Opening and closing.
In any video production the beginning is very important. If the opening is weak and boring the audience will stop watching.
Start with a sequence that is arresting, dramatic, visually exciting, has plenty of movement and will hook your audience. Once you have their attention, you have to hold onto it. If the action peaks too soon, the rest of the production may go down hill, and you will lose your audience.
Don’t forget the ending. This is the last thing the audience will see, so keep something special for the last few shots. A strong ending will leave the audience with positive feelings about the music video.
Create a narrative and your audience will want to know how it ends, so give them a dramatic ending. Tears always work, or a final kiss or achieving something memorable, like finding the Holy Grail
The pace of the editing.
The cuts and transitions should have a similar pace to the music, or they should reflect the mood and tempo of the music. You will see in professional music videos that fast music has lots of cuts – even if it is telling a story – and romantic or slower music has fewer cuts. The chorus of a song will probably have a slightly different pace to the verses, and this should be reflected in the editing.
Editing a dramatic scene for a movie the editor will often cut on the action. If a cut is prompted by action, that action will divert attention from the cut, making the transition more fluid. A character gets up from a chair to confront his boss – cut as he rises and the scene will have dramatic tension and the cut will appear seamless. You can do the same in a music video, although a music video can be altogether more imaginative. You do not need to follow any logic except where the music takes you.
The general rule for editing pictures is that edits work best when they are motivated by something in the narrative or by a look or gesture from a character
The motivation in a music video is the tempo of the music, or the words of the song.
Making a cut or transition from one shot to another risks breaking the audience’s concentration and subtly pulling attention away from the story or subject matter. On the other hand cutting or making a transition is a way of gaining the attention of the audience. Use transitions sparingly. A cut often works as well as a transition.
In a music video, cuts and transitions are a way of keeping the audience hooked on the visuals and listening to the song. Does that mean that you should do lots of cuts? For a music video, yes you should, and vary the number of edits for each sequence.
Cutting to the rhythm
Editing a music video involves cutting the pictures in rhythm with the music. At a basic level this means cutting on the beat. You don’t have to cut on every beat but your picture cutting should be in tune with the rhythm of the song.
For a fast song this will probably mean cutting on the dominant beat of the music – the one you tap your foot to. Certainly start off by cutting the pictures to this beat. THE MUSIC PROMO VIDEO
Monday, 15 November 2010
THE MUSIC PROMO VIDEO
First of all this is not a music video of the performance of a song; it is a news style promo focusing on the band, their name and brand, and the record label Nutune Records. Yes it can and should have original music, but this is not a MTV type video promoting one song.
Pre-Production
Create a band/artist – sometimes it is best to go for a fictional name even if students are using their own band – remember marks are given for the synergy between the name of the band and all these aspects below which have to look related to each other.
• the band name
• their brand logo or USP
• the album sleeve/cover
• the music genre
• the live act
• the record label Nutune Records.
This research will result in two media products – the video, and print products or e-Media pages. The details you create in preproduction will inform all products. So they better be good!
Research Successful Artists / Bands
The BBC website is a great place to start.
This blog from Fraser McAlpine about female star COCO’s new song Self Machine is useful because it gives a simple introduction to how metaphor and similes are used in songs.
The video set in an empty swimming pool is both spooky and arty.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chartblog/2010/07/i_blame_coco_self_machine.shtml#more
Students can make their video about a single artist such as Coco. In some ways this offers more opportunities for creating an interesting and original biography. Assuming the artist is a student then making the video has many less logistical problems than getting a four piece band together for a shoot in an exciting location.
Look at bands/artists on MySpace. Here is a band with a video that is near to the sort of thing that this brief envisages – don’t copy it slavishly.
Mystery Jets Secret Show
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=105643312
I also like the video for Scouting for Girls song Famous which is a simple song and the video actually illustrates the lyrics in a fun way.
http://www.scoutingforgirls.com/gb/home/
What you need to create…
Artist’s Name
It should be short just one or two words and must not class with the genre of the music. For example The Clash is an ideal name for a Punk band as is The Sex Pistols. Coco is clearly not the name of a Goth inspired group or heavy metal band. Face up to it long names don’t work – name one that does.
Logo, USP, Brand Identity
This is not initially easy and needs research. The best way in to creating a brand identity is to take the name and really brainstorm it. E.g. If you really want to call your band WHAM how do you promote it – check on any Wham website. Even more extraordinary is that Q – Tip can work as a name. It is better to research established bands like Gorillaz or Arctic Monkeys and see how their name is promoted.
By the way a cartoon band is a great idea for any artistically gifted media students.
It is simpler to create an image based logo around a single artist just think of Pink or the ultimate brand de nos jours, Lady Gaga.
For an historic perspective look at the way a huge international brand was created around the Spice Girls, and it is still going strong in 2010 with the creation of a musical stage production based on the Spice Girls see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8473024.stm
For an example of album covers and picture associated with artists see the BBC top 40 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles/
Promotional Techniques
Now research promotional techniques from how advertisers promote their products to viral advertising on the internet – see this site Understanding Advertising.
On this site look at Stephen Hill’s excellent article on Popular Music Promotion.
Pre-Production
This is when all your virtual ideas are finalised and become reality.
So you have a name, and a format, a genre, and a brand identity. Let’s say you are going for one artist. My example is going to be very obvious, but your artist/band will be much smarter and cooler.
Name: Leonie
Brand ID/Logo: based round a photo shopped lioness picture together with the artist. The o in Leonie has a stylised lion’s head inside it.
Use the same font for all text associated with this product to ensure continuity. Try to harmonise the colours and use the same ones throughout. For Leonie we are going to use gold’s, creams and desert colours – as in the lioness photo.
Genre: soft rock/soul mainstream. Describe exactly what sort of music will be on your artist’s album.
