Changes to Music Video Ideas

After listening to the song more and analysing the lyrics we realised that our previous idea which involved the idea of cheating and people breaking up, didn't work with the lyrics of the song. We were going to use quite a negative approach to our music video while the song was quite upbeat and positive. These are the main reasons we changed our idea.

Our new idea is to show the relationships between a variety of different people. Including mother and child relationships, couples and friendships. As we thought that as the song is about feeling close to someone and  how much you love them so we felt that this more positive idea would work better. 

This is the song we are going to be using. It is a cut down version of the song Feel So Close Benny Bassi remix. We chose the remix over the original version because it had a better beat to it and we came up with loads of ideas for this song.

Cutting down song on Garage Band

Because the original song was 5:30, we have cut it down to 3:05 to make it more suitable for us to make a music video with. I used my own initiative to cut the song by using a fade out to make it sound like a proper music track.
Now we have our song we know what we are working with whereas before we wasn't sure how long our song was going to be.

Evaluation of Changed the Way You Kissed Me by Example

The video I am going to evaluate is ‘Changed the way you kissed me’ by Example. I chose this video as it is in the eletro dance genre which is the same genre as the music video we have chose to create as a group. It is obviously this genre as it has the typical stereotype of being mainly performance. The video is aimed at people who party all the time aged about 19 to 25. This music video was produced by Michael Woods and written by Elliot Gleave and Michael Woods.

The lyrics mainly contradict the visuals throughout the video are referring to a single person and you don’t see this person at all. Part which the main character, ‘Example’, is leaving his house so it could be leaving a girls house but as the video develops it is obvious this is not the case and he is arriving at a concert.

The relationship between the music and the visuals is very good as most cuts are on the beat of the song and in a certain rhythm.  On each main beat the camera view would either cut scenes or camera angle. Parts of the music are without lyrics and they are mainly heavy beat sections and it is illustrated by people at a concert dancing in slow motion which is very effective.

Most of the close ups in the video are of ‘Example’ which shows he is the main character and the artist of the video. The record company are trying to show the audience that ‘Examples’ songs are going to played in clubs to aim the song at people that go out a lot and have a good time, the lyrics contrast to this as the line ‘changed the way you kissed me’ show trouble in a relationship. Previous ‘Example’ videos are also upbeat and show people out dancing and having a good time so the theme of this is carried out in this video.

The artist is not on sexual display at all during this video and neither are any of the people. Some of the costume is slightly revelling but nothing too bad as all the people in the frames are very decent.

The music playing is generally diegetic as the video is of a live concert of Example so if you were in most of the shots you would be able to hear the music being played.

This music video is mainly performance based with a slight narrative as most of the video shows example performing live to an audience and most of the video where he isn’t, he is getting ready or traveling to the concert.

Week Three Meeting

We had to make a think of the ideal target audience and make a timeline of our video. This meant that had to go through every part of the song and decide what we wanted to do. To do this, we looked at a lot of music videos that had the same genre or that had some of the ideas that we were thinking of in to see how they filmed it.

Moodboard

Mood Board for Costume and Props

Genre List for Jessica Staplehurst

• Beat that drops
• Dancing in a club
• Fist pumping
• Jumping up and down
• Flashing lighting
• Very loud music
• Drunk people
• People taking drugs
• Dancing on the streets

Lyrics for chosen song

I feel so close to you right now
It's a force field
I wear my heart upon my sleeve, like a big deal
Your love pours down on me, surround me like a waterfall
And there's no stopping us right now
I feel so close to you right now

[Dance beat plays]

I feel so close to you right now
It's a force field
I wear my heart upon my sleeve, like a big deal
Your love pours down on me, surround me like a waterfall
And there's no stopping us right now
I feel so close to you right now

[Dance beat plays]

And there's no stopping us right now

And there's no stopping us right now

And there's no stopping us right now

I feel so close to you right now...

Finished Brainstorm of Music Video

First Brainstorm for Music Video

Word Collage For Presentation

Week Two Meeting

This week we chose our song, we chose to do 'Feel So Close' by Benny Benassi. This song originally by 'Calvin Harris' and the remix has a very good beat and we all really liked the song. We have now started to brainstorm ideas of how to illustrate the words and the music. We had the idea of basing the narrative on one girl who is trying to find ideal boy. This should give us plenty of opportunities to have lots of different mise en scene and characters. We have a rough idea of what we want to do and plan do develop this to a more detailed script in our next meeting.

