Costume Ideas -3-

Male Lead Costume -2- by magicalplatypus

These are the clothing ideas for the 'Alter Ego' of our male lead, The alter ego is a character that is an office worker. The narrative is that he gets more and more frustrated with his office job as the song/video goes on, so with that in mind we wanted a costume that will look very ordinary and plain, and something that would be worn by a business men/accountant to work to fit with our idea of him working in an office.

Costume Ideas -2-

Male Lead Costume -1- by magicalplatypus

This is a collage I made that features clothing that I think would fit the male lead in our music video. He would wear this outfit while out in one of the locations we are using, probably the park or an urban looking location. As a group we decided that the artist should look urban/skater-ish, his image would be of a young rapper/singer who doesn't try to fit into any stereotypes or genre tropes, ho wont be prim and proper like most male pop artists who are marketed at young teenage girls but instead he will have his own simple style.

Costume Ideas -1-

Lady Sov. Costume by magicalplatypus


This is the costume for our new female lead. We wanted her to look cool and urban, but also fashionable. The costume will consist of skinny dark wash jeans, a light pink jacket/hoodie, plain black sneakers and a snapback hat.

Influential Music Video II

Gives You Hell - The All American Rejects

 The main music video for the single, was directed by Marc Webb. Lead vocalist Tyson Ritter plays the dual roles of a traditional family man and his rowdy next-door neighbor who fronts a noisy garage band, which includes the other members of The All-American Rejects. When the rocker's nocturnal racket keeps the family-man awake at night, it sets off a prank war. The conflict comes to a head one evening as the neighbors confront each other outdoors where people are yelling the chorus of "Gives You Hell". As the two neighbors bicker, their wives quietly propose swapping spouses. The family man seems oddly intrigued by the offer, and the two men have switched homes by the video's end, with the family man singing with his rival's garage band, and the rocker sleeps with his rival's wife.

 I really liked this video because its really funny and has an interesting narrative, it incorporated the band performance into the story really well and it was very fun.
The lyrics and the theme of the song match the narrative of the music music video - Theme is about a dysfunctional relationship and the video portrays that well with the idea of two very different neighbors that are constantly fighting and who despise each other. The good mix of narrative and performance meant that the video was more exciting and portrayed the band really well because it showed that they are fun and can make fun of themselves plus it showed all of the band members which is important when shooting a music video for a group.
It also had good locations/ props/ costumes - it made the video more believable and life like - some people can relate to it.

Over all this video is inspirational because it has an original idea for the story, while still maintain the image the band has, its different to their other videos and it shows a different side to them that the fans can experience. When I start coming up with ideas for my music video I will definitely consider doing a fun/comedic narrative like this one.

Influential Music Video I

  David Guetta - She Wolf (Falling To Pieces) Ft Sia

This is a music video for David Guetta and Sia's song - She Wolf,  its directed by Hiro Murai, who is a currently working as a music video and commercial director. The video doesnt feature any of the performers and is heavily influenced by the music and in some aspect the lyrics. The video focuses mainly on the narrative and it feels very cinematic and film like.

The first opening image is a wide shot of a naked lady, it is an establishing shot that tells us about the location, theme and narrative that we will see in the video. This particular shot was chosen to be used as the first thing the viewer sees because it is quite controversial, even in todays decade nudity in film and TV and on screen is used with caution as it can be upsetting or offensive to some viewers, the director chose to make it look artistic and because it relates to the narrative (we see how as the video progresses) it is done in a tasteful way, it also establishes the mood of the video, the viewer gets a very natural and earthy feeling from the scene and the colours and the slow and steady zoom creates a calm atmosphere. This is also a good opening shot because it is intriguing and makes the viewer wonder about the story behind it, it makes them ask questions like 'Why is she standing there?' and 'Why is she naked?' and 'How does this relate to the music and the story' thus making the viewer more likely to stay tuned to the whole song/video.

The sequence that follows is an introduction to the narrative. The story is set in an ice desert, it features wolfs, cutthroat hunters in fur, bows and arrows. The visuals match the lyrical content to an extent, the general theme and idea of the song can fit with the story because its about hunters and the hunted, while the lyrics may be metaphorical when saying: ''You hunted me down
Like a wolf, a predator'' we see a literal interpretation of that in the video and it adds more meaning to the song.
(below are the first two verses of the song, just as an example)

A shot in the dark
A past, lost in space
Where do I start
The past and the chase
You hunted me down
Like a wolf, a predator
I feel like deer in your lights

You love me, and I froze in time
Hungry for that flesh of mine
But I can't compete
With the she-wolf who has brought me to my knees
What do you see in those yellow eyes
As I'm falling to pieces

Plus the song is called 'She Wolf' and the story features a woman who transforms into a wolf so its fitting.