EG: Leonie’s music is based on postmodern northern soul with punk undertones. Her trademark song the up tempo Wilderness has a funk-rock underscore with a strong lyrical hook in the chorus line: Wild to be free/ in the wilderness… Her sultry voice has been compared to Dusty Springfield, and she is not afraid of the high notes.
Album cover. Full details at CD Cover Design & Analysis on this site.
Click here for ideas on analysing a CD/album cover from Teachit http://www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/5881.pdf
Album tracks – an album has about 12 tracks. You will need to write about 1 minute of a song for your artist. This will be the music you use on your video. In my illustration the song Leonie is going to sing is called Wilderness, and the delightfully cheesy lyric goes like this:
The wilderness is calling calling calling from afar
My heart is lonely and cries in the night
I am falling falling falling from a star
you are so far so far so far
Refrain: wild to be free/ in the wilderness / I ‘m waiting for you/ to be near me
Ok it’s ultra cheesy, but you wait to you hear it sung…. the words of Mercy are pretty simple on the page, but sung by Duffy the lyric is transformed into a hit. That is what a lyric should do – only really work when it is set to music and sung, otherwise it is a poem.
My advice - keep the lyrics really simple. I love the Beatles song I wanna hold your hand – how simple can a lyric be, but it’s a great pop song with terrific harmonies.
Enjoy the rhyming of ‘hand’ and ‘man’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iim6s8Ea_bE
Of course you may be the new Bob Dylan and be able to write complex songs full of metaphors and illusions that rhyme, and have a narrative. Listen to Mr Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan – could you write something similar that is also popular?
‘Take me on a trip on your magic swirling ship….’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIAZMayobcI
Locations for video shoots – two/three are enough. Be exciting but be safe – the beach is always good, or a park or the back garden.
Street scenes are difficult (H and S) unless you can find a really quiet road or a pedestrianised area.
Indoor locations like a gym, or a friendly house, or a tourist attraction like a castle are good. See MediaEdu Production Zone.
List of tour dates and towns – this is easy copy and adapt one out of the music press
Biog information – make it interesting. Leonie was born in South Africa and came to England when she was three years old; she likes the music of …..; vanilla ice cream and retro clothing etc and plays 4 instruments including the vuvuzela.
She sings about animal rights and has set up her own wild life sanctuary in Greenford!
She had a part in a video made by the Spice Girls when she as 8 – see the connection with your research? And much much more – put down every detail of her life including her TV viewing habits, magazines read, and views on serious debates such as spiritual beliefs, violence on the internet, capital punishment etc
Who is her backing band or perhaps she plays everything herself – perhaps that is her USP.
Does she use video in her act – of course she does and it is a very exciting video about, yes you have guessed it, being on safari.
Where do the pictures come from – your research visit to London zoo and that is where she got the inspiration for her latest single – Night Calls – (is there a pun in there?).
Promotional techniques – what is your promo philosophy for this musical phenomenon.
You are going to use Myspace and the ‘wild life in danger’ connection because you are going to donate 10p from each download to a wild life charity. This could get you noticed by a mainstream radio programme or a TV show.
Your luck really changes when a cosmetics company who are keen not sell products tested on animals, uses Leonie’s song Wilderness in one of their ads. Put 15 seconds of this ad in your video - you are aiming for a top mark.
This brief is trying to get you to move your marketing from the niche Nutune Records to something more mainstream using the same label.
Audience
The brief states that your audience should not be a niche audience but more mainstream.
All your marketing should therefore be aimed at a general young audience of both sexes who have bought similar products in the past.
For our example we are looking at a mainstream audience for female artists – people who might buy Duffy albums.
http://www.iamduffy.com/index2.html
Create a picture in your mind of the type of person who buys this genre of music – will this person like the music of your artist? If not what are the differences?
For the purposes of making good coursework it is probably best to find an artist who is like your artist so that you can compare and contrast, and go for the same audience.
It might be Rihanna with street wise songs like Disturbia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mU6h4Xdxc
Top Tips
One
Photographs – during pre-production take a lot of photographs – on your phone camera if necessary - as a record of any research trips you make at weekends – London zoo for example – and particularly early doc style pictures of your artist.
Photograph everything you do - it will be useful I promise you. You will need to do a fairly sophisticated front page type shoot for your print or E-page option. This should look different to these ‘at home type’ pictures which will be very useful throughout the project.
Two
Keep a production diary in a large folder with everything in it. Use those plastic see-through pockets to put in loose items like tickets etc
Three
Keep a budget. Create a real world budget for promoting a new artist/band and then see how much you can do it for.
Making your own T shirts can save thousands - well a few - pounds and CDs can be copied on your computer.
Print can all be done on computer – the live gig may cost you a bit but you can share the cost.
Four
Make the video with a group as you need a team to make a video properly, but do everything else individually. You have to submit your portfolio as an individual.
Video Production
See this site under Production Zone for lots of tips and ideas for making good videos. Remember you are making a video for a social networking site such as MySpace not for television – what might be the differences? MySpace is more intimate and personal.
For this brief you will make a newsy style video for MySpace. You will need to do some or all of these:
• An interview with the artist/band
• An excerpt from an ad, or one of the artist’s songs for the actual album you are promoting. This will only be a short part of your video.
• A small section of the artist/band singing as if live – you must create all the music for your artist – no covers, no previously recorded music. If this is really too difficult then use music from a copyright free source but use it in less than 10% of the video. You must indicate your music source in the evaluation.
• Pictures of the artist relaxing doing sports etc, at home, or on holiday. Differentiate between the artist/band relaxing and having fun and the artist/band on stage in full stage gear – use props, make up, and costume to make a strong stage persona e.g. Lady Gaga.
• A new band on stage in tacky shorts and T shirt as I saw recently, is not what you want for this project – they may not like it, but its your video, you are the producer so stick them something startling, provocative or sensational.
