Shooting Schedule (Music Video)

Second Production Meeting

Storyboard

Animatic (Music video)

The music video's animatic

This video shows our storyboard of our music video turned into an animatic. The song we chose is the background music of this video, Groundswell - Wave Popular Feeling.

(Blog 15) Digipak

(Blog 14) Michael Jackson

Blog 14:
Michael Jackson




Early Pop Videos with The Jackson 5:

"Rockin Robin" 1971

Basic Video - Promoting song
Limited sophistication
Lip Synching


Michael Jackson - Rockin' Robin



Analyses:
"Rockin Robin" was the first ever pop video that Michael Jackson was involved with. It was also the first Jackson 5 song and music video. The song was made in 1971 and compared to the music videos of today, it was a very basic and didn't really have anything special but the song was big back in the day. The video was based on Michael Jackson and his family (The Jacksons) singing and playing their instruments whilst showing off their talents. Over the past years, the Jackson 5 have changed thier costumes numerous times from colours like black and white to bright rainbow colours. I would say the mise-en-scene wasnt very constant but it was lively and widely ranged. There was a simple dance routine in the music video, which is one of the key features of music videos.




Michael Jackson - Billie Jean




Analyses:

The very first major music video that Michael Jackson ever done when he split up with Jackson 5 and became a solo artist was "Billy Jean". This video was famous for it 's the simple lip-syncing as this Music video does contain some kind of story within it. As well as having the lip-syncing in the video, the story in this video is about Michael walking around the town while singing about a woman called Billie Jean and searching for her. The lyrics of the song is illustrated throughout this video and Michael repeatedly says "Billy Jean is not my lover" and is constantly seen to be by himself. This goes with the lyrics and the lyrics and the visuals is another key feature of music videos.



Michael Jackson - Beat it





Analyses
The next music video that Michael Jackson made as a solo artist (Not with the Jackson 5) was "Beat It!". Each music video that Michael Jackson released was anticipated by millions of people across the world, he was very popular and successful, he was the fan favorite from the Jackson 5 and that was why he decided to do solo songs. This video is also unique as it was a video which was able to combine lip-syncing with a story line. "Beat it" is also well known for it's ending because of the well choreographed dance routine that is shown,  It is definitely well rehearsed and thought of. There's many of close up shots of Michael throughout the video which is another key feature of a good music video.

Michael Jackson - Thriller Music Video



Thriller by Michael Jackson is considered to be the most famous music video of all time by the Library of congress, which added it to its National Film Registry in 2009. "Thriller" changed the way that music videos were seen and made. The music video is 14 minutes long, longer than most music videos as it was made like a mini film. It really set the benchmark for all future music videos, and was definitely a video that improved the standards of videos with its costumes, dialogue and dance routines. MTV used to show the short 4-5 minute version of this video, but it was so popular that people used to go to the cinema and be able to watch the whole version of this video. The video was made in 1983 and was paid for and directed by a man called John Landis because Jackson's own record company refused to pay for it. This Music video was also the winner of many awards at the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards including Best Performance Video. This video started the trend of group dance scenes in pop videos.




Michael Jackson - Bad

After making the  "Thriller", Michael was the most popular music artist in the world. The next video after Thriller had a big reputation to live up to. The next video that he did make was for the song "Bad". When Michael released new videos, they were seen as being real events as his video made the news because of how popular they was. The music video was so popular that it was shown live on the BBC at midnight, and millions of people stayed up until midnight just to see this video. People were very excited to see the new material that Michael Jackson was creating. There are frequent close ups of Michael Jackson, and obviously the reputation of having unique dance routines, a key feature in music videos.

Black and white




Michael Jackson - Black or White

At the time of the release of this video, there was many rumors going around about how Michael Jackson tried to change his skin colour from black to white through surgery. As a result of this, he lost a lot of his black fan base, as they felt they he was ashamed to be black, such was the reason that he wanted to change his skin colour from black to white. To try and win these fans back again, he made this song called "Black Or White". The main message of this song is Michael trying to say that it doesn't matter what skin colour you are, and he is trying to promote race equality. He wants to appeal to all races, and say that he shouldn't be judged based solely on his skin colour. This video always demonstrates a unique Michael Jackson dance routine which is something that is repeated heavily in all of his music videos.

