Finding a Track

In order to make my A2 media coursework successful and creative, I would ensure I have an original song by an artist who is passionate about music and would possibly star in the music video. I realised I had a friend who went to the BRIT school therefore is a performing arts student meaning she is a reliable source in terms of confidence. 


She seemed extremely up for the idea and was determined to get the original song recorded and sent to me as soon as possible.

This has given me a good start in terms of getting on with the task and highlighting how professional the track should sound. 

The Three Main Types of Music Video

NARRATIVE BASED MUSIC VIDEO

A narrative based music video is simply a music video telling a story to an audience throughout. Often the narrative would relate to the lyrics said creating somewhat of a continuous flow the whole way through. 

Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" video is a blatant narrative video with a story throughout. The lyrics correspond to the actions and story being told in the video attracting an audience due to the humorous aspects. Despite the fact there is dialect in parts of the video, it is still explained well through the acting.

PERFORMANCE BASED MUSIC VIDEO

A performance video usually consists of the artist/band performing the track as if to an audience or simply just to the camera. 

A typical example of a performance based video is the famous Beyonce's Love On Top. It is typically created to look like somewhat of a dance studio addressing a 'rehearsal' taking place. Yet this focus solely on her throughout the entire video enhances how effective it is to put attention to one scene. This however may not always be effective hence causing it to look unprofessional.

CONCEPT BASED VIDEO

A concept based music video often refers to the music video being based around a certain idea not related to the lyrics at all. They often have a uniqueness to them, for instance, special effects or unusualness with it being unstructured without a fixed storyline.

Lily Allen's - The Fear is rather unusual with it not relating to the lyrics whatsoever. For example, the presents dancing around is highly unrealistic and there is no connection made between the video and lyrics. However, Lily Allen is often known for her unusual videos therefore making it known that this follows her style in terms of other music videos of hers. 

Music And Their Videos Over Periods of Time

Britney Spears: Baby One More Time, Reflection Task

As a class we were set to produce a remake of the famous Britney Spears Baby One More Time music video. In order to do this we had to carefully watch the clip whilst identifying the types of lengths and types of shots. By doing this we were able to plan out how we were going to film the remake of the video making it successful as possible. 

Below is a copy of the plan used to assist in producing the remake of the video:

Throughout the process of recording the video, it was difficult to keep the continuity the same as when filming during a free study session at school, there weren't many students available to help act as extras. This meant that it often resulted in the same person acting as several parts. In this sense we could have planned ahead and ensured we had more actors to furthermore increase the standard of the video. When filming it was difficult to interpret how long a shot actually was due to the large number of shots within one second. This made it difficult to edit as there were many shots to fit in the time period making it a tricky and fiddly job. In terms of the dancing and singing in the video, we did not have enough time to find someone who was confident enough to act as Britney, therefore some of the shots come across as rather poor and weak in terms of seriousness and acting. However, the initial purpose of the exercise was to look at how many shots and how they moved from one to another rather than focusing entirely on the acting and performance skills needed. As we filmed within the school it made it difficult to find places with the correct lighting and sound where it was not echoing or too dark. Due to it being a school exercise, there were no costumes used again decreasing the professionalism of the video. It made me realise the plethora of necessities needed in order to produce a high quality, effective music video including the wide variety of shots needed, the mise-en-scene and how necessary it is to have a narrative story throughout the clip through acting. Overall, the detail is extremely important - the costume, make up, performance and editing skills all have to be high standard and professional to result in a success.

Analysing Existing Effective Music Videos

Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract

This specific music video is extremely successful having merged both types of 'world' - animation and real life. The interaction between both characters - Paula and the cat, create a humorous response to the lyrics completely corresponding to the line and title, "Opposites Attract." Furthermore, the abstract juxtaposing theme adds a uniqueness to the video due to the persistent changes between costume and scene involving creativity. Following the lyric, "two steps forward, two steps back", the action is portrayed within the video clearly emphasising the comedic aspects of the video.

