assignment 2 - task four

write up your research notes into a single document that you can refer to as you produce your 10 minute video. (4 page maxium)

assignment 2 - task 3

watch three 'making of videos' videos about the techniques involved in music video production.

assignment 2 - task two

watch five music videos of different genres, write a detailed analysis of each one of their styles, conventions and techniques.


lincoln park -- new rock

assignment 2 - task one

Find a book, journal or website that explains the styles, conventions and techniques of music videos. write down what they say and what you think about them.

In this post I will be showing some of the research I have gathered from various sources, the research will be about the styles, conventions and techniques that music videos use.

The first source i used was an online document:

http://www.slideshare.net//conventions-of-music-videos-2935597 jamsjamsjams

In this article they cover the four main conventions very well in a way which is universal for all music videos, as well as this the article has examples of more specific conventions for certain types of music videos.

Some of these are like hip hop music where it states that the conventions are

• location - normally somewhere with a live environment such as a club or a party or such.
• use of alcohol - sometimes used to show a certain party life
• recognised brands of clothing - show off trendy new fashions 
• expensive houses and cars - once again showing off 
• camera shots concentrate on money jewels and assets
• sexualization of women 
• artists tend to get involved

All of these are present in most music hip hop music videos although another convention this document covers is the aspect that they do not really follow narrative, my research goes against this, as I found many hip hop music videos which have very clear plots so I believe this is false.

Below are a few videos I researched into:

Here is a hip hop music video which follows all the conventions mentioned above perfectly, it's got a great location in America which people can be familiar with, it's  got use of alcohol, they have expensive well known clothing, they show off their wealth a lot with cars and boats - a lot of assets, in fact there are lyrics which support this such as 'I have more jewels than your jeweller'. There are a number of women in bikinis so women are defiantly sexualised and all the artists, especially DJ Khalid, are involved. As you can see this has a very good plot and goes against the online document. But from here on this video is a bit different from the normal conventions for example it does not sexualise women, no alcohol, they do not show off their wealth much etc.  The artist do get involved but thats about it. the reason why this video is like this and does not folow a lot of conventions is because this hip hop song is solely about NYC and nothing else therefore many of the other conventions are unnecessary.




Here is a very popular song by Ja Rule, Jada Kiss and Fat Joe. Three very well known artists in the hip hop industry at that time and still quite popular today. The song is entierly about NYC and definitely follows the convention about location fully! Other minor conventions which some hip hop music videos follow is to 'big up' the artist. For example, in this video and the other two, I am analysing, the artists always have a massive following and a lot of support and this shows them as the alphas in the group. The New York music video has a massive number of people on set in different locations in NY this definitely shows the artists as the main feature in the shot.




Here is my last video on hip hop which is by Lil John, the East Side Boys and Ice Cube. Called 'roll call' the basic plot in this is about Lil John who is the main character getting ambushed by a rival gang but he manages to escape but at the cost of leaving an attractive female who is dressed up in hardly anything. So to get the girl back Lil John calls Ice Cube who is at his house, but then goes inside to get his clothes and then jumps into his very expensive hydraulic car to help Lil John. Then they are at the rival gang's club and sabotage the club whilst drinking krunk and wearing suits. Then the two gangs confront outside, the attractive girl gets returned to Lil John and a massive gang battle kicks off. In that short description you can see every convention very clearly and you can see that this is a very typical hip hop music video which has followed the conventions perfectly and become immensely successful.

TV commercial analysis

In this blog post i will be talking about adverts because we will soon be making our own adverts, here is some research i done on a few adverts which i found very interesting. These are all from my choice and i selected them because of their unique methods and techniques to get out to the audience.

SNICKERS.

The first advertisement i have chosen is the very well known snickers advert which has a massive audience  first of all i will be showing the product, which is a candy bar with nuts and caramel. This bar is one of the most iconic world wide of all and it is associated with a lot of stuff.

Here is a typical Snickers bar.

