Fay Yaxley's BTEC Media blog

In this essay I will be writing about the style, conventions and the techniques used in music videos and how each genre of music can differ using certain methods of creating a video. I will find examples for each style of music video types and how they relate to what I am talking about.

In concert and 'as live' footage

In a concert/ 'as live' video the footage is either from a live concert the artist/ band has performed at and or the video created is made to look like a live concert but it can have a story that will run along side the performance.
This live performance is from Katy Perry's from 'The Prismatic World Tour' of her song 'Dark Horse'. She emerges on stage from a rising platform from under the stage on a horse that is controlled by people underneath it. Compared to the official music videos she sounds quite different performing live. On stage she has a band playing the song at the back of the stage. So she has her song also playing because sometimes she isn't singing, the track is singing instead of her. The dance she and the back up dancers are doing is the one from the official video.

Here we can see Katy coming up on the people controlled horse. As she is coming up it cuts to a mid shot view of the audience.

Then cuts to a long shot of most of the audience and then cuts back to Katy on stage with the horse about to move.

Here we can see her back up singers and the band playing the song.

After some mid shots and wide shots we go back to a long shot.

Then is cuts back to Katy on stage and going down a lift platform under the stage. Then on the screen it has the part of the song sung by Juicy J

Here it looks like Katy has moved under the stage during the Juicy J part and come back up at the very front platform which is part of the stage.

Then near the end the performance it goes to an extreme long shot.

Narrative and interpretive

Narrative music videos will normally have a story created from the lyrics but can also not use the lyrics. The videos can help make the meaning of the lyrics stronger and then the viewer gets the story of the song better. The song lyrics can be interpreted differently by people but normally the video created is there to make the song have the same meaning to most people.
In this music video by Katy Perry 'Part of me' it follows Katy's character who sees her partner flirting with one his co-worker and she goes in a breaks it off. Then we follow her in going into the marine army and training to make herself strong and to say she doesn't need him to keep herself going.

Here is where she spots the notice to join the Marines and she appears to be happy.

She deiced to cut all of her hair off and take off all of her nice clothing and gets into jeans and binds her chest and puts a jacket on.

From this point on she works on training and becoming stronger.

This is a memory of when she was with her partner using a water gun and then we see her using a real gun.

Her partner sent her a letter and then she burns it as she wants to forget that part of her past.

At the end of the video we see her with a strong look on her face showing that she can now take on anything.

Surrealist/absurdist

The surreal/ absurdist videos are quite unconventional as the story of the video doesn't normally link with what is being sung by the artist/band. This can sometimes throw off the audience as the video doesn't link with what the lyrics are saying. These videos can consist of live action and computer animation.
Here I chose to look at Lady GaGa's 'Born This Way'. This video is surreal as it sort of links with the song but the imagery is quite odd as you can tell somethings are done by computers. For the first two minutes or so there is no song but just images and Lady GaGa tells a little story about what is going on in the beginning of the video. Then it goes into the song. The colours within this video are dark but the colours of the clothing appear to be quite light because of where the light is hitting the people or the object within the video but just enough to keep the darkness needed. Within the video she is trying to put across the message that everyone should be treated equally and they can help the way the was born.

At the beginning we see a unicorn which doesn't serve much purpose with in the video but I think is there to try and put a message across video.

Here there has been used a mirror so left will look the same as right to make it look strange and to capture the audiences attention.

In this image we see GaGa a the bottom with loads of other copies of her head round her. I think here the idea she wanted to put across is that people will copy a style so much that they go and try to look like them as much as possible.

In this screen shot you can see the different skin colours and this part of the song she is singing about the skin colours.

