S1-16 Music Video 2012

Friday, 21 September 2012

Top 3 Song Choices

1. Rita Ora Ft J.Cole - Love and War:

This song is our first choice as we have some good ideas that we could use when making a video to it. We think it would be a good choice as we can lip-sync to Rita Ora's part of the song and then act out the lyrics while J.Cole sings so that we don't have to mime to a boy's part and we can break the video up a bit with some acting.

Ideas: We could film some parts of the song in an urban looking place with graffiti and some parts in a white room with all 3 of us dressed up. We could also get a boy to feature in our video for some acting parts. The acting part of the video could be also set in areas which are quit rough looking to symbolise the fighting and destruction within the relationship in the lyrics. E.g Car park, Alley Ways, Graffiti places (down mill road - near the beehive centre). Throughout this video we could use various different camera shots to symbolise the power balance in the relationship. This would also help create the atmosphere and mood of anger in the video.

Outfit Ideas:

These outfit ideas would be easy to wear as they are easy to create; denim shorts with a plain top and bright lipstick, winged eye liner and leggings with a crop top and curled hair.

We could film different parts of the song with each of us wearing an outfit that represents one of her different styles. This look with a hat and bright lipstick would be quite east to create and we could also feature a dressed up look as another style of hers.

Influential Video Ideas:

Beyonce - Countdown: This video influenced our ideas as it relates to the section of our video we will be filming with us acting and miming in a white room. We like the outfits in this video and the dancing when Beyonce is on her own in a white room could relate to the sort of thing we want to recreate. We also like the idea of the video being sped up and could edit our video so that it is sped up in some sections to give an interesting effect.

Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop: This video is shot outside in an urban looking area, much like the setting where we want the other part of our video to be shot. We also like the idea of using old looking stereos outside as props, to give the video a vintage feel. The cars surrounding the people in the streets in this video also give it a nice feel, and the places where we are planning to film should have cars around them to give the setting an urban feel.

Students Videos:

13U1-48 Music Video 2011: Final Music Video

This video is quite similar to what we want to create in ours as it is shot in a place with lots of graffiti and run-down looking streets. This creates the urban look we want to achieve for our video. We also like the way there are lots of different shots and the shots of graffiti flash on and off the screen as it makes the video interesting to watch and keeps the audience's attention.

13T1-36 Music Video 2011: Final Cut

This video is also similar to what we're thinking of filming for ours as half of it is shot outside in an urban area and the other half is shot in a plain white room with a girl dancing for the camera. This is what we want to create in our video to keep it interesting and not just set in one setting throughout. This also breaks away from the storyline of the song and gives a different aspect to the video. We particularly liked the part where it was shot in the street as there was a good frame around the shot where the boy was standing in the middle of the shot and the street walls framed him. Target Audience: Our target audience is going to be mostly young people. We are aiming to attract an audience of people aged around 14 to 24 as we think teenagers younger than this wouldn't understand the relationship aspect of the song and adults older than this won't like the pop aspect. The bright colours and typical pop feel to our video will appeal to a young audience and will look like the sort of video that would be shown on a music video channel in the daytime.

Stills that approximate your location:

This still represents a key setting for our music video. It provokes the type of atmosphere we want to create for our music video. And shows the urban setting that we would like to show in our video.

This is a good setting because it shows the street setting that we would like to use for our music video.

This image represents the alley way, dark, secretive setting that we would like to create in our music video. It also is quite an intimate setting therefore being a good place to shoot the acting parts showing the tension in the relationship which is told to us through the lyrics.

This is the typical studio style we would like to use. It has lots of light and shows the plain white colour that we would like to use, showing the contrast between the acting and the singing in the music video. We also think it looks like Beyonce's studio that they use in her 'Countdown' video.

Ideas for Cinematography, Editing and Mise en Scene:

Cinematography:
- In our music video we would have close ups of the people's faces who feature in the music video to introduce them to the target audience. We would also have mid shots to show the dancing/acting and possibly long shots to show the setting. When shooting the acting parts of the video we could also use low shots to show the dominant male who is showing a powerful character in the video, and also high shots to show how belittled and inadequate the girl feels. Tracking shots could also be used when the girl is walking along the "urbanised" streets either in the acting or miming part of the video. This would show emotions of the character as well as the setting of the video.

Editing:
- At certain points in our video we would like to edit the shots so they are sped up compared to the rest of the video. This would create an interesting affect which holds the audiences attention and gives the video a unique feel. We also want use discrete transitions between shots to make the video flow smoothly and look professional. We may also edit some scenes black and white to give an old style feel or a tinted look on the clips to make them look softer in some parts and emphasise some of the emotions felt in the video.

