PLANNING - MUSIC VIDEO

Scenes for our music video

We like the idea of having the scenes shot using a hand held camera. This will gives us a more natural “home video” tone, which would link to the song as it has an independent tone also. We will have to take into consideration of how steady the camera is held as we don’t want it shaky so the audience feel motion sickness!

The video will start off with shots of feet walking, these people will be in the video through out so we have continuity. We will then have these same people hanging out as a group of friends would in various locations like driving in a car, messing about at the local park/field and nights out together. We may include fake alcoholic drinks; these will be filled up with water/coke so they look real in the video. This will look as natural as possible; just like filming is like a video to document what the friends get up to on a road trip for example.

After looking at other music videos, we have come up with the idea that we will have scenes of fireworks and people with sparklers. This will give a feel good vibe, which would relate to the tone of our chosen song.

We have decided to have some singing in the video, when people have the sparklers in their hands, they will sing “higher, higher, higher, higher”. This, we feel, will be really affective if we use a variety of close-ups, mid-shots and long shots whilst singing. This bit of the song is before the climax of the song where the beat comes back.

PLANNING - MUSIC VIDEO

Our chosen songs lyrics:

When I came down the sun poured into me
I shook them up, the walls came crumbling
My fists kept trembling with these salty wounds
My stolen gold inside the emperor’s tomb
Now baby wait looks like a lovely face
I built this cardboard neighbourhoods disgrace
Who let it said that you're my favourite sphere
Within the confines of such chemistry

It's the way I see everything I need
It's the way to be

Let this be our little secrets
No one needs to know were feeling
Higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher and higher
But I feel alive and I feel it in me
Up and up I keep on coming
Higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher and higher
Higher...

My face blew up at such a casual sight
This miracle is of ecstatic fright
They’ll rush above me to oblivion
Outlining white sidewalks with halogen
Oh have you ever felt so god damn strong
How come it takes some people so damn long?
He tried to squeeze the lemon juice to rain
The citrus drawing out the seasons stains

Watch the basin drain
As your life lines wane
And you can’t explain
As your friends complain
You’ve caused all this pain
And you proudly shame
Your whole families name

Let this be our little secrets
No one need to know were feeling
Higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher and higher
But I feel alive and I feel it in me
Up and up I keep on coming?
Higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher and higher

Mother I can tell what you've been thinking
Staring at the stars on your ceiling
Thinking once there was a power that you were wielding
And now I've hit the mark
Staring at the dark
And I cannot help but ignore
The people staring at my scars

Let this be our little secret
No one need to know were feeling
Higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher and higher
But I feel alive and I feel it in me
Up and up and keep on coming
Higher and higher and higher
Higher and higher and higher
(Repeat)

From Mrs S

I like what you're doing, however, make sure that your video is a music vid and not just a random vid with music tacked on...

PLANNING - MUSIC VIDEO

The results of our music video idea questionnaire:

We are pleased with the result as we too liked the first idea as well. We think the first idea won because people like a visual aid that keeps them interested when listening to the song, also the evidence in the first questionnaire helps back up our assumption.

PLANNING - MUSIC VIDEO

Ideas for our video come from all kinds of music videos, here are some examples:

• The first 18 seconds of the Nirvana cover of Seasons in the Sun video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO4BF67pvsc
• The Kooks - She moves in her own way (without the performance based aspect) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6-QM0_Prp0&feature=channel
• The whole of this video is all in narrative with no singing, which is the idea we like best, Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9I9VBKPiw
• This video is a perfect example to what we want to produce. Beyonce does not sing to the lyrics, nor do the events in the video relate to the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpOykqxbh3I

We really like these videos as they can be just random shots that reflect the type of music we are portraying. For example The Kooks song was laid back and there was footage of them on tour and messing about which can be quite interesting to see the band act normal instead of acting like pop stars in the video. The Nirvana one is an effect we would like to create, a home made looking video that is deliberately made to look homemade. the arctic monkeys one it s a great exmple for no singing example. We've decided to have some singing in the video, with a group of people miming the words "higher, higher, higher, higher" when those words come in quite powerfully. There is also some big drum beats that would look good if we had a drum set included in those scenes with someone playing it. We can't wait to see this effect in the final product.

