Mood Board

Group 3's Mood Board on Prezi

Copy of trying to get clearance to make a music video

The state of the Music Industry in 2012

The Music Industry in 2012 on Prezi

The Music Industry in 2012 - a discussion

Here is a Video that I found that discusses the music industry.

My Review on my Favourite student video

  The reason why I have chosen this music video is because they have inspired me in how much organisation and editing techniques I should have and use in mine. In terms of oranisation; by looking at the music video, you can tell that this group was very well organised. This is seen through mise en scene where they planned their customes; for example where pyjamers then going for a smart dressy look, then going to casual shows that they did not just turn up on the day is what they had on but instead made a lot of plans to carefully decied what to wear on the days they were filming. The probs such as the Guiters convey the good ideas and thought that went into the planning.

On the other hand; the acting in this music video was not exactly the best form of acting as one of the players did not have any engagement with the camera but because he was not the main singer it was fine because atleast there were many shots of the main artist ( mostly long shots). The group thought very deeply about their location. They used roof top, a park and outside a business building. These locations became a great advantage to them as it made the video look moreorless like a real music video because they looked like a typical band playing on roof tops.

 In terms of Editing and camera work; there where very good angles used, mostly low angles. Jump cuts, split screen and transitions were all used throughout the music video to help keep the viewers interested. However in this music video, there were not close ups of the main artist's face only long shots and mid shots. The ratio between performance and narrative was very uneven because there was much more focus on performance than the narrative because the relationship between the lyrics and visuals was amplified. In conclusion; I hope when I do my music video, my group will be just as organised as they were.

Vernalis's Theory

"Narratives in Music Videos are not always complete, they are not balanced always between narrative and performance, do not always have a narrative resolution, and they often pose questions that are unanswered."

Vernalis’ theory on music videos is that there are more editing and camerawork   done to Music videos than other forms of media this is because the editing is done in time with the beat and also the camera itself often moves in time with the music; therefore if the music is fast then faster editing would be required, whereas if the music is slow then very slower and fewer editing would be needed. This is because there is a limited and short time for the music video which means the constant cutting keeps the narrative of the video quick and short but still interesting.

Editing in music video breaks the rules of continuity editing because there are more jump cuts, this is done to make the music artist standout or to make the song seem more effective through disjuncture. Special effects such as transitions and colourising are common in music videos and can be really obvious to observer when used.

An example of slower editing is Boys II Men- I'll Make love to you

An example of faster editing is Rhianna- we found love

Reflection on progress - VLOG

I do apologize for the quality of this video!

(no clue why i look soo orange, but enjoy. ;) )

 

 

 

 

re-edit version

Skills Audit

Compared to AS and A2 i have made great progress in terms of my ability of skills that are required for media. I have come to realise that the importance of research has enabled me to gather lots of ideas and thoughts for my coursework and our practical. During AS,i and the rest of my group didnt manage to keep an organized production schedule this resulted to us not putting as much effort in by not percpecting and exploring various locations to film. However our props were carefully chosen and was the main thing we were prepared for (Dan Ordering fake blood online).

Since AS i feel as though i have grown to understand the important techniques and aspects of filming. As i will be filming for this project i intend to use a wide range of interesting shots and camera movements to aim abit higher.
I have entered this second year with a completely different approach through inspiration and and the willingness to produce a much better peice.  According to this particular unit I have been researching in depth about a range of female british artists who are successfull enough for our desired choice. Then once finding the artist, their audience's opinions,finding out more about them and browsing through a few of their songs. This has all expanded our understanding of artist awareness and in reference to our, making it look just a realistic and professional.

Research - The state of the music industry in 2012

Copy of The state of the music industry in 2012 on Prezi

Research - Review of favourite previous student video

 

I found that watching a wide range of previous student videos was benefical as it gave us an idea of what is expected of us. Also, to see what they did in order to make ours as good as theirs or even better.I think this video in particular stood out to me the most.

 

There was clearly a lot of effort put into it in terms of preparation, planning and editing. There were also a variety of interesting basetracks and locations that were used for this video that also formed a visual sense of relation with the song.The song choice was good and it created the sense of stimulating emotion to the audience(fast and slow rhythmic patterns/lyrics).

 

 They came up with amazing ideas for mise en scene in most of their shots. The light mini-bulb strings around the performer stood out as she was surrounded by blackness, the screen projection of images that appeared on the performer and the fast forwarding of action as the performer's lipsync was still in time are all the feautures that caught my attention whilst watching.

