Max Austin - Director
Christian Barrett - Cameraman and props
Ruby Davies - Editor/actress
Eoghain Kilbane - main actor and lighting
Friday, 14 November 2014
Thursday, 13 November 2014
Research and Planning Imporovements (Ruby)
Since Tuesday, I've improved my research and planning by going back on my digipak and adding in theorists and more analysis on the Sam Sparro website to create a more detailed analysis. Also, I've added more posts by writing about location, the version of song we're going to do, progress updates, moodboard, props list, description of target audience and planning for ancillary.
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
Location (Ruby)
Here are pictures of the inside and outside of the house that will be our location for the music video, including the rooms that we will film in.
Monday, 10 November 2014
Version of song (Ruby)
As we can't make our music video too long, we will be using the shorter version of the song.
Here is the shorter version which is almost a minute less than the original version:
Here is the shorter version which is almost a minute less than the original version:
Progress Update 10/11/2014 (Ruby)
On Friday, myself and Max went to Christian's house to take pictures of the inside and outside of the house as this is where we will be shooting our music video. This is helpful as we can plan which part of the house we want to film particular parts of the video in so when it comes to shooting we will be spending less time planning and be able to film efficiently. I will upload these pictures to my blog shortly.
Over the weekend, myself and the rest of the group discussed when we were going to film and who needed to get what in order to prepare for shooting. This allowed us to come up with a shooting schedule which will also shortly be uploaded and allowed us to allocate who would take what role in producing the video.
Over the weekend, myself and the rest of the group discussed when we were going to film and who needed to get what in order to prepare for shooting. This allowed us to come up with a shooting schedule which will also shortly be uploaded and allowed us to allocate who would take what role in producing the video.
Friday, 7 November 2014
Location (Ruby)
Here is the outside of the house that we're going to do our filming in. We will use the front, the inside and the garden for the making of our music video.
Props List (Ruby)
Our main character (who is portraying Sam Sparro) will be seen in only one outfit throughout the whole of the video:
- Black suit trousers
- Black suit jacket
- White shirt
- Black tie
- Black smart shoes
- Slicked back, tidy hair
- Gold body paint (only at certain points in the video)
The mystery woman will also only be seen in one outfit:
- Gold dress
- Blonde/golden hair, neatly done up
- Gold shoes (heels)
- Gold body paint
We will only be filming in one location, which will be a house. Other props include:
- Sparklers
- A bed
- Cup of water
- Gold paper stars
As we want our video to be as simple as possible, and we want the main focus to be on the two characters and their image/style, we're not going to use too many props that will make the video look too busy or steal the attention away.
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Focus Group (Ruby)
After doing our focus group, we found out from the people who took part, of whom were our target audience, a few ideas on the themes we should use in our video as well as mise en scene. For example, one of them felt that if we chose a studio for our location then that might be a bit too formal, so we should think of a place that will keep the audience interested. Also, in terms of costume we found out that the lead singer should be dressed in a suit, to keep to the sophisticated atmosphere of the song. Our focus group also liked the idea of having a black and white theme with specific objects that would be significant to the storyline to come up in gold to relate back to the song title.
Description of Target Audience (Ruby)
After doing a lot of research into who our target audience will be, I've discovered that our implied audience will be of quite a large range as Sam Sparro covers more than one genre as an artist (pop/electro/dance) so other audiences will appeal more to certain parts of one genre than others.
For the electronic and dance aspect of the genre, I've found that audiences who enjoy it the most are age ranged to be between 16 and 25. This confirms that the electro sound is more popular with younger audiences than older ones. Also, I found that the majority of this audience were male, coming in at around 70% and females coming in at around 30%. This will be useful when filming our video as we will take into account what stereotypically a male would like to see in a music video opposed to what a female might find entertaining in a music video.
The genre of Pop is arguably the most popular genre in music at this current time so I think choosing a song that had this particular sound was a clever idea as it will appeal to a mass audience. Pop music is generally heard and enjoyed by the younger generation, so an audience with an age range of 14-21. As most pop artists are female, we can see that this reflects throughout audiences which dominate in the female gender. Also, pop boy-bands attract a lot of female attention so this is of whom the majority of their fan base is made up of. However, a pop audience is also largely made up of the male gender (not as much as female) as they may primarily find the artists attractive so will then venture into listening to their music, and some genuinely enjoying it.
For dance music, we can see that this is predominantly targeted for the younger generation too. Dance music is widely and famously played in clubs and bars, which 18-25 year olds will attend so this would be the main age range for target audience. However, younger ages from as young as 15 may also find that they enjoy this genre of music. Many dance tracks that are in the charts have been mixed and created by DJ's, who begin their careers working in clubs so this is where the 'buzz' for dance music has generated from. From doing my research, I've also found that both genders are quite equal when it comes to who enjoys dance music the most. There isn't one that dominates in this area, so this will become useful as we will have to make our music video appeal to both gender audiences.