PLANNING - MUSIC VIDEO

Song chosen: Passion Pits - Little Secrets

We have chosen this song because it is an unusual sounding song but we found it really catchy. Also when listening to it we could think of many ideas on how to base a music video on it. It's genre is electro pop/indie music which gives off a fun and enthusiastic vibe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0takBpMWtM

Ideas for our music video:

1. One idea would make our video narrative based. We like the idea of having no band or artist singing to give it a more life like effect. This will give us advantages of not having to use the same people; we can have a variety of people in our video without affecting the continuity. The narrative will be based on a group of friends doing fun things together. For example, as these holidays are coming up, them out on Halloween, bonfire night with sparklers, hanging out and just generally having fun. Maybe go on a road trip/beach and show a bonfire scene.
2. Another idea we thought of was a performance based video where we would have group of boys miming along to the song and playing instruments used in the song. We would set them in stereotypical indie backgrounds like: in the school hall on the stage rebelling against school, at a disco where the main singer would be singing to the crowd etc.
3. The final idea would be to make our video concept based. We feel this would be a challenge as we would have to learn how to make our video cartoon-ised. It would be totally random with shapes, animals and vibrant colours used through-out. It would not include the band to make the video more mystical.

We will now send out a questionnaire with these 3 suggestions on to see which idea is the most popular.

Some excellent analysis of products her Lora but remember to tie it in with the idea that music videos are promotional tools that are to sell the artist- how do the camera shots/angles reflect this?

Lora, with the produc placement you need to think WHERE music videos appear and the different ways of audiences viewing them, e.g, TV music channels, mobile phones etc...

Product Placement

Since MTV launching the first ever music video channel, music videos are slowly becoming popular and some may say, more important than the song itself. There are lots of channels on the television that are based fully on music videos now - whereas in the past there were only certain shows that would show a couple of music videos in the charts, for example: Top of the Pops.
However not only can people watch music videos on the telly - but on ther internet as well. Websites, to name a few, like, YouTube, Yahoo! Music and VH1.com host music videos that anyone can watch online at any time from the comfort of their own home.
Futhermore people can now download music videos as well as download music. This again enables them to watch the music video on their MP3 player or phone anywhere they want.
These are all great ways of selling music but as I have mentioned before, companies are worrying that songs are loosing there importance to music videos.
For our own music video we would expect it to go on well known music video channels but not mainsteam ones like MTV or TMF. Video channels like E4 music would definately play our song as they play independent and up and coming music just like our song.

REAL MEDIA ARTEFACT 05 - MGMT - Time To Pretend

MGMT – Time To Pretend (2008)
Director – Ray Tintori
Genre – Indie pop rock/New wave

This video has a very colourful and psychedelic style. First of all it starts off with the band and other people on a beach around a fire, which they then start jumping and dancing around, when the music synthesisers kick in, – almost as if they are in a tribe. This does not relate to the lyrics at all. The song is about them talking about a fantasy rock star life; for example the lyrics say “Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives” and “You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars…this is our decision to live fast and die young” which are all stereotypical ideas of being a rockstar is all about.
The video has been said to be based on a 1970s film “The Holy Mountain” which is a very spiritual film which is represented very well through the music video.
When the drums come into the music at the beginning the drum player/singer of the band is shown playing the drums – which is multiplied by 30 so you see a lot of the same person playing the drums all overlapped with each other. The same man is then shown in the middle of the drummers singing to the lyrics. The video has also come out in 3D so this kind of scene would look really good 3D, as you can imagine the drummers popping out at you.
There are lots of close ups and mid shots of the band either singing, dancing on the beach or playing instruments. This portrays them as a serious band but also has a laid back fun environment, as they are shown to be bohemian and radical.
This video is concept based so is extremely random, and doesn’t relate to the lyrics at all. For example: There are animated backgrounds of, if I had to compare to something, looks like a glow lamp with the bubbles. There are animals like owls and butterflies flying around in front of the animated background. But a really random example would be when the band and other people are running through animated grass with bow and arrows firing at something – we don’t know what at this point. Where as further on in the video you find out that they are shooting at plants with mouths and teeth that are trying to eat MGMT! The singer/drummer of the band then shoots one of them at it explodes into lots of dolphins that pour across the screen – this would be really effective 3D. This example proves how unforeseen and ambiguous the video is.
The clothes they are wearing are again colourful and psychedelic – very hippie costumes. This portrays the vibe of the song as it does sound very “new wave” with lots of different toned synthesisers playing through out.
The video is great for a visual aid as it has lots of different things that you may not see the first time you watch it, but the third or forth time – it’s very novelty. It would get positive results from my focus audience as they all liked music videos to be visual aids.

