Our final song choice

"5 Years Time" by Noah and the Whale is our final song choice. Our group favoured this song as it has both male and female vocals, it is upbeat, there is enough lyrical content and a base track could be used. The lyrics could be illustrated in the video such as the "smoking" and "drinking" lyrics. The main instrument used in this song is a ukulele and since Claire has a ukulele, we could have performance parts with the ukulele.










Here is the song:

Potential song choices

My group and I went away over the weekend and chose a few songs each that we thought we could make a good music video for. We didn't agree it should be something recent or any particular genre. The definition of song we wanted to use was very vague at that point. Until we spoke to each other about what we thought would make a interesting song for our music video.

Some examples of songs we thought of originally included

The Who -Baba O'Reily
The reasons for considering this song were because we all liked the instrumental part in the beginning and originally thought we could produce a good video to match the song. However we decided in the end that the lyrics were not enough relevant to a video we could produce to match the song.

Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down
This song we could have made a good video for because the lyrics are quite basic and could elaborated in a way in which we choose. The original video is slightly disconnected from the video because the video isn't relevant to the songs lyrics. This would have been a good choice of song to use, however we found a song that was even more fun to work with.

Promoting the music industry through social networking sites

Lily Allen is the most famous example of promoting her music on Myspace, which is now not so popular, but this is how she established a fan base, and is a reason as to why she is so successful nowadays. She has several videos on her myspace including music from the beginning of her career like Smile, Alfie and more recent songs like Fear. Posting her music on social networks sites helps promote her music, by anybody using the site can see a link that directs them to her page, and from there they can navigate around the site and listen to her music. This is a very good way of promoting her music free of charge on the website. She will gain a fan base and earn money by encouraging her music.

http://www.myspace.com/video/lilymusic/smile/100016733

Another current artist who promotes there music via Myspace is Rizzle Kicks. They are an english rap duo. I recently logged onto Myspace myself, this is how I found out about their music. They are quite individual in their music and promoting themselves over Myspace is a good way to go about advertising their music to the type of fan base they are aiming their music at, who happen to use social networking sites, like Myspace. Rizzle Kicks have been active since 2008 but only really been exposed over the past year. They have recently featured in some bigger artists songs including Olly Murs.

http://www.myspace.com/video/rizzlekicks/rizzle-kicks-miss-cigarette/107254083

Obtaining copyright permission

Potential songs

As a group we decided each of us would choose a song we thought would be good to use. Out of those songs we cut down to three which we thought we could use:

"Two Doors Down" by the Mystery Jets was liked by our group as it is has fun lyrics. The lyrics of the song could be illustrated in the video such as the "two doors down" part where we could show doors etc. This song is upbeat song and since their is no real story line, many different locations could be used. 

"Baba O'Riley" by The Who was also liked by the group, the song is quite dramatic and we thought would be an exciting song to use. However we decided against this song as we thought there was not enough lyrical content and this would make creating a video for the song, hard.

"5 Years Time" by Noah and the Whale was another song choice. We thought this song would be good since there are both male and female singers, and it is an uptempo song.

Moodboard

This is our group's moodboard which we created together. This moodboard contains images that relate to our bands image. The bright colours represents the upbeat song and the instruments represents the band.

Mood Board

This is our groups mood board. This mood board is images that collectively represent what our band represents. During the making of this mood board we had Claire use photoshop, to edit/put this together. As she is the one with the most experience with  photo shop. While we collectively decided on what images represented our band best.

The instruments found on our mood board are all instruments that are played in the song, that we will be making our music video for. Whistle the bright colours and positive imagery  are used to  enforce  the  idea that  our band are happy cheery peace loves, I.E. Hippies, to carry on this hippie theme we put up images of rainbows, clouds, hearts and flours. We also added elements of partying, as again the song we are making the music video for expresses the bands love for partying. Such images to connote this were the glasses of colourful shots and big Ben wearing a party hat and party pooper.

