Sunday 19 September 2010

Music Video Genre Cont'd


Other commonly used genres for music videos include animated videos. An example of this is Avenged Sevenfold's 'A Little Piece Of Heaven'


[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VurhzANQ_B0&ob=av2e]]


This type of music video is fairly entropic and gives the artist more freedom and creativity to the video as ideas which may not be possible by using actors may be drawn up and used in animated music videos; the killing sequence within this music video for example.



Horror music videos are also becoming more popular in todays music videos. These are also known by 'Apocalyptic' videos. An example of this is Cannibal Corpse 'Death Walking Terror' These videos are easy to recognise, as they contain horrific elements, such as blood, gore and violence. Videos within this genre tend to be redundant as they are all based on this elements, but entropic as they find unusual ways of portraying the violence involved within the video.





Comedic music videos are also popular with modern music. Tenacious D's 'Tribute' is an example of a modern day comedic music video, and it also contains entropic elements to create such an unusual and funny video (for example, the idea of a devil only 'eating their souls if they dont sing 'the best song in the world' is rather unusual).
Behind the scenes and tour videos are becoming more popular also as they are economically cheap and simple to produce. An example of this is 30 Seconds To Mars' 'Into The Wild'. These music videos are successful as fans are often interested in seeing their favourite bands backstage and their live perfomances, especially if they have recently been to the concert where it has been recorded, to see if they made it on to the video. Live perfromances also show the bands' energy which would attract the fans to watch them live.




Other music video genres include hybrid genres (narrative and performance for example), dancing, dis-jointed, illogical, classic, low budget, soundtrack/film, sexually available, emotional, parody and montage.

Genre Conclusion

To conclude, the most common genre for music videos is performance and narrative. Because of this, within my music video I will also be using this hybrid genre to ensure it attracts the correct target audience.

Music Video Genre - Narrative

Another common genre for music videos are narrative videos. These types of videos tell a story throughout the music video, which can be, but not always, based on the lyrics of the song, or often not connected to the lyrics at all. Often, it is the artist or band members that act throughout the music video, as the audience are able to conenct with them more as they would already feel like they know the band, especially if they are a long term fan, making the music video even more successful. However, often actors are used within music video as the band are performing.
Narrative music videos are rather common modernly, and an example of an only narrative music video is Slipknot's 'Snuff';



Redundancy & Entropy 4

Slipknot-Snuff






Redundant Features


-The theme for the music video is love.


-Introduction to the video & opening credits (Slipknot presents... 16 secs).


-Sexulisation of females.


-Flashbacks used to tell story- not in chronological order.



Entropic Features


-Unusual twist in narrative; male protagonist dressed as a female.


-Violence is displayed (cutting hand with glass).


-Crime- breaking in to home.


-Pause in music to show flashbacks.


-Owner whistles & continues as if nothing happened- crime ignored.

Redundancy & Entropy 3

Papa Roach- I Almost Told You That I Loved You








This song also contains both Redundant and Entropic features, but focuses mainly on the Entropic.




Redundant Features




- Sexulisation of females (costumes- bikini's etc)


- Band Performance






Entropic Features




- Homosexuals kissing.


- Dark, Gritty setting - set in a basement.


-Gruesome effects used - man hung up by skin.


-Animal masks used to create an unsettling atmosphere- dogs,rabbits etc.


-Selfish sense- men with money (0:17 secs), lovers (0.19 secs) etc.


-Exaggeration of the way the drums are being played (2;06)


-Unhappy ending.

Redundancy & Entropy 2

Shinedown - Sound Of Madness







This music video also contains both Redundant and Entropic features throughout.



Redundant Features



-The video constists of a band performance throughout.



-The music video contains a happy ending; the kid gets saved and taken back home.



-The video contains an 'the end' title.





Entropic Features



-The music video is based on real life situations- (child abduction).



-Make up on the male band members.



-Low key lighting is used giving it a dark look.



- Flashbacks used to tell the story.



-Story not told in chronological order.



-Violent hand gestures used- gun.



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Redundancy & Entropy 1

Keith Urban- Til Summer Comes Around




This music video contains both Redundant and Entropic features throughout.

Redundant Features

-The music video is about love; a couple in love.


- The music video is shot during sunset, which is typical of a romantic song.


- The video is shot on the beach/seaside which is a sign of love.


- The male gives the female a pendant, as a sign of love.


- The clothing of the pair is average of their age.


- Contains a performance and a narrative.


Entropic Features


-The video is shot in a cornfield and carnival.


- The beach is cold, suggested by the artist (Keith Urban)'s coat.


- The video has an unhappy ending; the couple end up alone.


- The male protagonist ends up keeping the pendandt as a reminder, despite it being given to her.

Redundancy & Entropy Introduction

Redundancy is "that which is predictable or conventional in a message... the high result of predictability." (Wikipedia).



In music videos, redundancy can be found when a music video is conventional and predictable; the director and/or artist will do very little to make the music video different from others already out there by other artists. If this continues, eventually all music videos will end up the same and will all become boring and predictable to the audience. As modern music videos are used as marketing devices, directors and artists will want to find something to make the video stand out and to attract the audience to the video, and hopefully buy the whole album by the artist. For this, a music video needs to be entropic too.

Entropy is a text that contains "unpredictable elements". (Wikipedia).

