Styles, Conventions and Techniques

In this piece I will be writing about the different types of music videos and giving examples for each of the types.

In-concert or "as live":
These music videos are where the artist takes clips from concerts and uses them for their music video. This is used to give an effect of what it would be like to see what they are like live and get somewhat of an experience. This can also be done with VR (Virtual Reality) where people can experience what the concert is like and feel like they are there. 

                                                                  

This meets the live style of video as there is a crowd and the music is being played live
. 
Narrative and Interpretive:
These sort of music are usually used to allow the artist to show the the meaning behind a song and what the lyrics mean. These sort of music videos can be quite literal translations of the lyrics, but can also have a more interpretative approach. 

The music video is more of a literal meaning type of song, It shows how the black community work around the struggle of guns and drugs and police brutality in America and how people are still being treated as slaves. The video shows a small snip of what black people have to go through.

Surrealist/Absurdist:
These sort of music videos are usually far from what the lyrics actually mean and have little relationship to the lyrics. They can often come across unconventional to the type of music video, for example rap music, you'd expect chains, alcohol, cars, women and anything expensive. 



This music video fits the surrealist category as a lot of the stuff is unconventional and also, like in one part he is riding a cat. The lyrics express little to no meaning to what is happening in the video so fits the surrealist video to the tea. 

Impressionist:
These types of videos are there to create an emotional impact with the lyrics of the song. This can also be done to break the boundaries for how music videos are made for certain areas. Most of the artists that create "Impressionist" music videos usually have an artistic view on the world, and take longer creating their videos. 21 Savage's "Nothin' New" music video that is already on this blog could be put into this category because of the emotional impact that the video creates.



Intertextual:
These types of videos can reference other materials. These can usually be other songs, or artists or movies. These types of videos are also used for the movies. The artist uses clips from the film, and creates a video out of them. The film Black Panther that was recently released had a soundtrack for the film produced by Kendrick Lamar. With one of the songs being named "Black Panther". Artists can also use music videos, in a way of paying respect to an influence. 



The song "Pray For Me" features in the film as they enter the Korean casino. It shows reference to the film as the songs were specifically made for the film, but also some of the lyrics to the song are "I'm always ready to start a war again". This is linking to what happens throughout the film and what is happening later on in the scene.

Animation: 
This style isn't always used in music videos, however is starting to become more used in hip-hop music. An artist called Lil Uzi Vert uses animation for most, or all of his music videos, especially the japanese style anime. 



This song uses animation through parts of the song, and uses the animation to transition to the next scene in the video. Lil Uzi is known for using animation for his videos. Another popular one being "XO Tour Life".

Lip-Sync:
This is most common with narrative based music videos. Because the video is more based on a narrative, the artist has to lip-sync the lyrics as the min focus is the video itself. This can also depend on the speed of the song and the scene that is being filmed, for example, a high speed chase with normal paced audio. 




This song is mostly based on the video, and the areas where 21 is in the scene, he is having to lip sync. The scene where all the hostages are in the room, the movements are in slow mo, so he has to lip-sync the lyrics for the video to match the song as the audio is at a normal speed.


Editing:
Editing in music videos can make any music video seem a certain way, depending on how shots are placed and when cuts are made. 




The one that I chose off of the list was "Wyclef Jean" by Young Thug. The thing that interested me about this video before I'd clicked on it was the fact that it was a hip-hop song so it's the genre of music I listen to. The video itself is really good. The fact that the artist didn't show up and the video went so well means a lot. The editing made the video comical and the writing describing stuff kinda made the song, somewhat irrelevant in my opinion and was more about the video. My favourite part is one of the first scenes where Young Thug is saying what he wants fr the music video and how the cars are all in the same spot but switch between each car, and then when more cars start to appear as they talk about what they want. 

Cutting to the beat:
A music video where the song or shots cut to the beat and more rhythm to your shots.



The song cuts to the beat where it glitches between shots and when the beat switches to move on the next scene. The video cuts between three places and uses the beat to switch between them all.

Post-production effects:
Artists use visual effects to attract the attention of an audience, or use them to do things that you can't do in real life, such as turning someone from a skeleton to a human, which is what Travis Scott does in Goosebumps.




Travis Scott uses visual effects in most of his videos. Another example would be "Butterfly Effect", as this uses a lot of visual affects, however, doesn't uses as many as Goosebumps. Goosebumps uses a lot of colour grading and animating throughout the video to make it seem quite euphoric. 

