Analysis Of Indie/Singer-Songwriter Music Videos #1 : Waiting On The World To Change By John Mayer

Song : Waiting On The World To Change
Artist : John Mayer
Director : Philip Andelman

Genre Characteristics:
John Mayer and his ‘friends’ all are on a mission/ project to paint a wall. It shows the process of this


What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? :
‘Friends’ are sung and then the different people that are shown in their different environments such as where they live and what they are doing.


What is the relationship between music and visuals? :
Every drum hit in the verse, there is a change of visuals and goes to different shots or a different person/environment.


Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs :
There are close-ups and mid close-ups of John Mayor’s face by the river when he is singing.



Is there reference to the notion of looking? :
The fact that he sings ‘me and my friends, we are all misunderstood’. Correlates with the visuals because they are all from urban areas and they have strange tattoos or environments that may be bizarre for an average person and therefore they are misunderstood.



Are there intertextual references? :
Not media references but there is a reference to ‘bring our neighbours, home from war’. So there is a reality reference as we are waiting for the world to bring our friends home from war.


Is it performance-based, narrative-based, concept-based? How much for each?
Performance and Concept Based Only. As you see John Mayer singing and not a narrative because video was not telling a story but the music was. Therefore the music video was also concept because it gave a message across to the viewers about ‘Waiting for the world to change.’

Music Video Coursework : Star Image and Iconography

We wanted to really understand Gianluca's star image and iconography to portray him well in the music video via his clothing, his movements etc... So we took a number of photos of his :

So we could see that all of his photos are very singer songwriter feel, very individual. Even from the walls of his room or studio, he is very music based throughout whatever his photos look like. This maybe through the actual instruments seen in the photos i.e. the guitars and the chords, or it is through the big records that he has on the wall portraying music etc... I think it is a common theme as most artists with the same genre, e.g. Ed Sheeran, so we decided that having him play guitar in the music video would be very important to put this in the music video.

Star Image, Iconography and Richard Dyer

A star's image becomes a readily recognised sign that is used in many different media forms. Stars can use the fact that their image has meaning by allowing it to be used for advertising purposes.

Richard Dyer and the Star Theory

He is currently a professor in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London. He proposed that 

'A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music]).'

Dyer’s theory can easily be broken down into 5 sections: 

1. The making of a start
2. Constructions
3. Audience and Institutions 
4. Hegemony (Cultural Beliefs)
5. Character and personality 

Stars are made fundamentally to make money. The music institution then models the stars image around the target audience. 

The Making Of A Start

• Stars are constructed, artificial images
• USP - they can be copied and/or parodied because of it
• Dyer says: “A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials.

Bono's Glasses

Britney's Stomach

Madonna's Weird Pointy Bra

Constructions

• Stars are made to appeal to audiences, which will in turn generate revenue for record companies.
• Record companies nurture and shape their stars.
• They tend to manufacture what they think audiences want, hence the 'photocopied' nature of many boy bands, teen bands etc.

Audience and Institutions

• Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and will promote a certain ideology.  
• Audience interest in these values enhances their 'star quality’.
• Conveying beliefs ideas and opinions outside music that performers help create their star persona.

Take That

Hegemony (Cultural Belief)

• A star begins as a "real" human, but the star transformation process turns them into a construct.
• Stars provide audiences with a focus for ideas of 'what people are supposed to be like' (eg for women, thin/beautiful) - they may support hegemony by conforming to it (thin/beautiful) or providing difference (fat/still lovable).
• It is easier for pop stars to establish their character and personality than, say, film stars – they have more consistency.
• A pop star's persona is constructed on the basis of a narrow text, continually re-read and reassessed. Second album syndrome is when an artist is unable to sustain their persona over a period of time. 
• A pop star's persona needs constant nurturing.  Madonna has been excellent at adapting and changing her persona to keep fans interested. 

Character and Personality

• Star image motifs are  a running theme for an artist. The aim is to help establish the artist as a brand. 
• Star image motifs could be recurring icons, images  or fonts

Steve Archer : Narrative and Performance

Steve Archer said, 
             “Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist  (especially the singer) will be part of the story , acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip sync close-up and the miming of playing instrument s that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it.”

Steve Archer had particular ideas between each section of the production work that he thought was appropriate for music videos...

