Taking inspiration

As I have previously stated, my music video will be shot in first person perspective, therefore I have been looking for some music videos that I can take inspiration form when planning for my video. one video I found was Duke Dumont's video for 'I Got U', which shows a man experiencing a virtual reality paradise, and although the concept is totally different from mine, there are still elements to it that would link to my music video.

Mood Board

Mood Board Word by Liv Needham on Scribd

STAR THEORY

Star theory from livneedham

One Page Pitch

For my project, I would like to create a music video for the song ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac. I want to create a video that will create a cheerful and nostalgic yet emotional and sad tone for the viewer. My plan is to film the video as if it is a camcorder held by a man, filming happy times with his girlfriend/wife, and to edit the footage to give it the appearance of an old home video.

Overview

I want the music video to be a collage of these various different clips, including shots of them dancing, having a picnic, going for walks, sitting by a sunset and many more. As the clips carry on, I want a shot that is showing the boy and girl in public and the boy is filming the girl but turns the camera to another girl, which then leads to an argument between the couple, as we will see through clips of them arguing (forgetting camera is still on), and genuinely just showing them growing more distant and the boy trying to patch things up, even though he is met with a cold reception. Finally I want a shot of the girl and boy walking through an alleyway/shady area, and a man jumps out with a knife attempting to mug them, but the girl refuses so he stabs her. We won’t actually see her being stabbed as at this point the boy will have dropped his camera and rushed over to her. The end of the video will be shot as if the camera were on the floor, showing the boy running over to the girl sobbing and heartbroken, and then it will fade to black.

Who would the main audience be?

I think that my main audience would be young adults/people in their twenties, particularly music enthusiasts, however I feel that other people, both younger and older would appreciate it. I think that young adults are more likely to watch music videos, (talking point between friends, or just for recreational purposes) so it will appeal to them, therefore I will be using people of that age in my video so that people will relate. Also, I want my video to be a representation of young love and heartbreak, so many young viewers will be able to identify with it. However, the song itself is an old song, released in 1977, so people of older generations might remember or like the song.

How would this video be suitable for the artist?

My video will be suitable for the artist, due to the fact that Fleetwood Mac were very into the hippie culture, which I wish to embrace in the video, showing the simplicity of love without the influences of the modern world. I want to edit the first half of the video to seem very bright and summery, also I will use nature as a prominent theme of the video.

What skills do I have which would make me suitable it create this video?

I have an extremely creative mind and can create a vision in my head of exactly what I want, and I have a determination that will drive me to ensure that vision is achieved. I have chosen to work alone which is a huge risk, but I believe that knowing I can’t rely on anyone else will drive me to perform better and become more independent, and help me as a media student. As this project is entirely my own, I get to craft it personally without input from anyone else, which will grant me total creative control, which I think will express my skills.

 

Regulation in Music Videos

What is regulation?
Regulations are a set of rules/guidelines in which music video creators are advised to abide by if they want their video to be shown and allowed on various sites. For example, if a music video includes explicit material, nudity, offensive scenes etc. it would either not be shown on TV or have a warning at the beginning on sites like YouTube.

TV stations:

• Regulated by Ofcom
• Editorial standards must match Ofcom's code of conduct
• Government can place reporting restrictions on a case (if a teenager committed a murder)
• Super injunctions can be placed on high profile cases

The Internet:
There are no official regulations on the internet, however most sites have policies about their comments sections and various other areas:

• Twitter has been hugely under fire for the amount of abusive content it hosts
• Youtubers are now made to disclose whether they are being paid to advertise a product in their videos 
• Facebook banned photos including female nipples which caused mass controversy
• Most sites get away with these controversial issues due to blaming it all on 'User Generated Content'

Music Videos:
In the British music video industry, light touch regulations are put in place, which simply means that there are a set of guidelines or a polite agreement between production companies and companies such as Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music which are in everyone's best interest to stick by, but have no harsh consequences when violated. These regulations recommend music videos not to include:

• Violence
• Drug abuse
• Explicit sexual activity
• Dangerous behaviour presented as safe
• Bad language

Examples of videos which go against these guidelines include, Rihanna's 'Bitch Better Have My Money' video, Kanye West's 'Famous' Video, and Nine Inch Nail's 'Closer' video.

