Every Biffy Clyro album and single cover has a flowing trend throughout, they are all built up of drawings, paintings or photographs which show an arty side of the band. None of the images show all the band posing like usual band covers do.
They all reflect what the name of the song or album is about.
For example the single cover for machines shows a mans body stopping at the neck, the character is opening his shirt to show a machine where his chest should be.
The single cover for bubbles is by the sea illustrating the name of the song as we associate water with bubbles.
The God and Satan single cover shows two people, one black and one white. The white person could represent purity, which would link in with the song title, to represent God. The black shadow, could represent Satan.
The following record company logo is our design which will be shown at the start of the video and on the CD cover. It represents the company and with having a quirky look follows the fact our business is an alternative indie/rock record company. The black header and footer makes out logo look like an old film.
Both myself and nicole are responsible for the design of this logo.
The following are the costume sets for the characters in our video;
Two for the memories/flashbacks, and scenes of the break up, this will illustrate there was more than one memory. These will both be casual attire to make them look like a normal day to day situation.
The costumes for the woman in the couple will be simple and neutral colours to maintain the focus on the male.
The third costume, when he is singing/performing will contrast the other ones as he will be wearing a smart black suit.
The costume for the character we don't see the face of will will be dressed in a plain colour, e.g. black, white or neutral
We will use 3 different locations for the different parts of the song; the flashbacks, the singing and the emotional representations.
Firstly, the flashback scenes will be shot in a homely setting, as if the couple lived together. It will show times when the couple lived together. he lighting will be soft and warm, to give the shots a cosier feel.
Secondly, the singing scenes. These will be shot in an attic/basement/warehouse. The lighting in these shots will be cold and dull representing his mood.
Finally we aim to shoot the final part in a dark room where all we can see is the body of the third character showing the mood and reflecting specific lyrics.
The video for bubbles is very simple, it shows the band performing in what looks like a dark warehouse, and the colours are all quite dull.Effects such as lens flkare, a scratched screen and various other effects are used to make the video look old and worn down giving it a vintage retro look.
Biffy Clyro- God and Satan
At the start of the video, a title is shown saying God and Satan and close ups of the set are used, this give a feel of the video being a narrative and that it’s going to tell some sort of story.Next we see the only the heads of the band immersed from a quite lake, and 4 other characters stood by the side of the lake looking quite still and dressed in odd clothing, but we do not see their faces.We then skip to another scene of a field where there are a crowd of people slowly walking to the cameraall again dressed in ‘odd’ clothing and their faces are all painted to make them look like ghosts or zombies, this connotates with the name of the song ‘God and Satan’ as they all look dead.Finally we see these strange people reaching their destination as it reaches night time where candles are lit and the ghosts/zombie people are dancing while the three members of the band are being laid down, sheets are put over them asif they have died, when this happens everyone disappears and the song ends. I feel this is a creative and interesting video but would not appeal to a mass audience as it is strange and has themes of death which is of a disturbing nature.
Biffy Clyro – That Golden Rule
A small corridor looking room is where the video starts,we see the drummer doing a long solo while lights are flashing then the 2 guitarists/singers join in. All the members or the band are topless which is a focus on part of their song, with close ups on tattoos and facial features and hair.After the close up the room beings to look bigger and the band are more spread out.Following this we see the song continuing in a different pitch black location where all we can see is the band and lots of coloured smoke. In the middle of the song we reach a quiter point where we know the song is about to hit its climax, throughout this is a drum solo where we can see close ups on part of a big building. The song then finally reaches the climax where we zoom out and see the whole building where lights are flashing and the pillars of it are turned in to a large scale equalizer.This is obviously a big budget video which gets viewers with it’s thrills and special effects.
Biffy Clyro - The Captain
The video for The Captain won the NME award for best video and the best video award for KERRANG! and it is clear why.It’s completely staged as a pirate ship and the band have pulled out all stops to make this a hit.It is obviously a narrative video when the first shot is of Simon, the lead singer tied up in the middle of the ship, with what look like old fashioned pirates surrounding him. The video has 2 alternate parts to the song , firstly that one which carries on where he is getting whipped then gets put in a cage. And the other is the band all dressed as stereotypical pirates on the deck at night, performing their song.
Biffy Clyro – Many of Horror
This video is similar to the one for bubbles, it is all performed of the band and their is nothing staged although Occasionally, lead singer Simon Neil's face appears distorted by ghosts and lighting.We feel that this is the video we are going to put our own take on, as the song is at a reasonable tempo but has a deep meaning in the song we can explore with and be creative.
For our research we looked at different music videos so we could compare and contrast them to the ideas for our music video.
The first music video we studied was Enrique Iglasias Heartbeat. We studied this video as we were interested in the special effects that were used. Flashing coloured lights were flashed on the two main characters, at the beginning of the video, to represent their hearts. Through out the video, the lights change colour which could symbolise different emotions that the characters are feeling. The video is very simple and fits the mood of the song. At one point in the video the two characters are in separate black rooms, where the lights are focusing on them. We think that this effect would be really affective in our video, as we could use the lights to symbolise the heartache of the male main character.
For our media practical production we are going to use the option of creating a music video. We decided to create a music video due to the fact that both partners would like the chance to be as creative as possible during this task, and we feel that by creating a music video it will let us do that.
Our target audience for the music video will be aimed at a mass audience, as our chosen artist is a well-known band in the music industry. The band Biffy Clyro are an alternative rock band, therefore their music is currently one of the most popular genres around.
We have chosen the song many of horror because it is a reasonable tempo for our group to manage. Also the lyrics are meaningful and detailed giving us flexibility creating a diverse music video. The lyrics of the song are based upon love, a relationship, and also it ending.
Our personal adaptation of this song, for the video will show the main characters past, and the story behind the relationship he once had with his partner. Our video will include flashbacks of the time him and his ex partner were together, showing this time as one of his happiest. Other clips in the video will show the main character singing the song, which will give us the opportunity to vary the shots and focus more on camera work, to work to the typical conventions of music videos. Other shots will include another character who will not be identified showing the different emotions that the main character is feeling.