For ideas on Music Video Production see Music Video Pre-Production on this site.
Evaluation
This is not what you did and what you did not do or why the group dynamics made everything such as rush –that will get no marks.
It is an evaluation of your video based on how it stands up to other similar products on Youtube or social networking sites. You can say how you went to great trouble to make it look professional and how you did this.
You must try and evaluate how your product works as a promotional video for your band/artist.
Pre-Production
Create a band/artist – sometimes it is best to go for a fictional name even if students are using their own band – remember marks are given for the synergy between the name of the band and all these aspects below which have to look related to each other.
• the band name
• their brand logo or USP
• the album sleeve/cover
• the music genre
• the live act
• the record label Nutune Records.
This research will result in two media products – the video, and print products or e-Media pages. The details you create in preproduction will inform all products. So they better be good!
Research Successful Artists / Bands
The BBC website is a great place to start.
This blog from Fraser McAlpine about female star COCO’s new song Self Machine is useful because it gives a simple introduction to how metaphor and similes are used in songs.
The video set in an empty swimming pool is both spooky and arty.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chartblog/2010/07/i_blame_coco_self_machine.shtml#more
Students can make their video about a single artist such as Coco. In some ways this offers more opportunities for creating an interesting and original biography. Assuming the artist is a student then making the video has many less logistical problems than getting a four piece band together for a shoot in an exciting location.
Look at bands/artists on MySpace. Here is a band with a video that is near to the sort of thing that this brief envisages – don’t copy it slavishly.
Mystery Jets Secret Show
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=105643312
I also like the video for Scouting for Girls song Famous which is a simple song and the video actually illustrates the lyrics in a fun way.
http://www.scoutingforgirls.com/gb/home/
What you need to create…
Artist’s Name
It should be short just one or two words and must not class with the genre of the music. For example The Clash is an ideal name for a Punk band as is The Sex Pistols. Coco is clearly not the name of a Goth inspired group or heavy metal band. Face up to it long names don’t work – name one that does.
Logo, USP, Brand Identity
This is not initially easy and needs research. The best way in to creating a brand identity is to take the name and really brainstorm it. E.g. If you really want to call your band WHAM how do you promote it – check on any Wham website. Even more extraordinary is that Q – Tip can work as a name. It is better to research established bands like Gorillaz or Arctic Monkeys and see how their name is promoted.
By the way a cartoon band is a great idea for any artistically gifted media students.
It is simpler to create an image based logo around a single artist just think of Pink or the ultimate brand de nos jours, Lady Gaga.
For an historic perspective look at the way a huge international brand was created around the Spice Girls, and it is still going strong in 2010 with the creation of a musical stage production based on the Spice Girls see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8473024.stm
For an example of album covers and picture associated with artists see the BBC top 40 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles/
Promotional Techniques
Now research promotional techniques from how advertisers promote their products to viral advertising on the internet – see this site Understanding Advertising.
On this site look at Stephen Hill’s excellent article on Popular Music Promotion.
Pre-Production
This is when all your virtual ideas are finalised and become reality.
So you have a name, and a format, a genre, and a brand identity. Let’s say you are going for one artist. My example is going to be very obvious, but your artist/band will be much smarter and cooler.
Name: Leonie
Brand ID/Logo: based round a photo shopped lioness picture together with the artist. The o in Leonie has a stylised lion’s head inside it.
Use the same font for all text associated with this product to ensure continuity. Try to harmonise the colours and use the same ones throughout. For Leonie we are going to use gold’s, creams and desert colours – as in the lioness photo.
Genre: soft rock/soul mainstream. Describe exactly what sort of music will be on your artist’s album.
EG: Leonie’s music is based on postmodern northern soul with punk undertones. Her trademark song the up tempo Wilderness has a funk-rock underscore with a strong lyrical hook in the chorus line: Wild to be free/ in the wilderness… Her sultry voice has been compared to Dusty Springfield, and she is not afraid of the high notes.
Album cover. Full details at CD Cover Design & Analysis on this site.
Click here for ideas on analysing a CD/album cover from Teachit http://www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/5881.pdf
Album tracks – an album has about 12 tracks. You will need to write about 1 minute of a song for your artist. This will be the music you use on your video. In my illustration the song Leonie is going to sing is called Wilderness, and the delightfully cheesy lyric goes like this:
The wilderness is calling calling calling from afar
My heart is lonely and cries in the night
I am falling falling falling from a star
you are so far so far so far
Refrain: wild to be free/ in the wilderness / I ‘m waiting for you/ to be near me
Ok it’s ultra cheesy, but you wait to you hear it sung…. the words of Mercy are pretty simple on the page, but sung by Duffy the lyric is transformed into a hit. That is what a lyric should do – only really work when it is set to music and sung, otherwise it is a poem.
My advice - keep the lyrics really simple. I love the Beatles song I wanna hold your hand – how simple can a lyric be, but it’s a great pop song with terrific harmonies.
Enjoy the rhyming of ‘hand’ and ‘man’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iim6s8Ea_bE
Of course you may be the new Bob Dylan and be able to write complex songs full of metaphors and illusions that rhyme, and have a narrative. Listen to Mr Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan – could you write something similar that is also popular?
‘Take me on a trip on your magic swirling ship….’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIAZMayobcI
Locations for video shoots – two/three are enough. Be exciting but be safe – the beach is always good, or a park or the back garden.
Street scenes are difficult (H and S) unless you can find a really quiet road or a pedestrianised area.
Indoor locations like a gym, or a friendly house, or a tourist attraction like a castle are good. See MediaEdu Production Zone.
List of tour dates and towns – this is easy copy and adapt one out of the music press
Biog information – make it interesting. Leonie was born in South Africa and came to England when she was three years old; she likes the music of …..; vanilla ice cream and retro clothing etc and plays 4 instruments including the vuvuzela.
