In this task i attempted editing to the beat for the first time. I was given a song to edit to and a small group of people in animal costumes dancing and pretending to sing. This would involve multiple skills in order to do successfully, such as decent enough timing and attention to detail. I also included a shot of footage in reverse and the beginning part was in black and white, which was then copied by other members of the group. After showing to some people in my group they commented that it was an alright attempt, but towards the end the editing is too fast for the song. As this was my first editing attempt in a couple of months, this was a refresher on how to edit and for me to develop new skills which will be useful to the final music video.
This the the raw clips of the people dancing that I would put into the music video.
This is the beginning of the editing process, with limited editing to the beat which would be improved on later.
This was the toll that was used in order to create the shot in reverse, a useful tip for the later editing that I will do.
This was the title screen that I used at the beginning, except it is on a black background now instead of the animals.
The group that I am in, consisting of me, Azimul and James, has decided on a few songs that we could use to create a video, The majority of the videos are on Youtube and are by bands that either have very little recognition, or have had one song do well, yet the group didn't gain much popularity from it. in addition, we also searched for royalty free music on the internet that the artists wouldn't mind if we created a music video on it.
The Primary functions of all music videos are to showcase and promote the artist and to advance the sales of the music. As part if this, the industry of creating music videos often rely on a good song in the background so that people will watch the video regardless. Despite this, the following two examples are both songs that weren't particularly well received by the public on their release, yet the music video given to the song has helped to increase their popularity inexplicably, even to the point of the songs and videos still being popular today. A-HA- Take on me
The music video of A-HA's "Take on Me", directed by Steve Barron, cast the original idea of having most parts of the video inside of a comic book, making the majority of the frame in the video with hand drawn characters and backgrounds of the characters. The smooth transitions between reality and comic book style blew this song into popularity, considering that a year before the video was released the song was released on its own and didn't gain much of a following. Part of the beauty of this video was down to the stop motion animation that took place in it, as nowadays the amount of time and money that would be spent attempting to recreate such a video would be too great to be reasonable to produce.
Sinead O'Connor- Nothing Compares 2U
Sinead O'Connor's music video "Nothing Compares 2U", a cover of Prince's song, instantly became her most famous music video, as well as one of the greatest music videos of all time. This is due to the real emotion portrayed by her during her close up. before the music video was shot, Sinead's mother passed away, and combined with the emotional lyrics of the song, caused for her to actually cry over the song. This created a problem for the director, as prior to filming her close up he had spent £40,000 shooting in France. The tears added incredible amounts of emotion to the video, so most shots of France were scrapped and the majority of the video is Sinead's head, forcing you to stare into her eyes as she cries.
The music video to Rihanna's "Shut up and Drive" holds a narrative structure that is also performance based, as Rihanna holds a massive part in the video. As is the case with most narrative music videos, the video is based in a particular lyric in the song, in this case it being the actual title of the song. As the song has a fast tempo, the pacing between each shot in different parts of the video doesn't differ much from around 1-2 cuts each second, keeping the audience involved and forced to look at Rihanna on screen. The video features a great contrast in the mise-en-scene between the masculine background of a car garage and Rihanna, dressing and acting relatively sexual and feminine and in contrast to her surroundings. In many ways therefore, the target audience for the video could be aimed to me men, using a combination of sex appeal and masculinity throughout the video to attract men. On the other hand, with multiple forms of women doing what are typically perceived as "men's jobs", such as car mechanic, can be viewed as empowering to women, while also putting women as the focus of the video rather than men.
