When I created this animatic of the Foo Fighter's song 'The Pretender' I had gone through the process of watching the music video and storyboarding every shot and cut used until the 0:45th second mark. This helped me understand the concept of quick shot changes and how it sets the mood of the music video.
I created this animatic by taking pictures of the storyboard i created whilst watching the music video then edited the storyboard in sync with the music video to show a better understanding of the song using Adobe Premiere CS6 Pro.
Each photo has been edited to be in sync with the music and video shot edits to give an idea of quick video edits.
Here you can see that i used the crop tool on both the pretender music video and storyboard to have them play at the same time and side by side to help give an understanding of shot variety.
The Foo Fighters music has a quick pace which means that it would need quick edits between it's shots, that would mean that it would need a lot of different shots to switch between; this is so that the audience does not find the same shots repetitive but enticing and watchable. The music video contained shots each band member playing the song from multiple angles as well as master shots containing all the band in one shot. When filming each band member they play the entire song so that there would be enough footage to switch between during the edit stage.
The area in which the place is filmed seems like a big warehouse that gives them a lot of room, the warehouse contains lighting for the musicians and musicians equipment such as drums, microphone stands and guitars.
There was many shots throughout the edit that the music video keeps editing back to which is the master shot which contains the whole band however through quick series of edits it seems as if the shot is new and really don't notice it.
The pace of the editing starts off slow changing to the second shot five seconds in, however once the music hits the 20 second mark the pace of editing becomes very quick changing between shots every second and even every half second. This makes the video look exciting and different as your watching as if the shots are all different in a way.
This is my final edit of the Elton John music video where we filmed and edited the lip syncing to the beat of the song. We realised during this task that it is quite difficult to get it right and will need a lot of footage to overcome the difficulties whilst editing.
We began by filming the footage in a school classroom which had quite a bit of room for unique camera work. We played the song in the background and had the main singers try to sing along with the music by looking at the lyrics, once the singers got used to it we got them into position and put the lyric sheet on the camera so the singers look more at the camera whilst recording. During the recording phase we directed the people on camera by shouting at them things as the audio would be cut from the video as it will only be lip sync; this meant that we can direct the people in front of the camera and tell them what to do/how to do it, this allowed it to to allow us to make the performance look more realistic. During the recording we had a few different shots such as one master shot from the front, two of both singers, one of backup singers and one final shot using a Dolley that allowed us to move the camera on wheels making a stable manoeuvring shot.
We had a few takes on the whole minute of the song as backup footage but even then we did have a line or two missing as the singers forgot to sing to it and the directors never had noticed it.
Once we filmed the singers singing to the song we went to the editing studio where we had used a programme called Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. Using adobe premiere we arranged all the clips we filmed in layers that we synced with the music so we wouldn't have to sync each individual edited clip to the song.
As you can see with the blue layers each filmed footage is in its own layer and we switched between the layers by using the pen tool and fading through each of the layers (you can see with the yellow lines). In this picture you can also see how i took advantage of the editing softwares features by utilising the markers (green arrows above the timeline) to see where to make cuts or where one footage ends.
This is the full screen picture of the programme used, top left is where you have the effect controls that open up in the window, top right is the source/timeline footage, bottom right is the timeline and editing station and the bottom left is where you find the source footage and video/audio effects.
When creating our music videos we used a program called 'Adobe Premiere Pro CS6' which is shown in the pictures above and below. In the picture above you can see how we used the timeline in order to cut together pieces into a timeline and carefully lining them up with the beat by moving or cutting up pieces of the film and re-arranging them into the timeline.
Here we have a couple of clips we had to place into our music video that we had to cut up and arrange into the timeline in order to edit it to the beat so that when the characters jump the music jumps, we had to find the right moments in the clips to suit the music.
In this picture you can see how I used the 'effects' feature in my piece, i would place a crop effect in my clip then crop it down and place on top of another clip to make it look as if the two clips are side by side.
An example of split screen in my piece is the "Triple Bear Routine" as I called it, i placed three clips one on top another showing two of the same clip of the bear as well as a different clip also including the bear to make it look as if three bears are dancing side by side rather than one.
I think the video came out pretty good in the end with the clips all changing to the beat and the clips make it so you want to keep watching as they are upbeat dance moves.
Music videos come in several different styles and are often very different to one another. Andrew Goodwin is a musician and school teacher who had written a book called "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" where he had come up with a theory that categorises every music video into its own category, the theory is called "Andrew Goodwin's Six Key Conventions".
Goodwin's theory covers music videos from different styles (Surreal, Parody, Impressionist etc...) to different forms (Stop Motion, Live, Studio based etc...).
