There are other possible routes but these where the main ones I was looking at.
Friends
I have a friend Keenan who is in a Metal band however he and his band live in Devon which isn't ideal but also they are not fond of being filmed therefore would not have been willing to be in the music video. One of my criteria i wanted to keep to was to have the actual artist perform there song or someone who knew the lyrics extremly well. this was so the music video would feel more authentic.
My friend Hammy is best friends with the lead singer of 'Small Pond Big Fish' when i asked them however they didn't get back to me so i started looking to see if i new anyone else.
I remember Kaity Rae, we when to the same secondary school however she left while i stayed for the schools 6th form. My friend Charm had been in recent contact with her so i asked her for Kaity's number and i proceeded from there. Kaity agree to let film a music video and also let me chose from 2 of her original songs. As she has an EP coming out i was restricted to choose from those songs.
Once i chosen the song and confirmed with Kaity when i was planning to film, the band 'Small Pond Big Fish' got back to me and said that i could film a MV for them however i had to turn them down as i had already planned and organised with Kaity.
A little About Kaity
Kaity Rae is a young artist based in North London. Her music is best describe as an acoustic singer/songwriter, and some of her music blends Country Folk with Pop. She has won a Best Songwriter Award at the Love Folk Live Showcases in early 2014.
Auteur theory should reflect a directors personal vision, the famous french film director Truffaut argued '…a good director exerts such a distinctive style or promotes such a consistent that his/her influence is unmistakable in the body of his/her work.' This not only applies to film but to all directors works from commercials to music videos.
A champion filmmaker like Alfred Hitchcock is also known as an Absolute Auteur.
There are some of the recurring themes, characteristics & patterns in his films are:
Cameo Appearances - it became almost like a game to the audience as it engaged them
Female/Male Character Role - made them opposite of what the audience saw as stereotypical female and male roles
Female - Dangerous blond willing to take risks
Male - Loveable and caring when concerning there mothers, less risk taking then the female characters
Sexual/Taboo areas assumed central or implicit places in his works
Mystery & suspense heavily incorporated
Elaborate editing
Visual expression of thought - close ups - allowing the audience to see the emotions of the persons face with clarity
Soundtrack - building suspense
Tension - built though suspense to the point where the audience enjoy seeing the characters in life threatening situations
Scenes filled with no dialogue use POV Shots and Camera viewpoints. The camera takes on human qualities and is almost as if the camera is the audience and they are able to see what the character sees and therefore they feel as though they are uncovering the true story allowing them to interact and solve the mysterious within the story. _____________________________________________________________________________
I decided to do some Auteur Theory on films as most Music Video directors hope to go on to direct Films and there is commonalities between them.
Chris Cunningham
He is a music/film director and has worked with artist like Madonna, Bjork and The Aphex Twins. His Auteur signature is based around horror which can be seen in some of his work like Aphex Twin - All is Full of Love & Madonna - Frozen. In both of these the audience is made to feel nervous and includes unexpected aspects which are a common element in horror films.
Cunningham also likes to use 'canted angles' to connote messages which could be love or fear etc. Fast paced editing and sharp cuts are used in most his videos, his editing style is in sync with the music and it's beat/speed. Some of his videos also include impressive technical feature which can be seen in the videos mentioned above, these sometimes include CGI editing.
Michel Gondry
He is a French film, music videos and commercial director and is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise-en-scène. He was worked with artist like Kylie Minogue, Bjork and Paul McCartney. His auteur signature within his music videos are seen as repetitive and a clear example of this would be Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World. Gondry also uses technical elements in his music videos which catches the audiences attention. They are also shot in one single long take rather than short cuts and he also uses optical illusions to engage the audience. He is best known for using surrealism and making the video dream like, a prime example of this would be Everlong - Foo Fighters.
Hype Williams
He is best know for his work with numerous big selling R&B artists such as Notorious B.I.G, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott & Nicki Minaj along with many other. Within Hypes works he used lots of bright colours which can be seen throughout and is considered as part of his auteur signature.
His signature also includes fish eye lens effect however this was more prominent in his earlier work. Hype's work is know for using a wide screen ration whilst a second shot is split and placed where usually there would be black bars above and below the video. Another one of his signature, which he continues to use through more of his recent works is the scene rapidly switching between shots so you are able to see both at once.
