Emil first worked on a video by the band ''Kid British''s song 'Our house'. The budget of the song was £20,000. and it was filmed in Manchester with the aid of the local inhabitants. The filming was done within 1 day, and the editing took most of the time, being 2/3 days. They had 10 days pre-production, but it does show slightly in the final product.
In the below video, Emil N describes how he became a successful
music video director, and offers advice such as keep your social life flexiable.
These results show us an audience preference for rock videos, preferably with a story. Therefore if we make a narrative based rock video, we will reach the widest possible audience,
this screenshot is us getting permission from the band. However due to the lack of contact mediums, as facebook and twitter for the band have been cancelled since the bands conception, and although we have received no permission, we have not been told that we can't use it. We have since sent another email, again to no reply, and we are assuming we can use it, without fear of copyright.
I don't really want to
I don't really need to
Really would have been to
Cause it still won't please you
Know the path i'm going down
Know the way i want to live
So yo don't have to try in the
Sea of emptiness
Chorus (P1)
You only have one chance in life
So make sure that you get it right
so what you really want to know.
Chorus (P2)
So don't give up.
Don't give in
Don't let all the people in
Make you feel like
you were wrong
You were hooolding on
This is not about me
This is not about you
Open up your eyes and see
You know what you need to do
07-seven days are a American band that we picked due to their easy to understand lyrics and relatively slow pacing, making easy to lip synch and mime instruments along to.
The band started in 2009, when the lead singer and guitarists realised they shared similar tastes in music, and later picked up a drummer and bass player.
Blog 9. Katy Perry – how her Pop Videos
appeal to her target audience and reflect her
private life.
Target audience = young girls (14-17).
Katy Perry has to:
a) be like an older sister / friend
b) reflect some of the anxieties young girls have
c) be someone young girls can admire and want to be (appear sexy in
a non-threatening way).
Katy Perry – how her Pop Videos appeal to her target audience
and reflect her private life.
Download and analyse each of these Katy Perry videos. As part of your analysis refer to Goodwin’s 5 characteristics).
.Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
(e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
There is a relationship between music and visuals
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
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 (a visual style and ‘fireworks’?).
There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, looking into the camera etc) and
particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Katy Perry’s videos appear ‘Feminist’ but she also appears ‘sexy’ in
parts.
There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc – “Wide Awake” refers back to
“California Girls” and “Firework”).
Katy Perry – how her Pop Videos appeal to her target audience
and reflect her private life.
Target audience = young girls (14-17).
Katy Perry has to a) be like an older sister / friend b) reflect some of
the anxieties young girls have c) be someone young girls can admire
and want to be (appear sexy in a non-threatening way).
Download and analyse each of these videos. Analyse (use Goodwin’s
six characteristics).
Katy Perry – how her Pop Videos appeal to her target audience
and reflect her private life.
“Hot and Cold” 2008
Presents herself as a victim – slightly comic – everybody’s friend – laugh at
herself?
Last Friday Night (2010)
Not afraid to be ugly (braces) – becomes beautiful.
Targets possible insecurities of young girls such as superficial appearances and the need to feel accepted amid a very active time in life. It shows this via a relatively unattractive Katy struggling to find acceptance until she changes her appearance to fit in.
This does not entirely fit in with Goodwin's theory, since there are no inter-textual references or screens involved during the filming.
•
•
“Firework” 2010
The point of this video is to tell girls, or people in general that is okay to be who you are, no , matter your shape or sexuality.
•
Elaborate special effects.
Lacks the screens or references of Goodwins theory
However, use of obesity in women and homosexual males averts Laura Mulvey's theory of it being solely the male gaze
This is fitting as the song is not meant to be about a singular demographic, in fact the total opposite, wherein no-one should be excluded.
•
Katy Perry – how her Pop Videos appeal to her target
audience and reflect her private life.
“California Girls” 2010
New – sexy image (Dating Russell Brand) – alienate young audience?
In Mulveys theory, this is sexualising and objectifying her, in a meta theory some could see this as how people in the media saw Perry. It also consistently follows the male gaze, and draws attention to it through innuendos and imagery.
In terms of Goodwins theory, there are multiple close ups of both Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg, and is combined with a sense of voyeurism, especially in the ''cloud'' shots where Perry appears to be naked, although the rest of the song could apply, with women seen walking around in varying amounts of clothing.
