Richard Ayoade is an English music video director who has starred in the channel 4 comedy I.T crowd so he strong acting career as well as a directing career. He uses both narrative and performance based styles in his videos, in which he tends to keep the camera still in one place for most videos meaning those are live performance based.
He has directed videos for bands not so well known like Super furry animals, The last shadow puppets, Yeah yeah yeahs. Although he has directed 'Florescent adolescence' by Artic Monkeys.
This is a very strange narrative based music video from Richard Ayoade, consisting of a clown and a normal man in a suit who grew up together but in the video end up fighting over some dispute and it ends in the clown blowing up his friend, which is in fact quite disturbing. It is a great video though as the images match the song but the lyrics don't match perfectly but do reflect the images.
Collin Tilley is an American music video director, who likes to showcase the artists that he works with a lot and he has done just that in many of his music videos along with stunning backgrounds. He usually puts the artists in stunning places like a beach, or a desert or something animated to make the videos look amazing and allow the artists to stick out of the video, being the centre of attention. In some videos he also has a narrative effect maybe in the beginning, middle, end or throughout the whole video whilst fully showcasing the artist. He has worked with Chipmunk, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Tyga, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, JLS, Katy B, Labrinth, Jason Derulo, Tinie Tempah etc
This is a stunning video by Collin Tilley called 'last time' by Labrinth, which showcases him whilst having a narrative based effect throughout the entire video. The video uses a lot of special effects and it's even more special as apparently the video is based on a childhood dream that Labrinth had.
This is another great music video by Collin called 'Champion' by Chipmunk. The setting is almost perfect for the song choice as both Chipmunk and Chris Brown feature in a showcase based video in the dessert.
Ray Kay is a Norwegian music video director, who has a very imaginative mind in terms of creating videos. His videos create his own fantasy land by using a green screen and this enables the audience watching to see a place they have never seen before and this draws them in.
He has worked with Tinchy Stryder, Cheryl Cole, Justin Bieber, Jessie J, LMFAO etc
This is 'Domino' by Jessie J, which is a great example of Ray Kay's work, as Ray likes to create imaginative backgrounds and scenes in his videos and in this particular one there are many great artistic and animated backgrounds whilst showcasing Jessie J in various outfits and costumes. This is a really good music video as the central attention is on Jessie J, which is the intention.
Again this is a very clever music video from Ray Kay called 'Fight for this love' by Cheryl Cole. Its a great video because it's very well worked out with the scenery and background, Cheryl herself is placed in central attention in a sexy soldier costume (as the main costume which reflects the lyrics and title of song 'fight for this love') with other dancers too. So not only is this video a showcase video but a spectacle too as it shows off Cheryl's fantastic dance moves. Also the background is very impressive as it has Cheryl's name written out in big behind her as she sings along with the main lyrics in a really cool format of writing.
Jake Nava is an English music video director from Hackney, a place where many English people in the music industry come from. He tends to use a narrative based style for his music videos, in which he sets them in quite a dark scene. In most of his Rnb videos he takes sexy shots of the artists to start off. He also created an dance for Beyonce and two fellow dancers to do in her video 'single ladies( put a video on it)' which is now iconic and also extremely sexy. Especially in this video but others too he has voyeuristic treatment of the female body, but this view is changed in 'girls just want to have fun' by Cyndi Lauper as it shows that girls can be fun without being referred to as sexual objects.
He has worked with Beyonce, Usher, Leona Lewis, Kanye West, Pink, Shakira etc.
But he has directed some world famous songs too such as 'Milkshake' by Kelis, 'Run' by Snow Patrol and 'Someone like you' by Adele etc.
Joseph Kahn is an American music video director who actually begun his career by shooting skateboard videos of his mates whilst having many jobs at the same time to fund the projects.
Unlike most directors, Joseph is not assigned to just one genre although he has done a lot of work in the pop genre as appose to others.
He has directed some extremely successful songs such as 'Hero' by Enrique Inglesias, 'Knights of Cydonia' by Muse, 'Love game' by Lady Gaga, in which I found something quite funny in the video as there's a close up on Lady gaga's heels of the brand Channel which means she is advertising them for popularity which is all she is really about and that's why she wears loads of weird costumes just to be a centre of attraction.
