Story Board

When we started our story board for our music video, we already had an initial idea that we wanted to include. We always liked the idea of including lots of different old photos, especially of grandparents as a young couple and old fashioned baby photos. We feel like it will give the video a positive message for anybody that wants to watch it, because it highlights the importance of family and memories that have been shared. 

However, we understand the importance of including footage of the 'performer' so the audience know where the song is coming from and so they can recognise the song with the artist. Therefore, we have 15 bars, at the beginning of the video of performance, where I will be stood lip syncing to the song and acting as Adele. Story boarding has been effective as now we have a clear schedule on what to film and where, it gives us an indication on where shots should be placed, and for how long they should be filmed. This is also useful as our song is so long- never realising that we would have to work with a 4 and half minute song, planning is definitely a significant factor for us. 

In contrast, we are still unsure on the video as a whole, so far the story board we have created, which we will continue to work on will give us a strong starting point when it comes to filming. 

We know that we want to include a range of different camera angles which can be effective when it comes to editing, as it always gives an alternative view when watching the video and can make it more interesting. We definitely want to include an over the shoulder shot where photos are being viewed, maybe with grandparents, to capture a natural sense for the video. 

Song Choice and Ideas

After changing our song idea we have decided that, finally, the song, my partner and I have decided to do for our music video is, When We Were Young by Adele. We both love this song and feel like we can be very creative with ideas and how the video should look. Adele is still yet to make a video for this song so this is an advantage on our part as we have free range on what we can do with the song. Since Adele is such a well respected artist and very well known around the world, we figured, to take the safer option and opt for a song that she has not yet released with a video. The only video we have access to is her live recorded version that is available on YouTube where she has filmed in a studio, and is she still only stood singing with a microphone. Therefore, we still have a lot of opportunity to make this video unique.

Throughout the process of planning this music video, my partner and I have decided that we should take our own representation of the song and use that to create our music video. In our opinion, apart from the song being centered around love, we feel that the song is all about remembering the past and capturing moments that you'd like to hold onto forever. This is quite an emotional song which we hope to capture when we begin filming. 

One idea we have come up with is to include my partners grandparents; they will be looking through old photos of them when they were a young couple, reminiscing about the old times and we will really try to capture the natural quality this idea brings. Mise en scene for this video will be VERY important and will be effective if we chose this aspect wisely. However, there will be a mixture of different time periods throughout, so it will keep changing from modern to years gone by.

The main idea of this video is to give it a family sense which will be quite sentimental. We are going to include various shots of old photos of us when we were younger and when our grandparents were younger. We feel like this idea for the video will be effective as we want it to revolve around people looking back on memories they shared.

We have decided together that I will take role of 'Adele' and I will lip sync to the song as though I am the artist. This will bring a new generation feel to the video and how things can change over time. I am really excited to get started on filming this video and can not wait to see the finished product in a few weeks time.

This is the YouTube video of Adele's 'When We Were Young':

AMY

Recently, my media group and I made a trip to Sheffield Cinema Theater to view the documentary about the late music star, Amy Winehouse. Personally I loved Amy as an artist previously and am a big fan of the songs she has released. The image below is of Amy before the fame got too much for her and she went into a downwards spiral of drugs and alcohol. She was very naturally beautiful.

I was looking forward to seeing this documentary which allows viewers to see pieces of her life which were not necessarily emphasised by the media. The audience has access to footage of her starting out in the music industry and her attending her first meetings with her manager, just as a regular girl from Southgate. The documentary follows her through her career up until she dies, unfortunately, on the 23rd of July 2011 at the young age of 27.

Honestly, I was not entirely sure what to expect going to see the documentary about the troubled star as the media can play a bit part in an individuals opinions so I was not prepared for the way the TV production team were going to portray her as a star. What I was able to take away from the documentary was that she was a lot different in person to what people had her labelled as, and through what people had witnessed of her behaviour in the media, all situations were over emphaised, definitely.

She was just a normal, working class, London girl who loved to sing Jazz and write songs about her life experiences. In my opinion, she got involved with the wrong people and I believe that her husband, Blake, was no good for her; without blaming him directly for her death, I think if she had walked away and got herself some help to over come the drugs then there would've been a very different outcome. However, it is not possible to predict these things, and it is just my opinion. Doing research, in an article provided by the Guardian, Blake states: 'I find it disrespectful to imply I was some machiavellian puppet master'. However, he was the person to introduce her hard drugs such as heroin and crack, which he has had a history of being dependent on.

