We decided it would be useful to analyse Beyonce's 'Drunk In Love' video futher, as we know we want to film by the beach at Weston Super Mare, and use waves to open our narrative. This video is very similar to what we want to do. However, there will be some differences as we want to film during the day, and will only use 3 cameras and tripods as there will only be two camerawomen. This means there will not be as much detail in our video, but we were happy with that, and don't want to copy Beyonce's video.
The opening of this video is amazing, and we loved the detail on the waves, and hope that we can recreate detail like this. To make our video more original and specific to our chosen genre, we will film in colour and during the day, and hopefully have the sun reflect off of the sea to create the same amount of detail, just in a different way. However, we will not film so close to the waves as we don't want to risk damaging any of the equipment we will be taking. As well, we want to use the natural sound of the waves, rather than recreate it in the editing studio as we want to keep as much of the atomsphere as we can.
XO
This video was where we got the basis of our idea from, as we loved the feel and look of the video.
We knew we wanted to film on the rides at Weston Pier, similar to the ones seen in the video at Coney Island. Obviously, the rides at Weston will not be as good as those at Coney Island, and Beyonce films at night so the lights are more dramatic and detailed due to their expensive eqipment. However, we will try to create an exciting stmosphere and do the best we can.
We must also take into consideration that it will be hard to keep the cameras still and steady when moving around on the dodgems, and the other rides as well.
]In the end, we managed to get a good shot of Alina in the bumper cars, with me and Amy in one car, and Alina in the other. Whilst Amy drove, I tried to film. We liked the shot we got in the end as Alina is clearly having a lot of fun and we really liked how natural the shot looked. It's very similar to this one of Beyonce.
We also gave Alina a camera to film as she drove around, but she stoppped almost straight away as we all became very worried about the camera getting dropped and damaged.
In the end, we got lots of shots on the Pier that we were really happy with. You can see that we were inspired by this video, but managed to come up with many original ideas as well.
After our band had let us down, we had to quickly come up with a new idea, and found a copy right free song on the internet, with the problem that it was only a minute and a half long. We agreed that, after editing it to make it an extra 45 seconds, we would still need a narrative to make our video a long enough length. This decision lead to many decisions needing to be made.
My first question was whether we wanted to have a voiceover narrative or not. Before making a definite decision, I found some videos that I found inspiring which I knew had narratives at the beginning.
Here is a list of a few pop or indie pop videos that I knew with a narrative we could study to try and find common features and aspects, and what we should include.
This Lana Del Rey videos is one of my favourites, as it tells the story of the song imaginatively and always captivates me whenever I watch it. However, it is 10 minutes which is way too long for what we want to do.
Another Lana Del Rey video we looked at was 'National Anthem' which had a really interesting twist to the way narratives are normally done as there is narrative at the beginning, middle and at end of the video. The purpose of this video is more than to entertain, which is the purpose of all the other videos we looked at. Instead, the purpose was to recreate a historical event (JFK shooting) in an abstract and original way. However, this video is also too long for what we wanted to do.
Some more stereotypical videos with narratives that I found were Taylor Swift and Beyonce. Taylor Swift's 'I Know You Were Trouble' is very similar to Lana Del Rey's narrative in Ride as they are both speaking in a voiceover with music in the background, and both of the narratives link very closely with the lyrics and the name of the song. As well, both videos focus on the artist throughout the video and the narrative, which made it easy to identify the artist and helped us realise that whatever we decide we must include the artist as much as possible. Beyonce's 'Drunk In Love' is also similar to this.
The artist I found most inspiring when we sat down to brainstorm what to do for our narrative was Sam Smith. He uses narratives in many of his videos such as 'Money On My Mind' and 'I'm Not The Only One'. When watching 'Money on My Mind', we discovered it was different to the other videos we had watched, as there was no background music in the narrative, only the sounds of the city, and we really liked this aspect of the video. The sounds also linked with the setting of the video as well as the lyrics of the song, so the video was still similar in some ways to the other videos we looked at. Most of all, I loved the way the editing made the video seem like it a collection or a collage of images, and thought it created a great vibe and reflected the mood of the song amazingly. I loved watching it, and I think that's why it was so inspiring. From then on we knew we wanted to create a similar sort of video. The casino lights and the city vibes were something that we wanted to recreate in our own way. This is when Amy came up with the idea of driving to Weston Super Mare to film on the beach and on the pier. Then, I thought of a video which had filmed in a similar kind of setting, Beyonce's 'XO'. We both loved it, and loved the idea of the dodgems and filming someone going on rides.
We decided that we definitely didn't want a voiceover to be used in the narrative as there was a risk of it sounding cheesy, and may make the video too much like a pop video and wouldn't fit with the tone of the rest of the video. My favourite openings were both by Sam Smith, and took inspiration from simply having the city sounds to open the video. I loved this because it sounded raw and honest and real, and is a more stereotypical opening for an indie-pop video, in my opinion. However, as we want to film on the beach, we are going to try and capture as many shots of the sea and the sound of the waves as we can, as this is a more original idea and means we're not copying any other established artist. It is also an idea we are both very excited to film.
