As a group, we have done a short lip sync practice with the song 'Rather Be' by Clean Bandit. I have realised how important it is to get the song in sync with the visuals otherwise it could look terrible and not make sense at all. This also allowed me to get a feel of how music videos should be shot and edited. I have found that the previous ways of filming from our title sequences does not work any more as that leads to a narrative therefore it has to make sense but with music video, you need fun and interesting camera angle and shots. Editing was also much more intense in music videos and every cut has to be on point to be in sync with the music and look unique.
Studio Lighting Practice
As a class, we went to a drama studio and tried out some lightings. We have used some filters and studio lighting to create different effects on camera such as the half face effect. It was very helpful as we could put what we have learnt in practice for our final video.
Disappearing Behind an Object Practice
During our practice we have tried out different techniques that we could include in our final video such as disappearing behind an object. It was quite challenging to get the same lighting on both screen since when we filmed the second shot, the sun came out and affected the lighting of the video.
Target Audience/ Audience Profile
As a group, we have set our target audience to be between the ages of 13-18 (mostly girls) because our song 'Brokenhearted' by Karmin is a pop song that lean more towards the sweet and innocent side, which makes it most suitable for a younger teenage audience. It will be most enjoyable for girls who can relate to the song and how they may have a crush but the wait for them to call can slowly make them frustrated. Their attraction may be due to how they can totally feel the frustration and emotions behind the song or even the curiosity of how it feels like having a boyfriend of a crush. Although some may be attracted simply because of the artist's face and her appearance, for example, the way she is dressed, her make up or hairstyles used. There may also be a secondary audience such as boys who are attracted to the artist's looks or the way she acts.
We will be using colourful backgrounds to show the cheerfulness of the song, which also makes it very pop-like. We will also be very careful with the artist's appearance throughout the whole video, so we can also attract the audience who likes fashion and hair.
Here is a video to show what our typical audience profile will be like.
The Typical Media Consumption Profile
- Always on using technology such as mobile phones, computers etc. - possible 45% of their day
- Always on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc.
- Demographics - social grade E
- Earning nothing - relies on their parents for money
- No official qualifications / GCSEs / A-Levels
Influential Music Video - Graphics
Gym Class Heroes: Ass Back Home (Cover by Tiffany Alvord & Luke Conard)
We are going to use graphics in the editing of our music video. This cover video shows exactly the types of graphics we want to use, such as the white lines on the guitar and the use of shapes with gesture. We are going to edit the graphics on After Effects and using a drawing pad to draw lines on different frames so when the video is played, the graphics shows up in a way that it does in this video (almost like it is flashing at you). We are planning to use graphics at the very beginning to illustrate the beats coming out of the phone like it is ringing. This will be edited to the beat of the song so it looks like it is part of the song.
They also drew the visual of what was in the lyrics, for example, they drew a door when they said "I left the keys under the mat to our front door". We also would like to do something similar in our music video because it will make our visuals more interesting to the audience.
At the end we can tell that their video is filmed on green screen which we will also use as part of the performance shots. In our video, we wanted to use green screen so we can change the background to any colours we want - pastel colours. This technique will also make it much easier to apply split screens in our editing.
Despite the graphics, we are also planning to play around with presenting some part of the lyrics on screen and the lyrics video for this song is a great example.
The placement of the lyrics is very interesting. They have chosen to place them either on parts of the character's body where there isn't much body language shown or around the still items in the background of the shot such as a cupboard or a bowl.
They have also used a lot of opening shots of something to make the lyrics seems like it is actually there and when you open the door, it covers it or the opposite like near the end, the lyrics showed up on the girl's body as soon as the door was opened.
They have also used a slight moving motion to make it seem like it is moving so it doesn't look like it was harshly placed there but is part of the whole scene. This technique also creates a bit of fun for audience to view. However, after a while it gets boring because it is always using the same thing so we will only show lyrics for a very short amount of time to make visuals exciting in our music video.
Music Video Analysis - L.A.Love (La La) by Fergie
This music video is especially inspirational because we could include the concepts from this video in the rapping of our song. It started off with editing to the beat by changing the shots every time the beat sounds along with a very short black out to create some mystery for the next scene and that allows the audience to feel upbeat and hyper. The use of long shot then close up then long shot again allows it to hook the audience like Goodwin suggested in his theory and get them interested in what's going to happen next.