Here is a link to the official video

REAL MEDIA ARTEFACT 04 - Pink - Leave me alone (I’m Lonely)

Pink – Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely)
Director – ?
Genre – Rock/Pop

The music video is a performance based video which consists of live performances from Pink's I'm Not Dead Tour. The clips from her tour footage could be classed as intertextual reference as it is from her DVD that she released as well.
The lyrics are not linked to the video; however footage of her singing the song from her on tour is very powerful as she sings with emphasis on body language and facial expressions. For example with the lyrics “Cutting off the phone, leave me the ***k alone…Tomorrow I'll be begging you to come home.” She emphasises this by throwing her hands in the air, as if exhausted with the imaginary situation of the song.
Although all the clips of footage in the video are not of the song “Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely)”, they are of others songs she performs on tour, they are all cut to the beat or if they are of Pink dancing she is still in time with the music.
Before the first chorus there is a quiet bit with Pink running with some rope/material to do some acrobatics. The chorus kicks in when she leaps from the ground swinging on the rope to do her stunts. There is also diegetic sound of the crowd screaming as she does this. This makes her look strong and daring, which is how some people would describe Pink as an artist.
During the video there are clips of Pink laughing and joking, interacting with the crowd which makes her tour look friendly and fun. But there are serious clips of her singing and performing acrobatics, taking her work really serious – which makes you want to be there on tour to see it in real life (this also relates to the reason for this video – to advertise the I’m Not Dead Tour as well as her latest song).
There are a lot of close ups and mid-shots of Pinks face and body, this gives the reference to the notion of looking in a sexualised display. Pink, as well as her dancers, wear costumes that are revealing which the camera sometimes focuses on.
Towards the end of the video, for the last chorus there is a high point where all her performances are clip after clip with her performing before ending on her doing “Circus De Soleil” spinning really fast. This is a good way to end the video as you wouldn’t expect a pop star to do such a daring thing, especially as this is a circus trick.

Heres a link to the music video

MEDIA ARTEFACT 03 - Katy Perry - Waking Up In Vegas

Katy Perry: Waking Up In Vegas (2009)
Director Joseph Kahn
Genre: Pop rock

Straight away the video starts with a mid-shot of Katy Perry holding hands with her love interest/boyfriend. The video is set in Las Vegas and they are standing in what appears to be a launderette, in front of a slot machine. The song title gives away the setting and story as it is about a visit to Vegas that goes wrong. However they appear to win at this slot machine. This shows that the lyrics are very much related to what is happening in the music video. For example the whole chorus is about Vegas and winning money: "Shut up and put your money where your mouth is, that’s what you get for waking up in Vegas, get up and shake the glitter off your clothes, now that’s what you get for waking up in Vegas.”. There is also a part in the song when she sings: “Why are these lights so bright, did we get hitched last night? Dressed up like Elvis, why am I wearing your class ring?”. While she is singing this she looks despaired standing at the alter with Elvis as the Vicar and looking at the ring on her finger. These are all visual aids that help tell the story in the song.

In the launderette Perry’s boyfriend drops one coin into the slot machine and pulls the handle. Three “blazing 7” symbols land on the pay line, and the machine delivers a jackpot in quarters. Moore and Perry look at each other in astonishment. The next scene shows them winning at roulette, presumably using the money won on the slot machine to finance the initial roulette bet. Subsequent scenes show the couple playing various casino games and parlaying their winnings into millions, defeating poker legend Daniel Negreanu, being welcomed into to the Palms hotel, by the owners Gavin and George J. Maloof. Then in a moment of hubris, Moore ejects Penn & Teller from their hotel suite. All these scenes are cut and overlapped with each other – not in order. They are mixed up, maybe suggesting how hectic and lively it is in Vegas.
This all represents the stereotypical lifestyle of Vegas, and shows how money goes to peoples head in Vegas. It portrays irony because as well as it being funny, it is very true.
In the middle of the music video all Katy Perry’s luck runs dry and she looses all her money that she had originally won. This shows how easy it is to let money go to your head. She looks lost without money, and looses all her hotel rooms, cars, clothes etc. which is quite humorous. It goes back to Perry and her boyfriend standing in the launderette, as if they had just dreamed what had happened in the whole video, like they saw the future. They then put the money in the slot machine and three blazing “7” symbols land on the pay line, and the machine delivers a jackpot in quarters. Moore and Perry look at each other in astonishment as the screen goes to black – this is quite a humorous ending.

