Music Video Practice

Our first task of the year was to, in groups, carefully plan and create a music video. We where given our songs and sent off to use Goodwin's theory and our imagination to create our video's.
My group was given Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by B.J Thomas. After listening to the song more times than we can remember, memorizing every lyric and note and taking in every mood we felt from the song, we began to plan our own video.

First, we knew the singer was a man, so we made a male the main character/artist in the video. Then we decided to opt for what we believed would be the easier options for our first piece and relate the visuals to the music and also to the lyrics. The music sounded 'old' and very upbeat, with a certain air of sophistication. We decided to put our 'main artist' in a suit to represent the sophistication, with a hat to add an upbeat, amusing look on the video in order for it to correspond to the music. The lyrics where all about it raining and being miserable, however, the artist wasn't letting it get him down with an optimistic approach to life. We decided that the most obvious thing to do would be for the visuals to show a man in the rain with his umbrella, who despite being out in groggy weather, is still really happy and optimistic, looking as if he is having fun!

We also wanted to follow a few other trends to show more inclination that what we was creating was indeed a music video. We decided to put in the generic close up shots in order to focus on the main artist and make the receiver aware that he is the main artist. We also wanted to cut to different shots and make the video seem fun, showing the artist doing a variety of things that made him happy, such as having fun like a child in a park. We wanted to show the man skipping along, almost as if we're following him through part of his day. We chose to film him walking towards the camera, as if he's moving forward with his day, as if he's keeping on going despite the weather, watching the world disappear behind him. We wanted him to lip sync the song to make it appear that he's singing the song to us, telling his story. The eye contact with the camera is important too to make the video seem even more realistic. The end needed to be more dramatic, as if it's built up to it, so when the lyrics "it won't be long 'til happiness steps up too greet me.." we decided people should jump in from either side and sing and dance along with him before performing jazz hands for the exit. We also decided credits would be a good idea to make it look more official. 

So off we set to film.

Unfortunately it was not raining on the day, so we decided to use the rain effect when it came to editing and make it black and white to represent a dull, plain day. Other than that, the day was fine and filming proved no problem. We where constantly bearing mise en scene in mind, making sure there was no passers-by in the background and that nothing but what we wanted would be in the frame and that all the camera agles and the framing was all appropriate and well thought out.

Next comes editing.

Once we had all the appropriate materials we needed, we headed back to class to begin our editing. After uploading our footage and deleting the bad takes, we began putting the shots into order. We then added the audio to the clip and cut the video's appropriately to the spaces we filmed them for and carefully made sure all the lip syncing was accurate and in time to the music, which was very difficult and took many attempts. After finally getting there, we added the rain and black and white effect over every clip as planned. All we needed now was the final credits, which where easy to do and only covered a few seconds of the end of the song, so not to miss anything out. We then faced a problem.. we had forgotten all about transitions whilst focusing on mise en scene, framing, lip sincing, shots, and editing so needed to think fast and decide what to do. We used fade out and fade in for the opening shot to cut into the music and followed the spinning of the umbrella with a rotating transition. However, due to leaving it to last minute, we did not have time to finish adding in transitions which was a huge shame! But we learnt a lesson that every aspect whether it's big or small is important in creating a music video and there is a lot that must be planned and applied or else it could bring it all down. Planning is VERY essential. 

Over all though, we are very pleased with our first creation and here it is. 

Prezzi on Andrew Goodwin's Theory.

Link to the prezzi..

Researching music video's.

I chose a variety of 6 music videos to analyse using Goodwin's theory and identified one of the six key features within each music video. This helped me to begin looking more closely at not just the video, but the thing's they represent and how the images where representing or explaining the song and enticing in an audience.

Firstly I looked at the song 'Mine' by Taylor Swift. 