There are many different attitudes as to whether music videos should be regulated or not. A large amount of people believe that music videos should be regulated and restricted for older age groups if they feature mature content as they wouldn't want their children to view offensive and adult content, which is perfectly understandable. However, there is an argument that having restrictions on these videos only makes them more desirable to children as it becomes a 'wanting what you can't have situation.

We Media and Democracy – How We Consume Media

As the ever-changing world of technology continues to evolve, we move along with it, navigating our way through the media maze, but we all have our unique ways of accessing the news in today’s society. Whether it be a large earthquake, an EU referendum or Kim and Kanye's wedding, most people take interest in finding out about the world around them and the current events making headlines, and seek out this news in different ways.

Personally, I am extremely interested in keeping up to date with the news of the world, as I feel it is vital to know what is happening to other people in other areas of the world, and to be able to learn from, and be involved with events happening elsewhere; in my opinion it would be ignorant to not keep updated with current events. I like to know about the serious things such as politics, tragedies and crime, however, I also enjoy hearing about pop culture, celebrity gossip and music and fashion related news.

I access my news in many different ways, one of these ways being the television. In the morning when I’m having breakfast, sometimes I might flick over to the news to see what has been happening in the world. Other times I might pass a newspaper in a shop and have a gaze over the biggest headlines. Another way I access news is through the internet, where I might see a news story on a website or in the advert section. However the main source of news for me is Twitter. Every day when I wake up, the first thing I do is check my phone for notifications, after doing that I go onto Twitter and open up the trending section and see what the most tweeted events of the day are. I find this to be extremely useful and reliable, because I know if millions of people are talking about it then there must be truth to it. This is an example of Dan Gilmor’s idea of the consumer becoming the creators from his book ‘We the Media’.

The idea that millions of people come together to spread awareness of a story turns us into the journalists in a way, because it gives us a voice, an opinion, and an ability to spread the word. With 313 million users active on Twitter monthly, word can spread incredibly fast. I have found out about many of the top news stories via Twitter, for example, I heard the news about the death of certain celebrities such as David Bowie, Prince and Alan Rickman through Twitter, however one thing Twitter is common for is creating false death stories, so I always have to validate them online when I see one on the app.

One experiment my class conducted was where we all downloaded the BBC News app on our smartphones, chose topics that interested us, and reported back a week later on our news consumption. I wrote down the findings of 5 other students and two teachers. The information I gathered was in a table that featured sections asking about their age, what categories they picked, how often they checked the app and what stories they learned about. My findings were that the older test subjects (teachers) tended to check the app many more times a day/week than the member of my class who are between 17 and 18 years of age. Also I found that the teachers had chosen more categories than the class, and included more serious topics such as Politics and Education, whereas the people my age had chosen things such as Entertainment and Music. Furthermore, most of the males that I took information on had chosen Sports as a category.

This experiment has helped me to learn a lot about our news consumption. The first thing I realised is that the older people taking part in the experiment would check the app a lot more frequently than the younger ones, but I believe this to mainly be down to the fact that the younger generation are a lot more active on social media, so come across news this way, and feel less of a need to check the BBC app. The next thing I learnt was that boys and girls had different interests, for example the boys I took notes on all had some type of sport as a category, whereas the girls had more of the celebrity news as a focus. However a lot of people still had a lot of the same big news stories remembered, such as the Olympics in Rio and Brexit, which says to me that even though we all have separate interests, we all hear about the main stories and care about them to an extent.

In today’s society, we are becoming curators of our own media; we can create, and view news as we please. We are the media. As part of the young generation today, I can support the fact that we have grown up in a world where news is easily accessible on many formats, and through the use of social media, we can stay updated, as well as make others aware of our own stories, however big or small. Older generations may be able to do exactly the same, however, having not grown up in the same way as we have, are still adapting to these changes and are not quite as accustomed to things like social media as the younger generation, many still read newspapers, which a younger person with a smart phone might never do, as it is simply at the tip of their fingers and a google search away. Overall, I have learnt that we are all collectively significant in the media and have to power to control and consume it in whatever way available to us.

