Ideas for interesting use of cinematography, editing and mise en scene

The main focus for making the video will be the editing. The video will be made up of lots of overlaid clips which will be edited with different effects and filters. Some visual effects may also be added in After Effects (if we're allowed to use it), or animated bits made in flash. We will use a range of transitions between clips, including different flashes, blurs and cuts (but no star wipes). Clips will be filmed using a handheld camera some of the time and a tripod the rest of the time - this is to give us a range of clips that will fit different parts of the song (e.g. a slow, quiet part of the song will be need still clips). Different objects will be filmed from different angles - this will allow me to made shots of single objects more dynamic and break them up by cutting between different views. The mise en scene will be slightly odd and surreal. All of the clips will be filmed outside (most in some kind of wooded area, avoiding urban landscapes). Clips will include trees, shots of leaves and other outside things, old and broken things (e.g. all machinery) and anything odd or out of place.

Conventions of your genre and how you are going to present these conventions.

One convention of electronic music videos is the use of green screens to create a sense of unrealism. One way in which this could be achieved would be to film a person within the music video standing in front of a green screen and then use software to put the person into a unrealistic context. For example if Craig was to stand in front of a green screen then software would allow us to give the audience the perception that he is floating, whereas in reality he is on the ground.

Another Convention of Electronic music videos is the use of lighting to create specific moods within the video. One way this could be achieved is by having natural light in the music video. This would give the video a happy tone which in most cases would fit the upbeat tone of an electronic music video.

One way in which we are going to interpret conventions within our music video is  have Craig stand in front of the green screen located inside the music studio and using software we would be able to create a scenario which is unreal but believable by the audience.

Notes on who your target audience will be and their expectations

The song 'Plain Sight' by My Great ghost was released in january 2012 for free download through Bandcamp. Our target audience is likely to be people aged 15-24 because the song is electronic and very contemporary and this is the age range that is most likely to find the song online. Our target audience for the video will likely be the same demographic.

Since the song 'Plain Sight' is an electronic song, the audience may be expecting surrealism as portrayed in videos such as 'Cars' by Gary Numan and productions by 'The Prodigy'. Some examples of such videos would be 'Firestarter' and 'Breathe' which both use abnormal circumstances in very normal locations.

Examples of real videos that have influenced you

This is an unofficial video for the song "The Moment" by Goldhouse. It influenced by ideas stylistically.

Initial music video ideas

• Chiddy Bang - Fresh Like Us
• Damien Rice - The professor & La File Danse
• Daughtry - One Last Chance
• My Great Ghost - Plain Sight
• Pink - Why did I ever Like You
• Starboy Nathan - See You again
• Chamillionaire & Paul wall  - Weather man
• Cheryl Cole - Boys
• Craig David - Smoothed Out
• One Night Only - Stay at Home
• Rita ora - Love and War
• Saturday - Ed Sheeran

We listened to all the tracks and chose the three video ideas we had come up that we liked the best.

1. My Great Ghost - Plain Sight
2. Starboy Nathan - See You again
3. One Night Only - Stay at Home

1. This could be done with lots of clips of things overlaid. Things could include trees, shots of leaves and other outside things (maybe a bird?), old things (particularly rusty machinery and stuff), and anything odd or out of place. Selected lines would be lipsynced to and their clips would be overlaid on top as well. Lipsynce shots will probably be extreme close ups of the bottom half of peoples faces (so we don't see their eyes).

2. Could do something with stop motion. Maybe someone lying on the floor and stuff moving around them.

3. Following a guy walking around outside, lipsyncing.

We're going to pitch the first idea.

Digipak Research

Digipaks are a style of CD and DVD packaging.

Digipaks are usually square, with each panel measuring about 5.5" X 0.25" X 5". The average number of panes is 4 - 6.

Digipaks are typically used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums.

Digipaks contain one of more CDs (often a bonus CD only available with pack), a tack list, information about the band or artist and sometimes some extras such as a poster or limited edition posters.


An examples of a digipak:

Peer assessment task for group S1-14

Magazine Advert For Album: The magazine advert has been well edited, however the text is hard to read against the background. Some more information, such as a release date, would have been good to add.

Auter (Director) Analysis: A brief overview of the Director is given which is good. We don't know which videos you looked at as they're not linked in the post. you also didn't talk about any of the videos you watched specifically.

