A2 Media Studies

Final Post

2009-12-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

So it’s finally finished, and after all the problems we had and our rush of getting it filmed and edited in time has really paid off and I am much more proud with our work than I originally thought I would be! I did struggle with this project and it was a real challenge and step up from AS, here are some of the highlights of what I have learnt, what I would do different and what I enjoyed:

-In AS I was in a group of 4 but I have found that working in a group of 2 for this project includes much more work than I originally thought. I knew that we would have more work but I didn’t realise it would affect our performance as much as it did. In a group of 4, there was always someone to work with and their specialities could be split into main roles to get the best results, with two of you, you would both want to have a go at each thing which would mean other aspects such as the website would be neglected which affect our timing for filming and editing.

-A very strict plan is very necessary as we found in summer when part of a group of 3. We filmed all we needed in one day for our original music video which we were very proud of but once uploaded onto Vegas Movie we realised it needed a lot of work and the shots filmed outside meant that a lot of the scenery, such as the trees moved when we cut shots together and looked very unprofessional. Another problem was that we hadn’t got a complete storyboard which meant we were not always happy with the shots we had filmed and it got very confusing where shots were meant to be in the song and what else we needed to film. This was a very valuable lesson learnt which meant me Kris made sure we were 100% happy with our second song choice and we had a very detailed storyboard with back-up shots filmed in case another shot didn’t work once we came to post-production.

-Character choice was a difficult decision to make because we found it difficult to have our original cast to be free when we needed to film which meant a lot of time was wasted. We therefore made the decision of me and Kris to be in the video which as previously mentioned wasn’t ideal because we had to have help from my brother to film some shots we were both in.

-If I was to do something different, I would have planned one day of filming with the shots filmed in order with keeping the continuity which I think would have been a lot less confusing than how we filmed, in stages. I would have also researched more into what Flash was able to do because the problems we had with the poor quality of images meant we had a lot less time to do other filming, editing or working on the ancillary texts. The animation was also rushed due to the problems we had and therefore is not up to scratch and messy, if I had the time I would have spent longer on getting it as perfect as possible!

-I enjoyed the bigger challenge this project created. If I am honest, I thought a music video would be a lot easier than it looks but I was proved very wrong! I loved being taught new techniques on Flash, playing around with animation and I liked playing around with the cuts of shots in time to the beat of the song, which I also found quite difficult but it allowed me to be creative and develop my editing skills!

Overall I think this project has been a success, it really came together in the last week and I am proud of how the final music video and ancillary texts look!

Evaluation Question 4

2009-12-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

The following are new pieces of media equipment we used during filming:

-A Sony Handycam digital video camera
-A tripod
-My iPod

The digital video camera included a touch screen and was in an easy to hold size which is a new technology improvement from older video cameras. It produced a good quality image and enabled night vision during the shots when lighting was limited after 4pm.

We used my iPod when filming Kris miming to the song, he hid the wires under his jumper and tucked his hair over one of his ears in which he had in a headphone so he could listen to the song and keep in time with the lyrics and beat. IPods now include very small, almost disguisable headphones which were perfect so as not to be seen on film. I also sung along with the iPod myself when certain shots would show up the headphones.

The following are new media technologies we used to edit our music video:

-Vegas Movie 9.0 (FIND OUT)
-Macromedia – Flash
-iTunes

Vegas Movie 9.0 is the newest update of the software programme and therefore included more options when editing. We used a range of editing techniques such as; fading, colour, speeding up shots/using slow motion, merging two shots together, cropping the screen and enabling stop-motion to be cut in time to the song. We also used Vegas Movie to mute any audio picked up on the camera when filming and were also able to add in our music videos song.

Flash did cause us many problems with Vegas Movie allowing the Flash file types to play in the editing software programme but it did give us some good results even though we couldn’t use it for other shots we wanted to include animated. We used Flash to draw on the lyrics on the floor in which our feet walked over and the text would disappear as our feet walked past them. We used a timeline on the programme to work out where each letter needed to be in each second of shot and we used a technique which is where you add a ‘layer’ to the timeline so the image of our feet would play with the lyrics in the other layer playing over the top.

We used the popular digital media player software, iTunes, in which you can buy songs to store in a personal collection of music, videos, podcasts etc on the computer. We brought our music videos song and put it onto a memory stick and brought it into school to put into our music video on Vegas Movie. We were then able to place the shots we had filmed in time with the lyrics and work out exactly where cuts needed to be in time to the beat.

The following are new media technologies we used to promote our music video for audience feedback and for our 2 ancillary texts:

-Facebook
-Photoshop for the album cover
-Wix for the website - http://www.wix.com/

Facebook, the popular global social networking website where you can upload videos onto your own profile where friends or people you chose to be on your profile can view the video and comment on it. This was a great way to find out our audience feedback, it was also good because not just media students were watching which gave us a wide range of comments from the target audience who watch music videos on a regular basis and how they compare our video to real music videos.

Blogging is also a new media technology in itself and I am using the website Blogger. Blogging is becoming a fast way of sharing information accessible at anytime and can be seen as keeping an ‘online diary’.

-Research!
To gather research into this project I used the following sources:

-Internet search engines
I typed in words such as “montage editing” to find out definitions and I also searched media related figures such as John Fiske to find out a bit of background information on them, I often came across Wikipedia which gave good results but is unreliable due to being edited by unknown persons who could give false information, so I found it best to look out for ‘Official websites’. I particularly did this when researching into the band Empire of the Sun and their song we had chosen for our music video. I also found the lyrics to the song on the first website I looked at!

-Online archive of articles
The research I gathered on media magazine can be found online on the official website which includes all articles able to be read via the computer. This is becoming increasingly popular to do so; an example includes articles from historical books which may be hard to come across. This new media technology of ‘online reading’ allows people to find articles efficiently and all in one place with suggestions of articles of interest to the reader.

-YouTube
I found all of the music videos mentioned in my blog on YouTube available to watch straight away. This new technology of video sharing across the world has dramatically grown in popularity due to the access of being able to watch pretty much anything, whether you want to learn how to knit or want to watch a cat singing. I was able to find the old Pop-Up Video VH1 programme that is unlikely to be accessible other than on the internet which gave useful historical data in to music videos. This new technology could again be useful for me and Kris to promote our own music video and gain an even wider data of audience feedback.

-DVD extras
This is also becoming well known to feature in the purchases of films and music CDs and also on music director’s videos themselves. I was able to watch the DVD extras of Michael Gondry who directed music videos such as; Daft Punk – Around the World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4 and The Foo Fighters – Everlong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyvvCuIHrJw The DVD extras included ‘behind the scenes’ of a few of the music videos and interviews with directors about how they interpret the songs and their ideas and creative techniques.

-Planning !
The following techniques were used throughout the planning stages of the music video:

-Digital cameras/camera phones
Myself and Kris often came across locations we thought would be suitable for shots in our music video in which we would be able to take a picture of and then go back and plan the shots with the image of the location in front of us. This helped to see which scenes would follow well together through the transitions and which shots could be filmed where. The new technology of camera phones creates photographic memories/reminders/images in a second and is a reliable source to always have with you whenever you come across something you want to take a picture of.

-Tutorials
From my AS project I learnt a valuable lesson of going through tutorials on new software I hadn’t used before which I used in A2. The tutorials taught us all the basics we needed to be efficient with time and allowed us to be independent with our work and experiment more because we had a better knowledge of how the programmes Vegas Movie and Flash worked. Tutorials are a great new technology featured on computer programmes because it allows you to understand the programmes you are using in your own time and are always there whenever you need assistance.

-Scanning storyboards
With two people in the group, we both needed the same information and therefore scanning each other’s work allowed us to both have information we needed without both of us needing to be there. Scanning is a great new way of transferring text, especially hand written because with computer text, emails and social networking sites allow you to copy and paste to and from but with written, which is what our storyboard was, scanning is the only possible and quick way to copy a text.

