For our dummy mash up music video we needed to create a meeting agenda, this helped us organise our shooting time in advance. This meaning we were very organised, having the Mise-en-scene, locations and other props ready to film our star on the 27th of June.

Here is a link to the production meeting agenda:

This is my groups shot list for our section of the dummy music video song, ‘Can’t stop the feeling’. For this task we were asked to look into artists of the same genre, in this case; male acoustic and take screenshots from their music videos to help us to come up with ideas to create our own part of the video.

Here is the link to our shot list:

This task will help to understand different camera movements, eg dollys and pans, editing techniques and over effects of the music video genre. The use of more vintage colourings, soft focuses, depth of field, time of day the video was shot at and the overall appeal towards the audience.

Below is a link to my Pinterest page, showing a typical ‘acoustic male’ star image. The board includes photographs of different acoustic artists, in and out of performance. Each one of these artists plays the guitar and seem to have a relaxed ora about them, wearing casual young looking clothing and they do not seem to have a rehearsed performance when on stage showing they are truly talented and  are able to create their own backing music rather than just a sound track etc.

From this task you are able to see how similar all male acoustic artists are through their ordinary lifestyles shown in all music videos and performances and their general photos on the internet (Pinterest). They are laid back,  genuine, urban and emotional manners towards all of their songs. The paradox of the star shows that male acoustics are normally ordinary in the sense that they start their career busking in the streets, wearing everyday average clothes living normal lives. However they live a extraordinary life, performing in exciting, different places around the world and have a massive fan base of people, who look up to them and admire them.

 

 

To begin our learning of music videos and their conventions we have been set the task to create a ‘dummy music video mash up’ of a song called ‘Can’t stop the feeling’ – Justin Timberlake which is a solo male pop song. Here is a embed link of the music video:

We individually created a mood board to show the particular type of genre that had been selected for us, for example, rock, pop, girl band, rap etc. This would help us set up a overall blueprint for our mash up knowing what ti do, where and when.

For My groups section of the music video dummy mash up, we have been told to look into the genre of ‘male acoustic’. Where we will have to see the iconic and known factors that make a acoustic music video, for example;

-a guitar

-strong meaningful lyrics

-normally casual and laid back performances. etc.

Below is my version of a mood board.

This has helped me to grasp the idea of what exactly is included in a acoustic music video, what MES is used and how the artists portray themselves. I also found out the repertoire of elements for the particular genre of acoustic male, how they normally base their videos outside, having the nature take over the backgrounds to their performance and narrative sections. How the lighting for acoustic music videos are conventionally bright and white.

 

‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ – Justin Timberlake

This is the song that was chosen for us by our teachers to produce our dummy mash up where we were put into different groups within our class and were given different genres to come up with 00.30 seconds worth of footage to do with the genre.

My group’s genre was solo male acoustic, starting at 2.10 minutes.

Each genre was contrasting each other:

*Pop Girl Group

*Pop Male

*Indie Rock

*Acoustic Female

*Acoustic Male

*Rap

*Disco

Here is the link to the track with all of the different mash up sections, which will bring all of our parts of the different genres together.

Click on the image below to view the lyrics to the song:

Here is my groups section of the lyrics for ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ where we have anaylised the lyrics into detail to find out the deeper meaning to the lyrics sung.

 

From this I have learnt how to analyse song lyrics, and gain an understand from the words sung by the artist. This will help for my music video as I have now gain confidence knowing and understanding how different genres work and how they are portrayed.

Below is a music video from a previous A2 Media Studies group. I have analysed this video against the assessment criteria, and below shows my views and opinions.

Bros- Wolf Alice

Holding a Shot Steady

*Throughout the music video, the shots are mainly shot steadily, this is from the use of a tripod, even their movement shots like pans (1.24minutes) show clear use of tripod and hand held apparatus to create a solid music video. However their low angle shot spinning looking up at the trees is not steady, this could be due to the bad weather conditions or no using the correct equipment for the camera to to held steadily.

Framing a Shot

*I really like the framing throughout the whole music video as they have thought carefully about spacing, interesting compositions, (When the main singer is closest to the camera 20 seconds into the video and the rest of the group are spaced behind creating a clear depth of field). I also really like the sections when the main singer is close up to the camera, taking up the main majority of the frame, this shows her dominance and importance to the music video.

Variety of Shot Distances

*The production group for this area of assessment have shown a wide influential range of shots, close ups of the band members in their solos, long shots of the band as a whole, showing their strengths to the full. They use rule of thirds nicely shown at points, 00.7 seconds of the tree at the beginning of the video and 0.38 seconds of the group running up the stairs in the forest.

Appropriate to Task

*You are able to tell the genre throughout the music video through the use of the Mise-en-scene being indie looking and location in the forest. The actors are also very well presented and portrayed in the video as they know what they are doing and when, especially the lead singer as she shows confidence as if she is actually the main singer from Wolf Alice.

Mise-en-Scene Selection

*The mise-en-scene is fairly simple in the music video but very effective, in particular towards the end of the video where the group of friends have blankets looking into the distance at the beach. The star image is clear in this video, being casual but having her own style which makes the music video’s genre seem indie rock.

Editing for Meaning

*The narrative is clear and simple, showing the ‘perfect summer’ with a group of friends. It indicates a day during the summer, making most of their time. There is a clear 50/50 split between the narrative in the music video and the performance. They merge together well creating a fluid exciting and engaging video.

Shot Transitions

*The shot transitions in the music video all flow and fit together really well, in particular the fades between the lead singer head shot and the pink flare in the background. This creating an exciting and indie appeal to the music video. However many shots do have simple transitions between each shot without any interesting fluid changes.

Sound With Images

*I am very impressed how well all of the lip syncing fitted with the music all on point correctly. Each shot changed with a different clear beat in music which helped the video become fresh and clean. However no other added sound was used, this was good as it kept the music video simple and engaging rather than being distracted by other sounds within the video.

Using Titles

*There were no titles used in this music video, which could possibly confuse the audience as they may not know what they are watching and would not be able to find the music video and song again. However having no titles stops the music video from looking tacky or over the top.

I have learnt how important it is to include as much of the assessment criteria as possible to make a fluid, exciting video. I really liked this music video from the students last year as they show a wide variety of camera compositions, movement, distances and framing giving them a strong over all video. This may not be my personal favourite music video from last year however they have included almost all of the criteria needed to make a outstanding music video to keep the audience engaged, and interested in the narrative and performance.

For this task we have examined and deconstructed the Kodaline video of ‘Love Like This’ in further detail than ever before. Firstly is the embedded link to the music video and then my analysation.

Here  is my second detailed music video analysation of the song, Born to Die by Lana Del Ray.

 

From this task I have learnt how to examine songs in a deeper way and understand the emotions and thoughts the artists feels throughout the song.

To begin our research into music videos for our A2 coursework, we had the task to look into ‘music video conventions’ where we looked into six different music videos and analysed them. This is show below, in the table.

Please click on the image below to see the information and analysis.

This task has helped me to be inspired, gain ideas and do deeper research for my own video. I also now understand the use of performance and narrative, whether it is amplification, illustrative or disjunctive.