She sings about animal rights and has set up her own wild life sanctuary in Greenford!
She had a part in a video made by the Spice Girls when she as 8 – see the connection with your research? And much much more – put down every detail of her life including her TV viewing habits, magazines read, and views on serious debates such as spiritual beliefs, violence on the internet, capital punishment etc
Who is her backing band or perhaps she plays everything herself – perhaps that is her USP.
Does she use video in her act – of course she does and it is a very exciting video about, yes you have guessed it, being on safari.
Where do the pictures come from – your research visit to London zoo and that is where she got the inspiration for her latest single – Night Calls – (is there a pun in there?).
Promotional techniques – what is your promo philosophy for this musical phenomenon.
You are going to use Myspace and the ‘wild life in danger’ connection because you are going to donate 10p from each download to a wild life charity. This could get you noticed by a mainstream radio programme or a TV show.
Your luck really changes when a cosmetics company who are keen not sell products tested on animals, uses Leonie’s song Wilderness in one of their ads. Put 15 seconds of this ad in your video - you are aiming for a top mark.
This brief is trying to get you to move your marketing from the niche Nutune Records to something more mainstream using the same label.
Audience
The brief states that your audience should not be a niche audience but more mainstream.
All your marketing should therefore be aimed at a general young audience of both sexes who have bought similar products in the past.
For our example we are looking at a mainstream audience for female artists – people who might buy Duffy albums.
http://www.iamduffy.com/index2.html
Create a picture in your mind of the type of person who buys this genre of music – will this person like the music of your artist? If not what are the differences?
For the purposes of making good coursework it is probably best to find an artist who is like your artist so that you can compare and contrast, and go for the same audience.
It might be Rihanna with street wise songs like Disturbia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mU6h4Xdxc
Top Tips
One
Photographs – during pre-production take a lot of photographs – on your phone camera if necessary - as a record of any research trips you make at weekends – London zoo for example – and particularly early doc style pictures of your artist.
Photograph everything you do - it will be useful I promise you. You will need to do a fairly sophisticated front page type shoot for your print or E-page option. This should look different to these ‘at home type’ pictures which will be very useful throughout the project.
Two
Keep a production diary in a large folder with everything in it. Use those plastic see-through pockets to put in loose items like tickets etc
Three
Keep a budget. Create a real world budget for promoting a new artist/band and then see how much you can do it for.
Making your own T shirts can save thousands - well a few - pounds and CDs can be copied on your computer.
Print can all be done on computer – the live gig may cost you a bit but you can share the cost.
Four
Make the video with a group as you need a team to make a video properly, but do everything else individually. You have to submit your portfolio as an individual.
Video Production
See this site under Production Zone for lots of tips and ideas for making good videos. Remember you are making a video for a social networking site such as MySpace not for television – what might be the differences? MySpace is more intimate and personal.
For this brief you will make a newsy style video for MySpace. You will need to do some or all of these:
• An interview with the artist/band
• An excerpt from an ad, or one of the artist’s songs for the actual album you are promoting. This will only be a short part of your video.
• A small section of the artist/band singing as if live – you must create all the music for your artist – no covers, no previously recorded music. If this is really too difficult then use music from a copyright free source but use it in less than 10% of the video. You must indicate your music source in the evaluation.
• Pictures of the artist relaxing doing sports etc, at home, or on holiday. Differentiate between the artist/band relaxing and having fun and the artist/band on stage in full stage gear – use props, make up, and costume to make a strong stage persona e.g. Lady Gaga.
• A new band on stage in tacky shorts and T shirt as I saw recently, is not what you want for this project – they may not like it, but its your video, you are the producer so stick them something startling, provocative or sensational.
For ideas on Music Video Production see Music Video Pre-Production on this site.
Evaluation
This is not what you did and what you did not do or why the group dynamics made everything such as rush –that will get no marks.
It is an evaluation of your video based on how it stands up to other similar products on Youtube or social networking sites. You can say how you went to great trouble to make it look professional and how you did this.
You must try and evaluate how your product works as a promotional video for your band/artist.
A2 Media Studies Video Production
SELECTED SONG
You will have selected a song track which excites you. You will have some ideas about how you want to visualise this song.
You will have decided on whether you want to tell a story, create an atmospheric video, or present the song in some new innovative way, or use another form of visualisation such as a parody or pastiche.
It’s a good idea to write down the lyrics, so that you know what the song is about.
Your next job is to create a STORYBOARD of your ideas.
Remember that a storyboard first of all tells a story. Try and fit your video idea into 6 or 8 frames. You do not need to draw a frame for every single shot just the most important ones that advance the story.
EXAMPLE
Your chosen song is Lou Read’s 'A Perfect Day'. Here are the lyrics:
Just a perfect day
drink sangria in a park
and then later
when it gets dark
we go home
Just a perfect day
feed animals in the zoo
and then later a movie, too
and then home
Refrain:
Oh it's such a perfect day
I’m glad I spend it with you
oh such a perfect day you just keep me hangin’ on
you just keep me hangin’ on
just a perfect day
problems are left to know
Weekend’s all night long
its such fun
just a perfect day
You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
someone good
One way to get to grips with this song is to highlight the words that interest you. Of course you do not have to make a literal video that just shows pictures of the words, but you can use the words as a springboard to keep your video appropriate to the song and yet different.
A music video needs to relate in some way to the lyrics and the music. The audience should be able to see the relationship between your pictures and the song.
You could make a video that consisted of shots of your own perfect day, which could be a day on the beach, or in a racing car, or at a theme park, or in the garden at home. You would be illustrating what ‘perfect day’ means to you.
STORYBOARD
Let’s say we want to illustrate quite literally some of the words – the words in orange in the song.
Use a blank storyboard with 8 frames and put each of the words under each frame.
