A good student music video should have the highest standards of each area involved in making a music video such as contents and construction. a good student music video should include a variety of elements from the different areas such as narrative and editing. A good student music video includes a strong narrative that relates to or tells a story from the lyrics, the narrative has to give the song meaning and therefore make it appeal to target audiences. Student music videos need to ensure that the video matches the genre of the song and that they appeal to the correct target audience for the songs genre. As well as narrative, sections of live performance and thematic and symbolic concepts should be involved to make sure a student music video is good.
In terms of construction, a controlled use of the camera with a detailed attention to framing and a mixture of shot sizes and types should also be included to make a good top mark student music video. Editing of the music video should use a selection of effects and shot transitions appropriate to the music video, the song and their genres. Editing should be used to help the narrative flow smoothly and create a meaning that is apparent to the audience. All construction techniques and elements should be high quality and professional such as the stability of the camera and the clarity of the sound and recording.
An example of a good student music video is as below:
Student Music Video Analysis
The student music video I have chosen to analysis is of
Labrinth’s Express Yourself. There are quite a few elements of this music video
that I think are good including the narrative and the editing. The narrative
for this music video is clear and simple and is portrayed well throughout the
music video as well as linking to the lyrics. The editing in this music video
is also very good and I especially like the use of the silhouette with the
coloured background as it fits with the genre of the song and music video and
is also a good way to highlight the lip syncing which for most of the video
matched perfectly with the song. Lots of cuts used within the video also helped
to make the lip-syncing good as they were only short sections of lip syncing
and therefore there was not much time to spot if it was out of sync before it
changed to another shot. The editing in this student music video was also very
good at the times when the boy and the man disappeared mid shot as although it
was cheesy, it did look professional and worked with genre of the song. The music
video matches with both the lyrics of the song as well as the music, with the
cuts and transitions being made to the beat. The dancing towards the end of the
music video was also good as it was to the beat and was an appropriate style
for the song although some dancers didn’t look very professional or excited.
At the start of the music video, the camera was a bit shaky
and the quality of the video throughout was not very clear and therefore did
not bring it up to the standards of a real music video. Towards the end of the music
video the camera again lost quality and began to look more like a student video.
Even though the quality was not very good, the angles used and the different
shots used in the dance sequence made it look upbeat and fun therefore making
it fit with the genre.
Genre The genres for this music video are pop and dance whilst the
genre or the artist is pop.There is a
typical narrative for this video as it tells the story of a man who isn't very
confident and doesn't get noticed by people being helped to gain more confidence
by another man who plays the character of his guardian/genie. A clear and
obvious narrative is something that is expected within most pop music videos as
they help to tell the story within the song and lyrics.Something unexpected within this music video
is the two men disappearing throughout the video whilst in shot as it’s not
something that relates to the lyrics specifically and is not very realistic. There
are not any intertextual references that I can see in the music video.
Narrative The
narrative in this music video is a cheesy storyline of a man who isn't very confident and doesn't get noticed by people being helped to gain more confidence by another man who plays the character of his guardian/genie. There
is a recognisable structure in the music video as it shows 4 out of the 5
stages of Todorov theory of equilibrium. The
music video starts on the second stage of todorov’s theory meaning there is a
disruption that is causing a lack of equilibrium this is shown when we see the boy screwing up his diary entry and throwing it out of the window this show his struggle. The
next stage in this theory is the recognition of the disruption the part of the
music video that could relate to this stage is when the man in the park finds the boys diary entry scrunched up on the floor and turns up at his door. The
fourth stage of todorovs theory is an attempt to repair the disruption this
stage occurs in the music video this can be seen when the two men go shopping in order to make the boy feel more confident and more like himself. The
final stage is the reinstatement of equilibrium this happens in the middle of the music video and onwards when we see the boy dancing and having fun suggesting he is more confident and can now "express" himself. some recognisable characters could be seen in this music video as the man in the white suit could be viewed as the hero whilst the other boy is viewed more as the victim/ damsel in distress type character. The music video for this song can be seen as reflecting some of the lyrics within the song because in the video the artist sings the line " I don't make the papers" as he is handed a paper. Also, when the chorus of the song occurs, people are seen dancing, which is sometimes viewed as a way of expressing yourself which links with the song title as well as the lyrics in the chorus. Representation There
aren’t really any specific issues of representation that I can see within this music video. The
artists for this music video have not been presented as celebrities and are
instead playing characters. Although towards the end of the video the artist seems to come away from the narrative and is the main focus in the narrative as well as on the screen suggesting that he is important but not quite of celebrity status. Visual/ Technical Codes There
are a couple of different settings in this music video including a bedroom, a park, a street, a shop and a tunnel. All of the settings for this music video are very modern and therefore suggest that the video is set in the present. There are a lot of bright colours used within this music video such as yellow and bright blue which have connotations of happiness that match the generic conventions found in a pop music video. There is no iconography or typography within this video
Audience
I would say the
target audience for this video is both male and female teens with the demographic of
D/E. The video has the similar aged characters which
then attracts the same type of audience because audiences can relate more to
people of the same of similar age. Also along with the pop genre which is aimed more at mainstream audiences,
the young characters seen having fun at the end of the video are used in order
to attract the same type of audience. Institution There is only one reference to the institution within this music video, this is at the start before the music video has started. A black screen at the start of the music video appears, detailing the song title, artist and record company for the single. Apart from this, the record label is not mentioned or included throughout the music video.