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

In the work sheet we received about Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ shows Goodwin analysing the narrative structure of a music video. And how it doesn’t correlate to Todorov’s Theory of normality-problem-resolution.

Goodwin goes further to explain that music video’s rely on representation, and that due to a song repeating a chorus and verses, the presentation of a music video is often repetitive as well.

We also learnt that music videos could be broken up into three different categories. These are Illustration, Amplification, and Disjunction.

Illustration

Is where the video tells a story of the lyric, often through dance to express curtain feelings and moods in the song. Examples of this can be Madonna- Pap’s don’t preach or Michael Jackson- Black or White.

Amplification

Is when the video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning to the song. A song which uses this technique is Katey Perry-Fireworks.

 Disjuncture

Is where there is a little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics. Such as Michael Jackson-Man in the.

Analysis Of a Music Video

A music video we studied in class was by the rock band Maroon 5, in there music video there was a clear narrative of a guy who is going out with a girl whose father abuses her mother, and they end up kissing. And in turn starts developing feelings towards the girlfriend’s mother.

The music video is a 50-50 split between performance and narrative, where the lead singer is both shown singing, and playing the part of the boyfriend. There are sharp cuts between the man singing and him being a character. Whilst the guy is recorded singing he is often shown in extreme close ups focusing on his singing, with occasional mid shots. Whereas when the video shifts to the performance, there a more of a verity of shots, from mid shots, to high angle shots, to two man shots. In the music video the lead singer is the main focus. However towards the middle of the video we see him and his band playing the song in a bar. This is where the typical conventions of a rock band are portrayed. Such as the band not looking enthusiastic whilst playing the instruments, possibly a symbol of then looking cool, also the two member of the band, the drummer and rhythm guitarist wear suits but with undone top buttons and ties that hang down from their collars. Possibly symbolising they are slightly rebellious and don’t care about their appearance on stage.

Function Of a Music Video

In our first media lesson, we were sat in groups and we had to answer what makes a Music video?

In our groups we thought up that a music video has to have a corresponding theme with the song that is being played, that there are characters in a video, the music video has a narrative & a performance, and cuts that are in time with the music.

Then we later had to discuss the functions of a music video. We came up with the points that music videos.

·        Is a package promotion, promoting the song, artist and possibly album.

·        Represents the genre of the song/band/album.

·        Captures a curtain target audience.

·        Adds another element to listening to a song.

·        Establishes a connection with the artists fan base.

·         Creates and image the artist is trying to portray.

·        And most importantly entertains the listener, which in turn makes them remember the video.

MoodBoard.

Here is the mood-board me and my group made today, I did the photoshop part of it as I felt like I really clicked with the programme last year while creating the digipak, all the group got really involved with suggestions and I was pleased we managed to make a story board celebrating what the group we are creating will be like, I don't know what we're going to call it yet but it should be great! ALSO decided on the song today...


Noah and the Whale - Five Years Time, although the copyright letter does have their name and the track name on it, but still yes the decision was made earlier on Tuesday and everyone in the group got quite excited about it and we think we can have lots of fun while creating this band identity and whole package, also everyone in the group seems like they don't mind getting involved in the video, shooting or staring in it! Awesome. 

Previous students work

Click here, I can't embed the video for some reason...



I chose to look at the 'Don't hold back' video as it really impressed me, I couldn't help but be entertained by it. the genre is dance/ club music which was very well represented through the mise en scene, the use of casting young dancing woman (some very provocatively) was realistic of the genre as was the use of a shiny car, and the club setting, the graffiti spot used for some scenes also represented the genre well, and throughout the video I felt like it achieved every goal purpose of a music video. The structure follows a disjunction where a certain amount of narrative is used, girls entering a club, man doing some graffiti, but the performance is interlinked with much of the narrative, which is also not unusual for the genre. There was little continuity throughout the video and an OTT style of editing which was perfect for a music video especially of dance music, jump cuts, thermosetting and shadowing camera effects all made the video really realistic, also by editing sharply on the beat of the music the video looked professional and slick. A base track of a DJ in the club with girls dancing around him was used throughout the film, although both the main settings for the film seemed to have equal time spent at them, I felt like this was the base track as it was most commonly used throughout the bridge in the song. The cameras weren't showing wide angle shots making the viewer feel more intimate with the performers. Belly dancing half naked women were used AND dismembered like in Mulvey's theory, showing even more  genre representation, the women also don't look at the camera throughout showing they are not in the same position of power to the men.. 