The video presents a battle that changes the natural into digital. The attacks take the form of digitalized seismic disturbances that dangerously radiate across the icy landscape. The gifs below show these digitally produced effects.I really like the use of digital software to create these illusions. They appear on every 'breakdown' in the song (when the music goes electronic) and it really matches the tone of the music making it seem more supernatural and mathematical.

An example of how slow motion was used

The video features an array of different things that set it apart from normal music videos. Things like panoramic sweeping shots and the use slow motion create and an epic atmosphere transforming the music video into a cinematic experience. I really like the use of this because its different and more like a film with cool music instead of an actual music video.



These are some of the other things that I thought made the video brilliant:
-Quite simplistic, minimal and it had a calming effect.
-Cleverly broken up by the special effects during the chorus, making it original and surprising.
-Beautiful  scenery and location.
-Great costumes and props made the narrative more believable.
-Matches the song , theme, lyrics, music.
-Like a movie - pulls you in - realistic
-Intriguing narrative - keeps you on edge the whole video - amplified by the music.
-Nice colouring and tones - very lomo -cyan colourig.
 -Very artsy.

Collage I made of images and camera shots I really liked form the video.

The video has received mixed reviews, many praise the directors ingenuity while others claim it to be promoting animal abuse, but for me the video is a great artistic piece that accompanies the music well and makes it very epic, its inspirational because its different than other music videos in the sense that it doesn't feature the main artist and is heavily set around the narrative and the cinematics and the look and feel of it.

'How can you not be blown away by the video's creativity and elegance?'                                    - Perez Hilton (Celebrity blogger)

Music video Directors. -WIP-

Ace Norton

Ace Norton is a music video and commercial director. Norton's body of work includes music videos for artists such as Jenifer Lopez, The Virgins, Foster the People, Death Cab for Cutie, Regina Spektor, Scissor Sisters and The Fray, as well as promotional campaigns for Honda Element, coca cola, and McDonalds.

Below is a music video Ace directed for a band called 'Foster the People'. I really like this music video, I think its very creative and intriguing. The video is based on the concept of kids taking over and running a post-apocalyptic world, you could argue that its is intertextual because it has significant connotations associated with dystopian texts such as Lord of The Flies or Mad Max.

 

 This video below is another one of Ace's videos done for the same band. This video is for a song titled 'Call it what you want'. 

The video is very quirky and artsy, like most of his work.

Ace had said that his inspiration for this video comes from his childhood nightmares so it doesn't  make a lot of sense and it doesn't have a clear cut narrative, but the viewer can draw their own interpretations. This video features a lot of different props and is very quickly cut to match the pace of the beats.

Marketing Music

Today in media we discussed the ways in which music is marketed, this included the typical things such as TV ads and posters and appearances as well as the less typical but still used, such as viral campaigns and mobile apps. Below is a picture of the brain storm we did where we came up with an array of different marketing techniques used in media today:

Goodwin's theory

According to Goodwin, music videos should posses six basic qualities that will define them as 'good' videos.
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (eg. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3.There is relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur against their work (a visual style).
5. There infrequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens , telescopes, etc ) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programs, other music videos etc).

This music video below is a good example of most of the characteristics that Goodwin proposed should be featured in music video:

 The genre of the song is Pop, and there are clear conventions that the genre is associated with. For example most pop songs are upbeat, fun, and appeal to the mainstream audiences, music videos for pop songs need to imitate the genre visually, this means that pop-y music videos are usually fun and match the pace of the song, they tend to not have any message behind them (eg. no political or social issues adressed in the video). Pop music videos tend to have some kind of a narrative that is interlaced with a performance or a dance routine and a lot of the time the visuals match the song. Hot bodies, cool dance moves, constant scene changes to hold the eye, and style are also generally associated with the pop genre. This music video covers a lot of the things that are mentioned above, for example the fact that the narrative is woven between constant scene changes and the performance on stage and also in the recording studio:

 The music video starts with the beginning of the performance. We see the artist coming on stage and performing.

