Conventions of form and genre

There are a lot of conventions of music videos in general and these can range from the macro elements such as narrative, to the micro's which include aspects of cinematography and editing especially.

Editing to the Beat

One of the key conventions of music videos is the art of editing to the beat which is a difficult skill in its self and takes up a lot of time to get it right with the clips that you have and incorporating them into the video.

One excellent example of editing to the beat is DJ Fresh's Louder:




One of the main reasons why this video is successful is because of the editing to the beat that takes place throughout the song to make the narrative seem that much more crisp and clean and makes it actually look like it fits in with the song.

Throughout the video we see consistently excellent work with the editing. For example in the beginning of the video the song starts of slowly, thus so does the narrative, and this is captured by the lack of edits and the fact that the video is slowed down in post to match the speed of the song. Some of the edits are on the strongest beat of the song however some are on slightly weaker beats of the song but in contrast to the rest of the video the edits are on the stronger beats meaning more edits and faster edits as the song progresses through its stages. Going back to what i said earlier about the slow motion, throughout the video if the rhythm of the song is slow then the action of the video is slow, this incorporates both the slow motion of the editing and the amount of edits that are used in the designated parts. Interestingly the song uses no lip syncing which is a convention of the majority of music videos, but this is down to the conventions of the genre and I will come back to this song when it gets to it. but I can not stress the importance of this convention (editing to the beat), in many ways it is one of the major factors that makes a successful music video.

As I have mentioned before editing to the beat of the song is actually a very hard skill to do, so I did a bit of research and found out the best way to achieve this using Final Cut Pro, which is one of the video editing software's which I will be using inside of college. Here is the Tutorial I looked at.

Final Cut Pro X


There is another type of editing software that can be used at college to edit my video and this is Adobe Premiere Pro and I also looked for a tutorial for that as well just in case i later decide to edit my music video using the different software. Again here is the tutorial.

Adobe Premiere Pro



There also is another editing program which is not supplied by college but one which I own at home and this would be my preferred program of choice as it is the one which I am most used to using, and this is Sony Vegas Pro and I have also looked at ways to edit to the beat on this program so I can do some editing if not all of it outside of college to suit my personal preference. For the last time for editing to the beat here is the tutorial for that software. Its not the best but it explains the principals quite well

Sony Vegas Pro



Lip Syncing

Another convention of a successful music video is the incredibly stressful and difficult skill of lip syncing the soundtrack to the scenes of the video, if it is a performance based clip which again is also based on genre so I will get to that in a bit. However if this skill is pulled off to a high standard it makes the video seem at least 10 times more appealing.

One excellent display of lip-syncing is Bruno Mars - When I Was Your Man

One reason that this is a good video and example of lip syncing is because it is a performance clip and the words are in time with the miming to make it look as though the artist is actually singing the words of the song, also when he sings the high notes it actually looks like he is putting in the effort which would be needed to sing those notes if he was performing live. This makes the video look less artificial than what it actually is.

As I just mentioned the lip syncing looks as real as can be in this video and makes it seem as though it is actually a performance, hence the term performance video, however there is other types of lip syncing that can occur in narrative but they are usually used sparingly during this ans this is because of a few reasons, but one in particular. If you have a narrative in the video where you have someone being chased lets say by the police then they are not going to be able to sing the song whilst running away from the pursuing party as they would more than likely be a out of breath and why would they be singing in a situation like that anyway, it just leads to a break in the diegesis that the narrative to the video originally created. One way in which they try to avoid this is by adding a performance section in the video which gently breaks the narrative of the video so we can see the artist singing, that is of course if there is any singing in the song, which again depends on the genre that the song is. however, not veering away from the point, breaking away slowly at appropriate breaks in the narrative allows the level of diegesis to still be in tact.

This is a difficult skill to perfect but if it is done properly it looks very good indeed, so I found some tips to help make the lip-syncing in my video as effective as I can. I start off with this interesting piece which these guys put together and it shows how different effects of lip syncing can be achieved.



This next clip certainly is not the best one but it still has some helpful tips that could be incorporated into my video.


Genre
Like the conventions of the music video something which is just as important is the conventions of the genre, because it is that which in turn effects the conventions of the form, like the lip syncing and the editing on the beat of the song. It also effects some of the other factors that are incorporated into such as the narrative of the video and the type of the video that it falls into, weather it will be a performance video, a narrative video or an abstract video.