Daniel Powter- Bad Day
This music video is also mostly narrative based, as it does tell a story about two people that have troubles in their everyday life. This story also is adapted from the songs main lyrics and title, making the video appropriate for the song, yet not completely distracting from the music as Rihanna's was. We do get to see Daniel Powter throughout the video singing and playing the piano when appropriate, but the main focus on the story is on two other people separate to the song. While the song does not contain a very fast tempo or energetic styling, the cuts between each shot are very quick in certain parts of the song, taking between 1-2 shots per second on average. The mise-en-scene in the music video is appropriate to the song, as when the music gets slower and the atmosphere gets more depressing in the song, the video follows with slower editing and generally dark tone. We also are told through the video that the two main people are meant to be together in the video through the constant foreshadowing and parallels that the editing draws upon, such as the split screen at the beginning of the video, showing their similar routine at the beginning of the day. In contradiction to Rihanna's "Shut up and Drive", the target audience is not clear due to the appeal to all ages, sex and nationalities. This make the song more accessible to a wider audience, while it is debatable if the video to "Shut up and Drive" can find an audience in groups of all ages, sexualities or ethnicities.
Pastiche- Fall Out Boy- Centuries
Pastiche as a genre of music video uses and manipulates different periods throughout history as inspiration in the respective video. This music video in particular uses the Roman Empire as inspiration, using the Colosseum and shows a battle between the band members and a Roman warrior.
Cinematic- Michael Jackson- Thriller
Cinematic music videos are often well received by the public audience, as while we can listen to music and get a story that many people can enjoy, music videos such as "Thriller" are designed to be watched multiple times for the elaborate and detailed story, while other cinematic music videos take priority in creating a simple story that people can enjoy while listening to the music while not drawing the attention from it.
Narrative:
Imagine Dragons- Radioactive
Narrative music videos are often created to complement a song through a fairly simple story that the audience can watch while listening to the music. In this example, the story is of an illegal fighting den with teddy bears, showing a rough and dark side of a happy premise. This video is a good example of one that can be watched repeatedly for the music, yet only a small number of times for the video before the gimmick runs dry. Despite this, it is still a successful narrative video in its rewatchable structure to an extent.
Parody:
White and Nerdy-Wierd Al Yonkovic
The parody genre of music videos are mostly dedicated to creating different songs entirely using the track of already existing songs. This example shows Wierd Al Yonkovic create a parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire in order to put a comedic twist on a comparatively serious song. The parody does it's job very well, given that it even parodies shots use in the actual video for "Ridin'", creating a greater comedic tone to the video through highlighting the differences in the cultures and lifestyles of the targeted groups.
In Concert:
Imagine Dragons- Demons
This particular genre of music video is done to create an atmosphere around the song that isn't given through a story or characters to follow, as this type of video focuses mainly on the group singing the song to their audience instead of it serving more as background music to a story. In this instance however, while the main focus of the video is the band singing, it is also littered with small details of other characters in order to fit the song. The way that this is done is successful in spreading the songs message, as well as giving the music video the feeling of being at a concert spliced with mini stories for eh audience to follow.
Abstract: Justin Bieber- Where are U now
Justin Bieber's song "Where are U now" can be considered an Abstract video due to the little relevance between the songs lyrics and the video. While the song portrays Bieber's feelings about being alone, the music video is almost exclusively single shot pictures of drawings over videos of Justin singing and dancing. There is no obvious reason that the video may enhance the songs emotional influence on people, making the video a relatively redundant or abstract video.
Performance: Tinchy Stryder & The Chuckle Brothers- To Me To You
The music video to "To Me To You" is mostly Performance based as the main artists in the song appear in the video. While this song isn't completely serious in its premise, it does feature all of the vocalists in the song and in the video. The song is very basic in its story, with Tinchy Strider doing an interview for SBTV and ends up meeting the Chuckle Brothers, with their conversation taking place in the rap and song sections of the song.
Animated:
Arctic Monkeys- Do I Want to Know?
"Do I want to know" by the Arctic Monkeys features an animated video best described as psychodelic to accompany a song that is calm and easy to listen to. This makes the video easily rewatchable as background noise, or if a person particularly likes the genre of 'Stoner Rock' as it is popularly known. The video itself contains many different visual effects, all with the effect of flowing and perfect transition between different scenes in the video, again lending to its easily rewatchable tone to the video and song.
