Research

This is a music video from our chosen genre, it clearly shows the voyeuristic treatment of the female body, we considered adding a 'work out' aspect to our music video as it is a typical convention of the genre. The video also shows a reaction to the seductive poses made by the girls in the video, this matches with the lyrics and makes the audience create a link between the song and the video. We definitely want to involve a relationship between the visuals and the music within our music video like it does in this one as it works extremely well. We feel that by adding a sexual element to our music video which is to the dance genre of music will be very relevant as it is used in the majority of dance music videos.

Group Meeting Four

We gathered today to talk about our choice of song. We finally found a song which we all like as a group and just by listening to it, it gave us immediate ideas. The song is by Kelis - Milkshake however it is as Mightyfools Remix of the song therefore it only has a few lyrics which are repeated. We have started getting ideas for this song so we have started to create a brainstorm so that we don't forget our original ideas. We are soon going to be creating a group presentation pitching our ideas to our class in order to get useful feedback.

LOGO

We have created our companies logo which we produced using Adobe Photoshop. We wanted to involve UV colours relating to the name of our company and also to keep it simple so it is easily remembere. With it being simple yet bold and brightly coloured we hope it will be eye catching and the start of our music video brand.

sarah groves- music video analysis

Ed Sheeran – The A Team- Released 12^th June 2011, United Kingdom. Narrative story, it narrates the story of a prostitute (Selina Macdonald) living on the streets.

The music video I have chosen to analyse is Ed Sheeran’s The A Team. The music video opens showing a girl looking distressed over a dead body. We are then aware that this is the end of the narrative and the whole music video is a flashback. The camera shows a close up from above of the dead girls face and the camera zooms in and out of focus on the girls face. This fade on her illustrates her fading away and makes it clear she is dying. A bird noise can be heard in the background this symbolises life.

There is then a blackout and the music begins. The whole music video is in black and white and uses a range of camera angles. There is a long shot of girl waking up on bench to establish setting. The audience get a feeling of homelessness. Contrast of settings from low key lighting to high key lighting. When the character stands there are no other people around. This puts high focus on the main character and gives the impression of loneliness.

She is wearing ripped tights, oversized clothing and is carrying a sleeping bag which illustrates to the audience that she is homeless. Different camera angles are shown of girl in a daydream looking happy in her own world. Low angle shot of her walking and a tracking shot follows her feet. Medium shot selling big issue. Girl is pictured on the left side of the screen and people are passing and ignoring her on the right side of the screen. A woman can be seen in the background out of focus so that we are drawn to the main girl.

 Big Issue is a classic magazine people who live on the streets and poor people sell and get a percentage of the earnings. The audience recognise it and relate it to a real life situation. She is being ignored but then the artist appears and buys the magazine and shows an interest in her. Goodwin’s theory states that the demands of the record label will require lots of close ups of the artist within the music video however this is the only part in the music video where we see the actual artist.

Symbolism is shown when the lyrics ‘angles to fly’ she is standing under angel station. This refers to Goodwin’s theory as there is a clear relationship between lyrics and visuals. She is looking as if she is going to buy the flowers on the stall but the audience know she hasn’t got the money to buy the flowers.

Religious symbolism is shown when the camera pans across a sign saying ‘improving the angel’. Her white hood makes It clear to the audience she is the angel. Shot from behind, cars moving showing the world going round and time passing. The girl doesn’t move shows she doesn’t have a purpose and her surroundings are going somewhere and do. The next shot is the same but with people moving faster she is sitting on the floor showing low status. The people around her treat her as invisible. Close up face, sadness in her eyes in contrast to previous mood of happiness. High angle shot looking into mirror, camera focuses on reflection.

She puts make up on in slow motion and is trying to cover up her emotions. ‘Sells love to another man’ this is the idea of prostitution. The camera cuts to medium shot of man in car pulling up towards girl. It is dark and he has his car lights on, this which silhouette of girl.

