I came across this video on Tom Antos channel, he is a film maker that posts his videos on youtube and also provide tutorials on youtube similar to this clip.
This video is very useful as I have been trying to decide how I am going to light my video for the night shots.
Since my last post I have developed my concept and have now almost completed my story board. Before finalising my storyboard and preparing equipment, props and other things, I felt it necessary to have some focus groups to find out other people’s opinions on my concept and how I could further develop it. I had four groups of two's, I kept the number small in each group so that each person felt comfortable and did not feel any pressure from others to give their own thoughts.
To start with I played each pair the song that I am going to use so that they were all familiar with it. Afterwards I asked them what impression the song gave them and what sort of story it would tell and what colours they would expect to see. After explaining my concept I asked the pairs how it could be improved and anything that could be added to the story line.
Other questions included what locations could be used to film at and what clothing should characters wear.
From the focus group sessions I gained a lot of great feedback, overall all of the people were on board with my idea but all gave their own inputs that I shall take on in my video.
The main suggestions were that the film should be shot in a town early in the morning (so that it is still dark), the colours should be very bleak particularly using grays’ and blues.
When asking where I should have my character perform, one person came up with the idea that they should be in the place where the 'picture' has been taken. This would display his emotions and would add to the depth of the story.
My music video is going to be concept bassed and will show the persectives of the situation shown from both main characters.
The video will start in a bedroom where a teenage boy is asleep; his mobile will be going off and will awake him. When he gets up to look at the phone he will see that he has loads of missed calls and texts, when he opens them he will realise that they are from his girlfriend’s mum, when he opens the text it will read something like this: Hi (name) its ....'s mum, she’s not getting any better and is asking for you (or something along the lines of this). As he closes a text a phone call will come through from her and then the shots will cut between him and her on the phone, as the phone call ends the shot will be of the mother upset (probably a CU shot) and then the camera will pan and zoom out to reveal that she is in the daughters room.
The middle of the story will show the boy trying to get to his girlfriend but he will have troubles in doing so, for example missing a train or taxi (or something as long the line of this I am still unsure) this will tie in with the name of the song 'Getting nowhere' as the video carries on we will see the girls perspective.
(The girl is suffering from some serious illness and is dieing) Due to the fact it could be her last moment at any time family or friends will be coming to see her but she will not be interested, I will represent this emotion by using a photograph that she will have of her and the boy and when she is not interested about meeting anyone she will stare at the picture and blank out everything else.
The boy will also display his emotions by looking at his duplicate picture.
After his chaotic journey to her house he arrives but it’s too late (not sure whether I will get him to go into the house or not)
I am still unsure whether the boy will be singing the lyrics during the acting bit or whether to have him do it somewhere else.
So this is my basic concept at the moment and it definitely needs some work but I will do so and then have a focus group.
Well I have done as much as I can do now until I make my storyboard, or at east worked on my concept for my video. Once I have done that I will have focus group and will ask them about the concept and the storyboard and then ask them a few other questions, such as what their expectations are for the video in regard to its genre and some other questions that allow be to get some pointers and some of their ideas.
Forms and conventions of music videos are very important particularly when making my own music video, this is because if they are followed too much I will end up with a dull and stereotypical video, however if I challenge them too much I will end up with a video that does not make sense and the audience will not be able to relate to it. Due to this I need to to get a good balance, but before hand I need to look at the forms and conventions of music videos so that I can get a good understanding and when planning my video I will be aware of whether I am following or challenging the forms and conventions.
First of all...Camera Shots:
Music videos tend to have many close-ups, long shots and mid-shots, this is done to draw the viewer in and focus their attention to the artist and what is going on. With the use of close-ups the artists emotions are shown alot clearer and this allows the viewer to emphasis with the situation.
Camera movement:
The camera movement mainly follows the artist/band and goes wherever they go. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.
Mise-en-scene:
This is very important and is used to set the mood and is key to representing the song and the artist, mise-en-scene is usually the best indicator of the genre of a music video and if I were to challenge this too much my audience may not be able to identify with it.
Editing:
The editing in most music videos is very fast passed and there are many shots, jump cuts are the predominant editing technique used. It is rare for many shots to last for more than 10 seconds unless the the camera is tracking the artist who is moving around. Fades and dissolves are also very popular transitions within music videos.
