What makes a music video..

I'm just getting a few ideas of what needs to be included in our music video or some ideas of what we could use!
I looked at the codes and conventions of a usual music video and the following is what I found:

• The artist can be shown performing;

Music videos have become an essential way for artists and musicians to get audiences to hear and experience their music. Instead of just making a music video with the music and the lyrics, performance music videos show the band performing on stage or in another venue which they can show their audience their experiences and their music. It is also a great way to promote the band and their music because the audience can then relate to the band by seeing them and they can also understand how the songs and music should be performed, instead of just hearing it on a CD.

• The lyrics of the song influences what is shown in the video;

As it shows in the picture to the left, Taylor Swift is drawing a love heart. When she draws this, the lyrics say "the other on my heart". This is a good example of how the lyrics can be linked to the visuals. Some artists prefer their lyrics to match the visuals and therefore takes the lyrics as inspiration for their music video. Usually, the words that are sung in the song come up in the form of an object in the music video, for example, if the artist sung about their friends coming in through the door, the visuals would show this exactly as it says in the song. I believe this helps the audience to understand the lyrics better and not become confused as to what they mean. In our music video, we think we may use  a hint of matching the lyrics to the visuals, such as when the lyrics say "drink to that" we may use people drinking, but we have decided that we are not going to advertise drinking alcohol, but we will look at it from another view of taking the mick out of drinking by using fruit shoot bottles for example. This will all become clear when we have made out music video. 

• The pace of editing fits with the pace of the music;

This music video shows exactly how editing can fit in with music in the song. Most music videos with fast paced music are edited quickly so the pace of the editing matches the pace of the music. This makes the music video seem like it flows more instead of jumping from one shot to another when it is not in time with the song. In this particular music video it links the editing and the music together a lot, for example, when Labrinth's name is in the air, it is edited so that when the music goes louder than it was, and does a sort of 'boom' noise, his name disappears at the same time, which shows a clear link between the editing and music. It also gives the some a stronger feel to it because it is more effective than if there was not much happening in both the song and the editing. Also, in some parts of this music video, it includes animated bits and special effects such as the speakers in the air. When the beat of the music changes, so do the position of the speakers. I think that this technique of fitting the editing in with the music of the song is effective and gives the song a more upbeat feeling.

These have all given me ideas about how our own music video should look like, and what it should include. I think that all three of these aspects of a music video could help any music video to be successful and give it an edge in contrast to what other music videos look like,and include. The fitting of the editing to the music seems like it will make the song flow easier and the matching the lyrics to the visuals seems to be essential in making sure the audience know what the song and the lyrics are about.

What we've done today!

ITS QUESTONNAIRE TIME! :)

Today we made a questionnaire to ask our target audience about what type of music videos they like, why they like them and what they expect to see in music videos.

We've collected the results and looked to see what our target audience came up with.

The age group in which we asked was 16-20 because we believe that for the type of song we want to do a music video for, this is the appropriate age to target.

One of the first questions we asked was what are people's favourite music video genre.

Here are the results from this particular question:

Pop - 1

R&B - 8

Hip-hop - 2

Classical - 0

Rock 1

Indie - 2

From this we can see that most people like to listen to R&B music. This is good because Rihanna is a R&B artist and this is who we would like to focus our music video on by using one of her songs. Teenagers are mostly introduced to R&B music because they are always on the radio and in the charts, which shows why R&B was most popular in this questionnaire. R&B music videos are also really good and we have decided that we would like to follow the codes and conventions of this genre type in our music video.

The second question we asked was where people get their music from?

Internet - 6

High-street shops - 0

Download - 3

Itunes - 4

Other - Spotify

As it shows by the results, most people get their music from the internet. The people from the questionnaire did not specify whether they downloaded it off the internet or if they just watched the videos but it shows that most people use the internet to find their music. This gives us a great knowledge on where to target our audience. For example, when we have filmed our music video we will be able to upload it onto YouTube where a lot of people will be able to access and watch our video.

Our third question was which gender most people like to see featured in the music videos. Here are the results:

Male - 0

Female - 6

A mixture of the two - 8

This shows that most people are not worried which gender they see in music videos or they like to see both in the music videos at the same time. This is a good thing for Me and Sophie because we would like a female lead singer because our music video is focused on Rihanna's songs. Also, the answer that was preferred was a mixture of both genders. We think this is a good idea to have a mixture of the two in the backgroung of our music video, with the lead singer being a female.

