PLANNING: AMATEUR v. PROFESSIONAL

In this post, we wish to analyse how our student music video has been inspired by a professional one with the same style. We studied how a producer/director and dancer Nathan Barnatt has attracted millions of viewers with his custom dancing to whacky and wonderful up-beat songs. With particular focus to his music video, 'Pop Culture' we studied his themes and styles and how his video inevitably gained the popularity it did. 

 
What's different about these music videos is that it follows no rules. Throughout, Barnatt's channel he his seen doing anything and everything from break dancing on the street to swinging shopping bags around his wrists in a supermarket aisle. We originally thought that we did not want to go the 'cliché' route and perform on stage to a song but instead to stand out and be as original as we can. Barnatt tends to create music videos independently of song meaning but our track of, 'Don't stop' can be incorporated into our video rather different to Barnatt's style. However, much of the music video we intend to create is influenced by Barnatt in that we would like to focus mainly on a center character who posses 'energetic qualities' to which he dances a routine but the background changes frequently to add the repeatability factor.

In his videos he is often seen as a character who wouldn't normally dance so openly. This gave us the idea that we could make our character the 'nerd' type who would perform a similar dance when he reads a comic book called, 'Don't Stop'. Rather differently to Barnatt's random storyline, we created a meaningful story which incorporates Barnatt's character but still possess its uniqueness- avid marvel book reader who is magically drawn into the comic in real life and thus gives reason for his dancing.

Another aspect of his videos that we wish to use is 'stop motion'. In terms of his 'Pop Culture' he holds a certain moves and then takes many still shots of him in the same position but around a scene. Putting the frames together creates a flowing movement which looks visually stunning and shows a great level of planning and detail which is required to execute it well.

PLANNING: MOOD BOARD

 This is the mood board i have created to capture the overall approach of our music video. The pictures all compliment the energetic and colourful setting we wish to create throughout our music video and has connections to the up-beat dance/electronica genre which can be relatable to the band's target audience.

PLANNING: TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH - QUESTIONNAIRE

Music media questionnaire from lewisharland

Above is the questionnaire which i have composed in relation to the music industry and the multiple platforms it covers. Please click on the arrows to change the page.

PLANNING: EDITING TECHNIQUES

For our music video, we have researched particular editing styles and techniques that we intend to use. In celebration of The Wiggles' 20th birthday, ABC Music brought together some of Australia's finest contemporary music artists to pay tribute to the undisputed legends of children's entertainment, The Wiggles. In the video, wake up Jeff, artists Bluejuice are shot only with handheld footage of the instruments and face shots. What interested us most, however, was the title sequence that ABC Music decided to use in all of the videos. It featured, right at the start, big white bold letters which words would 'pop up' one by one. The video link to this particular video is shown below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxidzHPbZNI

The style is one that we would like to use as, although simplistic, allows the audience to clearly see the production title and artist relatively near the start of the music video. It allows the viewers to acknowledge the information quickly and then to focus on the visual entertainment for the rest of the time. Me and my partner also regard it as a very modern and original way of creating titles for video including music. In our eyes for music videos to gain popularity the label of the music video needs to stand out and we think this is the best way to go about this.

 As a result of our interest in the style ABC Music created, i decided to try and replicate the titles with our own words. I chose a background to use on Photoshop and pasted it onto the document. The next stage was to create many separate title layers in which i could manipulate each one so the other would not get affected as a result. In context to our music video, we wish to use the titles at the start of the music video and place them on a opening shot consisting of a busy street or Hampton Court Palace where the first scene will take place.

 In terms of video techniques, one effect we are determined to achieve is 'stop motion'. We realise that the use of 'stop motion' can be difficult and so we researched music videos that use this technique within it. One video we found was 'Her Morning Elegance' by Oren Lavie. 

 The stop motion in this particular music video is symbolic. The whole sequence consists of only one camera position and the woman featured throughout the video lies on the bed but changes her body position in each still shot. With the camera staying in the same place, this gives the illusion that there is continuous motion in her actions when the still frames are placed next to each other and played backed. 

There have been other examples of 'stop motion' including Owl City's 'Fireflies' Stop Motion Fan Music Video in Lucern. This video uses 'stop motion' in a rather different way. It uses many different camera angles and positions as well as scenes. The fan based video uses not only people but nature to create the 'stop motion'. For example, a landscape shot of mountains can have a sun rise over and behind it with the clouds floating swiftly meanwhile in the distance.

For our music video, we can use 'stop motion' around our dance sequence and can possibly use our character to hold their dance pose. We would then use the technique of taking many stills of the same pose but moved around a scene, giving it a continuous motion quality. It is consistently becoming more popular with artists and fans who want to create their own videos to a song they like.

