The Purpose Of Music Videos

     Music videos have been around for decades and people still love to watch them today but how have they evolved? They started from short video clips played to a jukebox, to live performances such as the Beatles and shows like top of the tops all the way to the first video Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen in 1975 and they only continued to grow from there. There's so many that all have their own unique intention from producers, musicians and directors which is why they are so unique however one main intention for music videos is promotion.

      Promotion for artist can really boost their popularity especially if a video is creative and goes viral however more often than not artists will show their name and a logo for the audience to remember them by and also they will promote an image for themselves. A good example is American Idiot by Green Day as it shows a name on their drum kit, a logo which is also used on the American Idiot album and they promote a punk rock image in their video with the way they act.

                            

     Directors can also promote themselves by creating music videos such as Spike Jonze did. Some of his earliest work was with music videos dating back to 1992. Directing music videos was a great opening into the music industry for him as it allowed him to be very creative and work with artist with similar interests such as Tenacious D with Wonderboy.

                     

     Producer's have strategies to market artists differently to others, This can depend on the genre of music for example a big artist like Katie Perry would probably be marketed as a role model for a younger audience whilst using the male gaze to attract attention. You can find music videos like this on TV channels like MTV Hits, 4 Music and online with websites like YouTube. An independent artist or band is more likely to show talent to promote the music itself rather than the artist, this is usually more common in heavier types of music with bands like Metallica, these can be found on YouTube or on channels like SBTV, Scuzz and Kerrang.

             

     Recently due to in-home technology artist will become self produced making their own videos and distributing them on YouTube and other social networking sites, some artist have found fame through this such as Justin Bieber however there are many smaller "Internet Famous" artists out there such as Madilyn Bailey and Jake Coco.the good things about being self produced is that you have complete artistic control, you can tailor it to fit and it's great because the distribution and exhibition is free however it does have it's down sides such as special fx won't really be possible and there's not as much money but the main problem is there's already too much content so it's saturated.

            

     Some artists even use their videos to make a statement and treat it like a visual piece of art that they want to be remembered for, artists like David Bowie and Bjork have been known to do this before. These types of music videos are often associated with certain conventions, usually this includes; low budgeting, experimental camera work and effects but also the video is usually always visual. Most of these videos will be seen on the TV later at night after 10 or 11 however like everything else they're view able on YouTube and other websites.

           

      There are many ways artists can earn money, some of the most common ways is through the radio or music videos as every time as song is played either on the radio or on the TV or online with a music video then in theory they should earn a payment in the form of royalties. The reason I say in theory is because of the vast amount of media outlets making it near impossible to track the consumption of a single music video. Estimates can be made depending how popular the track is or how well the single is selling, an assumption can then be made and the artist well be paid royalties based on it's popularity. Mainstream artists will usaully always top the charts because their songs are always being played on the radio leaving underground and more alternative musicians to rely on other media outlets so they can be heard and recognized, however this is difficult for un-established artists to go on the television and major radio stations because it's risky with the amount of money and viewers there are. They best way for new talent to make money in this competitive industry is by making use of exhibition and distribution wherever they can for free by using websites such as YouTube but also to be innovating so they stand out from the crowd and get noticed.

     Media outlets are sources that allow allow us to access media texts so when studying music videos we are referring to any media related source that would allow us to view or access a music video. The main media outlets are TV channels for music videos such as Scuzz, Kerrang and SBTV along with many others also with Radio stations like BBC 1 &2, Kiss and Heat. Also websites for music videos play a big part like YouTube, Daily Motion and Vimeo. Some channels such as Scuzz and Kerrang may also have a TV channel as well as a Radio Station. The advantages to the vast amount of media outlets is that there's more platforms to advertise and promote however that also means that you're always fighting for exposure making it difficult to be different and unique but also it's far easier for your product to be stolen.

     Synergy is a brilliant way to advertise and it first came about in the 1930's with Walt Disney when he granted other companies the rights to use Mickey Mouse in various products and advertisement and Disney continued to do this with many of their other products so another company can promote their product with the use of Mickey Mouse and by doing so they promote Disney. Bands often do this with merchandise especially young teen bands such as One Direction, they will make bedspreads and curtains with their faces on so they can promote the company selling them whilst promoting them self.

     This happens in music videos as well for example when Ed Sheeran recorded the song I See Fire for The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug they also recorded the music video at the same time using clips of the film in it as well making a good use of synergy by promoting the film using the artist and the promoting the artist using the film.

