Definition of Drum and Bass

Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980’s/ The genre is characterised by fast break beats (typically between 160-180 bpm, occasionally variation is noted in older compositions), with heavy bass and sub-bass lines. Drum and bass began as an offshoot of the UK rave scene of the very early 1990’s. Over the first decade of its existences, the incorporation of elements from various musical genres led to many permutations in its overall style. Today we see releases of both remixed tracks and new compositions.

Filming has Begun

We have started filming our final piece. We are finding that filming in the winter can be difficult, as the weather is a factor we must always consider.
We are expecting clear skys with sun within the next week, so plan to make the most of the pleaseant weather.

Letter of Permision to Record label

Click to view image, this is a printscreen of the email we sent to Skream's record label.

Analysing similar artists

The genre to this song is Dubstep. Usually in dubstep video you visual will be either very surreal or very cool and current. This video is the latter of them. The video follows to attractive women rollerblading though sunny streets around people playing basketball and skateboarding etc. There is no singer in the video just following the two girls.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals.In a dubstep song it is rare to find any form of relationship between lyrics and visuals. Normally the visuals look completely random with the lyrics. Although with this video there is no direct relationship between the lyrics and visuals you can link them together. There are only the two girls in the start of the video and at the end there is a party at the skate park. As the lyrics repeatedly day “louder” throughout the song, more and more people appear in the video.

Relationship between music and visuals.Although in dubstep songs the lyrics do not tend to have a relationship with the visuals, the music does. As dubstep songs is mainly music with little lyrics, and the type of sound it is, the visuals have to be on point with the music to make it look good. This is exactly what has been done in this song, every shot cut and effect which is in this video is timed to perfection. Also some dubstep can sound dark and angry; however some can sound happy and exciting. Because this song is has a happy and exciting the fact that the video is shot in the sun with everyone in the video smiling.

Analysing Similar Artists

Codes and conventions of music videos

They can be divided into two separate categories:

Technical:

-          How equipment and technology are used to construct meaning

-          Camera – angles and shots

-          Editing techniques

-          Music style, genre and digetic sounds

Symbolic:

-          Meaning created beyond what is obvious to see

-          Mise en-scene

-          Facial expressions

Codes and conventions help the audience to become more familiar with a certain genre as they become accustomed to seeing certain things. Also it ensures that the style of the production created fits the genre of the song.

Style:

A short action story with characters running a group of people and fights when encountered by the group. The contrast of being safe to fearing the group and encountering them.

Camera:

A mixture of extreme close ups and medium close ups allow the viewer to both see the expressions on characters face but also to show the fighting scene, and allow the audience to understand what is going on. The use of a tracking system during running scenes and panning a tilts at different angles to show clear to the audience what’s going on.

Editing and Sound:

The editing has been mainly supported by the song; when the beat per second increase, more cuts are made and more shots are used to make the scene more intense and more exciting for the audience. Supported again by longer shots when the two characters are safe from the bad group of people to contrast the difference between the rhythm and a drop. This creates a build up for the fighting scenes supported by the music.

Mise-en-scene:

Location:

In the United States of America in a neighbourhood, a home, under a bridge, shop, small baseball park and surrounding areas and streets.

Costume:

Male Character – Wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and black jacket

Female Character (girlfriend) – a black dress with stripes on the front and a leather jacket
The chasing group – All wearing dark black colours

This creates a clear contrast between both the good guys and the bad guys in this video.
Extreme close-ups are used regularly to show facial expressions of fear from the two main characters. Overall I believe that its hard to make a relation between the song and video. I believe that the contrast between the two characters being safe and away from danger and then a twist to them running and finally a main fighting scene with relation to ‘kick-starts again’ meaning the action starts again.