She leans into the car scared, nervous but provocatively. Camera cuts to girl walking with man into a house. The girl looks out of place as the house is clean, tidy and quite large. The characters are in the centre of the screen and are the main focus as the audience follow them as they walk down the corridor. The camera moves up the girl’s body as she is lying on the bed next to the man and it is clear they have slept together. There is a reference to Goodwin’s theory as the camera moves up the girl’s body and shows voyeuristic treatment of the female body. ‘a couple grams’ the camera does a close up of hands exchanging drugs but does not show who is exchanging the drugs but the audience know the girl is receiving the drugs from the money she earns as a prostitute. This is another link between lyrics and visuals.

She takes the drugs and falls back helplessly showing death. The video ends with camera view of roof and the sun shining and the image of the girl in the sky as an angel figure bird noises are heard again in the background. The edits throughout the music video are a regular pace. If there is a change of scene then there is a fade out and fades into the new setting. There is a steady pace throughout the music video and the editing is in time with the music. The camera regularly cuts from one shot to another on one of the bass beats.  

Group Meeting Three

Within this meeting we talked about other music video ideas to try and broaden our options. Our first idea was towards the song by Beyonce - Run The World and we wanted to include female dancers however we noticed that our ideas for this video was to familiar to the original music video. We then tried to look for other pieces of music mainly trying to get a song that did not have an official video creating our ideas to be original. We still have not found a song we are happy with however we are going to carry on researching to find the perfect music choice for our group.

The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up

This video is an inspiration to me, it is a very famous and controversial video that some would argue propelled The Prodigy to mainstream fame, it definitely upped the sales of the single. The video shows a night out for what would seem was a single man, drugs are taken then a visit to  strip bar where a prostitute is hired, at the end of the video the real identity of the person is revealed, it is a woman. This relates to our group idea as we want to play on the male/female roles and representation. 

FRANK OCEAN [swim good]

I like the use of editing and layering shots in this video, it accents the emotion of the song, it shows low verisimilitude but has relevance to the lyrics of the song. Frank Ocean is part of a rap group called OFWGKTA whom he is breaking from and becoming his own brand. Frank Ocean represents a revolution from the world of rap. He is a singer.

'Numbers in Action' by Wiley Video Analysis

The video in which I am analysing is Wiley's music video for his song 'Numbers in Action' released on the 5^th of April 2011 which was directed by a company called Us which is a multi-disciplinary design

and direction studio, who’s work covers brand identity, printed literature, advertising, motion, installations & web. The genre this type of music belongs to is 'Grime' as Wiley is credited as one of the pioneers of this genre. Also the type of music video for ‘Numbers in Action’ is conceptual and performance based.

I shall be analysing Wiley’s music video using Andrew Goodwin’s music video analysis. To start off the first point to discuss is Genre Characteristics. The genre of music which Wiley performs is Grime. Grime has the characteristics of being hard, aggressive and dark. It emerged from Bow in East London and the genre is a cross-pollinated genre, taking influences from a variety of different cultural styles therefore being considered as underground music. With it being an underground genre this means that the lyrics involved are normally describing the life that the artist lives on the streets everyday which most of the time comes across as violent and has a sexual element involved. Wiley in the past has created songs that fit the genre characteristics of grime however with his song ‘Numbers in Action’ he creates a huge contrast and goes against the typical characteristics for grime. The lyrics in ‘Numbers in Action’ do not once have any element that is either sexual or violent instead the lyrics describe Wiley and his music. The song is upbeat throughout creating it to be a catchy and a happy song. It comes across through this song that Wiley wants to make a change within grime music by going against the genre characteristics. 

Throughout the whole of the music video there is a strong relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. As an audience we are shown this through objects and also through gesture. A word which is mentioned within the lyrics is “Timing” and this is shown visually throughout the video because the video is all about clever timing to create the effective loops in making the intended repetitive theme. The title of the song ‘Numbers in Action’ is repeated very often and to show these lyrics as a visual the director did various things such as rolling out large pieces of paper which had numbers on them, pushing over large statues of numbers and also jumping through a number of stacked cardboard boxes which had the numbers 1, 2 and 3 printed on them. By doing this it created the static objects to move linking the title and the visuals together.