Camera Work

• Camerawork is massively significant so it is integral to the production.
• Movement, distance and shot all need to be analysed
• Movement can accompany the movement of the performer, or it can be used to create a dynamic feel to the location, such as a band performing in a field and the camera circling them

Close-ups

• As in most TV, this is partly because of the size of the screen and 
• Also because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. 
• It also emphasises half of the commodity on sale (not just the song, but the artist, and particularly the voice).
• Eye contact and facial gestures via the close up, role playing through the narrative and mise-en-scene will present the artist in a number of ways which would not be possible in a live concert.

Editing

• Pace of the transitions.
• Pace creates a mood for the video and often the pace comes with the genre. I.e. fast cuts for a fast pace song such as Boom Boom Pow

Voyeurism

• This suggests that there is a voyeuristic view towards woman and the female body in music videos to please the male viewers.

Technical Aspects

• Speed: create by the camera and editing
• “meat”: close ups and voice
• Beats: rhythm of music will match the editing.
• Light and colour: emphasises key moments creating a dramatic effect and often comes with the genre. Colour is an easy way of telling what genre the song is.
• Mise-en-scene: setting adds to the realness of the video.

Andrew Goodwin : Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992)

Andrew Goodwin is associate professor of communication arts at the University of San Francisco. He is a critic that appears regularly in many newspapers such as East Bay Express and the Chicago Reader. He is also known for his co-editing with Garry Whannel of 'Understanding Television' and a corresponding editor of the international communications journal 'Media, Culture and Society'.


Andrew Goodwin in 1992 wrote a theory book called 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' which was the first comprehensive, integrated analysis of MTV that provided new ways to understand television and popular music narrative. There were 5 main things he took under consideration:

1. Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either amplifying, contradicting)
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative , amplifying and contradicting)
4. 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 the work (a visual style)
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc..) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often inter textual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc...)

Also, it is also worth consideration whether the video is primarily:

1. Performance Based - shows the bands or the artists performance their song
2. Narrative Based - Have a story-line for the majority or the whole of the song
3. Concept Based - No story line and are generally built around a random concept.

Key Terms:
Illustrative - severing as an example of explanation
Amplifying - increase of volume or enlarge upon or add detail to something
Contradicting - be in conflict/opposition with.
Motifs - a dominating or recurring idea
Voyeuristic - the please sought by looking at sexual objects or acts, especially secretively
Inter textual - the relationship between texts including influence, reflection and difference.

This is what I have used for how I analysed my videos of general music videos and genre music videos specific to what we wanted to do. I think it is very useful as I can understand different aspects to music videos without actually having either the lyrics or music with it. It helps me to know what the music video actually is trying to portray rather than just listening to the music that I like.

Music Video Coursework : Lyrics and Analysis

Strolling back to your old place,
Afraid you might see me there
Standing in you tower and face,
You smile aint seen nowhere, nowhere

And come down from your shoulder,
So that you and me can talk, like normal,
And sit right down with me,
So you and I can write ourselves into a novel.

Never left you out in the rain,
But you still want to stand with me and complain
Do I deserve this?
Probably but girl you are anything but perfect
And ohh

And come down from your shoulder,
So that you and me can talk, like normal,
And sit right down with me,
So you and I can write ourselves into a novel.

- Instrumental    -

And come down from your shoulder,
So that you and me can talk, like normal,
And sit right down with me,
So you and I can write ourselves into a novel.

When analysing the lyrics, we thought that the first verse was that he can’t stand to see the girl he dated and started to write the song when he passed her or a memory of a place that he was with her. Hence ‘Strolling back to your old place’.
The chorus (And come down…), we thought it started off with him saying that the girlfriend needs to stop considering that herself as ‘better and great’ so that they can talk together as normal. When he does sing ‘like normal’, it suggests that the supposed ex-girlfriend thinks she is bigger in the relationship and as if she ‘knows everything’. In addition, at the end of the song he says ‘novel’, hoping a happy ever after but it doesn’t happen
The third verse starts with ‘Never left you out in the rain, but you still want to stand with me and complain’. He is trying to simplify that the girl always complains when they do something even for the good of her. At the end of the verse, it says ‘perfect’ and so he compares to the start of the relationship where it was somewhat perfect.
Most of the lyrics he wrote, is what it says and there isn’t something that is suggested but the ideas that we came out to do the music video (narrative/concept part) was:

- Seeing each other (Passing houses)
- Flashback
- Talking
- Walking or Fighting…

Official Music Video Decision

The bases of our initial first music video decision was that we use a band called ‘The Naked Recreation’. There were 4 of them which made rock pop music and were a local band that I knew from the past. We had built a concept and rent out a location for them that we would use to film to therefore edit into the music video that built into the vibe that they and we were happy to create.