The lyrics illustrate in a symbolic way, of how ''sweet'' the aforementioned California girls are.
•
Wide Awake” 2012
Reconnecting with teenage fans – almost an apology – Russell Brand figure – female
empowerment.
in this particular video, the song is amplified over time by the video, which shows her encountering hardships, and overcoming them, and in some aspects could almost be seen as an apology to teenage fans, after the objectification of herself in songs such as California girls.
Goodwins theory can be seen here, as seen in the mirror hallway, though instead of a screen showing voyeurism, it's used in the video to show reflection of how she alienated her fanbase to become more of an idol.
However, both Mulvey and Goodwin are subverted in this as due to this being a self-aware video, the sexualisation happens at the begging, and then the rest of the video is showing regret to choices like this.
“Roar” 2013
•
This video appears to be a callback, or possibly a return to the old Katy Perry, appearing to be colourful, fun, and, unlike in previous songs still somewhat sexual, but instead for herself, and not because men want her to be.
Laura's theory is somewhat subverted, as instead of being sexualised for the male gaze, she does it for herself, as a form of female empowerment.
This is true for Goodwin as well. However, this video does however contain several of his other theories. This video is presented as a spoof of the old Technicolour movies, as well as the amplification, the jungle themed lyrics go with the jungle themed video, as well as lot of close ups of the singer, as even the thumbnail shows.
Promotional music videos tend to be made to help attract attention to a music video. This is referred to as synergy.
Example's of synergy can be seen as one strand of a multimedia campaign. the songs produced is then broadcasted via television, radio, etc. There is often clear sense
A good example of this is the song Skyfall by Adele, for the song Skyfall, which was both the opening song of the film, and was played on tv.
Another example would be the song Love is all around, by wet wet wet, which was used to advertise 4 weddings and a funeral, which saved the films failing by showing clips of the film, and was popular enough to stay in the charts for 19 weeks before the band requested that it be taken down due to being over-played.
Britney Spears hit single ''Hold it against me'' has caused some dispute as to the interpretation of the music video:
The Rise and fall:
One interpretation is that the video symbolizes the rise, breakdown, and re-rises of Britney's fame. The video starts with a meteorite hitting the Earth containing Britney who then rises to fame. She is then surrounded by cameras showing that she is under the constant eye of the media, public and media industry.
She is then uplifted, showing her rise through the music industry. However things take a darker turn, with her fighting herself and spraying paint over her past videos, showing how her breakdown tainted her image. Then when she get's into a fight with herself, this is symbolism of how she was fighting her inner demons, leading to the finale of her being a superstar back to reclaim,her title.
However a different interpretation could be that she is instead under constant surveillance, and following Laura Mulvey's gaze theory, she is being overtly sexulised, by exposing herself, as well as constant product placement of products such as GoFish and various perfumes. The camera's show Mulvey's voyeurism theory as it symbolises her under constant viewing from the male gaze.
However, this trend of sexualisation that Mulvey proposes has some merit. One of Spears earliest videos is one more time:
There are 2 ways to look at this, either A) Mulveys perspective. Here Spears is a poor young girl being exploited by the patriarchy, and sexualised by the patriarchy, when she is is too young and new to the industry to understand whats fully going on, or b) She realised, or at least her choreographer/ video planner knew they use sexualisation to sell her and break her into the industry. Either way, it was a success proving one of these theories correct.
When we go out and film, we're going to attempt to film a dramatic/tragic narrative, to fit the mood of the music. We aiming to achieve in filming the feeling of loneliness and despair, thus using amplification within our project to match both music and video.
Key Genre Conventions:
Amplfication:
By using slow, low action footage, we're matching the slow depressive, but ultimately hopeful feel of the music to be reflected in our video.
Dyer believes that stars are a construct designed to appeal to a niche market or to the mass crowd. through mediums such as movie, television, magazine and music.
Dyer says the consumers prefer a actual, or ''real'' who aren't manufactured, which artists can then use as a selling point when they want to sell their work.
However according to dyers theory, Stars also influenced current ideologies and fashion choices. A good example would be Kanye Wests shutter shades a few years back.
When it comes to looking for an artist for our work, there are a few issues.
First of all, genre. We cannot use the following genres:
Rap: We cannot use rap, due to the often explicit content, and the difficulty of the lip synching.