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice

Following the previous video, this music video also fits into the category of comedic and unrealistic. The actor, Christopher Walken (who is renowned for playing antagonists) acts as a hotel guest, legitimately flying and frolicking around the somewhat empty hotel to an upbeat dance track by Fatboy Slim. The entire concept of this video is juxtaposed with the audiences original and initial perspectives of Christopher Walken being questioned throughout. For instance, the attire worn by the character is what seems to be a businessman therefore at the time he begins to dance to the track, already comedy is produced. Following on from this, the track allows the character as if to escape from normality by at the end returning to a normal state of affairs. The entire abstract content of the video created much happiness when watched by audiences resulting in the artist being rewarded with 6 awards for this video.

The Fray - Heartless

The Fray cleverly in this video use drawings to help guide a story along whilst enticing an audience through the information being fed via the imagery. The use of a child automatically collects sympathy from an audience corresponding to the minor audio emitting depressing and emotional vibes. These two ideas cleverly work together by the animation of the drawings coming to life, as if to 'guide' viewers through the lyrics by visual aspects. Using drawing somewhat leaves an audience to create their own perception of the lyrics adding originality and uniqueness to the video, contrasting completely with the previously two analysed videos above. 

Overall, the visuals used within a music video have to be enticing for an audience by either extracting sympathy or laughter in order to keep them intrigued and enticed by the track. However, I have learnt that the visuals could completely juxtapose with the lyrics in the right way to create humour yet I think if this was not done to a professional standard, it could come across as a poor and weak music video.

Evaluation: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

1. Throughout this project there have been many new things which have become available for me to use. Initially beginning the course we focused on the 4 micro elements of media and this automatically made an impact as when watching TV I found myself stating the shots and noticing some continuity errors.

2. As well as doing coursework for media, when learning information for the written exam, it allowed me to come to terms with these micro elements and allow me to apply them to my opening. For instance, using the correct clothing for 'Rosie Johnson' to portray her youth and vulnerability in comparison to 'Derek Brown' who wears monotone, dull colour to imitate anomalies. 

3. During producing the Life on Mars clip, I was able to pick up on how accurate clips need to be cut in order for them to look accurate and professional. Following on from this when looking at how transitions can create a mood highlighted how key these effects are in film and television in order to achieve the best media product possible. When looking back at my Life on Mars clip, myself and my partner should have looked closer at how accurately edited it needed to be. This was at the start of using final cut and you can tell due to the end of the clip being un-professional and inaccurate.

LIFE ON MARS EXERCISE

4. Within the continuity exercise we had to remind ourselves of the 3 key rules when recording - match on match action, shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule. At first we kept getting the rules wrong leading to us having to re-record our clips numerous times. However, when we understood the rules, the editing and rules became much clearer as we were able to concentrate on what we wanted the final product to look like. 

CONTINUITY EXERCISE

5. Finally, when having to produce my film opening i had to undergo multiple numbers of research in order to produce a film opening which was professional to an extent. I did this by watching numerous openings and taking notes of their key features, these included:

• how long the title was on screen for
• how many titles there were
• amount of dialogue
• how many protagonists/antagonists were introduced
• the transitions used
• the 4 micro elements - mise en scene, camera shots, sound and editing

By looking at previous films it allowed me to gain knowledge and an understanding of how i wanted my opening to look. I chose to have no dialogue as this related to the way in which the characters were conversing with one another - no dialogue, only through social networks where no voices were heard. This created a sense of ambiguity and also allowed an audience to assume the ending of the film instead of it being obvious from the start.

In retrospect, whilst using blogger to publicise my progression throughout AS media, I have found my skills have broadened over time and I have managed to produce a somewhat professional film opening which the target demographic are fond of. The skills I have learnt can be applied to future times I use these programs or even in A2.

Evaluation: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?