I have not yet decided how i want my digipack cover to look like but i have been looking at some really good ideas of digipack to give me a good understanding on how i would like mine to be. The digipack that cover that i really liked were these ones:
Beyonce is behind a white background, this represents her as more angelic and pure. This may tell the audience that her music will be clean which is reinforced by the fact that there is no parental advisory at the front.
The central image of this album is Beyonce looking directly into the camera. This is effective as the album feels more personalised to the target audience as if Beyonce is reaching out to only them
The whole of the album cover is in grey scale.
Beyonce's lips are slightly parted which can be see as quite flirtatious. Not only this but it looks like Beyonce is also topless. This conforms to Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze as this could attract a male audience.
The typography goes with the grey scale of the photo whereby the colours used are dark grey, white and silver.
There is a bracelet pendent of a cross hanging from her left arm. This could connote that she is faithful and that this album may contain a few god related songs. This is affective because it can also appeal to a religious audience.
This here is my draft for my storyboard. I wanted to first to write down the shot that i will be using in my music video before doing a final piece of my storyboard.
Close up of her face with tears in her eyes
Close up her wiping the tears away from her eyes
Close up of her starring at the camera looking emotional
Close up her face looking down
Medium shot of a flashback of her and her boyfriend being a happy couple
Close up her staring blankly into the camera with tears running down her face
Flashback of her and the boyfriend in happy times
close up of her face
establishing shot of the place where she will be walking across a bridge. shot 8 and 9 will be blended together.
will be a tracking shot until i reach a close up of her walking
Any people involved in the acting side of my film must provide consent for their image to be filmed. I made a consent form and two of my friends were kindly enough to be in my film.
storyline
Following a life of a teenage girl who has her heart broken broken by her boyfriend and she is remembering all of the good and bad memories they've had together and it breaks her heart even more because she truly loved him and didn't want the relationship to end and she is trying to move on now.
Characters
Theo Campbell
Jordann Gasper
Location
My room window
Outside on the street
Football pitch
Soundtrack
Beyonce ' Broken Hearted Girl'
Costume
Everyday clothing
whilst planning for my music video, i did some brainstorms of various different genres of music so i could see what features were apparent and the forms and conventions within them, so that when i did my music video it would be applicable to that genre
What is audience research?
Audience research is defined as any communication research that is conducted on specific audience segments to gather information about their attitudes, knowledge, interest, preferences or behaviours with respect to prevention issues. Segments may be based on various grouping strategies, such as race and ethnicity, age, education or family income.
What is the purpose of audience research?
Before finalising any project, research must be done before even thinking about the initial design. The point of doing this is so that the producer can get a better insight of the target audience, it would be pointless creating something that's not going to appeal to the right people. It's important part of the procedure as it's time consuming , and a waste of money if the product is not created the way expected. Knowing the kind of people you want to target the product at can create a wide variety of ways to advertise the product also.
My Target Audience
For my target audience, i decided to aim it towards teenagers and young adults from the age of 16-25+
this would mainly be targeted at female rather than male as it is an emotional song about love.
Within a CD case there is visual booklet. This can include images of the artist or their band etc, song lyrics for the songs featured on the CD, a background cover displaying what order the songs are in and possibly a message from the artist to their fans.
This helps enhance the artists theme and illustrates their image. For example Ellie Gouldings digipak includes photographs of her playing the guitar and singing which reinforces her musicianship. It also includes a playlist of the tracks on the CD. The font used looks slightly handwritten and is individual for the artist, therefore people will recognise the font with that specific artist, which means it can be used on all of the artists merchandise such as posters, tshirts etc.
This background of Rihanna's album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' is quite simple and straightforward with only the artist on the front cover portraying class and elegance. Her name is in big bold turquoise letters in the centre of the page in order to show by whom the album is song. The fact that the artist name is in the middle of the page makes it very eye catching and attracts the audiences attention. Because her name stands out, it puts more emphasise on the artist herself and who she is, as the rest of the album is in black and white. The name of the album is " good girl gone bad' she has used alliterations of the letters 'G' to make it easier for the audiences to memorise the album name. The artist pose is quite sexual and appealing, which would attract a lot of male audiences. However,also females would be attracted to the album as young girls would envy and want to emulate her in the way she looks. Brighter lighting has been used round Rihanna's image in order to make her and her outfit stand out and emphasise her importance on her front cover.