The fourth question was which type of video people like best. Here are the results:

Narrative - 4

Concept - 2

Performance - 8

This shows that most people tend to like the music videos where people perform on the stage or perform in another way during the video. Most people we asked did not know what the type of music video 'concept' was. We had to explain what it was to a few of them which could be the reason why this type of music video was the least popular in our questionnaire. People tended to like the idea of there being a storyline in the music video, and when we asked them why they mentioned that it was because they were able to understand what the lyrics of the song meant by looking at the visuals in the music video. The idea we have for our music video is a little bit concept but it also had aspects of a storyline running through it, and it also has a bit of performance in it. By tying these three together I believe that the music video will get views from different types of people because they will all be able to see a part of the music video that they like, whether it be the performance part, the use of effects or the storyline running through it. 

The fifth question we asked was what people thought of the song Rihanna - Cheers (Drink To That)

Here are some of the comments we received from our questionnaires:

It's OK.

Average.

It makes people think of the weekend.

It's a great tune. 

Sick.

It's a bit boring/annoying.

From these comments we can see that people are not too fond of the song, and I believe that the reason for this is because it has been out for a long time and everyone has been getting bored of it. After looking at these comments we wondered if we should change our song because people do not find it good, and we were looking at other songs that may fit in with the idea that we have already got. 

The sixth question was what people thought of the Beyonce - Single Ladies video. Here are some of the comment we received from the questionnaire:

It's pretty cool.

Poor video. 

Good dance. They all wear black leotards and white background so it goes well together. 

Good idea for a music video!

Very iconic.

It would be hard to recreate it as well as the original.

The reason we asked this question was because it was a concept idea, and it was very different to the usual music videos out there at the time it was released. We wanted to gain knowledge from this question on whether people like concept ideas and whether we should use this music video idea in our own idea for the music video. From these comments we can see that this video is really good and a lot of people like it. Even though it is only of three ladies dancing around the room to the song, everyone liked that it was different to other music videos. From the comment "They all wear black leotards and there is a whit background, so it goes well together" we could see that the clothing of the people in the music video, and the props and background of the music video is very important in making the music video work. If the colours would have clashed then it would have looked bad, whereas, they had thought about every aspect of the music video and how it will all fit in together well. This is what we will have to think about when we are planning and making our own music video. 

The last question we asked was what were people's favourite music videos to get an idea on what type of music they were into. There were many different types of music videos that were given as answers to this question including:

Ed Sheeran - A Team

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

The Wombats - Tokyo

Beyonce - Best Thing I Never Had

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song

Lady Gaga & Beyonce - Telephone

From these we can see that there is a wide variety of music videos that people like but the two that interested me was OK Go! - Here It Goes Again and Lady Gaga & Beyonce - Telephone. The reason for this is because they are both concept ideas and they were both really successful, which gives me the idea that maybe we should use a concept idea for our music video, or use a slight hint of concept in our music video somewhere. 

Digi Packssssssssssssssssssssssssss

What is a digi pack?

A digi pack in simple words is a case for a CD, DVD or BD.  It provides a protective package to the CD so that it doesnt get scratched or broken as this would not be a successful product. The protective case allows it to be kept safe resulting in reuse.

Features of a digipack

• Outer binding- this may be card or paperboard. This is normally in a stlye of a gatefold (a book). This is where the information, and design of the song/albulm/band is. Making it more attractive and eye catching to the audience.
• Plastic Trays- this is where the CD is held and kept. somes digipacks include more than on CD so will have multiple trays.

Examples of Digipacks

Goodwins Theory

In 1992, Andrew Goodwin publiched a book called 'dancing in the distraction factory'  after years of research into music videos. Goodwin took it upon himself to find out more about music videos and what they are about. In this book he came up with a number of codes and conventions for music videos. He worked out a range of elements in whcih music videos all have in common. finalising with 7 rules of music videos in which were;

1. Music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics
2. there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. there is a relationship between music and visuals.
4. the demand of the record label will incluide the need for lots of close-ups of the artist.
5. the artist may develop motifs or iconography that reocur across their work (a visual style.)
6. There is fequent reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, filming, cameras) and particularly voyeristic (pleasure through looking) treatment of the feamle body.
7. there are often intertextual references- mostly to film, television and popular culture.

'Why does love do this to me' - The exponents

Why does love do this to me is a famous and well known new zealand song in which we got given for a task within a lesson. We had to film a short music video within class demonstrating our ability to lip sync, split screen etc. This task was done so that we could improve on our final cut skills so that we were able to use them to the best of our ability when it came to our real music video.