The image below is a brief analysis of 3 different music videos, carried out in order to give me an idea of what different genres of music videos include and therefore allow me to have an understanding of the way a music video looks for different genres to help when planning our own music video. A brief analysis of these different genres of music video also helps me to identify any generic conventions that we may incorporate when creating our own music video. To analyse these music videos , I watched them a couple of times each looking for the key elements titled in the graph below and picking out everything of relevance.
Below is the finished version of our group music video remake of Britney spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time. Completing this task has allowed use to gain an understanding of the time and effort needed for filming music videos in general as well as specific elements such as lip syncing. Carrying out this remake task helped us to get experience on what is involved in a music video and how different elements need to filmed and edited ready for when we create and film our own music video. The remake allowed us to see how elements like lip syncing and continuity when editing are important within a music video and how to bring our music video up to the highest standard.
In order to prepare for our Britney remake, we had to create a story board and shot list for our section of the video. This is a task we will have to carry out for the full length of our own music video when we make it. The storyboard and shot list are made to make filming easier as it is a guide as to where the camera should be and when as well as what should be seen in shot, what each shot involves and the lengths of each shot.
Music Video analysis according to
Andrew Goodwin 7 codes and convention theory
Carrying out this analysis will help with our own music video as it will allow me to see real life examples of these codes and convention which I can then use to show what each convention means and for inspiration. Analysing a music video that has these conventions will help me to understand how we can incorporate them into our music video.
The final two codes in this theory can’t be found in this music video as there are no screens within screens or intertextual references to film or television. However not every code and convention has to be present in the one music video to back up Goodwin’s theory.
Music Videos: Andrew Goodwin- codes and conventions of music videos
In 1992 Andrew Goodwin published a book called “Dancing in the Distraction Factory” in which he came up with 7 codes and conventions that are common in music videos. These 7 codes and conventions are
1. Music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics
For example - Dance routines for girl/ boy bands
- Stage performance for heavy rock music
- Throwing signs in Hip-hop videos
2. There is always a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
- Visuals can illustrate the lyrics
- Visuals can contradict the lyrics
3. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals
- Dance routines are cut to the beat
- Often illustrative but could amplify or contradict the lyrics
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist
5. Motifs of iconography is often used that is specific to the artist/s
6. The is frequent notion to the reference of looking, i.e. screens within screens
7. Lots of intertextual references
- Mostly to film, television and/ or pop culture
The use of Goodwin's theory will help with our own music video as it gives us a guide of what we should include in our music video in order to make it as close as industry standard music videos. Examples that I have used when detailing the elements in this theory will also help as they can be used to give inspiration when designing the concept of our music video.
Genre
The genre for this music video is pop whilst the genre or the artist is pop and dance. There is a typical narrative for this video as it tells the story of a group of outcasts who aren’t acknowledged by their crush and are judged by the popular girl; then through magic they become popular and humiliate the popular girl. A clear and obvious narrative is something that is expected within most pop music videos as they help to tell the story within the song and lyrics. There’s not really anything unexpected in the video as the magic although unrealistic, is predicted due to the title of the song. One small thing that could be unexpected is that the unpopular girls are in the library wearing Beats headphone which are quite a well-known brand and stereotypically unpopular people are not seen a s being trendy. There are not any intertextual references that i can see in the music video.
Narrative
The narrative in this music video is a typical cheesy storyline of a group of four unpopular students that have a crush on a boy who is dating the popular girl that pushes them out the way and give them evil looks. The narrative continues to show us the girls finding a magic book which allows them to cast spells on the popular girl to humiliate her as well as help out a nerdy boy and make a lesson more exciting. The narrative has themes of magic and friendship. There is a recognisable structure in the music video as it shows 4 out of the 5 stages of Todorov theory of equilibrium. The music video starts on the second stage of todorov’s theory meaning there is a disruption that is causing a lack of equilibrium this is shown when we see the girls as outcasts being pushed out the way and given evil looks by the popular girl. The next stage in this theory is the recognition of the disruption the part of the music video that could relate to this stage is when the girls find the magic book and realise that they can use magic to fix the disruption. The fourth stage of todorovs theory is an attempt to repair the disruption this stage occurs in the music video when Little mix use the magic to humiliate the popular girl, make the nerdy boy popular and make the lesson exciting. The final stage is the reinstatement of equilibrium this happens at the end of the music video when the artists are walking down the corridor and everyone is happy and dancing. There aren’t really any recognisable characters in terms of heroes and villains. The music video for black magic reflects a lot of the lyrics because in the video they use magic to make the boy notice and like them which is reflected in the lyrics “ boy you belong to me I got the recipe and it’s called black magic”. Also within the lyric ther is a couple of time when the word “Hey!” is reflected in the music video as the narrative matches with the time they say “hey!” such as when they get pushed.