The video is the broken up by the use of narrative, its a classic story of adultery, where the artist is the victim that has been cheated on.

 The video is then broken up again by the use of different locations, such as this one (a recording studio) This ensures that the video is not boring, and the audience get a sense of the artists style and identity.



Another way that Goodwin's theory can be applied to this music video is that Goodwin states the importance of a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, and the relationship between the music and visuals, this video covers those two points. The lyrics of the song tell us a story of heartbreak and deceit:

Am I confused, am I a crazy person
You say it's old news
She doesn't mean nothing
But don't you understand that I am heartbroken
No matter what you do
You just can't make it untrue

You're breathing lies
I want to believe in
When I'm watching walk out the door
I could fall through the floor

The narrative matches the lyrical content to an extent, the story shows the main star looking through what is presumably her boyfriends phone while he is sleeping, even thought it it not spelled out for the viewers, the viewers can pick up on the little hints from the song and visuals draw a conclusion about what is happening (he cheated on her and she is not happy).
There is also a relationship between the music and the visuals, the visuals amplify the music and make it more interesting.

Goodwin also stated that a music video will be expected to feature a lot of close ups of the artist to familiarize and to create a relationship between the viewer and the performer. This is very important for record labels as they depend on the music videos to introduce the artist to the public and gain an audience. This music video features a lot of close-ups, below is a collage I made of some of the close-ups from the video:

 

Another point of Goodwin's that can be applied to this music video is the notion of voyeurism.Theses gifs below show fragments from the video that have a voyeuristic feel to them. The viewers are watching the artist in an intimate setting, her bathroom in her nighty and then in her closet,this sequence feels very private because she is not looking directly at the camera (only in close ups when she is singing but even then its just a glance) and the framing looks as if the camera was hidden and that she doesn't know its there, its the notion of the male gaze. The viewer (especially male) might get pleasure from seeing the artist like this and therefore like her more.



Another idea of Goodwin's is that some music videos feature intertextuality.
This music video doesn't really use intertextuality.

Intertextuality in Music Videos Part 3

  Another example of the use of intertextuality can be seen in Eminem's music video for his song 'We Made You'. Althought the video references other texts it is more of a parody, which is also a form of intertextuality.

The music video is a parody of the television series Rock of Love and Star Trek, as well as Eminem singing in a background of an imitation version of the notes of the video game Guitar Hero while the casino-based sequence in the video is an homage to the film Rain Man, a film Eminem has previously referenced in his lyrics. The casino scene was shot in The Palms hotel and casino. References to Nanook of the North are also made, especially seen in the scenes with Sarah Palin, those scenes parodying Larry Flynt's Who's Nailin' Paylin?. There is also an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho.
On April 3, 2009, Eminem talked about the music video in an MTV News interview, stating that there is some "Celebrity bashing in it," which is often a feature of his album's lead singles. In addition to Sarah Palin, notable celebrities mocked using look-alike actresses and actors include Jessica Simpson, Bret Michaels, Britney Spears, Kevin Federline, Lindsay Lohan, Samantha Ronson, Amy Winehouse and her then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Elvis Presley, Tony Romo, John Mayer, Jennifer Aniston, and Kim Kardashian. Eminem even spoofed himself, wearing an ALF t-shirt and holding a cake, referencing a commonly circulated pre-fame photo of him of when he was a youth. This Music Video also marks the return of Eminem's alter ego "Slim Shady".

Parody of 'Star Trek'

Parody of Ellen DeGenere talk show

Parody of Britney Spears 'Give Me More' music video

Intertextuality in Music Vidoes Part 2

Another example of intertextuality in music videos include the following:

Lady Gaga's Telephone video features an array of refrences to things like prducts and cooking shows and it even has a yellow truck ''pussy wagon'' from the cult film Kill Bill.

Intertextuality in Music Vidoes

"Intertextuality" refers to the way a text is shaped by other text.

In the case of music videos its how a music video is shaped/inspired by other media texts such as films, TV-shows and pop culture. When used It can spark recognition in the audience, generate nostalgic associations as well as new meanings. This can create a bond between the artist and the viewer because the viewer feels like they can relate to the artist as they both can enjoy the reference.
A good example is the music video 'What You Waiting For?' by Gwen Stefani:

The video properly starts at 1:40min, and we can clearly see connotations to Alice in the Wonderland, it is shown by the style of the clothes and the locations and overall the whole  mis-en-scene.