(blog 12) Alex Southam

Blog 12 Case Study 3 Alex Southam

Alex Southam has worked for Agile films who have described him on their websites as:

'Alex South is an exciting new talent, working in a dizzying variety of styles across live action and animation. Entirely self-taught, his inventiveness and creativity have caught the eye with a series of diverse promos for the likes of The Walkmen, Alt+J and Lianne La Havas. Southam joined Agile in August 2012'.


To begin with Southam undertook all the tasks on his videos
Camera
Lighting
Editing
and now uses a Director of Photography

Alex Southam likes the format of music videos as, 'You can try new techniques and can have real artistic freedom'.

Southam is less keen on commercials as they allow for 'much less freedom'
He uses Vimeo to showcase his videos - this is becoming an increasingly important platform as it is considered to have 'higher status' than Youtube.

His breakthrough came with the video tesselate for Alt J. The budget for the video was £10,000, it was a 1 day shoot and had a very large cast. Special effects - used After effects.

Alt-J - Tessellate




Chase & Status - Lost and Not found 

This video had a £50,000 budget and was filmed in Los Angeles. For the video they used a Steadicam and they filmed at 36 frames per second then slowed the slowed down a bit. The video was influenced by Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy. There were only three shots in the whole video.







Andrew Goodwin key features of music videos

Andrew Goodwin in Dancing in the Distraction Factory (Made in 1992).
Goodwin has identified the following features of music videos:



Key features of music videos

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics for example: stage performance in Metal videos, Dance routines for boy/girl band.
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals; this is 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 and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (A visuable style) e.g: Katy Perry / Michael Jackson (To be analysed in separate blogs).
• There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There are often intertextual reference

Illustrate, Amplify & Disjuncture

There are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song:

Illustrate:

1.  Music videos can use a set of images in order to illustrate the meaning of lyrics & genre, this is the most common type of music video. E.g:

Owl City - Fireflies

Amplify:

2.  This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.

one example of this would be:

Ed Sheeran - You need me, I Don't need you

Kanye West - Home coming Ft. Cold Play

Disjuncture:

3.   This is similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision.

Praise You - Fatboy Slim

(Blog 10) Jamie Thraves Case Study 1

 Jamie Thraves




Jamie Thravesis a dircetor that started making

(Blog 9) Katy Perry

Katy Perry - How her Pop Videos appeal to her target audience and reflect her private life.

The target audience for Katy Perry's songs are mainly young girls aged between 14 to 17.

Katy Perry has to:

a) Be like an older sister / friend for young girls

b) Reflect some of the anxieties that a lot of young girls have.

c) Be someone young girls can admire and want to be (Appear sexy in a non-threatening way).

 How her pop videos appeal to her target audience and reflect her private life.

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/or lyrics and visuals either amplifying, contradicting or illustrative.

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.
There is frequently reference to the notion of looking. e.g Telescopes, screens within screens, looking into the camera etc.
There is often intertexual reference to films, TV programmes, and other music videos such as "Wide Awake, "California Girls" and "Firework"

Katy Perry - Hot N Cold

Katy presents herself as a victim in a slightly comic way. Her character is supposed to be everybody's friend. Made in 2008. This was her debut in the top 40 and pop.


Last Friday Night




I think that Katy Perry made this video because she is not afraid to be ugly. In the video she transforms herself from a nerdy figure to "A High school Hotty". She aimed this video towards girls with concerns about the way they look and is sending them a message saying there's nothing wrong with you.


Katy Perry - Firework




This was another positive message that Katy Perry was sending to her audience but this was about expressing yourself and not letting anyone put you down. This message is being sent to more than one audience, not just young girls but to everyone in a way.