But after contacting one of the band members, it was clear that we could not use them as they had a few problems to sort out. So after all the work and 2 weeks’ worth of preparation we had for them to show the plans we had to the 2 day shoot, we had to scrap.

As this happened, we had to start from square one which was very frustrating and annoying after the 2 weeks planning. We had to start again by finding another artist or using a song from a popular singer/band such as Taylor Swift or The Script and making sure we have permission to create a music video out of this. Within the first week of our second music video planning, we had found another artist that we knew called ‘Gianluca Volpe’, he was a singer, played the guitar and had 3 original songs that we absolutely loved. Not only, did we know him but he agreed to meet us to show him all of our plans (storyboards, shot lists and conceptualisation).

This was perfect for us as we could agree on a sensible concept between us (the creators of music video) and then see if he liked it so we were on a general agreement between us all. 

This allowed us to do what we wanted and therefore carry on the process with our OFFICIAL MUSIC AND VIDEO DECISION! (We were VERY excited)

Music Video Coursework : Conceptualisation #1

Definition: The collection of objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them.

I believe that this has high value as this helped us analyse what we were going to do for our music video. This is things like previous video from the same genre that helped us understand what is a main features in music video.

Music Video Coursework : Synthesesia and Visualisation #1

Firstly, we decided to listen to the music and create the Synaesthesia and Visualisation to allow us to understand the music and lyrics and what it makes us or what it made the artist feel. The music is below:

The Synaesthesia and Visualisation that we created for Gianluca Volpe is these photo below.

We all somehow drew lines while we listened to the music when which therefore shows that somehow we felt this flow in the lyrics and music and therefore felt like the music is smooth which is strange because the lyrics are opposite to that reason because it's about a break-up. 

I find the last image very interesting as the colour is bold in first swirls but then it fades into crossing lines. This stands out to me because it replicates what we can hear from the music and lyrics onto paper. In addition, there is 2 stick people in the middle of the image which shows us from the start that it is going to have at least 2 people in the music and possibly they are in a relationship. 

Synaesthesia and Visualisation of Music Videos.

The definition of Synaesthesia is 'the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.'

This is how we initially started the lesson. By playing a piece of music and that allowed us to make sense of the song or lyric. Furthermore, allowed another part of the body to carry out how the action/drawing of music would look like. What made sense in our head became sense in our body movement.

We had listened to 'For Our Love' by Josh Records (without any video/lyric videos)...

and while playing it, let the motion of our hand express what came instantly to us. This is what I came up with.

As you can see I started with a purple then a pink and green almost drawing a heart then drawing swirls and random lines. The structure of the drawing is very smooth and 'joint' maybe expressing the 'love' but the small lines in between the swirls maybe showing the rough voice or meaning that he will do just about ANYTHING for his love. That leaves us clueless upon anything he would do i.e. either buy roses and take her out or more serious and life threatening??? In addition, the song is very slow and drags on therefore the lines themselves drag on showing maybe where it is taking him or a metaphor for his life/love. I feel like the different coloured lines have difference in opinions in the relationship. He may say that he is doing everything for love but maybe his 'love' or friends think the opposite or have a different view to what he is doing or capable of.

After the first song, we played another song which was 'Pelican' by The Maccabees and again...

while playing this song, we the let the motion of our hand express what can instantly to us. This is what I came up with.

I started with the straight lines that are purple because it started with a beat and thats what came to mind as the drum beat caught my attention. Then changing colour was in cohesion with the change of the drum beat but still similar and therefore has the same lines but different colours. Then I changed colour to pink for the different beat of the music and the different sound of music which was more of a 'rounded' feel to me than before where there was a straight lined beat. I carried on drawing different shapes but with the same colours because there were different pieces of instruments playing but to the same song. 