Peer Assessment S1-17

History of the music video: 

Pros:
- Very informative
- Constant comparisons being made
- Neatly laid out

Cons:
- Be specific (Camera Angles used? How they use it? etc)
- Use more images
- Not enough points being made

Magazine Advert for the Album: 

Pros:
- Has all the requirements
- Easy to read
- Conform to the retro style

Cons:
- Some parts aren't clear enough
- Doesn't suit the artist (Colour)

Goodwin Analysis: 

Pros:
- Good amount of examples (Images)
- Consistent amount of work

Cons:
- Different sized photographs make the layout a little messy
- Would be worth adding criticism when talking about the video
- Expand on points made

Individual Post - 

None found

Auteur Analysis: 

Pros:
- Added examples of what they are analyzing and talking about (videos)
- Neatly laid out

Cons:
- Not said enough about what makes the director an auteur
- Expand on points made

Analysis of 2 abstract videos: 

None found

Analyzing two student videos

The first student video I watched was one from last year. The music video demonstrated characteristics from its genre (hip hop) by the style it was filmed and edited, and also the filming locations (urban areas, including the underground and a skate park).
It was hard to distinguish whether the lyrics matched the visuals, but from what we could decipher, they didn’t.
There was a definite relationship between the music and the visuals. The music style is very urban and the visuals reflected this nicely.
There were only a handful of artist close ups in the video. The majority of the video was more of a montage of clips.

The second student video I looked at was a video for the song ‘Sitting, Waiting, Wishing’ by Jack Johnson. The video was by the group 13R2-22 from last year.
The genre of the music is folk rock. The video was almost completely grey scale which matches the darker, gloomier style of the music.

The relationship between the lyrics and the video is amplifying. The darker effects on the video match the depressed, slow music.

The video follows the story of a mime who is constantly trying to impress a girl who's ignoring him. This matches the lyrics of the song perfectly.

Auteur Analysis

We watched 3 music videos:

- Sky's the Limit by Notorious B.I.G.

- Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim

- Buddy Holly by Weezer

Although all the videos were for different artists with different styles, all three of this music videos were directed by Spike Jonze.

Sky's the Limit

The main theme of the song and video was being successful and rich, and more importantly achieving your dreams. This was shown in the lyrics as well as in the mise en scene of the video. The two main characters of the video are dressed in fancy clothing, driving a flash car and living in a big mansion. This definitely matches the music style; slow rap.



In the video, all of the people have been 'replaced' with kid lookalikes. This could be linked to the theme of success and achieving your dreams by the idea that this is something you dream about when you're young, or it could be because the success has made the characters 'childish'.

Weapon of Choice

The main theme of the music seems to be being powerful and successful. The video matches this theme with the location (a high end shop) and the costume (the man in the video is wearing an expensive looking suit). The visuals match the style of the music exactly. The music is quite fast and dancy and pretty upbeat. In the video, a man is shown dancing and leaping around in time to the music.



Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly is a song by the rock band Weezer. The song is a love song. The band members are shown performing on stage - a common trait of rock music videos. The music video is set in Arnold's Drive-In diner from the show Happy Days and features characters of the show in audience. The band members are shown as being very 'cool' and popular in the diner.

Goodwin Michael Jackson's Thriller Anayalsis

1) The clothing that Michael Jackson wears is bright orange, this is very stereotypical and common for pop videos, this is because the music itself is very bright and therefore this is reflected in the mise en scene.

2) The lyric 'This is Thriller' creates a relationship between the lyric and the visuals because the music video is located in a graveyard as well as dark gloomy streets and Michael is surrounded by Zombies and Monsters. This is a very stereotypical environment for a thriller or horror film.

3) The clothing of Michael in this video manages to show a relationship between the visuals and the music within Michael Jackson's Thriller. This is shown when Michael transforms into a zombie. In this scenes his clothes are torn and dark which reflects on the tone on the music video its self.

4) When Michael Jackson transforms into a zombie a variety of close ups are used. The close ups of the synchronized dancing scene helps to create a Motif of the music video as well as creating a stereotype for Michael Jackson himself. The close ups of the dancing scene made the audience concentrate on the dancers this is one of the major components that made the video a worldwide success.

5) We see Michael Jackson looking like a zombie. By doing this the girl in the video is the only 'normal' person there and this empathizes her beauty and makes her stand out. We can take this as evidence that the girls role is to make the zombies seem even uglier, however her role in the music video may be to make the zombies seem more horrific and frighting as a girl is generally considered vulnerable and easily intimidated and this is displayed to us in the music video through the girls horrific screams, even when they're only watching a movie. Throughout the music video there aren't many sexual references, this may be because in the 1980's they didn't have to much sex in media. However, when she gets out of her cinema seat to walk outside we see Michael eyeing her up which could tell us that there are actually small sexual references in this clip.

6) There is a constant reference to thriller and horror films throughout Michael Jackson's thriller throughout the mise en scene and the lyrics used. Also the ending of 'Thriller' uses the 'just a dream' analogy which is very cliche and stereotypical in a majority of Thriller and horror films e.g. Shutter Island.

Magazine advert

History of music Videos comparison

A comparison between 'Hanging on the Telephone' and 'Stay Awake'

History of music from longroadmediastudies