The same black and white theme runs through the back cover of the CD with again a brighter colour used in Rihanna's image. The song titles of the album are in turquoise in order to make them stand out and allowing the audiences to see what songs are included in the album. The fact that a lot of black and white colour is used could be that the colour black connotes the "bad girl" and the white colour connotes the "good girl" which links in with the album name " Good Girl Gone Bad". Rihanna makes her album cover very straightforward which is associated with R&B fashion therefore we can point out that the album is part of the R&B music genre.
Conventions of DigipaksConventional digipaks often contain a booklet inside, containing lyrics of the song and information about the artist along with pictures or possibly posters. Along with lyrics, some bands/artists explain the meanings behind the songs so that fans can relate to them. Digipaks used to be the prime way that people found out about their favourite bands and even though their is information in these packs, people are far likely to use other media forms for example the Internet. So, therefore, more focus has been on the lyrics and 'Thank You's' in this booklet. Audience's and fans often want to know the lyrics so they can sing along to their favourite songs and although their available on the internet its far more personal in the booklet that is made. The Thank You pages also make the booklet more personal than on the internet as it's easy to recognise who the band are thankful too and who's helped them along their journey. Digipaks are rarely seen in comparison to past years and albums from artists as people are more likely to download them rather than buy physical forms. However, some people prefer to buy physical copies of albums and digipaks so they can collect them/keep them. Digipaks also obviously include the track list on the back to make the audience aware of the names and orders of songs. They also show the record company and show who's released the album and got copyright of the album. Also on the back is the barcode obviously and often a scan code relating to either a website or another media text. This means individuals can scan the code from their phone and be automatically directed to the link thats encoded in the scan code, creating intertexuality and enabling links between different media texts. Having this code somewhere on the digipak would mean that fans can also access other elements to the artist on the web meaning that they will create a wider fan base.
The song I choose to do for my music video coursework is 'Broken Hearted Girl' by Beyonce. Broken Hearted Girl is a video that has influenced many young teenagers/ women as the lyrics are very deep and meaningful which others could relate to it. 'Broken Hearted Girl' is a song by American RnB recording artist Beyonce knowles. It is the seventh single released from her third studio album, I am sasha fierce.
Beyonce has received numerous awards. As a solo artist she has sold over 15 million albums in the us, over 118 million records worldwide, making her one of the best selling music artist of all time. Beyonce has won 20 grammy awards, both as a solo artist and a member of Destiny's Child, making her the second most honored female artist by the the grammys, and the most nominated woman in grammy award history with 52 nominations.
Beyonce's work has influenced numerous artists such as Adele, Ariana grande, Lady gaga, Rihanna and Jessie J. Nicki minaj a recording artists stated that seeing beyonce's pepsi commercial influenced her decision to appear in the company's global campaign.
Beyonce is a role model to many young people and she inspires people from all over the world. She has done done so many charitable work with UN and UNICEF and this is why she is a great model. Her songs are so meaningful and this is why i choose to do one of her song "Broken Hearted girl" for my music video course work.
I believe that the music video was such a success as it is very simplistic, and gets the story across the audience. The simplicity makes it effective and interesting to watch. The target audience of the video is mainly teenagers and young adults aging around 13-30. It will mainly relate to female viewers as it is about love from a girls perspective.
This music video uses narrative structure throughout the video and there is no band performance. The narrative is told in a circular way, the video starts at the end. It is told from another perspective, a person watching the girls life.
The video is in black and white, which shows how basic it is. Also the fact that it is in black and white shows that there are no distractions away from the meaning of the lyrics and the video. The black and white could also represent a reflection of the main characters life which is hard and colourless.
Within the video there are many close ups of the protagonist. This then creates a feeling of sympathy from the audience towards the protagonist because the lyrics links to what we are seeing, a wasted life. The target audience for this video are the younger generation, between the ages of 15-25, this is similar to the singers age. The song is about drugs and this is a topic that young people get caught up in. The music video appeals to both gender because, although it is only a female in video, it targets both as drugs can effects both female and male.
