Locations

These are pictures of the locations we will use for our music video.

Resources

Actors
Emmanuel

Props
Playground equipment
Studio Equipment
Basketball Equipment

Settings

Playground
Studio
Basketball Court

Filming - Day 1

On wednesday we went out to begin filming. We went to one of our first location, which was the playground. The day was foggy and so we used this to our advantage and included this in the filming. We filmed for the some of the beginning of the song. We began with filming a long shot of the fog and slowly zooming out to make it seem like the playground was appearing out of the fog, this gave the video a natural effect. This footage will be uploaded and edited and then we will continue to film more of our video.

Treatment

Group Roles
Cinematography: Bradley Williams (Directing) & Nicolas Orozco (Filming)
Mise-en-scene: Bradley Williams & Nicolas Orozco
Sound: (Song) (Labrinth – Express Yourself)
Editing: Bradley Williams

Title

“Express Yourself”

Synopsis

We aim to make this video comedic and informal. The song is all about ‘expressing yourself’ and so we are going to build on this and show how people can ‘express’ themselves.

Key Genre Conventions:
Very energetic
Short to medium length songs
Repeated Choruses
Melodic tunes
Catchy Hooks
Fast cuts (usually jump cuts)
Dancers/Extras
Variation of shots (Close Up, establishing shots, medium shots)
Vibrant Colours

Ideas Mood Board

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Audience research findings

This is a wordle of the results from the audience research we conducted.

Target Audience - Summary of findings

Through our focus group video we learnt what our audience want in a music video and what they feel makes a music video good.

Through asking what their favourite music video was we  found that two of the three answers were videos that involved a dance routine. This conveys to us that videos with dance routines that you can learn are quite popular. One of the videos was a slightly abstract video, it does not really relate to the song however it is eye catching and so grabs the viewers attention. We should consider this when making our video, we should not just film things that connect to the song we should also include things that will catch the viewers attention.

When asked what they like about music videos our audience once again brought up the topic of dancing, they also stated the fact that music videos give the viewer a deeper insight into the song, they can make them understand things about the song that they would not comprehend without visuals. Also they just simply want to be entertained. 

The target audience gave answers such as dancers, different/good visuals, effects and a good storyline, when asked what they feel makes a great music video. In addition, when asked where they watch music videos the most common answers were YouTube and TV (MTV).

These findings will aid us when we are creating our final product as this audience is the one we are targeting and so getting their personal opinion will allow us to know what we should put in our video and where we should promote it to ensure the highest possible success.

Target Audience - Vox Pop

To gain some more information about what the audience want to see in the music video, we conducted a 'Vox Pop'.

The questions that will be asked in our Vox Pop are:

• Do you watch music Videos?
• What is your favourite music video?
• What do you like about music videos?
• What makes a great music video?
• Where do you watch music videos?

The final video of the Vox pop is shown below

Rough Outline of Initial ideas

Vox Pops

A Vox Pop is a video where various people are interviewed, all being asked the same questions about a certain topic. They are normally conducted in a public place, and the interviewer talks to passers by and gathers information about the topic from them. They are commonly shown on news channels, and documentaries as well as quiz shows to show people opinions on a subject.

Below is an example of a Vox Pop

Audience Research - Survey Monkey

This is the survey I created on survey monkey. I will use this to collect audience research to help me with deciding who this product should be aimed at and also what to include in it.

How to broaden your audience and increase sales

It is extremely challenging to appeal to audiences that are not already interested in your music and to increase sales. Nevertheless it can be done using certain methods, we could do it by increasing the amount of advertising we do, or amending the advertisements to appeal to a larger audience. 

A website that is crucial in the successful promotion of music videos is YouTube. This website has gone from strength to strength over recent years and is now considered to be the most popular way of watching music videos. This could attract a large range of people, from young to old. YouTube is also known for advertising a lot before or alongside videos. We could manipulate this and advertise the video before other videos that other audiences may watch causing them to gain an interest and check to see what it is they are being enticed to watch.

Also we could advertise the song in places where everyone will be able to see them, for example large billboards along roads for the drivers to see and leaflets and posters for pedestrians to see. This would increase awareness of the product and hopefully increase the interest in it leading to more sales. Another method of gaining a wider audience and increasing revenue is by tailoring the video to match different types of people that wouldn't normally be interested in this type of music or video, this would make it available to everyone and not just limited to one audience.

Magazine Advert Analysis

Famous Album Art Analysis

An album cover can be used to portray what an album is about. It can be labeled as another form as promotion as consumers may walk past and be atracted to an album cover which may encourage them to buy it. I will be analysing an album cover by an artist named Wiley. The album is called Playtime Is Over.