RESEARCH: 'GANGNAM STYLE'

I was looking at music video trends for my research and found this video 'PSY - Gangnam Style' it is a 2012 Korean pop single by the South Korean rapper PSY. It is widely praised for its amusing and energetic visuals, catchy rhythm and 'cheesy' dance moves and it is thought that this is the reason why it has been so popular so far. 'Gangnam Style' has both repeatability and originality - a combination that works well to gain recognition globally on the viral universe.

Released on July 15, 2012, it debuted at number one on the Gaon Chart and has been viewed over 260 million times as of today.

We have thought about incorporating one of their features into our music video, at 3:00-3:10 you see PSY moving at 'normal speed' but the background dancers are moving much faster than him. This was obviously shot with PSY moving slowly then the footage was sped up. The idea of editing the surroundings whilst maintaining the the movement of the centre stage dancer is attractive.

Following from previous posts, it seems that audiences want to, themselves, become the stardom. The Huffington Post recently published an article called:


'Ed Miliband And Labour Join 'Gangnam Style' Craze'. 

Featured politicians of the labour party were 'cut and pasted' onto the original clips of PSY's 'Gangnam Style' in hope that it will gain popularity and recognition. Today, it looks as though audiences are not only the viewers but are also the producers and such videos like, 'Gangnam Style' have repeatability and popularity that make them stand out form the crowd. This is why such viral hits can be edited for one's personal use and the recognition from the original video style can be manipulated for their own personal gain.

RESEARCH: DIRECTOR'S LABEL

This is a presentation to show how different directors approach music videos and the styles/themes that they aim to produce. Please enlarge the document in a new window!

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Digital Publishing with YUDU

RESEARCH: STARDOM

The star image is the one seen by the public through the use of music videos, but notably their music on their own. In the music industry, only one in ten people who are signed to a record and making music actually make any money from it, this is partly due to the star image not being big enough for the rest of people, however with the small amount of people who become popular with their music and star image, it is important to present them well and follow a meta-narrative of the path they wish to be portrayed as. With music videos, it is possible to alter a star’s image from being something crude, to being a public figure people inspire to be like. Through a star’s music videos, the stories that they tell can develop the person they are and change their meta-narrative – One example of an artist who uses music videos to change his public perception over the years is Madonna, who started off as a young singer, but then later connected to mostly a female audience which has increased throughout the recent decades.

RESEARCH: MUSIC TV CHANNELS

RESEARCH- MUSIC TV CHANNELS

Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from bands, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite or cable. Music TVs may host their own shows charts, award prizes.

 Examples are VIVA, Scuzz, MTV, JBTV, MuchMusic, Kerrang TV, erm, Fuse TV, and Palladia Wigan Pier.

Case study: VH1

VH1 or Vh1 (known as VH-1: Video Hits One from 1985 to 1994) is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on Tuesday January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly older demographic than its sister channel, focusing on the lighter, softer side of popular music. The channel was originally created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and owner of MTV. Also frequently featured in the network's early years were "videos" for Motown and other 1960s oldies consisting of newsreel and concert footage. It was introduced on January 1, 1985 with the video performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Marvin Gaye^.

RESEARCH: MORAL PANICS

BBFC reviews policy on music and factual videos in a Guardian article.

Many titles currently on sale but exempt from certification contain violent, distressing and sexually explicit scenes- many originate from heavy metal bands.

The article states that 'They are of differing seriousness, but all those scenes can be seen in videos that are freely available to buy on the high street or Amazon by anyone of any age, none of which have gone through any classification.'

The great majority of exempt video works are fine," said the BBFC's head of policy, David Austin. "They are not going to harm anyone, but there are a significant number of titles that are potentially harmful to children."
 
The BBFC estimates that around 200 videos might be caught by a change in the law.
Austin showed the Guardian examples of videos that have claimed exemption but would have been classified. They range in seriousness. One of the more shocking is a documentary about the American heavy metal band Slipknot "which, actually my son bought when he was 10 and I confiscated", said Austin. "He's waiting till he's older to get it back."

Slipknot is renowned for its explicit publicity and extreme style of music. Mark Brown further stated the CD 'shows one fan who has carved the word Slipknot in to her forearm and another who has done the same in her belly, to which someone is seen pointing in admiration.'

A music video by the Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth, which was rated X in Germany but is unrated in the UK, shows topless women being crucified with blood running down their breasts.

Brown also suggests that 'videos that can say they are educational or instructional can also claim exemption.' Another example of this is the Robbie Williams video for the song Come Undone, which contained an exempt compilation, In and Out of Consciousness, and showed drug taking and Williams cavorting in bed with two naked women.

In my opinion, it is apparent that music videos can be 'extreme' in that they push boundaries in terms of what is perceived as normal. I agree with the view that some parents should be 'active' in protecting some scenes of violence etc. to make sure bands like slipknot are not exposed to people of young ages.