Month: May 2021

Below is our group pitch for our music video, using the song ‘Otherside’ by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. It was vital that our group posed our ideas to our teacher to ensure we were on track in preparation for the production of our music video and that our proposal was going to be sufficient. As a result of completing this task, it broadened our understanding of strengths and weakness carried within the group and what we had to set ourselves in respective to goals and achievements. To add, we also had to add a list of strengths and targets that we are setting ourselves as a group.

Positives(6):

• We have decided, as a group, on a clear narrative & performance which will  represent our song well as we have based our narrative on the theme of the song – battling prior addictions.
• Our group decided on basing our music video in a location where low-key lighting has a visual representation to the mood, genre of our chosen song, also conveying to the audience the struggle the individual is facing, e.g. a room with little lighting, high walls and ceilings, a roulette wheel etc.
• We have decided on the chosen MES for the male/female individuals who will be featuring in our music video (narrative), e.g. males wear full black suits, waist coats, bow ties and females wear black/coloured dresses connoting elegance, importance and the sophistication of the event.
• We have, as a group, decided that the best way to represent our amplified narrative is to have the narrative coincide with the song lyrics and meaning, by doing so, the audience will be able to gain a sufficient understanding of what is happening within the music video and what this means using props e.g. a roulette wheel. Moving on, something bad will happen to the specific individual as a result of gambling and his reaction will connote the terror and struggle of battling prior addiction.
• Our idea is something of an intriguing enigma which will hopefully engage our audience.
• We have a focused but simplistic idea for our music video with an engaging and empowering theme.

Negatives(3):

• We need to decide as a group what our band/performers are going to wear when being filmed for our music video.
• As a group, we need to decide what is going to happen regarding our performance – who? what? where?
• Making a decisions as to whether we want just a singer or a band in our music video.

 

In order to use our chosen song, ‘Otherside’, in our own upcoming music video production, we had to seek permission (as a group through composing a message) from the artist (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) to use their work. We had to do this to avoid receiving copyright accusations from the owners.

The perfect production task consisted of completing a template which had strengths and weakness’ of all group members, commitments and scenarios from a hypothetical perspective and to finalise, a signature had to be included as an agreement for the upcoming partnership of the group.

My final mini pitch talks of the finalised ideas for my music video. Our music video uses the song I put forward (Otherside – Red Hot Chilli Peppers), which talks of prior addictions and the battles in which individuals have to go through to be successful. In our music video, we will be representing these ideas through both an amplified/illustrative narrative and performance. We have decided on how our star image will be represented throughout the production, the types of themes and issues which will occur within the video and the sort of promotion the video will provide for our audience. We will be discussing this pitch with our teacher, putting forward our ideas and we will receive feedback as to whether it will be suitable. As a result of completing this task, it aids our group massively with preparation for our music video, becoming more familiar with plans and keeping track of our organisational skills.

A mini pitch consists of creating a PowerPoint whereby you decide on a song that you would like to use for your own music video and then describe the type of narrative/performance that you would like to convey; for example, amplified, disjunctive or illustrative, what Mes en Scene you would like your star image to represented, and a slide which includes images/ideas on what your performer/star will wear, use as a prop, location and what makeup is suitable for the genre. I have created a PowerPoint with every aspect needed for a mini pitch, this will then be used to put forward to my group and with that, a pitch will be chosen for the final music video, created, including great detail and presented to our teacher.

My favourite music video from a former student:

Here are some of the reasons as to why this music video is one of my preferred:

Technical Conventions:

Throughout this music video, many technical media conventions have been used to convey a story and connote the narrative. Lip syncing, a vital technical convention needed to create a successful music video, was used throughout the video with great timing; the song used was Unforgettable, French Montana ft. Swae Lee. Many technical editing features have also been used throughout the performance, a fade transition, reaction shot (stressed/frustration), pace of edit which was used to connote a sense of tension, frustration, yet also excitement and finally a montage of images were inserted into the music video to convey the narrative in small bitesize episodes, from multiple scenes and sources.

These editing conventions ensure that the music video replicates that of a real life music video which is produced professionally and most importantly, it will portray the narrative to the audience watching.

Narrative & Performance ratio:

In a music video, the video can be either one of the following: narrative (amplification, illustrative, disjunctive), performance or both; the importance of creating a music video including these features prominently ensures that the performance can be well understood by the audience. This music video is predominantly a disjunctive narrative, meaning the video has no correlation with the lyrics with a 0/100 ratio.

Star Representation:

The star image is represented within the music video a young man, wearing ostentatious clothing, mainly shorts and a baggy shirt with extravagant designing making him easily recognisable as the main star throughout the video. The performance conveyed by the star allows us to recognise he is having relationship issues of his own; his body language and facial expressions portray a very ordinary yet extraordinary feel to the music video.

As a result of widening my knowledge of conventional features within a music video, I will now be able to create my own piece of work following guidance from that of a successful and professional music video producer. In addition, this will also have a large impact as to when and how I will convey the narrative, with great setting and Mes en Scene, allowing the audience to understand and relate to my own music video without using the amazing production tools and film studios that professional producers have.

This montage from a former student, is definitely one which caught my eye. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this clip as a result of the great quality montage techniques. There were a variety  of shot distances, e.g. close up, mid shot and long shot, a vast range of angles were used to tell the story, for example, low angles, high angles and canted angles. This will help the creator represent the title of the montage, ‘Practice makes perfect’. A wide range of editing skills have been used within the montage clip, transitions, dissolves, fades and reaction shots. As a result of the student filming subjective objects, they were able to clearly connote the story, solely based on camera, editing, facial expressions and body language. After watching and applying what I know already to this analysis, I now hope to be able to create a montage of this standard, with great planning and preparation.

 

A detailed music video analysis consists of analysing two music video which have a very different narratives and meanings; the two songs that I chose to analyse were, ‘Chained to the Rhythm’ and ‘We Found Love’. With this task, I had to watch and analyse in great deal, two music videos with different meaning in order to widen my knowledge and understanding of what is conventional and what is not of a music video. I am now able to identify whether a music video is amplified, disjunctive or illustrative as a result of carrying out extensive research  – with this also, unpicking the way the Mes en Scene and Star Image have been portrayed is an element which is absolutely vital in order to have a successful analysis. A repertoire of elements are used in a music video to convey the story and also create meaning to the audience, allowing them to engage in a deeper way to construct a better understanding of what is going on within the production. From carrying out this task, I have learnt many feature of what are conventional music videos; I had very minimal knowledge on this subject previously, but with this, I will be able to put what I have learnt to use when creating my own music video.