-Evaluation!
The success of our music video would be determined by the importance of audience feedback. To gain the useful comments and views of viewers we used two very different ways to gain as much information as possible.

-The questionnaire
This was a useful way to gain structured answers from the people we asked on which topics we most wanted to know we had achieved successfully. These included:

-what the target audience thought of our music video, if it matched with their taste in the bands electronic music genre

-how well we “branded” the band positively and attracted new audience

-if the music video was professionally thought through to then appear on television music channels and if the people asked would be happy to view it

We could manipulate the questions to get the certain answers we wanted to hear and avoided closed questions which would not allow people to expand on their comments and views. The answers we received were very fair and honest and provided us good knowledge on how successful our video and branding of the band was. It was the best way of finding out peoples honest opinions and gave them an opportunity to feed back to us on how we could improve!

-Youtube/Facebook

Youtube was a useful way of gaining non-biased answers because our video could be viewed by people we didn’t necessarily know which would mean their comments would be totally honest which would help us really gain knowledge into how well we created this music video. However, Youtube often takes a while for views to go up and not everyone comments when watched or people often use it as "joke" which would make the comments unreliable. As mentioned before Facebook gained immediate feedback due to the popularity of the social networking site and it could be viewed straight away as soon as uploaded, but the comments could be biased because they are viewed by my friends, therefore all the comments are positive!!
This is the link to our music video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq4ju7auMPw

Evaluating our music video through audience feedback provided the best way of finding out how successful we were with the project. It was able to attract the target audience and a wide variety of views, whereas using, for example, teacher feedback would not possibly give the best views on how successful we branded the band because it would be one persons view and they may not know the band!

Evaluation Question 3

2009-12-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback played an important role in the construction and producing our final product. We used a variety of ways to present our work to a wide audience to get the best possible feedback on what may need improving and if we produced a good music video they would be happy to watch again and again.

-Early drafts of our music video
We showed our music video at different stages in the production to see if we were heading in the right direction concerning images, colouring, animation and the feel for the song matched with the video footage. This method definitely helped when we were using Flash for animation; we chose to show our animation to people who were very familiar and experienced with Flash and also our teacher to get useful feedback on how it looked. The comments we received were good but all said that there was something missing and we needed something “wow” to make our music video stand out and look visually exciting. Along with the problems we experienced with the quality of our animation, a friend who knew a lot about Flash helped me to produce the scene with the watch, were the lyrics and the image of the next scene appeared on the watch face.

-Target audience
Our target audience is fans of electronic music which is the genre of music Empire of the Sun produce. We therefore showed our friends who often listen to electronic music our music video to see what they think of it and if it appeals to them and their taste in music. I made a small questionnaire to get an idea of the feedback we have been receiving on our work, I asked those who are fans of the band, fans of electronic music and just music fans to get a wide range of comments. Below are some of the results from some of the questions asked:

I asked 10 people in my questionnaire if they liked electronic music to see if the people who liked that genre of music had positive corresponding answers for other questions about the storyline and branding matching the style of music, I have put the results into a pie chart:

I asked 10 people if they had heard of Empire of the Sun to see if we had branded the band well enough to attract possibly new consumers:

I asked 10 people if they felt our music video persuaded them to listen more to Empire of the Sun or electronic music:

Those who answered yes felt that our music video added mystery to what the band is about and attracted them to watch more with the visually attractive camera movements and transitions, they said they were interested the hear more of the band’s music.
Those who said no felt that the music video was too slow paced and didn’t match up with the short, sharp lyrics of singing and they wished that there was more visually exciting animation to make it more memorable.

For the 6 people who had heard of Empire of the Sun, I asked if they felt our music video portrayed the band in a positive light and it suited their style/brand of products:

Those who said yes felt that we portrayed the style of song and lyrics really well by matching images to song lyrics which added more detail and a memorable storyline; they especially liked the stop-motion drawings which made the band’s style stand out more.
Those who said no felt that the song was too “cute” for the style of the band which is very bold and dramatic which our music video didn’t come across as.

I asked 10 people if they would expect to see a music video similar to this to feature on music channels on television:

Those who said yes, they would expect to see this music video, their answers consisted of:
-the interesting and professional looking transitions
-the colour quality
-the unique and eye-catching animation
Those who said no, they would not expect to see this music, their answers consisted of:
-not enough special effects
-the fact that there are no images of the band playing/performing

I asked 10 people if they would be happy to see this played on music channels:

The majority of people said they would be happy to see this played because it isn’t boring and they notice something different each time they watch it which is good for the repeatability factor!
The comments we received from this short questionnaire gave me a good idea on whether we created a good product and made me see other ideas I hadn’t thought of which would have probably made the music video look a little more professional, for example, the band playing live or on stage, if I was to go back in time to the start of making the music video, I would want to include those shots of the band performing. We could have played around with special lighting effects and camera angles on instruments. However, overall the comments were positive and I am pleased with the positive comments on how we branded the band and that most people would be happy to see our music video played on music channels!

-Facebook
To get an even wider range of audience feedback from people who aren’t media studies students and people whose comments will not be biased because they might be friends with me and Kris we used Facebook, a social networking site to upload of music video and allow people to comment on what they think of it. Below are some examples of the comments we received on our work:

Evaluation Question 2

2009-12-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Along with our music video, we needed to produce two ancillary texts; a website and an album cover.

LOGOS AND BRANDING!

A logo or a continuous theme to an artist or their work can appear more professional and stand out against other work to consumers. An artist can be recognised by a logo and it immediately identifies their brand, who they are, what they are about and what to expect.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” Our own brand featured in our music video, website and album cover are as follows in terms of the AMA:

-Name
The name of our band is “Empire of the Sun” and we immediately thought, although predictable, to feature the sun. Our website and album cover both use the same picture of a sun which is animated on the website and the background of both ancillary texts features sun rays. It immediately identifies the band by just seeing the image and tells the viewer or consumer what they are about. If you see this image of the sun featured with this band, you will automatically judge their work to be “happy” and “light-hearted” with bright colouring and a peaceful feel of the music and band. Our music video also features bright sun rays shining on to the “grain of voice” (lead vocalist; Kris) which can also determine the mood of the music you can expect.

-Sign/symbol
The signs and symbols you would expect the band to feature with include the image of the sun as previously mentioned and the images of the drawn people (me and Kris) on a hill. Both the ancillary texts and the music video feature these signs and symbols you would associate to the band. The band needs to be different to other artists and become known as a “product” (COMODIFICATION) for their unique use of colours, symbols and design that make them who they are for fans to relate to and to attract their target audience of the type of work they produce. The use of the drawings of me and Kris are in particular reference to the unique style of the band which can be seen as unusual, “wacky” and daring in their dress sense, style of music, personalities and the storylines in their music videos. The drawings are not what you would expect from “professional” artists and can be seen as daring in the fact that they could come across as unprofessional, similar to what their style of dress sense could make them seem.

-Design
We have kept the same background design for both ancillary texts because it stands out with the bright colours and you can easily match the design of the background with the style of the band and the single “Walking on a Dream” with the clouds and unrealistic surrounding colours and environment. We have also used the same font and font colour in both ancillary texts and the music video to establish the band and create a brand for themselves for their fans and target audience by delivering the same well known and popular image they establish through their work. Research has shown that standardising a logo design and colour scheme is vital, if the colour or design of a product is slightly different, consumers will not buy it. The font consists of a hand-written look about it, keeping with the “care free” and relaxed music produced by the band. We have also used an unusual choice of colour, purple, to keep with the bands theme as “unique” and to stand out against other artists work that often use black, bold logo designs which means not all can be indentified to which artist as quickly as our design does. The font also gives off a meaning to it, it suggests the band has a story to tell (hand-written like in a diary) which adds mystery and attention to their work, hopefully gaining popularity as consumers research more in to them.