My overall thoughts about her life is that she was very misunderstood and she got involved within the wrong crowd of people. Her true passion was to make meaningful music about the things she wanted to write about but instead the fame got too much for her, and she could not deal with the pressure of being in the public eye 24/7. I don't think she ever realised how big she would be and how much of an iconic musician she'd become- she became an idol for other aspiring artists and this was a huge responsibility.
It may sound naive but the individuals surrounding her did not provide positive influences and I strongly believe that she was blinded by the love she had for Blake and she was willing to try hard drugs because its what he was addicted to.

In relation to her songs and listening to her lyrics, they definitely apply to her life and you can gain an understanding to her relationship with Blake and the experience of her life. She was a fantastic song writer and knew exactly how to write a good song- she would use her guitar to create a sound for her songs and was very good at doing a lot of the producing herself. She was a very talented young singer. You can tell that she was very much allowed to have full rein on her music and her music videos specifically, as she represents herself as a person and her management team never tried to take that image away from her. They never attempted to mold her into a perfect pop star, it is not Amy's image and from watching the documentary, she would not all let others change the woman she was.

She was only 27 years old when she died but due to the extreme amount of alcohol and drugs in her system, she looked like a 50 year old. It was very upsetting to witness her become out of control of her own life and she became stuck in a rut which she was unable to get out of. I feel like now she is at peace and she is in a much happier place where she is away from the fame and from the stresses of her very public life. She still lives on as a music legend and her songs are still being played today and is still being nominated for awards. She created music genius and it will live on for a long long time.

Richard Dyer's Star Theory

Star Theory from embicknell

The Pitch; for our Music Video

This is the notes me and partner have created, which we will use to present our pitch about the music video we wish to do to our teacher. A video of this pitch will be added when it has been filmed. 

'The song we have chosen to do is ‘Beautifully Unfinished’ by Ella Henderson. The video will appeal to the female population more than the male as it will be from a female’s perspective and the emotions that a woman feel throughout love and heartbreak.

It is suitable for the artist as her songs are quite emotional and meaningful therefore showing the video through a woman’s perspective is better as it is a female singer.

Our production company is called BH Productions. We are good time keepers because on a previous task we thought we’d have difficulty to complete the task within the allocated time due to busy schedules but managed to produce a finished product on the deadline as we used the time that we had effectively.

We are also good team workers as we both put forward ideas and put the same amount of effort in as one another which is useful so it’s not just one of us working hard and the other doing nothing.

The equipment we will need for our music video is a DSLR (or a good quality camera similar to this one), a tripod, we will experiment with different lights, we will also experiment with the shoulder mount tripod.

We are still unsure where we intend to film our video but will soon decide in the story board and planning process as it is essential based on the weather and times we need to go out and film etc.

We had the idea to edit the video and change it to black and white which is similar to Ella Henderson’s ‘Yours’. However, we don’t want to look like we are copying that video so this is only an idea and not definite.

Emily is going to be miming to the lyrics and she’ll be wearing simple light clothing to blend in with the mood of the song. Charlotte will be acting in the video but her outfit is still undecided but will be similar probably'.

The Male Gaze Theory

Iconic CD Covers

This shows some of the most iconic CD covers of all time. There are countless iconic CD covers but these are some that have created change within the music industry and become popular trademarks for fans all over the world.

 

Music Video Regulation

Music video regulation is controlled by the BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification). Their job is to provide controversial music videos, films and any other forms of media that the public can access with age limitations if they are deemed unsuitable for the younger generation.

YouTube work closely with this system and have began to regulate videos that are being posted to their site. This means that it can refuse the audience access to the video if it categorised as inappropriate for viewing, only individuals of the age 18 and over will be able to access this content. However, videos as such can be uploaded from unofficial YouTube pages and provide audience with the content that they are unable to access firstly.

An issue with regulation is that is not always secure in protecting audiences from being exposed to controversial media as it difficult to maintain full control and on what is being shown and what isn't. Due to independent journalism, people can create a wide range of different platforms for their media, and post the content that is unavailable to other types of audiences. If it is continuously removed, then they can simply upload it to a different platform for other people to access. Age restrictions have been put in place on social media to prevent younger generation gaining access to unsuitable media, however this never always protects them. Many children that use the internet these days are very smart at figuring out how computers work, and many can fake their own age to access particular media. Without ID'ing every single person that uses the internet (which is a lot!) then organisations such as the BBFC, cannot regulate media too thoroughly.