Mise en Scene:
- We are hoping to re-create Rite Ora's look but we plan to mix all of her styles together having one style each between 3 people. This would allow us to keep the same sort of look about the video as she would have but also allows us to make it our own and put a unique twist on our music video. In our video we plan to use props such as wooden crates, stools and possibly props which signify the reason behind the fight and show the problems that are spoke about in the lyrics. We also own make up we can use to recreate her look E.g. bright lipstick and black liquid eyeliner. Through our acting scenes in our video we can use our body language to symbolise the problems faced in their relationship and highlight the moods and emotions felt by the characters. For example; slouched walking, angry facial expressions, violent actions and brisk movements.

This is a map of our location we are planning to use to shoot for our graffiti shots in the video.

This is a map of our location we are planning to use for the white studio shoots in our video.

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2. Cheryl Cole- Boys

Ideas: We have chosen this video as a second choice as we think it would be quite easy for us to lip-sync to. We also thought it would be quite easy to create a video for as we are all girls in our group, and would be able to add in dance routines etc. This would highlight the genre of the song - Pop. Also, we think Cheryl Cole would be quite easy to dress up to and choose outfits for. The setting we would use for this song would probably be in a studio or a girls bedroom again to enhance the pop genre and show it is a typically girly song.

Outfit Ideas:

Cheryl Cole doesn't really have a signature style, so we could have quite a lot of freedom to wear what we wanted when filming this video. These examples from a couple of her music videos show we could possibly wear quite a girly look with a hair band, or a look that stands out with a lot of mixed prints and high heels.

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3. Pink - Why did i ever like you

Ideas: This is our third song choice as it would be quite easy to lip-sync to as the whole song only features a girls voice. We could film this video in a studio and use props such as drums to stress the strong emotions in her lyrics. We also could film some parts of the video in a field or on a street walking home from a boys house - showing the anger the song features.

Outfit Ideas:

Pink has quite a crazy style and show through her outfits her dominant female attitude. This attitde is also reflected in her lyrics and music videos. Therefore when choosing our outfits we can be quite abstract and adventurous and we can mix different styles of clothes together.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Peer Assessment Task

1. History of the music video

N/A

2. Magazine advert for album

- We couldn't tell if this was the proper one or not its that good! You have used great use on photoshop and the techniques you have used have worked really well.
- The layered of the images/shots of the song have been layered well, so the images do not drastically overlap each other. The details and text are clear and easy to read for the audience.
- The flowers and the colours at the bottom of the advert are of an oriental theme that represents China. (Title of the single)
- However, it isn't clear that this is advertising an album but it is a single. (Maybe make another to advertise the album?)

3. Goodwin Analysis

- There is a good consistency of text, with a lot of detail. There is very good terminology throughout both the real music video analysis and the student music analysis.
- Mentioning target audience for both videos, shows that you know and understand the audience appeal.

4. Individual Post

- A good idea putting up genre research on the blog. This can give you ideas on what to do for your music video. It shows a wide knowledge of music and music video genres.
- Although the group are lacking in individual posts, that can easily be sorted :)

5. Director Analysis

- Again very good constituency with the amount of writing.
- Very good description of the links between the directors videos.

- Loads of detail!

6. Analysis of 2 abstract videos

N/A

Our peer assessment of Group 17

History of the music video:
We feel that the presentation is very clear and straight to the point and makes some good points and ideas about both music videos. However, we feel it could be a bit more detailed and in depth about some of the points to explain why you thought this and the effect it created.

Magazine advert for album:
The OK Go magazine advert we thought was very creative and would definitely work in a magazine as it would catch your eye and draw your attention to what it was promoting. The imaginative style of the advert looks very professional and suits the genre of the song.

Goodwin Analysis:
From reading your analysis we can see that you have worked hard on this task and have definitely fulfilled the requirement to be detailed in your response and ideas. The use of technical media language is very good, and covers a lot of points regarding different elements in the videos. The way in which the analysis has been written is very easy to understand and gives us a clear over view of what was good and bad in the videos without seeing it before.

Individual Posts:
From the one individual post we read we think that it was written very well using a lot of media terminology to back up the points made. This post gave a very thorough analysis and was explained very well throughout. The videos chosen to analyse were also very good examples to use as they were of similar genre and had lots of elements to talk about under each category of Cinematography, Editing, Mise en Scene and Sound.

Auteur analysis:
The analysis of both of these videos was clear and detailed and presented good points with evidence to back them up. We really liked how you had summarised your ideas at the end bringing all the points together and giving us an overall idea about the videos and their features. Embedding both of the links to your post also helped to back up your points and explain why you thought what you did.

Analysis of 2 abstract videos:
In your analysis for the Florence and the machine video you make good clear points however, you could have been more detailed in your explanation in order to back up your points and ideas. Your analysis of Paranoid Android - Radiohead is more detailed but isn't laid out as well as the first one in the separate categories. We think it would be easier to read smoothly if both posts were laid out the same. This would also help when comparing the two videos.