Video For Analysis

I am analysing a video called This City by Patrick Stump. It also features Lupe Fiasco who is a famous rap artist. The genre of this music video is pop/rap. This is because Lupe makes the song reach out to a wider audience by collaborating with Patrick Stump who is more of a pop singer.  This video is all about the town Chicago where Patrick Stump was raised so there is a very strong narrative behind this video. As you can tell from the lyrics also ‘This City’ as in Chicago. So throughout the video we are taken back into the 80’s when they wore leather jackets to show of this wonderful city. The 80’s theme is also shown through the use of black and white colour.

Here it shows the clear difference of times. This is his city of Chicago in the 80’s.

The lyrics of the song and the visuals of the music video have a clear relationship. We see flash backs almost of all the good things that have happened to him since living in this city. The lyrics ‘I was born and raised here’ proves this point even more. We then see him looking over at kids playing in this street. This maybe what he used to do when he was a kid playing in the city. Also another lyric that is repeated a lot throughout the song and has a relationship with the visuals is ‘and I love it, yeah I love it’. This tells the watchers that Patrick Stump is very passionate about his city as he calls it and he’s trying to get that point across to others. ‘And my city was a threat to the rest’ this lyric has a very strong meaning that no other city can compare to Chicago. But because not everyone has been there these lyrics are just opinions of the singer. ‘Forget all the drugs and gang corruption and pollution’ a perfect city is hard to find and the message that he is trying to get across is that if you look past these thing for example drugs, gangs and pollution you will love you city as much as Patrick loves Chicago.

This music video doesn’t have a strong relationship between the music and the visuals. This is because the video doesn’t always cut to the beat which usually happens in most music videos. There is one section at the end where he claps his hands and the shot changes. This looks very effective also because it looks like the lights are turning on and off.

At the beginning there is also a bit when Patrick stamps his foot on the beat then all of a sudden the scene has changed from Patrick singing to him being in the city with black and white colour. It draws my attention because we wasn’t expecting to actually see what he was singing about ‘This city’.

The solo instrumental bits where Patrick Stump is singing to the music are very edited with lots of different colours and effects. At one point we can hardly see Patrick because there are so many colours going on. But I think this makes the music video looking interesting and different.


The music in this video doesn’t really change pace except when Lupe starts to rap. Here we then see a change because the cuts are more quicker and to the beat. Having the video cut to the beat of the music I think makes the whole video more thrilling and exciting as we don’t know what it’s going to cut to next.

Throughout the whole video the scene we see most is Patrick Stump performing to the music with lots of different effects. I think this way it is making Patrick the main artist of the video and this is how the record company are looking to sell this track. Like most music video’s the main artist is in the video 90% of the time. There are many close ups and different shots of Patrick the whole way through because he is the star of the video. When the beat drops Patrick changes the way he performs by jumping and really getting into the song. From this video the artist looks like a smart respectable man because he wears a suit when performing when most other artists will wear casual clothes. He also wears a bow tie with a jacket over his shoulders, he is also trying to make his outfit different from just wearing a normal suit. 

This video compares to his others one’s are very upbeat and fast in the pop genre, but his other videos are more slow and in the rock genre. This my be becase Lupe is collabrated with Patrick in 'This City’. There is a main motif with is the city which he keeps going back to throughout because if this place wasn’t in the video then the lyrics wouldn’t make a lot of sense.

This music video is mostly performance and narrative. The song is telling us a story about where he grew up and what he grew up with. Referring back to the city in every other shot change. Because it’s the actual artist singing he is performing the song and actting with the music. I would say it is mostly performance because that is what we see the most.

Music video analysis re-done

The music video I am analysing is Champagne showers by LMFAO ft. Natalia Kills. The genre of the music video is Electro house. The track was released on May 27^th, 2011 and was directed by Redfoo GoonRock and Audiobot. The record label of this track is Interscope and consists of 80% narrative and 20% performance. I will be analysing this video through the use of Goodwin’s six point analysis. Throughout the song, at certain points, the lyrics are illustrated throughout the visual. For example, as you can see from the close-up below, the main artist is holding a champagne bottle, which illustrates the lyrics ‘champagne showers. Also, towards the end of the video, the two main artists actually ‘champagne spray’ everyone, which directly illustrates the lyrics as there is a champagne shower.

   

Throughout the video, when the music slows down, the video slows down too. For example, at the start, when the beat is being played, everyone is dancing and moving about, including the main artists, but when the music slows down for the first part of the chorus ‘I’m gonna make you wet’, the 2 main artists slow down and perform to the camera. Also, the camera is focused a lot on the character sitting down on the sofa when the music slows down she is not moving about like everybody else.