Through-out the video there are references to the motion of looking. The artist Katy Perry is wearing quite revealing clothing that the camera enhances this by focusing on what she is wearing. As well as making her look appealing to male watchers this again can relate to the song about Vegas. The costumes that she wears are very over the top, revealing, sparkly and stand out. These make them very clichéd.

Katy Perry has lots of close ups and mid shots of her singing the song through out the video. This represents her as the main character in the story and also not forgetting that she is a well known pop star. The image of her in this video comes off quite light hearted and very good at acting. She is able to make fun of herself – because it is somehow representing her own life as she is living the life of the rich and famous now she is a celebrity.

Here is a link to the official video

REAL MEDIA ARTEFACT 02 - Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before The Lights Come On

Arctic Monkeys – Leave before the lights come on (2006)
Director: John Hardwick
Genre: Alternative/Rock

The video is set in Sheffield, in the Cultural Industries Quarter, during 2006. It starts off with a close up of a man walking down the street, with diegetic street noise for a couple of seconds before the song kicks in. The surroundings look like a rough area and the man doesn’t have the happiest expression on his face. The lyrics haven’t started yet so you don’t know whether the song is about this man.
It then cuts to a close up of a women’s face that looks quite sad and she is looking down. You then get an establishing shot of where she is, on top of a building, looking as if she is going to jump. The song does not fit this kind of scene as the song has a very up beat and this is not a very happy situation. She then looks down at the street, which is a point of view shot, which is when the audience then realise as the camera cuts back to the man, that these two people will meet each other because of this situation.
The lyrics “Well this is a good idea…” are sang when the women is shown on top of the building. This could have been intended for sarcasm as it is not a good idea or a coincidence, because through out the song the lyrics do not relate to the video.
The beat of the music is emphasised by the camera cuts, angles and shots. There are shots of the man and women at the beginning that are evidently cut to the beat. There is a close up of the man and the women’s hands almost toughing as the man tries to pull her back from the roof edge. The music is very quiet at this point, only a guitar is heard, to build up the tension of whether she will accept his help, when she does take his hand the other instruments kick in to almost so joy that she is away from the edge.
The band is not in this video at all. The Arctic Monkey’s are well known for their spontaneous videos though, including a video which was based on clowns fighting all the way through, so this is no change if the audience know of the band.
Also when the man has had enough of the woman following him, he threatens her so she starts to run away. This is where the high point of the song starts, where the instruments are played really loud that fit her feeling of despair as she runs through the streets that we have recently seen. You start to feel sorry for the women as the audience can predict that she is going back to the top of roof again – and maybe jump this time.
This video is a narrative video of a woman who uses the excuse of jumping off a building to get attention from men – who will hopefully help her. This is shown at the end when you find out that she goes back to the roof and waits for a man to walk by to drop her shoe to attract their attention. There is a mid-shot of her smirking as she does drop the shoe which will make people think the video is quite a weird but quite humorous idea for a music video.

Here is a link to watch the official music video

REAL MEDIA ARTEFACT 01 - Foo Fighters - The Pretender

Foo Fighters – The Pretender (2007)

Director: Sam Brown

Genre: Alternative Rock

This song portrays a strong political message and the video emphasises this even more.

It shows the Foo Fighters performing the song in an air plane hanger. The air plane hanger is the only location in the whole video and is a very simple set; featuring the band on one end of it, with a very large solid glossy red screen behind them throughout the video.

The fact that the director isolated them in an empty air plane hanger makes the political lyrics stand out, as the singer shouts “What if I say I will never surrender…”, “Keep you in the dark you know they all pretend…” and “You’re the pretender.”. During these lyrics, what appears to be a riot police officer walks on to the opposite side of the ice rink, who prepares himself behind the middle black line as if he is about to charge.

The band is facing this police officer and the main singer is singing as if aiming the song at him. This is backed up with close-ups of the singer looking at the man angrily and pointing. There are also close-ups and mid-shots of the other band members who are violently playing their instruments as if to portray their anger as well.