I have chosen to analyse it's relationship between the lyrics and the video. This is due to the video being a story to help explain the song and to follow it's path. This is great for helping the audience follow the storyline of the song and feel more understanding to it's meaning. An example of this is would be when the words 'You remember we were sitting there by the water..' are sung whilst the images in the video show her with who we assume is potentially her boyfriend, sitting by water. This is followed by the words 'You put your arms around me for the first time' where the image shows the boy putting his arm around her. Further on in the song she drops in with the line 'you said we will never make our parents mistakes.' this is a key example of the relationship between the lyrics and video because the image suddenly moves to her as a little girl watching her parents argue. The mood of the image changes as well by the saturation of the image turning more bland and dark. This sets a mood for the audience as well as explains the story. Here we see an example of the lyrics being illustrated by the images giving the audience more of an understanding for the song. Further along in the video,  the words 'I remember that fight' are sung over the images of her and her boyfriend arguing and pushing each over. Again, the mood of the image darkens and becomes dull, dreary colours that aren't as pleasant as the bright, happier colours throughout the rest of the video. Here the lyrics are illustrated and amplified by the visuals. The audience feels more towards the song because we see what's going on and can understand it more, as well as realising the mood due to the colours and the atmosphere in the images.

The next video I had chosen was the song 'Helena' by My Chemical Romance.


After watching this, I figured that one of the key elements of this music video is the iconography. The song is in the gothic rock genre and the entire video represents this music genre. The video is based on a funeral, which is a prime example of the gothic fascinations that are stereotypical with fans of this music. The main artist is clearly wearing White face makeup with dark eyes and long hair which is a key fashion trend of gothic fans that is represented, maybe makingthem like the song and band more. All of the members of the band and everyone attending the funeral are wearing black and red, and the room is also decorated in these colours. These colours are extremely popular in this music genre and represent death, darkness and rebellion which are also popular to represent by the genre's fans. They like to look scary and different which this song's video definitely represents! The fans of this genre and the band will then want to look and act the way the video and it's characters represent this genre, making them icons. All of this will enhance what the music represents to the song/bands fans and give them a greater like for the band which is a clear example of iconography.

Another song I chose was David guetta's 'no getting over you.'

The video of this is great at showing a relationship between the music and the video. The music takes a while to build up and is of a dance genre. When the music starts, it's a bit slower and calmer than the end, and the video shows a quite music studie where the singer is alone singing and one person is alone producing it quite peacefully. As the music builds, more and more people begin entering the studio and begin happily dancing whilst smiling, creating a more upbeat, exciting atmosphere and enhancing the feel of the music being exciting, happy and dancey.

One of the videos I chose was 'Pork and Beans' by weezer.

This video is a brilliant example of intertextual references. The whole video shows the band taking the mickey out of video's from YouTube. They re-enact them and joke about them the hwole way through, referring to the video's and in some cases, involving the people who where in the original video's. This is a very obvious example of intertextual references and os clear to anyone familiar to youtube and funny vieo's what is going on. This makes the audience laugh and want to watch the video even if it's just for the entertainment.

The fifth video I chose was 'I Love Rock and Roll' by Britney Spears which is and excellent exapmle of the use of close ups of the main artist the whole way through the video.

 To start with, she is the only person in the video and almost the whole way through, the camera is panning around her and the editing is cutting between different close ups of her at different angles. There are close ups of all of her, not just her face, but she is the star of the video and the close ups certainly show that. We know she's the star of the song and we can clearly tell that she is the main focus.

The last video I chose was 'Air Hostess' by Busted.

In this video, I noticed a link to voyeurism throughout the entire video. The video is made to be innocent, with a band going on an airoplane on holiday and ending up fancying the air hostess. We are shown the air hostess a little through the video wearing revealing clothes and acting flirty. We automatically like her but feel like we shouldn't be looking at her because of her wearing little clothes and acting 'sexy' We only catch glimpses of her throughout the video and the camera pans away quickly and cuts from the airhostess leaving us wanting more. This leaves us feeling a little perverse, but we still want more and it draws in our attention and leaves us intrigued and wanting more.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory.

Andrew Goodwin, in his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) identifies a number of key features which distinguish the music video as a form.

Key Features that distinguish the music video as a form are as follows:

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. (the lyrics are illustrated, amplified or contradicted by the visuals.)
• There is a relationship between the music and the visuals. (the music is illiustrated, amplified or contradicted by the visuals.)
• Particular music genres will have their own style of music video. (such as representing a stereotype.)
• There will be a demand on the part of the record company for close ups of the main artist.
• There is likely to be a reference to voyeurism particularly in the treatment of females, but also in systems of looking. (e.g screens with screens, binculors, camera's, keyholes etc.)
• There is likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to film and TV texts.