This is a very impressive and emotional showcase/narrative based video, called 'hero' by Enrique Inglesias. Its about a man who promises to stand by his woman at all times no matter what happens and in the case of the video a mafia type gang beats him up and he still returns to his newly wedded wife to sing his final words.
This is 'knights of cydonia' by Muse, which is a very impressive narrative based music video by Joseph Kahn, although it is quite strange as it's about people in cowboy times, but there are futuristic props e.g holograms of moving images and cds. There are a lot of fades and overlaps throughout the video as well because there's a lot happening in the video.
Chris Applebaum started off as one of the youngest music video directors, being offered a job in Mtv's production team when he was 19 but he rejected that and signed for Satellite films age 21. His name is becoming increasing famous in the music industry after working with world famous mainstream star Rihanna on her hit single 'umbrella', he has now composed over 100 music videos.
He has worked with artists like Rihanna, Plan B, Mariah Carey, Pussycat Dolls, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Natasha Bedingfield. But apart from 'umbrella', the most famous song he has directed is 'Stacy's mum' by Fountains of Wayne.
On the right is a great example of Chris' work, of 'she said' by Plan B. Its a narrative based music video in which he tells the story of how he was accused of a crime that he didn't do simply because the girl didn't understand what love actually is and was a bit crazy. The video is very well worked though, with a lot of mid shots and angle looking up at him at the end which gives him power as he wins the court case, there are also minor things in the video which are quite impressive, for example the clicking and the tapping of pens to the beat of the song itself. In my opinion this is a fantastically worked video by Chris Applebaum. In 'umbrella' by Rihanna, he uses lots of special effects such as water, silver paint etc and props such as an unbrella to represent the song, but the main attraction is all of Rihanna's sexy outfits making her a sexual appeal to the audience, and this works in her favour greatly as its a showcase type of video.
Here is 'stacy's mum' by Fountain of Wayne which is a really famous song, and Chris has done a narrative/showcase type video. In which the mum is portrayed as better looking than the daughter and that's why the boy spends so much time at their house. The mum is shown in many different sexy scenes which catches male attention in audiences who watch the video e.g the massage, when she comes out of the pool, or when she dances on the table in a real sexy outfit.
Shane Drake is another American music video director, who uses a narrative based style in his videos, although his work and himself are not too well known in the more famous side of the music industry although he has worked with a number of mainstream rock genre bands e.g Panic at the disco, Paramore, Fall out boy and The red jumpsuit apparatus etc.
This is 'beat it' by Michael Jackson, one of the few pop genre music videos that Shane Drake has directed, although its a well choreographed showcase type video.
On the right is one of my favourite songs, 'I write sins not tragedies' by Panic at the disco. It has a great gothic wedding theme to it as it is narrative based and the faces of the wedding witnesses are painted on which emphasises the rock genre of the song, which could be referred to as Kiss' painted faces when they performed.
Another great showcase type video below is 'crushcrushcrush' by Paramore. The setting of this video is brilliant in the middle of a dessert which makes Paramore the main focus, although there are a lot of close ups of instruments, equipment, amps and members of the band.
Anthony Mandler is an American music video director, who is known for using his photography skills to create emotion and tension in his videos, he uses a narrative based form for his videos but the stories within the videos are told in unclear manners which makes them feel incomplete and unclear.
He has worked with huge mainstream artists like 50 cent, Eminem, Rihanna, The killers, Fergie, Akon etc
This is 'away' by Enrique Inglesias ft Sean Garrett, a perfect example of a narrative based video with a slightly unclear ending but this is only because Enrique and Sean are in the same location singing whilst being in the accident too, which some viewers have claimed to be confusing.
On the left is 'boss' life' by Snoop Dog, the reason this is one of the example videos is because the props, lighting and clothing used for this video reflects the lyrics of the song perfectly.
Jonas Akerlund is a Swedish music video director who mainly produces mainstream artists therefore suggesting that he is a rather famous director in high demand of mainstream stars. Most of his videos are in narrative form as a short film in a sort of mocking form, although some of his videos are jokey they are very stylistic.