This album cover is an example of one that is used to portray the meaning of it and it links in with the title of it. It depicts the artist, Wiley, in a playground that looks deserted and contains blacked out bikes and rides, re-inforcing the title of 'Playtime Is Over'. I feel that this is a simple concept but at the same time is very effective in promoting the message of the album.

Digipak and Magazine Advert Research

Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging. They consist of a book-style paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. They are usually used for premium package sets, or double disc sets.

We will be creating a digipak and using it as a form of promotion for the song.

What should be on a digipak

• Name of the artist and album.
• List of tracks on the CD, either written on the inside or on the back cover.
• Images of the band/artist that the digipak is promoting.
• Spine - with the name of artist/ album
• Additional information about each song, e.g. lyrics, producers, writers etc.
• Disk design. 
• Panels (the amount may vary)
• Record company logo/ Information.
• An image of the artist is not essential but it is advised, possibly on the inside of the digipak. 
• Bar code.

We will need to include these features on our digipak to ensure that it is of the best quality.

Below is an example of a common template used to create digipak's.

What should be on a magazine advert

• The name of the artist and song (or album).
• An image of the artist.
• The release date of the song (or album).
• Where it can be purchased from.
• The information of the record label.
• Quotes and reviews of the song (or album) by critics.

Detailed Research - Labrinth

I researched further into the artist Labrinth and found that he is a very high profile artist. He is signed to a major label and has many forms of promotion.

This is Labrinth's personal website where fans can keep up with his most recent activity including new releases, upcoming shows, news and anything else concerning Labrinth. He also has a store on his website where people can purchase his albums and singles along with any other merchandise available. There is also a feature which allows you to change the website country, which means the website is available in many various countries in the world, as Labrinth is known worldwide.

On the website there are also links to his social networks, Facebook and Twitter, as well as his YouTube and tumblr, this means he is a very accessible person. He also has an Instagram account. On his twitter account Labrinth has a total of over 749 000 followers, which is a large amount for someone to have, and on Facebook he has over 704 000 likes. On Labrinth's YouTube(VEVO) he has amassed almost 66 million views, with the single 'Express Yourself'', which we will use for our video, gaining almost 4 million views, which means it is already very popular with the public.

Initial research into artist/target audience

Labrinth started his rise to the top with the song 'Pass Out' with fellow artist tinie tempah, the song was produced by Labrinth and he featured on the chorus. It was quite a fast tempo song that is designed to get people up and moving, this shows that he wanted to target a young audience, most likely between the ages of 13 and 19. This audience is crucial in the music scene today as they are the ones who purchase the most music. Labrinth appeals to this market and this is shown with his success in the charts, therefore we will target the teen audience as they are most suited to the song and artist.

Song Lyrics

Labrinth - Express Yourself

[Verse 1]

I say the same thing twice, i'm awkward when I speak,

Ain't got the perfect smile, don't turn heads on my street,

Tryna be a superstar like everybody else,

But being myself is something I do well.

[Chorus]
Whatever you do,
Do it good
Whatever you do do do lord lord lord
Do it good (yeah)
Express yourself
Express yourself
(oh do it)
See it's not what you look like when you doin' what you doin',
Express yourself.
(oh do it)

[Verse 2]
(here we go now)
I don't make the papers, I'm far from JLS (JLS)
Ain't got the X-factor, I'm not what they expect (listen)
But it won't be long before my turn is next, to express
Now with all due respect.

[Chorus]
See whatever I do,
I do it good
So whatever you do do do lord lord lord
Do it good (yeah)
Express yourself
Express yourself
(oh do it)
See it's not what you look like when you doin' what you doin',
Express yourself.
(oh do it)

[Verse 3]
(switch it up for me)
Lose my shirt and tie
There ain't nothing too high,
Show them what you've got (wooooooaaah)
There's nothing wrong with perfect, perfect
Now it's your time to shine
Express yourself

The Song

This is the song we are going to use for our music video. 

Labrinth - Express Yourself.

Chosen Artist Profile - Labrinth

The artist we have chosen for this project is Labrinth. We are going to use his song named 'Express Yourself'. We have received the permission to use this song and so we can go ahead with the project without any problems regarding consent. 

Labrinth, also known as Tim McKenzie is a well known UK singer, songwriter and producer who has recently seen much success all over the world. He has gained various chart positions with his releases under the labels  RCA, which is a division of Sony Music Entertainment, and SYCO, which is a global joint venture between Simon Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment that specialize in the production and marketing of music, television, film and digital content.