 

I thought they did an excellent Job with using eye/ facial make-up for the performer as the center of attention. This allows the close-up to look even more eye-catching and effective rather than plain. In this case they have made good use of a variety of camera shots and angles. They had a change of costume, accordingly for each basetrack.

 

The performer in this video conveys a good example of how important it is to lipsync and not mime. Not only because it looks more realistic but because it looks even better as it involves having physical gestures and being more expressive as a performer. If i were to unexpectedly see this video on TV i would not have suspected it to be a student video because the group did an outstanding job with making it look as proffessional as any other original music video. - something i would watch again.

Research - Carol vernalis

Carol Vernallis observed music videos in terms of camerawork and editing. In comparision to film she acknowledged that editing such as cuts and effects such as transitions occured more frequently in music videos than in film. She had also discovered that in many music videos the editing used tend to have a rhythmitic patern which is accordingly persistent with the song itself.

Carol Vernalis highlights 2 key concepts of how a music video is constructed, theses are identified to be:

- Narrative
- Editing


What are her views about narratives?

• They are not always complete- often fragemented.
• There is not certainly a balance between the performance and narrative.
• It may have a disjointed structure.
• There is not always a clear resolution at the end.
• Often poses questions that are left unanswered.
• The music, performance and some other element used is what drives the video foward, the narrative is hardly involved to create a music video as the video is just a visual response to the music.

What are her views about editing?

• She states that the editing is recognised to match the musical phrases or the beat itself.
• The video likely to disorganize or break most of the rules of continuity editing
• The editing is identified to be the most prominant feature of music video as it is obvious and attracts the audience's attention (with breaking the rules of continuity editing).

For example, we are likely to see:
 - Jump cuts against the movement or lyrics.
 - Fancy / distinctive Edits.
 - Juxtaposed frames.

For example, we are unlikely to see:
 - Fair pace throughout.
 - Smooth transitions.

Finally, the camera moves in time with the music, lots of repetitions,extremes, close-ups and establishing shots are very common in music videos. A master shot (base track) is often used in order to give the video a structure.


Examples of videos that i think illustrate her ideas:

Moves like Jagger By Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera

 

 

Mirror on the wall By Bruno Mars Ft Lil wayne

 

 

Look at me now By Chris Brown Ft Busta Rhymes Ft Lil wayne

 

Reflecting back on the as year

Technical Skills

A good example of a Music Video

Rihanna - Russian Roulette on MUZU.TV.

Rhianna - Russian Roulette is a great example of a good music video as the conventions what make it, are conventions that we could also use in my music video.

The Relationship between lyrics and visuals have been amplified as the lyrics is about Russian roulette; which is a potentially lethal game of chance in which a player places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against his or her head, and pulls the trigger. The music video amplifies this through the visuals as she has blood where her heart is and she in a room with a window conveying her feelings of being scared and petrified.

Rhianna is participating within this video as she is the one that has to pull the trigger as being part of the game However; every time it comes to the chorus she is singing by herself either in a room or outside. This shows that the main purpose of this music video was to promote the artist as she is the main focus of the music video and the very that the ratio between the performance and the narrative was not exactly even as their seemed to be more performance than nararative.

Throughout the music video, there are many jump cuts; like in most; however unlike other videos, the cutaways inbetween the jump cuts are very, very fast as it is meant to be portrayed as flashbacks of what has previously happened to help with the narrative also there was a cutin of a tiger which symbolises how fierice and vicious the game is. Also when the flashbacks are happening there is special effects added to show how vivid she remembers what happened. Special effects like blurring, distorted colours and dark lighting will be a good technique to use in my music video as it will help to amplify the things we are trying to get across to the audience.

The lighting in the music video is very dark to convey the life-frettening aim of the game. There is a spotlight when Rhianna is in the room with the window, this is to show how in the game if you pull the trigger and kill the other player then you have to live with the decision for the rest of your life.

Transitions are used to connect the two jump cuts together. The fade in overlapping is a good technique to use because  the song we have choosen is also slow therefore the slow movement of the transitions will go in time with the beat of the song.

Fast motion is used to speed up action. For example near the end of the song a car is going to knock her down, the fast motion speeds up the process to convey how quickly she wants to end her life. Yet again; fast motion is a good technique to use to create tension and to evoke emotion within the audience.