Jonas tends to create a lot of controversy in his videos with inappropriate scenes e.g drugs, sex, abusive language e.g his highly controversial video 'Smack my bitch up' by The Prodigy which was actually banned on all music channels but despite all of this, it is now the known iconic work of Jonas Akerlund. Even though this video is of the negative talk it is very well done, Jonas puts the whole video in the point of view of the main character whilst he drinks, snorts, gropes, smokes, fights, has sex and drives. The angles of the video along with it all being in point of view is brilliant unfortunately this video was banned and has an age restriction of 18+ because of the scenes in it.
Even 'Hold it against me' by Britney Spears is highly controversial as half way through during the part dubstep section there's a very violent fight scene between the two Britneys, but this scenes involves punching, kicking, hair pulling, strangling, not a normal female fight scene. In this case the two Britney's are depicted as men in the way they are fighting each other.
Another controversial case involving Jonas is the Maroon 5 video he directed called 'moves like Jagger' as the video begins with an interview with Jagger, although this later became an issue as they never got permission to use to click or to involve Jagger in the song.
He has worked with mainstream artists like Lady gaga, Rihanna, Pink, U2, Robbie Williams, James blunt, Maroon 5, Madonna, David Guetta etc. But he also works with mainstream artists of other genres not just pop and chart but rock and metal too e.g Blink 182 and Metallica.
Above on the left 'beautiful' by Christina Aguilera another compelling and controversial video, which some viewers have found disturbing such as suicide, anorexia, transexuals, homosexuals, emo's, bullying (because of how one looks), insecurities and low self esteem. The scenes are very powerful and showcases Christina a lot.
On the left is 'American life' by Madonna, another banned music video by Jonas Akerlund that was controversial due to its strong use of sexual images (showing a bit too much skin in this one), violence, use of drugs, strong religious views and on top of that relating it all to the 'American way of life'.
Dave Meyers is an
American music video director who has made over 200 music videos to this day, a
truly impressive record along with being the first director to make a 3d music
video in 2008 called ‘ching a ling’ by Missy
Elliott which will be shown below. Dave is not just associated with one
genre but quite a few including the obvious mainstream genres like pop, rap,
rock etc but he has also done videos for heavy metal bands like Slipknot too.
He likes to use a lot
of bright colours in order to makes the scenes look perfect with a Hollywood
kind of style, although he does make a lot with darker colours to emphasise the mood of the song. He has created music videos for many mainstream artists like Shakira, Kelly Clarkson, Jay-z, Britney
Spears, Pink, Katy Perry, Dido and David guetta.
This is 'Alice' by Avril Lavigne. This is a great showcase type video with some Intertextual references to 'Alice in Wonderland', the whole video uses dim lighting, aerial shots and panning. This music video is very expressive as Avril sings about Alices escape from the wonderland and these expressions can be seen especially when Avril falls down the hole.
On the left is 'blow me one last kiss' by Pink, which is a really good narrative based music video directed by Dave. It uses a lot of dim lighting and mid shots as the characters in the video tend to move around a lot. Even though the scene of the video is old-fashioned Pink still wears skimpy clothing to identify herself as a sexual object to the audience.
On the left is 'Ching-a-Ling' by Missy Elliott, which is a really good example of a showcase type music video with intertextual references to step up 2 and also the imagery reflects the words 'Money Maker' that Missy says during her song as it shows of her bling around her neck and many people wearing golden suits, which obviously represents money.
On the right is 'evolution' by Korn which is a very well done narrative based music video that uses animation for part of the story then real actors for the remainder. The lighting is very bright in this especially in the animation section. The video itself is about a decrease in IQ which leads the scientists in the video to believe that humans are reverting back to monkeys. This video in my opinion is a must watch as it portrays the comic side of the evolution matter too.
On the right is 'Where them girls at' by David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida. This is a very impressive narrative based music video, about giant bubbles floating through the city making the girls go crazy and into a random dance. The lighting in this video is very bright causing the 'Hollywood' type of style. It also begins with an aerial shot above the city and the buildings looking down at the first bubble.
Chris Cunningham is an
English music video director from Reading, He didn’t begin his career as a
music video director, in fact he was directing and creating animation and
artwork for movies like Judge dredd and Alien. He has also done a number of
impressive adverts for Gucci, Playstation, Nissan and Orange. Although he
hasn’t done many music videos yet only a couple but his style is quite dark and
strange, he uses some scary and disturbing animation and in most videos he uses
dim lighting to create a kind of gothic theme for example in ‘Frozen’ by Madonna which he directed.
