their Myspace. Videos have since been made for Unrest, Sleepwalker and Karma. On 25 June, Parkway Drive's Deep Blue was released onto the Australian iTunes Store. After four hours since the point of the album being released, "Deep Blue" reached the Second position on the iTunes Album Charts in Australia, with Eminem's Recovery album seizing first position. Deep Blue was released in the United States and Canada on 29 June, now making it available worldwide. After Warped Tour, Parkway Drive began their Australian headlining tour with The Devil Wears Prada, The Ghost Inside and 50 Lions.


Present day - In an interview with NME, McCall discussed a possible 4th album. Winston is quoted as saying, "We've got ideas for this record that are bigger than anything we've done in the past. We're trying to pencil it in, but we want to get in the studio sooner rather than later." The album is set for a 2012 release.

RM - Research Into the Metalcore Genre

Metalcore


 Metalcore is a subgenre of the two genres hardcore and metal. The genre began in the late 80s, early 90s. The genre gained commercial success in the beginning of the 2000's with bands including Killswitch Engage, Bullet for My Valentine and The Devil Wears Prada.

Bullet for My Valentine

Metalcore is distinguished from other punk metal fusions by its emphasis on general heavy metal characteristics as well as breakdowns. These breakdowns consist of slower, intense passages conducive to moshing. The vocals are normally screamed with the occasional presence of clean vocals during either the chorus or bridge.



Throughout the evolution of the genre it has had phases of crossover thrash, metallic hardcore and melodic metalcore.


Crossover ThrashCrossover Thrash is a form of thrash metal that combines hardcore punk and standard thrash metal. However bands in this genre were more influenced by the hardcore punk genre compared to the thrash metal genre. Throughout this genre inspiration was taken from bands such as Motörhead, and Black Sabbath. These influences carried on through the Metallic Hardcore age. During this genre Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax became popular and are now known as the big four. These four bands are still popular to date and are releasing new material.

Metallica, the biggest band of the big four, have produced an album with Lou Reed entitled “Lulu” this album is going to be released October 31, 2011 worldwide.

After finishing their latest tour for their album “World Painted Blood” Slayer is currently postponing creating a new album until Jeff Hanneman's, the guitarist, condition improves.

Megadeth are still currently touring their latest album “Thirteen”.

Whereas Anthrax have just released their latest album called “Worship Music”. The album was released on September 13.

The Crossover Thrash genre is often confused with thrash-core, which is essentially a faster hardcore punk rather than a more punk-oriented form of metal.


Metallic Hardcore

All Out War

Metallic Hardcore started in 1989 and carried on as a genre until 1995. This let a new wave of hardcore bands emerged included All Out War, Biohazard, Earth Crisis and Vision of Disorder. These bands took inspiration from many of the bands mentioned in the previous paragraph (see Crossover thrash) as well as Septic Death, Samhain, and Joy Division as well as taking some aspects from the death metal genre.





Melodic Metal-core

Avenged Sevenfold

In the early 1990s bands placed more significance on the emphasis of the melody. These bands combined more modern elements of punk and metal. This also included the fuse between the melodic death metal and post-hardcore genre, as well as some of the aspects associated to the emo genre. The first bands incorporate such genres include Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage and Bullet for My Valentine. These bands have emerged as the most commercially successful artists of metal-core. Unlike metal-core of older generations Melodic metal-core makes use of clean vocals.






Sourced: Wikipedia - Metalcore

Research on final band - Parkway Drive - album

Horizons is the second album by Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive, released on October 6, 2007 in Australia and October 9, 2007 internationally. Horizons was produced by Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz and recorded at Zing Studios in Massachusetts.

The album debuted at #6 in the ARIA Albums Chart on October 14, 2007 and #27 in the Top Heatseekers chart. A video has been made for "Boneyards". It also contains the song "Breaking Point" which we are using for our video. 

The track "Feed Them To The Pigs" is named after a line in the Guy Ritchie film Snatch.

Influential aspects of videos of the genre (performance narrative)

There are a lot of bands and also a lot of videos of theirs that are important to research when it comes to making my own video. I am researching various videos of certain bands so I can take influences and aspects to sue in my own video. Here, I will embed a few videos and comment on what themes and tehniques I would aim to replicate and add to my own production.

1. Before I Forget - SlipKnoT

Slipknot is an American metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. The video for Before I Forget focuses greatly on the band's instruments, rather than the members themselves, with lots and lots of focus on guitars, drums, bass, microphone and samples/keyboards. This is because the band famously wear masks to obscure their appearances and in the video for Before I Forget, they have their masks off so that's the reason of the instrument close-ups. I am aiming to follow a similar technique and use plenty of focus on the performance section of the video. 