The real band separates itself from other artists with the eye-catching image of the crown above the bands name, almost suggesting they are the "King" or "leader" of music.

The simplicity and continuity of our ancillary texts has meant our band can be established straight away and help with the importance of targeting the right audience. The symbol of the sun and the images of the drawn people mean that in the split second of browsing the shelves in music stores or researching on the internet to find the “official” band’s website, can catch fans or the target audience’s eyes and immediately produce an image or brand they will from then on be associated with.

THE WEBSITE!

We used a site called Wix; http://www.wix.com/ which allows you to create your own website. We did a bit of research in to “official websites” of bands to get an idea of what you would expect to see have feature of different links to other pages. This is the official website of Empire of the Sun: http://www.walkingonadream.com/ which also features a symbol of a sun on the enter page. The websites included such links to pages as; about, media, tour dates, gallery, store, forum such as a comment page.

On our own website we have included the links to the pages;

-About us
We have included some information about the band which could be of interest to viewers who want to find out their style of music, information on other work they have done, their inspiration or general information on the band members.

-Walking on a Dream
This page is to promote the bands new single and music video. It features pictures of “behind the scenes” of filming the music video and the music video itself. The synergy of the website, album cover, the radio and music channel television programmes (working together) will help to promote the new single by using the same eye-catching and familiar images to promote the bands product.

-Tour dates
This will be of particular interest to dedicated fans and new consumers who might be interested in the music and work the band produces. Again, it promotes the fact that the band has new work out, the single, and they want to please their target audience by giving something back to them for listening and buying their work by putting on a big live tour.

-Contact us
This page is dedicated for viewers who want to express their feelings about Empire of the Sun. Not only is it a way for the band to find out feedback and comments on the work they have produced and if they are pleasing their audience but also for viewers who are fans of the band to meet other fans and feel “united” and as a “group” in support of Empire of the Sun and are able to spread the word between themselves of the good work the band produces and personally help promote the new single.

This is the link to our website: www.wix.com/KristianLutz/Walking-on-a-Dream

THE ALBUM COVER!

I used Photoshop to enhance the background image of the mountains so it would stand out more against other artists album covers and to also add other images from the music video, such as the images of the drawings of me and Kris running. We also thought it would seem more realistic to include stickers on the album cover featuring such comments as the product being a CD/DVD digi-pack and promoting the official bands website for consumers to find out more information on them and their work.

Overall I am very happy with the production and outcome of our ancillary texts, they both promote the new single which is an important factor in gaining profit and extra revenue streams from attracting a bigger audience through the branding of unusual designs and colours to make the artists stand out to be a big and exciting band! I found it enjoyable to produce both ancillary texts, it felt like we were ending our hard work on the music video by promoting it for real!

Evaluation Question 1

2009-12-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

How does your video use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real music videos?

Looking back to the earlier post on the forms and conventions of music videos I have been able to refer back and forth between the post and my group’s music video and see how “real” the video is compared to professional artists’ real music videos:

-They feature the artist ‘performing’ the song either ‘live’ or ‘miming’.
Our music includes Kris, the front man of the “band” in our music video, singing the song and describing the dream throughout the music video. We haven’t made our music video to be performed live because it’s not that type of song and it needs visual shots to bring the song and meaning to life instead of just singing on stage.

-They often feature some kind of loose storyline and explore a concept based on the lyrics or mood of the song.
Our music video features a loose storyline and a concept of a dream, this was the feeling we got from the title of the song; “Walking on a Dream” and the general calm, peaceful mood of the song. We don’t purposely make it out to be a dream in as much sense as filming someone dreaming but we have made it slightly unique in the camera angles and moving images and editing to give the general feeling of it being a dream.

-Some music videos can be completely abstract with visual images ‘unconnected’ to the artist or the lyrics; these music videos are called Disjuncture Videos.
Our music video is not completely made up of abstract visual images but we have included some animation of lyrics and stop-motion of drawings and writing lyrics to break up the video and help with the repeatability factor of music videos, people may have not noticed something in the video until they watch it a few times.

-They usually feature the name of the song and artist at the start/end of the video.
Our music video features the name of the song on the front page of the scrapbook image and also appears at the beginning of the music video at the bottom of the screen to also introduce the band.

-They rely heavily on montage editing, with different types of footage juxtaposed (side by side images).
Our music video features a lot of transitions and apart from one, no still shots to stress the continuing theory of the song, walking on a dream. We therefore use lots of cuts between transitions to Kris singing the lyrics (explaining the dream) to then what happens in the dream. We haven’t used any edits or shots side by side on screen playing at the same time due to the feel of our music video to be completely moving with transitions and the scrapbook taking you through each new scene, a continuous movement. In terms of post production, we haven’t really relied heavily on effects or editing transitions due to the slow pace of the song which includes continuous moving shots which makes the song interesting in itself.

-They usually include speed; fast cuts, jump cuts, moving cameras etc in time to the beat. A fast-paced song will have a fast video.
Our music video cuts in time to the beat and the music lyrics but is generally quite a slow song. We have used fast editing for the sharp, fast beats and also slow motion in a particular part of the song that has a very slow beat compared to the rest of the song.

-Edits usually reflect the songs structure, for example, verse-verse-chorus-guitar solo. When the song goes into the chorus, the images will cut to a different scene.
Our music video cuts to new scenes when it’s the chorus or a new verse to express the change in lyrics and beat. The chorus often features the same shots in our music video, again to help with the repeatability factor because the shots have always changed in some way, whether it’s different lyrics of the song sung or in a new location.

-As long as the music video looks good, the video will work.
I think our choice in unique camera movements is what makes ours stand out and look good and the stop-motion also makes our more visually interesting.

In comparison to real music videos, ours features some of the forms and conventions you would expect to see, especially the obvious ones such as the title of the song and artist and the shots changing in time with the beat. We use close-ups of the “grain of voice” (– Roland Barthes), the singer, the most important person in the band to emphasise this. Most music videos will include this, such as Beyoncé’s Single Ladies music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHVQT8aIBM which features three dancers doing the exact same routine but Beyoncé is singled out as the most important by being in the middle of the dancers and the music video featuring shots zooming in to show a close-up of her. Technically, this video does not include many of the forms and conventions of music videos listed above, but it looks very good and it’s different from other music videos. It is filmed with white walls and flooring with just the three women dancing, but the choreography and it’s visually effective lighting flashing in time to the beat and dance moves makes it a good music video and it definitely works with the repeatability factor, no matter how many times its played, you pick up new dance moves and notice different things, such as on the third viewing of this video I only then noticed Beyoncé wears the robotic hand throughout the whole video.

Close-up-"grain of voice"

Another interesting music video to analyse and by far one of my faveourties is Coldplay’s Strawberry Swing music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYtk1Z0UUuE which is completely made up of abstract visual images of drawings unrelated to the song. Ours is slightly similar with using drawings I have done but include the faces of the artists such as Coldplay including the singers face on the drawing of the man and mine and Kris’ faces on the stick men featured in our music video.

Our music video includes the majority of the forms and conventions listed above and when watching real music videos I can always find certain conventions in both the real music video and our own!

Success on Flash!