I have seen that in
most videos he tends to use a fair range of shots including establishing, high
angle, pull focus, over shoulder shots and he uses a stedicam and 3d and 2d
composing elements throughout ‘all is full of love’ by Bjork, which is quite a passionate video about the two human like robots and after reading many comments on youtube, I can see that this particular video made many viewers cry. Even more impressive is that this song came out in 1999 and yet its extremely modern. Chris doesn’t use
many colours its always either black or white or a plain colour throughout. In ‘Windowlicker’
by Aphex Twin he cuts to the beat a
lot whilst using dance moves to emphasise the beats. This video has a really strange theme to it where the women keep their bodies but their faces turn manly and monster like, actually very scary, but obviously for a song with no actual words I'm sure Chris was aiming for a weird effect. These two videos can be seen on the side, the top is 'windowlicker' by Aphex twin and the bottom one is 'all full of love' by Bjork.
Michael Gondry is a French music video director who funnily enough made his first music video for a French band called Oui Oui which he was the drummer for and this caught the attention of Bjork propelling his career towards being a music video director.
Michael usually plans out all of his music videos by drawing it out using symbols with dashes (representing beats) then later he adds in valid objects, this enables him to create entertaining visuals for the audiences watching.
Michael has produced music
videos for a number of modern mainstream and past mainstream artists including Paul McCartney, Radiohead, Daft punk, Kylie
Minogue, The White Stripes, Kanye West, Foo Fighters and Gary Jules.
To the left is 'Everlong' by the Foo Fighters this is a great example of Michael's work as it is a narrative-based music video along with a bit of showcasing at the end, of the bands. It begins with an establishing shots to show the location of the video. Since the video is fairly scary and horror like, it uses dark lighting to emphasise this.
To the right is 'knives out' by Radiohead, which is a rather strange video as it contains a massive operation table in the form of the game operation with a person in it, but every object in the imagery is significant and reflects the words of the song. There were even moments when I felt real emotions and this is obviously what's Michael was hoping to achieve in the audience watching, as it is possible that the words 'he's not coming back' draws out some personal emotions.
Spike Jonze has been an American music video director and producer since 1992, also being involved in other forms of media such as film, television and advertisements too. He tends to do his own thing and not stick to the genre of the songs, that's why some of his videos are quite unusual.
Spike uses a narrative theme for his videos with partial intertextual references although he has done some live performance based videos but not many as he's more well known for narrative based music videos. An example of a video involving an intertextual reference is 'weapon of choice' by Fat Boy Slim, where Spike uses the flying scene that refers to the Matrix therefore suggesting to the audience that the ability to fly is his weapon of choice.
Spike works with various artists and genres, he doesn't just stick to one like most directors do and he has worked with the likes of huge mainstream artists like Kanye West and Ludacris and the well known group from the movie Tenacious D. His first ever video was 'high in high school' by Chainsaw kittens.
Here are some examples of his work:
This is 'Island in the sun' by Weezer, this is a great example of a narrative/ showcase type music video because it shows off the band whilst having a storyline of a wedding in the background. Sam consider aspects of the video to be a spectacle as well as a showcase because it shows off the members of the band's other talents like playing the guitar all drums.
On the left is 'Da funk' by Daft punk, this is a great example of a narrative-based music video. It is about a dog called Charles that wears human clothes, walks like a human and talks and acts like one too in a new city. He buys book entitled to big-city nights which is supposed to be the title of the short film even though its music video about 'Da funk' which is played throughout on the Charles' boombox.
Marc Klasfeld is the next music video director that we'll be looking at in my blog. He is an American music director who is also the owner and founder of the company 'Rockhard' which is a music video production company including directors like 'Ray Kay, Sanaa Hamri, Sarah Chatfield, Mikey finnegan, Mark Staubach, Steve Jocz etc.
He tends to create performance based music videos, showing the instruments played and the singers performing although he does make some narrative based videos. He uses quite a few close up shots to create emotion and meaning within the video as you can see expressions on the artists faces and the power in the playing of instruments.