House/Dance
This genre usually follows the majority of the conventions but in different ways, for example the type of narrative that the genre tends to follow is that of a mixture of narrative and of abstract as  there is sort of a story line but a very loose one and there is often things that don't make sense and there is also little, if not no performance clips, because the majority of these are often DJ's, here are 3 examples of what I am talking about.



This song has a bit of a narrative but not one that goes with the lyrics, and there is also none of the conventions for other genres of music.




Again there is not really any relations to the lyrics of the song, apart from the fact that the actors in the video are wearing animal masks.



  Here there is again not really any relation to the song and there is just a random story line filled with dancing, which has nothing to do with the song, I think that they just made a video for the fact of making a music video.


Pop Music
The next genre which I am going to be looking at is that of the pop genre which feature more often than not a use of all three of the narrative techniques, narrative performance and abstract and includes lip syncing. Again here are three examples which prove my point and incorporate all three of the narrative types.





Rap
The other genre which I am going to be showing you about is the rap genre and this genre focuses more on the performance and abstract versions of the narrative, with strong links to guns, cars and above all girls, again these can be seen in the following three videos.








Indie/Alternate
The final genre I am going to be focusing on is the Indie genre and the conventions of this genre are they will usually do a video which follows a narrative and they will also have a performance elements in it. For the last time here is the three clips that back up my point.

3 Textual Analysis

Chris Brown - Loyal (Explicit) ft. Lil Wayne, Tyga:

Language:
This video gives the audience the impression that the artist wants to be seen as being successful. the way that this is done is by adding the conventions of a rap video for example straight away we see Lil Wayne in his opening verse surrounded by a group of dancing women, showing he is successful with women. The first shot of the video is the main artist Chris Brown and he is wearing a big gold ring and is wearing clothes which resemble grime or street clothes this is showing the audience that he is up to date and fashionable and cares about his image that he is trying to create. The outfits that the artist are wearing suggests that they are cool and rich because of all of the gold they are wearing. Chris Brown also likes to show off the fact that he can dance, this is done by adding complicated dance scenes in the video.

Institution

The record was distributed by his own label CBE which means he can distribute world wide but not have any of the big three take away money from the record, the only reason he can do this is because his name is so well recognized around the world.

Ideology

The ideology of the video is that they are successful and powerful, and they show this by having girls dancing around them throughout the whole video, objectifying them, and this mixed with the low camera angle shows that they are powerful in what they do and they are successful on the streets.

Audience
The target audience of the video is young males around 16-24 as they are trying to show how to be successful, and they are wearing fashionable clothes and are surrounded by girls which is what most young males want.

Representation
The video represents the artists and people who want to be like them. People who share the same ideology and beliefs as they do. They represent their group as 'street' people, this is done by having the shots for the video to be in the streets, this can also be shown by the types of clothes that they wear, they wear things that you would associate with gangsters or the sort of people that you don't want to mess with them. this is also shown by the way they represent women in the video, they show women as to be like objects, this is done by the artists having multiple women dance around them, which gives them the image that they are irresistible to women and showing the audience that if you listen to their music you to could be as successful as they are.


Cinematography.
-Low angles
-pan up
-track backs
-close ups
-long shots
-mostly a handheld camera
-360 degree pan
-establishing shot
-depth of field
-crane camera
-high angle

Mise-en-scene
-boombox
-artist always centered during dance routines
-girls dancing, and always dressed in the same outfits
-multiple outfits for the artists, to make them stand out (fashionable)
-dance routines
-the artists take up most of the screen (rule of thirds)
-they wear timberland's in a dance routine
-night time
-outside, urban areas
-neon lights
-artists wear jewelry
-the artist Tyga has a pet Tiger.

Editing
-cross cuts
-there is a CGI bear head in the video
-post process zooming in
-jump cuts
-visual effects, turned the image into a checkered board

Sound
-there is  the diegetic sound of the soundtrack, and apart from that nothing else
-sound bridge at the beginning of the video, the music starts playing when the artist presses play on the boombox

The cinematography of the video contains a lot of low angles to make the performers look more powerful and dominant to the audience this is coupled with the pans upward which add to the type of language which they want to portray. They also use a lot of tracking back to accompany the dance routines that appear in the video this is also used with a crane to show off the full routine, the shots used are long shots for these routines as they need to show the whole thing. for some of the video there is use of a handheld camera, this is used to make the audience feel like they are part of the action, there is also a 360 degree pan to show disorientation in the video.