Below is a montage I made that displays the main iconic images used in the music video and what they refer to:
(Click to enlarge)

The use of intertextuality in this music video makes it more interesting and appealing to the viewers that have seen the film Alice in the Wonderland or read the book, because it is a different use and interpretation of the text that they might have once enjoyed.

John Stuarts description of the music video “ incorporating, raiding and reconstructing ” is essentially the essence of intertextuality.

Voyeurism in Music Videos

Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions usually considered to be of a private nature. This concept is explored in music videos to attract the male viewers gaze, to make the main star seem more appealing and to show the star as an object of fantasies.

Voyeurism in music videos is used in different ways, if the main artist is female, for example Rihanna, she will be sexually objectified in the video and shown in a very appealing way to the male viewers, this could be done with the outfits she wears, her dance moves, the camera angles and movements and also framing.
Below are two screen caps from her video 'Only Girl (In The World) that illustrate the use of voyeurism.
From the pictures you can see that her outfit is quite revealing, she is basically wearing just underwear in the second picture, but its not done in a slutty or tasteless way because if it was then the female audience would not want to identify with her and would not like her (and most of her fans are female) so to make Rihanna sexually appealing to the male audiences but also relatable and an icon to her female audience, the director has decided to put her in revealing but also fashionable clothes that could even pass as being cute, in the first picture she is wearing a cute baby blue sweater and knee high socks but her belly and her mid thighs are exposed, so some people might notice her nice clothes and some people might notice the distinct lack of them:

 Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World)

Voyeurism is usually used differently if the music video is for a male artist or a band of some sort. In these kind of videos the artist is not the focus of sexual objectification, but they might be shown with ladies. This can be to make them seem more popular or liked, the fan (mostlikley male) will look up to the artist thinking they get all the girls and start to associate thermselves with them. A good example of this is Rap/R&B artist's music videos such as Snoop Dogg (video shown below) or Pitbull.

In Snoop Dogg's video he is shown surrounded by hot girls, who are all over him, the video also features bikini clad girls dancing withouth the main artist, Snoop's male fans would enjoy seeing the fragmented body shots of the girls alone while also thinking how cool he is that he has all these ladies at his disposal.

 

Snoop Dogg vs David Guetta - Sweat

Advanced Portfolio - Technical Codes

Today in class we talked about what are the generic rules of music videos in terms of editing and camera work.

 We established that the role of the camera is to make the performance more dynamic and/or energetic, so that the artist or band are shown in an appealing way to the viewer and consumer. The camera should always be following the performance, and unlike in films it should not be centered around telling a narrative, it should be very abstract (with a variety of different shots and movements)because music videos are not meant to represent reality but the abstract world of the artist. 

 Another important role of the camera is to sell us the artist, this is done by using close-ups and framing. Close-ups of the artists in music videos create a sense of intimacy between the consumer and the performer this important because then we begin to like the singer and are more likely to recognize their face in stores and on billboards. Close-ups show that the artist is a commodity on sale.

We also talked about editing, and how that is used in music videos.
The most common form of editing we see in music videos is montage, which is fast cut and fast paced, it is used in many genres of music but usually for quick songs.
Slow songs are slow paced and have gentler transitions to establish the mood.
It is important that the pace of the editing matches the pace of the song.

Another thing that is common in editing is that the main artist is usually given more screen time, meaning that the duration of the shot on a particular artist relates to how important they are, for example if you are editing a music video for a band you would usually give and equal amount of screen time to all the band mates but the most to the 'leader' or the main person.

Another part of editing is the post production and special effects and digital effects. In films and TV shows special effects  are meant to be very realistic and life like and verisimilitude but in music videos special effects are there to make the whole piece more abstract, interesting and thought provoking. Sometimes digital enhancing is just used to make the video more dynamic.

Below is a music video that is a good example of the things I talked about in this post:

 This music video uses a lot of close-ups on the artist Jessie J, this familiarities the viewer with her image, her persona, and style.
Camerawork and special effects are also making the video more exciting than it actually is, she is just dancing and singing in front of a colorful background but because of the fast paced editing, the varied camera shots and movements, and the special effects (like the lens flare and the blur) we as the viewer can stand to watch her without being completely bored.

Lip Sync Activity

This is my lip sync video that I filmed over the summer. The song is 'Call me maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen, I chose this song because at the time it was popular and I liked it, it is also upbeat and fun, although in hindsight I wish I had done a different song because this one is really overplayed and has gotten really annoying. I also wish I had got someone else to help me film this because having the camera stationary on a tripod really made the video dull, boring and repetitive, I also did not notice that behind me, in the background you can see the light switch and once you notice it its really distracting .
When it came to editing the footage I used windows movie maker because that was the only editing software I had on my computer, it was easy to use and the footage was all shot in one take so syncing up with the music was really simple.

Evaluating Foundation Production

A. What when wrong?

I think we did not spend enough time on filming. We rushed the filming process, and thus we did not get enough good shots, if we planned more ahead we would have know what we were doing and what we needed to shoot for our sequence. We also rushed the adding of music and sound, since that was what we had to do last we left it to the last minute, so I think we didn't spend enough time looking for the perfect music track to add to our sequence.

B.What worked ?

Our opening sequence had a good theme and narrative, it was clear to understand. 
The actors performed really well so the sequence was believable and looked professional. 
We spent a lot of time editing the footage thus making it the best it could be.

C.  What you should have done

We should have planned more ahead and made more storyboards with different ideas of how to shoot the footage, this would have saved us a lot of time and trouble when we were out shooting the footage because we were constantly trying to think of different ways we could film it to have a wide variety of shots when it came to editing it. Plus we should have shot more takes of one scene, so that we have the best one possible to pick when editing and so that we have a bunch of them in case one was either faulty or just didn't look good, this would also save us trouble because we wouldn't have to re-shoot anything.

D. what you plan to do next time differently

I plan on spending more time thinking about our idea and how we can portray it on camera, so that when we are out filming we all know what we are trying to get across to our audience. I also plan on spending more time planning and writing storyboards, and coming up with good ideas. When we are ready to film I plan on getting a large amount of footage shot so that our music video is not repetitive or boring and has a variety of different camera shots and locations.

Reviewing 2012 A2 Music Videos

2012 A2 Music Videos in order of personal preference.
 

Video	Why
1. 13B6	This video is really well done, It looks professional and thought out. You can tell that a lot of planning went into making this. Smooth Editing/ Synched with the song really well Well matched locations  Believable performance by the actors Good camerawork and variety of shots Original idea The video matched the song
2. 13B5	This is a really fun music video. Matches the song and artist really well. Good variety of different shots and after effects Nice mis-en-scene  Good performance by the actress (although she is not always engaging with the camera)
3. 13E8	·         Nice close-ups ·         Well synched and edited ·         Very good performance by the actress ·         A bit boring and repetitive after a while
4. 13B3	·         Good acting ·         A lot of good shots and camera angles ·         Very generic  ‘love song video’ (couple in love, couple breaking up/arguing then getting back together) –predictable and not original ·         Quite cheesy
5. 13E10	·         Nice use of editing and after effects ·         Good variety of different shots, in different locations ·         Poor ‘lip-singing’ ·         Didn’t really get the Narrative or ‘story’ ·         Video didn’t really match the lyrics or the song
6. 13B1	·         Really nice shot at 1:07min ·         Performance could have been better ·         Quite boring
7. 13B2	·         Good attention to detail ·         Mis-en-scene ·         Not original/ quite boring ·         Bad performance- not engaging with the camera or the audience

8. 13B4	·         Boring- not enough variety ·         Too simple and plain ·
9. 13E9	·         Not enough close ups of the performers-alienates the viewer so they can’t connect with the artist ·         Added copyright material from a film, which  didn’t  match the song or the rest of the video ·         Good locations
10. 13E7	·         Very simple and not original ·         Pedestrians in the background at the beginning were quite distracting ·         Not sure why there was a guy on an ipad in a ‘rap’ video ·         Not enough variety
11. 13E11	·         Not enough planning ·         Video looked like it was rushed and that no thought went into it ·         Not relevant to the song ·         It wasn’t synched up with the song well ·         Overall quite bad

What makes a good music video ?

Visuals and Locations should match the song/lyrics and the music

-Camera movements/ lots of varied shots - close-ups, long shots, panning shots -used in band videos etc.

-Pace and editing should match the tempo of the song and the atmosphere of the music

Good performance by the artist/actor/singer - must be convincing, must have charisma/ Casting is very important, must find a good person that can convey the emotion of the song lyrics and give a believable performance.

Music videos cannot be repetitive, must have a variety of different shots/ Locations/ editing must be interesting/ but also relevant

 The idea behind the music video must be interesting and original.