At the beginning of the video there is a close up of a woman standing over a girls body and crying. As an audience we immediately think the girl laying on the ground is dead. We are then shown a close up of the body then the close up turns into a medium shot. The girl is staring blankly into the camera and in the background the sound of a bird chirping can be heard. This effective is used because it gives the audience a cold feeling towards the video, and they are drawn in to find out who she is and what happened.
We are then shown a medium close up, from this scene the audience learn more about the character and realise she is homeless as she is lying on a bench with a sleeping bag. She is not fully dressed suggesting that she can't afford clothes. She is wearing ripped tights and also a mans coat which is too big for her . Along with this she has thick makeup on which implies that she has been trying anything for money. This is also shown later on the video when there is a series of close ups of the girl putting makeup on in a dodgy flat and then a long shot of her showing her legs to get the car to stop. Suggesting that the girl is a prostitude. The lighting is very low key all the way through the video which makes it more realistic, However there is key lighting on her face which shows her negative expressions. She is distressed and the drugs are there to take her away from her pain and reality.
This music video attracts it's target audience because they are people who could be involved and trapped and it shows that there isn't away out. The circular structure intrigues the audience causing them to be attracted to the video.
If I were a boy By Beyonce
The song 'if i were a boy' is based around relationship problems and explores the way males stereotypically treat females in a relationship. This is enhanced through the use of role reversal narrative in which Beyonce is seen acting as the male typically would in a relationship, but as the music video progressed at the end it shows that she is the one who is being hurt.
The music video for the song was shot in black and white in New York. Beyonce said that the video shows that men commonly do to hurt their partners, like not answering their phones, before adding that the video is about little things that mean a lot in relationships.
Audience
through her music career beyonce has built a large audience, because of her range of songs. Most of her music is targeted at a younger audience, but is also widely popular. Aimed at a majorly young female demographic, 'if i were a boy' like much of Beyonce's music has a strong feminist perspective. Many of her lyrics describes independent women, and go against the typical conventions of pop music in that area.
Context
The song was successful worldwide, selling over 2 million copies and reaching to number one in the worlds single top 40. http://acharts.co/song/38420. The song was also nominated for 'video of the year' at the BET awards in 2009.
Style
The video opens with a short dialogue of the woman and man, describing the importance factors of relationship. This scene adds impact to the message of the video. The firm is shown in narrative form. although there are short performance scenes at the end. This is after the audience understands the full meaning of the song.
For my inspiration i have been watching music videos on YouTube and MTV, hoping that i might get some ideas as to what kind of video i want to create. I've chosen some music videos which i really enjoyed and explained what i liked and disliked about them and if there are any elements i might want to include in my own video.
Somebody that i used to know- Gotye
This song has quite a slow tempo, in addition to this the shots are really long, there aren't many cuts to other shots. I like the calming effect, the audio and along with its visuals which complement each other. also i really the large amount of lip-syncing and will consider this when planning and creating my own video. Although there is no live performance it gives the audience the impression that the people are singing along.
Next Year- Two Door Cinema Club
I really like the slow motion effects used in this video, it adds to the surrealism occurring in the rest of the video such as the jacket and pillow 'walking' I like the use again of lip syncing, and at the end of the video there is a live performance.
Adele- To Make You Feel My Love
Just like Gotye, the tempo of this music video is slow and again the lip syncing is brilliant. I like the fact that all of shot are well filmed.
These three videos were the three i enjoyed the most out of all the ones i watched. The similarities between them include a slow tempo, slow motion effects, straight cuts, pastel colors and brilliant lip syncing. Working with these features will help me produce the best music video that contain all of these effects. I believe this will be where my creative talent lies so i will aim to incorporate these effects.
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus has been a household name since she broke onto the Hollywood scene in 2006. From 'Hannah Montana' and world tours. She was the most well known Disney pop star who inspired young children. However as the years go past Miley changes her pop star image to gain more publicity. She went from being a sweet disney pop star to a wild cragy young adult. Changing her music style and her appearance. Miley got so much critics for doing this. Some people believed that she was going crazy and became inappropriate but miley's transition has gained her more confidence and these makes her fans become more confidence in themselves too. She gained so much more fan base than she previously had.