Split screen:
This type of music video is where multiple or more than one image is on the screen with both the images being in different places. These types of videos aren't very common and are mostly made by people who want to create an artistic view to the song, or want to give it some sort of meaning. 



This music video fits the split screen category as it shows different images throughout the video at the same time. The video uses two images side by side and makes them look like the fit together in an odd way, even though the images are completely different, wether it be the colours or the locations or the actual images themselves. 


Chroma key:
These types of videos are where the person or people are in front of a green screen and the unwanted colour is blocked out so that the secondary image, which is layered behind is visible, this is Chroma key. 



Although I have already used this song as an example for a different part, it fits in with the chroma key, as you can see by the video thumbnail. Their heads are bigger and on top of their bodies and the beach background is on a green screen behind them, this being chroma keyed. 

Camera movements:
This is where the music video uses a lot of camera movements, such as a crab, pan and a crane. This can be used to create a flow to the video and make it interesting for the audience. 




God's Plan uses a lot of different camera movements to show and create emphasis in certain parts of the song. It uses the crane when he's on the building and could link in with the title God's Plan as they God is considered higher up. They also uses a lot of crab and pan shots to show different parts of the city and the area that they are filming in. 


Camera angles and shot types:
The creator of the music video can make the video seem more impactful and give things more meaning through the types of shots and angles used. An example would be a close up to show the expression on somebody's face.



Beibs in the trap uses a lot of different camera angles and shot types throughout the video. I don't believe that it adds more meaning to the shots for this song in particular, however, I do believe that it highlights specific things more by the angles and shots used as there is more focus towards these things through the shots and angles used.
Mise-en-scene:
The mise-en-scene is to do with the lighting, objects, setting, etc, to help carry on the mood of the song into the video. Some examples I think that use this well are :
Ed Sheeran - Perfect
I believe that this works really well with the song because of the types of lighting used. The types of lighting used are the types that you would see in a romantic film so I believe that this works well.
Ed Sheehan - Thinking out loud
I believe that this one works really well as the setting fits the song really well and again goes along with the romantic film setting again very well and uses mise-en-scene very well, this being the lighting, costumes, objects used and the setting. 

The Requirements of Working to a Brief

Briefs:

• A brief is something giving to somebody as a guideline or set of instructions about a task or job they have to complete.  
• A commission is an instruction, command or role given to someone or a group of people.
• The term tender is used to describe a situation where a client will advertise their brief and production companies will pitch ideas and proposals. The client can then decide who want to do the brief. 
• You can respond to a brief by setting a theme, maintain credibility and also leave out weak arguments. 

Reading a Brief:

When following the brief for our Esting, we had set guidelines that we had to follow for our animation to be viable for the Esting competition. Some of things that we had to follow were:

• The animation had to be 10 seconds exactly 
• We had to use the E4 logo
• We had to use soundtracks that E4 use for their Estings
• It had to be stop motion

These things were part of the nature of the brief that we had to follow. 

Negotiating a brief:

• When we had the brief, we didn't have many things to negotiate in the fact that most things were already set for us, being the things that I listed above. If we didn't follow the brief, our entry wouldn't have been taken into consideration.
• When you take on a brief from a client or employer, both parties have to come to an agreement about the brief before it can go ahead. If you don't understand the brief, the product can end up being wrong and you could end up not getting paid. 
• The constraints that we faced were only to do with copyright for sound affects and the things that the brief had that weren't up for negotiation, being time limit, and it having to be a stop motion. Constraints that you could face when responding to a brief re things that are pre-set, like soundtracks and and things like copyright issues, similar to the constraints that we faced. 
• The only amendments that I had to make to my Esting was something to do with the sound being out of time on a certain point, other than that, there wasn't anything.
• There may be amendments to be made to the budge if there isn't enough money for the production to be made or if the production takes longer than expected. There may be amendments needed to the outlines in the contract depending time, being if enough time is given, or if the money in enough for the amount of work. One final thing there may need to be amendments needed for are personal fees. This can be discussed because of equipment used, travel and crew members. The fees can be made more if the production company feels that the fees are to low. 

Opportunities:

• Somebody might respond to a brief to negotiate certain parts of a brief, or to get a better understanding of what the brief wants so that they can get the production done right. 
• Opportunities that i had for self-improvement were for me, the camera working section. I've previously not had much experience with  camera, so I can say that I've definitely improved in my camera skills. 
• New skills that I learnt were to do with the camera and lighting. I also created new skills in clay modeling and building a set. I also developed my editing skills as i had to do colour grading as my camera skills still aren't the best and because shots were taken in different parts of the day.
• At some points I had to multi-skill with sorting out the camera, being lighting or moving it around and moving the clay around, and adjusting it. 
• The thing that I contributed to the brief is my bowling animation/ESting. It was a stop motion animation where the bowling ball was rolled down an alley and hit the pins and bounced back off the pins and splatted, turning into the E4 logo. 