2009-12-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

Finally we have had success with Flash and our music video has really taken shape now! We had some great help from a former student who taught me how to use Flash properly and why we were experiencing problems, I have learnt some useful information about Flash:

-It is best used for drawing animation (like the software paint) because the image does not lose quality like the filming shots we were editing on Flash.
-I learnt how to match the size of the clip, the quality and timing of the shots with Vegas Movie which meant when it would be played in Vegas Movie, it wouldn’t lose quality.
-I learnt which file types were best for transferring Flash files to Vegas Movie, the one I used was QuickTime.
-I also learnt how to include a shot of the next scene in the one before it. The shot I used was where Kris raised his arm to the camera, a point of view shot looking at his watch, I included the picture of the next scene on the watch with the lyrics flashing up on screen and creating a technically good edit transition into the next shot. With patience and a great friend with good advice and knowledge on Flash, I was able to create a great animated shot which would give our music video more of the “wow” factor ... we hope!!

Although this scene looks so much better quality wise, I would have to be critical in the fact that the letters do look unprofessional that in one frame of the shot, the letters are misplaced and appear over Kris’ leg when they should actually look like they are written on the floor. If I had the chance, I would change this but unfortunately it took a lot of work and time from the help received by the former student, Tom who came in to help me and we used his Apple Mac laptop to produce the best quality of image and I therefore cannot change this video myself without his laptop.

The following scene is the transition from this walking shot to showing the next scene in the watch face:

Post-production

2009-12-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

We are still having problems in how to include Flash into Vegas Movie but so far the rest of the editing has gone very well, we still have a few more shots of Kris miming to the camera and right now I am working on the colour of the images to create the impression of a dream and we therefore need bright, vivid “unreal” colours.

The sunlight behind the trees stands out a lot more when I have changed the image colours.

I had to play around with brightness and contrast on the image of us on the bridge with the traffic in the distance so our sillhouettes could be seen clearly due to poor lighting when we filmed this scene. This particular scene is to feature in the music gap after the first chorus, it has a lot slower tempo with no lyrics compared to the rest of the song. In the rest of the song there is continuous movement on screen and this shot suits the music gap because its one of the only still shots that feature in the music video where me and Kris stay in the same spot.

Some the shots are faded in to each other to create that impression of a dream, confusing and a blurred image as the story moves on and also to create that peaceful, deep sleep sense of feeling. When the scrapbook pages are turned, we also faded the drawings/shots in to the page turning so you can’t see a blank page and it looks like the drawing/shot is actually in the scrapbook.

The filming I did of the stop-motion drawings have changed slightly once transferred on to Vegas Movie. I filmed the scrapbook with no surroundings of the floor so you could just see the pages but when they are played on Vegas Movie you can actually see the floor, therefore we have used an editing software feature called Event Pan/Crop in which you can adjust the image to crop the floor edges off the screen and just see the pages.

The dotted line around the edge of the scrapbook on the second image shows what I have cropped off the image; the floor by moving the frame.

We have included slow-motion and speeded up shots for certain effects we want to create in the music video:

This is the final shot in the music video of me and Kris, Where the music starts to fade, we have slowed the part where Kris does a side kick to enhance the ending.

Another noticable change in music is the bridge of the song before the final chorus where the music completely changes with long music notes instead of hearing the short snappy lyrics during the rest of the song and a quieter, slower beat, we have also slowed this scene down where me and Kris are jumping from a wall and this is also another still shot.

The photo of the hand going to cover the screen follows on from the slow motion of me and Kris jumping from the wall but this particular bit is sped up when the beat of the song picks up for the final chorus. It is difficult to see due to the lack of quality of the second image but this particular scene of Kris jumping from behind the hill is played to the fastest part of the song following on from the first image and this is also sped up in time to the beat as a build up to the ending on of the song.

We now have our shots matching up with the music lyrics and the editing software (Vegas Movie) allows us to separate the shots, audio and the song in to separate sections, so for the audio captured on the filming we have done, we can mute all of it and the song will play over the shots instead.

The first row on the bottom screen is our footage, the next row highlighted in grey is the muted audio and the row below is the music.

Stop-motion

2009-12-01T06:53:00.000-08:00

This evening I filmed the stop-motion shots of my drawings of the running up the hill and it has worked better than I thought! With stop-motion I would move the drawings of me and Kris a little bit each time and film each shot for a couple of seconds. I filmed in my bathroom where the lighting was the best!

I cut the arms and legs separate so I could move them like in the motion of running.

To keep the camera still and in the exact position every time I used a tripod.

This is lyrics I wrote in stop-motion adding drawings and a picture; I took two different shots, one filming by hand writing and one with the letters appearing to see which looks better.

Problems with Flash/teacher feedback

2009-11-30T06:22:00.000-08:00

We are having real difficulties with Flash at the moment and it’s not looking good! We worked for ages on positioning the lyrics in which I drew on in Flash on to the shots of our feet walking which looked really good, but when we went to change the file type of the image so it would work in Vegas Movie, the image has gone all pixelated and horrible and we haven’t found a file type that will play in Vegas Movie without weakening the image. This is what it looks like at the moment:

We can’t really have it looking like this because it looks so unprofessional and cheap so our next idea is to save just the letters and somehow play them over the top of the feet shots in Vegas Movie:

TEACHER FEEDBACK!

Today our teacher gave us some good feedback on what we have so far, here are some of the comments said:

-to use animation and post-production to make the video more interesting and suitable for the repeatability factor
-to change the scene of Kris’s feet going up the hill, it needs to tie in with the lyric of “running”, this was the problem where the hill was too steep to run up

We have drafted some new ideas and with the problems Flash is causing, we are hoping to film some stop-motion shots of my own drawings and writing. An idea we originally had but didn’t think would work was to pretend the music video was like a scrapbook describing in drawings and pictures of the dream and the story of the song as the pages turn, I’m going to film this to see what it looks like.

This would be the front of the scrapbook to introduce the music video!

The ending will include me writing the "the end" to signal the end of the music video and the dream!

Fourth filming day

2009-11-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

Our fourth filming day consisted of filming Kris miming to the camera for the opening of the music video. We took lots of different shots from Kris holding the camera towards him and others where I was holding the camera and circling around him as he mimed the lyrics (my favourite shot) and we also filmed different transitions such as Kris throwing leaves in to the camera which was our original idea but caused problems in that it didn’t cover the screen enough so we had other ideas such as zooming in on Kris and Kris covering the screen with his hand.

Me filming whilst circling around Kris

Kris holding the camera facing him

Transition - Kris covers the screen with his hand to reveal a new scene

Transition - Kris throwing leaves at the camera to cover the screen, but it didn't work as effectively as we hoped it would!

Later on in the afternoon we needed to film a scene where me and Kris are on a bridge with the lights of our village and traffic in the background with the sun just going down. We thought we had timed it perfectly but we didn’t realise just how quickly it gets dark so we aren’t sure if what we filmed has come out that good or due to poor lighting. We also filmed another shot of the camera moving in a circle around us (Adam helped out again) but this time we stood perfectly still because we are hoping to speed up the shot but we will be standing still and the background spinning around us. We stood under the street lamp to get better lighting and are hoping to play around with the colours during editing to make the shot more visually exciting.

This is the shot we are hoping to speed up, we had to stand really still and use the lamp light to light up our faces!

Learning to use Flash

2009-11-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

FLASH TAKES FOREVER!! Today we went through tutorials and asked a friend to help us know how to use Flash and in a double lesson it looked like we hadn’t done anything! We found it difficult to have two of us on Flash at the same time because it meant one person was just watching and it seemed sensible to split roles and concentrate on different aspects of our music video and feed back to each other with what we have done and what needs to be improved, so I am concentrating on using Flash and Kris is going to start the website for our music video/band which is also part of the coursework.

The layout of the programme Flash!

Post-production

2009-11-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

With the majority of the shots filmed we transferred our filming onto the computer onto Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 editing software to get the structure of our music video to be able to see clearly what we still needed to do and to see if we needed to re-film anything, but so far, it looks good and fits in well with the music. We still have lots more to do though and we haven’t started using Flash for animating and adding lyrics to the shots yet!