This process really showed me the importance and significance of just the music. Also, how the music can make a big impact to your thought processes and emotions. This helped me understand that this is something that most artists go through when they hear a piece of music they like and make a song out their inspiration.

Analysis of Music Videos #5: Five Colours In Her Hair

Song : Five Colours In Her Hair

Artist : Mcfly

Director : Unidentified

Genre Characteristics:

he video begins by introducing the band members in a comical style, by getting Danny and Dougie's names wrong. It also features the band messing around at various different scenes, but telling the overall main story about a girl with 5 colours in her hair, who was miserable and living in a black and white world. She then follows them into the TV where she joins the band in a club setting where the band are playing to a crowd.

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? :

There are five colours in the music video and in that particular girl. Key lyrics like ‘who the hell is she’ and ‘everybody wants to know her name’ matches the visual as we don’t know who she is.  In addition, any lyric about the ‘5 colours in her hair’ or ‘her’ then it changes shot to the girl. Each ‘do do do do do’ it changes the shot and each lyric line the shot changes.

What is the relationship between music and visuals? :

Each repeated music instrumental  it changed shot. After every slight music pause, the shot changes. The amount of cuts reduced when it gets to the bridge of the song

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs :

There are close-ups of the singers when they are playing their instruments etc… The star image motifs I think is them themselves as everyone knows who they are and what they look like from their face.

Is there reference to the notion of looking? :

None

Are there intertextual references? :

There is an intertextual reference when it came to the black and white concept in the music video.  The girl is in colour and so is the tv but there rest of the music video is in black and white as the tv that was shown was in black and white. Therefore it may show old and new technology put together and the contradicting ideals that come with it. For example, the girl has old fashioned environment with her parents and a typically traditional family althought her herself if an outcast due to the ‘five colours in her hair’.

Is it performance-based, narrative-based, concept-based? How much for each?

It is performance and narrative based  as the band plays their music video while a girl’s family life and dreams are shown. 

Analysis on Music Videos #3 : Blank Space by Taylor Swift

Song : Blank Space

Artist : Taylor Space

Director : Joseph Kahn

Genre Characteristics:

It follows the stereotype of the type of relationships that Taylor Swift presumably has. We see a male character that she falls for and has a relationship with and various scenes are shown with them together i.e. riding a bicycle and horses, painting, eating dinner, carving their names on a tree and kissing. But one scene, where he isn’t concentrating on his phone only she gets annoyed and does crazy things such as fighting with him, throwing his phone away, cutting and burning his clothes and slashing his paintings. Eventually after either hitting his expensive car with a golf club (or somehow killing him), he leaves and we see a new guys which she is assumed to date again.

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? :

After each few words where the music picks up the visuals change. Key lyrics are portrayed in the music video such as ‘look at that face’ and the shot changes to his face, ‘breathless’ is shown as they are running, ‘name’ is shown by craving their names on a tree, ‘screaming, crying’ is shown as fighting, ‘torture’ is shown by the way she holds the apple.

What is the relationship between music and visuals? :

After every one or two drum beats at the start, the shot changes. As said before after each few words where the music picks up the visuals change. When it gets to about 2:40 then it is after every beat that shot changes

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs :

There are close ups of the artist when it starts at around 0:27 as the relationship actually starts. The star image motif here is that the individual goes out with guys and they or she breaks up with them soon after. Then dates another guy.

Is there reference to the notion of looking? :

None

Are there intertextual references? :

There are no intertextual references.

Is it performance-based, narrative-based, concept-based? How much for each?

It is narrative based mainly with a bit of performance as we see the story that she goes out with him and they break up but meanwhile she sings in most of the music video.

Analysis of Music Videos #4: It's My Life - Bon Jovi

Song : It’s My Life

Artist : Bon Jovi

Director : Wayne Isham

Genre Characteristics:

A male around his teenage years lives with his family (mum is heard) and while opening a live footage video on his (old from the 90’s) computer, he gets a call from his friend, saying he is missing a show. So he leaves the house quickly, going through numerous amount of ‘challenges’ and is solved through ‘action’ acts such as jumping from a height, running on vehicles, rolling under trucks while its moving. The friend and Bon Jovi singing the song is seen throughout the video.

