Music Video Evaluation

This task was one of the ones that I wasn't looking forward to due to being fairly new to camera work. I knew that I could never make a beautiful looking music video that features great locations and expensive props due to my lack of budget and camera crew. I decided rather than try to produce one of these beautiful looking videos and be upset with its inability to reach the standard of a professional one that I would embrace the skills and location I did have. I had considered doing found footage that related to my songs message of love and positivity however I didn't know how to fill the entire video with just this idea. I then thought of the idea of basing the theme of love around family and how they play together. I decided to use my little brother as he was the only young boy I knew well enough and had time with to film. I asked his dad before I asked him and they both said yes. I was originally going to just have my brother in the video playing his fake guitar and trying to be Ed Sheeran as well as having a couple of shots of him playing with his sister in the garden. However I then came up with the idea of using my sister as well and showing the idea of sibling conflict and then resolve the conflict just as the songs message is "Love can change the world in a moment."

My original idea was to film Saturday afternoon and get all of my filming done on that day, however unknown family plans happened which meant that I had to delay the filming to Saturday evening. This meant that when I started filming outside I had to adjust the aperture and ISO on my camera past the ideal settings that I would have had if it was earlier in the day. I had to set my ISO to auto after trying for a while to get the ISO to stay at the right one as every time I moved the camera the exposure kept changing so by putting it on auto I resolved that issue. This meant that some of my footage was grainy, I could have re done my grainy footage but the main idea of my music video was that it was a child filming himself trying to become the image of a pop star however he can't live up to that quality.

I had to continue filming on the Sunday due to the lack of time on Saturday. The biggest difference that is visible in the video is the lighting difference inside the house from the Saturday evening with the artificial light on to Sunday afternoon without the artificial light on. This means that some of my footage is more yellow looking, from the artificial light. I couldn't have fixed this by filming in the evening due to my actors having to go back to their mum's house. I could have filmed it on another date but it would have been too close to the deadline and more awkward to ask them both to wear the exact same clothing as they were before. I managed to fix the issue with the ISO that I was experiencing the night before and managed to get my ISO down to 100 when I was filming inside the house and the outside. Whilst filming inside my aperture was 4 and was perfectly exposed. Due to filming earlier in the day on the second filming session it was a lot brighter than before this meant that I had to put my aperture on the maximum it could go on my lens ,18, to ensure that my exposure was correct.

Another issue I have noticed while I have been editing is that there are some continuity errors. The main error is that the female actor changed how she had her hair. In the start of the video her hair is in a ponytail and it changes halfway through to a bun. At some points of the video it could be argued that she changed while her character was off screen however towards the end of the video it changes between shots. This happened due to me filming some of my exterior shots on the Saturday and the rest on the Sunday. If I had been aware of this issue during the filming I would have asked her to change her hair back to a ponytail and filmed again but I only noticed this error during editing. In my personal opinion the hair change is only noticeable to me because I knew we filmed on separate days. most of the exterior footage is made up of long shots, and due to this I don't think people who watch the video will notice this.

One problem that I was concerned with about doing my original idea was that I wouldn't get the consent to include my little brother in the video or that he wouldn't want to do it at all. However I got parental consent from his dad and my brother was really excited to do the video. This enabled me to film everything as soon as possible without having to delay and come up with new ideas. Due to this I was able to stay on schedule and complete the filming and editing of the video within a couple of days. This resulted in the task being a lot less stressful.

Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis, is a music video theorist, her journal 'The Kindest Cut' looks at difference between film and music video editing. She mentions the role of editing, meaning and continuity, how image and sound are synchronised,  star image and close ups of the artist in music videos and how editing affects this.

Carol Vernallis theory can be divided into four main categories, that she believes are the most important.

• Narrative
• Editing 
• Camera movement and framing
• Diegesis

Narrative:

The music video is a visual to the narrative so that whatever we see on screen reflects the lyrics of the song. However the narrative might not always be completed and the music video can appear as fragmented.

