Research into similar artists.

Research into similar artists.

Iron maiden
Iron maiden fall into the same category genre as Motorhead, as Heavy Metal. They, as well as Motorhead, we’re formed in 1975 and have mad many famous songs. Most of there songs, like Motorhead are heavy and will analyse a video of there’s and compare it to Motorheads videos.
Aces High
• The video is telling the story about the battle of Britain, the first battle to be fought in the air. It starts with a famous speech made by Winston Churchill, and shows footage of soldiers running to there planes ready to fight.
• The footage follows what Winston Churchill says in his speech. For example, “We will fight in the hills” shows hills where they are likely to battle. This gives a sense of narrative to the video.
• 0.45 – fast take shots of explosions from various angles show how bad the battle was. The only long take in the scene is of a plane burning to the ground. This makes the viewer actually realise how bad the battle was, and how they are portraying war as a bad thing.
• 1.03 – As the intro to the song finishes, the footage changes from black and white footage of the battle, and goes into a colour performance shot of the band playing a live gig. Various shots are used to show each member of the band. Once the lyrics start, most footage is of the lead singer, Bruce Dickinson.
• During the song, the lyrics stop, and more black and white footage of the battle is shown. Again, using various angles, we see footage of the planes firing at others, whilst also flying in sync with one another.
• 3.45 – A high angle shot in black and white shows planes flying in the air with the word England, written on the land below. It shows how they will fight to keep England free against the enemy.
• The song was a great success, and achieved number 1 in the UK singles chart.
• It also lead to many covers of the song, by bands such as Arch Enemy, and Children of Bodom.
• The target audience for the song wouldn’t really be people who can associate with the battle, if they fought in it or even alive to see and hear about it whilst happening as this type of music wouldn’t appeal to an older target audience. It targets two people, the first, the heavy metal lover who are fans of the band, and not that they would like the music, but the older generation who can associate with the footage shown.

Another band that falls into the same genre as Motorhead is Black Sabbath. They we’re well known for there heavy metal songs and mostly as there front man was Ozzy Osbourne, who contributed to a lot of controversial acts the band had to go through including biting the head off a bat. I analysed “headless cross” by Black Sabbath.
• Various shots show most members of the band performing at the start of the song. A wide shot is used to show a blacksmith making the head, of a cross, in relation to the name of the song.
• 0.39 – a medium shot shows the lead singer singing, whilst emerging from mist. The effect sets the scene for the whole video, giving it a airy, misty feel to it.
• Whilst the camera is still filming the performance shot of him singing, there a few flashes of a cross in the ground. Again, this gives a narrative element to the video, instead of it being all performance like many of there other videos.
• 1.03 – The first master shot showing the whole band performing for the first time in the video. Fire is used to help frame the position of the band, which makes them seem more closed together, like a team
• 1.09 – the lyrics fall from the sky, then leads to a tilt up, to a black sky, again, following the narrative element of the video
• Throughout the video, shots of what looks to be a church are shown. This links into the cross idea, by setting it in a church yard, where crosses are used to remember the dead. Death, again, is a theme that is portrayed by many bands including Black Sabbath.
• 1.29 – A pan behind some trees, shows a cross being put up in the foggy background. The scene is very dark, making it seem fairly scary to the viewer, especially with the use of the fog surrounding them. The camera also makes it seems like a point of view shot, making it feel like someone is watching the people putting the cross up.
• 1.50 – a tilt down reveals a man, wearing a hood with his head tilted down within the dark mist. This gives a scary sense to the viewer, as we don’t know who he is or what he is doing standing there.
• 2.16 – a wide shot of a wall shows a shadowed figure walking along it. This is a fairly scary scene, as we can only see the shadow and not the actual person, giving a supernatural element to the video
• 2.36 – A wide shot shows many of the people in hoods walking across a path with a misty background. They are all carrying flames, again, giving a scary feel to the video.
• During the solo, various shots focus around the guitarist. This is because at this point, all the attention is on him, and the cameras showing him playing the solo show the audience he is a brilliant musician.
• 3.16 – The people in hoods carrying flames are now circling the cross we seen being put up earlier. Again, very scary feel to the video, as to what they are doing there with fire next to a cross, represent someone who has died.
• 4.10 – the words headless cross are sang, as the camera shows the cross seen earlier, has had the head of it removed. The narrative element is again shown here by the visuals following the lyrics.
What I have found whilst studying similar artists is that they all are mainly performance based videos. This is apparent in each video i studied although they both feature some kind of narrative perspective within the video. Another thing i realised is that they all deal with major themes. Many heavy metal songs focus on themes such as gambling, death, war, relationships etc.