Champagne showers relates to their previous video, ‘Party rock anthem’, in which the two characters are ‘infected’ by a beat of music, causing them to dance uncontrollably. This narrative is carried forward in champagne showers. Firstly, the two main artists are wearing the same clothes as they were in party rock anthem, which shows that there is a continuous motif. Also, at the beginning of the video, there is reference to Party Rock Anthem.

The image of the artists being represented is that they are ‘party animals’ and that they live for a party, it’s all that seems to go on in their everyday lives. They come across as fun and exciting which portrays a good image of the artists. The record company is looking to sell the track as a continuous narrative so that the audience want to keep watching LMFAO’S video’s to see what happens next in the narrative. It gives the video a twist and that’s what attracts the audience.

There are many sexual references in champagne showers. The female shown in the video can be seen as seductive, especially by the way she is dressed- a corset and a furry coat. She is represented as sexy, and this is also shown when the music slows down, the camera focuses a lot on her which represents her femininity. There is also sexual reference in the lyrics; ‘I’m gonna get you wet, I’m gonna make you sweat’, this can also be seen in a sexual way to certain individuals depending on social class, background etc. The dance that is shown in the video can also be seen as sexual, by the hand movements used. Some people may take this in an inappropriate way, even though the lyrics link to the dance, ‘champagne showers’.

Another sexual reference in the music video is the lady vampires that stand behind the female character. They are also dressed in black corsets which stereotype them to be promiscuous and ‘ladies of the night’. The women in the video are also represented as sexual objects, objects because throughout the video they appear as objects as they do not seem to move around a lot, and to a man, they can be seen as good at one thing and one thing only. This is a negative view on women as they are presented throughout the ‘Male Gaze’, and represented as only good for one thing, which is to fulfil a man’s needs.

The only other music video Champagne showers relates to is Party Rock Anthem, their previous track. As the video is a continuous narrative the characters have stayed the same, Redfoo and Skyblue are still dressed the same. Also, the video, Party Rock anthem was based on the two ‘shufflin’ which they continue to do in this video.

Overall, the video is performance-based in the way they perform their dancing but is also narrative based as the video is a continued video of their previous track Party Rock Anthem.

Video for Analysis

Music Video Analysis

I first saw this video a few years ago and I was immediately interested and thought it was a very clever video. I love the use of colour and the way in which the words are shown to be coming out of the artists mouth as he sings. One thing that stands out a lot to me is the fact that the people in the video are all shown in black and white, and the other cartoon effects and lyrics are the only things that are in bright bold colours. I feel this is because the song is based around the idea of the lavish lives they lead so the things that are highlighted with colour, eccentuate this lifestyle.

Also the title of the song is shown in a lot of the songs as it is the whole concept of the video. The artists are trying to in someways boast about the lives they lead which consist of money, girls and travelling all of which they can do with ease because of the amount of money they have.

The phrase "Let them hate" is used to show how people shouldn't let other people control how you feel. Basically if they're jealous of your success, 'let them hate'. 

The images constantly relate to the lyrics, for example this shot shows a cartoon image of a pile of money whilst the lyrics say "watch the money pile up". Another way the lyrics link to the images is when Kanye West is listing a variety of states in America which he has clearly visited as he speaks of how it feels like the places. 

"It feel like NY"^

"It feel like LA"^

"It feel like Miama"^

In the Music Video women are portrayed as sex objects and are dressed in skimpy clothing and are asked to dance around the artist. This links in with Laura Mulvey's idea of the 'Male Gaze' or 'Feminist Theory'. She says that audience's are forced to view the video from the point of a heterosexual male. The Male Gaze consists of the camera lingering on the curves of the female body and the reactions of males around them. As you  This is something that is shown in a lot of music videos and something a lot of people disagree with and I personally do aswell. However there are music videos out there such as "Sweet About Me- Gabriella Cilmi, which shows females as having power over males, for example in the video she is singing in front of a man who is tied upside down etc. I think this video is very powerful and important for the media industry.

The images above show Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory the female is shown as an object which is reflected by the way in which Kanye West is shown to be staring at the female. 

The images above show a total different side to what music videos can show, here the female is in control of the way in which the man views her, she has the power. Gabriella's video to her song, in some ways, fights back to the generic conventions of music videos in this century. 

Kanye West's video conforms to Dyer's Star Theory which says that to be successful, music videos need to contain a percentage of 90% of shots of the Artist. The Good Life video contains a huge amount of shots of the artist so it is a perfect example of Dyer's theory. 