         

     The brilliant thing about synergistic marketing is that both parties benefit from at as they are using each other to promote there self (Or there product) and can sometimes make an advert or film trailer viral as it raises awareness through the use of the other party, drawing in both audiences from each party and introducing them t a new one.

      I think the reason music videos are so popular is because of their ability to be as creative or literal as they like allowing for endless possibilities to fit their style of music or even completely contradict it working as a double edge sword as it can either be completely different to the artists usaully stuff and work in their favor or annoy fans because it's different and doesn't quite work. Music videos have grown over the years and become a very unique film style within them self allowing for very experimental camera styles and techniques which you wouldn't be able to do normally with any other form of video.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Jonze 

Research Into My chosen Track

     My chosen track is Keep Your Head Up by Ben Howard and in the Official Music Video it is a grand total of 3 minutes 55 seconds long.

           

     In order to fully understand the song and to make a good music video it's important that I analysis the lyrics to understand the meaning of the song. After looking at the lyrics and annotating them I feel that the song is all about a relationship that didn't quite work out so he is trying to find himself and who he really is. There is a lot of metaphors in the song that suggest this so it paints a really clear picture in my head with all the possibilities you could do with that, furthermore the song even has some narrative to it. As the song progresses he slowly accepts what has happened and begins to move on with his life so he isn't so alone anymore however he still has feelings for this person but just wishes them all the best. Although the song has a very deep and somewhat sad meaning to it the song is very upbeat and happy as it blends really nicely with the acoustic guitar and all the other instruments giving a very warm feel to the song.

     Although I am not actually making this video for the artist it's still important to keep to that artists image as it is their song. To do this I need to look at Ben Howard's existing image through things such as clothes, locations, tones and narratives of his other videos so that I can accurately portrait this image in my own video. When it comes to clothing or costumes Ben Howard is often wearing very basic, modern everyday clothes which is usually just jeans and a t-shirt and sometimes a zipper hoodie so I don't necessarily have to worry about clothing to much. Most of his videos have a peaceful and relaxed tone to them with lots of shots out in the wilderness and in nature so it will be important to try and recreate this if possible.



     The basic idea for my music video is the singer will be travelling through different locations and as he travels in the narrative he also does in the performance. In the narrative aspect he will be looking for himself but eventually will find friends and it's at this point in the song that he becomes happy and spends more time with them. I went looking at the locations I wanted to shoot my music video and took pictures for a recce but luckily as they were all public places I did not need to get any location releases.

Recces

     Although I did not need any location releases I still needed performer releases for anyone that appeared in my film.

Releases

     Instead of doing a storyboard for this assignment I decided to do a timeline instead as I thought it would be easier and wouldn't be as time consuming.

Timeline

     The only budgeting I needed for this was £1.80 for a bag of chips but other than that everything was free however I still needed to complete a risk assessment of anything that could happen to the crew or equipment.

Budgeting

Risk Assessment

Styles, Conventions & Techniques of a Music Video

     There is a wide range of music videos out there and they are all very different and unique using their own styles and conventions to promote the music video and the band but what types of styles and conventions are there?

     Many music videos use multiple styles and conventions within them, one of the most common types is a in-concert or 'as live' footage used in a music video. As live footage does what it says, it shows the band or artist playing their instruments along to the song as if it were live a good example of this would be the music video for Metallica's cover of Whiskey In a Jar.

                             

     In the Metallica's music video for Whiskey in a Jar although it has the as live element to it there is also some sort of narrative to it which brings me onto the next type of music video. A narrative and interpretive music video is probably the most common convention for a music video and can be found in most. It tells a story for the audience to follow which can follow the lyrics, have a literal approach to them, contradict them, extended them with a interpretative approach or sometimes just ignore them completely. A good example for a music video with a narrative for the audience to follow would be Learn To Fly by the Foo Fighters as not only does it have a narrative that loosely follows the lyrics but it is also rather entertaining with guest stars from Jack Black and Kyle Gas.

                              

     The  next convention for music videos is surreal or absurd videos, the last video briefly touched on this with aspects such as the baby's head being that of a fully grown man and someone's head changing into a burger and also the flight attendant flying alongside the plane however surreal music videos are more surprising and unconventional with a narrative that can bear little relationship to the lyrics. An example of a surreal and absurd music video would be Low Hanging Fruit by Tenacious D, although it links closely with the lyrics it is still very surreal and you end up questioning what you're watching so it's still very absurd and random, even if you know what is going on you can't quite work out how or why.