Katy Perry - California Gurls


"California Gurls" was a different look for Katy Perry, this was during the time when Katy was dating the British comedian Russell Brand. In a way, the video was alienating the young audience and changed the audience temporarily. This was because of the light hearted sexual references. The video and song wasn't aimed at young girls let alone young people.


Katy Perry - Wide Awake


This Katy Perry song and music video was made to "Reconnect with the teenage fans". Made in 2012
This video was like an apology to the fans for making inappropriate music videos. she sort of blamed some of it on her ex husband Russell Brand. She is now "Wide awake" and aware of her actions.


Katy Perry - Roar



A lot special effects was used in this video much like "Firework". The message in this video was also similar to "Firework" and the video was made for a wider audience. She is also saying that she doesn't need a man with a bit of humour and minor elements on being sexy. she also changes clothes throughout the video.

(Blog 7) Brand identity / Spice Girls

Spice Girls: Brand Identity

(Blog 6) Andrew Goodwin part 2

Andrew Goodwin part 2

(Blog 5) Andrew Goodwin part 1

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin in Dancing in the Distraction factory (1992) has identified key features in music videos:
A lot of Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics for example stage performance in Heavy metal + Rock  music videos, dance routine in boy/girl bands and parties in Pop videos)

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs rear across their work. (a visual style).
There is often inter textual reference to films and TV programmes and other music videos.
There is frequently reference to the notion of looking such as screens within screens and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

Production meetings

Gaining Permission

For our media project (music video) we had to get permission from the unsigned band to use their music. One of the members of my media group managed to send a message via Facebook to them and politely asked to use one of Groundswell's songs, "Wave Popular Feeling", as you can clearly see above.

Creating an image

Audience research

Audience Research

In this media assessment, we have to do research with the audience in many different forms. We can ask questions and create surveys for the public or we can make a vox pop video similar to news reports.  Some of the questions we decided are as followed:

Types of music videos they watch?

What mind of music listen to?

Do they watch music videos?

Age of the audience

How do they listen to music?

Where do they listen to music?

How do they watch music videos?


A survey, in which we will have to evaluate the results of the questions that we ask.



Some other questions we might ask:

Do you watch music videos?
What is your favourite music video?
What do you like about music videos?
What makes a great music video?
Where do you watch music videos?

Risk assessment (Music Video)

Risk Assessment


Below is a table containing the risk assessment of our music video. The table will incude the harzard, who is at risk and could get hurt and what we will do to prevent that.

Hazard	Person(s) at Risk	Likelihood of Hazard 1 – Extremely Unlikely 5 – Extremely Likely	Severity of Hazard Outcomes 1 – Very Low Risk 5 – Very High Risk	Risk Level (Likelihood + Severity) 2	Measures to Take to Manage Risk	Risk Managed? Y/N
Tripping over long Wires or other equipment.	All individuals filming and being filmed	2	4	6	Put all spare wires to the side as well as putting wires that are being used as close to the wall as possible.	Y
Dropping heavy instruments on limbs.	All individuals filming and being filmed	3	4	7	We will hold the guitars tight and firm as well as put the guitar shoulder straps on properly.	Y
The risk of teachers and students coming in or disturbing	All individuals filming and the ones being filmed	3	2	5	We will film in a safe area and ask if the room isn’t being used by anyone or is going to be using the room.	Y
The risk of people slipping over slippery surfaces and falling over when filming or are being filmed.	Everyone being filmed and the people who are filming.	1	4	5	We will make sure that the room is clear and hasn’t got any wet floors or any other slippery surfaces. Preferably, we will find a room with carpet floors.	Y

Costumes and Props (Music video)

Costumes and props

This is a list of some band members with their instruments and clothing that are going to be featured in our music video.

Character Name: Drummer
Costume: Black shirt, black trousers	Props: Drumsticks & Drum kit
Character Name: Bass Guitarist
Costume: Grey cardigan, Black skirt	Props: Bass Guitar
Character Name: Vocalist (Lead singer)
Costume: Black trousers & Jeans	Props: Microphone

Character Name: Lead guitarist
Costume: Shirt & Jeans	Props: Electric guitar