What pictures would you video for these words? You will have to capture the pictures on video, so you will need to interpret the ideas so that you are able to video them. The first row may be easier than the second row.
Row 1 Sangria is a Spanish wine drink that is usually made in a pitcher or jug. The zoo, the movie and home are straight forward.
Row 2 you are going to have to think about how you might visually interpret a phrase like ‘forget myself’ . I am sure you can do better than my suggestions.
VIDEO PRODUCTION
You have produced a storyboard which shows some of the central images you want to video. Now you have to shoot the pictures.
• Make a list of ALL THE SHOTS you need – this is called a shot list. Don’t rush this stage of the production process. It is much better to spend time thinking about what you want to shoot BEFORE you take out the camera.
• You may need some props – e.g. a jug of sangria for our Perfect Day shoot.
• You will almost certainly need to go to some locations; even the garden is a location. Make a list of all the locations – this is a location list.
• Now make a final SHOOTING SCRIPT which lists each shot and where it will be done and at what location. It should have two columns:
You may feel this is a lot of work and that you are not sure what you may find at the beach. Believe a shooting script is 100% worth it. When you get there you may find there are more shots at the beach, then that is a bonus of extra material – great, you will need it.
• For a music video you will need at least one shot for every 4 beats of the music. A fast rock and roll number will need more shots than a slow ballad.
• Try to make pictures that have either camera movement or something happening in the shot – or both.
• Use a variety of camera angles – her are some examples of different angles
• Only use the zoom lens for something really important
• If you are filming a band performing a music track, ask them to mime to playback.
• To make a video of a band performing live is altogether different, and should only be attempted if you have a lot of experience with sound and vision.
Canted Angle This is an underground shot with the camera at a canted angle (turned slightly to one side) to show a sense of unease. The torches shining into the camera lens also give a sense that the characters are lost.
Side Shot A beautifully lit side shot of a little girl being an angel. This is visually more interesting than the usual head on shot of children from in front of them.
High Angle Shot of Tom Baker as Dr Who. If you can take a shot from a high angle – especially good for a ballad or slower music.
Experiment with different camera angles – it will make your video more interesting.
Shooting a music video check list
• Shoot many more pictures than you need.
• Try and shoot in sequences that are dependent on the location or on the subject
• Shoot every idea with the camera at different angles
• Shoot Close Ups and Wide Shots of everything
• Keep the camera steady by using a tripod and let the action move within the frame. Filming something static like a flower, ask someone to shake the flower a little as if it is moving in the wind.
• Shoot in strong daylight wherever possible
• Shooting inside - turn on all the lights in the room – you can’t have enough light on video
• Get movement by moving the camera with the subject
• Use film lights if you have access to them.
• Use a whip-pan occasionally – a whip-pan moves the camera very quickly from one subject to another
• Use the zoom - but not too much, it gets so boring!
You will have selected a song track which excites you. You will have some ideas about how you want to visualise this song.
You will have decided on whether you want to tell a story, create an atmospheric video, or present the song in some new innovative way, or use another form of visualisation such as a parody or pastiche.
It’s a good idea to write down the lyrics, so that you know what the song is about.
Your next job is to create a STORYBOARD of your ideas.
Remember that a storyboard first of all tells a story. Try and fit your video idea into 6 or 8 frames. You do not need to draw a frame for every single shot just the most important ones that advance the story.
EXAMPLE
Your chosen song is Lou Read’s 'A Perfect Day'. Here are the lyrics:
Just a perfect day
drink sangria in a park
and then later
when it gets dark
we go home
Just a perfect day
feed animals in the zoo
and then later a movie, too
and then home
Refrain:
Oh it's such a perfect day
I’m glad I spend it with you
oh such a perfect day you just keep me hangin’ on
you just keep me hangin’ on
just a perfect day
problems are left to know
Weekend’s all night long
its such fun
just a perfect day
You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
someone good
One way to get to grips with this song is to highlight the words that interest you. Of course you do not have to make a literal video that just shows pictures of the words, but you can use the words as a springboard to keep your video appropriate to the song and yet different.
A music video needs to relate in some way to the lyrics and the music. The audience should be able to see the relationship between your pictures and the song.
You could make a video that consisted of shots of your own perfect day, which could be a day on the beach, or in a racing car, or at a theme park, or in the garden at home. You would be illustrating what ‘perfect day’ means to you.
STORYBOARD
Let’s say we want to illustrate quite literally some of the words – the words in orange in the song.
Use a blank storyboard with 8 frames and put each of the words under each frame.
What pictures would you video for these words? You will have to capture the pictures on video, so you will need to interpret the ideas so that you are able to video them. The first row may be easier than the second row.
Row 1 Sangria is a Spanish wine drink that is usually made in a pitcher or jug. The zoo, the movie and home are straight forward.
Row 2 you are going to have to think about how you might visually interpret a phrase like ‘forget myself’ . I am sure you can do better than my suggestions.
VIDEO PRODUCTION
You have produced a storyboard which shows some of the central images you want to video. Now you have to shoot the pictures.
• Make a list of ALL THE SHOTS you need – this is called a shot list. Don’t rush this stage of the production process. It is much better to spend time thinking about what you want to shoot BEFORE you take out the camera.
• You may need some props – e.g. a jug of sangria for our Perfect Day shoot.
• You will almost certainly need to go to some locations; even the garden is a location. Make a list of all the locations – this is a location list.
• Now make a final SHOOTING SCRIPT which lists each shot and where it will be done and at what location. It should have two columns:
You may feel this is a lot of work and that you are not sure what you may find at the beach. Believe a shooting script is 100% worth it. When you get there you may find there are more shots at the beach, then that is a bonus of extra material – great, you will need it.
• For a music video you will need at least one shot for every 4 beats of the music. A fast rock and roll number will need more shots than a slow ballad.