Laura Mulvey

Has a very feministic view to the world of music videos, and believes that they are all shot from the male perspective, where men are active and women take a passive roll throughout the video, she believes this reinforces the idea of 'the male gaze'...

I am going to look at a video which I believe will back up all of Laura Mulveys points,
Its called Go girl, by Pitbull,

- The men in the video are clearly eyeing up the women throughout and objectifying them,

-Where as the woman seem to all just flock around one man and dance,

This video seems to demean woman as objects of physical beauty and are seen as worthless if they are not, every woman in the video wears a tiny dress and the only time they look at the camera is to pout in a 'seductive' manor.. The man however is all dressed up and made to look like some kind of awesome being as he is surrounded by women and ignores them all minus their bodies...

I feel like this was definitely a video from a male's perspective, not just because of the dancing naked ladies but the way that there were so many of them all desperate for this guy who appears to have no moral integrity according to the lyrics, and thus guys watching it might think they can also enjoy this kind of behaviour from women, even if they are balding and make overly sexual requests all the time.

Here a woman is seen being 'dismembered' where part of the women is shown instead of the whole, making her focus on herself in small parts instead of as a whole.
The only reason I think there was less dismemberment than I expected in the Pitball video was because they wanted to remind the audience how many different girls were interested in the singer and without their faces it wouldn't be apparent.

This is specifically throughout the hiphop/ rap genre which I don't plan to go in to, however if my group wanted to I would be willing to, just no way am I performing in something fitting to this genre!!

Summery of Carol Vernallis's Theory

Carol Vernallis studied editing and camerawork closely in music videos. She believes that there is a lot more editing in a 3 minute music video than in a film and she also states that many music videos stand out as disjuncture and editing seems closely in time with the beat of the song.

She also believes that editing is very obvious, bringing attention to its self.

A music video that demonstrates is the heavy metal band Trivium’s music video ‘Down From the Sky’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EApnhO2OIrw&ob=av2e

In this video there are a lot of jump cuts and match cuts that correspond with the drum beat of the song. Also there are special effects such as slow motion, black and white and static effects that are used in the video. But again are incorporated at a curtain beat of the song. This really allows the effects to stand out and draw attention to them selves. Finally there is a mixture of camera work used in this video. Such as the camera being mounted on a kart and circling the band as they play the chorus of the song, the camera was on a tilt looking up at the band members making them look big and intimidating, extreme close ups of the instruments playing.

Lip Sync Tutorial

In June when we were first introduced to lip sync tutorial, I was introduced to a whole new way of editing on final cut pro. I learnt how to set markers on the timeline, so I knew when to cut to different shots during the music video, plus it helped me keep my cuts in time with the songs rhythm. I also learnt how to lay down markers on the music track, which helped me find specific words the artists where singing, so my video was in time with the song.

To conclude, the lip sync tutorial widened my technical knowledge on using final cut pro. However making a trail music video gave me the opportunity to try out other editorial software I didn’t use during my thriller film, such as transitions, fades, and colour effects.

Skills I have learnt through out my AS year

·        I have learnt how to use a HD camera, i.e. controlling the filter and the gain.

·        I have also learnt how to use final cut pro, as I had no previous experience using editing software.

·        I have also learnt how to use soundtrack pro, to make back ground music for a film, and also add additional sound effects to a film.

·        I have also learnt how to use handbreak to convert my film into an mp4 format.

·        I have learnt about the 180 degree rule when recording a scene.