In the actual advert the technique of using a celebrity to popularize the item is used, this is called celebrity endorsement  In this case it is the celebrity Mr. T, a very hard figure which represents an alpha male and strength. The reason why celebritys are used is because the target audiance are familiar with the figure and some might even take the individual as a role model, this makes the audience want to be like their idol and will invest in the product to do so.

Here is an image showing both the celebrity and the produce. Also notice how the slogan get some nuts is also on Mr. T's gold chain. This is very interesting because the gold chains he wears is a massive part of his iconography, this shows that he is very at one with the bar.

Below is the video:



This advert is very interesting as well as quite humorous. The structure of this advert is a anti realistic narrative with quite a funny story. The conventions are used in ways in which the product is shown exactly the way the producers wanted. Camera wise the shots were very interestingly layed out for example low angle shots of Mr.T to show he is superior compared to the footballer who has a high angle shot of him as well as having the tanks cannon right in his face makes him look very vulnerable  The music used is very iconic because it is from the A team which Mr.t is part of this shows the advert is using the celebrity to the best they can in order to put the iconic imagery out there.

The target audience in this is mainly men and boys who like all males like to show their masculinity and take pride in their strength. This is unique because there are not many other candy adverts which do this effectively mainly because they like to go out to both sex's, but because Snickers is such a big brand they can afford to do this, the only other candy bar which i can think of that does this is the Yorkie chocolate bar advert.

PETIT FLOUS

The next advert i will be analyzing will be the petit filous advert. Petit flous is a yogurt for young children which has health benefits for children and offers a nice taste.

The advert here is very different from the Snickers advert. It does not have a celebrity endorsement and defiantly isn't aimed at masculine males. Instead the technique which it uses is an emotional technique where it makes you feel a certain emotion into buying the product after all the target audience is kids and parents, this is called emotional manipulation. A lot of these adverts are directed towards parents which think that the product will benefit their children. Petit flous does exactly this.

Below is the advert.

As you can see in this advert is very innocent and gentle a lot as if a child is talking directly towards you in a calm and gentle matter, this also means it is quite realistic and more specifically sensible, it doesn't have any over exaggerated assets such as tanks, flying dolphins  tap dancing horse etc.  

another massive aspect of this is music, most people will sub consciously listen to the music without paying any attention but it still has a massive effect on the person about how they take in the info. For example the nursery style music here makes the audience feel like they are in the environment shown on screen perhaps even going as far as to making them remember how it is to be a child, this allows them to feel a connection with the advert and pay more attention. also the surroundings which is bright and sunny like the french countryside also makes the audience feel as if they are there in the same place with the kids.

The brand identity here is shown plain and simple as it shows the benefits to the children and health factors this alone is a very good way to advertise because this is ideally what a parent would want for their child. what also helps their advertising is the slogan which is 'helps bones grow stronger' this basically sum up the whole product in one sentence, this is unique because most other advertisements have a motto style frases like nikes 'just do it' or snickers 'gets some nuts'.

LYNX

This is one of my favorite, defiantly one of the most popular too and people even actually call it the lynx effect. this is because lynx uses the same techniques where they take advantage of sexual aspects and incorporate them in all of there adds. In particular we will be looking at this add which is one that shows most of their techniques.

The shots here are very dramatic, always changing shot just like in an action film from close up's to Ariel shots  from a helicopter. this is done to keep suspense at peak level and to make it very interesting to watch for the target audience which are men. Another point is that there is no better way to get the attention of a man than to get a half naked attractive woman in slow mo, this is nature. The only other way to have a bigger impact is to get an army of half naked attractive girls girls running, and that's exactly whats been done here in a massive proportion and makes the target audience believe what they are seeing believing that they can have the lynx effect too.

close up shot on the woman gets mens attention straight away.

sheer number of women

one lucky guy that others guys wanna be

areil shot

 using the sexualisation technique works so well and this advert uses it to its fullest potential and defiantly helped the product to sell and get recognized. Another aspect that i covered in the other adverts is the music here you can hear tense vocals which work so well with the music and amplifies the feeling of suspense which is done by the camera and the music gets tense as the woman get closer to the male and then climax's.