After researching the general target audiences for all different genres, we can see that they all have an audience of the younger generation, aged from 15-25. Therefore, this will be our intended target audience for our music video. Saying this, we will need to make our music video entertaining and interesting for this target audience and relate to them, either in terms of their hobbies or what they like to do leisurely. For example, the majority of the audience this age (18+) enjoy going clubbing or socially being with their friends, so this could suggest as to what our location should be and what characters we should involve. This will also give us an idea as to what our main characters should wear and what their image overall should represent; we want to create a main character that the audience can relate to or aspire to be like - what they think is 'cool' or 'attractive'. Trying to appeal to our target audience will also include choosing the right props, body language, facial expressions, camera, sound, and putting across the right class, gender and age of our main characters.
For the electronic and dance aspect of the genre, I've found that audiences who enjoy it the most are age ranged to be between 16 and 25. This confirms that the electro sound is more popular with younger audiences than older ones. Also, I found that the majority of this audience were male, coming in at around 70% and females coming in at around 30%. This will be useful when filming our video as we will take into account what stereotypically a male would like to see in a music video opposed to what a female might find entertaining in a music video.
The genre of Pop is arguably the most popular genre in music at this current time so I think choosing a song that had this particular sound was a clever idea as it will appeal to a mass audience. Pop music is generally heard and enjoyed by the younger generation, so an audience with an age range of 14-21. As most pop artists are female, we can see that this reflects throughout audiences which dominate in the female gender. Also, pop boy-bands attract a lot of female attention so this is of whom the majority of their fan base is made up of. However, a pop audience is also largely made up of the male gender (not as much as female) as they may primarily find the artists attractive so will then venture into listening to their music, and some genuinely enjoying it.
For dance music, we can see that this is predominantly targeted for the younger generation too. Dance music is widely and famously played in clubs and bars, which 18-25 year olds will attend so this would be the main age range for target audience. However, younger ages from as young as 15 may also find that they enjoy this genre of music. Many dance tracks that are in the charts have been mixed and created by DJ's, who begin their careers working in clubs so this is where the 'buzz' for dance music has generated from. From doing my research, I've also found that both genders are quite equal when it comes to who enjoys dance music the most. There isn't one that dominates in this area, so this will become useful as we will have to make our music video appeal to both gender audiences.
After researching the general target audiences for all different genres, we can see that they all have an audience of the younger generation, aged from 15-25. Therefore, this will be our intended target audience for our music video. Saying this, we will need to make our music video entertaining and interesting for this target audience and relate to them, either in terms of their hobbies or what they like to do leisurely. For example, the majority of the audience this age (18+) enjoy going clubbing or socially being with their friends, so this could suggest as to what our location should be and what characters we should involve. This will also give us an idea as to what our main characters should wear and what their image overall should represent; we want to create a main character that the audience can relate to or aspire to be like - what they think is 'cool' or 'attractive'. Trying to appeal to our target audience will also include choosing the right props, body language, facial expressions, camera, sound, and putting across the right class, gender and age of our main characters.
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Planning for Ancillary (digipak) (Ruby)
For my two ancillary tasks I will be creating a webpage and a digipak. This is my planning for my digipak.
After analysing Sparro's digipak for his 'Black and Gold' album, I can take ideas from how he linked his digipak and music video to the theme of the single in terms of colour scheme and imagery. This will help in creating our own digipak for the single but also making sure that we're not copying any of Sparro's ideas.
Firstly, I think our front cover should feature a black and white/gold theme without a lot of colour. This is due to the fact that we want our music video to feature a very simple, classy theme so will most likely film in black and white. So this could be a black background with the titles in gold.
We also will need to decide what font we will want to use; whether we want it to be bold and large so it stand out or whether we'll want it to be in small writing to give a classic look.
This is Justin Timberlake's album cover for his album 'The 20/20 Experience' which sports a similar theme that we would like to go for - black and gold. The album cover comes across as very sophisticated and classy as there isn't an abundance of colour or too much going on.
The font on this cover is in large, capitalised letters which makes the words stand out against the black background and the image of the artist - this may be something that we will do if we use other images on the cover to promote the artists image.
This is the back cover for the album by the Stereophonics. I like this back cover as its very simple but has mixed the colour scheme up a bit by using a gold background with black font, which will make the CD stand out on the shelves. This again follows the colour scheme that we want to use.
The font used here is very small and simple and has a continuity in terms of size and colour. This makes the audience only have their attention focussed on one part of the back cover and keeps a running theme going throughout the digipak.
This is the back cover of Miley Cyrus' album. This roughly follows our colour scheme but is different as it has a picture of the artist on the back. This may be something that we will do if we only have the titles on the front without a picture of the aritst so the audience can still see what the artist looks like and have a feel of their image.
The font here is in yellow which definitely makes it stand out from the background, we can also see that the yellow font is a feature that Cyrus uses as most of the other typing is in yellow, which could be a technique that we'll use as it makes overall digipak look well thought out and planned.