As you can see from the image directly above the video is all about the material things in life. It's quite an ironic shot because as he is throwing cartoon diamonds he is singing 'the best things in life are free' which is something he clearly doesn't believe in. It is unusual that in a lot of the shots Kanye West is on the same level as the camera through the head shots, mid-shots and long-shots. There are never low angle shots looking up at the artist to show high amounts of power and status which is something you would expect the video to show. The audience will expect a view of Kanye West which will match his big ego, which they do see in the way in which he is speaking and the colour scheme/lighting where he stands out to the background, but not through the camera angles.

Overall the video shows a variety of different things, and emphasises the lifestyle in which these stars live. Their money plays a huge part in the song and therefore does in the video. 

Week One Meeting

In our first meeting we wrote a list of possible songs that we could use for our music video. Chloe in our group has previously recorded a song called All Night Long so we made this of first idea. The song is upbeat and would be good to dance to. The second choice was a song by Ok Go called Here It Goes Again. The original music video is the band on treadmills dancing but we thought we could make it more modern by using the lyrics. We decided to do an upbeat song as with garage band we can put markers on each beat which will make it easier to edit. With this, we can have lots of different scenes to make it more exciting. We also started to look at some remix songs as we all like this kind of music so we would be easier to think of ideas to do.

As the video starts the sound is diagetic as the girl in the video is listening to her head phones and you can tell by the quality of the music that it is coming from her. As Bruno Mars comes in the quality of the sound changes as it turns into non diagetic sound. He uses the tape out of the cassette to draw pictures the whole way through. This is an editing technique which could be done many different ways and looks very effective. When he is singing the song you can tell it is lip-synced as the sound would of been put over the top of the video and his lips always match the lyrics. They are both in normal clothes and in a normal setting as the song is a slow love song which is why the mise en scene matches the type of song. this video has a lot of post editing which makes it interesting to watch.

Chloe Spillane

Hello I'm Chloe Spillane and I am taking A Level Media Studies. I had not been involved in Media at GCSE but I am currently on my second year at West Hatch High School, as I also took Media at AS Level. My interest in the subject has increased vastly as the course has gone on. My hobbies are dancing, singing and acting so media has quite a big involvement in these things and they also help me with the subject as I am quite a creative individual. I can't wait to start the course, thank you for reading.

Music Video Analysis

I have chosen to analyse this video because the effects and flashing animation attracts my attention. We see Rihanna in every clips but every time there is a new set and different back ground. This makes the music video more interesting to watch. Also we see a back ground of a zoo and she has dressed like a tiger to fit in with the background. The video is very post edited and almost looks like a cartoon. The colours are very bright which matches the genre of the song.

At the start of the video she is in black and white and because of the brightly coloured background she doesn't stand out as much. Black and white are connotations of olden day television and this is also implemented by a very old bike which is a prop. So the video is making contrast between high editing technology and the old fashion ways.

     About Me...
My name is Freya Catmur-Hill and I am studying Media Studies at West Hatch High School. I enjoy media and hope to get a job in advertising in the future. I have wanted to have a job in advertising for a while now and took it at GCSE level. I love gymnastics and have been doing it since I was 4 and have gained a job out of it as a coach!





About Jessica Staplehurst

I'm Jessica Staplehurst and I currently study media at West Hatch High School. This is my second year on this subject and throughout, I have become more interested about the aspects of media, film and the music industry.  I hope to continue with this in my future career or at University. I enjoy dancing and used to do a lot of it when i was younger. I also enjoy watching all different types of film from Romance to Horror. I love shopping and music too. I would love to be rich when im older and also be successful in the future.

Emily Osment-Lovesick

The editing in this video attracts my attention as even though the camera focuses mainly on the main character in a mid-shot throughout a lot of the video, there are other things going on around her such as the different shapes which makes the video quite futuristic. I also like the colouring used in the video as it doesnt just focus on one or 2 colours but a range of different colours which adds a bit of mood to the video.

My name is Ashley Stump and i am currently studying at West Hatch High School. I am very interested in media as a whole and would like to go onto study media/advertising at university. Hopefully this will lead to a career in advertising in the future. I studied media studies at G.C.S.E level as well as AS level so I have skills when it comes to working with Garage band, Photoshop, IMovie, Final cut and many more media based software programs. I have also attended a few day's work experience at an advertising company, where I got an insight into the advertising industry. I was also given a Photoshop demo CD to watch which gives hints and tips when coming to use to the program, which I know will benefit me when coming to do my A2 coursework this year. :)