Music Video Lyric Annotation



 

 

 

Lip sync Task

Below is the lip sync task myself and Alicia did by singing our final chosen song.  We did this to see who looked better performing and singing the song and who would look the most like and suit the artist.

Song Choice and Permission Message

For our final song choice we have chosen 'Hold Me Down' by Halsey.  Below is a message Evan sent to Halsey asking for permission to use her song to create a music video as part of our Media Coursework.

Song Choice Feedback

 Below is the feedback we got from other A2 Media students and our teachers on what song they preferred and what they imagined to be included in the music video.  From this feedback we chose our final song.

Paper Thin – Astrid S

·         Match the lyrics with the visuals

·         Stripped down room – black or white

·         All the same beat throughout – ‘doesn’t go anywhere’

Body – Wet

·         Fireworks night with sparklers

·         ‘didn’t go anywhere’

Drive – Hasley

·         Didn’t like the song – too plain

·         Bored after 30 seconds

·         Likes the ideas but with a different song

Hold Me Down – Hasley

·         Reverse slow motion

·         Everyone preferred this song

·         Clones of the performer at the chorus as the lyrics repeat themselves, sets of three

·         Quite difficult to film in one location

·         Lots of colour and smoke grenades

·         Paint on the drums

·         Stripped down black room

Group Ideas and Pitches

Below is the prezi we created as a group which involves the songs and ideas for our music video.  We then presented this to the class and asked for feedback so we could improve on our ideas and agree on a song.

Cross Media Task and Synergy

Daft Punk

Synergy can be created in the cross media promotional package through a variety of ways, such as costume, props, appearance, location and colour.  Today in class we watched and discussed how Daft Punk uses synergy in order to represent their image.  The way they did this was by in the music videos, adverts, posters and album pictures and covers, you would also see dark colours, two men wearing a mask and futuristic aspects.  This meant that their loyal fans and even their non-fans would recognise them through this image they are displaying.

Album Cover

Below is the tease trailer for their new album which was coming out at the time.  In this video displays exactly what Daft Punk are recognised as and this is how synergy works.  This video is set in a futuristic theme and the two 'characters' daft punk are recognised as appear in the video.  They take out an old fashioned record which is taken out of the album cover they are trying to sell.  Therefore, this makes people see the digipak and they can then recognise it when they go into the shops to buy this.



The 1975

The 1975 are commonly known for possessing a neon themed brand image which started from their first album.  

Neon fits the display and image of the daily used social media apps such as Facebook and twitter which the youth of our generation use today.  Therefore, because of this, The 1975 are making it clear that their target audience is of a young age.  Neon colours and effects such as lasers are often used in their concert venues and also in the majority of their music videos, tour posters and album covers.

Their live stages have also been designed to follow the neon theme.  This allows the band to use and experiment with a variety of bright colours which suggest they are promoting individuality and uniqueness to their audience.  The use of neon has helped the band establish a successful brand image that is well known to their fans as well as the general pubic.

Banana Phone

Today in class, we filmed and edited myself, Max and Millie.  The reason we did banana phone was so that we could get used to and learn new ways of editing for which we could implement into our music videos when it comes to creating them.  I felt this was a very useful task and i enjoyed it too.  Below is my final banana phone piece. 
I used premier to edit this piece of work.  This included reversing effects, cloning myself, changing the colour of the background and keeping Millie her normal colour.  I also added 'Banana Phone' to one of the shots in a big font.  I have learnt many different editing skills from this task which will help me when editing my music video in the near future.

Prelim Evaluation

Final Prelim Video

Production Diary

Production Diary - Countdown from Chloeohare

Storyboard

Shooting Schedule

This is a picture of our shooting schedule for our prelim task.

 

Prop List

This is a mindmap of the props we needed to use in order to create our music video Countdown.