Drafts For Clown Business

Draft 1:


Draft 2:

Final Draft:

The Purpose of Music Videos

Intro:
In this essay, I will discussing the purpose of a music video, and the steps leading up to the release and after the release. The emergence of music videos throughout the past few years has been rapid. One of the main reasons for this is because more artist are creating music videos because of YouTube and how easy it is to access and upload a video. 

Paragraph 1:
When artists start out, they are usually quite small, unless your parents are famous, like Jaden Smith. Most artist have to promote themselves or get lucky and be picked up by a record label who will promote the artist. The most famous person for this to happen to would be Justin Bieber who made videos on YouTube and was picked up by Kanye West. One way artists can be promoted is by getting an agent who gets them work, for example on TV shows, at festivals etc. One final way artists are promoted is through their image and what style of clothes they wear and what their known for. An example for this would be Lady gaga with the meat dress.

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Producers have certain strategies when it comes to promoting artists. Some of these can be based on what sort of clothes the artist wears and the interests that the artist has. The producers can put things into the music video, like things that he artist is known for, this could be something like a certain type of alcohol or brand of clothes. An artist called Young M.A create a music video for her song OOOUUU which featured a lot of Hennessy. This is both product placement, but also promotes the artist as when people see Hennessy, they think of the song. One final thing producers do to promote an artist is look at the music videos for that particular genre or the artist if they've made videos before and take these into account when creating the video. An example would be for Hip-Hop videos where alcohol, jewellery and good looking people wearing minimal clothes are usually present. 



Paragraph 3:
When it comes to music, money becomes a big factor. Record labels help promote an artist by paying for their music videos and other things. Before music videos, the ways for artists getting paid was through radio plays, vinyls, CD's and royalties, however the music video offers a new way for artists and record labels to earn more money because of how easy it is to access the videos. Every time somebody looks at the video, or watches an advert about the video, both the artist and the record label get paid. 

Paragraph 4:
When artists make songs, they sometimes create a music video to go with the song. Something that artists do when they are releasing a video or song, or have already released it is promotion. Promotion can be done in numerous ways. One of them being online. This is usually done through adverts on YouTube videos as this is the most popular platform for people to put music videos onto. Also with YouTube, people can make videos addressing the details of the upcoming video. Another thing online is social media. Things like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat can be used to advertise a music video. Artists can pay for an advert and it will come up and quite a few people's account, this happens quite a lot on Instagram and is put as a sponsored ad. One other thing artists can do with social media is make an account and advertise their music video as much as they like for free. The photo below is taken from an artist called Nav who used his Instagram account to promote his music video for his song "Wanted you" with Lil Uzi Vert.

Animation Evaluation

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Z26MP5Z

Step One:

All the people that filled out my survey were between the ages of 15-19 which was the age for my intended target audience, 80% of the people were male and 90% were students. out of all the people most said that they like animation as a whole and all the people said that they enjoyed my animation. For the improvements that could've been made, most people said "n/a" and a few made comments of the claymation which is something to think more about if I make another claymation. For what people would've done differently, most people replied "n/a", one person said "use a tripod" which I did so that isn't a valid comment, and another one said sort out the set walls which is fair enough as I didn't have enough time to do so. If I did I would've addressed this. For the genre most people said they thought it was a comedy, which was the genre I was aiming for, which is shown when the ball bounces off of the bowling pins. All of the feedback that I got for my animation was taken from a survey.

Step Two:

For my animation, I am doing a written report and it can be structured a lot better and in some ways is seen as more professional. To widen the audience of people that saw my animation, I could've shared it to Facebook, and sent it to people and asked them what they thought of the animation afterwards. With the Facebook post, I could've linked the survey so I could've got more responses. All my feedback that i got was from my survey that is linked at the top of the page, and also there is a Flipsnack of the results I received. 

Throughout my Esting, I didn't face any issues, we had guidelines to follow and we weren't allowed to use copyrighted things, which is set up by the law but that didn't affect my animation as we had all the soundtracks provided for us. For the sound affects, I used a website called freesound.org. For my animation.