He has done music videos with many big mainstream artists such as Jay-Z, Katy Perry, The script, Far east movement, Michael Jackson and Avril Lavinge etc. He also directed the music video of the world famous song 'A thousand miles' by Vanessa Carlton, which is of course a highly impressive song although the video is mainly a showcase video, although some consider it as partial narrative because of the line 'making my way down town' and the video shows her playing the moving piano through the town. He directed 'smooth criminal' by Michael Jackson which again is more showcase and spectacle based as the whole video is of Michael singing, acting and dancing along with other professionals in a well choreographed piece.
Just to the right is 'Girls girls girls' by Jay-Z which is a great example of Klasfeld's work as it is narrative in the way the story line fits with most of the lyrics but at the same time it shows Jay-Z himself rapping along in order to showcase him to the audience as well.
To the right is a fabulous example of a narrative based music video by Marc, it may be just over eight minutes long but this video tells a whole short story of how a girl goes from unpopular nerd to a cool stunning girl in one friday night in which she impresses the coolest guy at the party but then she wakes up again in the morning unable to remember a single thing. The video starts with a bit of story line and the end involves some cast shots and outtakes as a most real movies do which gives it the short film feel. This video also uses a huge range of bright vibrant colours which makes it easier for those watching and take in.
On the right is another great narrative based music video by Marc Klasfeld which is what he specialises in, although this particular video is showcase based as well as the story keeps cutting to scenes of The Script performing, but this shows the emotion on their main singer's (Danny O'Donughue) face. This video is about a man (Danny O'Donughue) that is waiting for his girlfriend to change her mind about him and if she does he is certain that she will return to this spot in which he has based himself and doesn't move from in the video. This video is very powerful and can actually get the audience to have sympathetic feelings towards Danny.
Sophie Muller is an English music video director based in London, she has a certain style in her music videos in which she uses more performance based videos than narrative but she places the artists/ bands in a focused dim lighted room to create a sense of ambience within the video.
Her first video was 'the walk' by Eurythmics as shown below. This video contained the dim lighting which seems to be her signature and this creates an odd sense and scenery for the song.
She has worked with Beyonce, Shakira, Coldplay, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Cheryl Cole, Cher, Maroon 5 etc
So she has a vast range of genres that she works with and some major hit songs too like 'fix you' by Coldplay, 'Deja vu' by Beyonce in which she showcases Beyonce andthe video also becomes a spectacle as she shows off her appealing sexy dance moves, 'sex on fire' and 'use somebody' by Kings of Leon, 'This love' by Maroon 5 and 'Mr Brightside' by The Killers.
To the right is 'fix you' by Coldplay, which is a great live performance/showcased type of video. It begins with Coldplay's lead singer just walking through the Kings Cross area singing the first few verses and choruses until the instrumental section where he starts running into the arena and that's when the live section of the video begins. I think its a really great video because of the amazing atmosphere caused by the crowd at the live performance as they sing the words along with Coldplay is fantastic.
Again this is another great example of Sophie Muller's work as she uses the same showcasing and close ups on the mouth of the lead singer with perfect lip syncing which is impressive then as the song starts to build up, the video cuts to the live performance with the atmosphere of the audience making the video memorable. But throughout the video also has some imagery which reflects the lyrics such as two people in bed, during the 'use somebody' and a man doing pressups during 'im ready now', so there's a bit of a narrative theme in some scenes too as well as the video being classed as a showcase/live performance type video.
Hype Williams is the first of quite a few music video directors that I will be looking at throughout my blog. He is an American music video and film director, he started off of course small and built himself up through the media world by presenting his work on local billboards, storefronts and playgrounds using the name 'HYPE' as a graffiti tag.
A fair amount of his work includes shots like the aerial shot and tracking shots and his work is usually showcase/ performance based to set the audiences eyes on the artist as seen in 'Rock the boat' by Aaliyah or 'Only you' by Ashanti as seen above and below.
Hypes signature technique for music videos is said to be the fish eye lens which distorts the camera around the central focus e.g the artists, this is a good way of attracting the audience to the artist which is the main intention from the labels point of view anyway, helping the viewers to keep that certain image in their minds so sales in turn rises up. This can be seen in 'Gimme some more' by Busta Rhymes and in 'The rain' by Missy Elliott as seen above.
Hypes genre of music video tends to be based around the rap and rnb genres as he has made videos for the likes of artists such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj and Beyonce, although he has done videos for Coldplay and Christina Aguilera too. Below I will show the best videos that Hype has created for the mainstream artists.