This video is however unfinished as we had planned to put many effects on it but simply did not have the time to do so. I feel that this video did allow us some vital practise and i feel that we have been quite successful in doing this.

The lip sync matches quite well despite the fact we have a female lead when the song is originally sung by a man, we were not worried by this as it was the precision in the lip sync in which we were more interested in.

The split screen is very successful as there is no visible line. This shows improvement from mine and charlottes first experiment as there is a line where the images have not been put together precisely. I feel that this is an important technique to develop as when it is done well it is very interesting and adds to the video.

Final Cut Experiment

The following video is when we edited some footage we shot in order to have a play around with Final Cut Express.

From this we were able to develop our final cut express skills and it will help us to know how to edit our music video successfully. For example we played around with the colours of the image and we also attempted to do split screen where it shows one person being edited and the rest of the people moving normally. 

By Charlotte (could not get on my Blogger account)

Beyoncé's music video :)

I could probably sit here all night talking about all of the different music videos that Beyoncé has made for her songs because there are so many. They are all really good and unique such as "Single Ladies - Put a ring on it" where throughout the video she does is dance in a room with two other people, but I have decided to look at Beyoncé's music video, "Irreplaceable". 

Beyoncé Knowles' and Ne-Yo's vision was to create a record that people could relate to, regardless of their gender. Lyrically, the song refers to breaking up with an unfaithful man and it contains a message towards female empowerment.


The following quote is what most people think Beyonce is..
"She has an amazing voice, she's a great dancer,she writes her own music, she is beautiful, and she is very level headed for a person with her success."
I believe her music videos mirror this definition of her because they show that she is a strong women and can look after herself. Also, she uses all of her talents in her music videos to show that she is a triple threat. 


Goodwin's seven.

1. Music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics.


Beyoncé's general genre of music is R&B which tends to have genre characteristic in music videos of highlighted sex appeal in women. Beyoncé tends to demonstrate this particular genre characteristic in her music videos, and in Irreplaceable she wears clothes that represent this such as a dress and a cropped top. In the music video Irreplaceable she does not highlight the sex appeal as much as she does in her other videos such as "Best Thing I Never Had" where, at the start of the music video, she wears not too revealing nightwear which shows off her curves, but is still stylish, with her hair up and her make-up done.


However, Beyonce is portrayed as powerful women whereas, the characteristic of a female in a R&B music video is that they are used as props instead of someone who is taking charge and standing up for themselves. Another genre characteristic that Beyoncé shows in her music video Irreplaceable is the use of close-ups. Throughout the music video, the camera closes in on Beyoncé when she is singing and saying certain words. Beyoncé uses this in almost all of her music videos constantly because it is a big R&B music video characteristic. The following music video of Beyoncé's is a good example:

This music video is her new one called "Countdown". There are many close-ups of Beyoncé singing and acting out the lyrics to show that she is the main focus of the music video.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.



As it shows on the right, Beyoncé links the visuals in her music videos to the lyrics. For example, it shows Beyoncé performing and singing "To the left, to the left" at the same time. This is a prime example of relating the visuals to the lyrics. Another example of this in the music video Irreplaceable is when Beyoncé says "it's my name that's on that tag". At this point she points at her chest indicating that she is referring to herself in the song lyrics. Beyoncé also relates the lyrics to the visuals in her other songs, such as "Run The World". In this, when Beyoncé and the rest of the dancers/singers say 'girls' the visuals on the screen shows a long line of women with soldier type outfits on, which also links in with the girls running the world.


3. There is a relationship between music and visuals.


This video shows a relationship between the music and the visuals because there the music in the background is quite slow, which goes well with the fact that the visuals are of the people in it being quite laid-back. Also, throughout the music video, Beyonce moves in time with the music. For example, when she is walking outside, her hair bounces and she also walks in time with the beat. This shows a clear link between the music and visuals. 


4. The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist.


The video Irreplaceble by Beyonce certainly shows a lot of close-ups of Beyonce throughout the video. By having close-ups of Beyonce, it will make it obvious that the song is by her and this will therefore increase the amount of money made from the song. Audiences and fans of Beyonce will be able to relate to the video because they will see Beyonce throughout the video, and because they will have liked her other music videos, they would also notice that it is her and would make them watch the video because of this. By doing this it will help Beyonce be promoted and the record label will be happy with how the music video uses Beyonce as the main focus. Other music videos may not even feature the artist or the band and would therefore not promote them as much as it would if they had have taken part in the music video. 