This is miley singing a disney song of hers.
This is miley now with her latest music video hit. This song caused a few controversy due to the fact that it talks about drugs.
Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift are both inspiring artist, but their music videos are completely different, they both approach their fans differently.
This music video here is of Taylor Swift making fun music videos now a days which includes women shaking their ass ( Twerking) and the message to her music video says its doesn't have to be like this and why are women portray like this.
This music video is very catchy and its about a love story
One of my favorite music videos, is Sorry For Party Rocking by LMFAO. I like the fact that this music video has a slight simple joke-like back story to it., and that people who are large fans of the group LMFAO understands the humor behind the video, However, it still makes sense and is funny to those who aren't big fans. I like the fact that the mise-en-scene has a cartoon is-like/plastic-like and colorful, giving the impression that it is taking place in a 'fake' world. The whole theme of the video is fun, and this is shown by the fact that everything is colorful and exciting, the people in the video are dancing around, drunk and drinking alcohol, dressing up in colorful outfits, singing and making a mess. This is also shown in the editing of the video, at moments such as 4.07 seconds onward, when the editing speeds up to emphasize the excitement and drunkenness of the people at the party.
There are many ways that a music video can tell if a music video is successful or not, such as:
whether it wins a VMA award or not
whether it is talked about or not or featured in magazines, newspaper and online
whether it has a lot of hits on youtube
the amount of publicity, whether it s positive or negative
how many CD's sold.
A video that I would consider to be very successful is Gangnam style by Spy. This video is 'foreign' to most countries and the lyrics makes no sense to most people, however due to videos and dance routines, it hit number 1 in many countries, including the Uk, and is one of the most successful youtube videos having a lot of likes and views.
Another video that i would consider to be the successful is the Nae Nae. It is a debut single by an American rapper Silento. In March 2015 he was signed to Capitol Records that released the track as a single with an accompanying music video. The song peaked number three on the Billboard Hot 100, where it has spent six non consecutive weeks, being kept from number one on the charts. Internationally, the song has peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, as well as the top twenty of the charts in Denmark, New Zealand and the UK. The song has reached over 373,123,488 views on youtube and many young teenagers doing the dance moves.
Critics.
Rihanna has shocked many fans with her latest music video, which features nudity, bad language and gory violence. The singer who unveiled her new single 'BBHMM' isn't the only star who has done a controversial music video.
For Example Lady Gaga featuring R Kelly with the song "Do What You Want" The video for this song is so scandalous that it has never been officially released except a 30 seconds clip on TMZ. Directed by controversial filmmaker Terry Richards, the video starred Lady Gaga as R Kelly's patient who told her: 'Im putting you under, and when you wake up you're going to be pregnant.' Many people post the video to be literally an ad for rape.
Sia is another artist who got criticised with her music video of 'Elastic Heart'. Critics of Sia music video claimed that the video, which starred a 12 year old Maddie Ziegler and 28 year old Shia LaBeouf cage fighting in a coloured leotard, had paedophilic overtones. Parents were not happy with this music video at all.
Taylor Swift who is a very well known recording artist has found herself embroiled in fresh race-related controversy after the video for her latest song Wildest Dreams was accused of having racist overtones.
The music video has already been viewed more than 14million time on youtube, has been accused of portraying an "African colonial fantasy" due to the fact that there was a big white cast despite it being filmed in an undiscovered location in Africa.
Hip Hop is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of looping, rapping, freestyling, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social and personal issues. Hip Hop began in the Bronx in New York City in the 1970s, primarily among African Americans, with some Jamaican immigrant influence. The term rap is often used synonymously with hip hop, however, the latter denotes the practices of an entire subculture.
Rapping, also referred to as MCing emceeing, is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically, in the rhyme and verse, generally to an instrumental or synthesised beat. Beats, almost always in 4/4 time signature, can be created by looping portions of other songs, usually by a DJ, or sampled from portions of other songs by a producer. Modern beats incorporate synthesisers, drum machines and live bands. Rappers may write, memorised or improvised their lyrics and perform their works as cappella or to a beat.