The mise-en-scene fits in with the style of the video as there is a boombox at the beginning to show that they are cool and keep up to date with the latest trends. The positioning of the artist is always centered in the dance routines as well, the dancers are all wearing the same costumes in the dance scenes suggesting that they are all the same and not individuals and even the dance routines themselves are rather sexualized the fat that it is night time and is in an urban area further backing up the point that they are 'gangsters' and like outlaws.

The editing is full or regular cuts, but there is an occasional fancy transition and effect to show that they still try to have fun and show that they don't take themselves too seriously, this can be shown by the checkered board transition effect and the CGI bear head which they have in the video for no reason, trying to make themselves look more spontaneous. There is also some post process zooming in because the camera cant zoom in as fast as they would like it too.

The only sound which is in this video is the diegetic sound of the music in the background of the video, even before the artist presses play on the boombox, that shows that the boombox is synced up with the music.


Ed Sheeran - Sing




Language
This video gives the audience the impression that the artist is shown as someone who knows how to have fun and doesn't take themselves too seriously hence why he is a puppet for most of the video, and he still manages to get a girl so it suggests that no matter what he looks like he is still going to be successful.

Institution
The record was distributed by Asylum Atlantic which is a conglomerate of Warner Music Group, one of the big three, which is why the song has been distributed on a worldwide scale.

Ideology
The ideology behind this video is that anyone can enjoy the life that the artist has, this is portrayed by the fact that he is a puppet and is still managing to attract the girls and have fun. The title of the sing also provides us with some ideology, it is called sing, which suggests that it it about the puppets rise to fame which also connotes the message that it doesn't matter what you look like, if you are good, you are good.

Audience
The target audience for this video is teenage females, around 16 - 21 as they are the age which are represented in the video and the most likely to go out for nights out, also the video is done in a very light manor, with the puppet and the editing involved in the video. and it is aimed at young males who want to copy his lifestyle.

Representation
The video represents the artists view on his love and how other people should want it because of all of the fun that he is having in the video, it shows that tat is the most important aspect, in other words he doesn't sing just because he can, he sings because he finds it fun and he enjoys doing it. The message that the video gives me is that it doesn't matter what you do as long as you enjoy doing it and you find it fun.

Cinematography
-low angle
-establishing shot
-handheld camera
-pan
-track
-close ups
-dutch tilt to represent being drunk
-zoom
-extreme close up

Mise-en-Scene
-car
-night time
-under the bridge
-Limo
-puppet
-cardboard boxes
-drinks
-neon lights
-microphone
-beats headset
-guitar

Editing
-green screen the puppet
-abstract background
-layering the puppet
-cross cut
-jump cut
-fade transition
-swipe transition
-song name graphic

Sound
-diegetic soundtrack
-diegetic tire screech
-diegetic birds chirping

The cinematography of the video contains a lot of low angles, this is for two reasons, one of which is to make the performer look more powerful compared to everyone else, and the other reason is that the performer in the video happens to be a puppet which are significantly smaller than people are. There are also a lot of establishing shots in the video as well, these are for obvious reasons, which are to set the scene of the video, this ranges from the bar which the performer enters, to the street on which he is walking down. Throughout the video the main camera usage is handheld, this is done to give the feeling that there is a lot happening in the video and that you as the audience can feel closer and more involved in the action. there is some pans of he bar as well so you get a feel for the action that is in the video, this is mainly to show what the character is looking at. A track is used at the beginning of the video to follow the care to the scene in which the video will be in, there is also a track in the limo scene to again get the audience to feel closer, and more involved with the artist.The video also contains a lot of close ups of the artists face, to show and lip syncing or emotion, which are conventions of a music video, this still applies although the artist is in fact a puppet. There is some representation of being drunk in this video as well, as that is one of the main aims of the video, this can be seen as there is a dutch tilt being used in the video, this gives a comfortless feeling and is unnatural for the audience, this is why the tilt is so popular in videos to represent being drunk, or the using of drugs. There are a lot of zooms throughout the video, and the majority of which are fast zooms, this is used to indicate the pace of the video and what is going on, to make the performer look like they are having a good time.