Goodwin explains his theory through 6 principles within a Music Video:
1. Tend to include/demonstrate genre characteristics
Eg. Rock Videos - They are normally expected to have a performance that conveys a gig
2. There is a relationship between lyrics & visuals
There is direct contrast with what is shown in the video and the lyrics of the song
3. There is a relationship between rhythm & visuals
The visuals in music video may be edited in time to the beat/rhythm of the song
4. Demands of the Record Label
The best way for them to sell the artist is with lots of close-ups of them in there music videos, however it's also important that they have there own unique style. These recurs through there work and close-up helps sell there style as well. An example of this is Amy Winehouse, her hair and attire are part of her own unique style. Lady Gaga is another prime example as she is know for her wacky outrageous style.
5. Notion of Looking
Voyeurism is used to sell the artist music using sex appeal as they are portrayed
seductively. Some prime example of this are;
Dirty - Christina Aguilera Toxic - Britney Spear
Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke
6. Intertexual References
These references of TV program films other music videos and so own are often portrayed in music videos. They are use to engage the audience and provides them with gratification if the recognise the link.
These videos are mainly centred around the artist and seeing them performing their song. They are popular among new or low budget artists/bands and genres such as pop & rock. Pop artist performance based videos see them dancing and singing with (sometimes) back-up dancers. They usually focus on self promotion and selling there brand identity. Rock artist/bands performance based videos see them playing their instruments typically either in a studio or concert setting.
Late Nite Reading-Just How I Do It ---------->
Performance based videos are the cheapest to make. They focus on promotional schemes that temp fans to buy concert tickets based on their performance in the music video. A great deal of thought goes into costumes and setting however some say they can be generic and boring with a lack/sense of creativity.
Narrative Based Music Videos
Are music videos which have a storyline which is usually followed through the whole song.
Taylor Swift-You Belong to Me ------->
The narrative in a music video closely reflects lyrical content of the song and the audience can empathise with the artist intentions for the song. The plot is often easy for the audience to follow and engage with, as the storyline compliments the lyrics. They can be expensive to produce however and if the narrative is unclear it can leave audience confused wondering what the message of the song was.
Concept Based Music Videos
They have no storyline and/or have no relations to the lyrical content of the song. Footage sometimes doesn't make sense to the viewer however is memorable as its individual and unique.
Ed Sheeran-Don't ------------>
The imagery is usually surrounded by one concept/idea, they are often creative or artsy. They can however come across as random or strange to the audience and the artist isn't feature in the video therefore is unable to promote the artist identity.
The purpose of this exercise was to recreate, roughly the first 30 seconds of Britney Spears ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time.’ This acted much like my continuity exercise for my AS, it was a preliminary task in which helped familiarise me with various aspects that would come from creating a music video.
Before filming i analysed, roughly the first 30 seconds of the 'hit me baby' music video. Once done we could see what type of shots needed to be filmed & roughly the length that each scene needed to be.
We had to also decide on things like locations for certain shots, who would act as Britney and also choreograph a small routine. As a group we then filmed the necessary scenes, however for the lip-syncing we needed to play the song aloud while filming. We got a docking station and played the song while we filmed as a person mined to the song. It was important to note that the song she was mining to was the same version which was to be used to edit with.
From the task, what I learn most about was how to lip-sync the track to the footage on Final Cut Express. It's extremely important that I learnt these skills before hand as it means I have practiced how to lip-sync correctly and therefore can produce it to a satisfactory level on my own music video. Before I set out to do this task I didn't quite realise how many shots and work went into a music video but after doing this task i've notice that there are a lot more then I previously thought.
My re-creation of it Britney Spears 'Hit Me Baby' isn't exactly the same as the original however this is due to the fact that as a group we decide only to film certain shots as the exercise was for us to mainly to see;
- Amount of footage that goes into an MV
- How to & testing lip-syncing
- What to do when filming artist lip-syncing
- Editing a MV
For these reasons it wasn't imperative that we recreated the music video exactly the same.
It was the first type on indoor exhibition space dedicated to showing motion pictures. They flourished from 1950-1915, Nickelodeon usually showed films about 10-15mins long and in a variety of styles (for example Illustrated songs).