We also decided we didn't want any background music as it was stressful enough trying to find a song at the last minute without copyright, we didn't think we'd have much luck a second time around, and didn't have enough time to create a piece of music ourselves. This decision was kind of made for us by circumstance, but luckily we were both very happy with that anyway.
The only thing left to decide on was who to ask to feature throughout the video, as this was a common feature in every video we watched. I volunteered my sister as she is a budding artist and I knew she'd definitely be up for it. As well, we agreed that we wanted to keep a stereotypical feature of indie-pop videos, meaning that we wanted the artist to be filmed with an instrument, preferably a guitar as it's easy to transport. Luckily my sister has several guitars and was very willing to bring one along to use.
Our first problem, likely along with many more to come, was our band. After letting us down on several occasions when we had planned to filmed, the band wouldn't even send us a recorded song so that we could film a concept video, and this is when we decided to go and pursue other options. Luckily, Amy knew another band who perform and sing in the sae style that we wanted, so we could still film our original idea. However, they did not have a recorded song already, and we sadly didn't have time to wait for them to book a recording studio.
Finally, we decided to look on the internet for copy right free songs in the genre of indie pop, and managed to find one that inspired us and that we thought we could create a really good concept video for. The problem with the song is that it was only one and a half minutes long, so we had to edit it to make it longer, and will add in a narrative at the beginning to make the length of the song acceptable. The narrative will also make it easier to film a concept based video, rather than a performance as we can make a story out of it. We have finally set a date to film, and have decided to film on Weston Super Mare beach, and pray that the weather is nice for it! Our main idea involves the narrative including an establishing shot of the beach and the sea, along with multiple cuts into other scenes such as on the rides/ in the town centre. We are also planning on down some in-car shots as to create more of an indie feel to the video.
Before we went filming, we decided to have a look at at some artists promotional posters so that we could get an idea for the layout and general look of posters and adverts for later on in the editing stage. As well, we thought it would be useful as it will help us have a clearer idea of what photos and shots to take whilst we are out on location.
Bruno Mars is a very recognisable artists simply because he is so popular in the music industry. Most of his recent videos have a recurring feature, which is the feature of men dressed up in monkey costumes, which is likely why a gorilla is features in the centre of the image. The repetition of this feature is consistant with Steve Neale's theory about repetition within genres is what makes them recognisable. The rest of the poster looks like it has been styled to look retro and vintage, which reflects the sound of his voice and the jazzy pop music that he makes. This is definitely an element that I want to include in our poster as I think it is really important to for the poster to reflect the music so it is obvious for the target audience what kind of music they will be getting if they buy his album or single. The images reflect the genre through the visual use of the old fashioned microphone and jukebox in the background. The vintage look is a very popular one amongst teenagers at the moment so this has been very well marketed. This complies with Andrew Goodwin's theory a relationship between the visuals and the music. Normally applied to music videos, I think this can also work with this promo poster as anyone who is familiar with Bruno Mars' music will be able to recognise the similarity between the retro image on the poster and his old fashioned styled pop music.We also noticed that there were a few images down the bottom to let the audience know where they can buy tickets for the tour, as well a the artists recording company and who the artwork is by. This is an important element of promotional posters and is something we must include if we want ours to look as realistic as possible.It is a very stereotypical pop poster as Bruno is the centre of the image, and the writing is in bright colours and eye catching.
Like the Bruno Mars poster, the band feature in the centre of the poster and are the main focus. They are a very popular band which is likely why they have done this. They have also tried to make their poster look retro as it has a look like it is the cover of an old vinyl record. This is due to the slightly faded colours and the writing on the outer colour. The colour is soft, which could represent the type of music they have made as they are an indie pop band, again there is relationship between the music and the visuals which can be seen in Goodwin's theory. The Strokes clearly have a recognisable brand writing which is used on this poster, as well as their album and anything else related to their album 'Room on Fire'. It is interesting that symbols are also featured down the bottom of the poster in regard to their recording company. What differs from the Bruno Mars poster however, is the fact that they include a review and a rating from a high reputation music magazine, to try and promote them and convince their target audience that this album is worth buying.
The Kooks have a slightly different layout to the other posters, as their writing on the poster is only on the left of the poster. This is a style feature specific to this artist and is one way which makes The Kooks promo material so recognisable. Like the previous artists studied, they have their own style of writing which can be seen on all material they release, which is a branding technique. As this feature has come up so many times, it is clear that this is a motif we must comply to to create a successful promotional poster. The setting is important in this poster as they are by a small door, assumably a stage door or the entrance to a small music venue, which mirrors the type of music that they make, which is indie. However, they are quite a lighthearted band which is not necessarily portrayed on this poster as the colours are quite dark and there is minimal lighting. Another difference from the previous posters analysed is the fact that they have a release date on the bottom of the poster to let fans know when they can buy their upcoming album. This is why they have such recognisable features on the poster as these link to the album cover, such as the writing and the fact that the band feature on the front. This is another recurring feature which I think we will use on our poster, to make it a typical and recognisable indie pop promo poster.