The mise-en-scene is relevant to the video as it helps to tell the story of the song, which is what the artist wants to do, at first we see a car and it is going out of control, the car is white, which could indicate that the driver is innocent, but the fact that the car is spinning out of control contradicts that statement. The video is set at night time, this suggests that the video is going to be focusing on the wild side, as night time is usually when people go out and also it is associated with people drinking and it can be associated with prostitutes, suggesting that this video is not going to be a nice romantic video. the fact that the beginning of this video takes place under the bridge signifies that this is a rough area to be in and is definitely not somewhere where you would be going on a posh night out, when i think of somewhere under a bridge at night time i often think of the lower class and that leads to prostitutes being there. Further on in the video there is an image of the artist in a limo, this suggests that he is still seen as famous and is still seen to be powerful in this area, not just purely because he has a limo, but in the limo there are a lot of girls, which in music videos this often resembles people to be successful. The fact that the artist is a puppet in this video leads to me thinking that he has two personalities and that this one is forced upon him because you usually see a puppet being controlled by someone with the strings, so maybe this could be a gesture towards the alcohol being the puppet master and controlling the artist to do this and be a part of this scene. At the beginning of the video the artist is in his car and he is rather recklessly smashing through a pile of boxes that have been conveniently placed in the middle of the road and shaped like a triangle, however the fact that he crashed through them suggests that he does not care about what he is doing, this could also resemble his personality after the alcohol kicks in, before he is neat and tidy, and then after he is all over the place. As i have already mentioned, in the video there is a big theme surrounding alcohol and even in the video we witness the artist drinking more drinks to get even more drunk thus fueling his drunkenness and keeping him as a puppet in this diegesis. The neon lights which are dotted around signal that again it is night time and that he is in the place where he can go to get drunk.

There is a lot of editing being used in this video, for instance almost all of the scenes with the puppet in them have been green screened so it becomes easier to manipulate the puppet and put him where he is needed to be put, for instance when he is walking down the road and there is a long shot of him, he has effectively been layered onto the video in post production. In parts of the video there is an image of the two artists in the video and they have both been green screened onto the background on which they are on, the background itself is very reminiscent of something which you would likely see inside someones hallucination, suggesting that it is from the effects of drugs and alcohol. There is a lot of cross cuts in the video so you can see what the artist is supposed to be looking at as they are a puppet. There are also a lot of jump cuts in the video to show that there is a lot of things to be focused on which have a lot of relevance to the video. There is some fade transitions, this is to show the passage of time in the video. There is also some swipe transitions to show that the artist is having fun as they are experimenting with transitions rather than using just a regular jump cut or a fade. They also have the name of the song on a graphic which is a feature of the music videos.

In terms of sound on this video there is again not really a lot to talk about as through the entire song there is the diegetic sound of the music in the background, the only exception of this is at the beginning where you can here the sound of the tires screeching to add emphasis of the character being drunk and crashing around etc.

Hoodie Allen - No Interruption 



Language
This video gives the audience the impression that the artist in the video is a bit of a trouble causer and would rather have fun then do as he is told, as he is shown to be riding around in a car having fun while he is being wanted by the gang leader or something. The fact that the other people in the video are female shows that he sees himself as successful with the women and that he can get away with what he wants thus leading to him getting away with keeping the tape on his person.

Institution
The record was distributed by himself Via I tunes and his website, allowing him to make all of the money that he makes with none of it going to any record label.

Ideology
The Ideology behind this video is that if you are successful you can do what you want, this is shown by The artist messing around in the back of a drifting car with tow females, although their job is to get the tape off of him, at the end of the video it is revealed that he still has the tape which is taped to his leg. This attempts to prove the ideology because he got his way in the end, also the title of the song 'no Interruption' suggests that when it comes to females the artist does not really care about them and would rather just treat them as an accessory to himself, suggesting that they should care more for him than he does for them.

Audience
The audience for this video is mainly young male adults, roughly around the ages 16-25 this is because of the ideology that this song portrays, which is girls and the Audience that i have suggested are mainly the type of age group in which we associate them to be obsessed with girls and sex, as they are at the stage where hormones begin to kick in and they think that the song will help them to achieve their goals, by giving them the 'right' attitude to have.

Representation
The video represents the artists view on women in my opinion and it looks to me as if he is saying that they are easy to get around and still have fun with them. This is shown by the attempt by the women in this video to retrieve the tape off of the artist and they are failing to do so and he is still messing around with them and having fun. To back up my point if this was not the case then why are there no male actors trying to retrieve the case from the artist.