Third filming day

2009-11-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

So we needed to film the hill scene today (especially because it gets so dark so quickly now once we get home from school) but when we start to climb the hill, it’s a lot steeper than it looks and we were slipping all over the place! Our original idea was to be running up the hill, obviously that was too dangerous and impossible to also keep the camera steady so we just filmed our feet walking instead and we hope this will still have the same desired effect, we will be able to tell if it looks right or not once we edit shots together. The camera shot that spins around me and Kris was also difficult to film because of the lack of space and the VERY uneven ground on top of the hill but we still like the look of the shots we got but we may be needing to re-film, possibly in another location!

Adam spinning around me and Kris

This transition features me pulling Kris' hood over his head to black-out the camera screen for the next scene to appear.

Second filming day

2009-11-16T12:20:00.000-08:00

Today we went out at lunch in the village where our school is and filmed the shots of our feet walking with the changing of shoes and trousers and also practised some shots of the opening scenes with Kris miming to the camera. The shots for the beginning scene are not the final ones but we needed some practise ones to edit to see if they will work/look good.

To film the shots of our feet walking, Kris had the perfect and simplest yet effective idea of holding the camera above our feet and walking with it, this would help make sure our feet are always in shot and help with the continuity. I was hoping to originally film our feet from the side and we would be walking to the right of the camera, however with lots of thinking and practise with pulling a skateboard along, it proved too difficult and meant we often had a wobbling screen and the legs would also have to be positioned at the same height which proved more difficult than first thought! For this particular shot we listened to the song on my iPod to keep in time with the beat.

This is the original shot/angle I had in mind to shoot the walking scenes we had practised filming the other day.

We want the pathways to change along with our shoes and trousers and these are a few of the different grounds we have chosen, leaves/grass, road, gravel. With health and safety, we had to be very cautious when filming on the road, whilst Kris concentrated on the camera I was the lookout for cars coming from in front and behind!

First filming day

2009-11-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

Today has been a great success! We knew we wouldn’t get all the shots done but the ones we have done are already looking hopeful! Today’s filming included:

-The umbrella scene
-Second chorus of the hill shots

My brother Adam was our camera-man for the day! It wasn’t ideal because me and Kris really needed to film to see what it looked like, so to help Adam to get the best shots me and Kris did a practise run through of the shot in which Adam could study and copy what we did which worked really well because he got it nearly every time and gave us helpful feedback on ways to improve!

This is the transition where Kris opens an umbrella to cover the screen and then closes it in a new location!

We are using a Sony Handycam to film with!

This is the ending scene where we walk off as the shot fades out. We did a few takes on this, one of us running off screen, one walking off and one where Kris does a side kick just before we disappear, we shall see what that looks like when we come to edit!!

To film the scene of me and Kris running up the hill we stood in a line of three with Adam in between us so he could follow our feet up the hill, when we were near the top, me and Kris would run ahead and Adam would tilt the camera to watch us run up in full view, it worked surprisingly well however complicated it sounds!

These photos are part of the following scene:

-Adam passes the camera to Kris in which I jump on his back and he holds the camera and spins us around, similar to the other spinning shots for the "dream" effect. I then cover his face and the camera screen by putting my hands (im wearing gloves) over to black out the screen ready for the next shot.

Storyboard and location hunting

2009-11-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

OUR STORYBOARD!!!

This is our final, (although looks very messy) storyboard! Took us a while but we finished it, just a couple of spaces needed to be filled in but we are going to wait for inspiration when we start to film the rest! This is the storyboard in brief:

-Image of the sky, camera spinning to reveal Kris’ face to sing the lyrics
-Through leaves into the camera to reveal a new shot
-Kris’ feet running up a hill to meet me standing at the top
-Camera spins around us hugging, camera covered by me pulling Kris’ hood over his face to reveal a new shot
-Our feet walking with our socks and trousers changing with the lyrics written on the changing pathways
-Kris’ hand comes into view to look at his watch in relation to the lyrics, zoomed in on the watch to reveal a new shot (possible animation of watch)
-Me and Kris both running up the hill, Kris holds the camera with me on his back, to see our faces and the sky
-My hands cover to camera to move on to a new shot
-A slow motion show, possibly Kris jumping off a wall (needing to think of an idea)
-Scene of me and Kris running towards the camera, animated rain for Kris to open umbrella (possibly animated) to cover the screen and then closed in a new scene to end with us walking away

We still have really big ideas on using the Macromedia programme Flash to create animation and effects which we think will fit in to the song really well after seeing the real band’s music video and getting an understanding of a very unique and outrageous personality from the group.

Our choice in characters, using myself and Kris was to help make our media filming run as smoothly and as quickly as possible due to the time wasted filming the old song. Me and Kris get on really well and are both comfortable acting in front of the camera in a professional manner, we also both live 2 minutes away from each other and most of our filming will be done in our village!

This is us location spotting earlier today!

LOCATION HUNTING!

This is the location we have picked for our beginning scene where Kris mimes to the camera and throws the leaves to cover the screen to reappear in a new shot. It’s perfect for the amount of leaves and the appealing surroundings.

This location will also look appealing on screen with bright greenery colours and lots of space to work in, this would be good for me and Kris to walk towards the camera for the umbrella shot.

The view from the hill!

Forms and Coventions of Music Videos

2009-11-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MUSIC VIDEOS!

Music videos vary so much and are all unique and therefore it’s impossible to say the forms and conventions of music videos, but to an extent, they usually include the following:

-They feature the artist ‘performing’ the song either ‘live’ or ‘miming’.
-They often feature some kind of loose storyline and explore a concept based on the lyrics or mood of the song.
-Some music videos can be completely abstract with visual images ‘unconnected’ to the artist or the lyrics; these music videos are called Disjuncture Videos.
-They usually feature the name of the song and artist at the start/end of the video.
-Sometimes they include a little narrative introduction before the music starts.
-They rely heavily on montage editing, with different types of footage juxtaposed (side by side images).
-They usually include speed; fast cuts, jump cuts, moving cameras etc in time to the beat. A fast-paced song will have a fast video.
-Or they can include slow-motion.
-Edits are usually in time to the song.
-Edits usually reflect the songs structure, for example, verse-verse-chorus-guitar solo. When the song goes into the chorus, the images will cut to a different scene.
-As long as the music video looks cool, the video will work; “music videos foreground the signifier over the signified” – John Fiske.
-Real bands use live footage to show they are authentic musicians, not ‘boy bands’.

Choosing a song

2009-11-01T11:52:00.000-08:00

Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream

Originally we had chosen a different song with a third member to the group but the filming didn’t give us much to work on and we all had different ideas. It was not ideal but we decided to split and have different music video choices.

Kris and I listened to my iPod for ages today, going through different genres or beats of songs but this one really stood out because of the continuous beat which meant that cutting shots together would flow and also the story of the song stood out to us. The song is “Walking on a Dream” and we got the desired effect of using movement with no still shots, continuously moving on to new things, like dreaming and the idea of using animation was really exciting in the fact that it is a dream and you never know what’s about to happen next or plan what you dream about.

Walking on a dream
How can I explain
Talking to myself
Will I see again

We are always running for the thrill of it, thrill of it
Always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it
On and on and on we are calling out and out again
Never looking down, I'm just in awe of what's in front of me

Is it real now
Two people become one
I can feel it
Two people become one

Thought I'd never see
The love you found in me
Now it's changing all the time
Living in a rhythm where the minutes working overtime

We are always running for the thrill of it, thrill of it
Always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it
On and on and on we are calling out and out again
Never looking down, I'm just in awe of what's in front of me

Is it real now
Two people become one
I can feel it
Two people become one

Is it real now
Two people become one
I can feel it
Two people become one

Catch me I'm falling down
Catch me I'm falling down

Don't stop, just keep going on
I'm your shoulder lean upon
So come on, deliver from inside
All we got is tonight that is right till first light

Is it real now
Two people become one
I can feel it
Two people become one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMJjF4LHOkY is the music video for our chosen song by the band Empire of the Sun. They are an Australian electronic music duo which formed in 2007. The target audience of the band will be fans of electronic music. To gain permission for using the bands song, we sent a message through the social networking site Myspace to the official homepage of the band. Unfortunately we didn't get a reply and were reluctant to go ahead with using it but we had come up with some great idea's and time was being wasted waiting.