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? :

Key Lyrics is shown in the visuals such as ‘departed’ as the male character is leaving the apartment in an intense way. ‘Now or Never’, he does something that he wouldn’t normally do. Its clever how they edited to have things that the boy would’ve never of done while Bon Jovi sings ‘It’s My Life’.

What is the relationship between music and visuals? :

As the music speeds up in the chorus, the chorus parts have faster edited cuts to match the spirit of the music. The spirit of the music is upbeat and fast which represents the ‘It’s My Life’ message to do with the song and therefore having a faster edited cuts correlates with the music and visuals.

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs:

A lot of the close-ups are of Bon Jovi when he is singing in the concert especially when it comes to the chorus. Maybe representing that it’s his life and he did what he wanted to do with it and it got him to great extents.

Is there reference to the notion of looking? :

There maybe a small reference to the start and end where you see the computers as they are older than what they are now but maybe not be as relevant to the music video itself.

Are there intertextual references? :

There are no main intertextual references.

Is it performance-based, narrative-based, concept-based? How much for each?

It is performance and narrative based as you see the male character 

Analysis of Music Videos #2 : Here It Goes Again by OK Go

Song : Here It Goes Again

Artist : OK Go

Director : Sie and The Band

Genre Characteristics:

The band perform dances on treadmill while singing.

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? :

There are more dance moves introduced and danced when the chorus is sung and bridge. The verse dances are slower and the repeated lyrics are repeated dances. This is possibly to repeat the lyrics because the treadmill does go on and on again and therefore is a coincidence they used treadmills for the music video of these lyrics.

What is the relationship between music and visuals? :

The music repeats itself when it comes to the chorus and therefore is the same with the relationship between lyrics and visuals as it is a coincidence they used treadmills for the music video of these lyrics. When the music repeats itself, new dance moves come into the music video which conflicts as it does not repeat like the lyrics say it does.

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs :

There are no close-ups of the band as it is a same shot (mid shot) throughout the whole music video. This conforms to the music video ‘concept’ as the music video repeats itself and therefore repeats its shot type throughout the whole music video.

Is there reference to the notion of looking? :

There is no notions of looking as there was no ‘looking’ concept to the music video.

Are there intertextual references? :

There are no intertextual references to the music video as the video is mostly repeated with their music.

Is it performance-based, narrative-based, and concept-based? How much for each?

It is performance-based as the music video only presents the band performing on the treadmills and nothing else.

Analysis of Music Videos #1 : American Idiot by Greenday

Song : American Idiot

Artist : Greenday

Director :

Genre Characteristics:

The music video is of the band performing in front of the camera and the video sometimes is fast forward. Towards the bridge of the song, green paint or liquid splashes on the band.

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals? :

Key lyrics are portrayed in the video such as ‘Media’ is shown through the screen of the camera they are performing to. This is a play on the word as they are talking about the media and they are on it. ‘Tension’ is shown through (as if) fast forwarded clips and so compared to the normal film, it is strange. In addition, towards the end of the music video, the word is used again and the video flashes black to video every few seconds.

What is the relationship between music and visuals? :

When the music becomes quieter and only the drums can be heard, the speed of the cuts becomes much slower than the other parts of the song. This may be to let us concentrate on the lyrics that they are singing and therefore mostly the lyrics can be heard.

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs :

There are close-ups of the band when they are talking about relevant things to them or the audience they are aiming at such as ‘age’, ‘tension’, ‘welcome’, ‘it’s meant to be ok’, ‘television’ etc…

Is there reference to the notion of looking? :

There is some notion of looking as the video has shown the band singing into a camera, so when definently know that it’s a music video as a camera is filming them. This breaks the 3 wall rule as we go outside the scene set and see what is going behind the music video.

Are there intertextual references? :

There is some references as the band say ‘that they are not a redneck agenda’ and ‘one nation controlled by the media’. It tells us that America might influence their audiences too much and might not have the right information as ‘tension’ is stated in the song therefore there might be some truth in the music video. Also, the fact that they have a camera to film them represents what the lyrics as saying as there is only one camera to show audience the media, and not a lot of other points of view is being heard.

Is it performance-based, narrative-based, concept-based? How much for each?

It is performance-based as all we see the band and them singing.

Music Convention Analysis #3: Pop

Bright colours are used and many close-ups to show the cheerful and upbeat emotions. Possible extreme close-ups and tend to show the purity and innocence in the personality of the artists. It aims at a teenage audience and it very upbeat so includes many jump cuts.