Cinematography
-Long-shots
-Poorly framed at the beginning
-Establishing shot
-Extreme close ups
-Medium shot
-Point of view shot
-Rule of thirds
-Stedi-cam

Mise-en-scene
-Girls
-Industrial estate
-Blonde wig
-Blindfold
-File
-Sunglasses
-Lampshade
-Suit
-Ford mustang
-Bright dresses
-Photos in the file
-Sparkly helmet
-Pink radio
-Chainsaw
-Rope
-Crowbar
-Tape

Editing
-On the beat of the song
-Cross cuts
-Jump cuts
-Slow motion
-Keep in time with the song

Sound
-Diegetic Soundtrack

The cinematography of contains  a lot of long shots, for example the very first shot we see is a long shot as so are the majority of the other shots when there is s the main artist with the girls or when it is just the girls in the video, which completely contrasts with when it is just the artist in the shot as these happen to all be either close ups or extreme close ups.The fact that the opening shot is so poorly framed makes me think that there has to be an underlining reason to this otherwise it just looks poor and unprofessional. In my opinion the reasoning behind this is because he is trying to suggest that when girls are not in your life or taking up your time you have a lot of free space to and nothing to fill it with and it looks dull and not very appealing whereas the shot after is one where the woman takes up the majority of the screen and is well framed, suggesting that when women are in your life they take up the majority of your time, this can also signal males going through puberty which is partially why I think that the target audience is for young males aged between 16-25. We also have an establishing shot to show where they are which is of importance when we get to the mise-en-scene.There is a lot of extreme close ups to show the emotions of the artist, and throughout the whole video he looks like he is enjoying himself and having fun where as when it comes to the close ups of the women they seem to be emotionless. In terms of the rule of thirds, the artist appears to take up more of the screen than the females, this is suggesting that he sees himself as superior. During the scene in the back of the car the camera is on a stedi-cam to make the car look still but you see the artist and the actresses in the back looking like they are falling all over the place and having fun.

The mise-en-scene of the video is a bit all over the place as there is unnecessary items that seem to be dotted around in the video just for the fun of it, this is probably to show the fun side of the artist. We see girls all over the place and all over him, this is suggesting that he really does like the female attention which is a typical stereotype of the target audience of this video. They are on a n industrial state which helps with the understanding of the narrative, which is they want the tape of his album so the boos sends out the girls to attempt to retrieve it by seducing the artist, however this does not work as we find out he still has it at the end of the video, and we see the artist smiling which suggests that they have been double bluffed.For some reason there is a blonde wig which a woman is wearing, to me this is again backing up the narrative as she takes it off and starts running towards the car, which suggests that the woman is undercover trying to get this mix tape, which so happens to be one of the artists, backing up the point that he thinks that he is successful. The boss of this gang or what ever it appears to be has a file which adds to the narrative because in this file there is a couple of photographs, one of these is the mix tape and the other one is a photo of the artist. In the video the artist is wearing a suit, which is a symbol of maturity, contrasting the image that he portrays in the video, which to me suggests that he has the appearance of and adult however he still doesn't want  to grow up and act his age, so it does fit in with the theme of the video. In addition to the suit the artist is wearing a blindfold, which both fits in with the story line and it has a hidden meaning, which is now he is growing older he is going forward blindly, or he wants to stay young for as long as he can and does not want to worry about 'grown up' things just yet, for example bills. In the video the car that they ride in is a Ford Mustang which again is a symbol of youth as well as it is wealth which fits in with my theory that he doesn't want to grow older and is still acting like a teenager. Some of the things that make no sense in the video are the chainsaw and the radio, as they are just there, maybe as a sign of rebellion which is what young people tend to do, and they are both pink as well which suggests that it is the females and that it has been personalized, this is suggesting that the females are rebelling as well but they are too weak for the artist. Finally we have the tape, which fits in with the narrative as that is what the antagonist is after. However it is also noted that the tape is actually a mix tape which is created by the artist which is suggesting that the artist sees himself as a star and that everyone wants the secret to his music. This shows him to be confident and cocky, which is rather like how a teenager would act which again is agreeing with my theories and narrative.

Not a lot of difficult edits have been made in this video which is a bit disappointing given the fact that the video is suggesting the theme of youth as young people like to experiment, so i would have thought that that would be the case. However they have stuck to the regular jump cuts and cross cuts when the boss is looking through the files. The jump cuts and cross cuts are also on the beat of the song to make the editing look more smooth and professional. What is done well is the slow motion effect which they have added to some of the shots during post production as they have made it sync up with the beat of the song, for example when the woman is running to the car.