Preliminary Task

Today in class we got put into our Prelim task groups; I was with Alicia, Melissa, Jordan and Clare.  Together, we had to chose what music video we would re create.  We came up with Beyonce - Countdown purely because we were intrigued by the editing of the video and the bright, eccentric feel and colours of the video.

Beyonce - Countdown

Star Profile

A2 Terminology

Homogenous Group: A group that all have the same characteristics

Mediation: The selection and construction of material in how it is given over to audiences via editing and point of view

Hegemony: Traditional stereotypes that are reinforced and circulated as common sense to audiences

Marginisalisation: How stereotyping can lead to someone or a social group being ‘placed’ on the outside of accepted cultural norms

Ideology: An overarching set of ideas often uses as a form of social control

Moral Panics: Issues in society that often lead to the blaming, and marginalisation of a scapegoat

Deviancy Amplification: Associated with moral panics, this explains how the media exaggerate a negative representation to ensure a dominant shared reading

Liberalisation: A more diverse, tolerant, equally acceptable approach

Pluralism: Again, more liberal suggesting and range of different, challenging representations

Web 2.0: Interactive internet media e.g. blogs and social networking

Manifest: Obvious, on the surface meaning

Cultural Stereotyping: The stereotyping of social groups in society by the media

Prosumer: A producer and consumer of media

Passive Audiences: Audiences that accept and do not challenge representations

Iconic: Well known and respected

Aspiration: Looking up to something or somebody

Encoding/Decoding: Putting meaning in, taking meaning out

Dominant, Negotiated and Oppositional Readings: The intended meaning of a text, where meaning is uncertain or where audience have decoded a completely different reading

Anchorage: How meaning is made more definite

Binary Oppositions: Where representations are deliberately different to construct further  meaning

Latent Meaning: Less obvious meaning

Memes: Internet ‘stars’

Sexualisation of Women

Voyeurism - Sigmund Freud

• Erotic pleasure can be gained by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched).  

The voyeurism in this music video is evident as the women are wearing basically nothing and the use of camera shots and angles emphasise the women's bodies.



Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey 1975

• Proposed that because filmmakers are predominantly male the presence of women is often for the purposes of display (rather than narrative).  This is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a male gaze (regardless of the gender of spectator) one that is or may feel like a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display who is effectively objectified and passive.  In male performance videos the voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent, with the use of dancers as adornments to the male star ego.

This video shows Rianna in an erotic nature whilst partaking in S&M activities whilst wearing bondage and little clothing.

Raunch Culture - Andrea Levy

• In her book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Levy attacks the increasingly sexualised culture that objectifies women.  She argues that women are encouraged to see themselves as objects and to see sex as their only source of power.

In this video, Beyonce is in her lingerie at the start, there is no reason for her to be therefore this suggests she feel;s the need to be in her underwear whilst singing about her future husband.  Also, there is a shot where her husband is in control by taking down her garter with his mouth, as Beyonce lets this happen this is seen as a source of power with sex.

Exhibitionism

• Female performers being at once sexually proactive and apparently in control of inviting a sexualised gaze in what could be termed as the opposite of voyeurism.

An example of this is Fergie's single M.I.L.F. $.  Herself and her performers are in control of the 'milkman's' wandering eyes.  They have invited him in a sexualised gaze by bending over, wearing little clothing and making eye contact.

Representation

Today in lesson we learnt different representations and how each are used in different music videos.  As after all, the artist is perceived by how they are represented as in their music videos.  We also learnt about different theory's by some famous theorists.

Three different stereotypes of girls in music videos:

1. Burlesque
2. Stripper
3. Gangsta Hoe

1.  The 'Burlesque' girl has characteristics such as; wearing corsets, feather boas, fishnet stockings, top hats, elbow length gloves and accessories like canes.  This is an old fashion stereotype which was and still is known as 'sexy' since the 1840's.  A fine example of a music video containing burlesque in it is Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and P!nk.  You can see from the video all the women are wearing stockings,  feather boas, top hats and are holding a cane.  They are also dancing in an erotic nature which adds to the sexual image of women gaining attention by using their bodies.