She is wearing quite revealing clothes which is usually very common in music videos (sometimes in pop videos) and could be an objectification of women to attract more male audience. The camera also pans up and down their bodies to interpret the idea that they are in a party/club and can also be another signifier for objectification of women in music videos.
This video also uses the idea of linking the lyrics and visuals together to further highlight the lyrics. For example, when Fergie said "Hollywood" they then showed a shot of the Hollywood sign. They have used this technique throughout the whole video along with graphics to illustrate it as visuals creates a non-traditional montage and allows the audience to remember those particular words very well.
The artist and other dancers are dressed very brightly which makes the video more exciting and joyful as this is good because it is quite a dancey song. This was further indicated through the high contrast and saturation of the colours used in the video. The camera is always moving which makes the video much more amusing and lively.
Music Video Analysis - Part of Me by Katy Perry
This music video by Katy Perry is narrative-based and shows how she changed throughout using the meaning of the song as a link. Her appearance started out to be very feminine and girly but as soon as she was cheated on she completely changed her style to a tom boy, marine hero.
There are not many performance scenes; she sings while carrying out the activities she is in during the narrative which shows a sense of reality. The performance don't start until three quarter way through the video which can mean she is slowly recovering from the heart break and is not comfortable enough to show her feelings. The atmosphere around her during the singing is also very serious therefore emphasizes that she is not joking around and how a heart break can make someone much stronger.
Throughout the whole music video, the director has chosen to use high key lighting which suggests what she is doing is the right thing and will create a brighter future for her. However, there are some dark scenes near the end and may connote the dark times of her such as the cheating of her boyfriend that was shown at the beginning but these scenes are very short and snappy which could signify that it is only a very small part of her and will fade over time.
The editing for this music video is very simple because it is a narrative therefore they have used a lot of still shots, although the camera do move more often than a normal film to make it flow better with the song. The editing techniques are something you would see in a film, for example a match on action like when she places her necklace down on the table. There is some editing to the beat such as when she was cutting her hair in the toilet, every cut was in time with the beat of the music so it makes it smoother. They also use scenes that match the lyrics like at the beginning of the song there was a shot of her driving away in her car when it said "days like this I want to drive away" making the relationship between the song and her even tighter.
This is inspirational because I can use a similar technique for the narrative bits in our music video and the way how she sings during her activities.
Music Video Analysis - Blank Space by Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift - Blank Space
This video starts with a long shot of the place to establish
where it is and gives the audience a bit of background information so the narrative
makes sense. For example, the big house connotes her being rich. It then cuts
to a shot of Taylor Swift which allows the audience to know who the
protagonist is and what the whole story is based on. She is also wearing a
black, lacey dress with flirty make-up and hair which suggests she is very
appealing to guys and has lots of power in them, which was also emphasized by
the lyrics "I could show you incredible thing". I have also realised that the camera always moves so everything flows when it cut to a different shot in music videos, although in ' Blank Space' there were a lot of still shots to make it feel like the movie 'The Great Gatsby' - intertexuality.
The change between different camera shots and fast-paced cutting to the beat makes it more interesting as it flashes at the audience like a montage. During the whole video, she also sings along with the song while showing the narrative, which makes it seem like it's an memory and not a realistic story that's happening at the time.
The change between different camera shots and fast-paced cutting to the beat makes it more interesting as it flashes at the audience like a montage. During the whole video, she also sings along with the song while showing the narrative, which makes it seem like it's an memory and not a realistic story that's happening at the time.
The lighting used is also very intensified which makes it seem like she is a very strong women who have the power to rule over guys - especially guys who 'cheat' on her. On the other hand, when she was in love she was wearing lighter and pastel colours to suggest that she is happy, soft and nice but as soon as she realised he is cheating on her, the colour scheme of her clothing also changed to darker colours such as bottle green and red that signify anger and depressed. They also chose to use melted make-up and insane actions to further highlight the anger and sadness. These were also backed up with lyrics 'Cause, darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream' to show the sudden change.
I think this is a good influence for our music video because the editing was done very well to keep the music video upbeat and fascinating with different techniques such as using a montage, fast-paced and editing to the beat. We could also look more into including narrative within our music video but still have enough 'performing' shots to draw fans into watching the video.