Finally we have the sound, there is no other sound except for the diegetic audio track that is being played, however when the song ends there is a further 8 seconds of silence when he reveals that he still has the tape that they have been after.

Narrative - Sven Carlson

Performance

The performance can be of three types:

Song performance - This is where the video consists the artist singing throughout the entire song.

dance performance - This is where the video mainly consists of the performer dancing in the video.



 instrumental performance - These types of videos show off the artist playing instruments.


Conceptual

Artistic - this is the idea of a video without narrative, making it a performance clip, this video can contain all aspects of art, such as the surrounding scenery and does not necessarily contain the artist in the video.

Visual Image Moodboard

Theories

   Richard Dyer - Star Theory

Celebrities and stars are 'make belief' images of what people see as a celebrity.

Dyer states that 'stars are commodities that are produced by institutions' and that 'a star is a constructed image, represented across a range of media and mediums' and finally that 'stars represent and embody certain ideologies' 

Bulmer & Katz - Audience Theory

uses and gratifications, the model has represented a change in thinking as researchers begin to describe the effects if the media from the point of view of the audience.

 but how can the media influence you when you choose what you watch.

The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch the television programmes that we do.

The model asks us how we use the media.

Broken down into different needs:

-Surveillance

-Personal identity

-Personal relationships

-Diversion

Surveillance:

People feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world around them.

Personal Identity:

Personal identity needs explains how being a subject of the media allows us to confirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society

Personal Relationships:

This section comes in two parts, relationships with the media and using the media within relationships, like if you find a common interest with people the chances are it is going to be a piece of media.

Diversion:

we use the media as a type of escapism, we distract ourselves from the problems that we are facing, for example it is going to make us feel better knowing that the people on Television are going through the same problems that we are ourselves giving us a false sense of security and feeling that we are not on our own.

Tessa Perkins - Stereotypes

Stereotypes are not as simple as suggested

Tessa Perkins identifies 5 such assumptions

-stereotypes are not always negative

-they are not always about minority groups

-they can be held about ones own group

-they are not rigid or unchanging

-they are not always false.

people assumed that stereotypes are aimed and targeted towards the less powerful, but this is not always the case one example of how is that footballers are seen to have more money then sense .

Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze

How women are represented in the media, they are portrayed as sexual objects through cinematography. Mulvey then looked at how men look at women and then looked at how women looked at themselves in relation to the male gaze theory, and then how women look at each other in the media. She also suggests that women are there to please men 'seen but not heard' 

The male gaze focuses on:

-emphasis on the curves of the female body

-referring to women as objects rather than people

-the way women are displayed is how men think that they should be perceived

-female viewers will view the content through the eyes of a man

-women are often sexualised and seen as objects 

describes how the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Music videos:

-Emphasis on curves of the female body

-show how women are objects rather than people

-displays women in a  way to please men.

examples:

Calvin Harris - Blame - yes, focuses on the bum and legs and the women are seen to look like an accessory of the males

Prayer in C - yes, there are two girls kissing and the cinematography shows.

Im not the only one - yes, proved in points focuses on the woman rather than the man.

In Mulvey's male gaze theory women are seen as sexual objects, this can be seen in the music videos that we have watched as in all of them the cinematography focuses on the woman's sexual parts and the costumes are chosen to please the heterosexual male audience, this is done by having the women wear very little, or wearing something that is revealing to please the man. 

Treatment

Narrative Structure following the basic story of the lyrics, the artist is chasing a girl. Visual representations of the lyrics on screen. Using varied locations to portray the emotions of the song, and then perhaps add some flashbacks where they are necessary and add some visual effects to accompany it

History of the media

1926–1959: Talkies, soundies, and shorts

In 1926 with the arrival of talking pictures or 'Talkies' many musical films were produced and they featured popular artists and bands of the time. An animation artist called Max Fleischer introduced screen songs, which were a series of short cartoons with a bouncing ball bouncing over the words to a song so that the audience could sing along in time with the song this is similar to the modern day karaoke machine. In the early 30's cartoons usually featured popular musicians in their own short live action sequences where they would promote their songs. In 1940 to 1947 there was a phase called 'soundies' these were musical films that usually included dance routines to them, similar to music videos now.