• Try to make pictures that have either camera movement or something happening in the shot – or both.
• Use a variety of camera angles – her are some examples of different angles
• Only use the zoom lens for something really important
• If you are filming a band performing a music track, ask them to mime to playback.
• To make a video of a band performing live is altogether different, and should only be attempted if you have a lot of experience with sound and vision.
Canted Angle This is an underground shot with the camera at a canted angle (turned slightly to one side) to show a sense of unease. The torches shining into the camera lens also give a sense that the characters are lost.
Side Shot A beautifully lit side shot of a little girl being an angel. This is visually more interesting than the usual head on shot of children from in front of them.
High Angle Shot of Tom Baker as Dr Who. If you can take a shot from a high angle – especially good for a ballad or slower music.
Experiment with different camera angles – it will make your video more interesting.
Shooting a music video check list
• Shoot many more pictures than you need.
• Try and shoot in sequences that are dependent on the location or on the subject
• Shoot every idea with the camera at different angles
• Shoot Close Ups and Wide Shots of everything
• Keep the camera steady by using a tripod and let the action move within the frame. Filming something static like a flower, ask someone to shake the flower a little as if it is moving in the wind.
• Shoot in strong daylight wherever possible
• Shooting inside - turn on all the lights in the room – you can’t have enough light on video
• Get movement by moving the camera with the subject
• Use film lights if you have access to them.
• Use a whip-pan occasionally – a whip-pan moves the camera very quickly from one subject to another
• Use the zoom - but not too much, it gets so boring!
GENRE
Genre
Genre gives the audience expectations and determines the way they interpret the text. Genres are used in a whole variety of texts from tabloid newspapers, radio chat shows to soaps. A well known genre is that of horror. The audience expects to be scared, and the mediators play with these expectations. Mise-en-scène is vital in helping an audience determine the generic expectations.
Characters are often generically determined in certain texts. Audiences recognise these key elements of a genre and respond accordingly, if they read the text in the way the mediator prefers. These key elements can be called paradigms and two types have been identified:
1. Iconographic: signs and symbols
2. Structural: how structures in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender.
Generic subversion is becoming stronger and stronger in contemporary texts. A good example of this subversion is in the film Scary Movie where virtually every generic code is first identified, then played with, to the delight of many audiences.
Genres tend to become ‘tired’ over time, with audiences becoming less interested. The theorist Christian Metz identified four phases in this process: the initial phase, the classical phase, the declining phase and finally the parody phase. The disaster genre is a good example with The Towering Inferno in the classical phase and Airplane! as the final parody. To survive, genres mutate and join with others to form hybrid genres, such as Blade Runner, which was a hybrid of the Sci-Fi and Film Noir genres.
Going further
Genre can be linked firmly to the key concept of institution in media studies. Genres appeal to certain target audiences, for example, soap operas tend to have a gendered appeal (to women), which allows institutions to precisely market goods and services to this audience during commercial breaks. Genre also allows institutions to save money by standardising production – using the same sets, actors and scriptwriters for a series keeps costs down in a business where costs can spiral upwards and audiences can become easily bored. When costs can be accurately predicted, financial planning is easier and long-term contracts can be awarded to suppliers and actors. This generic approach to production can lead to predictability and can stifle creativity, as happened under the old Hollywood studio system that began to collapse in the 1970s.
A contemporary development has been genre hybridisation and the creation of cross genre texts where different genres are combined together to create a newer, fresher genre, which appeals to a new audience. A good contemporary example is the popular TV series CSI that combines the police procedural, crime and whodunit genres to create a new genre. Genres are no longer separate and unique, they increasingly lend and borrow from other texts; this is known as intertextuality and can be seen as a defining aspect of post modernism.
Genre can link naturally with the key concept of audience. Audiences like genre texts and actively seek them out for their own pleasure. Genre texts are reassuring to audiences because of their familiarity and promoting a God-like understanding of knowing roughly what the outcome will be. Audiences know what to expect and usually get it from a generic text. A genre that pleases audiences is reality TV; a good contemporary example is Big Brother that has predictable elements such as interactivity, where the audience votes unpopular members of the house out, and engineered disputes between the different characters, which are focused on in the editing phase of the production. The producers of the show call the genre a format, which seems to have become an interchangeable term.
Genre gives the audience expectations and determines the way they interpret the text. Genres are used in a whole variety of texts from tabloid newspapers, radio chat shows to soaps. A well known genre is that of horror. The audience expects to be scared, and the mediators play with these expectations. Mise-en-scène is vital in helping an audience determine the generic expectations.
Characters are often generically determined in certain texts. Audiences recognise these key elements of a genre and respond accordingly, if they read the text in the way the mediator prefers. These key elements can be called paradigms and two types have been identified:
1. Iconographic: signs and symbols
2. Structural: how structures in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender.
Generic subversion is becoming stronger and stronger in contemporary texts. A good example of this subversion is in the film Scary Movie where virtually every generic code is first identified, then played with, to the delight of many audiences.
Genres tend to become ‘tired’ over time, with audiences becoming less interested. The theorist Christian Metz identified four phases in this process: the initial phase, the classical phase, the declining phase and finally the parody phase. The disaster genre is a good example with The Towering Inferno in the classical phase and Airplane! as the final parody. To survive, genres mutate and join with others to form hybrid genres, such as Blade Runner, which was a hybrid of the Sci-Fi and Film Noir genres.
Going further
Genre can be linked firmly to the key concept of institution in media studies. Genres appeal to certain target audiences, for example, soap operas tend to have a gendered appeal (to women), which allows institutions to precisely market goods and services to this audience during commercial breaks. Genre also allows institutions to save money by standardising production – using the same sets, actors and scriptwriters for a series keeps costs down in a business where costs can spiral upwards and audiences can become easily bored. When costs can be accurately predicted, financial planning is easier and long-term contracts can be awarded to suppliers and actors. This generic approach to production can lead to predictability and can stifle creativity, as happened under the old Hollywood studio system that began to collapse in the 1970s.