Impressionist

These types of videos try and capture a certain mood more than the proper meaning. This means that the video will mostly really arty. The video element have soft lighting, the flow of the colours and soft edges.
In this video 'Somebody That I Used to Know' sung by Gotye it uses very soft lighting and the colours within the video are quite dull as shades they are light pinks (skin colours), grays and greens as the colours are the background. The colours look like they are watercolour paints or acrylics. Gotye and Kimbra the two singers in this video appear to be completely naked and during the video they also get paint over them both. When the paint goes on Gotye it looks like they have used stop motion to capture the strokes of paint going on. This also happens with Kimbra but its show the paint getting removed this looks like that they had painted her up first and recorded it going forward but when put into the video it has been reversed. The background is also done by the stop motion.

This is from the beginning of the video where the is just a white/ light gray background with Gotye standing out against it with him having dark hair.

As the video goes on the background keeps getting paint added until it is completely covered then it moves onto Gotye and Kimbra.

Here at this point we do see the paint slowly go on and how he blends the background.

Both of their bodies being painted helps also create an allusion. what makes them stand out is their hairs as they are both dark.

Intertextual: Synergy,Allusion, Pastiche,Parody and Homage

Intertextual video can relate to other subjects. Sound tracks from movies can either have footage of the artist/ band playing the song or have footage from the film to make up the video for the purpose of synergy. Allude base videos are normally on either a text from the media, and on historical/ cultural events or people. Pastiche videos try and imitate other artists/bands style and parody will mock/ make fun of the original lyrics by changing them and the video. A homage videos will pay respect to the influences they have used and in a way saying thank you.
A artist that does parody song is 'Weird Al' Yankovic. He also does voice on children's TV shows. The song I have chose by Weird Al is his parody of the song 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. He renamed it 'Tacky'. In the song he sings about the some tacky fashion senses and some of the odd things people take pictures of. Each chorus has different lyrics and each of the verses had different subject as well. The video also does mock the music video for 'Happy' as it is done in the style of it.

Original song:

Parody song:

The video starts off with Weird Al singing. To show what the song is saying eg tacky clothing. the background here is quite plain so it make the clothing stand out.

In the video it then moves into a building that is also plain which helps make his clothes stand out. The clothing style that he is wearing at the beginning of the song is the stereotypical disco clothing.

In this Video there is a few famous face such as
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family) and Jack Black ( School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda).

Micheal Jackson's song 'They Don't Care About Us' is a type allusion music video. It talks about the racial hatred towards black people and how the people in power seem to attack coloured people more and give them harsher punishments to them than white.
This song has two music videos one that is filmed in a area of Brazil and on that is based in a prison.
In the song he is dancing around with the people within the video to show that he doesn't care about their race and to try and give them a voice.

At the Beginning we see Micheal exit out of a building with the police standing outside with two of them staring at him.

In the Brazil version the show the different races are shown using drums and banging out the beat of the song.

Here he is standing and resting his elbow on the police and it looks like he is trying to get up in his face while he is singing.

In the prison version it has a message at the beginning of the video saying it will not degrade any race.

Here we get show some imagery of someone getting beat up and in the picture below the police look like they are just watching.

In the video this is the first time Micheal appears and he is in side of a cell with TV's paying events where that has been fights because of race.

Then it shows people in jail uniforms sitting around tables eating food off trays. T

hey also bang in time with the beat at some points.

Here in this point of the video there is more image showing of when the the KKK was around.

Here we see Micheal spinning around which the images in the background look like they are on a green screen. The images of are war and fights.

After the the imagery it cuts back to the cell.

The lyrics say ' Some things in life they just don't wanna see But if Martin Luther was living He wouldn't let this be, no, no' when these are sung , Martin is in the background

At the end of the song Micheal appears to be on the stair case that is in his Brazil video. I think this is to help link the videos together.

Animation (Stop motion, digital)

Animation in music videos can either be the whole video, a section of it or half of it. It can be stop motion animation, or full animation.Depending again on they genre of music the animation style can change.
The song 'One More Time' by Daft Punk is full animated in the the style of retro anime. in the song the band is made to look like they are performing the song to the audiences. For this animation Daft Punk worked with Kazuisa Takenouchi and Leiji Matsumoto. The music video features the scenes that were used to help form part of the anime film 'Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem' The colours in the video are really bright which helps make the audiences get a positive feeling from it. There isn't much lyrics with in the song but the music that makes up for that.