 



Other lyrics that are shown visually are “I wanna see dollars, I wanna see pounds” this is shown by having the dollar sign and pound sign as piñatas that get smashed by the artist Wiley.  Wiley performs in the music video and carries out gestures throughout to match with the lyrics. For example when said “ladder that we are climbing” he mimes and acts as if he is climbing a ladder. Another gesture shown is when said “open up a new door” Wiley then acts out opening a door. All of this shows that there is a very clear and dedicated relationship between the visuals and the lyrics all the way through the video therefore creating a more eye catching and fluid to watch video.

The whole of the video also holds a relationship between the music and the visuals. Every action carried out is repeated to the beat of the song. There is a constant steady beat throughout the video so this makes it easy for there to be a relationship as there is no sudden change of pace. The whole of the music video is of Wiley, the artist carrying out a variety of actions such as pushups, jumping, dancing etcetera and these are all repeated and reversed creating a repetitive effect however every single action done is repeated to the beat. During the music video there are no cuts, it is all taken as one shot however there is a lot of editing mainly adding in loops to create the reverse and repetitive effect.

The record label being Big Dada has made sure that Wiley is the main focus within the music video as he is in eye view at all times. Reasons for this are that it may have gained him more viewers of the video as Wiley, being the star, is in it. The image of Wiley that comes across in this video is that he is fun and doesn’t take himself too seriously. This video contrasts with all his previous music videos as Wiley is rarely in or performing in his music videos. From some of his previous songs he may come across as quite dark and tough such as his song ‘Wot Do You Call It?’ however the ‘Numbers in Action’ video is seen as much more fun and ranges to a broader audience by having this change in image. Wiley has the representation of someone who is very masculine, mysterious and hard. He comes across as masculine as he portrays to have the characteristics of traditional qualities ascribed to men such as being strong. The reason for why he may be seen as a mysterious person is because he is rarely seen within his music videos and has only recently started appearing in them so therefore previously a majority of people did not know who Wiley was or looked like. He also is represented as hard this being stereotypical because of him being part of the grime genre. Overall the representation of Wiley is stereotypical due to the genre of music he is involved in and he may not be this character in which the audience sees him as within day to day life but this is how he has portrayed himself to be.

The setting of the video is in a warehouse which is used as a blank canvas to in which Wiley can perform and carry out the actions needed to create the intended effects. Mise-en-scene plays a big role within this video especially the props such as the boxes, /number statues, balloons, and piñatas and so on. Without the props the music video would be pointless and there would be no productive material. The lighting and colour of the music video is quite dull however some specific things are shown in bold, bright colours such as the statue numbers as this is intended to stand out and be eye catching.

Goodwin’s analysis point 6 is used within the music video as intertextuality is shown. The main intertextual link is games shows. Throughout the video the use of numbers and activities carried out suggests there is a link with game shows such as ‘Total Wipeout’ which includes several activities taking place exactly like this music video includes. The effect of doing this is that it makes the video more engaging as it creates the viewer to think more about the video therefore making it stand out.

Overall Wiley’s ‘Numbers in Action’ music video has used most of Goodwin’s analysis points which has created an original, eye catching and entertaining music video.

http://design.org/blog/numbers-action-music-video-design-directed-us

Group Meeting Two

In our group meeting we discussed looking at a variety of music videos we found visually interesting in order to try and get inspiration for what to do within our own music video. We looked at Aphex twin -  Window Licker and also Prodigy - Smack my Bitch Up and from this we liked certain ideas such as having a twist to try control the viewers mind and also the play on a sexual theme. We are starting to think about the genre of music we want to focus on and what advantages they will give us. We are narrowing it down to mainly upbeat songs as we believe we could be most creative when editing to upbeat music, allowing us to do fast cuts and a more conceptual theme.

As a group we took a great intrest in this video being 'Window Licker' by Aphex Twin because it tests the boundaries of what is exceptable for a music video. The video looks into how most R&B music videos are extremely sexism however it takes a twist playing with representation of women by confusing the audience by the women having sexy and curvasious bodies however have horrific, deformed and ugly faces. The video eperiments with irony and intertextuality and combined works very well. The intertextuality being LA gang films and also Hollywood 1950's musicals one being singing in the rain.

From seeing this music video as a group we would like to take this as inspiration when creating our own music video as we all like the meaning within it and we believe we could go further with an idea like this.

Bombay Bicycle Club- Evening/Morning

Bombay Bicycle Club- Evening/Morning

Bombay Bicycle Club’s music video to Evening/Morning is part narrative and part performance based, it uses costume and editing to tell the story and stop motion style editing during the performance. Bombay Bicycle Club are a London based indie rock and folk band, this is quite a specific genre of music within which, very little conventions can be drawn, so the band have a lot of creative opportunities to establish these conventions, hence the bizarre events that take place in this video. Being part of the indie genre usually pigeon holes artists into a mainly performance-based music video, however, this video mostly consists of a chase between two antagonists and the protagonist- a panda (the lead singer) the chase is mostly conducted on foot apart from when the panda rides a pink children’s bike.

There is no mention of a panda running away from two men in the lyrics, meaning the idea was put together by the band and a director to go with the melody of the song, this works well due to editing and extravagant narrative. The idea of a chase connects to the title of the song, which, ‘Evening/Morning’ is an ongoing chase that perhaps the band members have experienced. The video starts with what looks like a game of hide and seek but with the panda as the seeker, when he takes his head off and notices the two antagonists, looking alarmed.

The video is edited very skilfully to the beat, it cuts at main beats and some drum kicks, this makes the video look very slick, these edits range in pace, especially at the beginning when the speed of the song increases gradually. There are few static shots during the chase scenes, this intensifies the excitement. There are many shots that you rarely see in a music video, including an over the shoulder point of view shot when the girl gives away her bike, these shots are usually seen in soaps or films. Bombay Bicycle Club’s videos usually include a performance at some point, this is also to do with the genre as indie bands usually have a performance element in their videos.

As the video is quite entertaining to watch, it will be spread through social networking sites and as word of mouth, this is what the record company want, when people talk about the video they are publicising the band altogether. The record companies want people to enjoy the video and make them research further into the band’s discography. There are many instrumental parts of the video, one of which is right at the start when the chase begins, the editing is crucial here as every time a note changes there is a cut, this proves very effective. The instrumental part in the middle of the song is illustrated by a performance, the whole band playing in the street until the two men return to chase the protagonist again. When the band are playing an element of ‘stop motion’ is seen as they change clothes and position due to different editing and shots, it is a simple and effective technique.

The music is constantly changing pace, at one point the lyrics go “we can speak at slower speeds” and the syllables are elongated, here the editing is slow and the footage is even made in slow motion, the lips still sync up with the lyrics which is a very difficult technique.

There are many notions of looking, these are conveyed as the antagonist’s point of view when they are searching for the panda. There is a shot from the panda’s point of view (when the girl is wearing the head of the panda) which shows the frustrated men as they have been fooled as well as when the lead singer notices the two men running towards him, evoking a surprised expression.

Copyright Law;

After researching the rights we would have when making a music video I found that after 50 years, a song loses it's copy right so we could use a song that is before the year 1961. One problem with this is the new developments in this law, this could be lengthened to 70 years. We have looked at both eras and came up with a possible song for each one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14829373

70 years ago:



50 years ago:

Week 1 meeting

On our first meeting we have discussed what songs would be most appropriate for our music video and also looked into what genres we are most interested in doing. We have decided from looking at the three types of music video being performance, narrative and conceptual to include narrative and conceptual within our own music video because we feel as a group people will be most interested in looking at this type of music video. We are interested in creating a music video for Beyonce - 'Run the World' however we are also looking at contrasting music videos that has no copyright issues to widen our options. Following this we will be posting various ideas and our pitches.

Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror



Michael Jackson's Man In The Mirror is one of my favourite music videos because it evokes emotion from the audience by showing life changing events that happened in the past. The footage uses a range of different camera angles and some footage is slowed down to show how certain people are  feeling. The poverty images are  shocking to the audience but when images such as Adolf Hitler and the KKK are shown it reminds us of what issues used to be around and how we have moved on from that troubled time. All the footage shown in the music video is genuine and thats why i like it so much. They wernt put into an artificial setting or given costume. The footage is genuine real life situations.

Sarah Groves 13lm

Sophie Pritchard's music video

I have chosen a music video by Kanye West on his song 'All of The Lights' featuring Rihanna and Kid Cudi. This is one of my favourite music videos as I find the use of colour and lights within the video very interesting. At the start of the video slow music is being played and the picture is in black and white however when the beat starts colour enters which creates a big impact and emphasises the music. What I also find effective is using captions which are bold and are in time with the beat which works well, showing a relationship between the music and the visuals. With the title of the song being 'All of the Lights' the use of bright colourful lights throughout the video is very relevant and is eye catching and enjoyable to watch. Another aspect of the video which I like is the use of close ups, there are not many long shots or mid shots within the video which I think works well as it creates it to be more evident and more of an impact because of the audience focusing on one thing. Throughout the video the majority of cuts are straight cuts which works as it fits in with the vivid lighting. One more thing that I think is a good contrast in the video is the people within it are most of the time in black silhouette with the contrasting intense colours in the background, this makes the video visually very interesting.

Sophie Pritchard

Hello, my name is Sophie Louise Pritchard and I am now starting my studies of A2 level Media. I have previously studied the subject at AS level and also at GCSE where I gained a grade A. Through studying the subject so far I have collected a variety of media skills such as being able to use a video camera effectively, use an editing suite to my advantage, compose music using garageband and to analyse film openings using my knowledge on Mise-en-scene, styles of editing, lighting and colour, sound and use of camera movement.

My intrests are in fashion, drama and art because of me being a very creative person.

Jus†ice- Stress

Jus†ice, Stress 

Romain Gervais, a music video director notorious for his controversial videos, including M.I.A.'s single 'born free' which was banned from youtube due to it's explicit content. 

The video follows a gang of youths around a french city as they committing acts of vandalism and harassment that escalate into a car being stolen then burnt.

The video matches the tone of the music very well, complimenting the gritty underground sound and the artist's previous hits.

The video is filmed as if it is someone documenting the gang's activity, this theme is carried out throughout the video, so much so that at the end, the camera man is assaulted and spat at.

During the carjacking, a previous pop hit by Justice blares out of the stereo, this is a purpose contradiction of the mise en scene, something which is very consistent, so much so that it is hard to believe that it is not real life. 

I like the video because it makes people think and it is very memorable, this is important because word of mouth is such a useful tool.

Luke Stevens

Sarah Groves 13lm

Hello my name is Sarah Elizabeth Groves. I am currently studying A2 level media. I went to secondary school at Roding Valley High School in Loughton where I studied G.C.S.E media in which I gained a grade B. I am a creative person and have found that in media I am interested in coming up with creative ideas and the presentation of work. I am looking forward to doing group work as I have not experienced group work and have spent most of my previous media experience doing individual work. I hope to improve on my editing skills as I feel that during our last media product I felt that I didnt get a chance to work with the media editing equipment. I also feel that I could improve on my camera skills aswell.

Introduction to Luke Stevens

My name is Luke Stevens, I like skiing and I have studied media from a GCSE level, this is my second media blog, after my AS media blog. I listen to all types of music and watch a lot of film. My favourite film is 'The Warriors' and my favourite band is 'The Stokes'.

Primary Ideas

This is one of our first primary ideas being Beyonce 'Run the World.' We want to use a dance troop who would perform a dance routine to the song which would allow us to create clever edits to the the beat of the song. We as a group also all like this genre of music so therefore would enjoy creating a music video for this. We do believe however that by using such a famous song it will be hard to think of original ideas to go alongside it.