To put it into context, the BBFC regulated the controversial music video by Robin Thicke 'Blurred Lines'. The 'dirty' video which contained a lot of explicit images in it, was age restricted and in many cases banned from the internet, and therefore they had to create a much cleaner version of the video which was suitable enough to be posed for all audiences to view.

Music Video Directors: Ben Winston

Ben Winston is a director and a producer from London, that is best known for working specifically with One Direction. He has directed both the One Direction movies; A Year in the Making and This Is Us. He has also directed a selection of their well known songs, such as, Best Song Ever, Story of My Life, Midnight Memories, You & I and Night Changes.

One thing that I have noticed about the style of Winston's videos, is that the camera is hardly ever in a stationary position. It is always moving, either doing a tracking shot, sometimes just the zooming in and out of the camera or just moving whilst the boys dance idiotically to the music. Winston also likes to do close ups of each member of the band, which conforms with Andrew Goodwin's conventions of music videos that states, the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.

Winston built up a good relationship with the One Direction boys and has gone on to direct their two films (which I thought were absolutely amazing!!). From working regularly with the boys, I think Winston has grasped the correct idea on how to film the boys in their music videos and he does this very well. One of his signature visuals is having a wide shot of all 5 (now 4) boys at a low angle. I have noticed this regularly when watching music videos he has directed.

This is an example of this^ taken from the music video 'Story of My Life'.

Music Video Song Choice and Ideas

For the project we will creating this year, my partner and I that are working together, decided to choose Ella Henderson's song, Beautifully Unfinished. We decided to choose this song, because after completing the preliminary task, where we used Dusty Springfield's 'Spooky', we wanted to do something more up date and a bit different.

The song is slow and it is about love and heart break, which sounds miserable! But the lyrics in the song gives us good ideas as to how we can piece together a narrative for the video. Both my partner and I will star in the video, and we may need to recruit another actor but this is still not confirmed. We want to the video to be in black and white, to relate to the mood of the song, and make something so simple, look really effective.

Since the song does not have its own music video, which for us is a bonus, we have had to do extra research to create ideas that will go best with the song. Without copying anything Ella has already done, we are taking inspiration from her song Yours and the music video that goes with it. It is a similar idea that we wish to achieve.

I feel like this song and the music video we will create, will appeal more to girls of the younger generation, but hopefully it will always be of interest to anybody that likes Ella Henderson songs. Being a big fan of her myself, I am excited to use her song and get planning ideas for the video. Hopefully, we can pull off the ideas we have in mind, and if we do, I will (hopefully!!) be very proud of the outcome.

Controversial Music Videos

Controversy has taken over the music video industry over recent years, where artists have become braver in what content they use and the narrative of the video. Many artists have pushed boundaries to the limit and some even exceed the boundary and present inappropriate content to an audience. The more recent example of controversy is the Rihanna ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ video. In the video, Rihanna is seen to be plotting revenge against an accountant for stealing money from her, she kidnaps a woman and ties her upside down whilst naked. She gets her drunk, partially drowns her and then stabs the accountant. The video is very explicit and at one point in the video, Rihanna is seen with blood covering her face.

In an article in Q-Magazine written by Dorian Lynskey, it speaks about infamous ‘mini-movies’ becoming music videos and how more and more artists are creating a whole story just for one song. It goes on to speak about how negative these types of music videos are and says ‘when a musician starts to use the phrase ‘mini-movie’ to describe a video- it’s time to quit’ this shows that not an effective way to present their music.

However, ‘mini-movie’ music videos are becoming more and more popular and more and more artists are deciding to use this as a way to promote a new song. This is because controversial music videos are becoming popular as they strive off attention as it gets people talking. Videos such as ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ and Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ are considered controversial as many people were offended by the content in these videos. Regardless of this, both have been very successful and popular as people are always talking about them, and just how shocking they are. This then makes other people interested to watch them and the cycle keeps on going.

Controversial videos like ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ work in the favour of people like Rihanna and other artists of a similar idea, this is because when people talk about music videos and they get shared, retweeted and constantly spoken about on social media and on music channels. The article states that ‘whether you hate Rihanna’s video or consider it the Citizen Kane of the Vevo era, if you watched it at all, she wins’. This means that people can argue about controversy all they like, but by watching them and making a fuss about them, gets the artists hits on YouTube, and sales on iTunes, then you are getting them money, they are receiving a big wage for you moaning about content they are posting. It will be very difficult to stop controversial music videos being created, especially when they are the ones with the money and power.