2.  The 'Stripper' girl characteristic's are;  the 'open crouch', using poles or using walls as a pole, bra's and g-strings, the 'wiggle' bum shit, stripper shoes and glitter on the costume as well as having strobe lights.  The 'stripper' stereotype has gotten worse over the years as there a now artists naked in some of their videos.  An example of this is Nicki Minaj's song Anaconda.  There are a number of shots of the 'wiggle' and she often has an 'open crouch'.



3.  The 'Gangsta Hoe' characteristics are; Afro-american women and girls, bikini tops and torn shorts with 95% of their skin exposed, the backward cap, the 'krumping' moves, stimulated sexual positions, the use of water/oil on their bodies, the 'bling', tattoos and blatant body piercings.  An example of this would be No Matter What They Say by Lil' Kim.  This is because their costumes are revealing in the video and they have huge gold 'gangsta' earrings, their dancing is erotic and they have a lot of wild hand and arm movements which are almost in the audience face.

Audience

I consume music every single day and have done for the last 17 years of my life.  I listen to music during my homework as it helps me concentrate, when i go to bed at night as it helps me fall asleep, when i wake up in the morning and throughout the day.  
I love listening to chart music as it is all up to date and in 'trend'.  My favourite artists are Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and Birdy.  These artists range from pop to soul, therefore i do like listening to a range of genres.  
I listen to music through my headphones, through a speaker or in my car on the way to school and whenever i am driving.  I use this app called 'Napster' it is £7.99 a month and my whole family share the account with our own separate playlists we can listen too.

Features of a Music Video

Beyonce - Countdown
The genre of this music video is pop which is highly evident, due to the quick cuts, transitions and images in the video.  The black and white colours highlight sophistication but then gradually bright, vibrant colours are displayed on Beyonce's costumes.  The sound of this song is upbeat and the tempo gets faster throughout.  In this video is a lot of editing, but this seems to make the video more intriguing to watch.



The Black Eyed Peas - Where is the love?
The genre of the music video is R&B and this becomes evident due to the scenery and locations the music video was filmed at.  The streets were derelict and poor with most of the walls having graffiti on them.  Not only this but the costumes and jewellery used in the video are stereo-typically 'gangsta' type.  This is a sterotypical video of R&B as it has a tracking shot of the band lip singing the lyrics whilst walking down the street.



Adele - Someone Like You
The genre of this music video is Soul Pop and this is evident due to the tempo of the music and the music video itself.  The music video is black and white and this marks the pace of the song, it is slow and the colour of the video makes it more powerful and soulful.  In the video, Adele is outside walking along a long road completely on her own but it is out in the open.  She is wearing little make up and a big winter coat.  This is almost classed as 'normal' and therefore this makes it a lot easier for most people to relate to this soul video.  Usually with soul music the lyrics are relateable to most peoples lives, therefore to match the visuals to the lyrics makes the music video support its genre.

Music Video Timeline

1920's

St.  Louis Blues is a 1929 American two-reel short film staring Bessie Smith.  It is deemed to be one of the first ever music videos to be made.  It is the only known film of Bessie Smith and the soundtrack of it is her only recording not controlled by Columbia Records.  This film massively promoted Bessie Smith soon after her hit single came out in 1925.




Bessie Smith

St Louis Blues Film





1950's

In 1956, the 'Love Me Tender' film was released by 20th Century Fox which was named after Elvis Presley's song directed by Robert D. Webb.  This films starred Richard Egan, Debra Paget and Elvis Presley in his acting debut.  The single 'Love Me Tender' by Elvis was released two months before the film came out and already hit number 1 in the charts.  When the film came out, the single again rose back to number 1 due to the popularity of the film and the soundtrack itself.