The first example of Hypes work is 'Big Pimpin' by Jay-Z which is a great example of showcasing as they use attractive women as sexual attractions to the audience.
This is 'Golddigger' by Kanye West which could be considered as showcase and narrative at the same time as most of the lyrics do actually match the images shown.
Finally this is 'Stupid hoe' by Nicki Minaj , not much can be said about this one although Hype has clearly stamped his name on the begginning of this video, from what I can see its a showcase video as it couldn't be a narrative as the images and the lyrics don't really make much sense, in my opinion this video would be classed under Hype's limitations.
There are many music
video directors and without them there wouldn’t be any music videos, well maybe
some but they wouldn’t be particularly good in any sense. The directors are
there to make a big change and some impact on the videos when viewed by the
audience. Also most directors use a certain style on their videos or they have
a trademark type of video e.g making artists more of a sexual attraction or
making a fantasy land in the background/ scenery of the video which again
catches the audiences attention.
In the next couple of
blogs I will be showing different music directors, their videos and what
their effect is on the music industry. The reason I am looking at all of these directors is to see how the different directors come about making there videos within their different genres to give me inspiration towards my own music video that I will be creating. A brief outline of all the directors shown below will be given in the following blogs. These directors are as follows:
This is the third of the three main types of music video although not in any specific order. Concept based music videos are where the video is only based on one idea, this could be linked in with spectacle type videos. These videos tend to introduce more new talents of the artists/bands for example dancing, acting or gymnastics etc. Mainstream artists that have done these type of videos are Chris Brown, Justin bieber, Michael Jackson etc.
So a good example of this is Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' as shown below, this is because Michael Jackson uses and shows off his phenomenal dancing ability as well as his amazing voice in the same video.
A performance based video is another one of the three main types of music videos, this is where the video features a band/ artist performing either to the camera or to the audience. Usually the rock genre use this type of video for their music videos because they have a high entertaining atmosphere to show off which is much better than one artist on their own.
a Great example of a performance based video is 'banquet' by Bloc Party, although it can be considered as part showcase too. Video shown below
Sophie Muller is an example of a music director who has used the performance based style with most of her videos. She is a London based music director who has directed a lot of band including Eurythmics, Cheryl Cole, Kings Of Leon and many more. She tends to use a performance style more than any of the others and she usually focuses on the artists or band/s in a dim lighted room to set the atmosphere to ambient.
A narrative based video is one of the three main types of music videos, this is where the video consists of a story line which is related to the lyrics and the genre of the song which can engage the audience as it is like a short film and this can also have intertextual references as well like for example Beyonce's 'work it out' video in the previous blog.
Marc Klasfeld is a good example of a music director that uses a narrative style for his music videos, he has worked with The script, The fast east movement, The wombats and many more but the best example from him would be 'the man who can't be moved' by The Script which also has some performance based scenes but it is mainly narrative as its a short story about how a man waits for the return of his love in one place through day and night and that no-one can move him.
A great example of a narrative based video is 'breezeblocks' by Alt-j which is one of my favorite songs and the reason its a great example is because it shows a short film in reverse of how the man killed his wife and what happened before but in the first line 'hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks' it shows the woman trapped in a bath by a breezeblock which then reflects the lyrics.
this video will be shown directly below.
Goodwin was a music director himself who identified six elements within music videos, which will be thoroughly explained and defined below in order:
Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics: which means that the type of music video one becomes is dependent on the genre type of the song, for example a rock song will usually opt for the live performance based option showing singers scream down the microphones and guitarist smash their guitars as this is more suited to a rock genre whereas many mainstream artists will go for a showcase type of music video which exposes the artists which in turn attracts the opposite sex through sexual appeals.
There's a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals represented with images: This is where for example in a narrative based music video as used by many mainstream artists, the lyrics in the song reflect the images shown exactly like in Bruno Mars' 'Grenade' when he sings ' I would do anything for you' and the video shows him pulling a piano through the town, as shown above.
There is a relationship between the music and the visuals and the tone and the atmosphere of the visuals which reflect the music: The tone of the music must match the visuals of the video otherwise the video will fail to make any sense, again this is shown in Bruno Mars' 'Grenade' as extra sounds such as smashing glass and thunder are added in to symbolise the bad situation and atmosphere.