The roots of hip hop are found in Africans Americans music. the griots of west Africa are a group of travelling singers and poets who are part of an oral tradition dating back hundreds of years. Their vocal style is similar to that of rappers.
This music video of Run DMC called "it like that" this video is classed as the best first in new school hi hop rap and came from predominately new york city. the new school was initially characterised from by drum machine, often tinged with elements of rock.
Now days, rappers would raps about what they have been through and what is happening, they would use strong language.
Kendrick Lamar is an Amercian hip hop artist who raps about what he believes in and stands for. Kendrick Lamar raps about peace and politics. He mainly raps about what he has been through.
Rhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Term was originally used by record companies to refer to recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.
The term has subsequently had a number of shifts in the meaning. In the early 1950s and beyond, the term "rhythm and blues" was frequently applied to blues records, for instance John lee Hooker's "I'm in the mood" became number-one Billboard R&B Music Charts. Starting in the 1960s, after this style of music contributed to the development of "rock and roll", the term "R&B"became used particularly by white groups
to refer to music styles that developed from incorporate electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. By the 1970s, "rhythm and blues" was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. The modern evolution of R&B is named "contemporary R&B"
Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine coined the term "rhythm and blues" in 1948 as a musical marketing term in the United States. It replaced the term "race music" which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world.
This video is called jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley, it made it to number 1 in the R&B charts in 1957 and was seen as an acceptance of non-African American artist into a music category known for being created by a africans americans.
There are a number of ways that the audience can watch a music video, wether it is old or new. The two main ways are:
Music Channels
YouTube
Youtube is very useful as it has almost everything, including the brand new videos. Millions of users watch youtube as the videos are easily accessible and cheap for the record labels for promotional purposes. The music video site VEVO, is where established and upcoming artists upload their videos or viewing and this helps market the video and the artists.
As a result profit is made for example, Carly Rae Jepsens 'Call me maybe' video which gained over 260 million views.
Another way to watch music videos is through music channels such as MTV, Vault and Viva. Music videos are shown on adverts Tv shows if it is a new video and they are trying to advertise it.
The disadvantage of the audiences having easy access to music videos is that they can download it through the illegal way by piracy and this has caused some controversy with a few artists and their record label companies. The problem for the music industry is that many downloading services offer music/music videos for free which robs artists of their royalties. Some artists argue that free downloads actually help their sales, but record companies say the practice is threatening the industry. They've taken court action against people who download music illegally, and have begun to provide websites that offer legal copies of songs for a small fee. However, failure to agree on licensing means that there are fewer songs available from these sites.
How much money is usually spent on the average music video?
On average a music a music video would cost a minimum of £50,000. However this can go anything up to £500.000 or even more.
For example Michael and Janet Jackson music for scream cost £7,00,00 to make and Madonna's express yourself cost £5,000,000 but this is because they're big pop starts so they're likely to make back the money they spent and more. I guess it depends on the popularity of the artist/band and the people behind them. New artists/bands, will not be given a huge budget for crew and video equipment to make their first video, because you can't risk such amounts of money especially with today's economy. However, there are some well known music videos which probably cost nothing at all.
“Lonely Boy” by the Black Keys Perhaps one of the best happy accidents in music video history, “Lonely Boy” is a single take of a man dancing and lip-syncing to the song in a motel. The Black Keys originally had a full script and a cast of over 40 people for the video, but ended up scrapping it. The man who starred in the final cut is an actor and part-time security guard named Derrick T. Tuggle, who was only supposed to have a small dancing clip as an extra. When they were unhappy with the original shoot, they decided to use the clip of Tuggle as the entire music video, calling it “the most expensive single shot ever recorded.” “Lonely Boy” was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video, and Tuggle has since become an icon for his candid grooving.
Who are some famous music video directors and why are their videos so well known?
Most notable music video directors are:
David Fincher,
David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. At the age of 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. Fincher worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. He left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy in Hollywood.
David Fincher directed the music video of Madonna 'Vogue' and Michael Jackson 'who is it'
Jonas Akerlund
Hans Uno Jonas Akerlund is a swedish director and drummer. He is the best for directing music videos, Which are often mock forms of movies trailers and short films.
