Goodwin's Conventions of a music video

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (Either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (Either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). This is linked to the concept of Synaesthesia - Seeing the sound, the visual, including the editing make the sound visual. There is a physical representation of verse/chorus structure. “This idea is absolutely central to understand music videos as they build on the soundtrack’s visual associations in order to connect with the audience and provide additional pleasure.” Pete Fraser The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style that reflects their star image/persona). There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. (Mulvey) There are often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.). (Barthes, Allen, Stewart)

What is a music video?

Pete Fraser states that there are specific conventions that defines a music video; The video lasts at least as long as the track (can be longer if you have an intro or outro or both. The video features the artist/band quite prominently. The video features some element of performance- singing and playing instruments (usually miming) and often dancing or acting too. The video has some kind of concept along with the track. The video does not feature a complete narrative but the concept may involve fragments of narrative. Different genres of music produce slightly different visual conventions in music videos. http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/music-video-for-level.html

A2 Media Tasks

For the second year in Media we have 3 main tasks to complete for coursework, these tasks consist of; A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with: A digipak for the album's release; A magazine advertisement for the digipak.

Initial Lip Syncing

I learnt a lot in the process of lip syncing, initially when filming i didn't think that there was much of a problem until it came to editing, we learnt that you have to have the song playing in the background when you say the words to get your timing right otherwise it just won't work, also when you do say the lyrics you have to accentuate the words clearly else it just looks like you're mumbling.

Busted Re-make

Pre-production: we had problems in pre-production, where certain people couldn't stay on certain days so the order in which we shot the sequence wasn't efficient. Also people seemed reluctant to bring props or costume in so we had to make the most of what people did bring. It's fair to say our organisation could've been a lot better. I as the director should have made a shot list which would've cut time down instead of wasting time doing shots that could have been done at any other time.

Production: Filming the sequence took longer than needed as Myself being the director, I wasn't happy with numerous shots due to lack of effort or people being too shy. Eventually we got there and the shots were decent, not great but alright. Trying to mimic the cinematography was quite difficult, but practise makes perfect and we then managed to get the majority of the shots as close as possible to the real thing. I also learnt that having only to film 50 seconds it was more time consuming than I initially thought. Also I believe I managed to get people knowing what was required of them in the shot so there wasn't any confusion.

Post-Production: Editing the shots I found relatively easy as I've had previous experience using Adobe Premier Pro, however certain parts were quite difficult, I still find getting the lip syncing very hard to get perfect and would require precision and a lot of time, I enjoyed working on premier pro and taking from the practise I've had I will take this onto my music video next year by making it as precise as possible.

Overall I'm pleased with how well the project went, having learnt from certain mistakes will help next year so I'm glad we had this practise before the coursework begins.