‘Payphone’ by Maroon 5 Analysis

I am analysing the video for Maroon 5 ‘Payphone’ starring Adam Levine. This is due to the fact members of my class recommended music videos which they liked for the rest of us to analyse. 

This mid shot at the beginning of the music video suggests chaos and danger to the main character Adam Levine. He is in the foreground and the shot suggests serious danger however we are not aware what the danger is. The tattoos suggest rugged ‘bad boy’ style character, due to the connotations in films and characters with tattoos. His costume makeup shows he has been injured around his eye and further suggests danger. The prop of the phone links with the lyrics ‘I’m at a payphone trying to call home’ and further suggests the potentially difficult situation Adam is in, as he needs to contact a safe place.

This long shot of Adam and his love interest escaping the bank robbers, with a gun in Adams hands can show many things. For example the prop of the gun shows Adam has immense power and is also a potentially dangerous man, it aligns him with being a criminal but it is clear in this instance it is used for self-defence. The body language of Adam and his love interest can tell the viewer many thing. The fact they are running suggests they need to get away from the situation very quickly and the fact they are holding hands shows that they care for one another and are a unit together. The girl’s hand is in front of her face to protect her, and Adam is in front leading her to safety suggesting he cares a lot about her as he brings her with him to escape the building.

This two shot of Adam and his love interest shows another angle on the above image and symbolises determination to escape the chaos together. As the love interest is blurred out and we are unable to see her face in the shot it shows how Adam is the hero and the main focus of the music video.

This long shot towards the end shows the trouble Adam has gotten himself in, and symbolises how he is trapped. This could be a metaphor for how he is trapped in a relationship ‘Where have the times gone baby it’s all wrong?’ The chaos is shown in the shot with Adam’s car clearly being outnumbered by police cars and he appears to have no way of overcoming the obstacle. Similar to obstacles thrown in his way with his relationship with the woman.

‘Kill ‘Em with Kindness’ by Selena Gomez Textual Analysis

Selena Gomez’s music video for Kill ‘Em With Kindness is a video I took inspiration from when creating my music video to another one of her songs ‘Revival’ I decided to use a lot of close up shots of the main actress in the video and I also took inspiration and made my music video black and white, to keep up with a contemporary audience and do something different compared to most music videos.

The mid shot at the beginning where she is looking directly at the camera is interesting as a viewer because we are getting an insight into her as a character. Her eyes, looking directly at the camera, make her appear confident, however her body language – slouched over and not appearing to be sitting straight, suggest she is shy. The contrast between these two make viewers want to listen to the lyrics, to find out more detail about her. The first words “The world can be a nasty place. You know it, I know it” suggest it’s the outside world that have shattered her confidence. As she looks into the camera this supports the words she sings as she clearly is addressing the viewer and listener. This could mean the video and song itself is Selena’s words of advice to the audience, and the message itself is to be kind to one another. Which is something admirable.

We then see the lighting contrast from light to dark and barely see the main character Selena. This could symbolise the dark times she has been through in her life through the dark lighting and as it changes from dark to light in the video it shows how she managed to escape the dark – which the lyrics suggest is caused by people being mean. However as it appears that a camera flashes the dark could symbolise her private life and the flash could suggest her celebrity status. It could show that she doesn’t want anyone to see her private life, but being a famous celebrity it is inevitable. This could be supported by her very public relationship with Justin Bieber, which she was unable to keep private and eventually the two went their separate ways.

The long shot of Selena shows how she is having her picture taken, but the way she is facing the camera and looking directly at it, shows how she has grown in confidence from the beginning of the video – which could represent the beginning of her fame. She is showing her amazing figure in her dress which we didn’t see at the beginning of the video, showing how her confidence has blossomed since learning to ignore the ‘haters’ by being kind.

The Low-Angle Shot shows Selena feeling powerful and confident and supports the lyrics ‘Kill Em with Kindness’ as she is a powerful advocate of being nice to people and setting a good example and it is shown in this shot how confident she is with that statement.