He directed the music video of Lady Gaga 'Telephone featuring Beyonce' and Christina Aguilera 'Beautiful'
Anthony Mandler
Anthony Mandler is Rihanna's favourite video director. The Two have reportedly come together for a whopping 16 music videos since she began her career in 2006.
His notable music videos include JayZ/Justin Timberlake 'Holy Grail', Rihanna 'Diamonds' and Drake 'Find your Love'
Their videos are made so popular by the large budget they are able to put into it. The best directors will not want to do a video for a new artist unless they feel that their debut single will do well in the charts. These directors need to know that they will be getting the money money they spent on the video back. How good the video is will determine the outline of views and sales of the single after video consumption.
Because technology is improving, the amount creativity allowed in a video in unlimited. Artists coming out now are all about being individual and unique so they crate the most alarming videos in terms of dancing, effect etc. This makes the audience to enjoy the video and praise the directors. And other artists, upcoming or established will want to work with that particular director. For instance when i hear a song i really like, i imagine what sort of video will suite the song and if a video does get released for that song i'll be excited to watch it. However if the video doesn't fit the video, I will criticise it for example Nicki Minaj's video for 'Startship'
What is the purpose of a music video for the companies and artists that make them?
The purpose of music video is to make profit, and this profit takes the form of financial gain. The main purpose of a music video to the artist and record company is to promote their music. When a video accompanies a song, the exposure of the single will automatically double. Meaning that it will get lots of views and maybe be on top of the charts. While the song can only be played on radio and audio-only, Internet services such as itunes, having an accompanying video means that the song will also be played on sites such as YouTube and VEVO, as well as music television.
Companies are aware that many consumers are more likely to share a video rather than an audio file, to talk about the video and spread the songs influence by word of mouth. For an artist this could mean more recognition, as a visual medium widens the possible scope of heir creation 'vision' allowing them to get their message or self image with more power.
For a record company, the music video gives them the opportunity to include product placement and earn more revenue.Other reasons include enjoyment, and doing what they love to do. In the case of the Artist it is about showing off their talent for singing and dancing.
The purpose of a music video could also be to change the profile of the band/artists. To show people that they are changing or have changed, and are trying to attract a new kind of audience. A band who have done this are MCFLY. When they were first trying to attract their audiences, they used bright coloured music videos, with bright backgrounds, that were 'cute and fun' such as this one...
The original purpose of the music videos is to advertise the artist's specified song in order to boost its sales as well as the artist's reputation.
The music video provides a different source musical entertainment through the us of visuals and at times is also used to reinforced the outrageous of the artists. For example Lady Gaga.
Andrew Goodwin is an Australian born operatic tenor. He began learning how to play the violin at the age of 5 and then went onto learn how to play the piano and organ when singing at St.Andrews cathedral. So he was brought up with his life revolved around music and this could have edged his thoughts.
Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we the audience should look out for
which are:
Though beats ( seeing the sound)
Narrative performance
Star image
Relation of visuals of the song
Technical aspect of the video
Though beats
First step is to look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song for example the chorus and the verses.
Secondly the voice of the song. The artists voice is extremely unique and can form identification or trademarks that work well with star image. Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of voice can be related to this. He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able make associations of it's own.
Thirdly, Goodwin also points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device, them telling us a story and us listening.
Narrative performance
Goodwin says that we tend to make up our own idea of messages being sent in a song from a basic understanding of what it may actually be about.
Music videos should be of the same standard every time, narrative and performance work together in order to keep the audience interested and not bored of a music videos.
Goodwin believes that miming is still the most popular thing done in music videos today but however it is in the artists best interest to make it look as real as possible to the audience.
Star Image
Star image is vital aspect of music videos.
Artists want to obviously look unique in order to stay current and for audience to remember them. This star image develops overtime and plays a big role in the production process of music videos.
Relation of visuals of the song
Goodwin believes that there are three ways music videos work to promote to songs:
Illustrate: Music videos set certain images to illustrate the meaning of their songs lyrics and genre.