1950s: Early music clips

Tony Bennett states in his autobiography that he had created the first music video when he was filmed in Hyde Park walking along the serpentine which was later used as a video for his song Stranger in paradise. In 1957 Elvis Presley's song jailhouse rock became the second music video. The first abstract music video is seen to be 'Daime si do bytu' or Lets get to the apartment which was created in 1958 and directed by Ladislav Rychman. 

Bob Dylan

In 1966 Dylan released a monochrome video clip for the song Subterranean Homesick Blues which was filked by D. A. Pennebaker and was featured in his documentary of Dylan called 'Dont look back' which was avoiding any attempt to show performance or a narrative, the video focuses on Dylan who s stood in the back of a darke alleyway and is silently shuffling large cue cards which had the key lyrics to the song. Many of the main artists at the time created short videos so they could be played if they were un able to appear on live television. 

The Beatles

In 1965 The Beatles had reached worldwide fame and they could no appear on all of the shows which they would have liked too or had been invited too.they also found that when appearing on these shows became to repetitive and that interrupted with the freedom and creativity which they enjoyed so much with studio recordings.


In November 1965 they produced a series of short films to promote themselves and they sent them out to all of the television shows which they could not make it too. these films where made with a sense of humor and fun so they could show their fans what they are really like.



In 1966 The Beatles made additional promotional films for songs such as paperback writer and the less popular 'Rain' they were both filmed in colour and in black and white, as america had been using colour T.V. since the 50's and European countries were still in the very early stages, for instance Britain's first colour broadcast came in 1967



in 1967 The Beatles filmed promo films for two songs and for the first time both films had no performance of the song and just used the feel of the song to storyboard the action. The Beatles made a small album for T.V. called the Magical Mystery Tour, and was regarded as the closest thing to a feature length music video, it combined the loose plotting of their films and the randomness of their promos, it was broadcast on boxing day 1967 and was heavily criticized by many people and critics.

Queen

The Music video is considered to have been born on top of the pops in 1975 when Queen where unavailable to appear on on the show because they were on tour so they filmed a music video for the programme to show.

MTV

MTV was launched on august 1st 1981 The channel is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, and is owned by Viacom Inc. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos, these were guided by people known as video jokey's or (VJ's). They would record intro's and outro's to every musc video These intros and outros would appear to air "live" and debut across the MTV program schedule 24 hours a day, seven days a week, though they were pre-taped within a regular work week at MTV's studios.

Audience Research

I sent some surveys around and here are the results 

Number of Participants: 50


1) Age?

13-17 - 43
18-20 - 4
20+ - 3

2) Gender?

Male - 32
Female - 18

3) Music Genre?

POP - 23
Rap - 9
Metal - 3
Indie - 10
Rock - 5

4) Do you prefer Abstract, Narrative or Performance Based Music Videos?

Narrative - 30
Abstract - 13
Performance - 7

5) Would you like to see lip syncing in the video?

Yes - 50
No - 0

6) Is the Music Video as important as the song?

Yes - 41
No - 9

3 Initial Ideas

My first Idea is an idea which follows the lyrics of the song and has them displayed on screen creating a visual representation of the song on screen and turning it into the things that the song reminds me of.

My second Idea is to create an abstract piece about an artist spray painting some graffiti and then the graffiti turns into an animation and fills the screen and goes off and looks like it has a life of its own and edits to the beat to make it a pleasurable viewing experience.

My final Idea is to have a video of a day at a BMX park, as i like BMXing so it would be an easy alternate to the other ideas if i run out of time, but i also think that this idea could work well as it fits in with the song and would look as relaxing as the song sounds.

Ed Sheeran – Thinking out loud (draft)

Ed Sheeran – Thinking out loud

The Narrative for the music video is mainly performance based, as there is no story to the video instead it is just a man and a woman dancing throughout the video, there is no lip syncing in it either, it is like the song suggest, these are the thoughts of the man while he is dancing with the woman, there is not really a narrative to the video, it is up to the viewers to decide, which is like what Andrew Goodwin suggests ‘narrative relations are highly complex and meaning can be created from the individual audio-viewer's personal musical taste’ for example, the story could be a love story which is represented through the dancing of the people. The video incorporates some of the binary oppositions, like the dance is man against woman, and there are areas of light vs dark, in term of the costumes that the people are wearing