Lighting:
Some music videos are filmed in black and white to give a certain effect and others use natural lighting, artificial lighting is also used in video to give a certain effect or feeling.
Sound:
In terms of sound it is usually just the track and sometimes extra sounds are added to fit in with the story as well as dialogue in the video such as characters talking.
Colour:
Usually the colour ties in with the genre for example dark colours tie in with the rock genre however colours can also be used to reflect emotion for example if the mood was meant to be sad the colours would also be dark.
There are different stages that take place during the creation of a music video. The first is Pre-production.
Pre-production for a music video entails budgeting, finding locations and performers, hiring a crew and working with a director to brainstorm the video.
The next stage is production, this stage includes the actual filming of the video and bringing together all of the planning that has happened leading up to this stage. This stage can be very costly even though it a very quick stage, this is because so many people are usually involved and other costs such as sets and effects are needed.
This video gives an example of behind the scenes showing the production side of a music video.
The next stage is Post-production, this stage incclludes the editing of the footage resulting in a complete music video. After this the video will be shared on the web and on TV channels.
What is the purpose of a music video for the companies/artists that make them?
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. By making a music video an artist creates an opportunity to show themselves to the viewer and sell them their image of what they are and their overall style. People are usually more attracted to an artist if they are fashionable and have a better presence on camera. Due to this artists make videos because it creates more interest in them which results in greater sales of their songs usually.
Who are some famous music video directors and why are their videos so well known/successful?
When looking into this I came across this slide on slideshare which informed me of famous music video directors.
After looking at this slide I decided to look into their work more, so that I could write about them, but I decided that if I were to do so, I would end up saying pretty much the same thing as shown in the slide above so to avoid that I have decided to embed this video.
One answer to why their music videos are so successful is first of because of the budget they have to create such videos, because they work with the more successful artists who have more money to spend they can be as creative as they want to be and create a successful music video, whereas a director who has not yet become as well known will be unlikely to have a large budget and therefore may be limited to create an idea that they have due to a lack of money.
How much money is usually spent on the average music video? Have any been made cheaply or are there any that have had a huge budget? Artist(s) Song titleDirector Original air dateProduction costPC in GDP deflated
Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson
Scream
Mark Romanek
1995
$7,000,000
$10,330,328.08
Madonna
"Die Another Day"
Traktor
October 22, 2002
$6,100,000
$7,626,051.14
Madonna
"Express Yourself"
David Fincher
May 17, 1989
$5,000,000
$9,068,790.32
Madonna
"Bedtime Story"
Mark Romanek
1995
$5,000,000
$7,378,805.77
Guns N' Roses
"Estranged"
Andy Morahan
December 1993
$4,000,000
$6,225,771.63
Aqua
"Cartoon Heroes"
Thomas Masin
January 2000
$3,500,000
?
Puff Daddy
(featuring The Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes)
"Victory"
Marcus Nispel
March 31, 1998
$2,700,000
$3,725,436.81
MC Hammer
"Too Legit to Quit"
Rupert Wainwright
November, 1992
$2,500,000
$4,007,590.88
Mariah Carey
(featuring Jay-Z)
"Heartbreaker"
Brett Ratner
August 16, 1999
$2,500,000
$3,374,939.98
Busta Rhymes
(featuring Janet Jackson)
"What's It Gonna Be?!"
Hype Williams & Busta Rhymes
March 12, 1999
$2,400,000
$3,239,942.38
When looking at this list of the most expensive music videos ever we can see that the most expensive ones are all made by very well known artists that have greater budgets.
Bellow are the three most expensive videos.
It is hard to find an average cost because there are so many videos made all of which vary so much in price from £200 to £5,000,000 +
So far I have only mentioned the really expensive videos, among the vast amount of music videos out there, there are so many different types that all range in different prices, bellow are a couple fairly low budget videos.
Most low budget films will have very little or no special effects in them like the ones above and will only include a few extras or for example in the casper video the extras are his friend in real life which reduces the cost of having to pay for people to be in your video. More often than not the low budget films are made by more unknown artists and therefore they have a smaller budget.
How can audiences view these videos? Where can they be seen?
In the past music videos could only be viewed on the television and as time went on and they became more popular they started to have their own channels that were purely based around them. As the internet has developed more and more music videos have been put up on the internet and such websites as Youtube and Vimeo have allowed anyone in the world with access to a computer to upload and view videos, due to this artists have put their videos up for people to see. As phones have improved people have been able to also view music videos on the internet using their mobiles.