Editing:

A convention of music video editing is the fact that it can break the conventions of continuity editing. Also the editing can become a vital part of the music video and even be the reason for the video, before a narrative. Which moves away from the boundaries of continuity editing. Music videos always have a certain style of editing that are easily recognisable by typical conventions such as:

• Jump cuts
• Breaking the 30 degree rule
• Cutting to lyrics or the beat of the music
• Juxtaposed frames

Camera movements and framing:

Vernallis suggests that establishing shots are one of the main elements in a music video, and are frequently used along with close ups of the subject. Vernallis also said that music videos use a lot of master shots also called Extreme shots. The camera can also move in time with the lyrics or the beat of the song. The style of framing in music videos are also quite distinctive depending upon the genre of the music video.

Bibliography: Vernallis, C. (2001). The kindest cut: functions and meanings of music video editing. Screen, 42(1), pp.21-48.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin spent years analysing music videos before he came up with the key features that can be found in every music video ever made, all of these ideas were featured in his 1992/1993 book 'Dancing in the distraction factory.'

One of these was the idea that the lyrics and the video are related:
Illustration- The visuals match exactly what the lyrics are saying at that point ie. Katy Perry Fireworks

Contradicting: The visuals completely ignore the lyrics.

Amplifying- Something related to the lyrics but not exactly what is being said.

Genres:
-Stadium Performance-Studio Performance-Location-Narrative
-Conceptual/ Experimental

Artist Close ups:

Another feature required in a music video is close ups of the artist themselves as the management knew that they could sell the image of the artist to the fans.

-Artistic Branding

-Celebrity Culture

-Artistic Portrayal

-Implications on looking good.

Star Iconography: 

Following on from Artist Close ups, a feature linked to this is star iconography which each artist will develop in their music videos.

This could be through either of the following:

-Branding

-Style

-Brand values/unique selling points

                    Voyeurism:

Goodwin also identified that within music videos that there is the concept of voyeurism.

This basically means the audience see something that they would or should not usually see.

This could be in the form of:

-Nudity/near nudity/revealing clothes

-Exhibitionism

-An intimate location e.g. bedroom

-Frame within a frame

-

The 'male gaze' is often used to attract a male audience. The male gaze is a focus on presenting things that appeal to men. This often means a voyeuristic view of, and an objectification, of women. The emphasis on looking also includes the artist looking directly into the camera helping the audience connect with the artist.

Intertextuality:

Lastly Andrew Goodwin noticed when studying music videos that there are often intertextual references to:

-Other music videos

-Films

-TV Programs

-

This can be homage, pastiche or even some kind of brand synergy.

Bibliography:  Goodwin, A. (1993). Dancing in the distraction factory. London: Routledge.

Music Video analysis 3

I have decided to analyse Sing by Ed Sheeran because I am planning on doing a different Ed Sheeran song for my music video and I wanted to see the ideas in some of his other videos. This video is in the conceptual/experimental type of music video. This video is an experimental one because of its use of a puppet which looks like and is meant to be Ed Sheeran.
The puppet even has iconography that Ed Sheeran is well known for such as his ginger hair and tattoos.

This puppet is the only one used in the video and is put in what we would consider normal situations such as driving or going to a bar however it becomes unusual when the audience see that no one is controlling the puppet because through the use of clever shots such as mid or close ups the camera tricks the audience into believing that the puppet is moving and singing on its own. The camera remains static at certain points as the puppet walks closer to the camera and then a jump cut is used and a close up of the puppet shows that he is now past the camera and is walking away. A close up of the the puppet then shows us him looking and singing into the camera which is usually used when the singer wants to create an emotional connection with the audience. However because of the camera never revealing the person controlling the puppet it does trick the audience into gaining this human emotional response to the puppet.

 A wipe is then used and the puppet is now sat in a karaoke bar. The mise en scene in the background of this shot is empty beer and alcohol glasses. The use of these glasses is common iconography of a bar however by placing it next to a childlike puppet it almost feels wrong. The puppet continues to be juxtaposed against the childlike idea of a toy puppet. This is shown through the mise en scene of a strip club, the puppet is shown throwing money at females as they dance. This is also shown through the mise en scene of the puppet kissing and dancing with different women as well as drinking and smoking with them. The use of the puppet is what makes this video experimental as it continues to make the puppet appear normal and mix with other humans.

