Here are some of the notes I recorded during the morning session:
A music video needs to be:
o Visually memorable
o Worth repeated viewings
o Last the length of the song
o Can tell a story (Not always)
o Feature the artist (but not always)
History
1930’s Experimentation
- Example: ‘A colour box’ by Len Lye.
- Short film
- Characteristics of a music video
- Follows the rhythm of the music
1940’s American ‘Soundies’ – example: Nat ‘King’ Cole.
- Example: Nat ‘King’ Cole, Firm from Fro
- Jukebox that played a short film along with the music
- Modern music video characteristic of ‘watching themselves’
- Deemed as ‘too sexy’, with a pan down girls legs. Wasn’t acceptable back then
1960’s France ‘Scopitones’
- New version of ‘Soundies’
- Still included promo films
- Artist + a concept
Elvis and Beatles – Promo videos for Singles
- Beatles promo film, ‘Hard day’s Night’
- Beatles played themselves and featured their songs
- Moved away from performance and were filmed on location not live
1970’s – Popularity Soars
- example: Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody
- Became more common to make films/videos for singles
- Companies began to realise that there was money to be made here.
1980’s – MTV
- 1981 MTV is created.
- Shows only British acts
- If you wanted to be in the charts, you needed to have a video
- First video to be played – ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’
- America gets involved and budgets rise.
- No black acts shown
Madonna Breakthrough
She was the first female artist from America to break through onto MTV and start the trend of big budget music videos. She released the first ever compilation DVD of music and their videos, another step into making large amounts of money from this market.
Michael Jackson Black Breakthrough
Michael was the first black act to breakthrough onto the music channel scene and he remained the only black act on there for a while. The release of the video to ‘Thriller’ opened up the market for more extreme, different music videos to be made. He opened the way for artists such as 50 Cent and Jay-Z.
50 Cent and Jay-Z
These two artists followed Michael Jackson as black acts making it onto music channels and both began to push the boundaries of standard music videos. 50 Cents candy shop is typical of the genre and appeals to its audience with the big cars, house and large amounts of bling, before pushing the boundaries with its view on girls and their suggestive acts. Jay-Z’s ’99 Problems’ pushed the boundaries with its views on violence and sexuality, although the fast paced cuts allowed for this to appear undetected. Virals
Sims Videos – Music videos are copied but feature The Sims instead of real life action.
Lego – This has been used as a parody of Bohemian Rhapsody and can add humour.
Worldwide Webcam – People upload videos of themselves to the internet singing along to songs.
Technology has come full circle and now even iPhones and other mobile phones are used to film videos – Example: ‘Cellophane Sky’ – The Turnback.
Music Videos have a long history and technology and money are very important to producing good work, as well as conventions, characteristics and the viewing context. Top Tips
1. Exercise with ‘found footage’. Learn to lip-synch. Karaoke multi-angle version. Re-make a music video frame by frame
2. Choose a track – Mistake to do a favourite. Make it short!
3. Pitch idea – Strong and Simple, Realistic and Workable
4. Plan! Storyboard, people, places, props and costumes. Shoot it early and make sure that your performers have rehearsed
5. Set up a blog. Upload photos, videos etc.Your online scrapbook
6. Test shots and angles, that camera works and tape is loaded. Learn how to use the edit software
7. Perform the same section at lead 10 times! – EXPERIMENT
8. Label everything. Organise it into manageable chunks
9. Sync performances first and upload a rough cut onto your blog
10. Show people and gather their feedback
11. Analysis and Evaluation
No comments:
Post a Comment