Research - Laura Mulvey's Theory On Representation

In a world controlled by sexual inequality, visual desires have been fulfilled by the division of there being dominant males and passive females who accept it. From a males view towards his fantasy is the sight of a female figure which has been presented accordingly.

The kind of representations of women that are expected to be found in some music videos (pop,hip-hop,etc) are half naked, show cleavage, highly exposed , tight clothes, eye contact with the camera(seductive looks) to draw attention to the male audience.

Genres:

- Pop         -Hip-Hop

- R&B        -Slow Jams

                                                                    Mary Mary 

 Mary Mary (sisters) are an American Gospel Duo. They, on the other hand, have presented themselves in a completely opposite way and challenge Mulvey's theory of how women present them selves in videos. This is mainly because they're music has a lot to do about real life matters and situations. They also seen as a duo who give inspiration through their music so the way they present themselves is not sexual in any form. They create the impression that as a woman you could still look beautiful without exposing yourself.

I do believe that Laura Mulvey’s theory on representation still stands as relevant in today’s society. From looking at some of the music videos being made now i have realised that it has become a common trend for some female artists, having a sexual appeal to the way they present themselves.

2 videos that illustrate this

Dizzee Rascal 

'Holiday'

The number of girls in this video us too much to count but from watching this video has created the impression that Dizzee Rascal had the idea of making his video overflow with the visual pleasure for a male's gaze (Less men, more women). All these women have presented themselves as sexually attractive to draw attention to the male audience as they wear their underwear.

Nelly

'Hot in here'

Similarly, this video by nelly involve women associate with men in a club. The is sexual movements, dancing and gestures within this video which may be seen as seductive toward the male audience. 

Research - Andrew Goodwin Theory

 According to Andrew Goodwin’s theory the traditional narrative structure does not really apply to pop videos.  This is not because they intend to push boundaries but they bring forth different approaches as to how they narrate in contrast to novels and films. This transformation made by the use of structure within the music videos (pop) is that they are built around songs therefore does not revolve around having a traditional narrative structure. The singer performs as the character and narrator. Also, unlike in novels and films it is quite common for the performer to make eye-contact with the camera (draws viewers’ attention/involve viewers)

 

 Intertextual references to other media texts may be present, accompanied by repetition with the use of images in time with the choruses. Another way in which music is associated with repetition is that it gets distributed through TV, the radio and promoted as soundtracks for films. In this way it would reach out to the audience who would become more familiar with it.

Even though this sudden change of structure has been discovered, music videos do still have a form of closure and ending and this may happen by the building up of climax or constant repetition before it fades away.

The visualisation of the song may not always meet eye to eye with its original meaning. For this reason Goodwin has categorized the three types of relations between songs and videos; illustration, amplification and disjuncture.

Example of illustration(when video tells the story of the lyrics):

Runaway Love by Mary J Blige Featuring Ludacris

This song was meaningfully written by Ludacris which the lyrics tell the different and unfortunate situations that happen in these teenagers lives.The repeated line ( Lisa, Nicole and Erica)'s "stuck up in the world of her own" creates the sense that they are alone, however, this song is used as a guide to encourage other teenagers, letting them know that they are not alone.  This is a literal music video as the characters in the video were acting along with the lyrics (almost word for word in each verse).

Example of Amplification(Adds layers of meaning to lyrics but doesn't contradict):

Paradise by Coldplay

             

 This song shows a man in an elephant costume, going around town and feeling free. This may cause confusion to the audience because the lyrics (as shown above) are about a girl. However this could also express the meaning of paradise, a man in an elephant costume makes it stand out from being so literal and allows it to expand on the title "paradise".

Example of Disjuncture(where there is little connection/contradiction between the lyrics and video):

Rolling in the Deep by Adele

 This is a personal song written by Adele as she sings from her own perspective. This video has been clearly identified as an example of disjuncture as it doesn't illustrate any connection between the lyrics and the performance. She performs seated on a chair in a warehouse with scenes of breaking glasses, smoke to sort of link to the emotion of the song.