Music Video analysis 2

Adele’s music video for ‘When we were young’ was filmed in a studio with just her performing the song therefore the style of the music video is a studio performance.  The use of a studio performance shows the more laid back and real side to the artist, as they don’t use any real narrative or special effects as they would in a stadium performance. The idea of the ‘normal’ side of Adele is shown throughout the music video for ‘When we were young’ as the video starts with a mid shot of Adele and her crew preparing for the video. One of the crew is doing Adele’s make up whilst talking to her, we see and hear Adele laughing at something he has said. The diegetic sound of the crew and Adele all talking adds a sense of verisimilitude to the video. The idea of the audience getting to see Adele as she is doing normal things is something that they don’t usually see, this interests the audience and encourages to like her ‘normal’ everyday personality and therefore buy her albums.  The inclusion of Adele’s crew in the video also shows that Adele isn’t just a perfect image of a pop star and that she is showing that professionals help her obtain this image, which yet again makes Adele seem more down to Earth and normal and people are more likely to buy music on someone they like and can relate to.

The mise en scene of the instruments that are used are shown through a wide shot of the guitar and the piano. A jump cut is then used and a close up then reveals to the audience that the piano is now the source of the diegetic music. The use of showing the instruments being played in the music video helps to emphasise the sound of the song. As the camera pans round to Adele it shows that she is the most important one in the video, as she is standing central on her own.  A zoom in is then used so we then get a mid shot with the focus point Adele’s face. Adele then looks into the camera directly, which makes a connection with her audience.

Filming for my music video

I wanted to get all of my filming done over one weekend because the two actors in the video were only available for that weekend as the next weekend they are available is too close to the deadline for me to edit the video in as much time as I feel comfortable, the last thing I want to do is rush my filming and miss out ideas and then rush editing.

Saturday 6th May- Filming session one:

My original idea was to film Saturday afternoon and get all of my filming done on that day, however unknown family plans happened which meant that I had to delay the filming to Saturday evening. This meant that when I started filming outside I had to adjust the aperture and ISO on my camera past the ideal settings that I would have had if it was earlier in the day. I had to set my ISO to auto after trying for a while to get the ISO to stay at the right one as every time I moved the camera the exposure kept changing so by putting it on auto I resolved that issue. This meant that some of my footage was grainy, I could have re done my grainy footage but the main idea of my music video was that it was a child filming himself trying to become the image of a pop star however he can't live up to that quality.

Sunday 7th May- Filming session two:

I had to continue filming on the Sunday due to the lack of time on Saturday. The biggest difference that is visible in the video is the lighting difference inside the house from the Saturday evening with the artificial light on to Sunday afternoon without the artificial light on. This means that some of my footage is more yellow looking, from the artificial light. I couldn't have fixed this by filming in the evening due to my actors having to go back to their mum's house. I could have filmed it on another date but it would have been too close to the deadline and more awkward to ask them both to wear the exact same clothing as they were before. I managed to fix the issue with the ISO that I was experiencing the night before and managed to get my ISO down to 100 when I was filming inside the house and the outside. Whilst filming inside my aperture was 4 and was perfectly exposed. Due to filming earlier in the day on the second filming session it was a lot brighter than before this meant that I had to put my aperture on the maximum it could go on my lens ,18, to ensure that my e
Another issue I have noticed while I have been editing is that there are some continuity errors. The main error is that the female actor changed how she had her hair. In the start of the video her hair is in a ponytail and it changes halfway through to a bun. At some points of the video it could be argued that she changed while her character was off screen however towards the end of the video it changes between shots. This happened due to me filming some of my exterior shots on the Saturday and the rest on the Sunday. If I had been aware of this issue during the filming I would have asked her to change her hair back to a ponytail and filmed again but I only noticed this error during editing. In my personal opinion the hair change is only noticeable to me because I knew we filmed on separate days. most of the exterior footage is made up of long shots, and due to this I don't think people who watch the video will notice this.

Editing Log

                                                    Editing Session One
After my first filming session I wasn't confident that I could save my footage because of the lighting problems I had suffered and everything being so overexposed. However I experimented with a colour corrector and it worked which meant that I didn't have to scrap everything I had filmed so far. This meant that I could continue editing and piecing together the interiors of the cars and some of the exterior shots, because of this I managed to get through two minutes of my promotional video.

I continued trying to make my two minutes of footage even more professional looking so I added a stabiliser to my footage so that it was less jumpy and looked smoother.