The demands of the record labels tend to create unique motifs for artists which reoccurs across their work: Record labels tend to want the most promotion for their artists as possible, this usually means that the camera is more or less completely focused on the artist so that their image becomes almost implanted in the audiences mind, these motifs make the artists much more memorable for example Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Nicki minaj.
There is frequent reference to the notion of looking (screens with screens and mirrors) and voyeuristic treatment of the female body: This type of video involves stages and mirrors enabling all focus on the artists, with this there is an implied voyeurism of women undressing and performing sexual acts but of course to a certain extent as there are restrictions involved but nevertheless this is common marketing strategy within the media industry.
There is often intertextual reference to films, tv shows and other music videos etc: This isnt always implied, only when the artist is linked to other forms of media at the same time as their own, music soundtracks and parodies are usually shown in music videos making them intertextual. A great example of this is 'Work it out' by Beyonce, which shows clips from Austin Powers as she features in it and this promotes the video, the movie and the artists acting career at the same time which is a purpose of a music video as explained in the previous blogs, to show the audience the artists other talents. Beyonce's video can be viewed just above, next to point number 2.
There are usually many aspects when considering how a music video is made, these aspects include Lighting, Editing, Camera angles and shots, Mise en scene (props e.g green screens or random objects, costumes) and Location. Most music videos are based around personal emotions and feelings including the portrayal of beautiful women as sexual objects for example music director Phillip Andelman specialises in using certain angles, shots and cuts to represent female artists in a sexual nature like in 'come back' by Kelly Rowland which can be seen below.
Normally music videos would have a lot of close ups, medium close ups and long shots, these shots are used to establish the artist, to show the audience the location of the clip and to show the emotions of the actors/actresses and the artist/s in the video, close ups of lip syncing will always create a sense of realism within the video. Tilts, pans, dollying and aerial shots are used quite frequently in music videos too especially if its a narrative based video and a story is being told, panning would be used in a fast moving/ fast beat song.
Props and clothing are also an essential part of the conventions of a music video, these props and clothing could include anything from desks to sunglasses to set the scene of the video whether that be in an office or a beach scenario, a good example of props and clothing within a music video is 'feel good' by Modestep, since the song has a great beat to it and is very dance like yet the video is composed in an office before the contrast cuts to the streets and the storyline is rather unusual too as the office workers unleash into party animals within the office itself. This video can be shown above.
Editing is another important part of the conventions of a music video along with sound and lighting. Most videos use an overlapping effect at the start of videos which enables two images to allow the audience to see two images at the same time. Producers tend to edit the lip syncing within a song so that its completely accurate and in time with the song itself, but obviously if the tempo of the song is really fast then the pace of editing will correspond with that. Transitions like jump cuts are usually used as well to enable a swift change from scenes so that the video doesn't drag on. Sound and lighting is a hugely important aspect of a music video too as some music videos begin with speaking but most do not, lighting helps to set the scene and mood of a song for example dark and dull lighting create a rather unhappy atmosphere whereas a more vibrant form of lighting creates a happy atmosphere which is also related to clothing. A great example of editing and overlapping techniques is in the video above, which is called 'all about tonight' by Pixie Lott which is directed by Marc Klasfeld.
A music video is a short film relating to the song its assigned to, there are many types of music videos for example narrative based, performance based, concept based, showcase and intertextual.
These terms will be looked through thoroughly within the next couple of posts including links of videos associated with the different types and directors who trademark that style.
There are a vast variety of music genres but there are only a few out the many artists that make music videos although these artists are usually mainstream. Music videos in the mainstream are usually made for marketing purposes of the label and the artists, these videos usually contain lots of women acting as sexual objects to attract male audiences and vice versa for female audiences.
The main purposes of a music video are as follows
to sell the song and invoke a reaction in the audiences so that they remember the song,
to give the listeners a better understanding of the song,
to show off other talents that the artist/musician may have e.g Chris Brown and Justin Bieber dance in their videos,
to increase sales by creating a memorable visual for the song,
to market for exposure + expansion of an artists profile and finally
as a promotional tool for artists and label
Music videos started to become famous in the 1980s when MTV started to base themselves around the music videos and so did VH1 later on, MTV's first music video was 'video killed the radio star' by The Buggles which can be seen by viewing the link just below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