I love the bright colour effects throughout the video, very vibrant and “real”, like a dream. The costume the band member is wearing is unusual, perhaps representing the strange dream itself.

The video consists of lots of fading into other shots, I like the calming effect it gives which ties in with the style of the music. In terms of the song being about a dream, it makes the images seem hazy and confusing like you would experience when dreaming.

The singer mimes to the camera at various points throughout the video, it gives me the impression that he is explaining the dream to me and this particular still shot is taken from when he sings “how can I explain”.

Lots of establishing shots are used to break up the video and make it more interesting to watch.

The chorus includes the lyrics “we are always running for the thrill of it” and features the band members running through a street. Our own idea was to include running, we are thinking of basing the storyline around feet taking us through the dream.

I love the simplicity of this music video. It includes, visually good shots, such as the backgrounds and the colourful effects but the band are not doing much in terms of “performance” The two members are often standing still and just lip syncing, but it’s the angles and the interesting interpretation of the video (e.g. the clothing and the story) that makes it fascinating to watch and not get bored of, which is something all music videos aim towards, the repetition of their music video on music channels which is still enjoyable to watch.

This transition where the ball is passed to the other person is really inspiring, I would love to be able to shoot transitions like this in our music video to make it run more smoothly, I like how you can see the image in the ball too!

The special effects/animation works really well in this music video, especially with the style of music and we are hoping to use animation in our music video, very simple but effective in the storyline.

This shot is filmed hand held; it’s my favourite shot because its different from the other shots/angles used in the rest of the music video, it fits in really well with the beat at that point in the song.

Now its storyboarding time!!

"Music Videos go to the Wall" Andy Becket, 1996

2009-10-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Source: Daily Telegraph: ‘Music Videos go to the Wall’ by Andy Becket, 1996

A 1996 article in the Daily Telegraph by Andy Beckett; “Music Videos go to the Wall” is a useful historic piece of research into the history of music videos. Andy Beckett talks about the four most important reasons why music videos were dying out in the late 20th century:

- Too expensive.
- Music channels were only available on cable and satellite. In 1996, only 1 in 4 households had MTV.
- Critics dismissed them on adverts – “rubbish”
- Music videos became background channel; they became cliché, stereotypical and boring.

Andy Becket’s article talks about how MTV became a background channel that no one paid much attention to. At first everyone loved pictures put to music to create the new and exciting videos but then there came a point when people would question if the song was good or not, the music videos were becoming boring. Andy Becket’s research also shows how back then MTVs main target audience ranged from the age of 16-24, not very big at all. Also, Britain had radio stations for new bands and artists to be played and people didn’t need to repeatedly see them on MTV as well.

So why did music videos survive?

- New digital technologies meant that it’s cheaper to produce music videos and spend less on the making of it.
- Every household has come to have multi-channel and MTV is a compulsory channel part of Free View which now comes with every new TV.
- There is more talent and we are seeing more media students and music videos have got better. Film directors often start off as music video directors.
- Broadband has made it easier for new bands and artists to promote themselves and become known.

Pop-up Video/MTV - the making of...

2009-10-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

Source: Pop-up Video, VH1

Pop-up video was a VH1 (Video Hits One from 1985 to 1994 an American cable television network) television program that deconstructed music videos with pop-up on screen displays with production details and trivia about the video which would have promoted and kept the audience interested in the music video. The show was created by Woody Thompson and Tad Low and was shown for the first time on October 27, 1996, for a time, it was the highest-rated program on VH1, though Behind the Music had overtaken it by 1998.

Deconstruction: a post media convention/post modern idea.

I went on YouTube to find if there were any clips from the television program and the first one was Rick Astley- Never Gonna Give You Up. YouTube is a new form of media which is a video sharing website; you can pretty much find anything you are looking for to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwnnSSs0kFA

Here are some screen grabs of what you would expect to see on Pop-Up video from watching the video on YouTube:

Source: MTV ‘the making of...’

MTV (Music Television) is a cable television network based in New York City, launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts but today, MTV plays a limited selection of music videos as the channel primarily broadcasts a variety of popular culture and reality television shows targeted at young adults and older adolescents.

Since its premiere, MTV has had a big impact on the music industry and popular culture, the idea of a dedicated video-based source for music was introduced where both artists and fans found a central location for music events, news, and promotion.

“MTV – the making of…” are short clips of behind the scenes of an artist or bands new single coming up and the making of the music video for this song. It shows how it’s filmed, what happens behind the scenes and the directors take on what he or she wants to create. The filming also shows the artist’s opinion on the music video and what they are going to do or perform. "MTV - the making of..." is a brilliant promotional tool for the artist’s or band’s new single, mainly because as a viewer, we only see short snippets of the new video and a sneak preview which will hopefully mean that the viewers will look out for the full music video once the single has been released. It helps the artist/band to be recognised and gain popularity.

The two following videos are examples of MTV’s sneak previews of new music videos, if you leave the videos to sort themselves out they should appear and play automatically!

MTV – the making of Circus, Britney Spears

http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/britney-spears/video/circus-making-the-video

MTV – the making of Change, Daniel Merriweather

http://www.mtv.co.uk/shows/mtv-push/episode/mtv-push-presents-daniel-merriweather?$98494$

Andrew Goodwin

2009-10-30T06:29:00.000-07:00

Source: Andrew Goodwin, ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ Music Television and Popular Culture

‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ is a useful secondary resource as it explores different case studies on particular artists and promotional videos and a range of critical perspectives, giving an interesting sight into music videos.

Pop music theorist Andrew Goodwin claims that a good music video is;

“a clip that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which that music is made visual, either in new ways that accentuate existing visual associations.”

Andrew Goodwin argues that most criticism written about music video misses some key things: music has always, and especially in the twentieth century, relied on images to sell music, whether through posters, cover art, or live performance, so music video represents a change and not another addition to the selling through images and also how music videos are made as promotional devices. Some written pieces included in the book are as follows:

- Developments in music television
- A musicology of the image
- The structure of music video
- Rethinking narrative analysis
- Meta-narratives of stardom and identity
- A televisual context: MTV
- Aesthetics and politics in music television

The book describes the different views cultural critics have on music videos which reflect how varied and problematic they can be to define as an art-form or media text. These are some of the cultural critics views mentioned in the book:

- Mercer – a kind of cinematic genre
- Fry and Fry - view them in terms of adverts
- Fiske – a new form of television as classic postmodern texts
- Walker – visual art
- Lewis – in terms of shopping mall culture
- Marcus – semiotic pornography

Andrew Goodwin goes on to explain how it is difficult to define what a music video is and for every criticism there is a counter-argument. An example Andrew Goodwin mentions is how MTV is blamed for modern society’s short attention span and obsession with image but it enabled black artists such as Michael Jackson to become global superstars, therefore there are political and social reasons.

Another key point mentioned in the book is about Meta-narrative and star persona/image looking at Madonna cleverly setting out turning herself through her videos in a marketable product by creating her star persona. Meta-narrative describes how these promotional videos that artists release, builds up a kind of story or meta-narrative of their development as an artist or person. Examples include; Madonna’s transformation from a sex symbol to a role model of female empowerment, Michael Jackson’s rise and fall as an artist and Kylie Minogue from innocent soap star to sex symbol.

