Analyse work of previous student

Mise en Scene, Shots angles and movement, editing and sound. 

The first music video I have chosen to deconstruct is a students take on the song "Fit But You Know It - The Streets". The video that the student made for this song focuses heavily on Mise en Scene, with the main character dressed in a flat cap and mod type jacket, and this look gives off a "Jack the lad" vibe which fits the genre of the song well, which is alternative, almost sounding like spoken word in some places. The props used in the video include cans of lager, cigarettes and other objects which make the character appear like he is a bit of a rebel against society. The girl he is after in the video has heavy make up on and wild hair, and the clothing appear tatty but actually fits the alternative look, so the overall presentation of the girl fits in with the genre of music in the video. The setting of the video is placed around a run down town in Britain, so the lager and the dress code work well to create a general picture of a "rough and ready" type of video.

The video uses a variety of editing techniques, including jump cuts and fast motion. The fast motion is used when the main character is sitting in the pub with a pint, and the video shows him quickly drinking it. This effect works well because it lets the audience further know about the character, and from this we can tell that he does not hang around and is the type that always has an empty glass which is ready to be refilled. There are a lot of close ups on the subjects in the video and one is used where the main character is seen singing directly to the camera like he is adressing the audience and telling us about this girl which he is so infatuated with. The is not a lot of moments in the video where one of the characters is not doing something; the man always wants to be around the girl trying to win her over and the woman is always trying to avoid the advances of the man. Most of the shots during the video are stabalised with a tripod, like when the audience are being adressed. However, when there are shots of pints being drunk or just the character stood looking at the camera, then there is no tripod and the camera is hand held, which gives the view that you are an onlooker watching the events unfold in front of you.

Sound in the music video is non-diegetic, which the main character lip syncing to the music. There is not any diegetic sound during the video, however this is effective because the song chosen is close to being spoken word, so the story is told without the need of additional sound.

This is a piece of work which if I could achieve similar quality I would be more than happy. The wide range of camera shots and angles along with the song lyrics paint the picture for the audience clearly of what is going on.

History of the music video

1894 - First example of an illustrated song.

 

1926 - Arrival of "Talkies".

 

1930 - The 1930's saw the introduction of musical films.

 

1930 - "Screen Songs" introduced.

 

1930 - Ancestor of the music video. many artists featured in dramatized performances of hit songs.

 

1956 - The ride of popular music was tied with the rise of television as the format exposed new stars.

 

1964 - The Beatles set the stage for the modern music video with the motion picture "A Hard Days Night".

 

1965 - The Beatles use promotional films, and they film 10 films which are used to promote album relases. This kicks of video promotion.

 

1981 - MTV Launched and a 24 hour broadcast means that music videos begin to play a central role in music marketing by the mid 1980's.

 

1983 - Michael Jackson's most successful and influential of all time music video Thriller, was released.

 

1985 - The launch of VH1 showed softer music and catered for an older demographic, widening the audience of videos.

 

1995 - "Screm" by The Jacksons cost $7million dollars, which was the most expensive music video ever.

 

 

2005 - YouTube allows people to watch videos online. New artists see popularity rise through the internet.

 

2005 - Allows music videos to be downloaded from the internet. After 20 days of iTunes, there was one million downloads made. 

 

2010 - Lady Gaga's total music video views reaches one billion. Her song, "Poke Face" saw 375 million views alone.

 

2010 - The number of music videos which have been viewed online reached 34 billion, with the viewer count reaching 183 million views.

 

 

Research and identify purpose of chosen texts

There are two main purposes of a music video - to promote and to be artistic. The more modern music videos appear to be aimed prodominantly at the younger generation. They feature artists girating all over the place, which suggests the videos are more aimed at boys, but the female artist girating is often a "role model" to girls. Music videos also are quite commercialised, with many of them advertising products. For example, some artists will take a drink of Coca-Cola halfway through the video, not making the advertising blatent, but more subliminal.

The genre of music I have chosen to focus on is alternative, as I feel that chosing this genre will open up a whole new range of original ideas. In the genre of alternative, the music can range from the very strange to the very normal, so choosing the right song which will give me good achieveable ideas is a great place to start from. Mumford and Sons popularity has boomed in the past year or two, however they are still classified as alternative. 

The brief I have chosen for Year 13 is.......

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a digipak for the album's release;
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

I have chosen to create a music promo video, with a digipak and a magazine advertisement for the digipak. The reason for this choice is because I have a real passion for music and listen to a wide variety of it, from Alternative music to dance music, form electro music to rock. I enjoy spending time on various video sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion watching music videos from around the world, so I feel that I have good knowledge of different styles of music, and different techniques and camera angles used in music videos. The use of a fisheye lens is quite common in a rap/hip-hop video because the artist can rap down into the camera, and the curvature of the lens makes the artist look bigger. Another skill I have acquired from watching music videos is looking at the mise-en-scene in them; the types of clothing worn by the artist, the type of setting the music video is in and the type of expressions used on the faces of the artists. For example, if an artist is wearing a long black cape and has lots of piercings in the opening shot, the audience can start to understand the genre the music will be, and the type of person who the artist is.

From Year 12, I have learnt about magazine publishing, so creating a digipak for my music video should be not easy, but I have a basic understanding of what magazines about music look like, after creating one for my Year 12 coursework. Creating an advert and a digipak are quite similar in a sense that both involve graphic design. They both need to be attractive to the audiences eye, and look like something they would want to look at regardless of the genre of music that they are into.