Country/Western: it could be difficult to express the country genre in the urban environment we have to work in.
Dubstep/trance: we cannot use this genre in particular since it generally contains little to no lyrics.
Copyright: Copyright is a difficult situation, since it limits the choices we have when it comes to selecting our song without breaking copyright.
In the end we settled for 07 days, since they're slow enough to lip synch to, while not being too slow and also being male singers.
What did we do?
We both recorded from several different angles getting several tracks to edit from, and then the actual editing which we did on adobe premiere so we could get a better feel for the program when it comes to the actual A2 music video.
What did we learn?
We better learnt the nuances of lip synching as well as gaining a better understanding of how to independently editing without assistance, as well as personally getting experience behind the camera, taking into account things such as lighting and angling as well who we want to focus on.
How is it different from a thriller?
A thriller generally requires longer shots, as well as more movement in the actual camera, unlike a music video which requires more frequent edits and a stationary camera.
Narrative:
A narrative music video is one with a beginning. middle and end. However there are two ways to go about it, 1 involving lots of inference, such as Will Young's leave right now:
This video requires inference on the audiences part, as nothing is really clear cut. Compare this to
K-pop band T-ara's video cry-cry.
This has a clearly set out narrative structure, with a beginning middle, end, dialogue, characters and camerawork akinf to a film, given off a very clear cut cinematic vibe, in contrast to Will Youngs more interpretive performance.
Goodwin believed that there was a specific trend among music videos. First of all is genre conventions. An example of this is seen in music videos. Dependent on the genre of music, it will follow different conventions.
An example of this would be the metal genre. represented in this case by Turisas's cover of boney m's rasputin.
This video has multiple metal conventions. This includes Such things as:
Stage/Narrative: Many metal videos offer a mix between a narrative story of some kind, (In this case a modern day rendition of Rasputin, the Russian leader who ws also an infamous womaniser.)
This is shown here this instance, between the narrative of the titular ''rasputin'' the man in blue and a lively stage performance by the band.
Theatrics:
Like quite a few metal bands, the band uses a theatrical style, a mixture of viking and body paint.
He also proposed that there was a link between lyrics and the content of the video itself. This can then lead to 3 outcomes: Illustrative, amplifying or contradicting. Illustrative is when the lyrics are descriptive of what is occuring in the video. Contradicting is when the lyrics oppose the video, for example a happy video going alongside depressive lyrics or vice versa. Amplifying is like illustrative, but to a greater extreme.
Also, as in Goodwin's theory, is the sense of voyeurism. There are many scantily clad women in this video, that we are viewing through the male gaze and its male point of view.
There are also multiple close ups of the bands, with them looking into into the camera flipping between the illusion they are playing in some form of club, and looking directly into the camera, thus reinforcing the idea of screens thus fully, completely completing Goodwins theory.
In the case of the above video, the lyrics are in accordance of illustration.
Laura Mulvey claims that society is a patriarchal construct. This is reflected in modern media. especially in the modern media. She claimed that that cinema is respective of the state of todays society. To demonstrate this, she came up with the idea of the male gaze.
The male gaze is when the camera is focused on the female body, treating it as an object of erotic desire. She claimed it was representative of modern society.
She also believes in the triple gaze. This is where the camera focuses on a female figure in some way, which is then seen by the audience.
This can be shown as below.
Audience <---- Camera<------ Female figure.
This can be seen in Rihanna's video shut up and drive.
This can be seen at various points in the video that the video is made to focus on a male orientated audience.
To begin with, even in an enviroment such as a garage, the women wear gratuitous clothing for the male gaze.
Further male gaze is evidenced is the fact that there are repeated shots of Rhianna in sexual poses.
As you can see, the above pictures were taken from the favour of a male perspective, as you can see this is a prime example of male gaze, as Rihanna does provocative poses for the male audience, which is then picked up by the camera and displayed much to the detriment of female audience members
This is not just limited to music however. Mulvey's theories are also prevalent in movies as well. These can clearly be seen in the following clips from James Bond.
In the first video, Mulvey's theory of the male gaze is taken to literal extreme, with Brosnen looking at Berry through the binoculars, emerging from the water in a very sexual manner, for the entertainment of male members of the audience.