The song we have chosen was released at the fourth single from Labrinth's debut album 'Electronic Earth' and it peaked at No. 12 in the UK charts. The original video was very creative as it depicts a re-creation of  opening scenes from some of the most well loved shows on TV.

Asking for / Receiving Permission for the song

The screen grab below is of the reply email we received from Sony giving us the permission to use the song 'Express Yourself' by Labrinth for our music video. They have acknowledged that it is for a school project and so are happy for us to continue with the project. They also expressed an interest in seeing the final outcome of our project.

Searching for Music - Unsigned Music/Newgrounds

There are two main websites we used when searching for the music we were going to use for our video. The music had to be non-copyright and so we looked through the websites, Unsignedmusic.com and Newgrounds.com. These websites specialise in the copyright free market. They contain various genres of music by many unsigned artists and bands.

Unsigned.com is a website specifically dedicated to promoting unsigned artists and bands. This is a sort of networking site where artists try to gain some recognition. This website was a very good one to use to search for copyright music as these unsigned artists/bands would most likely not have copyright on their music and they would be more willing to allow us to use music for non-profit purposes.

This website does not just specialise in music. It has many other sections that do not include music, however on the website they have an audio section which is where you can find the copyright free music. We also used this website to search for music however we did not find a song that suited our vision.

Unfortunately we did not find the music we were going to use for our video on either of these sites, however they were very helpful in giving us a stronger idea of what direction we wanted to take this video in. For people looking for easily accessible copyright free music these websites are very useful.

Emil Nava - Case Study continued

OB management work as agents for music video directors.
Their aim is to:

• Nurture Talent
• Work with production companies
• Work with record labels
• Match the right director to the right artists

Some of the companies OB Management are involved with are as follows:

• Pulse films
• Rocket
• Agile films
• Friends
• Wonda

Some of the music videos Emil has directed are listed below.

Paloma Faith - 30 minute love affair
Client - Sony

Paloma Faith - Picking up the pieces

Client - Sony

Cost - £80 000

Ed Sheeran - Lego House

Client - Atlantic



Jessie J - Do It Like A Dude

Client - Island

Cost - £25 000

Rita Ora - R.I.P

Client - Roc Nation

Ed Sheeran - You need me

Client - Atlantic

Cost - £35 000

Jessie J - Price Tag (ft B.O.B)

Client - Island

Emils Top Tip

• Use ECU on faces wherever possible.
• Do not shoot whole of video in medium shot/long shot.

Example - Sinead O'connor - Nothing Compares to U.

Emil Nava - Case Study

Emil Nava is a music video director. He began working as a runner for various film production companies, eg Blink Productions and he currently freelances for OB Management. After working as a runner he eventually graduated to the role of Assistant Director where he would manage the video shoots. He then signed to Academy, who are the biggest music video production company, and then worked for between the Eyes and now works mainly for pulse.
Emil has now begun to make adverts, which generally have a far higher budget and production values but which allow for less creative freedom. At his busiest Emil has made 24 music videos in one year. When he began shooting videos for independent labels the budget would be as low as £5000 to £10 000. His most expensive movie to date has been for Jessie J and the budget for that video was £160 000.
His first ever budget was for the band Kid British and the track was called 'Our House', the budget for that video was £20 000. The video was shot in manchester with a cast of the local residents. It was shot over a period of a day and took 2/3 days to edit. Emil only had 10 days pre-production before he had to film, which demonstrates the tight timescales directors have to obide by.

Preliminary Task - What I've Learned

I feel that I have learnt a vast amount from the preliminary task. I learnt about the aspects of filming such as Mise-en-scene, camera angles, editing and sound. I learnt from our preliminary task that when faced with complications I need to act quickly and intelligently to avert the problems in the best way. In the filming process I will need to use a wider variety of techniques, which I feel will improve the final outcome of the actual music video. I will implement much more shots, camera angles, movement and edits than I did in the preliminary. In conclusion, I strongly feel that I have learnt a lot from doing this preliminary task and I will make a large improvement. I will improve the quality of my work and I will also improve my creativity when producing the storyline. Due to the experience gained from the preliminary task I feel that I know how to cater to the audience and make the final product into something I know they would want to see.

Preliminary Task - The video

Preliminary Task - Editing The Video

Editing the video

This shot is of the different clips that were captured to use in the video. These clips were placed and cut to fit with the backing music, it is important that the music clip is added first so the editing can be done to fit the music.

These are screen grabs of the editing of the video.
This shot (to the left) is of the audio and video clips, the black lines show where I used the toggle clip overlays tool and the pen tool to cut and fade the different clips that were used. I also used markers to indicate where the lyrics start on the song and where the person being filmed starts singing to ensure they were in time. I also had to lock the music layers to ensure they didn't move out of place.