Taking ideas from the above album covers, we will use a colour scheme that will have a continuity throughout the whole of the digipak; this could be the colour of the font being the same through the front and back covers to the inside booklet and typing on the CD itself. This will help keep a running theme throughout, so the writing will perhaps be in either gold or black to stick to the title of the song. If we don't feature an image of the artist on the front cover then we will either on the back cover where the song title will be or on the inside booklet. This will help the audience see an image of the artist and his mise-en-scene in terms of costume will represent his chosen style which will perhaps reflect the genre of song. All techniques that we use will help promote the artist and song in the best way possible in terms of getting his chosen image across to buyers and properly presenting his genre of music by relating the digipak to the genre of the song.
After analysing Sparro's digipak for his 'Black and Gold' album, I can take ideas from how he linked his digipak and music video to the theme of the single in terms of colour scheme and imagery. This will help in creating our own digipak for the single but also making sure that we're not copying any of Sparro's ideas.
Firstly, I think our front cover should feature a black and white/gold theme without a lot of colour. This is due to the fact that we want our music video to feature a very simple, classy theme so will most likely film in black and white. So this could be a black background with the titles in gold.
We also will need to decide what font we will want to use; whether we want it to be bold and large so it stand out or whether we'll want it to be in small writing to give a classic look.
The font on this cover is in large, capitalised letters which makes the words stand out against the black background and the image of the artist - this may be something that we will do if we use other images on the cover to promote the artists image.
The font used here is very small and simple and has a continuity in terms of size and colour. This makes the audience only have their attention focussed on one part of the back cover and keeps a running theme going throughout the digipak.
The font here is in yellow which definitely makes it stand out from the background, we can also see that the yellow font is a feature that Cyrus uses as most of the other typing is in yellow, which could be a technique that we'll use as it makes overall digipak look well thought out and planned.
Ellie Goulding's cover for her single 'Anything Could Happen' follows the black and white colour scheme which gives the overall image a classic look as she hasn't used any other colours (apart from the font) which doesn't make the cover appear too busy.
The font here is in capatalised letters and in a shade of pink which makes it stand out against the black and white colour scheme and image. All these techniques are features that we'll look at using as we want our digipak to stand out as much as possible.
The font here is in capatalised letters and in a shade of pink which makes it stand out against the black and white colour scheme and image. All these techniques are features that we'll look at using as we want our digipak to stand out as much as possible.
Taking ideas from the above album covers, we will use a colour scheme that will have a continuity throughout the whole of the digipak; this could be the colour of the font being the same through the front and back covers to the inside booklet and typing on the CD itself. This will help keep a running theme throughout, so the writing will perhaps be in either gold or black to stick to the title of the song. If we don't feature an image of the artist on the front cover then we will either on the back cover where the song title will be or on the inside booklet. This will help the audience see an image of the artist and his mise-en-scene in terms of costume will represent his chosen style which will perhaps reflect the genre of song. All techniques that we use will help promote the artist and song in the best way possible in terms of getting his chosen image across to buyers and properly presenting his genre of music by relating the digipak to the genre of the song.
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Sam Sparro offical website (Ruby)
http://samsparro.com/
Above is the link to Sparro's offical website. We'll use this as an inspiration to our colour schemes and ideas when it comes to creating a website or album cover/posters for our music video. It also gives us a flavour of Sparro's personality as most posts are written by him and we can see his latest 'tweets' and links to his Facebook page which allows us to see how we reflects this into the music video for 'Black and Gold'. The website is also useful when analysing the digipak so we can see how similar or different the digipak, music video and website are. However, we won't be copying Sparro's ideas at all when it comes to creating our own digipak/homepage/advert, but it's always good to look at his ideas and what his inspirations would have been.
Above is the link to Sparro's offical website. We'll use this as an inspiration to our colour schemes and ideas when it comes to creating a website or album cover/posters for our music video. It also gives us a flavour of Sparro's personality as most posts are written by him and we can see his latest 'tweets' and links to his Facebook page which allows us to see how we reflects this into the music video for 'Black and Gold'. The website is also useful when analysing the digipak so we can see how similar or different the digipak, music video and website are. However, we won't be copying Sparro's ideas at all when it comes to creating our own digipak/homepage/advert, but it's always good to look at his ideas and what his inspirations would have been.
Focus group evaluation 2 (Christian)
The focus group told us many important things to help our music video become more sucsessful. The people were asked fitted our target audience of teens aged 13-21. They gave us many different ideas on how we should construct our video. We found that there should be a lot of shot of the main singer and he should be seen throughout most of the video. In terms of mise en scene the focus group believed that the singer should be dressed in a suit and the video should be proffesional and formal. They also like the idea of it being in black and white with gold effects throughout.
Focus group (Max)
In order to find out more about our focus group we arranged a meeting with a few people who fitted out target audience. We wanted to find out what our target audience wanted to see within the music video, for example, what they think the main actor should wear, who should be in the music video, where the music video should be shot etc. We found out that the actors, especially the main actor should wear either a black or gold suit to keep the music video sophisticated and classy. We found out that a plain studio to shoot our music video was the wrong location and our focus group thought the idea seemed to plain and a little boring. However, with computed generated images added to the music video our target audience would never know where we shot out music video. Our focus group all thought the idea of a black and white theme with added splashes of colors were a great idea, it sells the video as its unique selling point because it makes it interesting for the target audience. However, they said to much black and white the music video could become too boring and a little dated.