Also seen in the second clip with Sean Connery watches Ursula come out the ocean. again primarily to appeal to male audiences. As with Laura's theory this brings home the fact that there is gratuitous sexualisation of women in the media.
When it comes to music producing records, there are two kinds of music, not in terms of genre, but in terms of production.
Organic:
Organic bands are when the band ids in charge. They are in charge off the music they make, when they make it, and who with, It is then the record labels job to produce and market the music. With this, the bands are primary. A good example of this would be the Beatles. One of the main marketing themes for them is the fact that are long knowing friends that formed themselves together. This lead to production of such songs as yellow submarine, one of their most famous hits.
Synthetic:
Synthetic bands are the opposite. Instead of the bands making the music, and he labels selling it, it is instead the labels looking for a hole in the market, or seeing what currently is trending well and making the most,, and then using bands to fill this hole, and make as much money in the process of doing so. An example of this would be one direction a band pulled together by the industry after their stint on the x factor. This lead to the production of songs such as what makes you beautiful:
When it comes to the western music industry, there are 4 labels that stand over all the rest, commonly referred to as ''the majors''. These consist of:
Emi:
Sony music:
Universal:
And Warner bro's:
Major independent
Within each of these are major independents, so called because, although they are independent, they are owned by the major companies above. A few examples of this include:
RCA: Owned by Sony entertainment. RCA are the second oldest recording studio in the U.S, after Columbia, and is the oldest label in Canada. They are currently housing bands and singers such as Pitbull, ''Weird Al'' Yankovic and Shakira.
Island: Owned by Universal. Island records claims to be one of the most prominent music records in the us, with 3 major branches in the US, UK, and Australia. the US roster has people such as Taio Cruz, The Vamps, while the UK roster has Nicki Minaj, U2 and Jessie J. Independents;
Independent studios are studios with little, if any connection to the major labels. They vastly differ in both size and services. While major studios will make billions every year and have many mainstream artists attached to them, independent labels will earn a fraction of that, with a handful of artists attached, few if any in the mainstream media.
Bing crosby
Bing crosby was a musician between 1926 nd 1977, though he was most famous in the '30's-50's. He sung the single, ''white christmas'' 1942 which has been a christmas staple to this day.
This is the first time fans heard him singing this song.
He also appeared in several movies, which before the internet and the tv was one of the only ways to see a performer in action. Such performances Such as the ''Road to...'' series, including ''Road to Bali''and ''Road to Hong kong''. Most famously though is his ''holiday inn'' which is the first appearance of his single ''white christmas, as seen above
Bing's musical style was Primarily Traditional pop, Jazz and vocals. Bing also set the industry standard for editing songs, using techniques oft used in motion pictures, including: Editing, time-shifting, and re-taking.
He, along with Frank Sinatra, helped start the United Western Recorders music company that was one of the most successful record labels while it lasted.
Frank Sinatra:
After Crosby began to get old, Sinatra took the scene. He used to release songs such as ''Fly me to the moon''.
After Sinatra came Elvis, changing the leading genre changed from slow jazz to rock and roll.
A famous example of this is his suspicious minds
Elvis was well received due to the fact that he was younger than Frank and Sinatra, and appeal
Promotional music videos exist so that people will notice the song, increasing sales and publicity. As more and more people listen/buy the video, the company will make back the money they spent on the video in the first place.
This is just part of a multi-media campaign, the purpose of which is to get as much money as possible, across many media platforms, such as television, radio and video games. However films are one of the best ways to get across, epicially in a large blockbuster film. This is because when watching a film, people will also take note of the music involved and search more of it at a later date. This also works vice versa, as songs produced as advertisement for a movie can garner attention to the movie especially if it uses clips from the actual movie.
More examples can be seen in this powerpoint:
A good example of a promotional/promoted song would the spice girls. Here is the an example of wannabe
With this song this expresses, the groups emotions and personalities, with the way they dress and act, which would become a central part of their act for years to come.
We had to try and sketch a representation of the foo fighters pretender, and then take a photo and edit it into an animatic.
What we learned from doing this?
We learned how to edit an animatic and editing techniques such as holding shots for the required period of time as well as put a side by side comparison of the actual video as well as timed shot.
How is editing a music video different from editing a thriller?
The editing tends to be more rapid in a music video, and in the music video the edit goes along with the speed of the music, such as cutting with instrument intensity, as well as lyrics.