Survey Results

I created a survey to help me discover what types of music videos people liked watching the most. I then posted my survey to social media to help me with my ideas for my own music video. I posted it on social media to get a wider range of opinions than just people who I go to college with which would be biased as they are all aged 16 to 19. Posting my survey to social media meant that I had access to a wider range of ages. To get an even more diverse range of opinions I could have also asked people who don't have social media the same questions. My survey has helped me discover that my original concept was actually the type of music video supported by the majority in my questions. This also means that I asked the best questions that I could without being biased or influencing the answers I got.

I asked this question so that I could see what genre of music people preferred to listen and watch a music video for. My original choice of song was from the pop genre and this was backed up when the majority of the people I asked preferred pop with 20 out of the 52 choosing it. This means that I can now continue with my original song choice. 

This was one of the most important questions that I asked as it helped support my decision of what type of music video I was going to create for my song. My original idea was to do a narrative video as I personally prefer a video that has a story. My survey results showed that yet again the majority,18, of those who took my survey preferred a narrative music video. 

I included this question to see whether people do still feel that a music video is important to a songs success and 47 people agreed that they still enjoy watching music videos. 

Music Video Analysis

Katy Perry's music video for her song Last Friday Night is a narrative video. It tells the story of a teenage girl throwing/attending a house party and being unable to remember what happened.

The first thing I noticed whilst watching this music video was the fact that it was. The first shot of the music video is a long shot of a typical American suburban street, which connotes the idea of the American Dream and perfect families. The camera then tracks a paper delivery boy on his bike throwing newspapers at each of the houses, at this point credits appear on the screen in a yellow font, symbolizing happiness, telling us that this video stars Katy Perry and has been made by Capitol Records. The appearance of young celebrities and well known people as well as Katy Perry herself attract a younger audience as well as these celebrities fan base meaning more views and therefore more sales of Katy Perry's album/songs. A jump cut then takes us to Katy Perry's bedroom, the wise en scene of the room is that it is decorated in white and hot pink and is also decorated with numerous trophies and toys which shows that she is still quite naive and sheltered from growing up and is good enough at a craft, or at school to have won so many awards. However the room has been vandalized and now has blue graffiti on the bed covers and the pink curtains have been pulled down as well as having three men asleep in the room. One of these men is asleep on the floor with a beard and glasses drawn on in black pen, this is the kind of thing a younger person would do to their friend while they are asleep. Another one of the men is tied to a desk chair with tape whilst wearing a shirt and tie, this to me symbolizes Katy restricting her studious side and embracing her youth and promiscuity this can also be shown from the third man who is asleep in Katy's bed next to her and is topless. This is also the first time we meet Katy's character who is shown to be a stereotypical 'geek' with her headgear braces and her big glasses. The use of these tropes quickly inform the audience of this as well as telling us this video will be a comic one. This is also where we meet the first guest star of the music video, Darren Criss is an actor and internet celebrity. Criss gained a large cult following when a musical that he co wrote was uploaded onto YouTube and went viral. Criss then guest starred on Glee, however he quickly became a permanent star on Glee and was one of the starring roles. Last Friday Night came out in 2011, which was when he was at the peak of his fame. The use of Darren Criss will have meant that his fans will have watched the music video to support him and possibly bought the song.  Katy also featured another star of Glee in the video, Kevin Mchale. Glee’s fans were mostly teenage girls, who have a larger disposable income than an adult meaning that they are more likely to purchase Katy’s song.  Two more celebrities are in this music video: Rebecca Black and Corey Feldman. Rebecca Black is an Internet celebrity with a YouTube channel that has over one million subscribers. Rebecca Black is most well known for her viral music video to her original song ‘Friday’. The song went viral and quickly gained millions of views catapulting her to celebrity status. Katy Perry knew that Rebecca was one of the most well known people on the Internet at that point and by asking her to be in the ‘Last Friday Night’ video that she could ask Rebecca to promote the video to her followers and gain more views for her music video yet again resulting in more money and sales of the song.  Corey Feldman was part of the famous set of actors from the 1980’s he starred in the cult films: The Goonies, Stand By Me and The Lost Boys.  These films are some of the most famous films ever made and are loved by many, which yet again attracts a larger audience. This also links to part of the video where Katy wears iconic 1980’s fashions such as a neon yellow skirt and a bright pink crop top. This shows that Katy is following the roots of her parents in the narrative.