The video starts off with a beam of light heading towards the planet the song is getting performed on.

In the video about 0.12 seconds in the music starts to fade in with the video giving a slow pan down.

Here we first see the band for the first time with the person playing on the piano sings the line 'One More Time'.

In the video we can see the audience in the video. The art style really goes well with the song as it gives off a retro feeling.

When there a beat of the base drum in the song the music the animation would be in beat with in.

In the video the band music is also playing round all of the TV one there planet.

Lip-Sync

Lip sync videos are where the actor/ actress will be miming what the artist/band are singing and so it will line up and it will look like the actor/ actress is singing the song. This can be done in slow motion footage but a normal paced song.
The song 'Finding Mr.Midnight' by Random Encounters is lip-synced. The song is sung by Sparrow Rayne. In the video she it is made to looks like she is singing the song. In the behind the scene/ bloopers they have the song playing so that she could sing along and get the mouthing right and so it syncs up with the music when editing.

In the screen shot I have take I have tried to show the mouth movement she make when singing.

Cutting to a beat

This is when a the video cuts to the beat of the song. This helps in the editing stage as you make sure each shot ends on a beat. This can be used to emphasises the lyrics and make the viewer more engage to watch. It can be either cut on a obvious beat or a quieter beat that isn't so obvious.
In the song 'Sexy and I know it' by LMFAO the shots cut mostly cut when in the lyric is goes 'Ah...Girl look at that body' and when there is a deeper beat it looks like it cuts as well. Some of the cuts make the camera angle view focused on the speedos they are wearing.

The every first second in the music video it shows the head of the group then it cuts to the feet with them tapping along the beat.

Then it cuts back up to the first group as a mid shot.

From 0:30 to 0:45 second in the song the lyrics 'Ah...Girl look at that body' repeat about 3 times, it cuts roughly when it goes 'Ah...'

From about 0:45 to 0:58 every time the lyrics say 'show it, show it, show it' there is about two cuts between each.

In the lyrics ' I'm in a speedo trying to tan my cheeks(what)' it cut to the group in the speedos laying on their fronts and the back toward the sun.

Then in the lyrics ' this how I roll, come on ladies it's time go We headed to the bar, baby don't be nervous No shoe, no shirt and I still get service.
It cuts when the item is said like the 'No shoes' it to a shot of his feet and then when it goes 'no shirt' it cuts to a shot of his chest.

Then it goes back to the lyrics Ah...Girl look at that body'.

Post-production effects

In post-production a lot can be done with the video to help like adding adding flames in to the video. Normally they could to help attract a new audience. Depending on genre the effect will be different to help suit the music and they style of it.
In Christian Perri's song 'Jar of Heart' what looks like the effects that have been put in to the video are what to be black rose petals falling down at the beginning, the empty jars in each girls chest, the fog/smoke and when there is a kiss there a is a glow which show their souls getting sucked out.

This effect here looks like ink has been dropped into water to to the show an empty jar where her heart would be.

Here we can see the fog/ smoke you can really see what is in the back ground which be made to look thicker. As you can tell she hasn't got sharp edges from the fog she has got soft edges as well as the car.

Here we can see the ink jar effect again with the soul getting sucked out through the mouth. This may not seem clear because of the lighting being quite dull.

Here we can see the other girls who have lost their soul as dancers in the background. when the angle changes they are easier to see

Here we can see her regaining her soul back with the light coming from out if his mouth and the ink jar effect has been used again and the lighting changes and becomes lighter.

Examples of particular effects:

Split screen

In the video sometime there will be multiple part of the screen showing different events or the same but of different views of it. This is the modern equivalent as non-linear edits.
Here in the song 'Doo-Wop (That Thing) by Lauryn Hill it has one left side is New York set in 1967 and then on the right is New York set in 1998. With the video it is a bit hard to see the clear difference in the screen but from the setting you can see the line that divides the two years apart. The left side is showing the late 1960's clothing while the right side is showing present day and the hip-hop style of clothing.