MGMT's poster is very different from the others I have studied. They are a rock band, which may be why. Like the others, they have their band name at the top of the poster clearly in a font which is consistant with the rest of the material they have produced. Their poster is very vibrant and uses lots of bright colours, which isn't something often assosiated with indie pop. However, I do like the use of black bold writing over the colourful multicoloured background. It is effective as it is so eyecatching and is sure to attract the attention of their target audience. I have also noticed that this doesn't feature any of the logos or symbols or writing that the other indie/pop posters do which I have analysed, which means that we will definitely need to include some to make pur poster look as much like an authentic indie pop poster as possible.
As a class, we started by analysing the Gorillaz 'Demon Days' album as it is a very good example of genre and concept-based work. There is a clear recurring theme throughout this album, in their inserts and adverts, which is their unique and specific cartoon styled art work. The genre for this album is alternative pop.
The front cover of this album is noticeably simple, yet still conforms to typical pop branding as all the members of the band feature on it. Because they are shown as cartoons, not only is it a unique idea, but follows the alternative part of the genre they follow. This cartoon monkey style is repeated throughout their videos, posters and CD artwork. This makes the artist very recognisable to the audience, and the repetition, according to Steve Neale, is what makes a music video so successful. It also fulfils the trait of expectation, another feature which makes an artist or brand successful.
This is the first pull out image in the CD case, which follows the style that is on the cover, an example of them following the system of expectation.
Unlike the cover, this has more publicity as the group name and one of their songs features obviously on picture. It's cleverly done as the band name is written like it's graffiti, again following a theme of rebellion which features throughout the album.
Again, a system of expectation is fulfilled as there is the expected band member clearly in centre of this image. The name of the song 'noodle' is featured in foreign language, which may to attract a wider audience or, more likely, this is to make them seem cool or original, as this is a style no other british or american band has.
This is the poster that comes in the CD, which is slightly different from the others yet still conforms to the theme the band have. It shows their 'demon' side, linking to the name of the album.
This is also shown by the image on the front which is a demon monkey, which links as well to the writing on the bottom. 'Fire coming out of the monkey's head' is represented through the smoke coming from a cigarette the monkey is smoking, which continues the theme of rebellion seen throughout the images in the album. It is a very original idea and makes the band recognisable and makes them stand out.
Genre is a term that can be split up into different categories based on characteristics that they share. For Example; settings, storyline's, narratives, characters and themes. I will be investigating genre in reference to music videos.
Steve Neale
Steve Neale states that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference' and 'genres are not systems, they are processes of systemisation'. He believes that there was a system of expectation and that by using own knowledge and applying conventions of the genre, the audience should be able to infer the narrative and storyline of the music video. He also declares that difference is essential to the economy of genre, mere repetition would not attract the audience.
The band Kodaline are a key example of the music genre that we want to create. They have a very individual style and genre to their videos, which matches the indie-pop genre they are part of. I am going to analyse the video 'High Hopes', which, like many of their videos, is story based in which the artists do not feature in themselves. I will analyse this video using the concept of difference and repetition.
Rick Altman
Genres have characteristic features that are known to and recognised by audiences. Audiences develop an understanding that certain expectations will be fulfilled and they may find pleasure in predicting what will happen next. Producers of generic videos depend on immediate communication with the audience. Easily recognisable features are particularly effective in connecting with an audience. This can prove problematic as audiences need to know what to expect from a generic video but some variation is required as you don't want the audience to be bored or dissatisfied.
Altman suggests a semantic/syntactic approach: Semantic means considering the conventions of the genre that an audience can relate to such as character or performers, locations, props and camera shots/movements. Syntactic means the type of narrative an audience would expect from the genre.
Altman talks of a contract existing between the genre producers and their audience, with the audience having certain expectations from this genre and the producers needing to meet their expectations.
We did some preliminary research as it's incredibly useful to give us a brief indication of what our typical audience would want. We decided on the following questions as they weren't too specific so it would give the participants a broad answer and help us to specify it to help our project.
Overall we think that they were a good range of questions as they covered everything we needed to know and this then allows us to go on and plan out our own project.
Do you like watching music videos for entertainment?
Would you watch the music video if you haven't heard the song before?
Would you watch the music video for the artist or the music?
We decided it would be useful to analyse Beyonce's 'Drunk In Love' video futher, as we know we want to film by the beach at Weston Super Mare, and use waves to open our narrative. This video is very similar to what we want to do. However, there will be some differences as we want to film during the day, and will only use 3 cameras and tripods as there will only be two camerawomen. This means there will not be as much detail in our video, but we were happy with that, and don't want to copy Beyonce's video.
The opening of this video is amazing, and we loved the detail on the waves, and hope that we can recreate detail like this. To make our video more original and specific to our chosen genre, we will film in colour and during the day, and hopefully have the sun reflect off of the sea to create the same amount of detail, just in a different way. However, we will not film so close to the waves as we don't want to risk damaging any of the equipment we will be taking. As well, we want to use the natural sound of the waves, rather than recreate it in the editing studio as we want to keep as much of the atomsphere as we can.
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