Representation
There aren’t really any issues of representation within this music video, although you could say that stereotypical representations of age are shown when the older teacher is seen as being boring and dull. The artists for this music video have not been presented as celebrities and are instead playing characters. Little mix are shown as everyday students who go through from being outcasts to becoming popular due to the idea of magic.
Visual/ Technical Codes
There are a couple of different settings in this music video including a school corridor, a classroom , and library. The school corridor and classroom don’t have many connotation as the artist are playing students although the use of the library connotes intelligence as the books suggest there wiliness to learn. The only typography or written iconographies within this music video is the artists/ characters names across the screen at the start of the video, the names could have been used to make the audience feel more involved with the artist and the music video as its introducing them as individual characters instead of as a band. During the music video there is a very low angle of the girls looking down at the book, the shot creates connotations of them gaining the power as it makes them look bigger and more powerful. There is also a low angle of the girls walking through the corridor once they have found the magic book, this again highlights the power and confidence they have now that they have magic. The camera moves around to help tell the story as it changes points of view at some stages allowing the audience to feel involved with the narrative as we see it from both the perspective of the band as well as a bystander’s view.
Audience
I would say the target audience for this video is female, young teens with the demographic of D/E. The video is set in a school environment which then attracts the same type of audience because audiences can relate more to people of the same of similar age. Also the young characters seen having fun at the end of the video are used in order to attract the same type of audience.
Institution
The record company doesn't have a clear role in this music video and is not recognised just by watching the music video, but the idea of the music video as a promotion of fictional characters does in turn promote Little Mix which then leads to the promotion of the record company through the single/album sales. In the video, Little Mix who play fictional characters are promoted as originally unpopular but become popular and are then promoted as popular and magical.
Music videos are promotional tools used to promote a song,
its artist and their album and music and anyone can be an audience for a music
video.
Each artist has a specific demographic and target audience
and therefore they cater their video to suit the specific audiences. Music
videos present the artist to their audience in a number of ways that make them
appealing:
Attractive –
The music video is used to make the artist or band look attractive to their
audience
Empathetic- The
music video is used to create empathy towards the artist from the audience
Narrative- The
music video has a narrative/ story which is used to intrigue the audience
Abstract- The
music video is unique and unusual in order to stand out to audiences
Musical genre can also have an influence on audiences as different genres, stereotypically appeal to different types of audience, for example hip-hop music is often viewed more by teenagers/ young adults were as classical music is often more appealing to older/ mature adults.
One of the biggest impacts in the music industry was the music video produced for Queens Bohemian Rhapsody 1975. It is known to be the first music video that was used to promote the artist as well as the single. The promotion of an artist through a music video then became a regular practice after Queens’s Bohemian Rhapsody video. This then made an impact on the music industry as increase in music videos led to programmes such as Top of the Pops and later music channels such as MTV. This music video has had an impact on our blogs as it led to various viewing options of music videos for all audiences. This helps me in my work because it means I can watch all types of music video in order to get an idea of how they are structured and for inspiration when I’m creating my own music video. The Bohemian Rhapsody video itself also has an impact on my blog as it is the original artist promoting video and it will help me when doing my music video as it will show how to promote the artist effectively.
The first example of a music video came from a short two reel film made in 1929. The film featured a dramatised perform of a song named after the film “Saint Louis Blues” performed by Bessie Smith. This then started off the evolution of Music videos.
In the 1930’s experimentation of music videos began including methods such as Len lye, this involved a series of bright coloured patterns and shapes appearing onscreen whilst the music played in the background.
Shortly after in 1940, Walt Disney created Fantasia, an animation film based around pieces of classical music. Disney’s silly symphonies were also created and built up around music as were Warner Bros Merrie Melodies built based on song from upcoming films.
Live action musical shorts starring popular performer were also introduced and distributed to theatres. This was followed by The Panoram jukebox, often found in taverns, which consisted of 8 three minute soundies.
Music videos began to develop into the 50’s and 60’s when artists were filmed whilst their songs played in the background for example Tony Bennett was filmed walking The Serpentine whilst his record “Stranger in Paradise” played. This song was then claimed to be the first music video as it was one of the first to be distributed to and played by UK and US television stations. In the 60’s The Scopitone Jukebox was introduced and consisted of video of people unrelated to the songs, dancing and lip-syncing to the music.