A contemporary development has been genre hybridisation and the creation of cross genre texts where different genres are combined together to create a newer, fresher genre, which appeals to a new audience. A good contemporary example is the popular TV series CSI that combines the police procedural, crime and whodunit genres to create a new genre. Genres are no longer separate and unique, they increasingly lend and borrow from other texts; this is known as intertextuality and can be seen as a defining aspect of post modernism.
Genre can link naturally with the key concept of audience. Audiences like genre texts and actively seek them out for their own pleasure. Genre texts are reassuring to audiences because of their familiarity and promoting a God-like understanding of knowing roughly what the outcome will be. Audiences know what to expect and usually get it from a generic text. A genre that pleases audiences is reality TV; a good contemporary example is Big Brother that has predictable elements such as interactivity, where the audience votes unpopular members of the house out, and engineered disputes between the different characters, which are focused on in the editing phase of the production. The producers of the show call the genre a format, which seems to have become an interchangeable term.
medium shot
Close up
Long Shot
Shot Size
A professional looking video shoots pictures in recognisable shot sizes. These are different sizes of picture that have evolved to be most effective from the viewer’s point of view. Also by selecting different shot sizes and different camera angles you can edit the pictures together to make an interesting video.
Someone making a home video tries to contain all the activity in a Wide Shot which is not surprising as this is how the eye generally sees the world.
If you put yourself very close to the action or sit next to a person then your field of view is limited. The camera uses the zoom lens to restrict the view of the action or a person – Close Up - or widen the shot to include say two people – a Two Shot.
You can tell a story visually by filming it in three ways:
1 A Wide Shot of the whole scene – a person in a garden or lets say the beach (or football field) and the sea and some selected people about to swim (or do fitness training) on a cold day.
2 Close Ups of a person’s face- perhaps before and after the plunge into the freezing sea.
3 Medium Shots of one or two of the featured people before and after to show some of their features and to be able to distinguish them.
Put these shots together with a voice over commentary, and you could have a funny film about the joys of doing exercise in the middle of winter.
Camera Moves
To create a really professional look to your video you need to employ standard camera moves. The way you move your camera can be described in standard ways;
Zoom: In & out, By using the zoom control the camera seems to move closer to or further away from the subject. There is a difference between zooming and moving the camera itself closer or further away (tracking) – experiment and you can see the difference in the viewfinder. When a shot zooms in closer to the subject, it is called getting “tighter”. As the shot zooms out, it is getting “looser”.
Track: when the camera itself moves closer to the subject or further way. Track in or track out.
Pan: The camera moves left to right, or right to left with no up and down movement.
Tilt: The opposite to pan, the camera moves up and down, with no horizontal movement.
Follow shot: Any sort of shot when you are holding the camera, and you follow the action whilst walking or in a vehicle. Needs practice to keep it really steady.
In practice camera moves are often a combination of several basic moves. For example, when you’re zooming in, unless your subject is in the exact centre of frame, you’ll have to pan and/or tilt at the same time to end up with a good shot.
General Tips
Successful filming is about checking for things that could go wrong before they go wrong and spoil your video. Many people come back with no sound on their DV tapes, or really bad pictures because they have not checked that everything works before going out to film.
Before leaving for the location:
Check the mic on the camera works
Check the external mic works too
Check the camera works
Check the battery is fully charged
Take a spare battery with you
Don’t forget the tripod.
Remember to take mini DV tape or memory card
1. It is better to use preselected shot sizes such as a wide shot or close up, than to over use the zoom in and the zoom out – keep the zoom in for dramatic moments.
2. Video generally looks better with as much light as possible - within reason - on the subject or the action, so it is good to shoot outside with daylight.
3. If you are filming inside put on all the lights in the room. You can use film lights but they take some time setting up. Set the white balance for interior – some cameras have a button that will set the camera for interior and exterior shooting – remember to change it when you go back outside.
4. Shoot the same action with a variety of shots and from different angles and positions. Yes you need to ask people to do the same thing several times, in exactly the same way.
Shoot much more than you think you will need – video tape is cheap.
5. You may need permission to film in some public and private places – get this permission before arriving on location.
6. Get your friends to help - people usually find filming can be fun and you can always use another pair of hands.
Origins Of The Music Video
WHO INVENTED THE MUSIC VIDEO?
The music video is generally considered to have been born on the BBC’s Top of the Pops in November 1975. Glamorous rock band Queen found they were unable to appear on Top of the Pops as they were on tour.
They worked over two days and spent the considerable sum at that time of £4,000 on recording their latest single, Bohemian Rhapsody, on the relatively new medium of video tape.
There were no home video reorders until the late 70s/early 80s, but broadcasters were recording TV programme on huge 2 inch video tapes.
In fact, Queen were not the first band to make a video or film recording to promote a song on television.
It was The Beatles who can be credited – as with so many things to do with pop music - as the real inventors of the music video as a promotional tool.
By 1965 The Beatles had achieved worldwide fame, and they could not physically appear on all the television shows throughout the world that wanted them.. They also found appearing on live TV and live performances in general, to be repetitive and mundane, interfering with the creativity and freedom they found with studio recordings.
As far back as November, 1965, they made a series of promotional films specifically designed for television companies throughout the world. Promotional films with iconoclastic humour and a sense of fun were made of the singles We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper, Help!, Ticket To Ride and I Feel Fine. Some of these short films emerged in more sophisticated forms in The Beatles’ film Help.