It's Finished!

My one minute task video is complete and I'm very pleased with it! I filmed it the other day and edited to following day. The video has turned out exactly as I described it in my previous post to every detail. I also decided to make the video black and white because it reflects a convention of Selena Gomez's other videos such as 'Kill 'Em With Kindness' and 'The Heart Wants What it Wants' which i will embed below.
There are, however some faults with my video, for example I didn't use a camera stand again so some of my shots are wobbly. Also during the section with the roses, I couldn't fit the girls whole head in due to the fact that there was a bed behind me so I couldn't get any further back. Furthermore, I don't particularly like the fade transition used the link together the last two shots, however i used it because I don't like the second to last shot as I don't think it fits with the video.
On the contrary, I really like the first half of the video, specifically this rewinded clip. I am very happy with the progress i am making as a film maker.

Introduction to 1 minute task

Exciting things are happening, we are now to create a one minute long original music video, for a song of our choice. I have chosen to create a video for Selena Gomez’s song ‘Revival’ as the beginning of the song creates an interesting visual in my head due to its opening monologue and enticing build up. I am not going to storyboard my music video as I already know exactly what I want to film. I want to film a girl sat on a white floor in front of a white wall, starting off with smudged makeup on her face, but after the she lip syncs the opening monologue about rebirth and revival, there with be a reverse shot of her un-smudging her makeup as a symbol of her fresh start as mentioned in the song. The rest of the video will be filled with shots of the girls face and body, including sped up shots of her moving her head, and stop motion sequences involving white roses (symbol of purity).

Watch this space as I will be posting the video when it’s done!

30 Second Video Finished

30 Second Video Update

Change of plan. For my 30 second recreation video, I have done a similar version of Adele's Hello video. This decision was made last minute, when I went to my friend Bayley's to film, when we came across Adele's video online and thought it would be simple yet interesting to film.
I compiled a selection of shots mirroring those used in the original video with a twist, for example I used a male in the video as opposed to what can be seen in the original.
During the editing process, I added a sepia filter to the whole video which links in with Adele's video as that is a key feature to it.
There are a few things I would change if I could, for example the sound quality is extremely poor and at times out of sync with the shot (the sound of the fire igniting is in the wrong place) as well as the fact that I didn't have a camera stand so some of the shots are very wobbly.
Despite these faults, this task has really helped me develop my skills as it has been the first time I have worked entirely by myself so I had chance to express entire creative control and not have to include other peoples input. Also I got a chance to get more used to the editing process and develop my skills as an editor.

Analysis of a CD Cover

Textual Analysis of a CD Cover by Olivia Needham on Scribd

30 Second task

So our first practical task of A2 is to create a 30 recreation of a music video. Most of my peers are going with the crowd and recreating a section of Pharrell Williams’ Happy video as instructed by the teachers at school, however, due to the fact that I am working by myself, I have chosen to recreate the opening of Vance Joy’s Riptide for my video. I made this decision based on the fact that working on my own, the video would be more of a manageable, as the video is a series of clips embodying the visuals of the words the artist is singing, as well as the fact that it is not a video that focuses on actors, so I wouldn’t have to find loads of people to star in it, which I could see being an issue for me.

In my video, I will feature multiple copies of what Vance Joy used in his original video for Riptide, including images of a swinging ceiling lamp, a girl in a dentist scenario and a shot of the sky. I feel like this clips in this video show a wide variety of shot types, therefore exhibiting my skills as a film maker.

Music Video History

What do music videos mean to you? Tough question I know. Do you watch music videos to put a visual to the music? Do you watch them to admire the art that lies within? Or just to leave on while the song is playing? Personally I do all three. Mainly I guess I like to see a visual representation of a song to form an overall aesthetic and feeling towards the song.

Throughout the years, music videos have evolved and become significant in many ways for different reasons.

The first examples of music videos started in 1926, when musical short films, made by Warner Bros. were made to showcase the music of the time, not unlike the purpose of music videos as we know them today, however, only five were made compared to the hundreds we see on  daily basis. An example of one of these videos is Milton Charles’ “Crying for the Carolines”, featuring art deco style animations combined with performance shots, very much ahead of its time.