Love Me Tender Movie Poster

Love Me Tender Single in the Film

This song in the film is played at the end scene.  Because it is at the end scene, this is the most memorable movie scene for the audience.  the lyrics of the song illustrate the visuals in this scene as it is about falling in love and not letting go of what you have.  Therefore, in the end scene we see four people walk off into the distance with one couple holding hands.

Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley



1970's

In 1969, 'I want you back' was Jackson 5's first hit single for the band and was the only single used in their first album they released.  The music video incorporated a lot of dance routines and singing and dancing at the same time and this meant other artist began to do the same within their music videos.  There were many shots of the artist themselves which inevitably gave them a 'star profile' image.



1980's

Rod Stewart's single 'She wont dance with me' was one of the first singles to be presented on MTV in the US.  The video below is the original video that was on the MTV show.  With Rod Stewart being a British Rock singer, to be shown on TV in the US on the biggest music channel now was admirable.





1990's

Below is the video Eminem produced with the hit single ' My Name is'.  Not only were the lippy lyrics massive in the UK at the time, when the video was released, the hits of the single rose by thousands due to masses of people being shocked by Eminem being a mental patient in the video.  Not only this, but the collaboration for this song was with Dre, he was the doctor for Eminem in the music video. 




How important are music videos today?

Some people say there’s a decline in music video quality since both the significant sums of money and MTV moved away from the genre, but music videos as an art form are as important now as they’ve ever been. They’re part of our visual language — a significant part of the culture of our consumption of music, art and entertainment.  YouTube is the second biggest search engine over Google and the largest streaming music service worldwide, so discovering new music videos is easy. Music on the Internet is consumed and forgotten about daily, if not hourly. So from a record label point of view, an artist needs something bigger than an MP3 to get noticed. They need strong creative visuals to give them a substantial competitive advantage over their fellow artists who are all trying to do the same thing; to grab the audiences attention.

Favourite Previous Student Music Video's

 Henry Nathan - Music Prelim Video



 

Below is my favourite media prelim video made by a student called Henry Nathan in 2014.  The reason i like this video is purely because of the effort and time he has obviously put into editing this peice.  My favourite part of it was right at the start where he videoed the sky from day time to night time.  I feel this was really effective and it showed how much effort the student put into this video from the start. Another aspect i liked about the video was the focusing then un -focus of the flies on the glass window.  This showed the student knew how to work a camera in ways which made his video interesting and solid to watch.

Carol Vernallis' Music Theory

Vernallis' theory included 4 conventions in which she expressed the importance of narrative, camera angles/framing, editing and diegesis.

Narrative

Carol feels like the narrative is a direct visual response to the music and therefore what is happening onscreen is reflected by the lyrics the artist is singing.  However, for Vernallis sometimes the narrative may not be completed and therefore been seen as a partial which can make the video seem disjointed or disconnected.  It is okay for the narrative to not answer questions, it can be a montage and not just one focus.

Camera angles/Framing

Vernallis' states that the establishing shots are one of the key camera features of a music video and are reused frequently throughout a music video, as well as close-up shots, usually to show off the singer/band.  The style of framing of the music video is used specifically on the artist in order to show off their star image.  An example of the close up and establishing shot are in the music video 'Only Love and hurt like this' by Paloma Faith.

Establishing Shot

Close Up

Editing

Vernallis' suggests that all music videos follow the same editing techniques.  The editing may also be bought to the foreground, become visible and not hidden.  Meaning the video will have a style of editing running throughout that is distinctive to that video.  This may include things like; jump cuts, cutting with the lyrics, breaks of the 180 degree rule, extreme changes in pace and graphic matches.  An example of a music video which has jump cuts and slow motion cooperated with obvious editing is Willow Smith's 'Whip My Hair'.

Diegesis

In terms of the Diegesis Carol explains that it will all be revealed slowly throughout the video.  She preaches that the actions in music videos are usually uncompleted or disrupted in someway.  Plus there will be many repetitions through the video due to how important some shots/frames are to others.