Andrew Goodwin’s 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' does feature some useful knowledge of the analysis of music videos, however it is aimed at Degree level Media students and therefore it is not always easy to follow. It also only really looks at music television rather than the technical production side of music videos although it gives a great example of the George Michael song with the analysis of the technical range of shots.

Jonas Akerlund

2009-10-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

Source: Jonus Akerlund

Jonas Åkerlund was a member of the Swedish black metal band Bathory from 1983 through 1984. He first found fame as main video director for Swedish pop act Roxette. In 1998 he worked with Madonna for the song "Ray of Light" and has since worked with stars such as Metallica, Christina Aguilera, U2 and Pink.

Madonna; Ray of Light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8waV2G2lZs

I love the fast pace of the images on screen, it really catches your attention and its unique, which will go well with memorability. A lot of the images repeat, the repeatability factor, but it dosent get boring because of the fast pace and special editing effects used. The pace slows down onto one image of Madonna, the centre of attention of the video when she is singing to a slow bit of the song, it gives the mind a rest from the fast pace and confusing images throughout the video and the fact it stops onto the image of Madonna helps promote her ‘star image’.

The Cardigans; My Favourite Game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=styYbRWQYP8&feature=fvste3

This music video has a very simple storyline, a woman driving a car. Its simple and almost a ‘boring’ storyline but the destruction the woman causes in her car makes you want to keep on watching to see what happens next. I like the different angles the director has used from all sides of the car and the close ups of the woman promotes her ‘image’ and her music.

The Prodigy; Smack my Bitch up

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/prodigy/video/x25uxm_prodigy-smack-my-bitch-up_music

(Point of view shot)

I love the idea behind this video. It’s a simple storyline again but very cleverly directed and put together. Its effective in attracting the audience, even though it’s simple idea but the first person, point of view shot throughout the video which makes it very popular because your interested because you feel as though you are the person in the video. The character in the video is drinking alcohol and taking drugs which promotes the message on how bad drugs and alcohol can be and the effects they can cause which helps the increase in the bands “star image” and meta-narrative.

Mirrorball

2009-10-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

Source: ‘Mirrorball’

Mirrorball was a seven part series shown on Channel 4 in 1999/2000. The program looked at the work of pop promo directors; Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Jonathan Glazer, Chris Cunningham and Dawn Shadforth, Jonas Auckland and Roman Coppola. It looked at music videos through the directors which is called the Auteur approach which is French for Author.

The following videos are ones I found on You Tube which feature the work of Chris Cunnningham who is a well known English music video film director and video artist. Unfortunately the videos are out of sync but after watching the music videos a few times a get a good idea of how the sound and images match up in relation to one another. Also, sorry for any swearing featured in the videos!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLIqAP1X440&feature=related

This was a particular creepy music video but I found it really interesting to watch and it really kept me wanting to watch more. I like the jerky images and camera movements which go well with the disturbing and confusing sounds of the music from which Chris Cunningham talks about how he relies on the music to see what images he gets in his head and then goes from there to make the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r1wOAG859Y&NR=1

I really enjoyed the music video featured in this episode; it’s brilliant even though it’s really out of sync! I love the way Chris Cunningham really looks into the sounds made and the images featured with those sounds, the lighting also plays a big part in this music video with the flashes in time to the beat of the music and really making it exciting to watch. Chris Cunningham is definitely right about having to grab the audience’s attention in the little space of time music videos offer, but he has definitely done it well and really professional. I would love to make our music video as good as this one!

I am really tempted to see if its possible to watch all of the episodes featured in the ‘Mirrorball’ series, it seems really interesting and it would provide excellent research by seeing professionals work and giving me and my group tips and helpful information to make our music video as best as possible!

Media Magazine

2009-10-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

Source: Media Magazine

The Media Magazine’s targeted audience is at A-level media students such as myself and it is written by media fans and media studies teachers.

Conventions of music videos

The article in which I am researching in to is written by Steve Archer, Head of Media Studies at Charles Darwin School, Kent. The following conventions are extracts from a list of “5 things to look for” in music videos featured in a Media Magazine. The list is actually originally from Andrew Goodwin’s book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ as I have previously looked in to. Steve Archer has turned Andrew Goodwin’s ideas into a checklist form to test on current music videos to decide whether they are good or not. This will be incredibly helpful when it comes to producing our own music video, we can refer back to this list and match it to be a brilliant music video!

1) Thought Beats

It is the basis for visualising images and comes from a psychological process called synaesthesia where you picture sounds in your mind’s eye. This is important in music videos as it builds on the soundtracks visual links to connect to the audience.

“To use this approach you need to start with the music, sorting out the way the song works, taking into account the way it has been stacked up with sound. To begin, lyrics don’t need to be analysed word for word like a poem but rather considered for the way they introduce a general feeling or mood. Very rarely do song lyrics have a coherent meaning that can be simply read off, but they are important in at least creating a sense of subject matter. So key phrases or lines (and especially those repeated in the chorus) will have a part to play in the kind of visuals associated with the song.”

When our song has been chosen and we start to draw up our storyboard, I think from reading this quote I have learnt that we are going to have to really listen to the song and get he general mood and feeling and portray this in our video, instead of word for word following the story which could result in an untidy and confusing music video.

2) Narrative and Performance

“Songs rarely tell complete narratives; we are used to studying them with other visual texts like film. The narrative fuzz in songs affects the way stories are used in music video representations of a song’s meaning. So, often we get the suggestion of a story, a hint at some kind of drama unfolding.”

I typed in “conventions of music videos” in Google and searched into performance and narrative music videos to find out a bit more about this convention. Here is the research I found put all together:

Music videos can be seen either as a performance video or a simple narrative video or even a mixture of the two.

NARRATIVE VIDEO: these music videos are simple and effective as they need to market or advertise an artist/band and therefore the song and video needs to be repetitive as narrative music videos may become boring after the first few viewings. An example of this type of music video is: Foundations by Kate Nash. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9XA5Xb-ALk This video follows closely in link with the lyrics and therefore is a little miss-matched.

Another video is: If I were a boy by Beyonce. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k45LCa72Cw Similar to Kate Nash’s video, this one has a narrative performance but does not have images to match to the lyrics, it’s a continuous narrative story and each shot follows through like a film would.

PERFORMANCE VIDEO:

Band performance; has a sense of accuracy in the performance and we therefore see many lip-sync close ups, the mimed playing of instruments, repetition of the chorus to enhance the repeatability/make it memorable. Unusual camera shots and angles are also used, such as the micro camera shots attached to the neck of a guitar and also sweeping crane shots to film audience reactions to the band playing. An example of this type of music video is: Starlight by Muse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgum6OT_VH8 The video has many close ups of the instruments and the band members playing them for authenticity. I particularly like how synaesthesia works in this video. It is filmed on a big cargo-looking ship in the middle of the ocean, when the music is quiet and you can hear the peaceful playing of the piano, the scenes are shot in daylight with a calm ocean and when the music gets louder and more aggressive, the scenes are shown at night time with bright flares and a destructive looking ocean matching to the sounds of the music being played at the time.

An example of a band performance on stage, made to look ‘live’ and authentic is the music video Chemicals React by Aly and Aj. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIDoPETif8g It uses the camera shot previously mentioned, sweeping crane shots, showing the crowds reaction to the band and give a feel of the ‘live’ performance.

Solo artist performance; similar to the above but also added choreographed dance routines to enhance the repeatability factor and a first person mode of address throughout the music video which directly addresses and engages the viewer through the camera movements which involves many close ups. Many solo artist performances also see the cutting between performances and narratives where the solo artist or a band’s lead singer becomes part of the narrative story such as the music video: Outta my Head (Ay Ya Ya) by Ashlee Simpson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1nXa9stUlY This music video can clear see the narrative of the artist’s character who is seeing a therapist for “voices in her head”. The shots cut between her acting as the patient and her performing as the people inside her head, reality and non-reality in this case. Dances performed by the artist in the music video are choreographed, a common convention of a music video.