Goodwin's First Key Convention is 'Genre Characteristics' - Goodwin states that each genre of music have key characteristics in their music videos, this is extremely visible in Rock music videos where the main characteristics of Rock videos would be that they would show the rock band performing. Another memorable example would be girl group bands like 'Girls Aloud' would show in their music videos that they would include an choreographed dance routine with shots cutting to each of the members as they perform the song.
In the two music videos above you can easily notice the characteristics with girl band groups that show choreographed movements and shots of each of the members to build up personality of each member.
Goodwin's Second Key Convention is 'Relation of Lyrics/Music to the Visuals' - Goodwin states that there is always a relation between the music video to the lyrics of the songs, Goodwin states that this may happen in three ways : Illustrate, Amplify and Contradict.
Music videos can use a series of images used to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics from the song, this is usually the most common. The music video called 'Riptide' by Vance Joy really fits into this category as it can show meaning through different images such as when the girl is tied to the tree and breaks free can mean that she could be held hostage by depression and can be trying to escape.
Meanings are often amplified through repetition, keeping it in our vision and memory. This can also be used to show hidden meanings that aren't first noticeable in lyrics. This music video by The Script called 'Hall Of Fame' is a clear example of this. The video of this song is about an ambitious person who strives to achieve what others would believe would be impossible.
Some music videos can usually have nothing to do with the lyrics or music and often contradict the music. A great example of this would be a music video called 'Call On Me' by Eric Prydz the context of the music is not at all illustrated. The video ends up just showing off the female's body throughout the video even though the lyrics of the video have no context to the visuals.
Goodwin's Third Key Convention is 'Relation of Visuals to the Lyrics' - Goodwin states that the visuals within a music video will almost always have a connection to the pace of the music/song.
The video can be edited to illustrate, amplify or even contradict the beat of the song. An example of a contradicting song can be 'Bangarang' by Skrillex where the edits of the song is often in time with the beat of the song.
An example of an illustrating music video is the Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? where the music video would be illustrating the background music by including quick edits and the video's motions would match the pace of the music, for example the pace of a person walking in the video would match the pace of the beat.
An example of a Amplifying song would be a song by Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit as the video is used to amplify the music that is in the background by using techniques within the video such as slow motion. The music tends to build up at the points of the slow motion and slow during the other portions, in this video the video's slow motion tends to amplify the music.
Goodwin's Fourth Key Convention is Developing a Style - Goodwin states that across all music videos the record label will attempt to create a motif which becomes a reoccurring style within their music videos.
record labels often demand many close up shots of the artist to be able to create a clear stylised image. An example of this can be the artist 'Lady Gaga' who has a quite strange and random image or the artist Katy Perry that has a quite colourful image that may be used to attract audiences.
Here you can see that Lady Gaga has quite a strange look to her videos, it makes her videos seem unique and intriguing to different people. As you can see from the four images she makes her videos seem kind of intriguing by envisioning different instances of the future and how it could look like.
Katy Perry also has a unique aspect to her videos as her video style seems to be more colourful and vibrant, this may appeal to more people than Lady Gaga's style as the strangeness of Gaga's videos may be too much for people.
Goodwin's Fifth Key Convention is The Frequent Notion of Looking - Goodwin states that in music videos there is frequent references to the notion of looking between the artists within the video and the voyeuristic treatment of the female human body.
examples of this convention can be Beyonce's 'Video Phone' song that includes a frequent showcase of the female body.
or the music video 'What's my name?' by Rihanna which shows the constant notion of looking between music artists Drake and Rihanna.
Goodwin's Final Convention is Intertextual references - Goodwin states that music videos may even include intertextual references related to other mediums such as Television Shows, Films, Other Music Videos etc...
A great example of this is Jennifer Lopez's music video 'I'm Glad' which has references to the movie called "Flashdance" where a woman would be sitting on a step singing and eventually dancing; this scene is replayed in the music video.
Beyonce's music video 'Single Ladies' also has a reference to a dance routine used by "Mexican Breakfast - By Gwen Vordan"
Task One: Understanding the purpose of Music Videos Availability of The Artist
The Music video is an amazing tool for artists. The Music video has changed in purpose to what it had been used for and what it is used for more recently. The Music video when introduced for the first time allowed a channel to play this video on the television without needing the artists to be on stage in real life. A television programme conveniently named 'Top of the Pops' was a show that would bring artists on to play their most recent songs on stage, however every so often the artists wouldn't have been available. The Top of the Pops channel did have a dance group that would quickly rehearse a dance routine to go along with the music on stage if an artist was unavailable, these dances were usually quickly assembled and wouldn't be showing the artist's true visions to what their song would be about and wouldn't work as they would've planned. Promotional Uses
The first music video was originally created by the Beatles band group through promotional clips for their new movie called 'A Hard Day's Night' which in turn was also the name of their album. The promotional clips showed the Beatles band members running away from fans with music playing in the background which may appeal visually to the audiences.