           

     From the surreal to the emotional, impressionist music videos often try to capture the emotion of the song rather than the literal meaning of the lyrics themselves. During the 19th century there was an art movement called impressionism which the artist try to record how the world made them feel rather than how the world was so due to this impressionist music videos are often considered more artistic and will often use effects such as soft light, soft edges with flowing and intermingling colors. A good example of this would be Take That's Back For Good as the whole video is in black and white with lots of soft edges and rain giving it this sad romantic feel to the song.

           

     Intertextuality is something that is commonly used in music videos with styles such as Synergy, Allusion, Pastiche, Parody or even a Homage. Synergy can often be seen in soundtrack videos where there are references to the films or can even use footage from the film in the music video. One example of this is Ellie Goulding Beating Heart as it's the soundtrack for the new film out Divergent and this uses footage from the film itself.

         

     Some music videos can allude to another media text, event, person or even a historical or cultural reference. Ellie Goulding's video Beating Heart briefly touches upon this as it does allude to the narrative of the film somewhat using the tattoos and how they're very similar to those of the leading male character. A Pastiche can be very similar to a Parody however there are some slight differences, a pastiche is a light hearted imitation of another artists style where as a parody is simply making fun of it. There are many examples of each however a fantastic example of a parody is "Weird Al'" Yankovic's Smells Like Nirvana as the song is making fun of the band and Kurt Cobain as when Al asked Kurt to parody his video Kurt simply asked "Urmm... It's not going to be about food, is it?" To which Al responded with "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics" so it really is having fun with the band and artist.

                             

     Animation can be used in music videos and this can vary between stop motion animation or digital animation. Some videos have animation used at certain parts of the video others might use it all the way through, a good example of animation used in a music video would be Passion by Utada Hikaru, the video starts off with animation but eventually comes in to live action but we then see some animation used again towards the end.

          

     There are many different techniques that can be used in a music video one of which is lip syncing and miming. Performance videos will often require an artist to lip sync a track but it is also common in narrative-based videos.  A good example for a video that uses a lot of lip syncing would be Michael Buble - It's a Beautiful Day.

          

     Another technique often used in music videos is cutting to the beat, by doing this it helps establish a rhythm to the edits and can make a video fit the song more if it's correctly cut to the beat. A good example for this technique is Linkin Park Numb, the transitions fit extremely well with the beat making the song seem more effective.

          

     Post Production effects are used for many reasons, one of which being you may want to enchant and impress an audience into watching if the effects are good enough. You can also attract a different type of audience with visual effects depending how interesting, mesmerizing or complex the effects are. A good example of a music video using post production effects would be Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication as the entire video is using visual effects as if it were a video game.

                          

     Split screen is an interesting editing technique as multiple images of different events are shown on the screen at the same time. The old practice of projecting multiple images onto the screen and changing them frequently proved to give interesting results.  Split Screen is different to multi-imaging but is the modern equivalent as non-linear editing makes it easier to do. A good example of this technique used in a music video would be Mumford and Sons Whispers In The Dark as the video follows the journey of each band member to a live gig.

           

     Using a green or blue screen when recording can be helpful if you wish to remove the unwanted background (Chroma Key) and then place an image behind that so it will then become visible. A good example of chroma key would be Ed Sheeran Sing and it uses the chroma key effect several times, once when the puppet version of Ed Sheeran is in the china town part of town and again when all 3 of them are in the car near the end of the video.

           
     Camera movements can make a video more interesting to watch, by using pans, tracking shots, tilts and crabs it can create flow and excitement for the audience, a good example of this would be Smash Mouth All Star. There's a lot of movement in this video and it works really well for both the song and video, creating a surreal sense to it but also making it very interesting to watch.

           

     Different shot angles and types can be used to create a different tone to a video, it can also work well if you want to show of different parts of the mise-en-scene. A good video for this is Go With The Flow by Queens Of The Stone Age as it use fast shots and close ups to reinforce the surreal and fast paced feel of the rest of the song.

          

     Mise-en-scene can be crucial for a music video as the lighting, objects and setting can work with the music and reinforce the mood of the song to create different emotions. A song I feel does this brilliantly is High school Never Ends by Bowling For Soup

                          

     Another good one for the use of Mise-en-scene would be Passenger Scare Away The Dark as the lyrics and video sync together really well and the use of the mise-en-scene reinforces this well as well whilst creating a slightly surreal feel to the video but it works well together.

           

Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Weird_Al%22_Yankovic#Positive