Forms and Conventions of music videos - notes

• there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
• there is a relationship between the music and the visuals. This can be seen in terms of the editing mimicking the movements within the frame, through the genre or even camera movement
• particular music genre have their own music style and iconography
• there is a demand on the part of the record company producing the video for shots of the main artist
• stars of the video can develop their own iconography
• various different screens and intertextual references are included throughout videos

Lyrics

• the lyrics tend to establish a general feeling or mood or a sense of subject matter rather than offering a coherent meaning
• the words can sometimes sound onomatopoeic
• rarely will a music video present the lyrics wholesale
• the lyrics can make use of the tempo of the track to drive the editing
• the lyrics may emphasise particular sounds of the track by foregrounding particular instruments

Genre

• the genre needs to be clear of distinct features of music e.g. mise-en-scene, themes, performance, editing styles and camera work

Camera work

• how the camera is used and how images are sequenced has a significant impact on the meaning
• camera movements may acompany the performers which can be used to create a more dynamic affect (circling the performers)
• close ups predominate which creates a sense of intimacy and showcases the star

Editing

• the most common for music videos is fast cut montage. This is where you see different things on different viewings which assures multiple viewings.
• the editing establishes the mood
• is sometimes enhanced with digital effect
• in terms of the narrative, the editing is rarely complete. Fragmentary like poems is true with music promos which tend to suggest story lines
• the editing offers complex fragments in a non-linear order
• the editing is often cut between a performance (live) and a narrative. Sometimes the artist may be involved in the performance acting as the narrator and participant, allowing a more varied access.

Conventions according to genre

Brainstorming

Having chosen the tasks that we were going to do, we then needed to decide on a music genre and then a scenario for our video. We spent a lesson brainstorming different video ideas and particular songs which would be appropriate for these ideas by listening to each others ipods and searching on Youtube. Having listened to various songs, as a group we began to realise that each of the songs that we had ideas for had a similar genre of rock/indie. Therefore our original instinct was to concentrate on this genre for our video.


1st idea
Originally we came up with the idea of making our video appear through the eyes of somebody, preferably male, who was on drugs at the time. This would enable us to work more freely with the setting, props and appearance of the video as we could make it as random or as normal as we wished. This is because an affect of drug use is hallucination. An idea was to begin the video with the actor waking up in bed and finding something significant from the night before, however he has no recollection of what has happened. Only the viewer knows as the rest of the video is a rewind of the night before. The video would consist of the main character walking, high on drugs, along Brighton pier and beach. We came up with the idea of using Brighton as the setting because of the many different bright lights and groups of people. We also thought about using a number of quick shots of the main character as the camera is following him from club to club.

For this idea we came up with two songs at first:

• Coldplay - Speed of sound
• The Streets - Blinded by the light

As well as these two song choices, as a group, we all also liked the idea of using the song 'Flashback' by Calvin Harris, even though it is a different genre. We felt that the lyrics, such as, "this is like a flashback, this is like a dream" would link well with our idea of him not having any recollection of what happened the night before.

However, having brainstormed this idea in more depth, we came up with a few implications, the first of which was the lighting. In order to follow our storyline of the main character being out clubbing, and to create the video to its full potential, we would need to film it at night. Creating sufficient lighting to film at night but also prevent the images becoming too dark and unclear became a complication. Furthermore, another implication was to do with our ages. Not all of the members of our group will be 18years old when filming the video therefore wont be legally allowed to access any clubs to actually do the filming. In addition, clubs may be reluctant to grant us access and permission to actually film within their premises as they may not believe that filming footage inside a club is associated with a school project.

Due to these complications, as a group, we came to the conclusion that more brainstorming is required.

2nd idea
Our second idea was again using the song 'Blinded by the lights' by The Streets. We kept the previous idea of using flashing lights and quick images to support the chorus lyrics, "lights are blinding my eyes." We also kept a similar idea of filming on a beach such as Brighton, however this time, instead of using a clubbing scene, we wanted to use a funfair with all the bright lights, fast rides and busy atmosphere. Our main character was either going to be on drugs not knowing what they are doing, as before in our previous idea, or just be a normal person with their friends looking to have a good time at the funfair and arcade. This idea wouldn't have the problem of lighting as we don't necessarily need to film it at night, but even if we chose to do so it still wouldn't be as much of an issue as in a our first idea because the funfair would be all lit up anyway.

As we did with our previous idea, we came across a problem. Due to the weather being cold when we will be filming, it is unlikely that many people will be down by the beach and the funfair may even be closed. This would therefore ruin the busy atmosphere that we wanted for our video and defeat the object of the storyline and song. Also, we wanted at least 10people to star in the video, whether they were the main characters friends or just members of the general public, and we felt that getting everybody to Brighton may cause a problem as not everybody can drive.

The Task!

For our A2 media our coursework consists of a main and two ancillary tasks which are both equal in quality. To do this we have to be in groups of no more than 3 people, for which i am working with Hannah Sealy and Daniel Jeffery. The first thing that we had to do was decide which brief we would like to do out of the 3 that we were given. After much thought we decided to do brief 1 which is a music video.

Brief

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

The 2 ancillaries that we have chosen are a website homepage and a CD cover for the band. We decided to do the website homepage because we felt that we would be able to work to our full potential as we are already familiar to the software because myself and Hannah are currently creating a website for our ICT coursework. Having worked with the magazine industry for our AS coursework last year we decided to go for the album cover task instead as it is something new to us and will give us a new creative challenge.