Overall, talking to our focus group has really helped us as a group to confirm what we want to include in our music video. We know what we have to include to make it appealing and interesting for our target audience and having completed lots of research on our real media artifacts, we know what makes a music video interesting to people.
Focus Group Evaluation (Christian)
After talking about the different ideas, as a group we've decided that we need to put another focus group together to talk about the lyrics and what they mean to them so we can get different perspectives on the underlying meanings of the song and how we can portray that in our video. We also need to think about the castng. We need to decide who is best suited for which character.
Target audience questionnaire (Max)
Target audience questionnaire
Target audience questionnaire
1. How old are you?
2. What artist comes to mind when you think of the genre dance pop?
3. What colours, props, artists and settings do you think of when you think of dance pop?
4. What’s your favourite music video and why?
5. What gender are you?
Male Female
6. What do you like about dance pop?
7. What do you like happening in a music video?
• The music being played in the background whilst a story relating to the lyrics is playing on screen
• Just a video that focuses on the band members whilst they play
• None of the above
8. What’s your favourite genre of music?
1. How old are you?
2. What artist comes to mind when you think of the genre dance pop?
3. What colours, props, artists and settings do you think of when you think of dance pop?
4. What’s your favourite music video and why?
5. What gender are you?
Male Female
6. What do you like about dance pop?
7. What do you like happening in a music video?
• The music being played in the background whilst a story relating to the lyrics is playing on screen
• Just a video that focuses on the band members whilst they play
• None of the above
8. What’s your favourite genre of music?
Equipment List (Christian)
Equipment List
Computer – We will need a computer for mostly pre-production. We will need it to watch and analyse other music videos so we can get ideas and inspiration for our own. Also with the use of the computer we can access the software and websites we need. For example,
Blogger – We will use this to post our work and research so we have everything organised.
Social Media – Facebook and Twitter to get feedback. This will help us to see what our target market is and how we can meet there demands.
Digital Video Camera – We will use this in our production. With the camera we will be able to record all our footage and music video. Then we can use the DV cable to put it onto the apple Mac.
Apple Mac – We will use to edit our footage. With the use of the mac we can access iMovie which has all the editing software we need to put our video together.
Tripod – We will use this to keep the camera still and will aid our group when recording. This will allow us to take smooth shots and we can wheel the camera in different positions to get different angles and shots.
Lighting – With the use of lighting we can manipulate our shots to get a better looking more professional video.
Lyrics and meanings (Ruby)
Sam Sparro's original representation when writing this song was that he was questioning whether God exists or not. However, when we come to shooting our video we will probably stick with a perception that's more current and popular within our target audience, for example all the questioning within the song "And now I'm looking for a reason why", could be Sparro questioning his relationship with a love interest. I have analysed the song lyrics to how I feel Sparro would have wanted them to be perceived:
If the fish swam out of the ocean
And grew legs and they started walking
And the apes climbed down from the trees
And grew tall and they started talking
And the apes climbed down from the trees
And grew tall and they started talking
And the stars fell out of the sky
And my tears rolled into the ocean
And now I'm looking for a reason why?
And my tears rolled into the ocean
And now I'm looking for a reason why?
Here Sparro's talking about evoloution. After the world came together he questions, just like a lot of other people, why?
You even set my world into motion
'Cause if you're not really here!
The direct pronoun "you" is Sparro addressing God directly. He's talking to God even though he's questioning his existence, perhaps looking for an answer.
Then the stars don't even matter
Now I'm filled to the top with fear
That it's all just a bunch of matter
Sparro wants God to be real and for Him to be the answer to evoloution, because he doesn't know any other resoloution and is scared that the world is just a scientific cause when he refers to the "bunch of matter".
'Cause if you're not really here
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to you
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to you
He's created a relationship with God and can't imagine life without the concept of Him. He wants to feel close to God and needs to be physically close to him to prove his existence.
Black and gold, black and gold, black and gold
I look up into the night sky
And see a thousand eyes staring back
And see a thousand eyes staring back
Black and gold is what he sees when he looks up to the sky, here he's referring to the 'stars' and he personifies them. He's looking for God but instead all he sees is stars.
And all around these golden beacons
I see nothing but black
I see nothing but black
I feel a way of something beyond them
I don't see what I can feel
I don't see what I can feel
This is the route of his questioning, he can sense that something's there yet he hasn't had any evidence of God's existence. Throughout the song he emphasises the fact that he can feel God's presence, yet he can't see him, which ultimately is the problem with proving that something else is out there.
If vision is the only validation
Then most of my life isn't real
If the only form of proof is something concrete or something that we can see and experience, then the religious side of Sparro doesn't mean anything as he hasn't proved God's existence.
Then most of my life isn't real
If the only form of proof is something concrete or something that we can see and experience, then the religious side of Sparro doesn't mean anything as he hasn't proved God's existence.
