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.