There is not a real slogan here apart from the lynx effect, i believe they don't need one because the visuals are so powerful and remember able that a slogan would just kill the feeling or confuse.

TALK TO FRANK

For anyone who isn't familiar with talk to frank, its a call in center which helps people dealing with drug related problems, obviously this is a very important matter and this advert isn't selling anything unlike the other adverts in fact it is offering help and is a government organisation.

First of all notice that it is an add different from the rest, whilst the other concentrate of you buying their product this add is here to inform people about the risks of cocaine using what is called shock tactic. Shock tactics are used mainly in adverts like this to inform the public about the risks of such things like drugs, alcohol, drink driving etc. 

In this advert the target audience is teenagers, young adults and people who are thinking of trying out cocaine  this target audience like humor but to be humorous and serious is very hard but this advert executes this very well and effectively separated the humor and the suffering in the video to show the contrasts. The also have a mascot  this is a bit like celebrity endorsement but it is a figure which the advert created, these are also very successful and some companies who use this are go compare with the 'fat man' and compare the markets Merkats.

More to the point, the advert is also very graphical, depicting images of suffering hurt and the side effects of cocaine, these images are there to show the bad sides of cocaine and the harm it could do to scare the audience into staying away from drug. This is very helpful for the advert because it works as a sudden shock of reality and makes the audience reconsider, and having the call number at the end also helps straight away as the person is thinking about the situation.

different styles of music videos

These days all music artist are competing for first place and there is a lot of competition out there, just like many products the artist have to have USP. A unique feature to show who they are and  differ them from others to become more noticable and start there own iconography. Some examples are Wiz Khalifa's weed smoking scene and lady gagas whacky out of the world style. Music video's must also contribute to this by showing off the iconography of the artist and potraying the artist in the way which will benifit them.

Public.

Almost all music videos you see these days are rehearsed or made so the public see the artist the way the producers want to show them. This video is an example of a complete example of a typical publicity video, the shots are taken exactly the way they want and in this particular video there is a lot of extra editing and illustrations added to give a more stronger feeling of the artist. Here in Kanye Wests good life this is shown very well.

As you can tell from from this picture the white background and car illustration has been put in the shot separately in post production. So this was altered for the public to see.

This has also been edited, in fact the whole video has this sort of editing.

Location

This video is great for showing the location concept of a music videos, this is also one of the most popular one, this technique makes the audiunce relate to the area and if the audiance is familiar with the location they will feel an attachment to the video. producers can use this very well to make a lot of aspect relivent, for examplhip party based artist may use the location of ibiza which is a capital for clubing, another example would be nikki minajs video pound the alarm which was show in rio de janiro the home of the carnival, people will notice the carnival and know this video would be as crazy as the actual carnival. Below are a set of pictures and this video 'till i'm gone' by tinie tempah shows a varety of world famous places.

This is him in amstadam

Japan

Milan

Singapore

Sydney

And of course London, other places include Paris, Switzerland, Monaco and NYC

Mood

This video is very different from the rest of the videos here because it is so underground and gritty, this video gives off a feeling just like a previous video i analysed called 'getting nowhere' by magnetic man. this is a great mood video because it shows the artists mood so well and with the graphic images it also makes the audiences feel the same mood. This is a song by professor green about the means streets of London in particular hackney, the scenes in this give a strong impact to the audience because the stuff shown here is very strong and stays in the mind very well sort of like a shock tactic. Some of the aspects shown here include drugs, crime, prostitution, gangs, youth, killing, guns, chaos and a lot more. This is done to show pro greens life style and shows where he came from most likly to show that he started from the bottom.

Youth being submerged into the gritty life.

Prostitution

Beat up of another.

Storming into a drug house

Intimedating looking figure, creates tension.

Gun violence

Bleeding

Group of hoodies, shot in a wayto show gritty lifestyle.

