Time to get drawing...

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.

Conventions of music videos

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.

Research into the music video industry

How are music videos generally made?

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.

Famous Music Directors

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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 title                      Director                                  Original air date    Production cost   PC 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.

Permission Letter sent.

            Dear Copyright Holder,

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.

I look forward to your response,

With thanks

Jake Claridge

I have picked my song

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'.

Categories of music videos

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.

A slideshow I have made on Intertextuality

In this slideshow that I have made, i have looked at what intertextuality is and  examples of it in music videos.

Intertextuality

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Change of mind

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.

a little visit...

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.