Feedback on Ideas (Ruby)
After talking over our ideas, as a group we've decided that we need to put another focus group together to talk about the lyrics and what they mean to them so we can get different perspectives on the underlying meanings of the song and how we can portray that in our video. However, now we have a rough idea of what kind of theme we want to have in our video.
Music video analysis (Max)
The music video that I will be analysing is called Bulletproof by La Roux. The music genre for this song is 'Electro pop'. This song reached number one in the music charts and stayed there for some time. La roux is a solo singer that produces songs like no other, she promotes herself in a quirky and original way to attract a certain target audience and to intrigue others.
0:00 - From the very start of this music video you can tell that the atmosphere that is created is very fun and vibrant, there are lots of slow moving camera shots on oddly shaped colourful objects and we can see a close up of La roux's feet and shoes, the camera then zooms out a little and gradually zooms in towards her face, this is what a lot of music video directors do to attract the men to the video as its stereotyping the women singer in an appealing way. She has an interesting sense of fashion that may only appeal to a certain target market but this is what La Roux focuses on, she has a quirky personality and she forwards this into her music videos, this creates a sense of intrigue towards her.
0:20 - Shortly after, there is a close up shot on her face, we can see that she is wearing a lot of eye make up, lipstick and has her hair styled in a very unique way, this can relate to the quirky genre of electro pop and the funky side of fashion.
0:49 - In the next section we see La Roux come on with a completely different costume. Her hair is a different colour but is again styled in a very unique and funky way, she has an interseting choice of colourful eye make up that attract viewers to her face and she is also wearing some brightly colour lipstick to show the funky side of electro pop. She is wearing a black blazer with large chains wrapped around her shoulders, with a funky animal patterned leggings. Again, creating her own sense of fashion and stereotyping the genre of electro pop. As La roux walks through the room there is a long shot of her, we can see that on the walls of the room there are large squares that pop up different colours after each beat, this creates a fast pace within the scene and the song relates to the genre of electro pop as it makes the song more funky and fun. the pace of editing really relates to the song in the scene because the pace of editing adds to the beat of the song.
0:50 - La roux looks into the camera at all times, this is because she wants to engage and interact with the audience, the singer wants to make the audience feel as if she is personally singing to them.
1:14 - In the following scene La Roux comes out again but in a new costume, this time her face make up is the same but she is wearing a new coat, it looks like a large trench coat with lots of different colours on it, this may symbolise her personailty of being quite a fun and exciting person. In this scene the pace of the editing has sped up massively because there are a lot more camera shots used within the scene, every second there is a new camera shot used as the main singer is singing away, this makes it more interesting for the audience because they get to see the singer from different angles.
1:16 - Within this music video La Roux is the only singer, there are no backup singers or dancers in the production this is because the artist is trying to promote herslef as a solo artist.
1:20 - This singer doesnt relate to her lyrics to the visuals, this is because this music video is more performance based, the video is focused on the main artist, the whole video is focused on showing La roux from different angles to promote a certain image about her to try and attract her target audience. She may also want people to study and listen to the lyrics more closely rather than watching lyrics match with the actions on the screen.
1:29 - However, at one stage during her song she said 'sit sit sit on the water' and on screen she was sitting down and as she finished her verse she stood up - this is the only stage were her lyrics matched her actions. La Rouxs song bulletproof is applied to Andrew Goodwins theory. Andrew goodwin said that the visuals in a song can relate to the lyrics or have a direct contrast and La Roux's visuals have a direct contrast to the lyrics in the song.
1:46 - La roux comes on for the third time in another outfit, there seems to be an order of camera shots within this music video; a long shot of La roux as she walks down a path, followed by close ups and medium shots of her face and her sitting down singing.
2:10 - 'This time baby I'll be bulletproof'' when La roux sings the chorus to this song there is a high angle shot as the camera is pointing down at her, this shows that La roux is small and insecure about something, the fact that she says 'this time baby I'll be bulletproof' suggests that she may have been hurt in the past, so she wants to be stronger in certain situations next time.
2:15 - Also, the close ups of La roux markets the artist, it makes the audience aware of her face because it gets herself known. The fact that La roux has her own sense of fashion and promotes herself in a very original way makes this a special unique selling point for her.
2:20 - People will be attracted to the music video that La roux shot because the setting is like no other. La roux's music video is held in a very colorful room with many bright colors and large weirdly shaped objects that jump out at you, so there are many things that make this music video unique and interesting and I believe that many people would be intrigued and interested about la roux from this video.
2:59 - the shots of La roux through the bits of broken glass show images of her wearing all three of the different outfits that she has worn throughout this music video, the reason why she wore different outfits may have been to make it interesting for her target audience to see her in a different costumes, she may have also wanted to wear different clothes to promote her personality through the use of clothing.
0:00 - From the very start of this music video you can tell that the atmosphere that is created is very fun and vibrant, there are lots of slow moving camera shots on oddly shaped colourful objects and we can see a close up of La roux's feet and shoes, the camera then zooms out a little and gradually zooms in towards her face, this is what a lot of music video directors do to attract the men to the video as its stereotyping the women singer in an appealing way. She has an interesting sense of fashion that may only appeal to a certain target market but this is what La Roux focuses on, she has a quirky personality and she forwards this into her music videos, this creates a sense of intrigue towards her.
0:20 - Shortly after, there is a close up shot on her face, we can see that she is wearing a lot of eye make up, lipstick and has her hair styled in a very unique way, this can relate to the quirky genre of electro pop and the funky side of fashion.
0:49 - In the next section we see La Roux come on with a completely different costume. Her hair is a different colour but is again styled in a very unique and funky way, she has an interseting choice of colourful eye make up that attract viewers to her face and she is also wearing some brightly colour lipstick to show the funky side of electro pop. She is wearing a black blazer with large chains wrapped around her shoulders, with a funky animal patterned leggings. Again, creating her own sense of fashion and stereotyping the genre of electro pop. As La roux walks through the room there is a long shot of her, we can see that on the walls of the room there are large squares that pop up different colours after each beat, this creates a fast pace within the scene and the song relates to the genre of electro pop as it makes the song more funky and fun. the pace of editing really relates to the song in the scene because the pace of editing adds to the beat of the song.
0:50 - La roux looks into the camera at all times, this is because she wants to engage and interact with the audience, the singer wants to make the audience feel as if she is personally singing to them.
1:14 - In the following scene La Roux comes out again but in a new costume, this time her face make up is the same but she is wearing a new coat, it looks like a large trench coat with lots of different colours on it, this may symbolise her personailty of being quite a fun and exciting person. In this scene the pace of the editing has sped up massively because there are a lot more camera shots used within the scene, every second there is a new camera shot used as the main singer is singing away, this makes it more interesting for the audience because they get to see the singer from different angles.
1:16 - Within this music video La Roux is the only singer, there are no backup singers or dancers in the production this is because the artist is trying to promote herslef as a solo artist.
1:20 - This singer doesnt relate to her lyrics to the visuals, this is because this music video is more performance based, the video is focused on the main artist, the whole video is focused on showing La roux from different angles to promote a certain image about her to try and attract her target audience. She may also want people to study and listen to the lyrics more closely rather than watching lyrics match with the actions on the screen.
1:29 - However, at one stage during her song she said 'sit sit sit on the water' and on screen she was sitting down and as she finished her verse she stood up - this is the only stage were her lyrics matched her actions. La Rouxs song bulletproof is applied to Andrew Goodwins theory. Andrew goodwin said that the visuals in a song can relate to the lyrics or have a direct contrast and La Roux's visuals have a direct contrast to the lyrics in the song.
1:46 - La roux comes on for the third time in another outfit, there seems to be an order of camera shots within this music video; a long shot of La roux as she walks down a path, followed by close ups and medium shots of her face and her sitting down singing.
2:10 - 'This time baby I'll be bulletproof'' when La roux sings the chorus to this song there is a high angle shot as the camera is pointing down at her, this shows that La roux is small and insecure about something, the fact that she says 'this time baby I'll be bulletproof' suggests that she may have been hurt in the past, so she wants to be stronger in certain situations next time.
2:15 - Also, the close ups of La roux markets the artist, it makes the audience aware of her face because it gets herself known. The fact that La roux has her own sense of fashion and promotes herself in a very original way makes this a special unique selling point for her.
2:20 - People will be attracted to the music video that La roux shot because the setting is like no other. La roux's music video is held in a very colorful room with many bright colors and large weirdly shaped objects that jump out at you, so there are many things that make this music video unique and interesting and I believe that many people would be intrigued and interested about la roux from this video.
2:59 - the shots of La roux through the bits of broken glass show images of her wearing all three of the different outfits that she has worn throughout this music video, the reason why she wore different outfits may have been to make it interesting for her target audience to see her in a different costumes, she may have also wanted to wear different clothes to promote her personality through the use of clothing.
Categories of Music Videos (Ruby)
There are three main categories of music video which include:
This video shows the band performing to an audience, which instantly makes it performance based as the audio and visuals are in sync due to the lip syncing. The majority of shots are close ups on the main vocalist and a few on the rest of the band. However, the video also has features of a narrative based video as it shows 'stories' of some of the audience members and their problems at home. This reflects the message of the song, which is that many people hide their 'demons' in them, and that when they listen to the song they should embrace their demons and to know that they're not alone.
Narrative based videos attempt to tell a story throughout. They usually have a beginning, middle and end and may sometimes use footage from films or feature flashbacks to follow a storyline. An example of a narrative based video is Green Days "Wake Me Up When September Ends".
The video starts off with a long period of dialogue, introducing us to the characters and their relationship. We learn that the characters are a couple and the rest of the video shows them to be in love and their money troubles as the man realizes he has no money on him when him and his girlfriend are out for lunch and she has to pay for their meal. Then we see the couple having an argument over something that hasn't been revealed to us yet. It then becomes apparent that the man has joined the army, perhaps to solve the couples money problems. The video also includes features of a performance based video as we see snippets of Green Day performing the song in a studio, however it remains a narrative as the majority of the filming follows the storyline of the couple.
Concept based videos follow a single concept or idea, with very limited shots or editing in the video. Concept videos aren't very popular as they're not as entertaining as performance based videos as they don't fit into a commercial slot. An example of a concept based video is Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction".
The video consists of a selection of women dancing with power tools as the name of the equipment comes up on screen. This remains to be the main concept of the video throughout as no other characters or ideas feature. However, the video could come under Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' as it could be seen to exploit the women in the video as they're dressed in very little clothing and dancing provocatively.
- Performance Based videos
- Narrative Based videos
- Concept Based videos
This video shows the band performing to an audience, which instantly makes it performance based as the audio and visuals are in sync due to the lip syncing. The majority of shots are close ups on the main vocalist and a few on the rest of the band. However, the video also has features of a narrative based video as it shows 'stories' of some of the audience members and their problems at home. This reflects the message of the song, which is that many people hide their 'demons' in them, and that when they listen to the song they should embrace their demons and to know that they're not alone.
Narrative based videos attempt to tell a story throughout. They usually have a beginning, middle and end and may sometimes use footage from films or feature flashbacks to follow a storyline. An example of a narrative based video is Green Days "Wake Me Up When September Ends".
The video starts off with a long period of dialogue, introducing us to the characters and their relationship. We learn that the characters are a couple and the rest of the video shows them to be in love and their money troubles as the man realizes he has no money on him when him and his girlfriend are out for lunch and she has to pay for their meal. Then we see the couple having an argument over something that hasn't been revealed to us yet. It then becomes apparent that the man has joined the army, perhaps to solve the couples money problems. The video also includes features of a performance based video as we see snippets of Green Day performing the song in a studio, however it remains a narrative as the majority of the filming follows the storyline of the couple.
Concept based videos follow a single concept or idea, with very limited shots or editing in the video. Concept videos aren't very popular as they're not as entertaining as performance based videos as they don't fit into a commercial slot. An example of a concept based video is Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction".
The video consists of a selection of women dancing with power tools as the name of the equipment comes up on screen. This remains to be the main concept of the video throughout as no other characters or ideas feature. However, the video could come under Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' as it could be seen to exploit the women in the video as they're dressed in very little clothing and dancing provocatively.
John Newman music video analysis (Christian)
The first music video i have chosen to analyse was John Newman's song "Love me again" Newman's a singer and musician and mainly his songs fit into the pop genre. This specific track is his most popular song and refers to dance-pop.
0:00: The song begins to fade in as a guy walks up into the bar with his friends. When the lyrics begin theirs an extreme close up of Newman singing on a stage. This shows the video is not only narrative but partly performance based too. This is done so that the video doesn't get boring and so that Newman can be represented as a proper musician. Theres a close up on Newman where we can look further into the mise en scene of his character. He is wearing a fashionable suit, this is done so he is more likeable and is more relatable to his youth-al audience. Newman wears a suit in many of his videos.This has become his motif and making him more recognisable and therefore more popular. There's many close ups of his face so he becomes more relevant and recognizable.
0:35 The audience can then see the two main actors the guy and the girl which are both dressed fashionably which again fits a traditional pop music video. There both young actors which was done to make the video more relateable to there target audience who are generally young.
1:00 This is the moment when the audience can see the two actors looking at each other trying to get the others attention, This is when the viewers realise its a love story. Many pop music videos have a element of love in their narratives. As there viewers are mostly teenagers this works well because often young people are so obsessed with the concept. This is also the part where the chorus begins. The lyrics go "I need to know now, will you love me again" This expresses that their is a link between the lyrics and visuals. Its likely that the two actors play the role of two people who use to be together then broke up and both want to know if their partner will "love them again" and get back together.
1:30 This is when then the dancing begins showing lots of happy people enjoying life. This is done because people are more attracted to happier things.
1:50 At this part there is shot of a guy who appears to be the girls boyfriend as he looks round at them very angry. This brings a twist into the video and makes it more entertaining because people will want to see what happens next. They two main actors then run downstairs where they try to get alone and away from her boyfriend. There is then a shot of him looking around for her with a confused angry expression on his face. They begin to kiss and the music gets more passionate and slower.
3:10 They manage to get away from the boyfriend and the upbeat chorus starts to play. This is done so that the audience think its going to be a happy ending and people usually enjoy happier things.
3:40 However, at the end the two lovers get hit by a van which is a very shocking twist on the video. This was done to make it more rememberable and so that he gets more popular. Also it will make people want to watch his next music videos to see what he does next time.
RMA Music Video Analysis (Ruby)
The first music video I have chosen to analyse is Sam Smith's "I'm Not The Only One". Smith is a British Soul-Singer that specializes in the genres Pop and R&B. Unlike most pop songs, I'm Not The Only One has a much slower pace and tempo, promoting a sad emotion throughout the video.
0:00 the video starts off with an establishing shot of a house with the special effects of titles across the screen. The opening represents who the artist is and the name of the song, followed by who the video is directed by. The video is un-traditional in the way that the audio doesn't begin straight away with dialogue instead.
0:12 the frame then cuts to the inside of the house, showing us Dianna Agron and Chris Messina who feature as a married couple in the video. An over the shoulder shot is used when Messina is looking at himself in the mirror, presenting us a clearer image of his character.
0:23 The close up shot of Agron here allows us to see into the mise en scene of her character as we see her smiling whilst waving off her husband to work. In these shots we also get to see more of the house that they both live in, which appears to be a typical American white-picket fenced family home. The bright, natural daylight also reflects a happy, lighthearted atmosphere.
0:39 here, the close up shot allows us to see Agron's facial expression change to a sad, glum emotion as she turns back to walk into the house.
1:00 Here, we see an instant change in mise en scene due to the change of location and the sudden dark, low key lighting. However, Agron and Messina both feature in close up shots even thought they're in different places which may represent the link in their marriage. The contrast in lighting over the next few seconds as the scene changes back to forth from the house to the bar represents the difference in atmosphere; the dark lighting in the bar may have been done to represent the husband to be doing something he shouldn't be, whereas the natural lighting in Agron's scenes to represent her innocence.
1:12 in these close up shots, we are able to see more of Agron's chosen mise en scene. Her outfit shows her to overall be well put together due to her high heels, perfectly fitting dress and jewelry - particularly her wedding ring. However, as the frame then changes to a close up of her face, we start to see her imperfections show through as her make up appears to be smudged - perhaps due to crying? The whiteness of her dress presents her innocence, which links in with Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory that women are either seen as innocent characters or sex symbols, and in this case Agron is seen as the innocent character. As she takes her wedding ring off, the frame then changes back to the bar where her husband is, linking the two scenes together. The ideology here suggests that he's doing something unfaithful to their marriage.
1:22 over these few seconds, Smith sings the words "I can't believe you let me down" which links to the film we see on screen; Agron crying on the floor alone in her house.
1:29 a mystery woman now appears on screen with Messina. The audio we can now hear is "for months on end I've had my doubts", which furthermore suggests Messina is being unfaithful to his wife as the director has linked the audio to the visuals on screen, suggesting that the mysterious woman is his mistress as they have body contact.
1:37 we then hear the lyrics "denying every tear" as an extreme close up shows Agron wiping away her make up stained tears whilst driving a car. At this point, we see the representation of Agron's character from the beginning of the video dramatically change as her picture-prefect image dwindles as her hair do comes out of place and she smudges her perfectly-done make up. The ideology used here could be that even though something may seem perfect from the outside it doesn't mean everything's what it seems.
1:46 the frame then cuts back to a close up of Messina and his mistress drinking shots at the bar, the close up may have been used to represent the closeness in their relationship.
1:52 we first see Sam Smith at this point as he sings the chorus, which is un-traditional for a music video as we may expect the artist to feature in their video from beginning to end. The ideology here could be that Smith is just an outsider looking in, hence the representation of a perfect house with the perfect married couple at the beginning of the video.
2:06 here we see Messina and his mistress kiss as Smith sings the lyrics "when you call me baby I know I'm not the only one" - showing that by this he's singing from Agron's perspective as she's not the only one that her husband is having a relationship with.
2:15 the frame then cuts to Agron in a liquor store drinking alcohol, which reflects back to when Messina and his mistress were taking shots in the bar. The ideology of both of the characters drinking alcohol shows that her husband and his girlfriend were drinking to have a good time whereas Agron is drinking away her problems as her husband goes into the bathroom with the mysterious woman, reflecting the songs lyrics "your heart is unattainable".
3:00 the low-key, blue, dark lighting in the bathroom gives off a darkened mood as her husband is being unfaithful as he's cheating on his wife. The speed of shots seem to shorten as the cuts quickens from Agron to Messina, as Agron appears to be burning all her husbands clothes outside their home. The pick up in pace represents action and perhaps represents a change in Agron's emotions, from sadness to anger.
3:44 here we see Agron smoking, which may not be what we'd expect to see from a 'perfect' housewife, using the ideology of the cigarette to change the representation of Agron's character as she there is a continuation of close ups of her crying.
3:54 the frame then cuts to Messina walking home whilst putting his blazer back on, suggesting he's coming straight from seeing his mistress. The scenes change back and forth from Agron to Messina, showing Agron in a white room, representing her pureness and innocence whilst her husband walks home in a dark light.
4:22 the close up is then on an over the shoulder shot of Messina as we see his point of view shot of him being welcomed home by his wife. The video then ends on a shot of the both of them hugging each other whilst Agron smiles as if nothing had ever happened, ending in a similar way to how the video started.
Overall, I felt like this was an appropriate video to analyse as even though Sam Smith is a Pop and R&B singer, he has made a successful music video by cleverly syncing the audio and the visuals. Also, if this is the genre that we decide we want to follow through with, we don't necessarily need to pick an up-beat song to create a music video to as a slower song also fits into this genre of music.
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