During the 1930’s, music within films became extremely popular and the scenes featuring the popular music were often used as promotional material for the film. Also, music was used frequently in cartoon, particularly in early Walt Disney productions such as Fantasia (1940). To this day, Fantasia features one of the most famous scenes in movie history, including the classic music to go with it. Some people consider this scene to be a music video, whereas others do not, either way, it made a huge impact on music video history.

Musical films became hugely popular in the 1950’s, where music videos were created within the films which was hugely significant because to this day, many modern artists take inspiration from these musicals in their own work and imitate them in some way. A prime example of this would be Madonna’s music video for her single ‘Material Girl’, where she mirrors Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ classic from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

The next major step in the music video world was the creation of the widely popular British music chart television programme Top of the Pops in 1964. The show was introduced to help people enjoy the popular music of the time by getting the artist/band to perform on the show. If the artist/band could not be on the show, their spot would be filled in with a group of dancers named ‘Pans People’ performing over their song being played. In order for a song to be more of an important part of the show, artists started making music videos to be played when they were unable to attend the show, this made music videos more significant as they were an essential marketing tool.

In 1965, The Beatles released their video for ‘Help!’ which was album promo for their album of the same name. This video was more artsy and conceptual than any music video people of the time had seen before. Following the huge success of The Beatles, a similar US boyband was manufactured to compete with them named The Monkees. They were totally controlled by the industry and had no input as artists which eventually proved boring to the public and their popularity died down.

A huge trailblazer in the music industry came in the late 1960’s, and was known to the world as David Bowie. As a huge Bowie fan, I don’t struggle when describing the ways in which he innovatively led the way through the music industry and the music video industry. His music was extremely conceptual and he used multiple personas (Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane etc.) to create depth and stories that his fans could enjoy, the same way someone reading a book could enjoy its narrative. This meant that Bowie’s videos had to further tell these stories, so his videos became just as important as his music. Also David Bowie liked to create art with his music videos, so it became a significant turning point in the music video industry where the videos themselves were to be appreciated in themselves rather than just to be used as a promotional items for the songs. This was also exhibited by rock band Queen in 1975 with the release of their video for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which was so iconic for its new use of technology that it will go down in music video history.

In 1981, a television channel called MTV was introduced, which was the first and only music video channel at the time. Due to MTV being launched, more pressure was put on artists to make memorable music videos so that they would be chosen to be aired on the channel and be seen more.

In 1983, Michael Jackson released a music video that would soon be known as the most commercially successful video of all time. Thriller will go down in history as it was a convergence between music video and film. It combined the typical music video with a story in a spooky thirteen and a half minute long masterpiece of cinematic art. This begun an era of cinematic music video, followed by artists like Lana Del Rey with her short film ‘Tropico’, and Beyoncé with her hour long spectacular visual album ‘Lemonade’.

Another music video first was Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer released in 1986. The video was compiled entirely of still shots/stop motion animation. The video was directed Nick Park, who would later go on to create stop motion classic ‘Wallace and Gromit’. At the time it was unlike anything people had seen so it went on to win nine MTV Video Music Awards.

And that brings an end to my journey through music video history, hopefully now we can appreciate the artistry and legacy behind the music videos we now know and love today.

Introduction

Aloha! Konichiwa! Bonjour! Hola! Ciao! Namaste! Or simply in the words of Adele, Hello. Due to the subject matter of this blog, I think an Adele reference isn’t totally irrelevant (that being said, an Adele reference is never irrelevant). So yes you might have guessed, this blog is about music, more specifically music videos. For my A2 main task, I am to create a music video for a song of my choice, fitting into the conventions of my chosen genre and my chosen artist. I have already made the decision that I am going to be working on my own for this project, as I want to prove myself to people that believe I rely on other people too much, as well as the fact that I am a perfectionist and I like everything to equate to the image I have in my mind. Along the course of the year I will update this blog with the details of my film making and the challenges I’m sure I will face down the road.