Intertextuality in Goodwin's Theory
Intertextuality refers to the use of other popular culture objects within another video and the audience creates their meaning of the video according to the intention suggestion created with relationships between primary and secondary texts. For example, a music video can contain references to a book. Many editors or directors use intertextuality in music videos because it combines different cultural codes taken from previous texts that are sensible for many audience. Using intertextuality in music videos allow a viewer to identify with their theoretical framework of knowledge and use it to define their identity. This will also open up to a range of audiences viewing the video. For example, in Paramore's Decode there will also gain some views from twilight fans since it is a soundtrack for the film 'Twilight'.
A very popular example of intertextuality is 'Material Girl' by Madonna. In this video, Madonna acts like Marilyn Monroe in Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. This is a direct cinematic reference which allows an active audience to draw conclusions to the meaning of the message.
Another example of intertextuality that I found is 'Love Story' by Taylor Swift. The song is about love and they have used references from the classic Romeo and Juliet play by Shakespeare because it matches the theme perfectly with its passion and story. Using a well-known reference that fits the song perfectly is another bonus as it can gain more popularity and makes the music video more memorable.
Apart from the lyrics mentioning scenes from Romeo and Juliet they also used mise-en-scene to connotes the period that it is set in. For example, the use of corsets on Taylor Swift and peasant blouses on guys. They also chose to based the shooting on a castle which is a huge signifier to Romeo and Juliet.
Recreating scenes such as Taylor Swift (as Juliet) standing on a balcony looking out using a low angle long shot, the dance inside and meeting in the dark to see each other allows audience to realise the link between the song and music video to the play 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Balcony Scene
Dancing Scene
I am still not too sure whether to use intertextuality in our music video because we need to find a good example and recreate it the best way possible to have a positive effect. If we do decide to use it, we need to avoid recreating the scenes badly because it will just make it seem like we are making fun of the original reference which will result in a negative effect. However, I understand that using intertextuality can give our video a deeper meaning and recognition.
Recreating scenes such as Taylor Swift (as Juliet) standing on a balcony looking out using a low angle long shot, the dance inside and meeting in the dark to see each other allows audience to realise the link between the song and music video to the play 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Balcony Scene
Dancing Scene
Meeting in the Dark Scene
I am still not too sure whether to use intertextuality in our music video because we need to find a good example and recreate it the best way possible to have a positive effect. If we do decide to use it, we need to avoid recreating the scenes badly because it will just make it seem like we are making fun of the original reference which will result in a negative effect. However, I understand that using intertextuality can give our video a deeper meaning and recognition.
Objectification of Women
Although sexual objectification is common in the media culture, music videos provides the most potent examples of it. Compared to male artists, female artists were more sexually objectified, held to stricter appearance standards, and more likely to demonstrate sexually alluring behaviour. In addition, sexual objectification was more prominent in R&B/hip hop and pop genres than in country videos.
There are a lot of music videos featuring male artists that is a good example on objectification of women. For example, 'Whistle' by Flo Rida have a lot of sexy scenes in it. This video is all about the body of a women and how having a sexy girl around and being rich is all guys would ever want.
At the beginning, there are lots of inter-cuts with mid shots of Flo Rida raising his arms and establish shots of the place he is in to connotes that he owns the place and he is rich. The choice of location also gives audiences a glimpse of something amazing(sexually) is going to be shown like a party with a bunch of girls in sexy bikinis.
Since there are lots of sexual shots of women therefore the target audience will be men who are around the age of 16-35. The first thing we see with women is a extreme close up of a girl 'whistling'. This links to the song lyrics and 'whistling' could signify an sexual action which is considered as a sexual pleasure to men. Women are represented in a wet look to make them look sexier and attract more male audiences.
The 'happy' nooding reaction from guys suggests that they are what males likes to see - women in bikinis on the floor with wet hair at a beach. This almost shows exactly what male audiences will look like when they view the video. Videos with these images create the sense of sexual pleasure just from watching (same principle as watching porn).
There is a stereotypical way to show off a women's body and it has shown that in the music video by using all sorts of sexy pose to lure male audiences. For example, a shot of a model half naked staring at the audience giving the sexy eye contract or laying on the sand bed to show off her 's line'.