Step Three:

When making my animation, the only constraints that we really faced were copyright which I mentioned in step two and what I did to get around this, being that I used freesound.org for sound affects and all the soundtracks were provided for us. This was another constraint as we had to use one, however there was multiple ones so we had quite a few to choose from. Also if we wanted to film in certain locations, we had to get a location recce giving us permission to use the area. 

I managed my time quite well, I finished the filming in the time that I wanted to and the whole piece was finished before the deadline. The bit that took the longest was making the clay figures, mainly the bowling pins because of the smaller details. One thing that did take longer than I expected was the pre-production, however I think this is because I was ill for a day, however the whole piece was done before the deadline. Overall I think that I managed myself quite well, however I didn't really feel the need to have a sheet planned out with what days I was going to shoot and edit because it puts more pressure and makes it a lot more rushed. Because of this I mostly ignored the sheet and did it in my own time and not planned out lesson by lesson and it came out exactly how I wanted it to. 

For the requirements for the brief, I did meet them as I had to make it a ten second animation, which I did, and used no copyrighted pieces. My animation met the guidance set-up of E4 because of it being ten seconds, using the E4 soundtracks, has no copyright, includes the E4 logo and is an type of animation. My type of animation that I used is stop motion. 

I obtained my feedback from the other students in my class and also one of my tutors. We filled out feedback on sheets and our teacher scanned them and emailed them around our class. We then also created surveys, which is linked at the top of my page, and then sent them round our class for people to answer, and then took this feedback and made it into a flipsnack which is at the top of the page. 

I feel that I have learnt more about animation and more about editing, but also more about how to use a camera. My skills for all of these have developed well as we had to do the project by ourselves. I didn't find working to the brief hard as it was quite open in some ways as we were able to create any sort of animation we wanted as long as it was 10 seconds long, and also that it included the E4 logo. I don't think the brief meant that I couldn't be more creative as I feel that it was quite open, as I mentioned and gave us a numerous amount of options. 

If I wanted to go into the media industry, I think that I would be a suitable candidate as I can follow a brief well and get the work done on time. This is a valuable skill I can take into the workplace, and if I do decide to go into the media industry, I believe that I will be able to as I can follow a brief well and get it done how it wants i, and also get it done for the deadline which has been set. 

For me, I don't feel that I would go into animation and don't see it as viable career for me personally. I really like certain types of animation, being computerized animation, however, I don't feel that I would want to take it further.

How a Writer Works: Commissioning Process

History of Music Vidoes

Through the years, music videos have developed hugely, to how the are shot, what is used, being the cameras and props and sets and how the animation has changed so much from the first major music video in 1975 by Queen. Because of the limited technology, it was decent for it's time, but by today's standard is quite boring. The videos started to use animation a lot more and special effects because the technology improved a lot more and there was more money in music videos as people wanted to see more of them. MTV was created and artist started to release music videos on VHS. As the type of music went from rock and more towards rap and pop music, the colours used in the videos started to get a lot brighter, this was shown in both lady Gaga's video and Missy Elliot's. In Lady Gaga's video, she showed more skin than most videos used to show. This started to create new boundaries for music and what goes onto music videos nowadays and how it is seen as a normal thing to be shown. One song that did do something similar to a more modern day type of video was in Laura Branigans's video in 1984 for "Self Control", which was quite a sexualized video which changed how music videos were seen. The 80s was also quite a sexual era so it fitted in with the time, however is disturbing in some ways because it feels a bit creepy. In 1986, a song called Sledgehammer was made and the music video of it crossed animation with real life and the outcome was brilliant, it was really good for the time it was made, but by nowadays standards, it is still seen as good because of the story line it follows, and how it is so fluent. In 1995, Michael Jackson created the most expensive music video for "Scream" with his sister Janet Jackson, and in 1996 Smashing Pumpkins brought out a song, with the music video based on a film made decades before called "A Trip To the Moon". In 1999, M2 was created and this was because music videos were being replaced with other content on MTV. In 2000 this was then changed to MTV2. In 2005, YouTube was launched, and artists started to use this so that they could gain popularity, and smaller artists continued to grow through the internet. In 2007, Sony launched a website called MusicBox, and this was the first music streaming site of it's kind, this meaning to be launched by a major label. In 2008, Missy Elliot brought out the first 3D music video, an this lead to 2010 where Lady Gaga's poker face has 375 million views. This growth in music videos meant that artists started to grow a lot more and YouTube became a platform for music videos. The growth of music videos meant that companies wanted to collaborate. With this Doritos made a music video with Professor Green. This was to promote Doritos "late night" campaign. Now YouTube is used as the main platform for music videos and over 300 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute.