Music Video Representing Artists

Through doing this task I found that the artists both do and don't have to be dressed relevantly based on the genre of their music. In the Eminem video 'Without Me' he is portraying a superhero and plays various different characters in different outfits. This is a comical video which portrays Eminem as not taking himself seriously. This is both good and bad because it makes the video interesting however, people might not know what he is like in his more serious videos. As well as this video, I found that the more serious videos such as Jay-Z's Holy Grail, which he portrays himself as a bit of a gangster in, is an accurate portrayal and also a recurring one because he has promoted himself in this way before in other videos. I found that no matter what the genre of the music is, the videos don't have to relate to the music or be serious to portray the artist in a good way. As long as the music video is entertaining for the target audience of that genre then people are going to like it. The clothing and mise en scene are important factors of a music video but they don't HAVE to relate or be a stereotypical outfit of that genre or artist.          

Audience Research

Through doing this task I have learnt a lot about what the audiences like to see in a music video, expect to see and also what they don't want to see. I asked a large number of different people of various ages and they all enlightened me into what they think should be included in a music video. Examples of these things would be a storyline or a narrative based video so that it keeps the audience engaged. One of my questions was about which type of video people liked to watch out of performance and narrative based videos and the majority answered with narrative. This has helped me in my decision on which type of video I will make. As well as the storyline, people also said they wanted to see something eye catching such as interesting editing or camera angles. This way the actual song doesn't actually have to be that good for people to watch the video because they are drawn in from the interesting style of the video. 

One thing that I found out was that the audience expect to see something interesting such as animation or special effects so that the video isn't boring. An example genre of this is dubstep or drum'n'bass music. This is because generally there isn't much lyrics so a montage of animated effects can be used as a music video. As well as this my research taught me that they expect to see interesting and exciting camera angles and editing techniques to grab the audiences attention otherwise the videos are boring. What people said they don't want to see is a video is boring transitions, camera angles and editing techniques. I found out that the video doesn't really have to relate to the music, as long as it's entertaining it doesn't matter what is in it. This is why it can't be boring.      

Audience Survey

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Through doing this questionnaire for people to answer, i was able to find out what age my audience would be, what their interests are in music videos and also what they think makes a good music video. i was able to obtain different answers from many different people and through these people I found that the majority of my audience that answered was 17 - 20 year olds, who all seemed to watch music videos. this is good because through this they are able to give me some strong feedback on different music videos and what is good and bad about them. I found out why they watch music videos and this was good information to find out because i can use this to incorporate it into my music video. Through these answers I am able to see which ones were the most popular and then see if I can make my music video this watchable. Other questions in my questionnaire such as what makes a music video appealing is also helpful because these are usually codes and conventions of a music video which audiences pick out, and through these answers I will be able to see if they are things I can include in my music video. Other information I tried to gather was whether audiences prefer narrative or performance based videos. This is important because we need to incorporate both of these elements into our video and seeing which ones audiences prefer will mean we can make a decision on which one to make the video most like. Through these answers I was able to obtain information on what makes a video good, alluring and appealing as well as finding out which types of music videos audiences enjoy the most. I will be able to use this information when it comes to panning our music video.  

Music Videos In Depth Analysis

The Black Keys - Tighten Up

Through doing this research I have learnt and discovered what I want to include in my music video and I got to identify what the codes and conventions of a narrative music video is so it makes it easier for me to make sure I include the main ones. The main ones being a clear and simple story line for the audience to follow. Make it engaging by using interesting camera angles and editing techniques so that it isn't boring. I also learnt that I have got to do a relatively fast paced song so that this is possible to do all these things otherwise the transitions and editing will be boring and people will lose interest really quickly.

Music Video Research - The Bad and The Good

These videos were definitely not as good as the others and the main reason for this is because of the planning and the preparation which went in to them. It was quite clear that these videos had not had the same amount of management as the other 'good' videos because the the songs weren't as good, the filming wasn't as good, it was quite clear that less time was spent on them and also there wasn't as many changes to the mise en scene in both. This has a massive impact because as there wasn't much change the song felt the same where as the music video is supposed to capture every tale of the song in a unique way and this wasn't done because it wasn't planned to be like that. These videos just generally need more maintenance and time so that they can represent the mood of the songs better and engage the audiences a bit more.  

Here are two videos that A2 students have produced which I think are good music videos. Through doing the research and looking into all the different aspects of their videos I have learnt a lot about what I could potentially use in my own video and what works well with certain genres of music. The reason why I think both of these videos are good is because of the editing and the camera angles. The editing in both videos made them flow fast and they made sure that the editing linked in with the lyrics and beat to the song so everything was in sync with each other. The camera angles used also linked in with the songs and they used appropriate angles for each scene. Some scenes were hand held camera shots, some were low angle and some were tracking/panning. There were a lot more types of angles used between the two videos but these ones were the ones which stood out for me and the ones that gave the video something extra when watching it.  

OVERALL

Overall I think that the best genre to do music videos for is the indie style like Jamie T because if it gets too rocky and starts edging into the screamo, gothic genre then that will be hard to make a music video for as the codes and conventions would be totally different. The indie genre allows the versatility because there can be instruments in it, it can be a narrative video, (such as the Black Keys - Tighten Up) or it can not have any characters or people in it and it can be a more collage, artistic based lyric video. As there is that versatility it means that a lot of different techniques will be suited to the video and as this is the case indie music is the best genre to do a music video. 

Barry YMCA

These are some of the photo's from our trip to Barry YMCA Media Centre in which we produced, filmed, edited and casted for our music video. Throughout the day we undertook various stages in which are used to make a music video.

Story Boarding/Planning 
We used this technique to plan out what would happen in the scenes of the music video so that when we shot the scenes we knew who was in it and the actions of the people. Through doing this we got an insight into what it would be like when storyboarding a huge production like a professional music video or even film/TV program. We had to make sure the timings were right and in sync with the music so that it made sense and looked good as well. Also through doing this we were able to make decisions on who to have in the scenes and what they would be doing. Through doing this we were all getting an idea what it would be like to direct a scene as well because we all had to manage a certain section of the music video.

Filming
When filming we learnt a lot as we had to consider the lighting, sound, camera angles and positioning of the people in the scene. We used the green screen and the green and blue screen cameras so that we could film our scenes. We also had to make sure that the people were positioned well enough so that the lighting didn't effect the shot and the people in the shot. We had an issue with this which led to a person in one of the sections of our video having blue light on them because they were too close to the camera.

iMovie Screenshots and the Editing Tools We Used

Here is iMovie. This is the program we used to edit our music video, do the lip synchronisation and modify the green screen background. It was one of the main reasons why we went to Barry YMCA so we could learn more about it and what we can use iMovie to do.   

This tool is called Inspector. We used this so we could edit very specifically how we wanted the audio to sound, the video to look and the lengths of the clips to be. We used this so we could get an idea as to what it would be like editing a huge production. It also enabled us to understand and overcome problems we had with the clip, video and audio.

These are the audio waves from the green screen footage we took. We altered and changed this using the Inspector. 

In order to edit our iMovie using the green screen we had to tick the 'Show Advanced Tools' box. This way were able to use more advanced techniques such as the green and blue screen.  

This is the tab that allowed us to pick which advanced tool we wanted to use. We used 'Green Screen' and 'Blue Screen' the most because that is what we filmed with. 

A Short Clip Using the Green Screen

Original Song

Digipak Adverts

This digipak advert is extremely simple however is different because the background consists of around 200 pictures of the same person, however the facial expressions are all different but are all a close up camera angle. Once again the name of the band is the highest and largest typography on the page so that people know that they have a new album coming out. There are also other codes and conventions of a digipak advert and they are the reviews about the album from the major music magazines related to that genre. This again is a great way to promote and attract people to buy their new digipak.

This digipak advert is very simple as their is minimal text and the typography is very simple which makes the audience concentrate on the imagine a bit more. Even though this is the case the name of the artist 'Rihanna' is at the top and the logo she possesses is also at the top. There is then the second largest piece of text below that which tells the audience when the album and digipak will be out and it also gave the audience and fans the option to 'Pre-order' the album as well. This is because it is an online digipak advert and this represents the proliferation of hardware as people are now using online websites more often.

This has a clear and simple layout to it with the name of the band in the middle which everyone can clearly see and also the main piece of information is clearly displayed at the bottom also. This layout makes a lot of sense because the main detail is the release date, however Kasabian want to make a statement so their name is the most emphasised feature on the page. There is also the reviews on the advert which is always a good promotional and advertising technique because the big magazines have commented on it. This helps with the selling of the album and digipak because consumers will see the ratings and review on the advert and be attracted by that. 

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT

Through doing this research into digipak adverts I have learnt and noticed various different codes and conventions of them which I would try and emulate when making mine. One of them is the logo on the front of the digipak. This is a very attractive and unique part of the digipak and it is a graphological piece which divides each digipak from each other. As well as this I will have some sort of artwork on their as well. This being a picture of some sort or a pattern of colours. What ever I choose to put on there it will be relevant to the genre of the music and also it will link in with the logo as well. There needs to be something graphological on the digipak so it looks attractive and stands out. Also it doesn't have to be colourful or multi coloured, as long as it is different and stands out then that is the important thing.