Actions like crawling towards the camera can give audiences the sexual intention that the
women wants to go on top of him and have fun.
Extreme close up/close up shots of women's lips, buttocks and boobs are very common to create an eye candy for men and make them want to continue to stare at the screen and possibly repeat the video over and over again.
Here, Flo Rida is making an action that looks like he is calling for something connotes that he is the leader and no only has he got the power towards guys but he also can 'boss' around good-looking girls. By wearing gold chains/watches and having big houses suggest he is rich and is popular.
Directors love to use water and beach to associate with sexiness in music videos. This is all because we think that flicking hair around is sexy and water on women's body creates the ideal sexual pleasure. Therefore this suggests that objectification of women is heavily used in most music videos by male artists to achieve the male target audience.
This is a good example of how guys find women's body a sexual pleasure. It is also a good advertising technique to get sponsors from companies by featuring their product in their video.
According to the theory, male artists always have some sort of female dancers dressed quite minimal dancing around them when they sing. Here are some examples from Flo Rida's videos. This again show the class difference and it also points out who is the main lead of everything.
Objectification of Men
The idea objectification of men/women comes from Freud, and it has been used especially in Media Studies to explain the gendered pleasures of cinema. For example, women are always represented in a sexy way by wearing the least amount of fabric possible and men are represented as 'fit' and handsome with suits or abs. This allows audiences to gain sexual pleasure by just watching a video or film. Objectification is mainly used on women such as music promos where the female acts an display staple element for the male artist.
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
It is very common for women to be the objectification in the industry simply because they are women and the body. For a change, Jennifer Lopez has came up with making a music video for her song 'I Luh Ya Papi' based on the objectification of men to show the contrast with the gender reversed. Although it is another way of marketing the video because it is different and people like changes.
In the video, the first shot of her was a mid shot with half naked guys behind her on the bed and that shows the power she holds towards the men - almost like she is the queen. All the men who appeared in the video are naked which provide pleasures for the target audience who is females around the age of 17-30. This links to the song because the lyrics is about how women has the power and men are just 'puppies' that women can play around with.
The use of close up and water on the guy generate the 'ideal' type to show off the artist.
This shot of her looking at one of the shirtless guy washing the car shows exactly what is meant by voyeurism and how watching can brings the sense of pleasure. It also contrast with the 'normal' music videos full of half-naked girls by showing a guy 'undressed' instead of a women while washing the car which is considered as a attractive action.
Another example using men's body to provide sexual pleasure which is a total contrast to how a usual music videos would be with the male artist having lots of sexy girls around them.
The use of slow motion and low angle shots with pool boys wearing speedo allow audiences to get a clearer view of the body and enjoy the sexual pleasure. It also creates a dream-like feeling to connote that this is the ideal fantasy that all the female audience would dream of being in. The low shot angle once again suggests that he has very little power and is just an 'item' to style the main character like a piece of jewellery.
The number of guys around her serving her signifies that women is the 'boss' and the guys are just there to make her stand out. Those muscular guys are also holding the trays and feeding her which creates a sense of jealousy and all the women wishing that this was their life.
The use of close up and water on the guy generate the 'ideal' type to show off the artist.
This shot of her looking at one of the shirtless guy washing the car shows exactly what is meant by voyeurism and how watching can brings the sense of pleasure. It also contrast with the 'normal' music videos full of half-naked girls by showing a guy 'undressed' instead of a women while washing the car which is considered as a attractive action.
Another example using men's body to provide sexual pleasure which is a total contrast to how a usual music videos would be with the male artist having lots of sexy girls around them.
An example of how male artist always have girls dancing around them as decorative objects and how Jennifer Lopez swapped the role around. The male artist is not dressed in a way the other guys has been represented in the entire video shows that he is not on the same level as them and he has some sort of fame. However, this totally oppose the whole point of the video as the theme is meant to be objectification of men.
The use of posh cars and blings is a signifier for money which often appears a lot in music videos for male artist as that's what it is considered the most important thing to have in life for men- things that make others jealous. They also use girls to show that they are popular/show off and Jennifer Lopez has used boys to show that in this video.
Inspirational Music Video Director
Kash
Kash is a production group that directs and produce creative videos for their clients. There are 3 people behind the crew called Simon Alveranga (Head of Production) , Phil Good (Creative Director) and Jamie McCormack (Producer).