Textual Analysis of 'U Can't Touch This' By MC Hammer

Stanley Kirk Burrell formally known as 'MC Hammer' is an American hip-hop recording artist. He received the most commercial success in the late 1980's and the 1990's. He is widely remembered for his infamous  'U Can't Touch This' and '2 Legit 2 Quit'. His music videos included flashy dancing, full choreographed dances and the recognisable Hammer pants. He has become a hip-hop icon, selling more than 50 million records worldwide.



'U Can't Touch This' was released in 1990, at the time that the dance genre began to become popular in the music charts. The mise-en-scene of a 1990's dance film is stereotypically, bright clothing with pops of colour, big hair and jewellery. Throughout the music video there is full reference to these music video characteristics.

John Hartley's theory is the first that I will apply to this music video. He states that 'genres are agents of ideological closure- they limit the meaning-potential of a given text'. He suggests that genre acts as a straightjacket, limiting creative potential. MC Hammer can apply to this theory as it includes what you would associate with dance pop music video, which is the genre that you would say the artist uses. Hammer never strays from what is typical of the genre he is recognised with, this limits the potential of Hammer as he sticks to his area of the music industry.

John Fiske's theory says that 'generic conventions embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular'. It suggests that the genre tells us something about the 'way of the world' in the time in which they are popular (the zeitgeist). Applying this to MC Hammer's music video, and the time that it was popular in the music industry, shows that MC Hammer created videos to suit the dance mania phase, music lovers were going through during the 90's. Showing that, the world was seen as care free during that time and the evolution of new music genre was emerging.

Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress's theory argues genre 'controls the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers'. This again, suggest that genres can limit creativity and often merely conform to the audiences expectations. This is similar to Hartley's theory, by saying that genre can influence artists to conform to audience expectations, which limits creativity. MC Hammer's video conforms to the tradition 'dance' record and I am sure that it was expected from him, as it was the specific genre he has decided to go with. The video includes, dancers, bright clothing, lots of jewellery. Many artists 'lack creativity' as they conform to what is expected by them by the audience, however, you could argue that controversial artists, such as Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, do not conform to these rules and completely create music videos that are not what you would normally see in society.

There is a lot of different camera angles and editing techniques that make this video stand out. The quick jump from shot to shot throughout makes the video flow and what you would expect to see from a dance video. It doesn't drag out over one long clip.

CD Cover - Preliminary Task

This is the cover and the back of the CD that my partner and I have created for our music video to Dusty Springfield's, Spooky.

Preliminary Task- One Minute Video

This is mine and my partners original recreation of Dusty Springfield's - Spooky. We used the idea from the 1960's to create the theme of the music video.

Textual Analysis - Nancy Sinatra

The song that my partner and I have chosen is Dusty Springfield's, Spooky. The song does not have a music video so I have chosen Nancy Sinatra's, These Boots Are Made For Walkin' as my textual analysis as it also from the 60's.

The mise-en-scene of the video is very stereotypical of the 60's. The big bee-hive hairstyle and the shift dresses were all the craze in that era. Neutral colours are used on the girls in the video, which was naturally used in the 60's. The dancers in the video emphasise the idea that it was the time of change and that the skinnier girls were more popular to use in music videos, compared to the 'curvy' figured girls that we idolised before.

Throughout the whole music video, the only 'characters' you see are female. This supports an aspect from Goodwin's Conventions that there is frequent reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. The women shown in the video are wearing short dresses, or jumpers and hot pants shorts. This emphasises the idea that women are used as a sexual objects for the pleasure of men viewing.

Lot of wide shots are used throughout the music video. This can provide lots of close ups of the Nancy Sinatra, which is known to develop the success of the artist. It also shows the costumes and makeup of the music video- which emphasises its era.

Preliminary Task- Song Choice and Initial Ideas

My partner and I, who I'm working with for the preliminary task, have decided to make it old school and have picked a song from the 60's. We will be making a our own original recreation of Dusty Springfield's - Spooky.

We spent a long time trying to pick a song for us to work on, and after lots of thinking and help from our media teacher, we decided to go with something a little different to what other groups will pick. Springfield was a very well known singer in her time, making some great hits, and she also became a style icon for women around the world.