    2. Born To Lose - The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada - Born to Lose on MUZU.TV

The Devil Wears Prada are a Christian metalcore band from Dayton, Ohio. The aspect of performance I want to take from this video is the silhouetted way the band members are portrayed in the video, creating a similar style of narrative enigma to that of the aforementioned video. I think that the way none of the band members are shown properly adds to the creepiness and strange feel of the video. 

    3. Meddler - August Burns Red 

Similar to The Devil Wears Prada, August Burns Red also a Christian metalcore band from Manheim, Pennsylvania. The video for Meddler features the band playing outside under a lighting rig; the primary aspect of performance narrative I want to use in my video is the area that they're playing, which is some sort of corn field outside; the band in my video need to be playing outside as well in order to fit the video's idea better. 

Trip to Bradford Museum of Media

Yesterday, both Year 12 and Year 13 media classes at our school traveled to Bradford for the Co-operative film festival, an annual festival which exhibits multiple entries of film from schools all around the country, and sometimes even further. Entries from our year group from last year included Waxed, Wrenched and Sleep Tight, shown in screening one. Another brilliant point during the day was meeting Oli and James Phelps, who played the Weasley twins in the superb Harry Potter franchise. We didn't even know that they were opening the film festival until an hour before we got there. Towards the end of the day, we attended an editing masterclass which used Final Cut Pro on some iMacs, which is quite a step up from the programs we use here which consist of iMovie and Final Cut Express, which is essentially the same but lacking a few features. We learned how to use the chroma key and the green screen techniques, as well as adding titles and backgrounds to videos. 

Research on the genre(s) of the pitch

Although The Acacia Strain are commonly labelled as "deathcore" due to the hardcore and abrasive nature of their music, the band often refuse to be pigeonholed when it comes genres, and just designate themselves as "heavy". Technically speaking, The Acacia Strain have a dabbled with a number of different genres as they've progressed as a band. These include influences of hardcore, metalcore, metal, death metal, deathcore and others.

Hardcore/Hardcore punk - this genre of rock formed in the early 80's and found mainstream success through a few bands such as Black Flag. most bands followed the traditional singer/guitar/bass/drum format. The songwriting had more emphasis on rhythm rather than melody. Hardcore vocalists screamed, chanted and used spoken word poetry. Guitarists started using various different techiques to achieve a heavier sound, such as breakdowns, chugging and tapping, which was previously left unexplored. The guitar sound was almost always distorted and amplified. A lot of hardcore songs were very short. 


Metalcore - metalcore is an subgenre of the two genres of hardcore and metal and the genre began in the early 90's. It is one of the most prominent and popular forms of metal around today, made famous by such bands as Killswitch Engage, Underoath, All That Remains, Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Bullet for My Valentine, and The Devil Wears Prada. It has had a few evolutions, such as phases of metallic metalcore, metallic hardcore and crossover thrash. It has also bred other genres too, such as mathcore which utilises and extreme amount of technical proficiency and complex time signatures, and The Acacia Strain's reluctant genre of deathcore. 

Whitechapel, a popular death metal/deathcore band.

Deathcore - this genre bears many similarities to metalcore, but employs the use of death metal riffs, whilst using a vast amount of dissonant and intentionally abrasive riffs, and often set at an extremely low tuning. The speed can change from very fast-paced drumline to a suddenly slow and lurching time signature and beat per minute, similar to the aforementioned genre. Vocally, low growls and screaming is extremely commonplace, with almost no room for clean vocals. There are also a large amount of breakdowns, comparable to metalcore as well. The Acacia Strain use all these features, thus resulting in them being labelled as "deathcore", and were one of the first bands to use the sound. 

Slayer, a notable death metal band and purveyors of the genre.

Death metal - as subgenres of metal go, death metal, as well as some deathcore and black metal, is the most extreme and also one of the most revered in the world of rock. Much of the style of branches of metal emerge from this genre, notable for its shugging guitars, blast beat double-bass drumming, and growled vocals. The tempos are often extremely fast and the tunings are regularly low, although sometimes not as low as some deathcore guitars. It emerged in the 1980's and was made famous by bands such as Slayer, Kreator, Celtic Frost, Deicide and Carcass, and cemented the genre and has since spawned a huge amount of subgenres, some of which are listed above.