Monday, 17 September 2012

Review of Jonathan Glazer's directing work (individual post)

After watching 3 of Jonathan Glazer's music videos from a DVD of his work as a director, I think it is quite clear that he is a very creative person who wants his work to stand out and not be the same as other people's work in his profession. All three of the music videos that we watched (Blur - The Universal, Radiohead - Karma Police and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Into My Arms) were quite dark videos with a deeper meaning to them. Instead of simply being generic chart videos with dancing and an easy to understand message, they were videos that really make the audience think about deeper meanings and could get quite emotional. I think this is why he works with more alternative artists rather than pop artists, as pop artists are more likely to make songs with catchy lyrics that have a simple meaning, whereas alternative artists are more likely to have songs with deeper lyrics that match the sort of video he likes to direct.

Example Video:

Abstract music video Analysis

Mercy Kanye West - directed by Frank Ditommasoby

-This video shows elements of being abstract through the use of special effects such as doubling the artists in the same shot, creating a more interesting and unique look compared to if the artist was just standing there.

-There is also the use of constant fast panning round and the video was edited so that there was a smooth pan of the whole room and it looked as if the whole room could fit into the camera screen.

-The whole video was edited to be black and white, which created shadows and highlights on the artists. This also fitted in with the main theme which was quite futuristic but also minimal. This effect makes the video seem quite artistic as it has no other colours unlike other videos. The striped patterns around the setting also created an abstract feel and framed each artist as they sang to keep the audience's attention.

-The video was shown on a very wide, short screen instead of a typical video that covers the whole screen. This highlights the middle of the video and draws the audience's eye towards the important parts of the video, but it also adds to the effect of there being a very wide looking room and the whole room fitting onto the screen.

Auteur Analysis Music videos - Jonathan Glazer

Blur - The universal'

Style: The style of this music video was quite minimalist due to the bold colour scheme of red white and black. The video also presented futuristic elements which gave quite a unique and alternative style. This video showed a similarities to modern alternative rock genres.

Content: The band was mostly on stage in a white room in front of an audience performing a song to them but the audience showed an unawareness to their presence. The room where the band were performing was made to look like heaven due to the use of white lights and the clothing worn by the band. This thought was questioned by the artist through the use of subtitles.

Theme: The theme of the video was a higher class cocktail party, which involved everyone drinking and dancing showing a typical scene of a social gathering and celebrity life.

Representation: We feel that Jonathan Glazer wanted to create a sense of influence through the use of colour aiming to represent the angel and devil as the band were dressed all in white but there were two girl characters dressed in red. This showed that the band style of music is quite controversial and has a deeper meaning, and the lyrics have a deeper meaning than what the video presents.

Karma police- Radio head

Style: The style of this video was presented like a short film, only using limited camera angles to convey the story line. It showed simplistic features and had quite a dark style to it. The video was quite gripping to the audience as they wanted to find out what happened to the main character. This was created through the use of an enigma where the audience didn't get to see the victims face.

Content: The video was shot all in the same place throughout showing a story line of feeling between two characters. The entire video was shot in a car using the headlights as a main focus point. There wasn't much attention on the artist, instead the focus was more directed to the story he wanted to tell.

Theme: The theme used in the title of the song is carried out throughout the video, showing elements of revenge, hate and payback between two characters exploring the ideas of karma. This theme became stronger as the video progressed and intrigued the audience to explore the meaning of the song.

Representation: We feel Jonathan Glazer wanted to represent this artist as quite a secretive person who wrote music about his hateful feelings towards others and highlight the fact that he commonly holds grudges against the people who have done wrong in his eyes.

Nick Cave & the bad seeds- Into my arms

Style: The style of this video was very simplistic showing through the use of black and white colours in a simple studio with lots of shadow. The use of extreme close ups also emphasized the emotions of the characters.

Content: This video consisted of close up shots of people of all ages expressing strong emotions. Various shots were also shown of the artist who was reacting and singing about the emotions they were feeling.

Theme: There was a strong consistent theme of depression, hurt and emotional pain. This was quite a dark video but focused on the theme of human emotions. The use of camera shots and lighting showed their emotions to the audience, also creating an element of secrecy as half of their faces were kept shadowed.

Representation: We feel that Jonathan Glazer was trying to show how the artist songs have a deeper meaning which can be explored through their video and lyrics. This is a very deep and emotional video which shows that the artist may write about his own experiences and emotions.

All three videos were very simplistic but effective through the use of strong imagery, which was used to convey the emotions felt in each of the videos. Radio head and Nick Cave & the bad seeds videos both shared common themes of hurt and emotional pain, however all three videos were very unique and different to the usual music videos that you would see in the charts. Another similarity would be that the videos all used one setting, limited camera shots and basic props to convey the meaning of the song.