Throughout the whole there is different items to make it apparent what year it is. With the image on the left of this has a comparison on radios from 1967 and 1998.

The clothing within the video you can tell what year each side of the split screen is. The 1967 clothing cover the women more than the 1998 which start to show more skin.

Here it shows how the technology has changed with the video camera and how they used to film in black and white and now have colour.

Chroma Key

Chroma key is where the music video is shot in front of a green screen or on some occasions a blue screen and then in the editing stage the background will be put over the green. The green/blue screen will have to be as flat as you can get it as editing can be a little difficult if there is bumps in the green screen.
In the Eminem song 'Without me' there is elements where Chorma key has been used. You can see this mostly within the background. You can tell this because most shadows that happen when film on the green screen when the background is added in the shadows can get lost as they are a shade of green.

About 40 second we a comic strip part in the video. here this part looks like it has been filmed on green screen as there is no shadow behind the people and there is a black like round them to help stand out.

The E background behind him again is done by the green screen.

Again the background behind is added in as filmed on the green screen. They stand out against the back ground as the lighting on them is placed above them.

The car they are in looks real but is made to look like it is fake.

The cloud and water are added and the 'log' they are standing on is real. and then again down toilet.

Here he is made to look like he is climbing up the side of the building with the city behind added in with his superhero light shining in the sky.

Camera Movements

In videos it is important to show movement as this can create excitement for the viewers to help get them into the song and to help the song move along a a good pace. Movement such as pans, tracking shots, tilts and crab shot would be present in most music video.
In Taylor Swift's 'We are never ever getting back together' there is a lot of moving of the camera from room to room. The movements in the video look mostly like pans but they follow Taylor when she is walking they are more like tracking shots. These movement really help make the music video flow nicely and it makes you want to dive deeper in the song.

At the beginning the camera move in a semi circle motion to the first shot of Taylor.

From the shot of Taylor is does a pan/tracking shot over to the Boyfriend she has just broken up with.

Then it follows them both to the door and pans back over to the living room area to the 'friend' within the video having a party.

Here this shot pans over to the right as the guy in the costume walks with the pan and then it focuses on the car.

The angle here is made to make look like she is laying in bed. She walks away after and it goes back to the 'friends' having a another party.

Camera angles and shot types

With different shot type/ lengths and camera angles directors can create either a certain tone or meaning by what is been shown and how it is positioned. depending on the genre of the video more angles and shot types will be used more over others so they can get the viewer more engrossed in what they are watching and listening to.

Here we have an over the shoulder shot with the foreground slightly out of focus and its main focus on the mini Jessie J.

Here we have a couple of close up shots to show the bullying that Jessie used to get.

in this shot mini Jessie is looking in to the prop camera and she is posing infront of it but it doesn't look front on from that angle.

Here she is meant to look like she has power against her bullies as she uses the fire extinguisher.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is how the lighting, objects, the setting are used and so it helps create the mood and makes it stronger for the viewer. This can help the desire, passion, the anger or whatever mood you get from the song.
With Taylor Swift's song 'Blank Space' I really like the video as the colours are more on the dark side like it is a cloudy day. The song fits really well with the colour scheme used as it tries to create a desire which can drive someone crazy and scare someone off. The clothing with in the video is quite smart as it is set in country house that is got a old vintage feeling to it.

Here Taylor is carving into a trees which is the blank space.

in this part of the videos she thinks that he is texting another girl and she starts to get jealous.

This shows her going crazy and attacking the boyfriends car with a gold club.

Eminem's song 'Just Lose It' sort of makes fun of Micheal Jackson and makes quite a few references to some of his videos. The song has got a sense of humor throughout. The colours through out the video range from being really bright to then quite dark to create atmosphere.