Music videos also appeal to a visual audience and can be used to grab a bigger audience, audience members can share music videos to one another which would give them something to talk about. A good example of a popular music video is PSY's 'Gangnam Style' which on YouTube is the highest viewed video with over 2 Billion views (at the time of this post).
The Music video now is used as a promotional tool for artists by allowing many viewers to see their videos, this will allow for more sales from viewers going out of their way to buy the records. Music videos were also used to create a brand for the artists and were a promotional tool for their brands. A interesting brand created from music would be 'The Spice Girls' with each member having their own identity such as 'Posh Spice' and 'Sporty Spice', many of the younger generation of girls would've had the spice girls as role models and would want to be like one of the Spices; this would mean buying their merchandise too.
Artists can all make their own brand by creating an image associated with them for example award winning artist 'Adele' created an image where she would make realistic music videos and songs to be easily associated with most of the viewers, however artist 'Lady Gaga' would be completely different by having a strange and random feel to her content from creating music video with very strange visuals and unique, random ideas.
Extension of Outlets
In present times you may be able to find many outlets which allow you to see music videos such as television channels or even by the internet through websites like YouTube and Vevo. You may even buy music in different outlets for example you can get music through CD/DVDs or even digitally through outlets such as iTunes, iTunes is on both Macintosh (computers) and iPhones which use a shared account that once a song is bought it can be heard on all platforms. Artists can gain income through direct sales of their songs or through advertisement income on internet websites from many views on their videos. One bad thing about music in the modern era is 'piracy' (The art of pirating content by sharing Peer To Peer between users on the internet) this means that there is income for the artists from pirated content as they didn't sell their content.
Social Media sites really help spread the news around, most music actually gets famous through the talk of people through sites such as these.
Synergy
Two mediums can use synergy for a mutual benefit. Music videos can even work together with Television Shows and Films by promoting one another, for example an artist could make a song for a television show/film that would be played in the film introducing two audiences to one another. An example of this had happened recently when the artist Adele made a James Bond theme song called 'Skyfall' that was played in the latest James Bond movie also called 'Skyfall'.
Producing Strategies
There are three types of artists; Major Label - These artists are working with a major record label which dominate the music industry. The most dominant major record labels are Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and EMI. The majority of these companies are owned through different investors which own stakes in the company and have a say in the production of the company. Each label have signed contracts with artists to have them on their team and tell the artists the type of song to make as well as what type of image to portray.
These Major labels often own/licence smaller subsidiary groups that are often used to use different genres of music to gain different types of audiences. These subsidiary groups are called Major-Independents.
Major labels have different strategies in order to sell their music and one of the strategies is by using VEVO. VEVO is a internet website which includes links to each artists song videos, each video watched is an opportunity for advertisement and is a source of income for website owners. VEVO offers music from the three of the four major labels. VEVO is owned by Universal Music Group, Google, Sony Music Entertainment, and Abu Dhabi Music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_(record_label)
Independents - These are smaller groups that have no financial connection to any major record labels and often concentrate on a small genre of music such as Pop/Electronica/Dance etc...
Independent artists or 'Indie' artists often find their music as a type of art form rather than an opportunity for advertisement of the music industry. There are many independents and a famous group would probably be 'Warp Records'.
Since independents don't have a criteria that they have to follow for their videos they can use their own creative prowess. Often you may find people such as 'Spike Jonze' who is an American director, songwriter and producer that had a shot to fame with his music video that he had created with Fat Boy Slim such as 'Praise You' and 'The Rockafeller Skank'.
Spike Jonze has used independent music makers to gain his fame and head on to work on bigger things such as working in film and television producing advertisements as well as making his own feature films such as 'Being John Malkovich' and 'Her'. Artists Self-Produced - These artists often use the easiest route to produce music and often have the lowest budget videos. These artists utilise websites such as YouTube for self-promotion for an early career. Artists have gone down this route and have got famous, an example would be Justin Bieber who was found at 16 on YouTube by American Talent Manager Scooter Braun who had then became his manager. Justin Bieber then got his fame from getting a viral video that was first with view on YouTube until 'Gangnam Style' by PSY had overtaken it.
There was many shots throughout the edit that the music video keeps editing back to which is the master shot which contains the whole band however through quick series of edits it seems as if the shot is new and really don't notice it.