Britney spears is known as a princess of pop in the 1990's especially with 'Toxic' and 'Baby One More Time'. This is because they used upbeat, colourful and close-up videos to correlate with the music. Especially as no-one had done this before, 1990's became a colourful age through media influences such as Britney Spears.

Music Convention Analysis #2 : Hip Hop

Hip hop tend to consist of locations tat are a party or a fancy club and heavily dwells on alcohol. It has recognised clothing and brands including expensive cars and houses. Camera shots tend to be long and establishing to show the money involved. Close-ups to show the jewellery and assets of the artist. Also, uses attractive women. It does not follow any storyline and only follows genres and the artist tend to be involved

Every dance/violent act, they show a close-up of the face or hand so they can see in detail how their body and hands work to the beat of the music. They also have close-up of the vehicle, jewellery and facial expressions.

Music Convention Analysis #1 : Indie/Rock

Indie or Rock bands such as the smiths or solo artists, tend to have a black and white colour graded music videos and normally performance based as they are shown throughout the video. There is a popular use of extreme close-ups and long shots which include dark locations. Normally fast past and  have special effects

This conforms to black and white colour graded as the line is white and the background is black.

General Analysis of Music Videos.

Camera Shots :
Music Videos tend to include many long shots, close-ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.

Camera Movement :
The typical movements that are included is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movement includes tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise-En-Scene:
This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something.
An example is 'Mad' by Neyo. The mise-en-scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation from him lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connotes the angry and depressed mood.

Editing:

Jump Cuts is predominantly editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly transitions such as fade, dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.

Other main conventions consist of:

Lighting : Some music videos are black and while which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look.

Sound: This is manly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson - Thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film.

Props: These are a vital in aiding to add the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.

Costume : This goes with the scene in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some of the celebrities as a role models.

Colour: Colours tend to set the mod of the son though creating an atmosphere. For example dark colours are used more in rock songs such as kings of Leon whereas bright colours are seen to be used more in hip hop and pop videos.

Things to consider when making a music video...

There is a lot of factors that could be taken into account when creating a music video - whether its the lyrics, the emotion it is trying to convey, the juxtaposition of the song to the lyrics or the instrumental music itself. This can really portray the difference between a bad and good music video as well.

Sound

Sound is essential to the music video as it is the music that makes the video. As the lyrics or the music itself that creates a drive to someone to create a fantastic music video, which portrays their emotion or mood when listening  to the music. The emotion/mood is also shown through many ways in a video, either by what the audience interprets it to be or what the directors point of view of the music itself should be.

In addition, the song  itself can help the process of creating a video -  is it a narrative much like 'Little Lights' by The Passenger which gives a story to show in the music video and therefore doesn't need much time to interpret a hidden message. Or it is a performance like 'Red' by Taylor Swift which also doesn't need much interpretation because it a video about the concert. Or it is a concept music video where there is only something to show and (normally) needs to show a deeper meaning such as 'Titanium' David Guetta ft. Sia.

There is also a theme of stereotypes as when you can hear a sweet piece of music/lyrics then you tend to think sweet themes and portray that though the video but when looking at a rough, dark piece of music/lyrics, you visualise dark connotations.

Example:

We're given a piece off music for this task which was:

Life Is A Gun - Jay Malinowski - Cœur de Pirate

When listening to the song we created a mood board and wrote down our emotions onto a paper. The music in relation to our emotions were the same within the class, this could shows that the audience interprets the song the same and could means that the emotion that is conveyed it important because this enhances the connection the audience with the band/singer.

When creating a music video the emotion conveyed is very important, because the audience has to be able to empathise the emotions conveyed and this enhances the audiences connection with the band/singer. This can also define the genre of music - through the obvious tone of the music, for example the video Life Is A Gun By Jay Malinowski, the genre could be defined by the singular sound of the guitar in the opening to the music video, when our group was trying to describe the type of  music video we pictured accompanying this, it would have been more or less the same as the actual video produced - a black and white tone, in a house, the gun being present, or perhaps metaphorical.

The feel of the music video has to be one of the important things when creating a music video, because without this, the audience may have a distorted view when the actual video is released.

Then we were able to see the music video and it looked like this: