Music videos research+analyse

Elle Eyre- New Me
In this upbeat pop/R&B mixup song by Elle Eyre the narrative is used to show Ella moving on from last toxic relationship, further illustrated in the video by sitting in her room, eating junk food, crying(mascara smudges under eyes) all post break up actions.  The video starts off with a dolly shot out of a fridge, The camera movement then is used to amplify the lyrics after she sings "Take a step back and 180", the screen spins on 180 angle (scene change as musical phases change).
The narrative is clearly established too from the start, the lyrics reflecting the changes happening in Ellas life. The mid shots followed  by close ups bring the emphasis on her and help the audience to form an emotional connection. The mise-en-scene in the start where Ella opens the fridge indicates loneliness with the use of exaggerated  blue lighting and taking out a chocolate bar. The diegesis(2) can be seen as throughout  the camera follows Ella as the main camera, we can clearly see the change in the atmosphere and the mise-en-scene as it changes from the 'lying down, eating food, with mascara smudged under her eyes' to a natural lighting, upbeat and getting ready to go out with her friend, 'moving' on stage.




The Chainsmokers- Hope

The song begins with Winona Oak, reminiscing her past relationship, recounting the pain she had endured, being mistreated as the whole relationship was build on 'a bed full of lies'. She also says “hard and heavy whiskey goodbyes", which indicates a reoccurring theme of alcohol abuse throughout the song.

Throughout the video the camera is static, however the video still succeeds  in being entertaining, using fast changing colour lights, as well as extreme close ups of Winona Oak. The mise-en-scene was also different when Andrew "Drew" Taggart is the only one in the scene, with dull colours and using lights to create moving shadows around him in contrast with Winona who is always in bright colours, which could indicate his alcohol abuse throughout the relationship, being in the a dark place, while Winona now out of this relationship is surrounded  by beautiful colours.

BORNS- Electric love
In this song the simple idea behind it is BORNS, comparing a loved interest to heroin and the similar rush you get from both, and it could be seen as interpretive, receiving comments such as 'Made by someone on acid'.  What made me belive the sing indicates heroin/opiate addiction is not only the heavy impressioonist, concept based music video but also the lyrics used "I can't let you go now that I've got you" probably refers to addiction, and then "I'm dying for another taste" is the biggest give away in this direction. However at the start the same lyrics could be seen in the opposite light as falling in love with someone has often been compared to being addicted to drugs. Sleepless nights, strong desires, exhilarating and miserable at the same time, therefore making it up to the viewer to decide. The camera is contantly moving, with fast edits and jump-cuts in time with the beat, featuring close ups of the artist, as Carol Vernallis states in her music video theory(1) however in a very low key lighting

(1) https://infograph.venngage.com/p/198183/carol-vernallis-music-video-theorist

(2)https://replayitoreraseit.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/unruly-media-vernallis-c.pdf

Evaluation of music video

One thing I had a lot of fun making was the start of my music video, using adobe after effects to create short animations and sketches, which worked well and I'm happy how they turned out. However they took a lot longer then expected, as each sketch had to be done on a separate frame, which ended up in having to draw more than 30 different sketches just to complete 1 animation. Next time when working on a similar project, I would save time by planning better what i want to sketch beforehand, and instead of drawing a different sketch for each frame I would take intervals of 5-10 frames per sketch , as once the video is played they still look animated and actually are easier for people to see as they stay on the screen for longer. I did that in the 8:09 second into the video and made my editing a lot quicker.

Another thing I would improve is, if I'm editing a similar project, I would give myself more time to edit, as I would of liked to continue the patern of sketches throughout the music video, as it would of linked better and made more sense when watching.

When editing I also liked the idea of leaning towards the comedic side and making the video 'clumsy' and 'glitchy'  on purpose, by adding different after effects. Although I like how the effect turned out, I feel for a viewer watching it for the first time it may not make as much sense as the video is incomplete and the effect simply looks out of place.

In my music video I found a lot of things to be going wrong from the start, so I had to find quick solutions and adapt fast in the different situations.
The first issue I faced was my outdoor shooting day- after arranging the day as well as the 3 main locations for filming, Bedworth park, a small park in nuneaton and the Post office car park in Nuneaton I was planning on filming in Bedworth until 2.30pm, and film in Nuneaton for the rest of the day, however after just 30 minutes of filming it started raining and it didn’t stop for the rest of the day. Next time to avoid such complications I would check the weather reports beforehand and schedule 2 days of filming outdoors instead of 1 to make sure I'd get all the footage planned. If I was to redo this, I would definitely get as much footage as possible, and not try to rely on one day to finish all of my shooting.


When editing my music video, from my test shoots I knew, I wouldn’t be able to complete my initial plan of using 4 different 'personalities' on screen as when cloning the subjects have to be as far away from each other as possible, as when each subject is masked away on separate layers, if the subjects touch each other, the layers merge and the image looks poorly edited.

 I found that even after placing the subjects as far away from each other as possible, I could still see blurriness around the hands. Next time this could be avoided by placing each subject as far away from the camera as the space allows, as well as making the subjects moving as little as possible so they have enough space between them.

When first testing the space I'd have for 'cloning', and space on the screen, the space would hardly fit more than 2 people at the same time, which made me realise I had to change my plan and have less people than I had planned.

 I also had to make sure I had two lights at all time when filming on the green screen, as each person had to be well lit individually on its part of the screen, so once cloned the whole picture would look well lit together , with no shadows at the back, which would of interfered with the editing the green screen out.

Even though the green screen turned out well, in the process of editing, I realised even though it looked like the green screen was one, they were 2 in fact from the two individual scenes I combined, therefore making it unable to edit as the clips were on top of each  other and every time i tried to edit them individually they would interfere  with each other and  distort the image.









I'm also not happy with some of the clips towards the end and how they don't match the lyrics of the song or are edited out of beat, or example the camera spin on 1:44 minutes, and how it appeared out of nowhere. This is due to the lack of footage on my side which made my sequence look out of order, and made the execution of my planned video impossible. To improve next time, I would make sure I have a clear plan and a timed graph from the beginning and use everything learned from this module to plan ahead better and use my time more wisely.

Music Video Survey questionnaire

As the results were 50:50 for Extremely important vs Somewhat important, i thought it'd be best to include both- i decided to use a green screen to show different locations being projected. Not having to find and film on different outside locations, made it time efficient, while also showing my editing skills with a green screen.

I realised that some of the participants, didn't know that the link for the song wasn't active and therefore didn’t manage to access the song, which led to less responses/data to use. However most participants seemed to agree on the song being relaxed, 'nostalgic' and more 'slow, quite sad' at the beginning and as the song progresses it becomes more 'upbeat and happy'.

Blues and Reds were the most popular colours amongs the answers, which justifies the previous question with the song being more sad-blue at the start, progressing into more uplifting-red.

'Bright colours' and 'pastels' were also among the answers which would link well to the idea of 'dream-like' sequences in the music video.

The results in Q4 were mixed, however narrative based video seemed to win with 2 votes more against interpretive based, however No preference was the 2nd most popular answer with 1 more vote compared to Interpretive 

As on this question participants found narrative at least 'somewhat important' to 'extremely important' I decided it would be important to incorporate a simple narrative in my music video, of all 4 personalities making their way to the studio with the green screen where they would record a music video playing on air instruments.

In this question similar to the last one in responses, participants said lyrics to be at least 'somewhat important', therefore I would make sure to incorporate lyrics in different aspects throughout the musi video.

Focus Group

After choosing the song Past Lives by Borns, we had a sat down discussion, to go over our main ideas and how we plan to proceed for our music videos.
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I plan on starting  my music video slow with simpler editing of road trips, dream like very calm and passive as for the first 55 seconds the song has a slow and calm ambience to it. Then once the beat starts I plan on using the Doly Parton challenge the show 4 different personalities.

Why have you chosen the 'Doly parton' challenge, how is it significant?

-It represents different/past lives. I want to take on the idea of the multiple personalities\lifes which would link to my chosen song Past Lives by Born, better, rather than going down and approaching  it as a love song.

Im also planning on using the same person for all 4 personalities and when I need to have all 4 on screen at the same time I plan on using a cloning method when editing.

To show the 4 different personalities of the Doly Parton challenge ill need to have 4 very different outfits- Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook and Tinder. An example would be in the Linkedin profile the person would be wearing a suit, while the Facebook profile would be more family and leisure related. I want it to look as indirect and as casual and not cryngy as possible.

Is the video going to be based off the 4 personalities doing theor own activities?

- No, I would like to start off with the idea of them walking around and  also incorporate it throughout but I also want them to meet at one point towards the end. I also plan on using the 'frames' of each platform to show even further 'which personality goes where'.

Are you planning on having the 'frames' in the actual shooting or would you incorporate them later in PremierPro?

-I plan on adding them later in, when editing as it would be a lot less time consuming and would make it look more put together.

Are you gonna film portrait in that case as the frames of all these are in portrait and you’re not gonna gave that much space if filmed on a landscape? Maybe even film on your phone?

Yes, you could even have the 4 different personalities getting ready at the same time at the start- everyones getting ready but theyre putting on different outfits. If you establish them from the start in their 'uniforms' when it comes to performing they’ll  be performing in the uniforms they’ve been established with and you wouldnt have to worry about the frames.

You should also get the person acting to act as if theyre the profile they represent, as in when theyre getting ready to act as if they would that day for example the Linkedin would be really smart and proffesional while the Facebook profile would be more casual and cheerful, when theyre saying the lyrics.

I think its a really good idea to also use lip-sync and link it to each profile-they all sing the lyrics at the start but the way they sing is linked to the profile. Then the whole realism, as in that’s clearly  not the person singing the song, that doesn’t  matter they would be acting it out.

I was also planning on having different locations to make it more 'dream-like' in the beginning, i probably wouldn’t  focus on complicated narrative, but im thinking of having locations such as the studio, the green screen, a field? I would like to fill the studio with different lights and lighting  equipment. On the green screen I would like to project some of the reacuring motives in the song of 'the night sky, the moon the stars.."

What about rather than having these multiple locations, which could be very time consuming and a nightmare to film, what about using a simple narrative of having all 4 personalities all on their way to a undisclosed location, and that location is where a green screen is set up, you could even have them all walk in front of the green screen on camera and then they all perform at the same time on the last chorus, and you could start changing  the background based on the lyrics? That way you can incorporate the green screen as well as all the different locations but in a narrative- getting ready to go and make a music video. 

For instruments I was also thinking of using either childrens toys as instruments or 'air' instruments when the 'band' is performing?

As the 'band' will be acting very serious  the whole time as in they’ll  be acting as thats their everyday life I think if you plan on using instruments the air instruments would be a better alternative as they’re not acting childish, they’re actually playing for a music video.

I like the idea of them all coming together, all these separate lives, very different from eachother, coming together in the end, to perform the same thing. Why not have them also perform a choreographed dance at the same time on the last chorus, as in the film 'Ex Machina- Tearing up the dance floor'

I think I like the idea of the air instruments a little more and would like to see how that would work put together, as when cloning the subjects, they shouldn’t be close to each other and I may struggle when editing if all 4 personalities are doing the same dance, thats the only concern I would have with cloning, all together if i would have enough space on the screen to place all 4.

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Goodwins theory-primary research and summary of theory

1.the relationship between lyrics and visuals
-illustrating (the lyrics)
-amplifying (boosting the lyrics, making them more apparent)
-contradicting (lyrics contradicting the visuals)


2.music and visuals
-illustrating (seeing the instruments)
-amplification (amplify the part of the song by using visuals)
-contradict
cutting visuals in time with music


3.genre exists
-stadium  performamce
-studio performance
-location
-narrative
-conceptual/experimental

4.Artist close up
-artist branding
-celebrity culture
-artistic portrayal
-implications on looking good

5.star iconography
-branding
-style
-brand values/ unique selling points

6.looking and voyerism
-nudity/near nudity/ revealing clothes
-exhibitionism
-an intimate location eg. bedroom
-frame within a frame

intertextuality
goodwin noticed when studying music videos that there are often intertextual references to
-other music videos
-films
-TV programs
This can be homage, pastiche, parody or even some kind of brand synergy between texts

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How to analyse music video 
Goodwin identify 5 key aspects of music videos that we, the audience, should look out for:
-thought beats- where you 'see' in the sound
-narrative and performance
-the star image
-relation of visuals to song
-technical aspects of a music video

Carol Vernallis- editing theory

"Music videos are musical and so are sections of today’s fi lms, through their music-heavy accompaniments and bombastic or fi nely grained diegetic and nondiegetic sounds. Th e odd one out might appear to be YouTube. I’d argue that YouTube’s most viewed content is music video, and many clips, though they’re not quite music videos, function similarly (the 2008 Obama campaign clip “Yes We Can” is one example). User-generated content like mashups and remixes count as well. Brief verité clips like “Haha Baby” and “Th e Sneezing Baby Panda” also refl ect intensifi ed audiovisual aesthetics. YouTube clips become popular under tremendous Darwinian pressures. Th ose that come to the fore oft en showcase close, audiovisually heightened, parametric aesthetics even if they also refl ect a more direct rendering of the world. A clip like “Evolution of Dance” possesses an uncanny rightness of proportion, color, scale, and graphic values that could be modeled as an animation, and the interaction between dancer and played-back, popsong-medley is musical".(1)

Her theory has 4 main concepts all related to how a music video is produced
-Narrative
-Editing
-Camera movement/framing
-Diegesis

NARRATIVE 
Whatever is happening visually reflects the lyrics in the song. Narrative may not always be completed and can be partial with the video appearing disjointed, disconnected and fragmented. if the video is incomplete it may lead to questions which wont necessary be answered throughout the music video. Vernallis also states that in the end of a music video there may not be a clear ending for the audience. This may be because of the narrative not being finished, appear fragmented or be open to the audiences own interpretation.

EDITING
The video may disrupt or break the conventions of continuous editing. The editing may also be brough to the foreground, instead of the invisible style of continius editing, meaning that the video will have a distinctive style throughout eg. jump cuts, cutting with the lyrics or beat.

CAMERA MOVEMENTS/FRAMING
States establishing shots are one of the of the key features of a music video, as well as medium and close up shots which establish the artist. The style of framing of the video is quite distinctive to the video, the camera may also move in time with the lyrics or beat of the song. Master shots are common too as establishing, keeping everyone in view.

DIEGESIS
The setting of the music video/ The 'world' created within the video. Would also  be revealed  quite slowly to allow the story to develop. The actions in the video are not always completed and may be disrupted in some way. Repetition is also key as some frames will appear more important than others due to the way they have been shot.

 "We can thus define music video, simply, as a relation of sound and image that we recognize as such"(2)

bibliography
(1) https://replayitoreraseit.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/unruly-media-vernallis-c.pdf
(2) Carol Vernallis (2013) YouTube Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, Page 11

Bibliography, music video unit 36

https://prezi.com/qm52-awpar4p/carol-vernallis-theory/

https://infograph.venngage.com/p/198183/carol-vernallis-music-video-theorist

https://infograph.venngage.com/p/198183/carol-vernallis-music-video-theorist

music video- ideas, plan and brief

PLAN

• Cloning 
• doly parton challenge 
• BORNS- Past lives
• loads of different lamps
• diferent locations- one plain and one neon lights one in the field one near the lake 
• starting with one past life? black and white to neon to plain?
• a field with backsheet of stars/sky band(cloning) playing

In the beginning of the music video the opening of the song is more slow and melancholic, so the footage will represent that with a slow hazy driving sequence, using Adobe After effects to add sketches and a dream like atmosphere. The 4 personalities start then, with how they each are getting ready, then making their way to the 'meet up' would be half way through of the song, then as they all get together in the studio they start playing air instruments or all do the dance from Ex Machine together+ footage of stars, fields and a dream like background, using lyrics from the song, would be playing on the green screen (green screen changes location from park to city to night sky)

TIMING
00.00 to 00.55 slow opening, car drive with sketch editing
0.55 to 2.10, 4 personalities on the same way to the studio
2.10 to 2.19, walk in studio dance starts
2.19 to 4.25, dance + air instruments
4.25 to 4.35, black screen open on just one person of the 4 dancing on song in studio, singing.

linkedin:
-open of video with this, zoom out of coffee mug on table, to sitting on table, fingers tapping, looking at watch, getting up going to door, openin and seeing park
-footage in park


instagram:
'Insta look', taking selfies, footage taken on phone camera rather than DSLR like the rest

Tinder
-date night look, less cllthing gettig ready, having dinner

 Location 1:  The first location is a street between college and the Royal mail post office that I particularly  like as it looks industrial and plan on filming the Linkedin outfit there.

 Location 2: The second location is a park in Bedworth, which I choose as its relatively quiet, and would be a good juxtaposition with the Tinder 'personality' to be filmed there.

Location 3: The 2nd park I want to film in is more of a back up option, as its only a short 5 minute walk from my house and I chose it not only for the convenient location but again for how quiet and rural the place is. I would like to film the 'Instagram' personality' here as it has a nicer scenery- cherry blossim trees and a lake.