Amplify: Repeatability, meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly reinforced and shown through video and drummed into our vision.
Dis-juncture: This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored
Technical aspect of the video
Technical aspect of the video holds the music video together so its very important.
Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of 'use of camera'.
Lighting and colour 'help set the mood' and adds emphasis on key/dramatic moments and adds extra effect.
Mise-en-scene, the setting is vital. It needs to look realistic in order to look professional appealing to a wider target audience.
Beats- the cuts and the beats go with the rhythm in order to make the video more entertaining. People like music that sounds good and not like it has just been thrown altogether.
In this video for ‘Crazy In Love’ By Beyonce and Jay Z there are many genre related characteristics. This song is your typical RNB/Hip Hop song, and to demonstrate this, immediately at the beginning of the video Jay Z is in a fast car, wearing a hat and a gold chain. These are stereotypical features of someone who would sing this specific genre. Following on from this Beyonce is then in revealing clothing, performing a provocative dance, which again is more RNB/Hip Hop as it is a fast paste street dance style. When the song approaches the chorus Beyonce and a group of girls are all wearing track suits and hats performing street dance, which again are popular aspects of the RNB genre. Also in this particular video, the meaning of the song is in fact ignored (disjuncture), as the song talks about being in love but the video shows Beyonce dancing in a provocative manor. Towards the end of the video Jay Z and Beyonce appear together when he begins his rap. He is just standing looking directly into the camera whilst Beyonce dances around him, again no relation to the song. Both stars are constantly looking into the camera throughout the music video, this breaks the fourth wall and makes the audience feel as if the star is singing to them individually. On top of this as Beyonce is acting in a provocative manor is comes across more shocking so draws the audience in more. As I mentioned earlier Beyonce is extremely well known for her great body, and constantly in this music video there is close ups of her legs, her bum and her face whilst she is doing something sexual, for example licking her lips or pouting. This is amplifying because is is repeated constantly throughout the video to manipulate the course of the music video and the audience. And lastly the record company use a large amount of close ups on both Beyonce and Jay Z, as you can see it opens immediately with a close up of Jay Z, and there are many close ups of Beyonce’s face and body. This is related to star image and the demands of the record label company. Overall, the music video to ‘crazy in love’ clearly does have aspects of Andrew Goodwin’s theory constantly throughout.
Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ also supports Goodwin’s idea of lyrics and visuals. The music video has definite visuals that link to the lyrics of the song. Whilst the lyrics are about having a bad romance or relationship, the video simply symbolizes this. For example Lady Gaga is being pulled around aggressively, this could imply violence/domestic abuse in her relationship. She is also quite clearly forced to drink alcohol, this could easily symbolize alcohol or drug abuse and even pressure from her lover to do these harmful things. On top of this there is also visuals that imply Lady Gaga is being sold as a prostitute, could this as well suggest her lover is selling her or paying for her? All of these factors tie together to create exactly what she states in her lyrics a ‘bad romance’, therefore the lyrics and the visuals successfully match up.
The key development of modern music video was the recording and editing process. As high quality colour videotapes recorders and portable video cameras were produced. this enables many pop acts to produced promotional video again in the following weeks. As Michael Jackson was the first to create a short film for his music video, that has a begining, middle and an end in 'Billie Jean' and then in a 'west side story'.
Music Videos Today
Now, music videos have become commonplace in the music industry meaning that every song that makes it into the charts has a music video made.
sometimes the popularity of the video is enough to propel the song into the top 10.
Songs that have been in the top because of it video popularity:
Modern music videos were originally made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sales of music recordings
They are often known as "Promos"
In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern worked with electrician George Thomas and Various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child:. Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen using a magic lantern. The images were simultaneous to live performances. This technique became a population form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step towards music video.
In 1926, technology developed and many musical short filmed were produced. These were called "Talkies". They were produced using the vita-phone system where the sound wasn't printed onto the actual film, but onto a separate 16inch (40cm) disk and later 12 inch (30cm) phonograph disc at a 33 1/3 rpm, a speed first used for this process. These short films would lasted for around 6 minutes.
Micheal Jackson was the first the first to create the idea of a short film- A music video with a beginning, middle and end.