On 19 - 20 May, 1966, the group filmed further promotional films for Paperback Writer and the less well known song Rain. Each video was assembled in both colour and black-and-white edits, as while America had been enjoying colour TV since the late 1950s, most European channels were still in the very early stages of colour broadcasts (Britain’s first colour broadcast came with BBC2’s transmission of the 1967 Wimbledon tournament). Several different takes of both Paperback Writer and Rain were filmed in order to give different versions to rival broadcasters, who could then boast of having Beatles ‘exclusives’.
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
1967 marked a real breakthrough in the evolution of the music video although they were still created on film - with the film promos for Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane.
On 30 - 31 January, 1967, The Beatles filmed a single promo film for each song and, for the first time, both films were created without any pretence of performing the song, allowing the feel of the songs to storyboard the action.
The feel of the films is much more sophisticated than the earlier efforts, with some impressively artistic cinematography (particularly on ‘Penny Lane’, where the setting sun creates some rather beautiful images).
The director was Peter Foldmann, a Swedish friend of Klaus Voormann, who The Beatles had known since their time in Hamburg in 1960. Voormann’s then-girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr became very close to the ‘fifth Beatle’ Stuart Sutcliffe and created the famed ‘mop top’ Beatles hairstyle. Voormann designed The Beatles black and white Revolver album cover. Klaus Voorman also designed The Beatles Anthology album covers, which used an intricate collage effect to tell The Beatles story across three integrated designs.
Arguably the most fun Beatles’ music video was their last - the one for Hello, Goodbye, filmed on 10 November, 1967, at the Saville Theatre, London, and directed by Paul McCartney himself - make sure you see the last minute or so.
THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
The culmination of the Beatles’ small-screen work came in 1967 with the small album and made for TV film The Magical Mystery Tour.
This was the closest thing to a feature-length music video.
Combining the very loose plotting of their first films with the anarchic randomness of their short promos, it was broadcast on Boxing Day 1967, a rare treat for the band’s eager fans.
Sadly, it was heavily criticized by the critics, and was unfairly viewed by many as a self-indulgent mess, bringing an unsatisfactory end to the Beatles’ TV work.
In fact the music is vintage Beatles, and seen as a prototype music video it is astonishingly good, very inventive and forward looking.
The Beatles last truly live television appearance was on 25 June 1967, where they performed the anthemic All You Need is Love as part of a famous BBC global satellite link-up, called Our World.
WHO INVENTED THE MUSIC VIDEO?
The music video is generally considered to have been born on the BBC’s Top of the Pops in November 1975. Glamorous rock band Queen found they were unable to appear on Top of the Pops as they were on tour.
They worked over two days and spent the considerable sum at that time of £4,000 on recording their latest single, Bohemian Rhapsody, on the relatively new medium of video tape.
There were no home video reorders until the late 70s/early 80s, but broadcasters were recording TV programme on huge 2 inch video tapes.
In fact, Queen were not the first band to make a video or film recording to promote a song on television.
It was The Beatles who can be credited – as with so many things to do with pop music - as the real inventors of the music video as a promotional tool.
By 1965 The Beatles had achieved worldwide fame, and they could not physically appear on all the television shows throughout the world that wanted them.. They also found appearing on live TV and live performances in general, to be repetitive and mundane, interfering with the creativity and freedom they found with studio recordings.
As far back as November, 1965, they made a series of promotional films specifically designed for television companies throughout the world. Promotional films with iconoclastic humour and a sense of fun were made of the singles We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper, Help!, Ticket To Ride and I Feel Fine. Some of these short films emerged in more sophisticated forms in The Beatles’ film Help.
On 19 - 20 May, 1966, the group filmed further promotional films for Paperback Writer and the less well known song Rain. Each video was assembled in both colour and black-and-white edits, as while America had been enjoying colour TV since the late 1950s, most European channels were still in the very early stages of colour broadcasts (Britain’s first colour broadcast came with BBC2’s transmission of the 1967 Wimbledon tournament). Several different takes of both Paperback Writer and Rain were filmed in order to give different versions to rival broadcasters, who could then boast of having Beatles ‘exclusives’.
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
1967 marked a real breakthrough in the evolution of the music video although they were still created on film - with the film promos for Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane.
On 30 - 31 January, 1967, The Beatles filmed a single promo film for each song and, for the first time, both films were created without any pretence of performing the song, allowing the feel of the songs to storyboard the action.
The feel of the films is much more sophisticated than the earlier efforts, with some impressively artistic cinematography (particularly on ‘Penny Lane’, where the setting sun creates some rather beautiful images).
The director was Peter Foldmann, a Swedish friend of Klaus Voormann, who The Beatles had known since their time in Hamburg in 1960. Voormann’s then-girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr became very close to the ‘fifth Beatle’ Stuart Sutcliffe and created the famed ‘mop top’ Beatles hairstyle. Voormann designed The Beatles black and white Revolver album cover. Klaus Voorman also designed The Beatles Anthology album covers, which used an intricate collage effect to tell The Beatles story across three integrated designs.
Arguably the most fun Beatles’ music video was their last - the one for Hello, Goodbye, filmed on 10 November, 1967, at the Saville Theatre, London, and directed by Paul McCartney himself - make sure you see the last minute or so.
THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
The culmination of the Beatles’ small-screen work came in 1967 with the small album and made for TV film The Magical Mystery Tour.
This was the closest thing to a feature-length music video.
Combining the very loose plotting of their first films with the anarchic randomness of their short promos, it was broadcast on Boxing Day 1967, a rare treat for the band’s eager fans.
Sadly, it was heavily criticized by the critics, and was unfairly viewed by many as a self-indulgent mess, bringing an unsatisfactory end to the Beatles’ TV work.
In fact the music is vintage Beatles, and seen as a prototype music video it is astonishingly good, very inventive and forward looking.
The Beatles last truly live television appearance was on 25 June 1967, where they performed the anthemic All You Need is Love as part of a famous BBC global satellite link-up, called Our World.
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