Typical features used in pop videos are acknowledgeable such as women being presented as objects and of male desire. Artists such as Madonna and Beyoncé purposely attract the male gender and cease to be passive by their eye contact with the camera and sexual gestures. Finally, some videos appeal to appeal to a wide audience whilst some incorporate images from movies to include as their narrative

Analysis of best example of Music Video

 

 HOW CAN I LOSE - ANGEL FT. CHIPMUNK

 

 

I consider this to be a good example of a successful music video because of its interesting conventions and features. Firstly, the begining had an intro with Eddie Kadi who is a well known comedian in the UK, along with Angel's well known song 'wonderful' that accompanied the introduction but was blurred in the background.I think it is an interesting way to promote the artist with the use of humor within the video (EK) which aslo expands on his image as an artist.

 

Noticeably, the video is identifuled to be an illustration (Goodwin's theory). The storyline of 'Angel' losing his girfriend involved a series of interesting camera shots and movements. There were shots back and forth of medium close-ups of him in the car, in a rush to stop her from leaving and cut aways of the girl leaving.

Research -What is the Function of a music Video?

For our A2 Advanded portfolio were are working towards producing our own music video remakes of an existing Brtitish Artists. Our first lesson was to look deeper into the concepts of music videos and what the functions of them are.

Copies of Copyright clearence

Technical Skills developed from AS.

Throughout my AS year i have gradually gained technical skills in media that would be useful for producing my advanced portfolio to remake a successful music video.

These skills include:

• .Editing shots and/or putting them together with the use of special effects and transitions.

• Using soundtrack pro to create atmospheric music.

• Using live type for credits and titles (making the text look interesting and eye-catching)

• Handling the digital camera and it's uses/eqiptment (zooms,tripod,buttons, adjustments and making good use of them under safe and secure conditions.)

                                                                

 

Reflecting back on AS Year. Remake of Music Vid

Towards the end of AS we created, in groups a remake of an original music video. Recreating the cha cha slide was a bit more difficult than we thought but it gave us the chance to be open with our own ideas and thoughts about how to make our recreation nicely structured.

Strengths:
- We were able to keep up with time.
- We had a reasonable amount of base tracks that were intresting settings.
- We has the right energy to suit the song.

Weaknesses:
- Our lipsyncing was not stong enough (miming).
- No arrangements made with our costumes.
- There could have been more camera movements.

Although we had a reasonable amount of basetracks we could have made use of them by having much more interesting camera movements and angles. This would make a huge difference as to how constructing our video would match up to how lively the song is even if there were not to be as much editing. We mostly used cuts instead of a variety transitions and effects. We consider this to be another part of our weakness, however, we were keen to make sure that out cuts and rearrangements of shots matched in time with the lyrics of the song.

For our A2 advanced portfolio i would be able to look back at this summer project and make improvements for the weaknesses this had due to my lack of knowledge at the time of how music videos are constructed and some of the essential things we have to bare in mind for when producing them such as how performers should lipcync and actually sing instead of mime because it would make it much difficult/obvious for when editing(placing original song over our video).

This project we did was benefitial as it gave us an idea of what to expect this year, coming back with at lease some experience and understanding if how to produce them. Moreover, i am aware this year we are expected to expand on our abilities to bring forth ideas for our own remake of a specific song.

RESEARCH:

Blogging task on Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative does not apply to pop videos, they approach narrative different to that of novels and films this is because pop videos are built around songs, pop videos use the singer as a narrater and as a character and lastly the singer looks directly at the camera, most of the time.

Pop videos rely on repition goodwin argues repeating images and so on, this is to make parts of the song familiar to the audience through playing it on tv, radio and advertising on a film. The pop videos must have an ending that reflects the structure of the song.

There are three types of reltions between songs and videos: illistration, aplification and disjuncture.

illistration - Video tells a story an example of this is Hairspray - I can hear the bells

Amplification - Video that introduces new meanings that do not contradict with lyrics

Disjuncture - Little connection between the lyric and video an example of this is Lady gaga - Telephone



RESEARCH:

Blogging Task on Carol Vernallis

Carol vernallis studied editing and camera work closely in music videos, she explains that there is more editing in music videos than there are in films and she argues that music videos hold editing that is rhythmic and are closely connected with a selected song.

She tells us that the usual thing music videos do is use continuity editing which is used to draw the atttention of what is going on.

There are lots of kinds of editing used in the making of a music video eg jumpcuts, slow motion, obvious edits, camera moving in time with the music, repeated shots of the artist, use of base tracks and editing in time with the beat of the song.

Examples of this that illistrates 3 of her main ideas is:

Florence and the machine - The dog days are over

The Saturdays - All Fired up

Both Videos use a range of editing that Carol Vernallis used to talk about