The reason why this is really good for a mood video is because the mood is such a strong one in which the target audience can relate with. This video in particular does it through shock but many others use the mood technique in a less intimidating way for example one of these videos is Jessie J's music video 'price tag', instead off using the mood technique to give a shock the mood tactic here is used to give off an impression of how Jessie J is to here audience  a tool to advertise here iconography. This also works very well and has proved to be effective with many other artists such as Eminem, Ed sheran, maroon 5 etc.

Jessie J's 'Price tag'

candid

concert

Here is an example of a concert style music videos, these would be watched by mainly hardcore fans or just to show off the artists vibe and energy. This sort of music videos used to be really popular before but these days the other styles of music videos prove to be a lot more emersive and enteraining to watch rather than there concert types. As you can see this song is quite old, it was really hard to find a modern one becasue many music videos do not use this anymore and use better stratgies but the closet thing i could find was jay-z's sone  'niggers in paris' which is ona concert but one that is edited extensivly.

After looking some examples from music videos and understanding the concept properly we went out and took our own versions of publicity, candid, concert, mood and location shot types. We took pictures around the college and we had some equipment like professional cameras to make the shots look realistic. below are a few of the pictures we took.

Mood

This first one is a great mood shot, it shows a classmate standing in front of the window watching over a great veiw which could also be seen as a location shot as well and a great mood shot. The shot shows the charecter as if he is seeing a new light and gives the audiance the feel that the artist is having. This is one of the best shots too show the feelings of the artist advertised.

 Concert

Here is my version of a concert as you can see the audience are shown and the artists are on a platform higher than the audience, this gives a great view of the both the audience and  the artists. More specifically it makes you feel as if you are on of the fans within the concert and gives that feel with the actions of the fans. The artist also show great acting with their air guitars and really simulate a real concert.

 Publicity

 location

Surprise

In this post I'm going to show Kanye West's iconography, Kanye West has a very cocky attitude, he believes he is better than the common person and special, he is very proud of himself and his music videos show it very well. This is shown very well in the video 'Power' which is dedicated purely to himself and he tries to show himself as almighty.

Here is the video 'Power.'

Mise en scene is the most used convention to portray the idea of  Kanye West having all the power, this is done by using the wide number of props, most of these props have ancient origin and are normally associated with wealth, power and being majestic. These are also from ancient empires that everyone sees as the superpowered civilisation, the main references I noticed were from Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Chinese origin. some of these are:

• gold owl chain
• horns
• daggers
• swords
• girls
• pillars
• throne
• staffs
• halos
• crowns
• fireworks

As well as this he also shows the aspect of him being god like, the most obvious is the fact he is surrounded by angels, other objects which depict this are the grapes, devils, clouds, wings and scenery, which looks like a vision of heaven. This shows Kanye as if he were a god. 

One other use of mise en scene being used is the sexualisation of women, this goes in with Goodwin's theory of a successful music video and here it shows that the women flocking towards Kanye as if he has everything, this is to show that he has everything and makes people want to be like him.

Here are a few pictures of some objects:

Illuminous eyes, shows he is a higher being. The glare which is looking directly at you can be quite intimidating, this is done to show power using fear. 

Devil

Angels

Dagger

Heavenly women

Grapes in a vase, majestic and very royal

Sword

Sword and halo

Solid gold chain with pageant god on it.

The camera is very stationary in this music video, it is just a slow progressive zoom out from Kanye which could be a transition. this makes kanye stay in the centre of the shot through out the whole clip, the only other time it changes is at 1.15 where the camera changes rapidly to specific parts in the shot such as the angels and devils yet still it's the same shot, the reason why there is only one shot is because only one shot is needed and cutting to different shots will lose the concentration of the audience. it does this five times before going back to Kanye. These are short, continuous jump shots which helps you focus on Kanye West by showing what's around him.

Lighting is used very well in this mainly on Kanye as there are the lights on him which are the primary light, the fill light and the backing light. the backing light has the effect of him being illuminous and makes him a lot more distinguished compared to everyone else on the shot. most of the other light was from the blue screen behind. most of this video was filmed separately on blue screen and then put together.