·        I have also learnt how to use livetype pro to make custom texts/ graphics for my film title.

Carol Vernallis..

Looked closely at editing and camerawork throughout music videos, comparing them to drama based film which contains fewer edits over similar periods of time, Vernallis notes how disjuncture may occur and the edits often happen in time to the music.
Vernallis made several key points of observation: 
- The rules of continuity which are usually followed in film are broken throughout music videos to grab attention of the viewer and make them more interesting.

- Special effects and edits in-between shots are often going to be more noticeable in music videos as the lack of conversation leads to the viewer wanting to see more on the screen as they are not so distracted by characters, plots and speech.


- Many more jump cuts are used, which agrees with her earlier statement about the rules of continuity being broken.


- Base tracks also might be used, creating a layer which the video frequently goes back to, usually in the chorus.


- Sometimes the camera moves in time to the music but that is fairly rare. 


Trying to find a video with all of these things in is fairly difficult but so many music videos do agree with these statements, 

The music video for LoveCats by The Cure incorporates these features, especially obvious edits and camera movements in time to the music...

Andrew Goodwin's theory.

Andrew Goodwin doesn’t feel that music videos stick to the traditional expected narrative form of: normality then followed by a problem which by the end of the narrative is usually resolved, he also see’s other differences such as the singer both performing and taking an active roll (as a character) in the narrative and the singer will often look at the camera which involves the audience with the performance. Goodwin also notes how reliant on repetition pop music is and thus music videos are often reflective of this in repetition of certain similar (or the same) images. 

Goodwin recognizes three different types of video:

1. Illustration, where the video and lyrics to a song tell the same story,

In this video (Friendly Fires - Hawiian Air) the narrative and performance is also in the same setting, the video illustrates the plane journey which is described in the song.

2. Amplification - when a video introduces new meanings to songs, which do not contradict those in the lyrics but simply add to those already given..

Kelly Rowland’s Stole, a song/video about teenager’s who’s lives are taken from them, the music video does not represent the teenager’s misfortunes in the same way that the song lyrics do.

3. Disjuncture, where there is little to no connection between the happenings throughout the music video and the lyrics to the song. 

Sparkadia - China, has little to no coloration between the lyrics to the song and whats going on in the video as it is full of abstract and unexplained scenarios taking place. 

What is the function of a music video

Copyright Clearance... Hopefully!

Here is the letter for Mercury records who will hopefully allow us to use Noah and the Whale's song for our music video!

Skills learnt from lipsync tutorial.

During the weeks before the summer break my I started a project to prepare me for the work we are doing in A2 media studies. The project started with a tutorial in which we started the creation of a small and basic music package. The tutorial showed us an effective and useful way to use final cut pro and various angles of camera shots of a band performing a song which we also had an mp3 file of.

Marisa ( a college technician) showed us how to do this effectively and taught us steps to put a music video together synchronising the music and the video.

By seleceting the MP3 track we would use for the music in the video we could put a marker by pressing M when the singer said a certain word.

We then did the same thing with the videos and put a marker in when the singer said the same word in them. This allowed us to then move the videos on to the timeline and put them in line with the audio.

Then using the ‘double razor blade’ tool we cut parts of the tracks in to pieces on the beet, then removed strips of the video to create a dynamic and interesting video with multiple shots.

Once I started I found the lip syncing was really quite easy, although I faced some difficulties while forgetting to take the sound off from the video tracks and got a weird overlapped sound, I also had difficulties cutting the track to the beat as I am terrible at finding the beat to music! :(

The hardest part by par was marking all the tracks at the same point as the markers were so precise that it would be very easy to mark a word too close to the end of it and end up with your tracks being totally out of sync at the end, but after a few attempts I found it quite easy and could notice the same pattern in the audio when the specific word was sung. 