3) The Star image

“The music business relies on the relatively few big name stars to fund its activities; it usually fails to connect with popular audiences – only about one in ten acts put out by the industry makes any money. Therefore, what we can describe as the meta-narrative of the star image will have an important part to play in the music video production process. Meta-narrative is a term that describes the development of the star image over time, the stories that surround a particular artist.”

The more popular the artist/band, what they look or act like and how much press they receive can ultimately play a big part in how successful that artist’s/band’s music video is.

Featured in the article by Steve Archer is a mini case study on Michael Jackson and his “star image” or “meta-narrative”. In brief: there have been a few crucial moments in Jackson’s meta-narrative of pop stardom. Such include; the move from being in a group (The Jackson 5) to becoming a solo artist soon becoming one of the most successful solo artist from developing through his trademark sound and image. Another crucial moment in his meta-narrative is his music videos to Thriller and Beat It. A negative crucial moment was during the 90’s when his “star image” became “freakish” and self-pitying or to some, self-indulgent – childish. Even through his troubling times and negative press, he was still talked about, a mass media fascination. Michael Jackson tried to regain control over his meta-narrative in each new music video and therefore shows how music videos can be seen as one of the most important ways that the image of the artist is “managed”.

4) Three ways in which music videos relate visuals to the song

These three ways that Steve Archer writes about can work to support or promote the song.

- Illustrate: the illustration of lyrics and genre perhaps showing an “over literal set of images”. This is the most straightforward technique and a classic example of visualisation.

- Amplification: seen as the “true music video Auteur, the director as artist” – amplification music videos have a link to the song and work to enhance or develop ideas, rather than changing them completely.

- Disjuncture: a term to describe music videos intentionally changed to not follow the song and creating a new set of meanings. This idea is often used by bands to assert their difference and originality. Quite often, disjuncture videos don’t make much sense and are based on abstract imagery.

5) Technical aspects of music video

This includes; camerawork, movement and angle, mise-en-scene, editing and sound.

- Speed: visualised by camera movement, fast editing (montage) and digital effects. Not all music videos are about speed, some use slow pace through dissolves and static shots, this sets the type of song apart from the hustle and bustle of most pop activity.
- Camera movement: motivated by running, dancing and walking performers.
- Fast-cutting and montage editing: creates a visual experience for music consumption, the images occasionally moving so fast that they are impossible to understand on first viewing and therefore needing to be viewed several times – the repeatability factor.
- Post-production digital effects: effects to complicate and intrigue, providing entertainment over and over again.
- Meat: “The meat of most music videos is the close-up of the singers face.” This is because the voice is seen as the most important part of music.
- Beats: the representation of the music through the use of the cut to go with the beat or key rhythm.
- Lighting and colour: can be used to emphasise key moments in the song, using methods from lighting live performances for dramatic effect. Colour can be used to show a development in the song, for example, changing colour when the chorus comes in.
- Mise-en-scene: the setting for music videos is important to guarantee the authenticity. Mise-en-scene for many music videos is to emphasise the “realness” of the performance or to attain star quality. CGI can be used, especially for dance songs, which don’t rely so much on being “real”.

Simon Firth, 'Sound and Vision. The Music Video Reader'

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Source: Simon Frith, ‘Sound and Vision. The Music Video Reader’

In the book, the author talks about the various trends music videos are following which are interesting because it has opened my mind to how unique and extravagant music videos can be made to be and the freedom we have to make our music video in this project. The following list is from the book about the music video trends:

- “Commodification” – commercial value
- “Textual ‘schizophrenia’” – music videos can contain loads of techniques
- “The post-modern disappearance of reality” – anything can/could happen
- “The erosion of authenticity” – does not matter if its not real as long is it looks “cool” or aesthetically pleasing.

Simon Firth also talks about the difference between live performances and music video performances.

The gap between sound and image in modern culture is decreasing the relationship between the fans and the music which has not been the case for the rock culture which Lawrence Grossberg (an internationally renowned scholar of cultural studies and popular culture whose work focuses primarily on popular music) calls the “ideology of authenticity.” Overall, this basically means that music can be considered most authentic when the musician/band are playing instruments or signing live, whereas in music videos the artists become performers, lip-synching to songs or miming along to the music, ultimately less authentic.

As viewers, we go along with this inauthentic authenticity even though we know it’s not a real performance. As Simon Firth explains, this is because as viewers, we are more concerned with the visual aspects of the video, rather than the ‘reality’ of the performance.

An example of an inauthentic authenticity music video, to the extreme is Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01C4RPEinM4 in which the video is primarily made up of animation and it looks amazing! This backs up the idea in the ‘Sound and Vision’ book where the viewers are more concerned with the visual aspects such as this video, rather than how ‘real’ it is and my first impressions were how good it looked, it didn’t occur to me it’s not real!

As the book explained, the more ‘live’ the performance, the more authentic/realistic. Music videos are recorded and therefore not live which looses its authenticity. Festivals are live but in these modern times, many people prefer to save money they would spend on festival tickets and just watch it live on their televisions at home. However, this reinforces the inauthentic authenticity of recorded festivals or music videos.

“MTV’s strategy to label songs at the beginning and end was a key factor in the success of promo videos, as radio DJ’s often failed to identify songs or artists and so its impact on promotion and marketing was limited. Music video is not killing rock culture as some suggest, but it is changing the way that audiences relate to music, largely because the music itself is less significant than it has been previously. Music videos have arguably made ‘image’ more important than the experience of music itself, which is a bad thing because, for example, it discriminates against artists who have a ‘poor’ image”.

Reading and researching from this book into the labelling of songs at the beginning and end has made me think about adding this convention of music video to our own project. It would make the music video seem professional and almost like an actual promotional video instead of an A-level student’s coursework!

Those artists who have a ‘poor’ image could, in theory, be more talented than those artists who have a ‘good’ or a ‘popular image’ that audiences want to see but don’t get those contracts because of their ‘poor’ image. Music videos seem to only really feature those artists with a ‘good’ image because that’s what we want to see on our television screens. This links to a quote in the ‘Sound and Vision’ book about style over substance.

“MTV foregrounds the signifier over the signified” – John Fiske (a media scholar)
“Music video limits the imaginative freedom of fans by taking away the listener’s freedom to interpret a song how they like, by imposing a visual or even narrative interpretation of the song upon them”.

To me, this sums up the way I see music videos. I prefer to listen to the words and the music videos without seeing the artist/bands interpretation of their song in a music video. Music videos can completely change your narrative or interpretation you originally felt from a song and maybe even have you dislike the song because you have lost that freedom of interpretation you had from it.

“Although a contractual dispute in 1986 ruled that music video should not be considered a new cultural form, it arguably does have a unique structure and set of generic conventions. For instance, in the verse the singer describes; in the chorus, he expresses; in the instrumental break, something happens, illuminates his cause, elaborates his fantasy. Because the image subsumes the music, the rhythm of digital editing largely subsumes the larger rhythm of the song. The images caress the best.”

Obviously the pace of the shots going on needs to be in time with the beat of the music and also that the story follows a pattern, like a beginning, middle and end and me and my group should really think about this when putting together our music video.

Welcome!

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Hello and welcome to my Year 13 Music Video, Media Blog! :) I’m Leah and I am working with my friend Kris for this project in creating our own music video. I’m very excited to get started and storyboard some creative ideas for the music video but I am firstly going to find out some useful research knowledge from sources I will mention later on in the blog. They will help me get a better understanding of what music videos are about, the history of music videos and the future, advice from real life music video directors and help me and Kris to create our music video to the best it can be!

Me and Kris!