One of the biggest developments came from The Beatles and their 1964 motion picture “A Hard Day’s Night” which include a song of the same name where The Beatles were acting whilst their song played in the background. The musical segments in this film are arguably said to have set out the basic visual vocabulary of today’s music videos.
Narrative videos began to make an appearance in the music industries in the 60’s with the kinks being one of the first to have a narrative music video.
In 1967 The Beatles took the genre to new heights with their ground-breaking films/ music videos for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane” which used techniques borrowed from underground and avant garde film, such as reversed film effects, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing.
Some of the biggest developments for music videos of the modern era was the video recording and editing processes as well as the introduction of special effects. Queen’s video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was deemed as ground- breaking as it was the first music video used to promote the artist/band and was one of the first to be filmed and edited on videotape.
In the 70’s Top of the Pops was created to promote artists and singles. When an act was unable to perform on the show and they had no music video, dance troops were used to dance on the stage while the song played.
By the mid 80’s music videos were common things, with some artists creating high budget videos in order to get the edge over other artists. In 1981 MTV, the first 24 hour music video station, was launched with the first music video aired being Buggles’ “Video killed the radio star”. Music videos then began to use more sophisticated effects with developed storylines and plots. The first to create a proper short film for his music video was Michael Jackson with Thriller in 1983 with the video lasting almost 14 minutes. A few years later in 1986, The Channel 4 Chart Show was created solely for music videos. Also in this year was the development of computer animation in music videos. In the late 80’s more and more directors began to get involved with music videos with budgets for some videos being in the millions such as Duran Duran’s “wild boys” which cost £4 million to make.
In the early 90’s, MTV began listing directors with the artist and song credits. Throughout the nineties MTV launched different channels around the world in order to cater to more local markets as well as to show more alternative and older music videos through channels such as MTV2 launched in 1996.
Almost ten years later in 2005, YouTube was launched creating an easier and faster method of viewing music videos. YouTube meant that some artist began to success as a result of people watching their music videos online. The internet has become the primary growth income market for record company produced music videos due to music download sites/apps such as Apples ITunes and Spotify.
Modern day music videos often contain strong and unique narratives that stand out to audiences making them memorable. Music videos are now usually released before the single is actually available to buy/download from systems like ITunes and Spotify, this is in order to build a hype about the artist and their song before it is released. Artists are in competition a lot now a days for the best video and are often judged upon YouTube/Vevo watches as well as public votes in awards ceremonies such as The MTV awards and The BRITS.
Modern day music videos often have quite large budgets and can be filmed in multiple location across the world. Such as Taylor Swifts Wildest Dreams Music Video which was filmed both in California and Africa.
In order to improve our camera skills and better our
knowledge of the structure and layout of a music video, we are doing a group
remake of Britney Spears’ Hit me baby one more time. We have all been given a section of the music
video with which we have to produce a shot by shot remake ours was 0.21s –
0.36s . In order to do this we had to watch our section of the music video and
create a story board and shot list for it so that we had a clear and detailed
plan in order for us to film it and ensure that it matches up to the original
music video. Carrying out the remake will help us in preparation for the making
of our own music video as it shows us how music videos are structured in terms
of the variety of shots and angle used throughout as well as what is included
in a music video such as dancing and lip syncing.
The section we are remaking is 15 seconds long and contains
scenes of Britney dancing and sing as well as close-ups of Britney just
singing.One problem we could face with
this section of the remake is trying to make the dance routine as similar as
possible ensuring that it matches with the beat and the rhythm in the song
without making it too complicated. Another problem we could face is making sure
when editing that the lip-syncing matches with the music and that words
continue or join on accurately when a change of scene of angle occurs.These issues will have an impact when it
comes to creating our own music video as we will be conscious when planning
shot and scene changes to be sure that we don’t make the editing process too
complicated for ourselves.
A good student music video should have the highest standards of each area involved in making a music video such as contents and construction. a good student music video should include a variety of elements from the different areas such as narrative and editing. A good student music video includes a strong narrative that relates to or tells a story from the lyrics, the narrative has to give the song meaning and therefore make it appeal to target audiences. Student music videos need to ensure that the video matches the genre of the song and that they appeal to the correct target audience for the songs genre. As well as narrative, sections of live performance and thematic and symbolic concepts should be involved to make sure a student music video is good. 
In terms of construction, a controlled use of the camera with a detailed attention to framing and a mixture of shot sizes and types should also be included to make a good top mark student music video. Editing of the music video should use a selection of effects and shot transitions appropriate to the music video, the song and their genres. Editing should be used to help the narrative flow smoothly and create a meaning that is apparent to the audience. All construction techniques and elements should be high quality and professional such as the stability of the camera and the clarity of the sound and recording. 