This screen grab shows part of the video. This was used for watching the video and seeing where it needed to be cut and to ensure the lip syncing was in time.









This shows the end of the video. It shows how I faded out the music and the top clip of the video. Once this was done the video was completed and I rendered it and exported it, before uploading the video onto YouTube.

Preliminary Task - What I Did

We filmed our preliminary task, which was a practice for the actual music video we are going to create. We filmed a video to the song 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' by Elton John (shown below).

Over a period of a day we filmed our preliminary task. We went out to the Robert Clack Lower School playground, which was the setting, and we began to film the shots which were needed. Myself, Michael, Simon and Sofiyat created and edited the film, with Myself and Simon behind the camera and Michael and Sofiyat acting out the task.

   When editing the task we had to ensure that the music was in time with what was being shown on the screen, and in time with the lip syncing. Also as it was a male and female duet we had to ensure that the male parts were sung by Michael and the female parts were sung by Sofiyat, with the duets sung by both.

Jamie Thraves Case Study

Jamie Thraves is a british film writer and director. He began making short films at his university and tried using these to break through the doors and get into the film industry. After trying for a long while to succeed his short films began to get recognition and he won numerous awards at film festivals. He used this to get his foot through the door, and joined the video production company Factory Films.

He started out making very low budget music videos costing about £5000 each until he got a 'big break' and was chosen to do a big budget video.

Radiohead - Just
£100,000 budget

Shot in three days





He then got the chance to do a second big budget video.




Coldplay - The Scientist
£200,000 budget
Shot in three days




These videos made him a well known and respected name in the music video industry.

Jamie has used the music videos to get into the film business, so far he has shot 3 feature films:
The Low Down
The cry of the owl
Treacle Jr.

Key music video conventions

There are various factors that make up a music video.
These are:

• Lip syncing
• Dancing
• Product placement
• Instruments - Piano/Keyboard, Guitar, Drums etc.
• Narrative
• Props
• Settings
• Costumes
• Girls
• Lighting
• Facial expressions/Body language

Music video success criteria

There are many methods and factors that can be used to measure the success of a music video.
These Include:

• Word of mouth
• Number of hits on you tube
• Newspaper articles/TV Reports
• How many times the video has been shown on television
• The amount of publicity (e.g. Rebecca Black - Friday.. Bad song but received a lot of publicity due to this)
• The amount of downloads the song receives
• The chart position of the song
• The CD sale
• The amount of awards the video wins

These are all factors that are considered when measuring the success of a music video, they all contribute to how successful the video is.

In the recent years there has been a large switch in the importance of you tube from television channels such as MTV, Kiss etc.. You tube is now the dominating force in showing music videos as most viewing of music videos is now done online meaning television is used less and less are the online technology improves.

100 Greatest Music Videos (Top 5)

#5 Madonna - Like a prayer (1989)
This video was very controversial as it related to religious ecstasy. It depicts a woman witnessing a murder and being too scared to report, and so goes into a church to find answers, but instead finds a statue of a black man portraying a saint who she falls in love with. The video then goes on to show them engaging in sexual activities which caused a lot of controversy in the industry. Madonna was always know for controversy in her videos, however this video was another shock to the public.

#4 Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)

This was a revolutionary video that changed how people visualised music. The song was no.1 in the charts however Queen were too busy touring and did not want to keep appearing on TOTP and so they created this short film. The song and video stayed at number 1 for 9 weeks running.

#3 A-ha - Take on me (1985)

This video was something that was different to any videos prior or even since. It incorporated a half comic, half real world aspect. This made it a very interesting video and helped immensely with the songs success as it was released twice a year before with no video and did not do well. However this time around with the second video it peaked at number 2 in the UK charts.

#2 Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (1986)

This was directed by Stephen R. Johnson. It revolved heavily around animation. Peter Gabriel's head was the centre and there were animations revolving around his head and colliding with him as if it was in fact real. This video broke records as it collected 9 MTV Music Video Awards in 1987.

#1 Michael Jackson - Thriller (1983)

Finally, the number 1 greatest video of all time according to this channel 4 documentary is Michael Jackson's Thriller. This video was based on the film 'An american werewolf in London'. Michael had said he wanted to turn in to a werewolf and so the director, John Landis, played on this concept for the video along with Michael. The original version was over 13 minutes long and several TV channels cleared their schedules to premier this video. A reported $500 000 was spent on the production of the video. The video appeared in the UK chart for 25 weeks. It also won 3 awards at the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards

Favourite 3 Music Videos

In this post I will analyse my personal favourite 3 videos from the '100 Greatest Music Videos' list. I will analyse them in terms of Mise En Scene, Cinematography and Editing.