Due to the set’s simplicity and general emptiness, we are made to wonder what the massive red screen is doing there behind the band, and if it has a purpose.

As the video progresses, other similar officers, who again stand in line along the black line on the floor facing the band, join the single police officer. There are close ups of their weapons and shields and also their faces built with anger also. This makes them look intimidating but the Foo Fighters are looking like they are up for a fight.

The video builds up to a bridge just before their last chorus, where there is a very quiet and light music part. There are crane shots and panning of the officers looking on to the Foo Fighters, and as the music builds, there is a long shot of them all closing their helmets and getting ready to charge. There are lots of cuts between the lead singer and police officers that are in time to the beat showing angry faces again to show they just as they are about to charge.

The officers then start running and charge at the band which is in slow motion, and just as they get closer and at the loudest part of the song, the massive screen behind the band suddenly erupts and a red water-like liquid shoots past and through the band and appears to overwhelm and throw the officers off course. The last chorus sounds louder and angrier than before. The band keep playing despite this out burst of liquid all over them, showing their power against the riot police.

It is clear that the guards were defeated as the song ends, and the front man slams his guitar on the floor and falls to his knees to what I assume is to represent the exhaustion after the “battle”.

The video is both narrative and performance-based as it tells a story while they are playing. I feel this video is very effective as the video sums up the song perfectly. The editing is to the beat of the song and help create the tension through out.

Here is the link to watch the video

Real Media Artefact

I am now going to analyse some music videos. I have chosen particular ones that represent either narrative, performance and concept-based or that contain all three. I have done this to gain a insight and a variety of ideas for my own music video.

Music Questionnaire Analysis

This was 50/50 as people didn’t seem to be bothered if the video was longer or not. One said if the video is good, like telling a story, than stop the music in the middle and have some acting in it.

Both these results show that people prefer narrative music videos that tell a story through out. Also the highest up combination shows that they enjoy narrative and performance so it shows the band/artist performing as well as telling a story. This will help me decide how to direct my video, and definitely use a narrative story that relate to the lyrics.


Most people said no to this question, so it shows that people don’t like references to other TV programmes/reality programmes – not big fans of Eminem!

This result shows that people don’t mind that the artist or band is shown, this backs up that people prefer a visual aid, like narrative.

This shows that teenagers want the lyrics in the original song to relate to the music video. They like, as this has been said before, visual aids that make the song come to life

This shows that teenagers want the lyrics in the original song to relate to the music video. They like, as this has been said before, visual aids that make the song come to life.

This gives me a good idea on how people watch music videos. TV came out top as there are a lot of music channels that are popular with teenagers that play up to date music as well as old music, so it gives people a variety of music videos to watch.

The music that people listen too does not affect what music video they watch. This backs up the questions before as this proves that if the people like what they see then they are more likely to buy them, it’s more the video they are interested in – not just the song.

Like the question before this was an important question as well. This outcome was a lot better than people buying the song. This is because a lot of the people said they liked the visual aid that a music video gave them, and enjoy watching something while listening to the song. One teenager said they found some of the videos they downloaded funny and liked to show their friends.
Other people said they only brought certain ones by all different kids of artists because they enjoyed them. This result gives me an idea of why people buy music videos.

From earlier questions I know that teenagers watch a lot of music videos regularly and find them important. But this question was important as I wanted to know if it made a difference to them buying the song that the music video promotes. This result is not as good as I hoped it to be, because the main reason for a music video was to help advance the sales of the song, or even the sales of the music video.

I left this as a qualitative question as I wanted to really know why they were putting this answer. The people that said “yes” mostly said they found music videos interesting and brought the song to life. However the people that said “no” said they were a waste of time and money.
But with the negative comments aside this result backs up my analysis from the question before. It shows that teenagers watch music videos for a reason, because they are important to the artist or band promoting their song.

I asked this question to see how regular teenagers watch music videos. This result shows that 20 out of the 30 teenagers I asked watch music videos everyday, which is a lot. This shows how important music videos are to teenagers whether they do it for entertainment or interest.

I chose to ask an equal amount of male and female to get a balanced point of view from both sexes.
It gives me ideas through out the questionnaire that would appeal to them both. I didn’t single out age as I believe teenagers are most likely to watch a music video than any other age group. They are also teenagers are my focus group, so I just handed out my questionnaire to teenagers.