In another of our lessons we filmed a member of our group lip syncing to the song ‘If I can’t have you’ by Yvonne Elliman. We filmed the girl singing the song three times all in different locations and I took responsibility in editing the video. When I took over editing it was really difficult to do as the track our ‘singer’ lip synced to was different to the MP3 we were using to create the film. Once I discovered this I found the correct track and used the technique we were taught in lesson one to sync all the film, we then cut it up on the beat. It was way more difficult than the first video we made because some parts of the film were not suitable for use and the issues with the Mp3 track slowed us down. I am fairly pleased with the end result as it is all in sync however the combination of unplanned camera work, dodgy choreography and not knowing the lyrics did cause some problems but has helped me know what to do for our final film!

Technical skills learnt last year...

There were so many so, this post will probably be re-edited about million times,
I guess the first technical stuff we did was...


- How to use a Mac computer, copying and pasting was an issue at the start of last year,

=

- Learning how to use final cut pro (this was actually so difficult to use as I was used to windows computers and although there were tons more amazing features, it was still really difficult to get used to for me!)  

- Learning how to use the cameras, not so difficult, but still there were so many buttons which I was in constant danger of accidentally pressing
.

- Learning how to use, Live type and Soundtrack editing programmes, these were also tricky and probably the places I wish I had got more experience and more of an understanding of in demo lessons before doing the real thing.


- I also learned how to convert videos with Handbreak (I didn't even know you had to before so, this is probably why no past video projects I've attempted have worked). 

Reflecting back on AS Year:

This was part of the digipak I made at the end of last year, I found it really useful to build on my photoshop skills, the strengths of producing this project were that it made me think a lot about the things I need to put in to my digipak that I hadn't thought about, including record labels and bar codes, creating song names and realising the piece will look terrible if you make it in an hour or two were really useful skills. I was pleased I managed to make an album cover that, although didn't look unprofessional, demonstrated I now had the tools to go on to make a great one for my final piece. 

I think it also taught me that preparing for the creation of the digipack is essential, otherwise You'll end up using stock photos of hot air balloons cut out squarely on photoshop! 

Copyright Clearance Letter

My favourite student video

My favourite previous student video is attached on the link below. The video used several special effects which makes the video seem very well edited, even right from the beginning. The video is edited to the beat, which makes it seem very professional and makes the person lip syncing seem as if though she is actually the singer of the song. The lady singer in the video has the right attitude to the mood of the song, which makes it seem more believable. The group use a variety of different scenes to film, which again makes the video very interesting to watch and makes it seem like the group put a lot of effort and thought into the making of this video. The often editing makes the video seem hip and up to date with videos coming out nowadays. When the girl puts her hand of the screen at the end, and the boy takes his hand off, it is a very simple, but effective way of showing who she's talking about and is a good ending to the video.

http://vimeo.com/8312200

Andrew Goodwin- structure of a music video

Andrew Godwin talks about a structure of a music video and what are the main features. He says a pop video is built up around a song and the plot of the video will be normality-problem-resolution. The second point he makes is that a pop video will usually use the singer as a character and a narrator. The third point he makes is that when the singer looks directly into the camera, they will gain the viewers attention and it will make the viewers feel captured by the artist, they will feel like they are being spoken to directly.

Illustration: Love the way you lie

Amplification: The real slim shady

Disjuncture: Spacebound 

Vernallis theory

Carol Vernallis spoke about editing and camera work in a music video. She picked up on the rules of continuity editing, meaning the video will flow and make sense to the viewer. Edits in the video may be really obvious to draw attention to them. Jump cuts are often used to use more footage but removes time in between. The base track is used to give the video a structure (what the video should be about) and the camera may move in time with the music.

Continuity editing : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEPTlhBmwRg&ob=av3e

Jump cuts use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVELTxKRoHA

What is a music video?