I am an A-level media student and I am writing to you to request your permission to use the track Getting Nowhere by Magnetic Man ft John Legend.
With your permission the track would be used in my current A-level Media studies project in which I have to create my own music video as well as creating a digi-pack and poster for the artist.
If I received your permission the track would only be used for educational purposes and would only be viewed by my media class, teacher and the exam board moderator.
The artist and your company would of course be fully recognized throughout production and the final video itself.If you wish for there to be a copyright notice to be included in the video I would need any information sent to me so that it could be included in the project. If this is wanted please inform me with further details.
Now that I have picked my song I am getting closer to beginning the practical aspect of the project. I will now have write up a copyright permission letter to send of to the record label 'Columbia Records'.
There are three different categories of music videos; Performance based, Narrative based and Concept based. It is important that I can identify the different types and understand how they work so that I will be able to choose one, or more of them to use in my video.
Performance based.
A performance based music video is one that shows the artist/band/group performing the song through out the song. The focus of the video is all on their performance of the song.
Narrative based. Narrative based music videos have a storyline, and tend to follow that story line throughout the whole of the video.
Concept based Concept based music videos tend to have no storyline, they are generally a random concept and sometimes tends to not tie in with the band or theme of the song at all.
Since deciding upon my song I have changed my mind. I am not too sure about doing an acoustic video but rather a more edgy style of music either rock or dubstep, I have decided to do this because I think that if I made an acoustic video I would of fallen into the typical style and story which is something that I most certainly do not wish to do.
I am currently looking at different songs but I am still undecided, I have an idea of the sound and tempo but have not found the right one yet. This is because the songs I have found so fars lyrics do not relate to the idea of the video that I have started to get.
Over the next few days I think I will of started my story boarding.
Today I went to a building which I would like to involve in my video. I am starting to have doubts in making an acoustic video, my mind was swayed when I watched this video:
It is rather weird but very edgy which is something I particularly like.
Today I went to a disused building to have a look at whether I could use it potentially. The building had the same feel as the one in the Skrillex video which could be very useful and taking mise-en scene into consideration it would be very good for such a video.
When targeting my audience I will need to consider such audience theories as...
Hyperdermic syringe: Basically, the Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audienceunmediated, ie the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers. It assumes that the audience are passive and heterogeneous. This theory is still quoted during moral panics by parents, politicians and pressure groups, and is used to explain why certain groups in society should not be exposed to certain media texts (comics in the 1950s, rap music in the 2000s), for fear that they will watch or read sexual or violent behaviour and will then act them out themselves.
Two-step flow: The Hypodermic model quickly proved too clumsy for media researchers seeking to more precisely explain the relationship between audience and text. As the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did NOT reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones, a more sophisticated explanation was sought.
Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm.
Uses and gratifications:
Uses and Gratifications Theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people” (Katz, 1959) . It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification
Target Audiences are formed from different different groups, for example: Adults, teens, children, mid-teens, pre-schoolers.
When looking at my target audience I need to pick an genre.
To market to any given audience effectively, it is essential to become familiar with your target market; their habits, behaviors, likes, and dislikes. Markets differ in size, assortment, geographic scale, locality, types of communities, and in the different types of merchandise sold. Because of the many variations included in a market it is essential, since you cannot accommodate everyone’s preferences, to know exactly who you are marketing to.
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are often used in an undifferentiated way. There are around 600 types of genre.
Music can be divided into many genres in many different ways. Due to the different purposes behind them and the different points of view from which they are made, these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial and closely related genres often overlap. Many do not believe that generic classification of music is possible in any logically consistent way, and also argue that doing so sets limitations and boundaries that hinder the development of music. While no one doubts that it is possible to note similarities between musical pieces, there are often exceptions and caveats associated.
At this point in time I intend to do Don't go by Josh Kumra (acoustic version) which falls under the acoustic genre, due to this I will need to look at my target audience which will be acoustic fans and also the forms and conventions of acoustic music videos, by carrying out these two stages I will be able to have a greater understanding of how to make my video so that it appeals to my audience and also follows some of the forms and conventions of its genre so that it is not random and has a set style that the audience will be able to associate with.