They uses lots of post-production effects in his videos such as multiple screens, graphics on after effects and others. For example in one the videos called 'Baby Sol - Always' they changed everything to black and white and played with a range of special effects to create a very graphic video.
In this video, there are less special effects used but I have realised that they play a lot with the lighting and likes to add filters to the shots of when the artist is singing. At some point there was also a blue light streak flashing across the screen which made it more interesting to view for audience. Near the middle of the video, they used a multiple screen which is one of their top post-production techniques to use to make it more unique.
Another example of the multiple screen technique is the music video they produced for 'Akala - Lose Myself'. They have used the same shot over and over again in different sizes to create a collage of the actual shot. It makes it so fascinating that the audience can't take their eyes off the video. I also like the way they did the title at the beginning.
This is another example of of the great title they created. When the title goes behind some of the items in the shot it makes it different to other titles and make it seem like it is actually part of the video and is not an add on. They also had some interesting close-ups at the beginning.
Star Image - Katy Perry
How Katy Perry Constructed Her Star Image.
The genre of Katy Perry's songs is pop, rock with the theme of sex, love and women.
The style of her music videos range from girly, high tech, graphic and modern/ historical but they all follow a common structure of being over the top with everything. For example, in 'I Kissed A Girl' she is represented as likes to party and girly whereas in 'Unconditionally' she is mystical and fantasy-like. It is obvious that as she got more fame and power her budget for her music videos also go up. In 'I Kissed A Girl' the costume and sets are quite simple and can be achieved with average budget. However with one of her later videos like 'Roar' a lot more costume/makeup changing, extreme set ups and special effects has gone into it.
The style of her music videos range from girly, high tech, graphic and modern/ historical but they all follow a common structure of being over the top with everything. For example, in 'I Kissed A Girl' she is represented as likes to party and girly whereas in 'Unconditionally' she is mystical and fantasy-like. It is obvious that as she got more fame and power her budget for her music videos also go up. In 'I Kissed A Girl' the costume and sets are quite simple and can be achieved with average budget. However with one of her later videos like 'Roar' a lot more costume/makeup changing, extreme set ups and special effects has gone into it.
In terms of music, she started with her real name 'Katy Hudson' and created an album under that name with the genre Christian rock, contemporary. This album was created under the agency Red Hill Records. It was given positive ratings from professionals such as Billboard and AllMusic. However this album was not very successful as not much people know about it although it was given positive ratings and at this point she wasn't popular at all.
This album was a huge contrast to ones she makes now in terms of music style, the 'image', everything. She gained her fame after changing her album releasing company to Capitol Music Group which changed her whole image to a strong, independent women - a total contrast to the weak, inspiring girl with Red Hill Records. She started out with the album 'One of the Boys' in 2008 which made it to the top pop/rock songs on the chart.
As you can see from the album covers, there was a huge difference. There was much more budget invested in the later albums - much more photoshopping, a set up theme and even her image like her make up and hair has changed. The make up and hair is much bolder which connotes the 'strong' image the company tries to create. She also wear more revealing and bold coloured clothes to stand out and fit into her 'sex symbol' and 'men fantasy' roles that was ascribed to her by the public. Her styling also developed future with the help from the best hair stylist, make up artist, and costume artist as she got more well known.
The more popular she is, the more extreme she goes with her costume and make up. She is almost another Lady Gaga in terms of the way she dress. This creates the idea that she is a girl who is willing to try and explore which is what everyone wants to see as it is new and exciting. This is another great way to get known by the public and be talked about constantly to maintain her fame despite the songs.
These behind the scenes videos show how much the 'team' has planned for her image and how to express her in a positive way that the public will accept but yet find interesting. What she says is also planned to make sure she keep her image. They also try make her as innocent and nice as possible to avoid the public disagreeing and starts hating her.
It's hard to keep the stars on the front page all the time so they are always talked about somewhat positively. This is why the media sometime make up stories or make a certain situation bigger to be on the tabloids. For example, the recent story about how Katy Perry thinks that Taylor Swift's new song 'Bad Blood' is about her and the jealousy between the two with Harry Styles from One Direction. These are all from the star's team promoting their star by creating the word of mouth. Sometimes they might even give 'stories' to paparazzi so they can be on the tabloids and be gossiped about.
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