A music video is a video that promotes a song and an artist in the best possible light. It usually works within a genre and is aimed at a specific audience. A music video will usually feature the artist (singer), dancers, props, sound effects, zooms, fast pace base line, repetition especially at the chorus, jump cuts, performance. The video will usually last between 3 to 5 minutes. The video will give the song a visual element which you will think of each time you hear that song from then onwards. The video will create a connection between you and the artist and will project an image the artist has chosen. For example, Lady GaGa comes across crazy and wild, she doesn't seem to care what people think.

moodboard

Laura Mulveys ideas on representation

Laura Mulveys ideas on representation are translated in lots of videos nowadays. Eminem’s – ass like that, is a good example of the sexual representation of women Mulvey is talking about. The video may not have dismembered women in it, but the shots of women are explicit and constant throughout the video. This video is defiantly shot from male point of view. Eminem is rapping about how girls turn him on and the video displays this exactly as he raps it. This video is for the male gaze and as Mulvey says the women are passive and go along with it. You can apply Mulveys quote to the video. You don’t seen videos where men are dismembered and the women are talking about their body parts, which they are amused by. This industry is shown to be one sided by men being dominating women and sexualising them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANE9A5osUes

The music industry + social networking

Social networking sites are becoming more prevalent in modern society, due to this, artists have found that social networking can be a key tool in promoting their music. There have been many artists who have generated a fan base through  social networking, an example would be Lily Allen. Lily Allen used Myspace to promote her music, she was successful due to her commitment and interaction with her audience. Lily would post content such as everyday footage,  photo's, covers and other behind the scene content.

Youtube convertor

Music videos are important in the music industry as it allows advertisement of the song. Record labels who dominate the music industry are Sony, EMI, Warner and Universal. Music videos target audiences through different methods, these include social networking which I mentioned above. Other methods are through t.v and internet adverts. Music videos can also generate an audience if they go viral. An example of this is OK GO's "Here It Goes Again".

This video was uploaded to YouTube in 2006, which was around the time YouTube first started. People viewed this video and shared it to others. In the end, this video ended up with many views and had gone viral. 

Reviewing student video

My favourite student video is...
(password - student)

Split screen editing and text

I believe this is a great video as it has many great aspects, such as it's editing, camera work and lip sync. The video uses a lot of edits which relates to Vernallis's theory, edits include the use of swipes, split screens and green screen. These edits often relate to the lyrics of the song, such as the use of text at the lyrics "die", "fail" and "live". This relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory and is a form of illustration. The video does not have a storyline to it but the singer uses lip sync at all times, the camera work keeps this interesting as they use the shadow of the singer in some scenes. The video is also kept interesting through the use of mise-en-scene, the video is shot in a number of locations which include a park, stage and house.

park

office

Research: Andrew Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin believes that traditional narative analysis cannot be applied to pop videos. In his view, pop videos are built around songs and do not always have the traditional structure of "normality-problem-solution". Pop videos use the singer as both the narrator and character, also the singer often looks directly into the camera. 
Pop videos, according to Goodwin, rely on repetition. Images are often repeated at intervals of the song such as the chorus. Music videos link to their song in various ways, usually through the methods of illustration, amplification and disjuncture. 

Amplification is when the video gives new meaning to the song, this does not contradict the song but does add a layer of meaning. An example would be Leona Lewis's "Collide". On the lyrics "we can collide", the video shows waves colliding with each other.

Disjucture is where the lyrics and video contradict each other, they do not have a connection. An example would be Sufjan Steven's song "Too Much". The lyrics do not match the lyrics of the song at all.

Illustration is when the video relates to the lyrics of the song. An example would be "Susan's House" by Eels. This video matches the lyrics of the song at most times.  

Research: What is the function of a music video?

Music videos are different to other videos as they are centred around a songs, they also feature more creative camera work and settings. Music videos also use editing to make the video sync with the song. The function of a music video is to promote an artist, their song and album. Music videos are essential so that artists can "reach out" to their audience. The artist has the ability to depict their song visually, and this can give deeper meaning to their audience. A music video is a part of a package that the artist is "selling", it is both an image and a sound. A music video allows the song to be played on television on music video channels such as MTV. Without having visuals with the song, songs would only be able to played on radio.