Sing along short cartoons called "Screen Songs" invited the audience to sing along to popular songs. The lyrics would be shown at the bottom of the screen and an animated bouncy ball would bounce over the words as the artist sang them. This would encourage the audience to learn the words of the artists music helping promote the artist to a wider ranged audience. Also cartoons from early 1930's featured musicians of the time performing their hit singles on-camera in live action segments during the cartoons.
The Beatles were massive stars of the 1960's and were able to produce their own feature films starring "The Beatles". This era was where music became an industry. As artist couldn't tour particularly at this point, so they were a great way for audience's to see the stars they admire abd help promote The Beatles music globally by playing their films in cinemas. They brought out three succesful films, 'Help!' 'Hard Day's Night' and 'Magical Mystery Tour'. The Beatles rejected the old values and brought something new to the table .
These features films displayed a develope in cinematography with the use of close-ups, zooms pans and establishing shots. In 'Magical Mystery Tour' they used special effects such as split screen and edited through the use of fades and montage editing. They showed a lack of continuity editing and realism.
1970s
In the UK the importance of top of the pops to promote a single created an environment of innovation and competition amongst bands and record labels as the show's producers placed strict limits on the number of videos it would use...Therefore a good video would increase a song's sales.
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody also started a whole new era for using music videos as promos.
1980s
1981- MTV is launched. The first video to be aired was buggles, 'video killed the radio star'
David Bowie scored his first uk number one in nearly a decade thanks to his catchy promo for 'Ashes to Ashes'
Artists began to use more sophisticated effects in their videos and added a storyline or concept to the video
Narrative based music video
A video consisting mainly of a storyline relating to the lyrics and genre of the song. This is a good technique to use for engaging the audience.
This type of video is often used for songs that features in films, with scenes from the film cut into the video.
An example of this is Bruno Mars 'it will rain' video. This is the twilight breaking dawn soundtrack. This includes footage from the film being played through a projector in the video.
Performance based music video:
Performance based music videos features the band and artist performing either to the camera or to an audience live. This is a popular technique rock bands use as there concerts are usually high energy and there is more interest for a viewer to watch the band perform as a whole rather an artist on their own.
'30 seconds to mars-closer to the edge' is a good example of this. The video features footage of the band playing different venues on there tour cut together to make the video.
Spectacle based music video:
Music videos that do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing. Its usually artistic.
Camera:
Camera shots usually jump a lot from long shots to close ups and extreme close ups. The close ups are usually on the lead singer and the band and the extreme close ups are of the singer lip synching.
Camera Movement: Whip pans, fast dolly tracks and fast overhead crane shots to follow the running, walking or dancing of performers.
Editing:
Various terms: jump cutting, montage editing. Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transition such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.
Lighting:
Expressive lighting a key features of music videos. Extreme artificial light to create the "Bleaching" effect on pop starts faces (making them seem ageless). Also the use of switching from colour to black and white or sepia to indicate a shift from chorus to verse.
CGI is also a popular use in music videos to create futuristic sets and brightly coloured backgrounds which is mainly used in mainstream music as they have the big budgets for their videos.
Mise-en-scene:
This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something for example, "Mad" buyNe-yo. The mise-en-scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolation room. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Props included were hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. The lighting is kept very dark as its is black and white. This connotes the angry depressed mood.
It is extremely difficult to specify one finite definition of a music video as they are so vast and varied. Concisely it is a short film that is designed to promote a song, artist or album. Alternatively, a definition found on Wikipedia states that ' A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.
Since MTV, a television channel created to play music videos, was first aired in 1981, music videos have become extremely prominent. prior to this, music videos that were created were known as 'illustrated songs' or 'film clips' Music videos used a wide range of styles of film making techniques including animations, non-live action filming, documentaries and non- narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles such as animation and live action. There are no specific rules in which a music video must follow, they can be as creative and disjunctive as the producer chooses.
This is an example of a music video that is very creative.
A2 Media involves planning, designing, creating and evaluating a music video. I will transfer the skills I've learnt from the AS course into this project to ensure the best possible outcome for the video
Alongside the music video I'll be creating a digipack (CD packaging)
