Music Video Ideas

Demands of a Record Label

1 This acknowledges the commercial aspect of music videos. Music videos are essentially promotional devices whose function it is to sell to its target audience.

Music videos are not only used to sell the artists song but also to sell products the artists use, the brand name  of the guitar amp company can clearly be seen in many shots, as can the brand of cymbals the drummer uses.  The use of Lemmy is also advertising, it can be used to promote both Lemmy and Airbourne, Lemmy is a cult icon so his presence could bring in more people to buy the song and this is also advertising Lemmy to a new audience, which could bring him more sales

2 Ultimately, stars are commodities that are used to represent values that will be attractive to their target audience. They are a brand. How is a brand identity established through their videos?

Airbourne have established a AC/DC like brand image through their similar style, this has led to many of the same of the same fan base as AC/DC. Both lead guitarist don't wear t-shirts on stage, further likening them to one another.

lighting

we learnt about 3 point lighting in our lesson so I did a little bit of looking and other lighting techniques



This is 4 point lighting the only difference is that there is a light for the background



This is a more complicated set-up using 2 smaller lights to light up the sides and back

Stop motion

This is what I did when I played around with stop motion

Analysis

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Dani California
Red Hot Chili Peppers- Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie 

Dani California

The video is based on the quasi-chronology of the evolution of rock music; the band performs the song on a stage, but in a variety of outfits representing important figures and movements in the history of rock, this is a clear use of intertextuality referencing many artist and bands.
The video starts of in black and white and shows the band performing dressed like Elvis and performing in his style, the mise-en-scene of the stage is plain stage with just the band on it, this is a faithful recreation of what performing was like in the 50’s.
When it changes to The Beatles the mise-en-scene changes a lot with the back ground now having boards with diamond on and the amps being bigger and more obvious, the outfits have changed too with all the band having the same haircuts and wearing the same clothes. The next shift is spectacular because of the shift from black and white to colour, the overly colourful outfits and the psychedelic background.
The editing and cinematography changes drastically in the next scene, the use of canted angles, more close ups on individual band members, the kaleidoscope effect used and the cuts to Anthony saying “Yeah” this all makes this scene seem quite lively and energetic. This uses Goodwin’s theory about the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
When it changes to the Sex Pistol scene, the pace of the editing becomes fast, the camera switches to handheld there are a couple of whip pans and the camera doesn’t stay still this adds up to giving this an edgy punk look that the Sex Pistols were known for.

The Change from the Sex Pistols to The Misfits is a  big one, the Mise-en-scene goes all gothic, the change in lighting makes the shadows and the colour black stand out more, this is because The Misfits were pioneers of Horror Punk.

The Glam Rock stage means the video changes drastically again, this relates to the music because Glam Rock is generally sung in a higher pitch and a bit calmer and not so bassy as normal rock. Nirvana is seen as a individualist group doing their own thing being a bit rebellious but emotional too, this is shown through the use of candles, the fire providing light and warmth but also danger and unpredictability.

When the Red Hot Chili Peppers come in, the Mise-en-scen, cinematography and editing all change. The Mise-en-scene becomes 21st Century rock band, just wearing normal clothes and sporadically leaping around the stage energetically and a little bit childishly, the cinematography becomes mainly long shots interspersed with bust shots and close ups, the camera is rarely still adding to the energy that is already pouring out at this point. The editing becomes fast once more showing the band in all their different personas in this video, but mainly as the Red Hot Chili Peppers.


This Video Uses most If not all of Andrew Goodwin’s theorys:
Genre Characteristics 
Rock bands usually encorporate performance in to their music videos
Relationship Between Lyrics and Visuals 
There is no relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, this is a disjunctive video
Relationship Between Music and Visuals
The relationship is very clear, the song is upbeat and happy reflected in the pace of the editing, the parody elements of the video and the colourful Mise-en-scene (when appropriate)
Star Image/Persona  
The image for the Red Hot Chili Peppers is energetic, random and quite childish, these are all shown throughout the video  particularly energy and randomness.
Notion of Looking  
This is used all the way through the video as we are looking at them on a stage.
Intertextuality
This is also used constantly throughout the video as the different artists and band through rock history are represented.
Artists and Bands used in this video were  Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Thin Lizzy, Parliament-Funkadelic, David Bowie, Poison, Sex Pistols, The Misfits, Motley Crue, Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers

Adventures of rain Dance Maggie

This video is based on The Beatles 1969 rooftop performance,  the typical rock genre video is a performance related one, showing the crowd having a good time and dancing around, it also shows the band leaping around and putting a lot of energy into the performance.
The video starts with a couple of establishing shots showing what is happening where it is happening and when it happened. This goes well with the music as the is the conventional rock music video is a live performance and is different from many other videos: because the song is unusual and different to what the public are used to.

The editing is medium paced to go with the slowish tempo of the song, this gives chance to see what the band is doing and for the fans to connect with the band more. This is also done through many close ups as well.

The video is different to most videos they have done as although most of their videos have them performing in some way they don’t have the amazed view of the onlookers like in this video. The cutting between the band and the crowd shows that they are both enjoying themselves, the camera looks mainly handheld giving this video a spontaneous feels to it.

The Mise-en-scene is very casual with the band wearing what they want, some of the outfits from the crowd are more out there like the dancing devil guy. Most of the shots used are from low angles, the use of these low angle shots make the Red Hot Chili Peppers seem more powerful and in control of what is happening. There are a lot of shots showing the band altogether this reinforces the idea of their togetherness as a group, there are many shots of the individual members of the group as well so that they each have their own individual identity.
The shots of the band show them leaping about, dancing and moving to the music very energetically connotes them as energetic, carefree and into the music.

This Video Uses most If not all of Andrew Goodwin’s theorys:
Genre Characteristics 
Rock bands usually encorporate performance in to their music videos
Relationship Between Lyrics and Visuals 
There is no relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, this is a disjunctive video
Relationship Between Music and Visuals
The relationship is very clear, the tempo of the song is reflected in the pace of the editing, and some of the cuts are positioned to match with the music, like when the time is shown on the screen it is positioned to cut to it on the guitar chord
Star Image/Persona
The image for the Red Hot Chili Peppers is energetic, random and quite childish, these are all shown throughout the video  particularly energy and randomness.
Notion of Looking  
This is used all the way through the video as we are looking at them perform on a rooftop, this is also shown through the girl looking through binoculars and then the reverse shot to show what she is looking at
Intertextuality
This is also used constantly throughout the video as the video is based around The Beatles 1969 rooftop performance on top of abby road studios.

Redundancy and Entropy

Redundancy - That which is predictable or conventional in a message, redundancy is the result of high predictability.

Entropy - That which is unpredictable



Taylor swift has a high redundancy because her videos are predictable, there is always a boy in them or the video is based around a boy, she normally plays the lonely girl who gets the popular boy like in "You Belong With Me"

Ok Go's video is very entropic but gets more redundant as the video progresses because the unpredictability of the treadmills wears off after a while

Yo La Tengo's video is also very entropic because it is very unexpected all the way through, the music video is not the norm, it distracts from the song and has people talking over the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDgpQBaziy0 - Yo La Tengo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA - Ok Go

Green screen - My Little Nick

We had chance to experiment with green screen techniques, this is what we came up with once finished