1929
Bessie Smith-St. Louis Bluesis one of the earliest examples of a music video of some sort.
1930s
Screen Songs - Introduced
They were a series of cartoon films which encouraged audiences to sing-along by following the bouncing ball on screen
1940s
Musicalsbecame increasingly popular. Musical films was a film genre in which several songs were interwoven in the film. Eg. Disney released Fantasia, an animated film based around famous pieces of classical music.
Soundies were roughly 3 minutes musical films products similar to later music videos. They are best know for preserving rare performances of African-American artists who had fewer opportunities to perform in films at the time.
1950s
1956: Tony Bennett - Stranger in Paradise
1956 - 1957: Love Me Tender & Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
1958:The soundies led to development of
the Scopitones. They are visual jukebox
with small screen showing performances
sync with music played across UK & US
television stations.
1960s
Musical Revolution was time of freedom & recording of live music performances.
1964: Top Of The Popsfirst broadcast was on New Years Day with Jimmy Savile and Alan Freeman presented the first show, which featured:
The Rolling Stones - 'I Wanna Be Your Man'
Dusty Springfield - 'I Only Want to Be with You'
The Dave Clark Five - 'Glad All Over'
The Hollies - 'Stay'
The Swinging Blue Jeans - 'Hippy Hippy Shake'
The Beatles - 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' (which was that week's number one)
Throughout TOTPs history, the programme always finished with the best-selling single of the week.
1964: The Beatles - A Hard Days Night
Was a critical moment in the development of music videos influencing the filming of music videos that all/many contemporary artists use today.
1964: Concert Films
Is a type of documentary film, the an extended live performance or concert by a musician and also may tell there life story. Some of the earliest forms of these are:
T.A.M.I Show 1964
Monterey Pop 1968
1967: The Beatles – Penny Lane & Strawberry Fields Forever
The Beatles took music videos to another level with their next video and started using the codes and conventions that modern post productions teams know today, such as dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing. Created at the height of the psychedelic music period, these two music video are among the very first purpose-made concept videos that attempt to 'illustrate' the song in an artful manner, rather than just creating a film of an idealised performance.
1970s
The Jackson Five - I Want You Back
The 1970's saw the music video change with more emphasis on just the artist singing. This style lead to music videos to the "Cross-Cutting" stage where the song would portray a story that accompanied the lyrics and "cross-cuts" to the artist singing it.
1980s
1981- Introduction of MTV (24hour Music Television)
The first video aired was "Video killed the radio star", it was a real break-through in the evolution of music videos and as you can see it was a very high-budget video in which we can see more development in editing such as "Over-laying". MTV was used as a tool for marketing allowing artist to create an image through music videos but also promote their music. It was responsible for the success of artists like Madonna due to its central role in marketing.
1982: Artists started to use more sophisticated effects in their videos, and added a storyline or plot to the music video. Michael Jackson was the first artist to create the concept of the short film. A short film is a music video that has a beginning, middle and end. He did this in a small way with 'Billie Jean', directed by Steve Barron, then in a West Side Story way with director Bob Giraldi's 'Beat It', but it wasn't until the release of the 'Thriller' short film that he took the music video format to another level.
1983:MTVs playlist was 99% white until Billie Jean- Michael Jackson song was promoted with a short film that broke down MTV's racial barrier as the first video by a black artist to be aired in heavy rotation. This song was later labelled as one of the best-selling singles of 1983.
1984: Michael Jackson – Thriller
This video was the pioneer of the 'Storyline' video which has a plot, almost like a 'mini' movie. It is still considered as one of the most successful and influential MV of all time. It contains sophisticated visuals and it took the music industry to another level. Now music videos were really being seen as promotion and made into high-budget productions.
1990-2005
1990s: More genres becoming mainstream Eg. R&B/hip-hop etc
Music Videos in this decade were common for many artists
1995: Scream – Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson created the most expensive music video ever made racking up $7million
2001: iTunes Launched
Able to download and purchase music videos
2005: Youtube Launched
People can now watch music videos when ever but also the public are able to upload there own videos. New artist see popularity rise through internet as these videos can be shared via social media