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

This video uses Mise en scene, cinematography and  editing very effectively. The concept of the video is a reporter following Michael Jackson trying to get a picture, for a story. The story is of a woman who is claiming Michael is the father of her child. In the video Mise-En-Scene is used, it is set in a peculiar place where there are hardly any residents around. In the video every Michael becomes very bright, playing on the phrase "everything I touch turns to gold". Also whenever the reporter gets close enough to get a good photo, Michael seems to disappear into thin air, which could be re-enforcing the fact that he cannot be linked to the story. The visual quality of the video is not great but this is quite an old video and so it is expected. The director uses quite long shots, with glimpses of quick edits. He also uses a range of shots, Medium shots, Close Ups and Long Shots. This is used to allow the viewer to get the full feel of the video.

Outkast - Hey Ya

This video was quite controversial at the time of it's release. This is due to the fact that at this time the duo Outkast were going through a rough patch, whereby neither the media nor fans of the group knew whether they were still together. In the video one member of the group 'Andre 3000' performed as every member of the band from the singer to the drummer. This caused as a stir as it could have been making the statement that he was the only one in the group and the rumours of a split may be true, however the other member of the group 'Big Boi' appeared at the start in the form of Andre's manager. The song itself has an old school feel to it, and seemed like a song that would have been released in the 90s. This aspect was illustrated in the video as it shows a singer and band performing at a show with ladies dressed as though they were from the 90s, the whole video had this sort of feel. Also parts of the video are shown through an old TV in black and white, and the band are all wearing matching colour schemes in their outfit. All of these features, along with the polaroid pictures, illustrate the 'old school' nature of the song.

Eminem - Stan

This video was used to tell the story of a crazed Eminem fan who was driven to homicide due to Eminem not replying to his fan mail. It was quite a dark story and caused a stir in the industry however it was a very successful song which also helped in the success of the album 'The Marshall Mathers LP'. The song also used a sample from the song 'Thank You' By Dido, who also appeared in the video, which helped to launch her stardom. The video begins with a shot of heavy rain as the camera moves towards and through a bedroom window; the rain was used to re-enforce the spooky feel of the song and it is also accompanied thunder and lightning which are often perceived as scary types of weather. Throughout the video there is not much lighting as it is supposed to illustrate the dark nature and help to fit in with the story of the crazed, homicidal fan. Many close ups are used on the character 'Stan' to show the emotion in his face as he narrates the lyrics.

100 Greatest Music videos (Most Unique)

#98 Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy (1984)

This video was used to illustrate the story about a young gay mans isolation. It showed the life of the group who were all homosexual. The video shows a young gay man getting attacked due to his sexual orientation. It portrays a part of what some gay men go through.



#96 So Solid Crew - 21 Seconds (2001)

This video was cleverly used to portray the entire group. So Solid Crew contained a large number of members so they used the '21 second' concept to portray their style and character. 21 seconds was the amount of time they had for each verse and so they used this concept as a way of showcasing themselves.



#92 Herbie Hancock - Rockit (1983)

This video was a very intelligent video at the time of it's release. Around this time MTV would not show black artists videos. This video used a unique idea of making robot body parts the main focus of the video, with the actual artist concealed in the background of the video. This proved successful as the video was in fact shown on MTV.

#88 Elton John - I want love (2001)

Elton John wasn't someone who liked appearing in videos and so he chose to get Robert Downey Jr. to play his part in the video instead. At this time he was recovering from drug use and the emotion from this was transpired in the video. The whole video was one continuous scene and it took 16 takes to complete.

#63 George Michael - Outside (1998)

Previous to the release of this video, George Michael had been involved in an incident in a public toilet and it had been reported that he was gay. This video replicates that incident in a mockery fashion and is a statement by George Michael confirming he was gay and that he was not ashamed.

#31 Eminem - Stan (2000)

This video was used to tell the story of a crazed Eminem fan who was driven to homicide due to Eminem not replying to his fan mail. It was quite a dark story and caused a stir in the industry however it was a very successful song which also helped in the success of the album 'The Marshall Mathers LP'. The song also used a sample from the song 'Thank You' By Dido, who also appeared in the video, which helped to launch her stardom.

#14 Christina Aguilera - Dirrty

This video is an example of how some artists used music videos to change their public perception. Christina went from the child friendly 'mickey mouse club' to the completely opposite end of the spectrum. This song and video was saying that she was a sex symbol and wanted to be taken seriously; and she was successful in doing this.