Friday 24th September 2010 By Ashleigh
Today’s focus was on genre. To kick start the lesson, we watched three music videos, one of which was McFly’s ‘Five colours in her hair’. After watching the video, our group discussed what we thought of it. As a viewer, I could tell that the video idea was highly influenced by the 1960’s culture. This was portrayed with the use of flamboyant colurs which is very 60’s and the band was on a raised platform performing. At the beginning and end of the video, we saw the group walk across a pedestrian crossing. This same image was used as the cover of The Beatles album ‘Abby Road’. The video used the conventions of a pop video effectively. You coul d see the ‘extras’ dancing, the band playing their instruments (guitar and drums) and one band member coming in and out of the TV screen. I thought this was very effective and was well filmed on green screen.The use of black and white background worked well in the scenes where you see shots of the female with five colours in her hair. It made her stand out against the background because of course the song is primarily about her. The video had good use of lip sync and the editing pace matched the rhythm of the song. At first, the jump cuts are fast paced then towards the middle 8 of the song, the pace of the cuts are slower. Adfditionally, there were about 7 different locations and this for me, made the video intersting to watch.
To view the video of McFly’s ‘Five colours in her hair’, click the link below:
The second video clip we watched was also a well known McFly Song, ‘All about you’. This song was originally produced for Comic Relief so the video conveyed what it was FOR rather than what it is ABOUT (i.e. love). The video was an acoustic version of the song being played by the band members in a studio. The recording studio room was the main location. Stereotypically, using only one location for a music video is boring but the final edit suited the purpose of what the song was made for. It was interesting because of the different shot types of the variety of instruments (harp, violin,guitar ect) and famous celebrities (i.e. Graham Norton) featured. The editing of the video also suit the pace of the song.
To view ‘It’s all about you’ music video by mcFly, please click on the below link:
The third video we viewed was ‘Party Girl’ by McFly. Out of all the three videos, I preferred this video because there was so much going on from delivering performance to vampires. The actions gave the video a sense of adventure. It’s interesting to see how the band has changed from video to video. The first vido I watched was so different to this video in terms of image, genre and interpretation. Apparently, in an interview the band said the were going ‘rock’. I believe this video makes the genre of the song sound rock but if you were to listen to the track on it’s own, it would sound more pop than electronic and rock. The video did influence my thoughts of the song. I’m not a fan of McFly, but suprisingly, it’s made me like the song.
Additionally, I like the use of some song words on the screen and explosives, fire, burning, the use of lighting and the overall theme. I thought it was all fit for it’s purpose.
To view the video, you can click on the link below:
After viewing the videos, we had to think about our perceptions of music videos.
In groups, we had to discuss the three questions
1) Why do you watch music videos and why do we enjoy them?
I watch music videos from time to time, but the rest of my group don’t watch music videos frequently. I’ve been watching music videos more now to give me some ideas for when we make our music video. I watch music videos because there is nothing on tv or because of a particular genre or artist I like.
2) Why is it important to understand the conventions of music videos?
We all agreed that it’s important because it’s a visual representation of the artist. It’s also for our benefit so we can choose to use or go against the conventions for our music video genre. The music video is a fast moving business and it exists to make money. The music video is meant to help sell the record and express the image of the artist.
3) What makes a good and bad video?
A good video makes sense, has synced instruments and perfect lip sync, works in ‘total theatre’ with the song and has good engaging performers. A bad video on the other hand, is when tehre isn’t enough filming material, editing is poor and is confusing for the audience.
This question made me think about how we can incorporate this information into the process of our music video. To make sure the shots are intersting, we are going to film a master shot all the way through and then film close ups and other shots. We will get reliable actors that feel comfortable performing infront of a camera.
The next activity was to choose a genre and brainstorm the conventions used for this in a jusic video for this genre. Although the song we picked has an ambient and electronic vibe, we picked a genre that we were all familiar with – pop.
The sheet below illustrates the 5 conventions ( narrative, mise-en-scene, camera, editing style, effects) we thought would be used in pop genre.
There are three main types of music videos:
· Performance
· Narrative story
· Conceptual
We watched the following videos and had to state which type of video the three videos were.
[CALVIN HARRIS – READY FOR THE WEEKEND] – This was Conceptual
[THE WHITE STRIPS – SEVEN NATION ARMY] - This was Performance
[THE SCRIPT – FOR THE FIRST TIME] – This is narrative
I did some research into Firth (1988). He siad that music videos can be characterized into three broad typologies, which are performance, narrative and conceptual. They are used to stimulate album sales which makes the msuic business money. He says that the most popular form is perfrmance. Gow (1992) suggested that performance was about communicating the image of artists and playing songs. As for narrative videos, this type displays a sequence of events in linear. For example, a boy cheats on his partner, the female is upset and the boy makes it up to her. Schwichtenberg ( 1992) said that that the action is dominated by males doing something and females reating to it. Conceptual videos rely on a poetic form, primarily a metaphor. They create a mood and feeling. For example, the video by Calvin Harris ‘Raedy for the weekend’ potrayed a cetrain mood. The metaphor can be interpretated by the viewer. The video is open to different meanings and interpretations.
End. Ashleigh.
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