Although audiences wish to see some similar features in music videos so that they can categorise it in to a certain genre, audiences also like to see a "repetition of difference" (Hal Hartley). This means a music video will have to stand out from others within that genre in order to get the audience's attention. To do this, a music video will often contain entropic and unusual elements, which are unexpected within that genre to attract the attention of the audience. Entropic features can vary depending on the genre of music the video belongs to, but can be almost anything unexpected.

A good example of this is Lady GaGa's music video for 'Telephone'











This music video contains both redundant and entropic features.


The redundant features include fighting in prison, masculine females in prison, sexualised women, the shared hatred for the new arrival in prison (GaGa) etc.




The entropic features of the video include the costumes of the characters, the backwards rolling of the credits at the end of the video, the dancing style used by GaGa & Beyonce, and the fact they dance after murdering.




To conclude, this music video would be successful in attracting the target audience to the watching the music video, as it contains a 'Repetition of Difference', by including redundant & entropic features within it.

Saturday 18 September 2010

Music Video Remake.

After attempting to direct actors to lip sync to a song, I re-created the first 50 seconds of an existing music video- Busted's That's What I Go To School For.

This is the Finished Music Video;



Friday 10 September 2010

Video Skills Audit

The five skills I believe I need to develop further to achieve a high grade in the video coursework are Creativity and Originality, Research, Actors, Performers and Models, Camera Skills and Editing. Together, I believe these skills, if developed to a high standard, will create a good graded music video.


Creativity and Originality.

The majority of my ideas come from existing products, and altered (sometimes drastically to ensure they are different) to the criteria and my personal liking. An example of this would be my Metal magazine from the AS year. An exterior image within this magazine included my model stood up on a wall outside. Previously, I had seen images in Metal magazines of exterior images with rain, snow, thunder and lightening added behind the model to make it look more 'metal' and 'hardcore'. I decided the lightening idea did indeed make my article look more 'metal'. Although this is using real media conventions within my magazine, it also emphasises that I get my ideas from elsewhere, and change them (I made the colour of the lightening stoke grey, to compliment the exterior dull blue sky) to fit the criteria and my liking.



For my music video, thankfully we will be working in small groups, which means we will have more ideas flowing to add to the creativity of the video. Also, before creating the music video, I will do loads of research of music videos within that genre so I know what is already existing, so I know what to avoid.
Research.
Since the AS year, I have found out how important and vital good research is to the overall product. It is always good to see what is already existing, so you know what to avoid when creating your own products. Because of this, I believe this skill is an important one in gaining a good grade at the end of the year. However, within this skill, looking outside the media for inspiration is something I never do, as I never thought it to be important if it is outside the industry. With my upcoming music video, I will ensure I get lots of feedback from people who are not in, or wish to be in this industry, to ensure a varied audience.

When creating my music video, I will thoroughly analyse the genre I am working in, to ensure that I use some generic conventions of that genre, but also to ensure difference within the music video, to keep audience interest.
Actors, Performers and Models.
When creating a music video I realise that actors and models are vital, as it is these that will grab the attention of the audience; whether it be the 'band' performing, or the background actors. To ensure my actors will perform to the best they can, I will ensure that they are well aware as to what they're doing and what I am trying to achieve by them doing this. I hope that this will make the performers aware as to how they should act/perform, to ensure the music video looks as professional as possible. I have already had some experience with actors and models during my Film Studies AS coursework, where I asked my models to pose in certain ways to achieve certain shots. In this case, it was to create a horror movie sequence, but all of my actors knew what they were doing and what I would be using the images for, which I believe allowed them to get in to the mind set of the sequence, which made the images and overall sequence more believable. Because of this, I will ensure my actors know what and why they are doing what they're asked to do for my music video.

Camera Skills.
I believe another important skill to make a good music video is good camera skills, since this is what will capture the performances of the actors and performers. Thankfully, I have had some experience with this, as I re-created the first 50 seconds of Busted's- That's What I Go To School For before this academic year began. As this music video included many different shot types, I was able to test my camera skills when recording. After completing the video, I asked some people to look at the video and give their opinion. The majority of the feedback said that they believed it looked close to the original music video. This gave me some confidence about my own camera skills for when I create my own music video.
Editing.
The final skill I believe to be important in making a music video is editing. This is because I believe this is what creates meaning, and if the editing isn't invisible, it looks unprofessional. Thanks to my Film AS work, and the re-creation of the music video, I have also had some experience with Adobe Premiere Pro which has helped me get used to the basics of editing videos.
However, during the editing of the first music video, me and my group did not keep the camera recording long enough so we had a jump cut when it came to editing. Although I have learnt from this, attempting to fill in the 3 or 4 seconds which were left blank were a nuisance and in the end, we had to settle for adding a blank tile. This made the video look extremely unprofessional and amateur like.
Thankfully, since then I have learnt some tricks to prevent this from happening next time, such as moving the camera 30 degrees, and/or record much more than needed. For example- in planning, if suggested we record the first 30 seconds of the band performing, we will now record 40 or 50 seconds to ensure we definitely have enough tape to work with. Also, I will allow extra time in planning, to go back and re-record if need be.

To conclude, if I can use all five of this skills when making my music video, I believe it will make a professional looking music video, and keep the audience interested throughout.