Music Video Analysis

                                                                       Music video

styles of music videos

  Final production:    My music video

Performance - A performance type music video is mainly focusing on each individual performance for example people playing instruments, the use of flashing lights anything that entices the audience more adds to a performance video. In the music video we recreated for our task that was a performance video, it was Dakota by stereo phonics.

Artistic style - A artistic style video is a style of music video that portrays a music video in a new way for example using visual effects or anything you have to put in the post edit that wasn't there when filmed,in a artistic music video you can either have the full music video done in special effects, animations etc, or you can have some footage that you shot and mix it with effects. 

Narrative - A narrative type music video is all about a story, there's always a story and everything in the music video for example lighting,locations,dance choreography etc, has to all be apart of that story a few examples of this would be if it was a dark and sad video then the lighting will be dark black and white maybe, the locations will be dull and dark relating it to the story line even more. If it was a upbeat happy video then the lighting would be bright,colourful and eye catching. Furthermore it would  have locations that give a happy and joyful vibe, for example a park or a field of sunflowers.

Codes and conventions

Editing - One of the main codes conventions of a music video is editing and how it can be used to create a good looking music video. Editing a music video uses a contrast of fast and slow clips, you can achieve this by using slow-motion, slow-motion gives a music video that cinematic feel and makes the video more visually appealing.

Mise en scene - Another key element in the codes and conventions of a music video is Mise en scene,    Mise en scene is a package of significant tools that are needed in anything that you are filming, it includes props,lighting,costume,hair,makeup,locations,setting and colours.   

Camera movement - Camera movement plays a key role when filming a music video well when filming anything really, the camera can be placed in multiple variations of angles and shots depending on what is trying to be achieved. If you are filming a mid shot for example your framing should be from the middle chest area up, you can achieve this by setting up a tripod and zooming in on your subject being the actor until the middle of the chest area upwards is in frame.

  Intertexuality

Intertextuality is when either a film/TV show etc is referenced in a music video, this is commonly used to generate nostalgic associations with different meanings. This could be a way of advertising these films and shows to get a broader audience. But they are more eye catching and appealing in a music video than if it was on TV. 

Star image

Star image is how the star of your music video is presented, if your star is Beyonce  for example then you have to make sure she looks like a star and nothing bad happens on set or in the media but not all publicity is bad publicity, if a star is either caught doing something inappropriate or if a news agency is making up lies and rumours to crumble the stars career it can all get turned straight into good publicity because all the more focus is on them, and if they just came out with a album or anything they have put out publically recently, everyone will want to look into it and might even buy it.

Censorship

Censorship is a range of things in music videos, one of many ways of censorship in music videos is age group censorship, certain music videos target a certain age group, meaning the video could have the use of explicit language,nudity, violence,politics,religion etc. Censorship is in ways good for music because it reduces the exposure to drugs and sex. A example of this would be back in the 2000's artists women in particular were more exposed, and this gave the idea of wearing explicit clothing a platform to a generation of teens. That wanted to look like their idols for example Beyonce.

Voyeurism vs Exhibitionism

Voyeurism is the act of watching someone who is performing sexual behaviours such as dancing,undressing etc.The person being watched is often unaware of their audience, and in terms of music videos its usually a men's controlling gaze. Exhibitionism is where a artist is in control of the sexual gaze and they almost invite it.

Production diary 

One the day of shooting we all met at the sea front of Redcar, firstly we started setting up our equipment and props, our equipment being the camera and tripod and our props being the instruments that the band were playing, after setting everything up we started filming, we started with a master shot and progressed with insert and close up shots.

 After we filmed all shots with the whole band we started to film individual band members, we started with Ethan Brown who was our piano player with a shot of him near the sea playing the piano to the song. 

After we finished with Ethan's solo shots we moved onto Trinity Brown and Megan English who were our guitar players, trinity was on the acoustic guitar, and Megan was on the electric guitar. We set up the camera with the tripod just below this concrete like pier which we found on the beach relatively close to our previous shots, we ever so slightly positioned the camera upwards to get the shot we wanted, on camera this shot looked great and i'm glad we got it. Soon after we finished with Trinity and Megan we filmed all three endings to our individual final edits,for my ending i had both actors Magen James and Daniel Cooper walk past the camera on opposite sides and they walk closer and closer towards each other until they stop at arms length, they then turn to each other and hug.

 After all three of us filmed our ending scenes we decided to film some b-roll footage, for example i got a shot of the sunset and a shot of the moon, this then cut into the night, this is when we started filming the shot of Magen and Daniel walking into the arcades. 

Shortly after we filmed the shot of them walking into the arcades, we proceeded to film inside of the arcades to get shots of the two playing on arcade machines, after these shots we filmed Magen and Daniel one at a time win a prize out of the teddy bear machine both winning one. After this shot we packed up our equipment and left the arcades to film our last shot of the day.

 Which was when both Magen and Daniel exchanged  teddy bears and the camera is panned up towards the colourful vertical pier, we then packed our equipment up for the last time and wrapped up. 

(Sam filmed two more shots of Daniel on the train home these shots were included in the final edit and worked perfectly). I’d also like to say thanks to the actors for their amazing performances during filming.

Post production: After everything was filmed we started editing our own individual edits, I think editing went well and it looks really good, I am very proud of it. Here are some images of the editing process.

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