 5. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work.


Beyonce shows that she is a strong women throughout all of her videos, and she focusing on the performance of her songs, but not in the case of performing it on stage, but instead, she performs through dance or acting. For example, in one of her music videos - Single Ladies she performs a dance with two other ladies and in another music video - If I Were A Boy she performs through a narrative of her and a man. Also, in this video it is in black and white which she also uses in other music videos of hers, where they are mainly music videos that have a narrative behind them. I believe this is to focus on the song and the meaning behind the lyrics, whereas when it is in colour, it invited the audience to take notice of the visuals more than the lyrics. 


Another thing that recurs across Beyonces work is the lyrics being about love and relationships, especially in her earlier work. The music video Irreplaceable is a prime example of this. Most R&B songs are about love and relationships which shows she also follows this characteristic of this certain genre, but she also does different types of songs where she can have fun in the music videos and try new things and work with effects, such as on her new music video - Countdown, she is shown three times on the screen at once in three different outfits and she is also shown in 4 different places on the screen through the effect of split screen. This shows that Beyonce does not stick to one type of music video but she explores different ways of making the visuals strong and eye-catching. 

6. There is frequent reference to the notion of 'looking' (screens within screens, filming, cameras) and particularly voyeuristic (pleasure through looking) treatment of the female body.


Beyonce does not conform to the genre characteristic of a female in a R&B music video. Women are usually seen as being "trophies", "eye candy", "sexual objects" and "the property of males". Also, they are shown there is not any respect towards them. Whereas, with Beyonce she portrays herself as a confident, happy, strong women who can look after herself and uses men instead of them using her. Women who are in the R&B genre are more likely to be like Beyonce, such as Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, instead of the women that appear in men R&B artists' music videos, such as in Snoop Dogg's music videos.


7. There are often intertextual references - mostly to film, television and popular culture.
I cannot see particular links with intertextual references but this music video shows a lot of images of nice cars and big houses. This can be linked in with wealth but I do not think that the music video has anything to do with wealth so these nice things might just be there because they fit in with the conventions of a typical R&B music video. 

Trouble!!!

I am having trouble with a few things on the blog, such as the writing. For some reason some of the writing does not take on the automatic style, colour and font in which means it looks different, however when i go to edit the post it seems to be fine so i am puzzled as to what is causing this. To further this i am also having trouble with the size of the video, i have embedded them as the smallest size in which is offered but i still however seem to have the big sized videos on there.another thing in which i cannot work out what has happened with the pictures in which are in the posts as i cannot see them on my computer or the schools main computers? If anyone can help me i would be keen to know so i can make it look better!!! :D 

Rihanna- Man Down

Rihanna's video 'Man Down' is considered very controversial and has been talked about in both inspirational ways and in negative ways. In this video the audience see Rihanna shockingly shoots a man down where he lays in his own blood in a busy street after he had raped her outside a club the night before. This narrative is very strong and can be taken in different ways. Many are calling for it to banned as it is said to send a wrong message out. A mother against violence spokeswomen slammed Rihanna, saying: ''murder happens all around us. We need solutions, not songs influencing vulnerable individuals. Sadly, these kinds of scenes are a reality for some.''  However going against this it is also said that Rihanna's video sends a message out, be it very strong. ''Rihanna's personal stoy and status as a celebrity superstar provided a golden opportunity for the singer to send an important message to female victims of rape and domestic violence'' said Elissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the parents Television council. This sparked much controversy and has forced many to speak there opinions about it. 


To further this it has brought up the incident with chris brown and the fact that if Chris brown shot a women in his new video, the world would stop and he would not be liked so how come Rihanna is able to touch such a sensitive subject. 


However Rihanna's fans have stayed supportive to her and described how she has inspired them and has showed strength in women.
 


Goodwin's Seven:
1) Music videos demonstrates certain genre characteristics;


Rihanna's video certainly conforms to this. Rihanna goes with the genre of a female R'n'B singer,  she is seen as powerful and independent in which would contrast with the females in 50 cent video as they are more seen as 'props' or 'trophies'. Rihanna goes completely against this, she is seen as the victim when scenes of her being raped in which suggest that she is vulnerable and an easy target in which females are sometimes suggested to be, however the fact that she shoots that man shows that she can take care of herself and that she is powerful. This follows a genre of the strong female R'n'B singer. In addition Rihanna follows the genre in which many R'n'B singers have, an overall look sees the r'n'b singers to be of a different ethnicity to white british. They tend to then focus there music videos to show a different culture, country etc. Rihanna does this within this video focusing on her caribean background.

2)there is relationships between lyrics and visuals;

There is a clear link between the lyrics and the visuals, for example the lyric 'i just short a man down, in central station, in front of a big old crowd'  is backed by the visuals of rihanna physically shooting the man down with a gun whilst he is in central station where a big crowd is present.

3) There is relationships between music and visuals;

Rihannas video has been timed clearly so that the actually music matches the timing with the visuals, for example the caribean sound within the music matches the carribean theme throughout the visuals. This brings the music together with the visuals. the editing is also on time to the beat of the song probviding a link between the music and the visuals.

4) the demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close ups of the artists;

it is clear that throughout the video there is a close up of rihanna, ensuring that she is being promoted and that the audience can identify it is rihannas song ensuring more money is made from that song. This is evident within the first 15 seconds of the video where rihanna is seen in a close up.

5) The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style;

Rihanna has a sexy, sassy, powerful style within most of her videos in which she appears as a strong women. She does this within this video as she shoots him after he raped her. To further this Rihanna also takes her carribean style into her videos in which is clear here.

6) there is frequent reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, filming, camera) and particurly voyeuristic (pleasure through looking) treatment of the female body;

although Rihanna is not typically presented in the way in which she is a prop within the r'n'b video she is however wearing little clothes in which shows that she is conforming to this. She is allowing men/women to look at her body and will happily show it of.

7)There are often intertextual refernces-mostly to film, television and popular culture;

i am unable to see any clear links within the video in which show intertexutal references as i feel it follows its own narrative and has no place in which intertextuality would be seen.

Rihanna Music background

Rihanna is signed to def Jam Recordings which is parented by universal music group. This clearly connotes that Rihanna has the ability to spend more money and that she has a bigger ability to take risks. Universal have and will spend lots of money to promote, advertise and publish Rihanna globally through the use of different media texts such as her website, adverts in which she stars in, her music videos, her CD cover, her use in magazines etc. This results in Rihanna gaining a wider fan base and more people following her music,  she will have more fame and fortune from this. to further this Rihanna will become more appealing to her target audience of young teenage girls as they want to be famous and wealthy like Rihanna is. Her target audience are also interested in style and looks so this is important for Rihanna to be able to do this. 

Def Jam is a major record label, this means that the company is highly wealthy, powerful and able to work with many companies. It also means that its a mainstream music production reaching a mass audience in which is good for Rihanna. They will be able to promote Rihanna through many ways such as Facebook, myspace, blogger, youtube etc. Universal is using different media outlets to promote Rihanna in the best way. Particularly, using other companies to expose Rihanna's star persona, image, songs and clothing line to her target audience.

i felt it was important to have an understanding of Rihanna's music background so that when looking at ideas from her previous music videos i was able to understand how she was able to do it etc.  

Rihanna

In order to find more out about Rihanna's audience i wanted to look at her in more detail. It is clear that she is a inspiration to many and the things she does has a big impact on her fans, for example her hairstyles have become iconic. Her Caribbean background gave Rihanna a quirky twist in which people loved as she was different, Rihanna used this to her favour and began to put this side to her into her music. 


Rihanna has always had a unique style in which people, especially her fans, have then embraced. A good example of this is her hair. Rihanna has brought in many hairstyles in which now are seen as common within girls. For example her bob cut. When she had this done everyone considered having it done too. 
 
  To further this when Rihanna died her hair red, once again many did too. This shows that she is powerful within the music industry as she has such an impact.  This also shows that she has a massive fan base in which allows her to do such controversial moves. Additionally, this images in which she is portraying with her red hair is very flirtatious, confident, sexy, sassy, seductive and attractive. The red hair also connotes the dual personality of her in which is either seductive, intimacy and passionate or, powerful, dominate, controlling and has authority over target audience. Although she needs her fans to be behind her in order for her music to sell and to be so successful she remains dominant within this partnership.  

Overall it is clear that she has a distinct style and that she is unique and can push the boundaries. Using her hair as an example shows that Rihanna has a big  fan base and that they are very supporting of her and what she does. Having this bigger fan base for just her style shows that she is able to try new things with her music. This fan base also follows her music, widening her overall amount of fans. I feel that looking at her style is important as we are able to then get a better understanding of what her songs are about and the reasons in which aided her to have songs and videos like she does.