My partner and I have decided that we are going to recreate the 60's style and try to copy the hair and makeup as best we can. The mise-en-scene will also match the era and shots will be used to represent the idea we are trying to replicate. 

Happy Recreation Task

This is mine and my partners recreation of Happy. We have a lot of fun filming this short clip from a music video and the people we had included in our video, enjoyed being involved as well.

This recreation task has prepared us for our preliminary task that we are about to start storyboarding and creating ideas for. The editing technique is very different from last year, and it is teaching us how to match clips to music so that the lyrics fit with the actions and the lip syncing matches the singing.

Textual Analysis of Pharrell Williams' - Happy

In 2014, Pharrell Williams released the infamous song 'Happy' to his fans. Williams climbed the charts to make it a number one all around the world and it was one of the first forms of musical media to release a 24 hour music video to go with the chart topping single. This is a great example of Cross Media Convergence.

Users were able to  log onto the 24 hours of happy website and depending on where they are in the world, a different clip was shown and this also linked to the time of day that they visited. They were able to share the clips onto social media. The music video edit for the 24 hours of footage was released on YouTube a few weeks later, earning 668 million+ views. The 24 hour music video was aired at the Buenos Aires Film Festival. This is a good example of a mass product appealing to a niche market audience.

It created encouragement for Exchange as a large number of fans of the song created multiple versions that are similar to the original. Theses are all uploaded to YouTube and are labelled 'We Are Happy From...'. Cities from around the world have got involved. This occurred through an active embrace of digital technology, exchange and changes in copyright. A lot of the videos looked extremely professional and earned millions of views themselves.

The music video even went on to win Grammy Awards for its success. This can also be linked to the aspect that it was included on the soundtrack for the popular children's film, Despicable Me 2- even 'Minions' from the film were included in a short cameo in the video.



 

Significant Moments in Music Videos

This is my presentation representing Significant Moments in Music Videos over time.

 

Californication Story Board Practice

Textual Analysis - Recommended Music Videos

San Holo - Hold Fast

I would say that this track is the genre, alternative dance. The beat of the song is synced with the flashing lights and images within the music video. However, it is a very depressed video, which is dull as it contains no colours; only red. The music video portrays the idea that the music is more important than physical appearance as little attention is given to clothing, hair, makeup etc. It is set in a gallery, therefore giving the idea that their music is a art form.




The 1975- Robbers

The genre of this music video is Indie. The video for this music video fits very well; there is drug and weapon use and smoking included, white tshirt, ripped jeans and the idea of glamourising violence. The artist is portrayed as rebellious, which can make this type of media lowbrow entertainment.




Martin Garrix feat. Usher- Don't Look Down

This genre of music is dance/pop which is very mainstream and popular worldwide. It includes bright colours, with a summery vibe which means that it will be a big song for parties through the summer months. It is set abroad, in a holiday resort, which supports the idea that it will be a big holiday song. The main 'towel boy' in the video portrays himself as weak, as he tries to make himself look better for the attention of a girl.




Vance Joy- Riptide

This music has a indie vibe to it. The video matches very well to the lyrics of the song. As the video progresses there is the use of smeared images. There is also the use of montage and a repetitive roll of video which is played over and over. The video starts off strong but slowly gets weaker as the song comes to the end. That is also the representation of the woman in the video. Her character is strong but become weaker and weaker.



Avicii- Wake Me Up

This music is mainstream pop. It aims to please a wide audience as it is a very well known genre, but also the artist is very well known. The music video creates the idea that the characters are two lonely sisters and the older female has to provide for her younger sibling. It begins traditional, but turns modern as the older character attends a festival. There is reference to the artist in this video, the older sister attends the festival Avicii is playing at.

Textual Analysis and Goodwin's Conventions

This is my textual analysis for a music video that was released before I was born. The one I have decided to compare to Goodwin's Convention is Whitney Houston's 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' which was released in 1987.

Introduction...

Welcome to my blog; I have decided to continue the media studies course onto A2 level.

As part of the AS media studies course I will be making a music video as my main coursework production. As well as this, I will be making a CD cover to go with the song, and I will also be introduced to making a website/magazine cover for the promotion of the 'band'.

This year I have the opportunities to enhance my skills further, as making a music video requires very different techniques in shooting and editing in comparison to the Thriller Opening we shot on last years course.

I will be updating this blog, throughout the course of this next year, on different tasks we are asked to complete in lessons and any other pieces of information that are relevant to the course.

Thanks for reading!!!